Post by Wheelrider on Sept 17, 2014 22:19:08 GMT -5
Hi, I’m Wheelrider. I came here through reading and enjoying stories by GoI members Ragnelle, Thanwen, AnnaFan, and Sian22 — all of them, in author’s notes or in replies to my reviews, mentioned this place and so it seemed the universe was trying to point me in this direction.
Right now I am a freelance writer, editor, consultant, and several other things, all within the big happy family we call the bike industry. Until recently, I was a magazine editor at a smallish publishing house that puts out two national publications about bicycle riding. I’d been there for 10 years, seven as an editor and three as an office manager (but also writing and proofreading). Before that I worked in bike shops. You could say bike riding is my passion, but it’s not the only one.
To be honest, I never thought I’d join a writers’ group. My fanfic writing, in contrast to my professional writing/editing, is intensely personal, and I enjoy only having one cook in my kitchen. I’m also confident in my writing abilities, at least in terms of composition, style, and mechanics. However, there are certain questions about plot, timelines, etc. that I recognize would best be answered with the help of a friendly group of knowledgeable, like-minded writers.
I first read The Lord of the Rings when I was 15 and was immediately obsessed, to the point of sleeping out on the deck of our house and writing in my diary in Tengwar. The aspects of the story that struck chords in my heart were the deep background history, the languages and the poetry, the connection to the natural world, and what I now know as the “eucatastrophe.” After a period of re-reading and moving on to whatever Tolkien-related material I could get my hands on, I decided to set it all aside; I had a feeling that isolating myself in this world at that point in my life was not doing me any good. Rather than escape, I wanted to make things better. So that’s what I tried to do, but the story lived on in the deepest parts of me.
So fast forward 20 years later. I was flipping through channels on the TV and stopped for a few minutes on The Two Towers. I was disappointed — as I knew I would be when the movies came out, and so didn’t make any effort to watch them. But it prompted the thought, “Is the story as good as I remember? Time to find out.” Then while falling head-over-heels again, I went looking online for a zoomable map of Middle-Earth to better follow along, and found HASA. I avoided looking at the stories for about a week. But then I finished LoTR and that familiar bereft feeling set in again, and so I dove in. Fortunately I started at HASA and not with a more general and less discerning archive; even so, I liked almost none of what I read. What I wanted was more Tolkien. But slowly my rigid tastes loosened up and I began to find enjoyment in more stories. Also I gradually realized that the fanfic writing community is a wonderful thing, good for so many people in so many ways, and any complaints I had were best addressed by writing my own damn stories the way I thought they ought to be.
So here I am! Thanks for welcoming me into the fold.
Right now I am a freelance writer, editor, consultant, and several other things, all within the big happy family we call the bike industry. Until recently, I was a magazine editor at a smallish publishing house that puts out two national publications about bicycle riding. I’d been there for 10 years, seven as an editor and three as an office manager (but also writing and proofreading). Before that I worked in bike shops. You could say bike riding is my passion, but it’s not the only one.
To be honest, I never thought I’d join a writers’ group. My fanfic writing, in contrast to my professional writing/editing, is intensely personal, and I enjoy only having one cook in my kitchen. I’m also confident in my writing abilities, at least in terms of composition, style, and mechanics. However, there are certain questions about plot, timelines, etc. that I recognize would best be answered with the help of a friendly group of knowledgeable, like-minded writers.
I first read The Lord of the Rings when I was 15 and was immediately obsessed, to the point of sleeping out on the deck of our house and writing in my diary in Tengwar. The aspects of the story that struck chords in my heart were the deep background history, the languages and the poetry, the connection to the natural world, and what I now know as the “eucatastrophe.” After a period of re-reading and moving on to whatever Tolkien-related material I could get my hands on, I decided to set it all aside; I had a feeling that isolating myself in this world at that point in my life was not doing me any good. Rather than escape, I wanted to make things better. So that’s what I tried to do, but the story lived on in the deepest parts of me.
So fast forward 20 years later. I was flipping through channels on the TV and stopped for a few minutes on The Two Towers. I was disappointed — as I knew I would be when the movies came out, and so didn’t make any effort to watch them. But it prompted the thought, “Is the story as good as I remember? Time to find out.” Then while falling head-over-heels again, I went looking online for a zoomable map of Middle-Earth to better follow along, and found HASA. I avoided looking at the stories for about a week. But then I finished LoTR and that familiar bereft feeling set in again, and so I dove in. Fortunately I started at HASA and not with a more general and less discerning archive; even so, I liked almost none of what I read. What I wanted was more Tolkien. But slowly my rigid tastes loosened up and I began to find enjoyment in more stories. Also I gradually realized that the fanfic writing community is a wonderful thing, good for so many people in so many ways, and any complaints I had were best addressed by writing my own damn stories the way I thought they ought to be.
So here I am! Thanks for welcoming me into the fold.