Elenya's journal

As many of you are already aware, Amazon have stirred up a storm online over the sudden removal of sales rankings from gay related literature, and compounded it by a stock response.

To quote tehdely "Basically, #amazonfail is the name for a brewing Internet shitstorm that started some time on Easter Sunday regarding Amazon.com's sudden decision to blacklist any books with LGBT(QQI) content from appearing in best-seller lists or search results. The blacklist also apparently extends to books with feminist themes, books about dealing with rape, etc. Initial complaints to Amazon resulted in the following stock response, which just angered people more:

In consideration of our entire customer base, we exclude "adult" material from appearing in some searches and best seller lists. Since these lists are generated using sales ranks, adult materials must also be excluded from that feature."

The anger was compounded by the fact that a)het porn was left untouched (giving the lie to "we exclude "adult" material from appearing in some searches and best seller lists") and b)non-adult themed LGBT books were removed from the listings/search engine such as John Barrowman's autobiography (again giving the lie to "we exclude "adult" material from appearing in some searches and best seller lists")

See blackbird_song for more information, and see tehdely for the troll theory on why this has happened, which actually makes a lot of sense. Whatever, this is a PR disaster for Amazon, and I won't be buying anything from them until they sort this out.

Write to Amazon and sign a petition here: http://tinyurl.com/d5dbo3

Courtesy of Dictionary.com (actually it was yesterday's word for the day, but I only checked my inbox this morning, so bite me):

froward \FROH-werd\, adjective:

not easily managed; contrary

c. 1300, Old English fromweard "turned from or away," from, from + -weard. The opposite of toward, it was Latin pervertus in early translations of the Psalms, and also meant "about to depart, departing," and "doomed to die."


Pervertus? :D Yes, please.

I think we have some of the best ingredients of fanfic there. Drama!Frodo not easily managed? Check. Angsty!Frodo about to depart or doomed to die? Check. They've missed one definition though: Froward: leaning or inclined towards Frodo...

Welcome to my LJ. :) Hobbit Month 2006 gave me the impetus to start writing this story, and in my Hobbit Month post last year, I linked to the first part. If it therefore seems familiar in the beginning, that's why.

This story is dedicated to aliena_z and to annwyn55, in memory of lost loved ones.

Author: Elenya
Genre: Slash
Pairing: Frodo/Sam
Rating: NC-17 for sexual content.
Disclaimer: I make no money from these stories. These beautiful characters are sadly not mine; I merely borrow them because I love them. With grateful thanks to JRR Tolkien for providing us with such a richly imagined world to play in.

Acknowledgement: My grateful thanks to ghyste and mariole for many useful suggestions and comments, and to aliena_z for her very thorough grammar beta.

The theme of death as the gift of Ilúvatar is explored in this story, but it is not a death fic. I have used the mythology that Tolkien created for Middle-earth. For those of you who hold that there is no life after death, remember that this story, like The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings, is a work of fantasy. It forms an epilogue to my story All That I Had, and at the beginning briefly follows the fate of characters from The Adventures of Tom and Barard. If you haven’t read the latter, it really doesn’t matter; all you need to know is that Tom is Tom Gardner, youngest son of Sam, Barard is the youngest son of Pippin; their friends, Catos and Faros, are Haradrim lords. The idea of a telepathic bond between Frodo and Sam is explored in All That I Had (see notes for chapter 19) and continues in this story. Ninquelótë is an elf, both unassuming and highly regarded, who befriended Frodo on his first arrival in the West, and played an important role in his healing.

THE GIFT OF ILÚVATAR can be found here.

It's Hobbit Appreciation Month, as I'm sure you all know (but if you don't, see hobbit_month), and I'll be posting on the 26th. Just to let you know, my offering will be my epilogue to All That I Had: The Gift of Iluvatar. :)

It's passed time I posted something for Celebrate Middle-earth Month or CMEM-07. Looking back, it was Frodo and Sam Appreciation Month that kick started me into writing an epilogue to All That I Had. That was back in August, and you might be forgiven for thinking that the project had died a death. Instead, I have been working slowly but steadily on it. I need to finish it in first draft before I send it out for beta. I hope you enjoy this preview, and that layne67 will accept it as a small birthday gift, with apolgies for it being so late.


Title: The Gift of Ilúvatar (preview)
Category: Slash
Pairing: F/S
Rating: R
Disclaimer: I make no money from these stories. These beautiful characters are sadly not mine; I merely borrow them because I love them. With grateful thanks to JRR Tolkien for providing us with such a richly imagined world to play in.


Want to read on? Find it here.

Follow this link for more on Celebrate Middle-earth Month-07

The Radio 4 early morning news and current affairs programme, the Today Programme, always has a "thought for the day". Two speakers I always enjoy listening to on this spot are Rabbi Lionel Bloom and The Reverend Dr Giles Fraser. Today it was Dr Giles Fraser, Vicar of Putney, debunking the idea that all Christians in this country are opposed to legislation giving gay people the right not to be discriminated against.

You can here him here http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/listenagain/ (You need RealPlayer), but this is a transcript of what he said:

As a Christian, I’m protected by the law against discrimination, and I’m grateful for it. No one can legally deny me access to goods or services because of my faith; no one is allowed to put up a sign in their window that reads “No Christians”, or “No Muslims”, for that matter. Discrimination on the grounds of race and gender is equally outlawed, all of which is an unambiguously good thing. As indeed I believe is the extension of these provisions to include sexual orientation. No one should be allowed to display a sign that reads “No Gays”, either. Some Christians, however, are strongly resisting this legislation. They argue that being obliged to provide goods and services to gay couples makes them complicit in what they regard as sin, and that this complicity compromises their deeply held religious convictions. For others, however, these so-called religious convictions are little more than a mask for simple prejudice. Why, they argue, aren’t these same Christian hoteliers up in arms at their legal obligation to provide hotel rooms for unmarried couples? After all, conservative Christians believe sex outside marriage to be no less a sin, yet they haven’t been protesting about this. Indeed, many of them may well believe that gluttony is a sin, but they haven’t been campaigning for Christian waiters to have the right to refuse fat people extra chips on moral grounds. No, there is real inconsistency in the way some Christians apply the argument of complicity, and this inconsistency is indicative that they are treating homosexuality as a special case. In other words, this inconsistency is evidence of prejudice, and the sad truth is that there’d be little need for this sort of legislation if there wasn’t so much prejudice about both in the church and elsewhere. Of course, it’s worth saying that discrimination doesn’t only shelter behind religious belief; there’s prejudice outside the churches and mosques, too. For the idea that this is an argument between Christian prejudice and secular enlightenment is the distortion of a lazy media that likes its arguments simple and binary. Within the church itself, there’s real debate and much disagreement; many Christians like me don’t believe homosexuality is a sin at all; in fact, I believe it is a gift of God. Sure, it is a gift that can be abused like any other, but often it is a channel of grace, a means by which some human beings show love and commitment and generosity just like anybody else. There’s a hymn we often sing in church which goes like this,

“For the love of God is broader than the measure of man’s mind,
And the heart of the Eternal is most wonderfully kind,
But we make his love too narrow, with false limits of our own,
And we magnify his strictness with a zeal he will not own.”

Here is a short piece I wrote in early 2003 on Frodo and denial. abby_normal had just asked me if she could host it on her site, - thank you, Carole.:) - but I didn’t expect Middle-earth News to link to it. As a result, you may already have read it. You can find it here.

As a bonus, I originally also posted a link to an early draft of an epilogue to All That I Had. If you didn't read it at the time, sorry, I've taken it down, but you can read the final version in the fullness of time. Just don't hold your breath, it's going very slowly...

A big hug to frodosweetstuff for such a lovely idea as Hobbit Month. :)

ETA: sorry to post early (for some). I had intended to post at my daughter's today, but I discovered late last night that she doesn't have internet access. Have fun. I'll be back tomorrow.

Title:The Adventures of Tom and Barard
Category: slash.
Rating: NC-17 for sexual content. Contains violence, some references to non-consensual sex, and lots of hurt/comfort. I make no money from these stories, and give grateful thanks to JRR Tolkien for providing us with such a richly imagined world to play in.

Part 3 of the three part inset chapter (Faros/Catos)has now been posted and can be found here. In addition to the betas who have already been thanked, I'd like to thank Elayne for her grammar help on the inset chapter. Remaining mistakes, as always, are mine. If you have enjoyed the whole Tom and Barard adventure, please tell your friends. :)

Inset chapter part 1 can be found here, and part 2 here.

Earlier chapters can be found here

The lovely icon is trilliah's artwork. Manip by shoesparks

Title:The Adventures of Tom and Barard
Category: slash.
Rating: NC-17 for sexual content. Contains violence, some references to non-consensual sex, and lots of hurt/comfort. I make no money from these stories, and give grateful thanks to JRR Tolkien for providing us with such a richly imagined world to play in.

Parts 1 & 2 of the three part inset chapter have been posted, although without the benefit of grammar and spelling corrections. I'll be away from tomorrow, so I'm posting the two parts uncorrected, rather than making you wait another 2 weeks. As for part 3, beta feedback on the sex says "can do better", so I'll be working on that while I'm away. It's a tough job, but someone has to do it... :D

Inset chapter (Faros/Catos) part 1 can be found here, and part 2 here.

Earlier chapters can be found here

The lovely icon is trilliah's artwork. Manip by shoesparks

The inset "chapter" has turned into a mini-series in three parts, but it is finished. Parts 1 & 2 are out to grammar beta, part 3 is still awaiting some content beta comments. I won't be around for a while to post it, though. But have patience. It is coming...

Since no one guessed the scene correctly, it is of course possible that you're not interested in having this expanded:

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For those who are interested, I discovered recently that Michelangelo has drawn Catos as a young man.

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