keiliss

I'm Keiliss everywhere, friends call me Kei. She/her, been around Tolkien fandom since 2004. I write mainly elves and like the late first to early third ages, fourth age Valinor, elves through history... slash, gen, some m/f, no hard and fast rules, average rating Teen - R. Journals carry links to AO3 posts, it's been a long time now since I posted fic directly onto a journal.

You can find me on LiveJournal, Dreamwidth, those Tolkien archives that are still standing, my own website, Braided Light (link on the sidebar - I am from That Time, yes), AO3 and Discord. Only AO3 has all my fiction (except the small bits and the handful I forgot about and may never find again). In fandom I am writer, commenter, the Other Mod on My Slashy Valentine, and fond of challenges (a favourite is the Tolkien Reverse Summer Bang) though I need to avoid taking on too much at once, a bad habit.

Also read in Good Omens, Game of Thrones, X-Files (still, yes), Mary Renault, Rosemary Sutcliff, some MCU though that's wearing off, and eat up Untamed fan art while still having a (long) way to go to reach the end.

Time was when I seldom made personal posts, my journal was about fandom stuff, but time passes, LJ and DW grew quieter, and the world also changed (rather a lot right now - 2020-2021). Family photos and such are more likely to turn up on LJ, for people who've known me long enough not to be bored. I live in South Africa, in Cape Town, a city on a peninsula with great beaches and a mountain in the middle. I have visited many places and still can't think of one where I'd prefer to live (okay, small town in Italy perhaps). Have raised children, dogs, cats, ducks, rabbits, chickens, mice, a very sweet rat, birds...

I'm friendly, welcome comments and discussion (no drama), and generally friend back if you show up. The graphic is something I put together a lot of years ago, it was the entrance to my first website and leaving it off would be Not Right.


Fiction on AO3

Title: The Pink Flamingo, Chapter 25
Featuring: Erestor/Glorfindel, Elrond, many OCs
Summary: Erestor runs a brothel, Glorfindel enforces the law = arson, murder, general shenanigans in second age Imladris.

A/note: fic did what I specifically told it not to!

Chapter 25 on Ao3

From the Years of the Trees to the Fourth Age, from sultry tales of the Silmarillion to romances in the Ring Wars ... sound familiar? That's right, Slashy Swaps are back with another chance to make your Tolkien fanfic dreams come true.

My Slashy Valentine is a hand matched slash fiction exchange focused on the people of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth. There's still a whole week left to sign up and we would love for you to come and join us. The minimum word count is only 1,200 (there is no maximum, you just do you) and it's a lovely, fandomy way to go into the new year.

Sign-up Period: December 8th to December 22nd
Assignments distributed: by December 29th
Deadline for first time participants: January 31st, 2022
Deadline for veteran participants: February 7th, 2022
Archive opens: February 14th, 2022

For the rules and faqs, go HERE on Tumblr or HERE on AO3.

Click the link for our SIGN UP PAGE

Title: The Pink Flamingo
Chapter: 23/25
Featuring: Erestor/Glorfindel, Elrond, many OCs
Summary: Erestor runs a brothel, Glorfindel enforces the law, there’s arson, murder, general shenanigans in second age Imladris..

A/note: not trying to jinx it but the end may be in sight!

Chapter 23 on Ao3

A little late in the day for artists, but for writers here's a promo for the Tolkien Reverse Summer Bang. To quote from their overview:

This is a Tolkien-fandom-wide event celebrating the talent of our fanwork creators. The participating artists create a piece of art, which is posted anonymously for authors to view and claim. The authors will then write a piece of long-ish fiction (min. 5k words) based on the art they chose.

We are open to all characters, genres and ratings, and all canons that fall under the Tolkien fandom umbrella. This includes movieverse (i.e. the LOTR and Hobbit trilogies), lesser known works by Tolkien (such as The Father Christmas Letters), and/or other works with a clear link to his life or creative output....

You must sign up as a writer to see the art preview. There is no penalty for signing up and then not finding a piece you love or missing out on it during the feeding frenzy of claims - if you don't get the art you want, you can always write a treat instead.

Couple of relevant dates:

16th May – art up for preview.
21st May – author sign ups close.
23rd May – claims.
----------
29th August – fics due in collection with the artwork embedded or linked.
5th September - reveals.

This is a hugely fun exchange to take part in, with lots of variety - there are 122 fics in last year's collection. Raiyana and Narya are great mods, very friendly and accessible, and the bang is impressively well run. Throwing this out here because it's so easy to miss things when they're promoted in different circles.

Dreamwidth link
Tumblr link

It's Valentine's Day 2021 and finally a good thing comes out of this year... the MSV_21 swap is open and we have a veritable treasury of fifty-three (53!) fics this round. Go HERE for the full list with links and HERE for the AO3 collection.

Thanks to all the wonderful writers, and the equally wonderful readers, for keeping My Slashy Valentine as varied and exciting as ever. Go, read, enjoy!

Title: The Pink Flamingo

In your own space, promote a canon/talk about a part of canon that you love. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

On a time of night Eärendil at the helm of his ship saw her come towards him, as a white cloud exceeding swift beneath the moon, as a star over the sea moving in strange courses, a pale flame on wings of storm. And it is sung that she fell from the air upon the timbers of Vingilot, in a swoon, nigh unto death for the urgency of her speed, and Eärendil took her to his bosom; but in the morning with marveling eyes he beheld his wife in her own form beside him with her hair upon his face, and she slept.

[Of the Voyage of Eärendil and the War of Wrath]

Something in that last line makes me shiver every time: this is true magic, the big, visible kind, but then she was Lúthien's granddaughter.

Somehow with all the blood and horror going on back at Sirion, the power of this thread of the story almost gets lost. Eärendil gets lambasted for never being home, Elwing is cursed for neglecting her children (Do we know she neglected them? Do we know she didn't try and hide them or send them to safety with a trusted servant? No, we just assume the worst). And yet they were the true heroes of the First Age.

Eärendil was at sea so often because he was seeking a passage west with the idea of reaching the Undying Lands and begging for help. No one else was doing this and some one had to. He was also keeping an eye out for his (in the case of his father, elderly) parents, who had gone off on a similar fool's errand. When Elwing reached him, flying against the wind, dropping finally to the deck almost dead from her efforts (and she probably had the form of an albatross, not a seagull, seagulls just don't go that far that fast), they had two choices: they could go back to Sirion, which Elwing had left in flames, their children's fate out of their hands, or they could go on. And they had the one bargaining chip the Valar might be impressed by, fastened around Elwing's neck. They went on.

They went on through storms, through mysterious mists and illusions, the light from the Silmaril cutting through the unnatural gloom. And finally, they breached all the magical barriers set up against them and reached Elvenhome. They did not, at that point, know they would never be allowed to leave and that their eternity was set to be very, very strange. It was a huge price - their youth (they were both very young), their children, everything and everyone they had ever known was gone. But that paid for the Army of the West and Morgoth's eventual downfall. To me it makes them as brave as, or braver, than any of the sword-wielding warriors who came before them. Also, they won.

(and they would see one of their sons again, after the ages of the world had turned and turned again, and grandsons, and before that they would meet the woman their son had married, and Idril and Tuor were there and I don't care what canon does or doesn't say about that bit).


[posted from DW, comments welcome either side]

In your own space, create some goals. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

I don't know that I'll have faith in short to medium term goals after the mess that was last year, but here's a few:

Complete the Goodreads Reading Challenge. Which should be absolutely attainable as I kept it embarrassingly low key this time.

Serial killer thing.

Tidy and post the Elwing fic, the Maglor fic, and tighten up Windows.

Use lockdown productively, not all mindless games and online colouring in and chatting on the phone.

Get my hair cut next time there's a dip and it feels safe again. I kept putting it off and now it's at the ugly almost-shoulder length stage again and I have no more patience with it.

Looks less ambitious than the last attempt so that's a plus!

[posted from DW, comments welcome either side]

In your own space, tell us who, from one of your fandoms, would you most want to have dinner with (or tea, or a random afternoon visit), And why? This could be a creator, an actor, a costumer, a set designer, a director, a character, a composer, anybody! What would you talk about? What are you dying to know?

Creator - tea with Tolkien, ask him why Gil-galad dead (!!), why no clear resolution on Tuor and Idril (they made it, I just want it confirmed), what happened to Elrond's sons, how did half a continent get drowned (nuclear weapons?), who was Gildor's father really. And why no more Glorfindel?

Also creator: a random encounter with Chris Carter. X-Files season 9, especially The Truth, and the whole of season 10. WHY? (season 11 was as good as the actors could make it, but the above were unforgiveable).

Character: I wouldn't mind a nice long lunch with Idril, I really like her. Or (several) drinks with Gil-galad. Or a walk on the beach with Glorfindel and dinner after. Or a coffee morning (plus shopping) with Erestor. Can I have them all?