Allow me to reintroduce myself

{{ Blue, Eldy, Odo has even popped by- and the new Amazon show is shaping up to be a source of immense crabbit. Now if a few others would pop back in Az among them and hang about a bit we might get a third lease of life yet! }}

Bluebottle wrote:Eldy is back

Wait... so am I

And I am too!

Eldy wrote:Hi again!

Hope everyone is doing well. It's been a busy and exhausting few months on my end. I'm still a mess (as always) but things are maybe hopefully evening out somewhat, at least for the time being. I'm about to drop out of grad school, but on the plus side I've been on Hormone Replacement Therapy for three months now and I just recently got a mod gig on my main forum, so there's that. And I've continued to intermittently lurk here despite otherwise cutting ties with Tolkien fandom, so I figured I might as well check in.

Hi Eldy

Glad to hear things are evening out for you, best wishes, and try to drop by more often if you can (I should do too...)

Main forum? I thought we were your main forum (jokes)

Thanks, everyone!

Not sure if or when I'll try to go back and finish my Master's, but for now I haven't given up on the dream of submitting something for publication to one of the peer-reviewed Tolkien journals. Whether holding onto that dream will be good for me or not is something I'll hopefully find out in the next couple months.

Eldy wrote: for now I haven't given up on the dream of submitting something for publication to one of the peer-reviewed Tolkien journals.

Good luck Eldy! Following Dreams can lead a person to many unexpected and fascinating places.
Just remember they can be tricksy, like leprechauns' or Genii's wishes. In my experience, Dreams are better to follow than to chase.

That's a good way of putting it! Thanks, Dave.

My guess is that since Tolkien scholarship is a small world you'll find the peer review process to be rather supportive (if you didn't write so well you might get the opposite reaction but I don't see that happening). You'll get very helpful comments, a few that hurt, and a few that just don't make sense at all. But it helps pull you out of your own viewpoint and is usually very helpful. It's also very possible that in such a small world one or more of your reviewers will be one of your heroes in the Tolkien academic world: you may find this out years later when you meet.