"Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?"
- Albus Dumbledore

Age: 18 1/2

Nationality: American

Hobbies: reading, writing, making up characters, putting characters through Mary Sue tests, and hopelessly attempting to do research.

Favorite movie: Guess. Wrong. It's Whale Rider. Star Wars is...um...my life? (Translation: are you saying that is just a movie?)

Favorite book series: Young Wizards (which is becoming a MOVIE!! someday), Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Circle of magic, Narnia, Pendragon, the Old Kingdom, the list goes on and on...

Favorite books: Over Sea, Under Stone; My Side of the Mountain; Alas, Babylon; The Book Thief; Shatterpoint (Clone Wars); The Wild Girls

Favorite author: Hilari Bell

Favorite genre to read: any, but fantasy often has the best stories

Favorite genre to write: fantasy, borderline fantasy/sci-fi

Religion: agnostic/Jedi

Pet peeves:

- "ALRIGHT". No such word exists. Try "ALL RIGHT."

- Inappropriately long paragraphs. This is a great way to make me stop reading your story. It gives me a headache to force my eyes not to only read the second half of lines or just skip most of the paragraph.

- Disclaimers. Who, exactly, is going to come and arrest every one of us for posting fanfiction on a site that is meant for it?

Acknowledgments:

- Melannen Halfelven for bringing me to this site (and occasionally gushing about and/or critiquing my stories)

- My friend "Minas Ithil", aka E-gor the Undead, for critiquing my stories, fueling my Star Wars obsession, drawing my characters, and listening to me talk about stories and topics she isn't very interested in.

- Xrai for betaing my stories, being an excellent author, showing me a wider view of the world, and teaching me the value of the simple act of replying to reviews

NEWS

Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize! (Okay, this isn't an area for world news. Sorry.)

In Life's Name readers: Want to hear more about Miriam and Will? Read Chapter 2 of Granted by Issac Blast!

I'm on hiatus from posting (not reviewing or betaing) for a while. I swear this is temporary. I will be back soon with either a continuation of Elanna's story or Miriam and Will's Ordeal. Hopefully both! (The first is more likely to come soon.)

The night before I graduated from high school, I knocked my alarm clock off my nightstand, probably the third or fourth time I've done that since we got wood floors, and almost couldn't find it. (It somehow got all the way to the other side of my bed.) The night after, I knocked it off again, and it fell on its face, disconnecting the hands. This is the clock I got when I started public school and have used since my first day there. Anyone care to interpret?

I'm looking for (Lord of the Rings) stories about:

1) The flight to the Ford and what happened afterwards as seen by a character who was more conscious than Frodo. Sam's point of view would make a good story, I think, but any character would be appreciated.

2) Elves in Middle Earth after Sauron's defeat.

I prefer to write original character stories. I'm closer to owning them if I do that. I also usually try to write canon-acceptable stories, but I might write a Star Wars AU sometime.

Order of Akite's stories:

"The Last Laugh", "Survivor's Guilt", "On Jedi and Alcohol", Friends, Younglings, and Masters, Bloodrain, and finally "The Way it Must Be."

MY STORIES

The Last Laugh: I thought this up one night and had it almost entirely written in my head by the next morning. Stories don't usually come so easily to me, and I think that they are best when they do.

Survivor's Guilt; On Jedi and Alcohol; and Friends, Younglings, and Masters: After I wrote "The Last Laugh," I decided that I liked the character of Akite and wanted to continue with her. These stories are narrated by her: "Survivor's Guilt" as she leaves Geonosis, "On Jedi and Alcohol" as she looks back on her childhood, and Friends, Younglings, and Masters as she recovers from Geonosis. "Survivor's Guilt" is thoughtful and philosophizing. "On Jedi and Alcohol" amuses me, but, of course, I'm the author. Friends, Younglings, and Masters is and emotional roller-coaster of sorrow and hope.

Bloodrain: This is also narrated by Akite, but it is the only story that I consider to be full-length. Even Friends, Younglings, and Masters was written as a short story and broken into chapters to make it easier to read. This one was written in chapters in the first place. Bloodrain is probably unrealistic (in canon terms of course, since Star Wars is unrealistic in so many ways), but I don't mind too much. I call it drama, but it includes some romance, some tragedy, some angst, some friendship... though no action. If you're looking for action, get off my profile. I'm hopeless. And another warning. I write my stories to ask questions, not to answer them.

The Way it Must Be: To me, this is the most significant of Akite's stories, if for no other reason (though there are others) than I have held onto it since just after I wrote The Last Laugh. Yes, it is that old. Yes, I wrote it second, but I hope you will read it sixth, where it belongs. And I won't say any more about it yet.

Candles:I wanted to write a story about Jedi after the invasion of the Temple. One night, I made up these characters. It's the only story I started on a whim and got anywhere with. I had high hopes for it, but even though it's modest, I like how it turned out. I still love all seven of them.

The Wizard's Manual: I started this four years ago after a spontaneous role-playing game with my best friend and her little sister. I was Fae. My best friend's sister was Dawna. My best friend was the Hogwarts train window. (She was very tired that day.) I kept writing the story for them over the next year. The rest of the time between then and posting has been a bit of editing and a whole lot of procrastinating. The story is a multi-way crossover, but I try to explain everything that the average reader wouldn't know. It's a serious adventure and mystery overall, but it is also random, quirky, and very funny, or at least we think so.

In Life's Name: I've wanted to do a story for Young Wizards (READ IT!) for a long time, but I can never think of a plot. But one day, it occurred to me that I could do a story just about taking the oath. No need to think of the Ordeal. Just taking the Oath. So I started a series of one-shots. The only bad thing is that I want to figure out what happens to the characters next, and I don't know what I would do with them. I'm open for ideas... Until then, I'll content myself with having characters from earlier stories appearing in later ones.

Not My Fault: Self-explanatory. If you don't have time to read it (it's only 333 words total; don't believe the site), I'm sorry for you.

Gift of Stars: This is, of course, my first Lord of the Rings story, despite my penname. I have had an idea of a character like Elanna for years. I could not fit her into any plot, and she always seemed to be a Mary Sue. I hope I've fixed her enough. At the moment, the story is a one-shot somewhat in the style of "Survivor's Guilt". Not a good idea, considering that I have 106 hits on "Survivor's Guilt" after three years. Um... this is 83 hits in about five weeks. Maybe LOTR readers like this kind of thing better than SW readers do. But I am planning a long story, mostly following the journey by the residents of Rivendell to Gondor for the wedding, to follow the first chapter. I'll see whether I can finish it. I've never posted a story before I finished writing it.

CHARACTER PICTURES

My friend, Minas Ithil/E-gor the Undead, found a face-making program made by someone on DeviantArt. Naturally, I have wasted hours on it.

Address of the facemaker: http://foxrichards.deviantart.com/art/FaceMaker-52755515

I will email bitmap (pictures from the Paint program that comes with Windows) images of the following faces on request. Jenna, Vinka, Elanna, and Linloth can be sent without exchanging email addresses.

On Jedi and Alcohol: Zefel, Fang

Friends, Younglings, and Masters: Zefel

Candles: Jian, Vinka

The Wizard's Manual: Fae, Dawna, Evan, Steven

In Life's Name: Miriam, Kara, Will, Anna, Jenna, Greg, Aileen, Bridget

Life of a Jedi forum: Maynashan

Gift of Stars: Elanna, Linloth

I have some pictures of Akite; however, horns are not an option on this program, and all choices are limited. For a picture of Akite (and one of Zefel), I suggest visiting Minas Ithil on DeviantArt.

MATTHEW STOVER CAN'T COUNT

Matthew Stover is one of my favorite authors. He is the reason for the existence of Star Wars EU. I would do anything (short of becoming a Sith) to be able to write like he does.

Unfortunately, he appears to have some trouble with math.

I’m sure it’s not all his fault. He probably wasn’t the one who defined Mace Windu as being 50 years old in Episode II. (Maybe he was. I don’t know.) This age already doesn’t make sense. If he was 50 in Episode II, he would have had to be 40 in Episode I, and he was already the speaker for the Council – and retired. Most Jedi must to survive longer than that without retiring. The galaxy needs as many as possible. And he doesn’t seem quite good enough to be a senior member of the Council at that age, let alone the most important next to Yoda.

But the real problem is Matthew Stover’s fault. Here’s where the arithmetic comes in. If you can’t stand math, skip on down to my stories.

Depa Billaba, Mace’s former padawan, was on the Council in Episode I. We all know that Mace was the youngest person ever to reach the Council (before Anakin Skywalker) – age 28. Let’s say for simplicity that Depa was 30 when she was first elected to the Council. I’m sure she was much older. Let’s say that this was her first year. It probably wasn’t. But assuming these things, Depa was 30 in Episode I and Mace was 40. This makes him ten years older than she was.

Which is fine. He could have taken her when she was twelve and he was twenty-two. Or even eighteen or nineteen or whatever, if you think that my calculations of her age are low, as I do. But here comes the problem.

In Shatterpoint, Matthew Stover says that Mace discovered Depa. I quote: “I found her after I fought and killed the pirates who had murdered her parents; these pirates had kidnapped their victims’ lovely infant daughter.”

Let’s say that “infant” extends up to age two. That means that Mace must have been, at the most, twelve when he fought these pirates.

I suppose he was a padawan by then.