A fond hello to you and thank you for taking a moment to stop by!
Since you're here, it seems you've taken a bit of interest in the person behind the creation of the stories
that you've read here at Memoirs of the Shire. Well there is alot to say, but first let us start with a simple introduction.
My name is Crystal, I was born in 1977 and I live in rural NW Ohio close to the quaint little town I grew up in.
I am a freelance photographer and graphic designer and I'm also an avid reader and writer in the fantasy genre.
I have been writing avidly since I was ten years of age and wrote my first full length novel at the age of fourteen.
Since then I have written well over 100 short stories, mostly for young adult teen readers.
I have also written many pieces of poetry, including several that have been published in several different media outlets.
In 1997 I found my longing to write fanfiction based on J.R.R. Tolkien's book The Lord of the Rings.
My first story, titled The Lady of Bree was completed in the fall of 1997 and introduced a new character named Lily Butterbur
who was Barliman Butterbur's niece. This story was written to fill in the rather large gap
that was in the final chapters of The Return of the King, shortly after Frodo's return to the Shire.
For years this story was hidden away within a folder of my writing, awaiting the proper day when it could be shared with others.
In 2002, shortly after the release of The Fellowship of the Ring movie,
I brought this story out and posted it on a Lord of the Rings community forum called Ringbearer.org.
The response to this story was overwhelming, as were the requests for the tale to continue on. It was then that
I decided to look further into Tolkien's writing and find more 'gaps' in his story which were longing to be filled.