Man Aeärwen?
(Who is Aeärwen?)
Aeärwen was widowed in 2019 after being married for over forty years and is a retired housewife and mother of three (all grown now, it says in the fine print) who lives on the Central Coast of California. She learned to read music before she learned her ABC's, and can play several musical instruments, of which the only ones her arthritis will let her play anymore are piano and organ. She is owned by a Bengal cat who very contentedly stays indoors and a fluffy, cream and tan semi-feral kitty who stays outside. She tolerates (as long as she doesn't need to clean it) her son's aquarium with two angel fish, a golden gourami and a rather large proclastimus.
She has been writing fiction for nearly all her life, starting with a short story at the age of ten. She was writing fan fiction long before the term had even been dreamed of, back in the days of The Avengers and Star Trek. She currently writes for the Tolkien legendarium and occasionally for Doctor Who, although in the past (and under a different author ID) she has written stories and novels for The Pretender, Carnivále, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, and Nanny and the Professor. She is currently working on several original novels that she hopes (and prays) she will be able to get published in hardcopy someday, as well as several novel-length pieces of fan fiction for the Lord of the Rings.
Her university education revolved around language and linguistics. She earned her BA in Spanish and was working toward a double Masters in Spanish and Linguistics when she met her husband and they moved away from her university town. Of late, she is and has been working with an older Russian lady to help her learn English, and in return has become marginally conversational in Russian (as well as a rank beginner at reading it.) As you can see, Aeärwen's interest in languages hasn't ceased, and she is determined to learn at least one of Tolkien's Elven language (preferably Sindarin, although she has considered learning Quenya) sometime in her life.
During the ten years or so that she didn't actively work on writing fiction – original or fan fiction –Aeärwen was very active in the online interfaith community. She remains committed to promoting understanding between the various faith communities, and she sees the Internet as a very powerful tool to break down many of the obstacles to dialogue. Her current focus, however, is on the promotion of kindness as a way of life, compassion as a continual social practice, and just generally working for the benefit of as many beings - human or otherwise - as possible.
Aeärwen's favorite kinds of music are Classical and New Age, although she is quite distractable by a quality a capella group like Pentatonix or Home Free or Voiceplay. When it comes to playing music, she prefers either Classical or New Age. She finds most of the current offerings on television mediocre at best, although she will admit to being hooked on edgy series like Fringe or Criminal Minds as well as fun series like Netflix's Lucifer. Her favorite reading material is either fantasy or philosophical (or fan fiction, of course!) She is currently one of several keyboardists to play for the local Theosophical Temple of the People, and in the past was the musical director and/or arranger for a small choir and performing troup of amateurs consisting of dedicated (and determined) non-musicians.
She is a firm believer in voter education and awareness, and wholeheartedly supports the work of the League of Women Voters, of which she was a member at one time. She goes out to movies extremely seldom, and even then, is very particular that the film have a engrossing plot, quality acting and creative direction.