IN THE SHIRE-RECKONING by Diane Finnis-Robb  

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments (which are mostly just Thank Yous)

   It is impossible to begin a list of names of those folk who should be acknowledged without beginning with the Professor himself. I have been actively engaged in writing Tolkien fanfic for more than nine years now and continue to find the world of Middle-earth the most compelling of places for my mind to travel. I have enjoyed and breathed the air of Tolkien’s Secondary Creation for all of my life and so it seemed only natural to set a novel there.

   Yet this novel, which began as an interstitial story within a much larger work of fan fiction, allowed me to exercise many fresh ideas about structure, narrative style, and even my own personal proximity to the tale as the work began to unfold. I feel that when one sets out to write fanfic we leave a lot of our own instincts about writing behind in order to capture and recreate the qualities and charms of the source material. This is certainly true in my other work, The Fall of Arnor, but less so in this novel. Those readers who know me personally may be aware that I am an adopted child, youngest in a household of three adopted children, and have, for as far as memory serves me, been aware of that condition. It did not seem alien to me as it may have to other of my older siblings, but it would be wrong of me not to recognize how this aspect of my own story informed what I wished to accomplish here.

   As any novel should, or so I believe, this work carries with it many intimate moments of my own life; those things which I, the author, wrestle with as a person and which I feel readers should be given the opportunity to understand for themselves. It is by no means a tale of personal experience but hopefully a shared experience comes from its telling.

   I am very blessed to have some preliminary readers and many friends who have offered important encouragement during the process. So let's name them here.

   My wife Marcella first and foremost. As the novel ends in September of 2026 Marcella is on her third read-through of its long process and has kept checking me on all the “Big Ideas.” I will admit that I come to those ideas readily, perhaps too often, and don’t always take the time to develop them as readers may wish me to do. But if walking in the wide open landscape of the Shire means being filled with Big Ideas about family and culture, about economy and loyalty, about fate and choice, if that experience creates questions which cannot be readily answered then I hope this illustrates the feelings of those pioneers and dreamers we meet in this story. We, like them, do not often get the opportunity to resolve the mysteries around us. Thank you, my love, for your support and your tireless readings and acceptance of my creative impulses.

   While I have taught the works of James Joyce, particularly ULYSSES, for many years in an online environment I have been fortunate enough to accrue a collection of students who became interested in my fascination for Tolkien. This has led to online reading and study groups as I continue to build material to teach Tolkien online as I do Joyce. Many of those folks have done me the great favour of reading this novel and commenting on its growth. Thanks very much to Edward Petit, Dr Maureen Gibney, David Schwartz, esq., Margaret Jayko, Tony Shore, Kirk Davis and Laura Blanchard. Our conversation over the years have kept the fire of my imagination burning bright as a Balrog’s wings.

   As I mentioned in the Author’s Note at the start of this book, my intention nine years ago was to run a role-playing game set in Middle-earth which would allow myself and some of my friends the opportunity to do some writing and adventuring together. Sadly, that game never happened but I was invited to join a small group of extremely talented and thoughtful individuals in a different game set in another richly defined universe of story-telling; The Pendragon Game. In many ways the camaraderie of that game is like an artists’ retreat with each of us encouraging one another in stories, poetry, drawings, performance and world-building. Thanks to my friends and supporters in the Comitatus; Alex Shankland, Francisco Shankland, Paul Saint-Amour, Claire Saint-Amour and Daniel Harray, for the enthusiasm and the encouragement and the shared escape into fantasy that I so greatly needed.

-Diane Finnis-Robb, Hobbit Day (September 22nd), 2026