Profile

(she/her)

This journal contains LBGTQI+ material in- and outside of fandom. Please stay away if you're uncomfortable with such themes. This journal migh also contain adult material or links to adult material. If you're underage, please don't read further if you come upon any kind of warning or indication that a link or entry contains said material.
For that purpose, if you come across anything you don't like, let the back-button be your friend and make us both happy.

With this out of the way, hi and welcome to my journal! *pours tea and hands around nibbles*

I’m Ysilme, she/her, writer, photographer, geek, proud to be part of the awesome subculture that is fandom, and am usually hanging around in the more obscure corners of my fandom.
You’ll find me mainly on DW and LJ; while I have a tumblr, discord, and instragram, I don’t really use either.
I’m not very active in producing posts or content, but rather the ‘steady presence in the background’ type, and post mostly personal stuff as well as photographs and the occasional transformative story or other fanwork.
For this reason, my non-fannish posts are flocked, and I usually also don’t friend/add right away, but want to get to know you a little before doing so.

I’m cis female, pan, ace, autistic, introvert, was born in the year of the moon landing (and grew up with a HUGE map of the moon on the ceiling above my bed - my parents claim this to be the reason for all those stories in my head), and arrange my life around various food-related and chronic health issues, the odd autism-related limitation, and the demands of four teenagers of the purring persuasion. I’m married and also in a queerplatonic relationship. My native language is German and I’m fluent in English and French (although my spoken French is pretty rusty), and am learning further languages to keep my brain in shape and broaden my communication options (main focus on Swedish and dabbling in Spanish and Russian). Feel free to talk to me in any common language, if you like (although my Spanish and Russian is still far too basic for that, I’m sorry to say). I also love music, creating things with my hands and playing video games.

My main fandom is the Tolkienverse. I’m monofannish, and while there are always a few fanworlds I’m enthusiastic about, I only consider myself to be ‘in’ a fandom if I’m also drawn to create fanworks (if just for myself), or at least have a deep love for some of the characters. Former fandoms have been the Potterverse (*), Age of sail/Naval fiction (both online), Star Trek, and Darkover (both offline). Other fannish loves are The Lord Wimsey mysteries, Sherlock Holmes (the books, Sherlock Holmes (1984 TV) and Sherlock), Star Wars, the MCU, Pirates of the Carribean and James Bond.

(*) For the record, I don't condone in any way the transphobic, racist, ableist etc. views of J.K. Rowling.

My fannish contributions consist mainly of fan/transformative fiction, but you’ll also find the odd translation, podfic or graphic work, and I sometimes use my photos to make banners and icons for fests and challenges. I’m also co-modding a non-fannish photo community, photo_scavenger, as well as the currently hibernating project Read Lord of the Rings Aloud (which is what it says on the tin - fans are reading parts of the Lord of the Rings aloud).
I write a lot, but except for the occasional exchange fic my output is rather small as I seem to take forever to finish a story (I try to improve in that regard!), and participate at a daily writing group online. A list to my works is in the link list at the left.

My username, Ysilme, is a different spelling of the Quenya (one of the languages of Tolkien’s elves) term for moonlight, isilmë, which seemed quite fitting as a nickname for night owl, moon-loving me. The name was already in use with the original spelling, so I varied it to Ysilmë, inspired by many names beginning with Y in Skyrim which I was playing passionately at the time. (I’m usually leaving the trema off for practicality). As I have no idea how to explain the pronunciation I’m adding a sound file.
These days, everywhere fandom- and transformative work-related you’ll find me as Ysilme. Before, I’ve been Winterwitch/The_Winterwitch in various archives and on LJ and DW, and Alcina vom Steinsberg in the Potterverse. I’m trying to separate my fandom and real life as much as possible as my non-fannish online presence is too strongly linked to RL.

A part of my icons are made by me using my own photos, images in the public domain, or artoworks which have been created for me. If any of the icons is yours and not or not correctly credited, please talk to me, as it’s not happening intentionally.
Feel free to use any icons I made except those where I ask not to use them, and of course any of the others; please don’t forget to credit. Thank you!