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over_forty, we've been asked to explain our first icon and our username. I've written this before, but this explanation is a little more thorough, and by putting it here, I can tag it and use it again! (Since I am often asked about it...)
I've been working sporadically on a fantasy novel for decades. (I wonder if there is any correlation between the birth of my child and the cutback in my writing time? ~_^). As a child myself, I'd read Lloyd Alexander's The Book of Three (and all the rest of Prydain Chronicles); through this one book, I fell in love with the beautiful look of the Welsh language, with all its double ffs and double lls and gwys and so forth. When I started writing my long tale in high school, I kidnapped and corrupted ;-) various Welsh words for place and character names, or as inspirations for new names. For example, in my story, there is a group of people who refuse to align themselves with any particular clan in a country that is very clan-conscious; they are called by the others "Ar Wahan," which my Welsh dictionary says means detached or aloof.
When I joined LJ, I thought of using the name of my alter ego in the story as my username, but I didn't really want it "out there" yet. Another name I was considering had been taken.
I also still needed an icon. I'd always been amused by the aloof and haughty expression/ body language of my cat Fancy in the photo you see here. I can actually be kind of shy and reserved in person, and I thought I'd probably be more of a lurker on LJ than anything else. So Ar Wahan seemed to fit.
Of course, now that I'm more comfortable on LJ, it doesn't fit at all these days! And Fancy disappeared a little over a year ago. (I assume she died of old age or was killed by a coyote.) But I don't want to go to the trouble and confusion of changing my name.
I get asked about it often enough, though, that I should probably make a tag called" Why Ar Wahan?" so I can easily find this explanation and repost it, rather than explaining it all again!
over_forty, we've been asked to explain our first icon and our username. I've written this before, but this explanation is a little more thorough, and by putting it here, I can tag it and use it again! (Since I am often asked about it...)I've been working sporadically on a fantasy novel for decades. (I wonder if there is any correlation between the birth of my child and the cutback in my writing time? ~_^). As a child myself, I'd read Lloyd Alexander's The Book of Three (and all the rest of Prydain Chronicles); through this one book, I fell in love with the beautiful look of the Welsh language, with all its double ffs and double lls and gwys and so forth. When I started writing my long tale in high school, I kidnapped and corrupted ;-) various Welsh words for place and character names, or as inspirations for new names. For example, in my story, there is a group of people who refuse to align themselves with any particular clan in a country that is very clan-conscious; they are called by the others "Ar Wahan," which my Welsh dictionary says means detached or aloof.
When I joined LJ, I thought of using the name of my alter ego in the story as my username, but I didn't really want it "out there" yet. Another name I was considering had been taken.
I also still needed an icon. I'd always been amused by the aloof and haughty expression/ body language of my cat Fancy in the photo you see here. I can actually be kind of shy and reserved in person, and I thought I'd probably be more of a lurker on LJ than anything else. So Ar Wahan seemed to fit.
Of course, now that I'm more comfortable on LJ, it doesn't fit at all these days! And Fancy disappeared a little over a year ago. (I assume she died of old age or was killed by a coyote.) But I don't want to go to the trouble and confusion of changing my name.
I get asked about it often enough, though, that I should probably make a tag called" Why Ar Wahan?" so I can easily find this explanation and repost it, rather than explaining it all again!
