So here we go. Today’s WP prompt was really not conducive to writing about RA: “How do you want to retire?” Eh, well, not sure what kind of connection with RA I could conjure up there. And I also don’t really want *him* to retire, either. So instead I am taking inspiration from the desktop wallpaper that has just greeted me upon opening my laptop. Savour this:

This was one of the very early shrines, #11, from 2014. When I started out with the whole shrining business, my plan had been to *only* make shrines for chaRActers and to only make *one* shrine for each chaRActer. Well, even by shrine #11 one of those plans had been scuppered, as this was the third shrine made containing Thorin… The backstory to this RAPS is that a RL friend of mine (whom I know from university and who did her teacher training in the same school as I) was a fervent fantasy fan and deeply involved in fan fiction. She wrote a multi-part fan fiction for me that transposed post-Hobbit Thorin to her own universe (I think it was Dungeons and Dragons themed) and gave him an alternate ending. The main image of Thorin in the RAPS was made by a digital artist called Yanagoya. That piece of artwork caused quite some stir when it first popped up and still does whenever it gets resurrected from the back catalogue of Thorin Tumblr. *fans herself*. My friend and I liked it so much that we actually commissioned the artist to create a cover picture for her fic (the image in the lower part of the shrine).

Apart from the shrine itself, I also really like the photo *of* the shrine. Besides creating the little pocket shrines, photographing them in order to present them on my blog, was a huge part of the whole project. It gave me the opportunity to use my pro camera (rather than a quick snap-and-go iPhone) and experiment with the set-up. I styled this RAPS in our fireplace, so what you see underneath and around the RAPS are the ashes from a recent fire. I thought that was suitable for Thorin… Marky Mark (my camera) captured the shallow depth-of-field beautifully. In order to take this picture, I had to stretch out on the floor in front of the fireplace 😂. The things we do in order to get the shot, right? Anyway, that’s the backstory to this photo.

But talking of prompts – I’d like to send a big thank you to those of you who followed my recent prompt and kindly bought RAnet a coffee. Or rather – 11 coffees in total so far. That is really wonderful and generous of you, and makes a great contribution to the RAnet costs. I have now embedded a button that takes you straight to the Buy Me a Coffee site in the sidebar of this blog. Just in case anyone at any time might feel the desire to send a little support to RAnet. You can find it at the top of the sidebar just below the mission statement.

Thank you ❤️