Riddles in the Kitchen

I was fortunate enough to be introduced to Avery Caswell from Better Books and have a chance to chat with her about my idea(s) for books.  She was encouraging of my ideas and set me off in a direction that may well help bring one of my book ideas to print someday.  I had always been of the belief that you had to know the whole arc of the story before putting pen to paper and writing was the details.  Avery dispelled that myth.  She said just write and write every day.  Make it routine and your story will present itself to you.  I have taken that to heart and am writing 15-30 minutes each day.  Some of it ends up here some of it is just being written long hand on legal pads.  This is more like how I paint.  I have some structure but the end result is unknown when I start.  Thanks Jen Jovan Walls for the introduction!  I am currently working on this project that had been parked here and stalled in the blog for two years and the other is based on a dream from childhood and will be an illustrated children's book.  I am writing daily and I am thankful for that.  Avery also told me right everyday nothing is wasted.  armed with these ideas I am working on my projects and will report in here from time to time with progress or fragments I want to put out there.

Now on to our story...

In my last post I wrote of Tolkien potentially being Gandalf.  Maybe he will be maybe he won't.  Today I explore Gandalf's impressions of Tolkien at their first meeting assuming that they are not the same person and that Tolkien just showed up on Bilbo's doorstep.

The fire was down to glowing coals in the fireplace in Bilbo's kitchen.  Bilbo and Jar Tulkeen as Bilbo had taken to calling the mysterious visitor who had appeared on Bilbo's doorstep earlier that day.  Gandalf smoked his pipe in the near dark and thought about the strange events that had occurred.  Tulkeen had appeared not knowing where he was or having any understanding of Middle Earth except that he thought the Shire reminded him of somewhere called the Cotswolds.  Through out the day and well into the night Gandalf, who had been coming to tea at Bilbo's and arrived 30 minutes after Tulkeen, questioned Tulkeen about where he came from and why he was here.  He spoke of a land called England and of the great war.  He described terrible machines of warfare and blinding chemicals and guns that could shoot projectiles from miles away.  It was truly horrifying.  he thought the wizard Saruman with fascination of mechanical devices devices would be quite interested in what this man had seen.  Gandalf shuddered at what would happen to Middle Earth if that type of warfare existed here.  Inspire of his knowledge of profane and arcane warfare Gandalf sensed kindness in this man.  In some ways he reminded Gandalf of Bilbo.  The two of them had spent many hours in the afternoon looking at maps Bilbo had drawn of the countryside.  Tulkeen was keenly interested in  the written languages of Middle Earth that he did not understand.  He did however speak the common tongue and called it English.  Bilbo had thought he said Entish and proclaimed that Tulkeen did appear a bit mossy.
Why was Tulkeen here?  Had something drawn him here from his land?  Gandalf had sensed strange things happening and heard whispers of forces gathering in the East.  He hoped beyond Hope this was not true.  He did not want to face that enemy ever again.  Gandalf sensed he could learn more from Tulkeen and and had convinced Bilbo to invite him to be his guest at Bag End until Gandalf could glean more information or the man disappeared.  Dawn was now starting to reveal itself through the kitchen window and with the new day Gandalf felt some relief from his fears.  He needed to decide what to do next....