Several factors went into the making of this series. Here I will list them for both our benefits. Enjoy as I show you a bit of my planning process.

A. Qarlgrimes' Kili/OC fanfic

Nearly 6 years ago, a legendary fic was first published over on FFn. The Inconvenient and Unexpected Journey of Millie Fournier as, as one of my FFn readers states, known by basically every The Hobbit reader on that site. I'd read it once, fallen in love, and favorited it. And so it fell away into the back of my brain and account on FFn.

Fast forward to December 31, 2017. I was doing four loads of laundry, lying on the couch in my basement. I needed something to read and recalled a Hobbit Kili/OC story I'd read years ago. I tracked it down and read the entire story (it's a long one) that day. I laughed and cried. I became inspired.

That story proves to me and many people that Girl Falls Into Middle Earth isn't a doomed plotline. And I decided to try my hand at it.

B. #FingonisaTrekkie

I was scrolling through Ao3's Fingon fics on December 31, 2017. I'm not sure why. I think I was bored. I love Fingon the Valiant, he's my favorite of Tolkien's heroes. I had to sort through a million Russingon fics much to my dismay. But as fate would have it, I think it was a Russingon ModernAU story that caught my eye from the tags alone.

Fingon is a Trekkie

I didn't even click on the fic. Instantly my gears started turning. At this point I had already gotten the idea to try a Modern Girl in Middle Earth Silmarillion story, but I had very little concept beyond that. And so the very first personality trait of Eve was born.

C. New Year's Eve

The name of my protagonist came to me easily. Of course it had to be Eve. In honor of the day this began, as I wrote furiously in my phone from 9:00 pm to 12:02 am, the redheaded young woman Eve Gallowyn took shape. I did a bubble map for her character and added the specifics I wanted. It later would be revealed to me just how perfect the name Eve is because Eve is the first woman of the Bible, and Eve becomes the first woman in Arda like her.

D. Dante's Divine Comedy

A famous work of literature called the Divine Comedy became a source of inspiration for this series. I knew at this point that I wanted to start in Valinor, and would have to end in Middle Earth. Which would mean more than one book.

The Divine Comedy is a trilogy, going from Inferno, to Purgatorio, to Paradiso. That is, Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven. The protagonist is plucked from his existence and visits these three places in that order, out of place. Eve goes the opposite. Plucked out of her reality, she visits Heaven, Purgatory, and Hell. That is, the Noontide of Valinor, the Unchaining of Melkor, and the War of the Jewels. Thus is becomes not a Divine Comedy (starts lower than it ends), but a Divine Tragedy (starts higher than it ends).

Thus The Airequalmë was born.