> "Grishnakh" was the inspiration for your
name, but you weren't thinking of it when
"Grishny" first came about?

Okay, perhaps it's time my story was fully told.

Early on, I developed a love for reading. One of
my aunts saw this and encouraged it by giving
me books for my birthday and Christmas each
year. She gave me the entire Chronicles of
Narnia series over the course of about three
or four years (about two book each year.) I
remember one time she was driving me
somewhere and asking me if I had ever read
The Hobbit. I said no, and guess what I got for
Christmas that year?

That was my first experience with Tolkien. Of
course I fell in love with Middle Earth right
away. I was probably ten years old then. The
year after that, I asked my parents to buy me
the LOTR trilogy as an Easter gift instead of
giving me an Easter basket. (He wants
BOOKS instead of CANDY???) I'm sure they
were pleased.

My first attempt to read LOTR met with limited
success...for some reason I lost interest after
Pippin looked in the Palantir and was whisked
off to Gondor on Shadowfax. I put the book
down for so long that by the time I picked it up
again, I decided to just start over from the
beginning. That's why I always say that I've
read LOTR so many "...and a half times."

So I had read LOTR through two and a half
times when I started playing this new turn-
based strategy computer game that my friend
bought called "Warlords," and got hooked on
it. Eventually they came out with a sequel in
which it was possible to create your own
scenarios complete with maps, armies, and
castles, customizable down to the last detail. I
started churning out scenarios, and it was
while working on one of these that I came up
with the name "Grishny."

I was writing a description of one of the "ruins"
in the game where heroes (the most valuable
army unit) could search and find treasure,
allies, or magical artifacts. I named the ruin
"Grishny's Tower" and described it as the
home of an orcish mage who made his living
by cursing nearby small villages. LOTR was
not on my mind at all, but I have to admit that
Tolkien's influence was there.

The following summer (of 1996, as I recall) I
came home from college and had to re-sign
up with Prodigy, my ISP at the time. I had
been with them before but had cancelled my
service because I couldn't access it at school.
The old nickname I'd been using in their chat
rooms was no longer available and I needed
a new one, and for some reason (I'm still not
sure why) I went with "Grishny." It stuck,
because although I moved on to greener ISP
pastures, this nickname has stayed with me.

Gri"I've told this story before, but not in this
much detail"shny