She is, as some might have already guessed, a dwarf (no relation to you-know-who, though).

Both Jen and her real-life counterpart enjoy reading and writing fantasy and science fiction, music, travelling, history, and sciencey things, especially the type of sciencey things that go 'boom'. (Ah, the things you learn in Uni. The number of ways I know to blow things up is _scary_)

The main difference between them is that Jen has a beard and is allowed to carry an axe in public. Apparently that's still illegal in good 'ole England.

Rant of the Week/Month/Whatever:

If you really think that there's no other way for you to come up with a plot other than to put a new character in the story, then you have the imagination of a goldfish.

And if you still think that putting a woman in the Fellowship is in any way original you have the IQ of one, too. If you really want to write OC romance, why not utilize the many 'empty spots' in Tolkien canon? For example: Legolas has a mother, obviously, but she is never named or mentioned. You're already half-way out of the Mary Sue trap because the person you are writing about exists in canon. She's just a blank slate. You can invent for her a name, a personality, a history - and yet remain perfectly within canon. Almost as good are characters like Lothiriel. She marries Eomer, and is the daughter of Prince Imrahil, but other than that - nada. That's even ignoring the fact that there are perfectly good canon couples out there if you want to write romance...

Yes, I realise that none of them involve Legolas. Deal.