I'm in a way better mood today.  I think it has more than a bit to do with the fact that I started my B2Me story last night.  Yes, singular, I'm just doing one story, which I anticipate might fall into the 10,000-20,000 word range if I do manage to finish what I start for once.  Among other things, I was feeling crappy that I wanted to start a new story when I have so many unfinished ones giving me the evil eye from out of their dusty corners.  But then I realized that I was enthusiastic about and inspired by my Númenor plot bunny, so why the crap not just do it?

It's going to have multiple POVs and probably various narrative styles, which ought to keep me entertained.  I started it last night with a bit from Aulë's POV.

I think Mairon will have something to say today.  Am debating doing first person Mairon, which I have never done and I don't know if it's a good idea because his personality is so drastically different from mine that I always feel like it would be invasive and insensitive of me to presume to get inside his head.  (I've never had a character who actually intimidates me before, to say nothing of intimidating all my typical POV characters.)

The challenge--well, this often is the challenge for me--will be not to get bogged down in geophysical considerations.  I should especially stay far, far away from researching whether there are any possible ways for a continental microplate to exist in the midst of a bunch of oceanic crust.  There are other ways to solve this without spending the better part of a day in research.

Fonstad (Atlas of Middle Earth) posits that Orthanc was hewn into a volcanic plug.  Which seems very sensible.

Especially in light of Pico Cão Grande (São Tomé and Príncipe).  DUDE.