Are You Writing Serious Fantasy? II

[Meela]

I am currently working on around five or six novels, or at least the basic ideas. Two are most definitely not based on Tolkien, and a couple are not even fantasy.
One is more comparable to Lord Of The Rings but I am trying to avoid any large similarities. I am also working on a series of short stories, which are largely unrelated to Tolkien.

The only way in which Tolkien has influenced my work is in the way he has portrayed elves. I suppose I never really considered the different ways in which elves could be personified, ie. near-human, pixie, etc.
Other than that, Tolkien has no major influence over my work. I have been writing since I could write, and it has always been fantasy. I generally live in a dream world (in fact, I'm wondering if I have some sort of mental disorder, I spend so much time "out of the real world"), regardless of my love of Tolkien.