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| A Healer's Tale by Lindelea | 11 Review(s) |
|---|---|
| Larner | Reviewed Chapter: 15 on 5/18/2005 |
| Looks like a taste of the green-eyed monster. | |
| Pearl Took | Reviewed Chapter: 15 on 5/2/2005 |
| Aw, poor Ted! Quite the changes going on for Woodruff, from apprentice to Mistress with an apprentice of her own so very quickly!! I'm just so enjoying this story that I eagerly await each installment and get mad at myself when I get behind. VWD!!!!! Author Reply: Thank you! Don't get mad, just get even (i.e. caught up!) I'm way behind on my reading, myself, at the moment. Leaving more comments at MEFA rather than SoA, I fear. If I'd had any sense I'd have copied and pasted the reviews from one place to the other, but I wasn't sure of the MEFA rules. Don't know if the comments are supposed to be unique. Am up much too late... hugs! | |
| Andrea | Reviewed Chapter: 15 on 5/2/2005 |
| Good old Sweetbriar, I really liked her. She has done a lot for Woodruff. So, Ted is interested in Woodruff and he thinks, he has a rival now? That sounds interesting. But I'm really not sure, who Woodruff prefers. Maybe she hasn't noticed it yet? Well, lets wait and see. Author Reply: Hmmm. Who could it be? Methinks all will come clear sometime soon. At least we can hope it will! *g* I really liked Sweetbriar too. May all her dreams be peaceful ones, as they say in the Shire. Thanks! | |
| Eruvyweth | Reviewed Chapter: 15 on 5/2/2005 |
| Ahhhhhh, so good. My heart always leaps when I see there's been an update! Lovely writing, very captivating characters who somehow become very personal and close to the reader. Dear Woodruff. Can't wait for the next chapter!!! Author Reply: So glad to hear you say that. Someone once told me I write as if I'm taking tea with my characters (and it was not a compliment, LOL) and I answered that yes, I most likely am. Next "Interlude" due on Wednesday, and the next "Woodruff" chapter Monday, I think. Thanks for reading and commenting! | |
| Anso the Hobbit | Reviewed Chapter: 15 on 5/2/2005 |
| I can`t remember what Woodruff`s husband is called but suddenly it occurs to me that Ted is interested... :) It was very nice of her Mistress to give Woodruff the smial, and for a female healer to take on a male one... Probably unheard of? I bet the Tooks will talk alot about that, lol. Author Reply: You make a good point! I have deliberately never mentioned the name of Woodruff's husband before. We'll just have to wait and see (though not much longer) *g*. I think the Tooks talk a lot about *everything*, and *nothing* too! | |
| Bodkin | Reviewed Chapter: 15 on 5/2/2005 |
| I hope Ted thinks to tell Woodruff why he is feeling a tad moody. I know she's the best healer since Aesculapius but she's not psychic. And she's been kicked too many times to assume that odd behavious = admiration. Her substitute family has been very good for her - she seems infinitely less hangdog. (Rosie Bracegirdle, *&&*'##*&. Still due a kicking.) She will miss Sweetbriar, though. Sweetbriar took healing to a new level in dealing with Woodruff. And Mardi is lovely. Some professional admiration will do a lot for Woodruff, too. And help her see herself as others see her. Author Reply: I think Woodruff suspects why Ted is a "tad moody" but she's waiting for him to speak. For the moment, anyhow. Remember she has been under the wing of a very astute and observant hobbit for the past seven years, and Sweetbriar may well have talked to Woodruff about the facts of life and how Woodruff must make up her own mind and not be pressured into anything, and if she decides *against* Ted in the long-run, that she must be gentle and kind and not hurt Sweetbriar's favourite lad. (But of course the old healer was hoping that such won't be necessary... in any event Woodruff has Sweetbriar's blessing, and she is simply waiting for Ted to grow up. Though I suppose it is always possible for another to come along and sweep her off.) I do like Mardi, myself. Glad to hear others do as well. Thanks! | |
| Hai Took | Reviewed Chapter: 15 on 5/1/2005 |
| Poor Woodruff, now to be out on her own again. At least this time she knows she is wanted and has good hobbits looking out for her. Mardi got in at the wrong time didn't he? They all handled it well, considering they were still trying to figure things out themselves! I hope Ted doesn't feel pushed off by Mardi! I'm sure it must be a bit uncomfortable for him but perhaps they will become good friends! As always, looking forward to more! Author Reply: I have the feeling that Mardi and Ted will become good friends, indeed, once all these things have been sorted into their proper places. As a matter of fact, they'll laugh for years afterward about "shooting the chicken". Thanks! | |
| Beruthiel | Reviewed Chapter: 15 on 5/1/2005 |
| This chapter reminded me of something I've been wondering about for quite awhile: If Woodruff had one month of apprenticeship left, this would be in 1397. Mardibold is 32, which makes him 4 years older than Reginard (see family tree), who (in "Striking Sparks") marries Mardi's daughter in 1434. Considering Mardi's age, Rosa would be just barely of age, at most, when she marries Reg, who is 65 in 1434. In "Sparks" Mardi doesn't seem the slightest bit uncomfortable letting his daughter marry someone twice her age (his misgivings all seemed to concern Reg's possible Thainship, not his age), so are marriages with such a huge age difference common in your Shire? (I also remember Eglantine being shocked that Paladin wanted Nell to marry someone 20 years older than her ("Flames"), so it can't be *that* common.) Got long-winded there. Hope all that made sense. Author Reply: Made perfect sense, for you've been very astute in your reading and tying things together. It was quite a challenge, actually, for when I went through the old stories to put this one together I ran into facts sprinkled in various stories that had to be reconciled. I had a general idea of where everyone was placed, and had worked out ages to some extent in earlier stories, but that age difference between Regi and Rosa gave me some pause, at first. This is what I came up with: It is handy that from the groundwork laid the Smials Tooks are considered a bit different than the country Tooks, and true enough, when you look at English history, that town folk lived by different standards than farm folk. Thus, hobbits of the Great Smials and Tuckborough might not blink twice at a large gap in ages, whereas hobbits from outlying farm communities might not be so sanguine. (Although I'm sure there were older, well-off farmers who cast an eye at a young thing from time to time.) Thus, Regi and Rosa can marry without anyone blinking an eye, and it is not a marriage of convenience, but they truly love one another and it has been something of a long courtship, him playing chess or something like that with her father while waiting for her to come of age. Perhaps she declared when she was a young girl about "I'm going to marry you when I grow up" and everyone thought it a good joke, but she continued in her determination. That sounds like Rosa to me... So Eglantine is shocked because she's retained some of her standards from farm living, and Paladin has absorbed some of the standards of high society and is desperate enough for money that he can talk himself into seeing it as "looking out for Nell" as well as his daughter doing her duty by the Tooks, just as Paladin has been doing his duty since becoming Thain. Does that clear things up? Author Reply: Meant to say that marriages of convenience or arranged marriages were more common amongst the hobbits of the great holes (again drawing from history), so I was extra glad to make Rosa and Regi's marriage born of love. Author Reply: (and I am so dead-tired this morning that I'm not sure if I'm using the term "marriage of convenience" correctly now. So perhaps I'm talking about arranged marriages) Did you see my LJ post? Got any stories to tell a bored, restless tween who cannot imagine spending another *day* in bed much less a week? | |
| Connie B. | Reviewed Chapter: 15 on 5/1/2005 |
| Well that certainly answered some questions, but raised a few more. So that was how Mardi and Woodruff met: interesting. I don't think Ted approves of them working so closely together. Could he be a bit jelous. I don't know if I spelled that right, and I'm too tired to check.:) Thanks. Connie B. Author Reply: I've known for a long time that Mardi apprenticed under Woodruff, but this story is the first time I've thought things through. I think you're right about Ted. Thanks! | |
| Ariel | Reviewed Chapter: 15 on 5/1/2005 |
| Uh oh! Me senses a bit of conflict in paradise! hehehe! Well done. I am eagerly reading along. Author Reply: LOL, conflict in paradise! They say there's no plot without conflict of some sort... Altho there often seems to be conflict without plot these days, doesn't there? *g* | |