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A Matter of Appearances by Lindelea	7 Review(s)
Larner	Reviewed Chapter: 11 on 8/15/2006
What a painful thing to wake up to! Alas, poor child; and Pimpernel must be devastated. Author Reply: Poor Rudi, to lose his second father, and poor Pimpernel. But at least she's "grown up" enough to care more about her children than herself.

harrowcat	Reviewed Chapter: 11 on 8/6/2006
Get the note earlier than expected - good good. Can't read!! and doesn't want to wake wife up!! Oh no - not good at all! Can't tell the difference between hair and wool - definitely fumble-fingered!! Author Reply: Oh, yes, the ruffians had a spot of bad luck there, with the note being discovered before dawn. And yet, it looks as if it might not get read until dawn, so perhaps their luck is holding! (O Musie, dear, do put us out of our misery. What do you have up your sleeve?) (She smiles serenely and sips her pina colada.) I wonder at this weaver fellow. Perhaps he deals mostly in yarn, and it's his wife who cards and spins the wool. Dunno. Perhaps he's sleep-walking. Perhaps the author, pushed to the limit by an avoracious Birthday Person, slipped up. Time will tell. Thanks!

Pearl Took	Reviewed Chapter: 11 on 8/6/2006
Have I left readers hanging so horribly and forlornly? If so, I owe all an appology. It is your gift - to leave us aching for more. How can it be the weaver knows not the feel of hobbit hair? Why does his wife read and not him? Is Ferdi truly dead? And oh the sad burden of preparing him for burial. sigh You have me. I await the next chapter with bated breath!! (Of course we both would use curiouser and curiouser - great minds think alike ;-) ) Author Reply: Oh, dear, do I owe apologies? I await the next chapter the same way... will be interesting to flesh out the draft. A lot of the material on preparation of the dead was written a long time ago, when Ferdi "died" in the first draft of "Merlin", but when it was revised of course all that was cut from the story. But with the kidnapping stuff it's all new territory, and I'm having difficulty getting the timetable to behave! Hard to fit this all into the space of twenty-four hours or so. No rest for the ruffians, I'm afraid! They're pretty much on the move with only short rests, to get where the plot needs them to go. Whew. And then there's the Tooks! Talk about stirred up! The weaver and the hair is a weakness in the plot, I'll admit. All I can say is, he's just been roused from a sound sleep. He's expecting a sample of a type of fleece he's never felt before. (Sampled an amazing variety of fleeces at the county fair last week...) As for illiteracy, JRRT says somewhere (about hobbits, maybe?) that even though the Shire has a Post, not all hobbits read. It's actually an oddity for his wife to read, perhaps, living in the boonies as they do. Is Ferdi truly dead? Oh, now, how can I answer such a question? Will simply have to keep writing whenever I have a spare moment. hugs

Finafyr	Reviewed Chapter: 11 on 8/6/2006
one of the things that I love about your stories is that continuity. I am having a bit of a problem with the whole Ferdie being dead plot. I have read other stories where he is alive years later. I have always thought of your stories of being a continuation of Tolkiens work. Your stories fit so well. Please resolve the issue of Ferdie soon. Please! Please! Please! I am looking foreword to Pippin and friends coming down on those ruffians like Grant took Richmond (grin) Author Reply: Yes, that continuity between stories is what made me put in that author note about this story not being AU. It's a giveaway, and so the readers know something about what must happen before the end of the story. Such is life. I wouldn't want people to think I was playing around with them. This was put together at a birthday request from someone who knows I won't kill off this OMC of mine in public. She knows how he dies, in his bio, but she also knows I won't publish that story. Am gonna sort of let him live on more or less forever, at least on the page. (Am so glad Agatha Christie didn't kill off Jane Marple, even though she was sick of the character, and always regretted that she killed her Poirot, even if she did it in a very dramatic way. Not that I'm comparing myself to AC's writing. Just that I remember having a favourite character die in a story, and not being able to go back and enjoy earlier stories, because something had clicked in my brain and that character was dead. A brain is a funny thing sometimes.) Anyhow, I can only say in my defence that Shire medical skills were a bit limited in this time period (compared to our machines with their beeps and whistles and electrodes and such), and perhaps dim lighting and an interrupted examination might be enough to explain the current situation. One would hope, anyway. Thanks for listening! Author Reply: p.s. at least you may take heart in the fact that the Ferdi issue must be resolved by dawn, at the latest. The alternative doesn't bear thinking about.

Dreamflower	Reviewed Chapter: 11 on 8/6/2006
And that's not an unlikely occurrence--why should it be that they'd choose a literate hobbit to leave the note with? The chances in the Shire are probably only about 50/50, and though that would increase if they left it at a home in a town or village, rather than at a farm--it would also increase the chances of being caught. And, apparently, at least the wife can read... Perhaps little Rudi will wake his da up... Author Reply: Whew, at least illiteracy is not unlikely. I keep telling "someone" that the whole plot sounds extraordinarily unlikely to me, but she insists that I can make it work. Touching faith, really.

Bodkin	Reviewed Chapter: 11 on 8/6/2006
D'you know, I'm beginning to get the impression that you've killed Ferdi off. That's not good. Not good at all. I shall be putting in a complaint on the grounds of cruelty to the Ferdi (MFH) Fan Club. The way hobbits deal with death is very touching - and I'm sure the ritual helps them deal with the initial shock. Seeing Nell sitting beside him with their baby - and then poor Rudivar, who has already lost one father - is so heart-rending. (And the knock-on effect of no Ferdi in this world would be catastrophic!) Trust the villains to pick the doorstep of an illiterate. And an illiterate with problems distinguishing between sheep's wool and hobbit hair at that! Bell will be giving Percy a few extra pinches in the morning, I think! Although I doubt they would have been able to do much in the dark - and would probably have thought twice about heading off to the Great Smials at night and with villains on the loose. Author Reply: I shall duly pass your complaint on to the Birthday Person, who insists that this plot is plausible. I ask you, what can you do with unreasonable BPs? I got the impression from reading JRRT quite a while ago that illiterate hobbits were not all that uncommon. Perhaps we're lucky that Percy's wife can read, after a fashion.

demeter d	Reviewed Chapter: 11 on 8/6/2006
Coming home very late from closing the restaurant, and here this is in my inbox at 1:20 a.m. my time. A pleasant surprize. trust the ruffians to pick the wrong smial to which to deliver the ransom note. Now what else will go wrong? The rest of it, after Ferdi is delivered home, is almost too heartwrenching for description. Each loving detail of their last rites for him is given. A wife's loving, last memories. Dressed in his best for his last journey. I really did lose it when she sat on the bed beside him to nurse their babe. And then the son's cry of grief, and Tolly's fierce hug....These images will stay with me a long time. Author Reply: My goodness, another night owl! (When I have too much caffeine, be it coffee or chocolate, I have trouble getting to sleep. Might as well write as lie awake.) And yes, that whole scene was very difficult to write, when it was written, a long time ago now.

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