![]() |
![]() |
About Us![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
|
![]() |
Pearl of Great Price by Lindelea | 2 Review(s) |
---|---|
Lady Forlong | Reviewed Chapter: 10 on 5/21/2025 |
Gotta admire Pearl, plucky little hobbit that she is. Author Reply: I'm glad to hear you say so! That's how I see her; she reflects the time and society and customs, yet she can think for herself, and she has a strong will and a firm moral compass. Very long ago, when this story was nominated for an award, several reviewers called her "flat", which I found confusing. I might describe her as "constrained", maybe, by her youth and circumstances and maybe even birth order. It really bothered me to hear people categorize her as two-dimensional, lacking complexity and not evolving during the story (at least one definition of "flat")! I'm quite fond of Pearl, actually. Anyhow, thanks for listening; I promise to stop grumbling now! | |
FantasyFan | Reviewed Chapter: 10 on 12/17/2003 |
Oh, young Hally is here! How wonderful! Opening a chapter of one of your wonderfully-entertwined stories is like opening a Christmas box with another piece for a treasured collection. Each new bauble has its own facets, and it fits together with the others to make a sparkling whole. And not an old mathom in the bunch! So will this be Rosemary's story as well as Pearl's? Lalia intends to drive a hard bargain with Gundavar. Hopefully he is confident enough of his and Hally's skills to know what he can and can't do. Or will she go so far as to make it difficult for him in order to escape payment? I can't tell if Pearl was there for this conversation with the Bolgers or not - did she stay with the mistress after she returned to the study as she did the previous day, or was business first on this day and the outing just before noon? If she was there, how many of the subtleties does she understand? If she doesn't now, I imagine she soon will. Most likely, nobody hears more than the companion to the Mistress, quietly sitting by with the shawl and water pitcher, and unnoticed by any of the important people taking part in the conversations. Pearl can hold her own with the other girls in the dormitory, but she is going to have to modify her schedule a bit. She won't be able to be up with the dairymaids if she's got to also be sharp for her duties towards the mistress for hours after sundown. Might be tough to modify years of ingrained habit. (I find changing sleep schedules very difficult. I've always been a morning person; today I'm dragging after staying up late last night at the movies. Three hours of sleep just doesn't do it for me, and I can sympathize with Pearl.) Author Reply: I was going through and answering reviews, and I saw this one without an answer from long ago. (I also can tell that this story was deleted and restored from backup a few years after it was posted, and I wonder if maybe that explains why so many review replies are missing? Because I seem to remember making an effort to reply to reviews consistently to show my appreciation!) It has been awhile. I miss "hearing" your insights and snippets about life. Quite often, you uncovered elements I wasn't even aware of, and sometimes you shaped the direction of a character's development or an aspect of the plot. I hope that not hearing from you means you're well and busy and have moved on to other interests. In other words, what I mean to say is if you ever come by this way again and read this reply, I hope it finds you and yours well. | |