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A Matter of Appearances  by Lindelea 5 Review(s)
LarnerReviewed Chapter: 6 on 8/15/2006
And what have the Men done with Farry and Ferdi, then? Aaach!

Author Reply: I know, the editor-friend (henceforth Utah, for it irritates her, I think *g*) is a lover of suspense, and so I've stretched it as far as it will go for this story.

harrowcatReviewed Chapter: 6 on 8/6/2006
Well I'm no longer 'missing in action' even if Ferdi and Farry are! Glad to see more of this even though it is midnight. I couldn't resist logging on and trying to digest some of the 44 alerts!

Author Reply: Glad to have you back, and your raft of reviews brought a smile. I love to see stories through a reader's eyes. Brings out dimensions, sometimes, that I never noticed myself.

Pearl TookReviewed Chapter: 6 on 8/1/2006
I've read your note and now I'm anxious to see how you are going to be stretching yourself as an author, as you have written dark stories before. Hope all goes well with the mid-story change :)

Author Reply: EF is going for "realistic" in this story. She's the one who pushed me in the past to write "A Took by any Other Name", for example, and also suggested, early on, Ferdi's death in "Merlin". (I was afraid readers were perceiving me as writing to a formula, and I didn't want to be predictable.) But I was so depressed, and honestly distressed, contemplating Ferdi's demise, that when Dana talked me out of it, EF went along without further argument. She honestly didn't mean to distress me, she just thought it was a possible solution to the "predictability" problem I was expressing.

Y'know, when I wrote Bodkin's "prize" I offered her the option of Jack or Will's dying, rash thing that I am. I'm so glad Bodkin is as fond of the characters as I am! I'm not sure I'd offer that much leeway again, to someone. I'm awfully fond of my characters, fictional though they may be.

But my editor-friend has done so much over the past three years, that letting her choose which of the drafts to flesh out (there are several, with alternate endings) is a part of my very inadequate thanks to her.

BodkinReviewed Chapter: 6 on 8/1/2006
Character death, she said suspiciously? Well, it can't be the heroic Ferdi. Or Farry. Or lots of other characters.

Hobbits are a terrible bunch of old gossips! And always looking for scandal, too. Pippin should try to break them of it. M'mm. Mainly by providing so much scandal himself that everything else seems bland in comparison.

I'm worried about Ferdi - I hope Farry is sharp enough to help him out here, because he doesn't seem in much of a condition to do much for himself. And poor Nell will be looking back wistfully to the tranquil days of her marriage to Odovacar. (If that's the right Bolger.) Sorry. Just got back home and my brain is blown.

Author Reply: Welcome back! Missed your cheery comments. Hope you had a lovely time.

Cannot comment on the "character death", of course. It's one of those thorny plot points that I'm not completely at ease about. I happen to like the character, which makes it more difficult. Hopefully it won't be terribly upsetting to the reader.

(Of course, there is a precedent, where a character I liked died in the draft and then became so "real" in the writing that I didn't have the heart to "kill" him. So if there is a reader revolt perhaps editor-friend will relent. One never knows, with her. She likes being unpredictable. Doesn't even order the same flavour of latte two weeks in a row.)

Author Reply: *shudders at the thought of flavoured lattes*

DreamflowerReviewed Chapter: 6 on 8/1/2006
Clever, clever Pippin! And finding that the rock-fall indeed is there will be enough to at least keep things going his way for a while. It may even be enough to relieve his own mind just a little--of course, *we* know there's more to it than that!

But I do hope you will soon take mercy on us, and let us know what Ferdi and Farry are enduring!

Author Reply: Well, it's in the very next bit, which kept getting shoved backwards as the draft got fleshed out, but it really ought to be coming up soon. Will hope to write some on it tomorrow, and maybe update the day after if I can finish another chapter.

Isn't it nice to be omniscient? (At least, where fanfic is concerned...)

Thanks!

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