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Alone: A Cormallen AU  by Garnet Took 8 Review(s)
PeriantariReviewed Chapter: Author's Notes on 4/7/2023
I'm struggling with my muse too and it has been long since I've written. I'm in the same boat! Wow this was quite an AU- I. am so sad for the result but it could've happened. :( poor Merry! you write the emotion so well. Thanks for the AU look at a bleaker outcome.

harrowcatlizReviewed Chapter: Author's Notes on 3/21/2023
Oh, Welcome back. Of course we haven't forgotten you. Lovely to see a new offering from you. Believable but gut-wrenching all the same.

Author Reply: Thanks. It's good to be back. I'm glad you found this story believable. It was such a sad one to write. I cried and I don't usually do that. I've some more hopeful tales swimming around in my head and I'm still working on my story that has turned into a novel. Thanks for reading and reviewing. It means a lot.

Periantari Reviewed Chapter: 1 on 3/8/2023
Wow what a believable yet very sad AU. I can totally see that happening if aragorn didn’t heal intime or the injuries were too much to overcome . its so very sad to imagine but your dialogue was great

Author Reply: Oh, thank you. Glad it rang true for you. This is one of the only stories I ever wrote that actually brought tears to my eyes while I was writing it. thanks again for your encouraging review.

LarnerReviewed Chapter: Author's Notes on 3/4/2023
I've missed you, and I rejoice that you are writing again. My own writing has been sporadic and slow. Welcome back, Garnet!

Author Reply: Thanks. It's good to be back. I tried so many times over the last few years to write something, anything, but it just didn't feel right. Now I'm at a point in my life where I'm finally feeling established and secure and can think about things like hobbies again. I finally have a space in the house that is all mine, and the cats' of course, and I can come down here and do what I want. Hubby has his office and I have mine and they're on opposite sides of the house and on different levels. We can be as close or as far from each other as we want. I haven't felt this settled in ages. :)

I always look for postings from certain authors and you are in that group. I'm glad to see you're still writing at whatever pace works for you.

LarnerReviewed Chapter: 1 on 3/4/2023
A terrible reunion, only to see all leave. Sensitively written.

Author Reply: Thanks. Right now I'll take any plot bunny the bites and this one just happened to be a very sad one. I cried while I was writing it, and I don't normally do that.

Galadriel GardnerReviewed Chapter: Author's Notes on 3/3/2023
Welcome back! I too have been gone a long, long time, but I remember you.

This scenario is devastating, but what a near thing it must have been. Poor Merry! No, I doubt he would have gone home again, alone.

Author Reply: Thanks so much for reading. I was beginning to think people would have forgotten. Eight years is a long time. :)
I am pretty convinced that Merry really had been summoned to Cormallen because they were pretty sure that at least one of the other hobbits wasn't going to make it.I remember reading that Tolkien had planned for Pippin to die but someone talked him out of it. I'm grateful to whomever that was because, if he had, I'd have probably stopped reading right there.

Here's hoping that it won't be another eight years.

LindeleaReviewed Chapter: Author's Notes on 3/1/2023
I agree! I definitely hope it won't be that long before you post again! How I love your hobbits.

Hugs,
Lin

Author Reply: Aw, thinks. I've missed writing them. So many things have changed in my life since I last put a hobbit story out into the world but I feel like I'm now in a space where I can get back into it.

LindeleaReviewed Chapter: 1 on 3/1/2023
Believable... but so heartbreaking. Merry's thoughts describing the other hobbits are spot on. Wonderful characterizations. I'm sure that if they had been able to stay and heal by will alone, they would have responded to his voice.

I love that Pip's thoughts are for the Shire, and saving the Shire, which is what the four hobbits did. Merry could not have scoured the Shire all by himself, I think, so your solution works.

Well done. (But I think I prefer eucatastrophes, like Dreamflower does so well, to sad AUs. Still, powerfully evocative writing.)

Hugs,
Lin

Author Reply: Thanks fortheencouraging review, Lin. I'm glad I got the characters' voices right. That was one of my concerns after so long away.

Not sure why I felt so compelled to write a sad story like this but it was what came to me. I know that the one that sitting in the back of my mind right now is a lot more hopeful.

Thanks again for the review. It made my morning.

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