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| A White Shell by Celeritas | 47 Review(s) |
|---|---|
| Larner | Reviewed Chapter: 2 on 5/30/2009 |
| Poor Kira--to first find the pressure she needed to recite Frodo's poem, then to be found fainted again! She must be terribly disheartened, and particularly because she thinks no one appreciated it. But it sounds as if Tom did, and certainly Alaric did! Tooks, I'd guess, considering the names! Someone who appreciates the King and the King's best friend among his own kindred, obviously! Why do I have the feeling that she'll be in the Great Smial copying books before she quite knows what hit her? Heh! Author Reply: I don't know if Tom was listening to that particular bit of the party or not; he hasn't told me where he is and he'd still sooner be caught dead than let anyone, including the author, know he was listening in! Alaric's a very peculiar case, though. Can't say that much more about him yet. | |
| Dreamflower | Reviewed Chapter: 2 on 5/30/2009 |
| I took a break from "Trotter" to read this! What a treat! Perhaps "The Sea-Bell" was not the best poem in the world for a tentful of merry-making hobbits, but it certainly reached one who needed to hear it. I'm intrigued by Alaric and Halbarad. You did not reveal their surnames, but I have a suspicion, going by the first names. Poor Kira, this party was not the best time in the world for her. But at least she did have a chance to tell the children her stories. I loved the way she framed Sam's story, around the mallorn seed. Very lovely and poignant. Author Reply: You suspect, eh? *firmly clams up mouth as we are not going to learn anything else about these two for several chapters* The story had to be my favorite bit, though. Took two tries to get it right, but since that second time 'round I've never had to revise it. Thank heavens! All in all I'd say the party was a mixed bag for Kira--there was all that bodice humor and the officialness of Sandra/Kerry to balance off that terrible end. | |
| Larner | Reviewed Chapter: 1 on 3/26/2009 |
| An interesting experience for such a lass, coming "out." I remember the first time Mom put me in a bra--she made it far, far too tight, and I've never been so uncomfortable in my life! I refused to wear a properly fitted one for far too long! And she now has a copy of the Silmarillion? Nice! Excitement there! Don't blame her for wanting time to read! Author Reply: I thought that since marriage is and has been the norm in the Shire, there would be some sort of set of coming out customs, even if you don't go so far as doing the whole debutante party thing. And I think with the bodice effect it'd help push along any lifelong lad friends into realizing that suddenly she's all grown up and actually looks rather attractive... (I'm imagining Sam gawping at Rosie the first time she made her appearance) I do think also that any part of a female's growing up deals with learning how to deal with what (if anything) women in that culture do to deal with the things suddenly hanging off their chest. I have my bra horror stories as well, and the one time I tried on a properly bodice-y bodice at a Ren fair the only way they could make it fit above was squeezing me so much below that my stomach hurt for fifteen minutes afterwards. I don't think I'd be able to pull off the one that Kira's wearing. Of course Kira wants time to read, but work comes first, now more than ever, so it'll be tricky getting the time to read it. At the same time, the Sil isn't exactly a book you can just read from cover to cover so maybe it's well suited to her needs. | |
| Raksha The Demon | Reviewed Chapter: 1 on 3/25/2009 |
| So Kira is growing up, and leaving childhood behind, but not her strength of will nor courage. I'm so glad that some of the hobbits lucky enough to have access to books haven't forgotten that she craves them. To think of a person who loves books and reading being deprived of all that is horrifying. And now she has tje Quenta Silmarillion ! Looking forward to more! Author Reply: Yes, I really think that Kira would go mad if it weren't for her bookish friends looking out for her. The Quenta (I refuse to adhere to our names for texts when writing about a society that didn't have them in the editions we do) is going to keep her grounded. And to be fair, Kira was never wholly without books: there are a couple of innocuous ones in the stationer's shop in Michel Delving, which can't leave the store but at least she can get to. Thank you so! | |
| Socrates399 | Reviewed Chapter: Prologue on 3/25/2009 |
| Oliver Twist. But if you really do give me a cookie, I'll eat my hat! Author Reply: Heh heh heh. I thought it was "eat my head" but it's been a while. Would a drabble on a LotR topic of your choosing suffice? If so you can email it me; the address link is on my bio. | |
| Larner | Reviewed Chapter: Prologue on 3/25/2009 |
| Appetite duly whetted. Author Reply: *grin* Well, after a month of whetting drabbles and a cookie, it'd better be. | |
| Dreamflower | Reviewed Chapter: 1 on 3/25/2009 |
| *grinning madly* Oh my! Where do I start? Well, I love to see Kira's attempts at writing. It seems clear that she has made some progress over the years, but having to keep it secret is probably slowed her down a lot. I was delighted to see that what she was wanting to write was Fredegar's poem, which most certainly deserves to be memorialized. The trip into town, the purchase of the fabric and the discussion of the boning was most satisfying to a costuming geek like myself. I am assuming that you are going for the sort of "Ren-faire" type bodices the hobbit-lasses wore in the movies? The reeds, the busk, all of it was wonderful. Really a properly made ren-style boned bodice can be more than comfortable--it gives good back support for one thing. Quite unlike those torturous things popular in Victorian times! But hobbits would have too much sense for one of those types. I also appreciate the detailed information on dividing sage. My own sage bush is almost three years old now, so now I know what to do with it! As for the mint--that's why I've always kept mine confined in containers. (I once wrote a fic about Merry having to deal with invasive mint in his herb-patch at Crickhollow, LOL!) Now to all the lovely hints you are dropping: mysterious engagements that have to be canceled? Correspondence from Kerry Brandybuck? All rather tantilizing! I'm wondering about the "tea-parties". Lessons? But is she giving or getting them? Or am I way off track? I'm really looking forward to seeing more! This is going to be fun. Author Reply: Taking your points by the numbers (*is possibly grinning even more madly than you, my dear*)... The most difficult thing about Kira's writing is that she's self-teaching with feather pen and ink--far too stubborn to try to go about with a slate and chalk, or even charcoal! Which means that she can't even focus on the formation of the letters, poor thing. I am indeed basing the bodices off Elizabethan ones, which are actually intelligent because they don't make it impossible to breathe. But for someone who's used to wearing only fabric it could still look quite worrisome. Unfortunately I don't have the figure to pull one off, so I don't know firsthand how comfortable it'd be for hours upon hours, but it certainly sounds much better than the bosom-smashers which are on today's market. Since I envision most hobbit lasses as quite buxom, that seems to be the garment that would make the most sense (not to mention the lads would enjoy it as well! *snerk*). Anyway, I should probably have mentioned that I contacted a good costuming friend about that and she linked me to many appropriate SCA sites. It was fun because normally she refuses to read any LotR fic but this way I could make her check my work! My herbing information comes much less experience than I'd like, alas. I found for sale for a quarter a good common-sense, grower's perspective book on herb gardens, with season-by-season instructions (hence, you should do all that dividing work on the perennials in the spring). Its advice popped into a number of fics (and expect the liquid manure to make a return!). The mint in Kira and her mother's garden is actually walled in quite effectively with bricks above and below the plants, but they still divide them every few years because otherwise the stolons will begin to choke one another and the plant will ail as a result. And yeah, I don't think it was so much "hint-dropping" as "hint-punting." *cackles* Most of them will be better explained in the next couple chapters. I'm thinking of going monthly. | |