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The Thrum of Tookish Bowstrings, Part 1  by Lindelea 85 Review(s)
LarnerReviewed Chapter: 25 on 4/5/2020
A lot to lay on a child, even one as precocious as Farry. So, now the Councillors are getting involved when they don't even know the full circumstances of the situation? Too little too late, perhaps.

The beasts and I are doing well enough, I guess. But my boss has cut off my vacation. So I will birthday in place--or rather, with my clients.



























councilo

Author Reply: All I can do is smile and shake my head, remembering that even the Professor sometimes found hobbits annoying. Or was it irritating?

Thanks!

Author Reply: p.s. Happy birthday to you (a little early). You are doing an important job. I hope your boss appreciates you. I know your clients do.

MirkwoodmaidenReviewed Chapter: 25 on 4/5/2020
Lindelea!

I just love the nuanced storytelling here! Very detailed. I understand that Fortinbrand and the councillor are acting as they deem to be good. And that you have got to recognise a problem before it is too far advanced and it is admirable to try to learn from history. Perhaps it is just my inherent faith in Pippin's abilities and his good heart and his abilities to learn from his mistakes that the Tooks are not taking into account here. I do believe that Fortinbrand is acting with the best of intentions but I don't know if it is overkill in this case.

Hope you and yours are safe and healthy. ((virtual hugs))

MM

Author Reply: It’s a difficult situation. Hard to guide a free and independent (and stubborn) people in one direction sometimes...

Hugs back, and hope you and yours are staying well.

LarnerReviewed Chapter: 24 on 4/4/2020
So, that gift gave Fortinbrand his position as Querier. A proper use of such a talent, I'd say. I suspect the guy is angry at the results of the Talk. Poor Farry as as a child, feeling responsible for such a plight!

Author Reply: You're exactly right about Fortinbrand! And it is sad but true that children often take the blame for something that is completely not their fault. I'm glad that Fortinbrand is not only good at asking questions, but at listening as well.

Hope you are keeping well. Thanks for stopping to share your thoughts.

MirkwoodmaidenReviewed Chapter: 24 on 4/3/2020
Lindelea!

Hello! Another very intense chapter. I feel so sorry for ten year old Farry. And I'm still not sure about Fortinbrand. Leading the child into various statements. I shall reserve judgment until we see the resolution of this event.

Hope you and yours are staying safe.

((virtual hugs))

MM

Author Reply: Hopefully everything will become clearer in the next chapter (or so), including Fortinbrand's motivations. I feel for the hobbit, actually; his is what seems like a hopeless task, but instead of simply going through the motions in the face of the inevitable, he's making sure he dots every "i" and crosses every "t". I'd love to hear your thoughts when we reach the outcome of this section! And thank you for taking time to leave your thoughts this morning.

And two new chapters of your latest story to savor over my coffee! What a wealth of enjoyment to look forward to! The coffee pot has put its finishing touches on this morning's brew, and so I may begin...

Hope this finds you well and safe. ((hugs back))

demeter dReviewed Chapter: 24 on 4/3/2020
There is sort of a running joke among some of LindaHoyland's reviewers that she writes stories about Aragorn and Faramir just so she can get them lost, captured, or otherwise injured, then make them all better. Yesterday I read the chapter in "The End of His Rope" where Ferdibrand puts on the Mithril vest and drives the decoy wagon to flush out the would-be gold stealing Ruffians. Taken all together, it seems like your stories do the same to one Ferdibrand Took. The things that poor Hobbit has endured over the years! And now, he and young Faramir have a quiet interlude waiting for rescue. I think the poor guy deserves a bit of peace and quiet! But...perhaps not in a cold hole in the ground. I am enjoying seeing how Ferdi and young Farry have overcome those troubles, and some of what has gone into making Farry the person who can lead the Shire one day.

Author Reply: (Reading through this wordy response, I apologize ahead of time if it is a trial to read through it all... I am waiting for the coffee to brew, and so my thoughts are rather disorganized and wandering this morning... so I will include a summary statement simply because my sense of irony is very strong before I get my coffee.)

tldr; I know! It's a wonder that Ferdibrand has not run screaming from the room. At least I'm a sucker for a happy ending. :)

LOL, I know that feeling very well. And LindaHoyland certainly knows her trade! Her stories pull you in and keep you reading. Thanks for the reminder; I need to seek out her stories again and add them to my current reading list.

The old story Angst, though it was hobbit-centric, was based on that premise: fanfic characters enduring endless trials. I started reading Linda's works later, or I might have asked her permission to include a few of her plot points in a chapter of that one. I used to have a list of which authors/plots I'd incorporated into that story; sadly, I lost it in a hard-drive crash, though I see to remember Budgielover, Shirebound, and febobe (and perhaps Thundera Tiger?) among them. Baylor, maybe? pipkinsweetgrass? (And Marigold, with her challenges on Livejournal, made a cameo appearance.) Well, in retrospect, I suppose you can include in the list any hobbit writer from the first half of the 2000s who gave one (or more) of the Fab Four a fever...

Ironically, I started writing Ferdi-angst for the simple reason that I'd written too much Pippin-angst. "lost, captured, or otherwise injured" does make for marvelous conflict to drive a plot, and I prefer it (character vs nature, is it? character vs the world?) to person-person conflict, to be honest. But I suppose it can start to be a bit much.

At one point, Bodkin threatened to form a Ferdi-protection society. That's the problem with having a Muse who generates story ideas at the rate of a firehose, along with the fact that you can only get a character into (and out of) so many scrapes before things start getting ridiculous!

Peace and quiet! D'y'know, over the past few years, when the Muse stopped talking to me for a long time, I imagined Ferdi and his Nell sitting quietly together before a crackling fire, content. I'm not sure how long he could bear such a state of affairs, though. He's one of those kinds of people who almost always needs to be doing something. But that picture of him and his beloved is what I invariably think of these days, when I think of him.

I hope this finds you and yours well.

MirkwoodmaidenReviewed Chapter: 23 on 3/31/2020
Lindelea!

I think I will vote for two chapters! I'm the same I aim for chapters between 2K and 3K. Though I have had a couple of chapters over 3K.

MM

Author Reply: Thank you for your input! I know it puts off seeing a resolution, and may feel like yet another cliffhanger, but we are definitely making progress.

Several chapters in this one have been well over 3k, amazingly enough. I think my attention span is longer than it used to be, back when I was averaging chapters between 1000 and 1500 words.

LarnerReviewed Chapter: 23 on 3/31/2020
While my chapters tend to go on forever at times.

Ah, dear, now we see how it was that Farry was convinced to speak out the truth of the whole situation. Poor Ferdi--I am hopeful that rescue comes soon.

Author Reply: Ah, yes. While I love to read long stories, long chapters sometimes give me problems, simply because I have to read through them more than once in order to get to the bottom, just to remind myself what happened before! Of course, it's not a terrible trial at all, since I enjoy reading, but it means if I'm pressed for time I might put off the next chapter on my list to read when I know I won't have time to finish it.

I hope that Farry's recollection, five years later, clears up some questions that the trial might have brought up.

Rescue has been written from the draft all the way through to the final word of that chapter. Whew. So glad to get them out of there. Not long now!

Thanks!

LarnerReviewed Chapter: 22 on 3/31/2020
So, now we have knowledge of a hidden scandal, and see just why Pippin now appears to be overcautious at times. And there are other stories that Farry yet wants, at least, to ferret out. Now, to see the rescue done, once Farry reveals what he'd told Fortinbrand.

Author Reply: Definitely. I wonder how many things are more expedient to hush up than to put to the Talk...?

I just now finished writing the final version of the rescue, I'm glad to say. Very glad to have them out of there.

Thanks!

MirkwoodmaidenReviewed Chapter: 23 on 3/31/2020
Lindelea!

Poor Ten-year old Farry. Such a position to be. I do so love your depiction of hobbit society. So well crafted. I think the Professor would approve.

In trying to prevent a scandal they created one. Isn't that often the way.

Hope this review finds you and yours well.

Stay Safe!

MM

Author Reply: It so often seems to me that the coverup ends up worse than the original offense...

I just posted a "reader poll" in the chapter, so I figure you probably didn't see it. :)

Got a question for you. The next chapter to be posted Friday is over 4200 words. I think I can split it in two fairly easily. What do you as a reader prefer? Long chapters over 4k words, or shorter bites? My own preference is to have a chapter between 2k to 3k. If it’s longer than that, sometimes I won’t even read it. I hate scrolling that far. Silly of me?

Thank you for sharing your thoughts! Hope this finds you well.

DreamflowerReviewed Chapter: 6 on 3/30/2020
Aww! What can I start of with but "Poor Farry!" Now I am wanting the tale of the visit to Buckland!

Author Reply: LOL, that tale actually wrote itself alongside this one! So it exists in draft form and will (with any luck) eventually be written out in full and posted. What fun!

(hugs)

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