Reviews (241)

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The thought came to me in my most recent re-reading of LOTR, when I got to the part where Sam threw all his gear down a crevice to lighten the load, as he and Frodo prepared to make their final push to the finish line. Your mention of the long-ago golden days, and being sad in a good way, reminded me of the way a certain Simon and Garfunkel song makes me feel. You can find recordings of "Bookends" online if you're not familiar with the song. I've loved the song since the first time I heard it as a child, decades ago, though it means much more to me nowadays. The tune is plaintive, even haunting, the tone nostalgic, and the guitar work is exquisite. "Bookends", by Paul Simon Time it was, and what a time it was, it was A time of innocence, A time of confidences Long ago, it must be, I have a photograph Preserve your memories; they're all that's left you. p.s. Thank you for stopping by to read, and for pausing to share your thoughts. I really appreciate it.

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It's so good to hear from you! Life happens – for my part, I was pulled away from fanfic for more than a decade before I retired and thus gained writing and reading time again. Even now, when I have set the goal of finishing all my WIPs, life continues to throw stumbling blocks in my path. I fall over each one and then get up and brush myself off and keep on going. I'm rather the stubborn type. Or maybe I should say I'm contrary. Or something like that. (Not to mention, the Shire is a refuge of sorts.) I remember enjoying your stories greatly, and if your interest in writing and posting LOtR stories should return, I will happily read them! Of course, no matter what the future holds, I wish you well.

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It was such fun to work out this idea after writing Bill's dream-impressions of Mordor! While re-reading that part of the original, I went on to read of Sam and Frodo's escape from the Tower and their nightmare journey. When I reached the part where Sam tossed his precious pans down a fissure, something clicked. (I kept reading until the Ring went into the Fire. Dear Sam. Poor Frodo. But then, to see his peace when he was finally set free...)

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MM! I'm so glad you liked it! (((hugs))) Lin

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I wonder if Faramir really knows and understands the risks and loss Beregond underwent. That's an intriguing question! Beregond was my "gateway drug" when it comes to LOTR fanfic. Thanks for reading and taking the time to share your thoughts!

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Thank you for the smile this brought!

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I imagine Bilbo told his Elvish and half-Elven friends about the practice at some point after he retired to Rivendell. He might have fretted at having no one to carve a boat for him since he'd outlived all his contemporaries, for one thing; for another, he had left the Shire behind and had no contact with Shire-folk until Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin arrived. Elladan might have misunderstood the tradition in gleaning the details from Bilbo's descriptions (and therefore carved the boat while Bilbo was still very much alive), or he might have carved the boat deliberately ahead of time to reassure the old hobbit that he would not be forgotten. In one of my older stories, I have a body of Elessar's Guardsmen learn about the tradition and join the Shire-folk in observing the day. In addition, other Outlanders arrive at the Brandywine Bridge as the candle-boats are floating down the River. Here is a link to that chapter, if you might be interested: http://www.storiesofarda.com/chapterview.asp?sid=309&cid=1503 Right now, I'm feeling too drained to write something related to Remembering Day. It's a melancholy topic. Chalk it up to a combination of factors, including our current heat wave and the need to minimize stress at the moment. Oddly enough, angst offers a decent distraction, so I'm still able to write angsty scenes, but sorrow and loss are distressingly stressful somehow. No need to apologize for rambling, at least to me... I seem to do it a lot myself. The hobbit archers who marched to Fornost appear in one of the WIPs I'm currently updating: Thain. The first group (the ones who never return), led by the brother of Bucca of the Marish (an OC; not one of JRRT's characters), are described in the battle when Fornost falls. In my story, Bucca leads a second group of archers to look for his brother and support the Army of the West that marches to throw the Witch King out of the Northlands. In fact, that battle is described in the next few chapters waiting to be posted, which are currently undergoing beta-reading. The Shire: Beginnings series was intended to be a trilogy. The second story is set about 150 years after the Fallohides reach Cardolan (if I'm correctly remembering the name of the place they settled, off the top of my head?). In that story, which is outlined and partly written in draft form, the Fallohides and Harfoots pull up roots and relocate in the region of Breeland. I haven't looked at that story in a long time; one possibility was that the Stoors came to warn them and all three tribes travelled together, but I don't remember if that's the one I ended up choosing. (A glance at the "Tale of Years" makes me think I abandoned that thread and revised the story to fit JRRT's timeline better.) The third story, also consisting of an outline with about half the chapters written out in draft form, is about the brothers Marcho and Blanco gaining the land grant from the King and leading a body of hobbits to establish the Shire. I couldn't figure out a satisfying ending, so I put it away until something good comes to mind. (I won't post a story if I don't know the ending ahead of time because I learned my lesson with Runaway. JoDancingTree liked the story enough that she offered to help me rewrite it and arrive at a good ending. What a wonderful job she did! And she helped me to get past the wall I'd hit and to keep on writing. However, that was the last time I posted chapters of a story as I was writing it and without having a definite conclusion in mind.) On my timeline, Marcho dies in the Great Plague 36 years after the founding of the Shire, and Blanco follows him a day later. Knowing that threw up a roadblock of sorts. I may have to ignore that knowledge and set the ending after T.A. 1600 but before T.A. 1636, and then maybe I'll be able to bring myself to finish writing that story. There I go, rambling again... Thanks so much for reading and taking the time to share so much good food for thought. I appreciate hearing from you. Author Reply: p.s. Maybe the hobbits settled in Arthedain rather than Cardolan? I'm too tired today to go back and refresh myself on the details.

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Someone told me in a long-ago discussion of Frodo's sailing to the West that in the land where the Ring-bearers lived for a time before going on, they were given the grace of laying down their lives at will. Sort of like Elessar's ability to choose his time? I think they were quoting from a letter Tolkien wrote, but it is just a dim memory to me now. (And so I took the liberty of Frodo being able to interact with his cousins in dreams during times of great distress, perhaps with a little Istari or FirstBorn help... I tried not to do it too often, of course. It had to be a very special occasion, like helping Merry solve the famine problem when the leaders of the Shire were all at a loss, or guiding Faramir back to his body when he'd "wandered too soon".) Sort of like the idea that tweens are always eating, and they eat so much, they put a strain on their family's larder, and so families encourage their tweens to walk about the Shire and visit relatives. But I haven't been able to find that information anywhere since returning to fanfic. I was sure it came from Tolkien himself, maybe one of his letters (because I haven't been able to find any mention of it in LOTR), but then, again, I could be remembering wrong and it was actually something I read in a fanfic. Thanks! Looking forward to seeing you! Author Reply: Anyhow, in that discussion of when Bilbo died, I think part of the discussion was whether Bilbo would choose to hang around until Sam sailed so that Frodo wouldn't be the only hobbit there. In Small and Passing Thing, I think I envisioned Bilbo having left only a short time before Sam arrived. (Since I don't think he appears in the final chapter of that story, that's probably what I was thinking.) Sadly, I've lost many of the notes I had from writing those early stories – everything before 2010, sadly, although I managed to recover some notes, including beta-readers' comments, from WIPs like Thain and Jewels. But at least the Muse is still speaking to me these days and deigning to keep track of plot threads. For the most part. She's grown very rambling with the passing of the years. Rather like me, actually. I seem to ramble a little more every day. I can think of worse things, though.

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You're welcome! Thank you for the suggestion!

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Thank you! It amazed me when I realized that Rosie knew Sam was coming home months before he actually arrived! She told him she'd been expecting him since the spring! (I chose to believe that somehow she was aware of the destruction of the Ring, even so many leagues away.)

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Thank you! The Professor showed us such a tiny glimpse of Rosie, and yet she was such a strong character, she almost jumped off the page and into my heart.

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She was so hopeless at this point. I am so glad that the Professor didn't give her the glorious death in battle she craved but something much better – Faramir and his love!

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Thank you! It's a little muddled, but then so was Frodo's head when the Ring finally compelled him to claim It for his own.

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Exactly! He knew when he left his post, that he'd traded his life for Faramir's. (As my hobbits like to say, "Anything worth doing is worth doing thoroughly.") But it's not just that. Beregond is the character who dragged me into fanfic-writing in the first place. I wish the Professor had written more about him! (Not only his fierce, desperate loyalty to Faramir here, but his warm welcome and animated conversation with Pippin also won my heart.)

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Thank you! This drabble and the one before were actually a matched set (the titles are taken from a lullaby my mom used to sing), but I hadn't figured out about publishing sets of drabbles at the point these were posted.

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My heart is in my throat whenever I read scenes where one cousin is watching over the other, like here, in the Houses of Healing. How awful it must have been for Pippin before Aragorn entered the City.

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Oh, I do too! I love to stumble across fanfics that show the Travellers as children..

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Thank you! I was fascinated by drabbles in my early years of fanfic reading and writing. They were a challenge to write and a wonder to read, to see how an author could condense a scene to a minimum of words, cutting all extraneous language until every word left in the drabble served a carefully-designed purpose! I think the exercise of drabble writing helped me to be less wordy in my regular writing, though I still suffer from wordiness. It's hard to break old habits.

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Thank you, dear friend. I hope this reply finds you well. (((hugs)))

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It's an interesting thought (a series of Remembering Day drabbles). I'll offer the Muse some dark chocolate and see if her nose twitches. Bucca's story is actually one of the WIPs that is currently progressing rapidly from draft to final form and is actually close to being finished (perhaps ten chapters remaining to deal with). I plan to start posting it again after I publish the final chapter of one of the current WIPs, hopefully in April, around Larner's birthday, as a mathom for her. I'm updating three or four works simultaneously on SoA but don't want to do more than that. I don't want to clutter SoA's home page by posting too many stories at once. I'm glad to hear you like the "Shire history" stories. One of these days I hope to get around to finishing Marcho and Blanco's (unpublished) story, but I haven't been able to figure out the ending yet, so I can't start publishing it until I do. Thanks for reading and taking the time to share your thoughts!

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(Sometimes I feel as if I'm cheating regarding the 100-word limit by adding notes, but I always appreciate understanding the context when I'm reading other authors' stories, so I risk it.) Thanks for reading and pausing to share your thoughts!

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Eowyn's life of healing and compassion will be a long one. That's such an encouraging thought! (((hugs))) and thanks for sharing your thoughts.

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I know it struck me the first time I read it! I figured the Shire-folk would put two and two together (and who knows what they came up with?!)

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Thank you for reading and responding. I wasn't sure I could make it work with only 100 words to work with. Whew.

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No, happily this was the beginning of a beautiful friendship... Though she laughed him off, with the rest, later she discovered that he was not just the clown in the marketplace, but a well-respected guardsman, part of the King's elite bodyguard, and selfless enough to sacrifice himself defending the visiting hobbits. (now if he'd been just a clown in the marketplace, it might have been a different story altogether) Thanks! Author Reply: Oops, I just re-read your comment and realised you were talking about it the other way round! Ah, yes. He chose wisely. Who can say, he might have been surreptitiously watching her for some days or weeks, but couldn't figure out how to introduce himself...