An anniversary of sorts and I must be missing something

[rthstewart]

So, on March 19, 2009, Rthstewart opened an account on fanfiction.net.  TWO years -- the cotton (traditional) and china (modern) anniversary.  I always get all mushy and nostalgic on anniversaries and milestones (TQSiT is getting near one AHHHHHHH!!!).  I've been talking to myself a lot in the car about the upcoming two year mark as I listen to the Doctor Who Season 5 soundtrack.  (Fortunately my colleague no longer requires lifts to the office so I'm alone with me, myself, and I).  I am pushing hard to get chapter 9 up on March 22, which would be two years from when I first started posting TSG.  Scary much?  I'm scared.  And scarred. 

AW 9 is coming slowly at about 5,000 words so far.  It will be a shorter chapter and as I mentioned earlier, it is entirely letters, such as the following:

From:
Eustace Scrubb
Experiment House
Eyton upon the Weald Moors
Telford
Shropshire

To:
Edmund Pevensie
Blackpool Forest School
Tilehurst
Reading
Berkshire

Dear Edmund:
You called it. I knew it would be awful returning, and it is. My old gang expected me to be back with Them and their old ways. Anyone not an utter rotter wanted nothing to do with me. When I tried to behave properly, the decent folk thought I was a spy and got even more suspicious. I keep telling myself what you said, that it’s the work of weeks and months, and by my actions I shall be judged.

Which led to the rabbit. Carter and some of his gang had cornered the poor thing behind the gym and were throwing rocks at it. It wasn’t a Talking Rabbit, of course, but rabbits aren’t very far from Rats (though rabbits are not rodents like rats, they are lagomorphs due to the teeth and other anatomical features) and even if it had been a hedgehog or a snake, the thing should not have been tortured and frightened to death by schoolboys. etc.


YES!  Carter and the Rabbit and Eustace keeping the secret under torture!!!  And then he writes to Edmund about it!

Which brings me to the help me F List readers.  I've got a long list of letters going back and forth between the characters, some canon, some OCs.  I know that invariably someone has some awesome idea where I smack my hand against my forehead and say, "Why didn't I think of that?"

So, given where we are and where things are going, what are some of the letters you would expect to see or want to see?  Anyone?  Who?  What?

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

I love your Pevensies. In Narnia as well as in England, or America, for Susan. They are complex, strong characters, and you adding little things here and there makes them all the more real - such as Edmund’s allergy, or Lucy’s favorite pastime of climbing trees.

Speaking of Edmund. Harold and Morgan ? How can I convey just how much I enjoy this (to say the least) original relationship ! I mean, this thing about the contract ? SO brilliant xD This is pure genius, and the both of them are just perfect ! I don’t know how your mind works, and I’m pretty sure I don’t even want to know, but the results are magnificent. And this Jalur’s input : “Oh, just be done with it and tell her to call you 'Harold.” I could have died right there and I would have been happy. I am glad I was alone when I read that. Anyone would have thought me crazy considering how often and heartily I laughed all across “By Royal Decree” and “Harold and Morgan : Not a Romance”.

I very much like Mary and Richard, but from all the England-non-canon-character, Asim is my favorite. And I very much love how you deal with the religious issue. I am catholic, a firm believer in God, Jesus, and the Virgin Mary. But I deeply respect the others religions, and I really appreciate how Asim receives visions from God, and can see those who are touched by Him. Not the same religion, but the same God. I love the idea.
And I like how the Pevensies can still feel Aslan in England. I never would have thought of it that way. Same with Lucy talking to the deads. I can’t wait to see where you are going with her, by the way. And I’m waiting for her encounter with Asim with a growing impatience.

About “The Maenad of the Maquis” : I am French. As such, I have to tell you I really appreciate your tribute to our “terroir”, our cheese and butter, and France in general. Ironically, I don’t like wine much, but it is still something I am proud of as French ^^ (Also, my name is Marie. Not that I am anything like a Maenad, God knows ! Nor do I want to be. But still. It makes the story even more good, somehow.) I learned a thing or two about the Resistance, too. I didn’t know about this business with the bad wine with fancy labels. And I can’t tell you how GREAT this is to finally, finally !, find a english fanfiction with CORRECT french included ! I read others fics where the author wanted to include some french language for a reason or another, and it is quite often tragic, at best. The original sentence as well as the traduction. But your french is excellent, the traduction is correct, and it is just one more detail who adds so much to the story. I had first noticed in “The Queen Susan in Tashbaan”, and it was a really good surprise.


What else ? Ah well, that’s all I can think about at the moment. And I’m beginning to re-read your fics while writing this, so it is not really helping xD

So, to sum it up : I love it, all of it. I read every thing you have on FF.net, save for “Under Cover”, I am not much in Eustace and Jill, right now, so maybe later. And I am currently digging through your LiveJournal for every One-Shot I can find. I just love it. The stories, the characters, the details, the consistency, the researches, everything is so rich it is a real joy to explore again and again. Your Narnia has nothing to do with the one I imagined from the books, but that is the great thing with fanfictions : you can discover a totally new point of view, an almost completely new world, and it is so enjoyable.

At last I achieve this awfully long "review” with a simple plea: more. Please, please, please, give me more ! :-)

I also apologise for all the mistakes that are bound to be there in this mess, as I said, I am not English, nor from anywhere where it is the first spoken language, and as much as I pride myself with a good english, I know that I still have a way to go until I can really pay tribute to Shakespeare language.


So :
- Thank you so much
- Please, more !
- Good luck with the continuation

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

Oh my goodness. I shall write more now but thank you so much. So very, very much. And I would never, ever criticize the communication skills of those who write and respond in a foreign language. And you were beautifully articulate. Thank you so much.

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

All that and not read Under Cover!! I am laughing. As you like this vision of the Pevensies and Polly and Digory, you might want to skim it as there are references to them in that story. Just skip the parts where Eustace and Jill are sleeping together.

Asim and Jalur are two favorite OCs, with others liking Tebbitt and Richard. Mary comes in last, I think, except for those few hardy readers who insist on shipping her with Peter. Col. Clark is all MINE MINE MINE.

I am very much bothered by the intolerance I've seen in this fandom which I find very antithetical to what I see as a very inclusive message in the books. And where the Chronicles appear sexist or racist, well, I enjoy writing around that too. So, Asim was very deliberate. I had originally been very taken by the visions from the film Lawrence of Arabia and only later did I understand all that it failed to show of the great Arab men of that time. I really wanted to have that relationship between Peter and an Arab, with Peter as a sort of Lawrence reincarnated, only to realize that the Peter character of my head had no relationship to the real man TE Lawrence. But, the relationship I wanted to preserve, a man of two worlds who sees.

The most recent chapter, Chapter 9, gives us something of Digory's spirituality as well. Theologians often have very complex relationships with God and I see Digory as having studied divine Creation for so long, and to be so imbued with the Franciscan and Scotus view, that he sees the Creator in EVERYTHING, EVERYWHERE, all the time. And so, to limit God to a book or a church is not something he can do anymore. A man who studies religion who is not the least bit religious.

As for Edmund and Morgan, you can see in my LJ how I saw it ending. I do enjoy them and Edmund is an extraordinary vehicle for angst, for all that I don't like writing angst very much. Morgan was an accident. I introduced her because I wanted Edmund to have someone to talk to where he could showcase how clever he was. Then, Royal Decree was supposed to end, but I kept writing and they ended up together, which I did not intend. And I thought people liked her, but then well, H&M very much died, with reviews falling by half and then half again with each chapter -- it was devastating to see it happen. People simply did not like it. So, back to basics I suppose. They are an incredibly difficult couple to write.

So, thank you. Do not be a stranger and please, even if all you say is, "Thank you! Marie" that is all I need to know that you are still out there and still reading.

[(Anonymous)]

Well, how about that ! I only just noticed that you had wrote more after your first reply ! So sorry, it was hidden, I didn't see it, I swear xD

Anyway, as much as I should definitely be sleeping by now, I can't leave this unanswered :-P

First, ok, I'll go read 'Under Cover" :-D Not this night, though (Don't know what timeline you're in, but for me, it's past midnight), but tomorrow, I promise !

For Asim and Jalur, not surprised, but Mary still doesn't come last for me, I love her too :-D I don't particularly see her with Peter, but I guess if anyone could make me believe it, it would be you ^^ But, yes, I do love her, her passion, her devotion to Richard, her knowledge, fierceness, distraction,... everything about her, really ^^

It's true that the books appeared very centered on christian religion, understandable, considering Lewis' beliefs. I hadn't realised it, at first, and it didn't bothered me, because, well, I'm Christian too, so I was familiar with it. Besides, I WAS young when I read Narnia for the first time xD But your vision seems right to me. Why wouldn't Aslan have different names in Spare Oom, just as His name change between worlds ? And I strongly believe that, even though each religion pictures God in its own way, it is, ultimately, the same God we pray to. And just as the soldier in the "Last Battle" was ultimately serving Aslan while believing in Tash, everyone who do good around them, whatever they believe in, even if they believe in nothing, will be serving God.

Anyway, I think the relationship between Peter and Asim works really well :-)

I'm so sad about "Harold and Morgan", because it is really a terrific story, and Morgan is such a great character :-( Would it help if I wrote a "Thank you ! Marie" to each chapter ? :-D Well, I understand where you stand, but know that if you ever write the rest, you'll make at least a happy person in the world ^^ And I'm pretty sure I would'nt be alone, I just CAN'T be the only one who love this story ! And from what I've seen on your LJ, I am not. So, continuing "Harold and Morgan" or not, know that what you've already wrote didn't go unappreciated :-)

For the futur... quite frankly, I can't promise anything :-( I go through some stuff, right now, and I can't tell if I'll continue to read fanfictions. I wish to. But I also know, unfortunately, that it really isn't that good for me. I'll try, though, that I know ! Because I really, really, wish too :-) So, "Thank you ! Marie", I'll remember that :-P

(One o'clock, o dear -_- See what you make do ? I'm warning you, I'll blame you for every hour of sleep I'll miss because of your work ! Your fault, not mine :-P )

Marie

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

thank you for responding. anastigmat recently required birthday fic, so I am working on an April edition of Harold and Morgan. It's getting very long and if I can find the time to do what I want, may actually tell most of what happens after the return from the Lone Islands. So, maybe it will be finished, or mostly so, one day.

As for commenting and reviewing, as indicated, I enable anonymous posting everywhere and once it is up, it stays up, even the not so nice things. Some people feel that they must leave long, thoughtful, critique. Others do not. The long, thoughtful review is, of course, lovely. But, given what happened with the dramatic drop in readers in Harold and Morgan and the back end of the Queen Susan in Tashbaan, I am HUGELY grateful for even a "Thank you" from a reader for it tells me that she is still reading. The deafening silence is very hard.

As you expressed your views on those who do good, we are very much in alignment, and those who are following this vision tend to be of a similar view. It is amusing -- I have some readers who find Part 1 too religious for their tastes. Others, of course, have objected to my vision as immoral and un-Christian. It's an interesting place to be.

[(Anonymous)]

One thing about me : I have a very, very hard time getting out of my shell, but once I start talking, I usually just can't seem to shut up ! So, it is unlikely you'll ever receive a three-words review from me. I would feel guilty, honestly, and every time I leave a review, I promise I'll make an effort to say something more than just "Thank you" :-P

I didn't find the part 1 too religious, on the contrary, I liked it very much that way ! Then again, I may have read it at the exact right time to fully appreciate the vision you give us. I'm not sure. But I would have loved it anyway.

I can understand the others' point of view. I don't share it, but I can see where they come from. And I find it very interesting, indeed. Funny, how things can be perceived sometimes !

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

It is very funny how things can be perceived. Thanks so much for reading and reviewing and for coming back!