Egads, she posted

[rthstewart]

Chapter 10 of Apostolic Way, Lionsgate, just went up.  It is HUGE, but as the first part of it is a re-tread of Under Cover, I did not split it. 

Links to information on owl hearing are here, here, and a cool video here:

The discussion of convergent evolution here and here.

Green Tree Python



Emerald Tree Boa



Images courtesy of wikicommons

I did a lot of google fu regarding what Indians of the state of Gujarat eat for breakfast and have links to many, many recipes for handvo and theplas as well as soap rationing, maps in the UK in 1942, what to do with your garden in October in the UK, and the growing of runner beans on wigwams. There are some things I couldn't nail down and so just inserted them, like the assumption that Russell House is of fairly recent construction and so has advanced, indoor plumbing, gas rationing for zoo personnel, and other things.

Gerald Durrell's biography is here, among other places.

Again a huge thanks to Clio and Miniver who both helped enormously in the development of Jill -- Clio with research regarding her background in Jamaica and Miniver who over a year ago mentioned the possibility of Jill as Afro-Caribbean.

Comments

Gerald Durrell

[lauren-titmus.livejournal.com]

He also wrote a brilliant set of books which I believe were autobiographical the first of which is called "My Family and Other Animals". My dad's got a copy in his study. If you can't get a copy and want one I'll type it out into a .doc for you.

IIRC, he also had a TV show for a couple of years on the BBC.

Will review when I have a free half hour. Am currently visiting family and will be visited by at least 1 small child tomorrow. Wish me luck!

Re: Gerald Durrell

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

My Family and Other Animals is one of my favorite books of all time. I have it here and have tried, with little success so far, to get my children interested in it. The madcap quality to it is brilliant. I love it.

[intrikate88.livejournal.com]

SO EXCITED OMG. I am actually currently in the middle of a reread of the series since I have TSG and TQSIT on my e-reader and so maybe I will wait to read this chapter till I've caught up. But probably not. And there is other fic that I still haven't read that the alerts for keep staring at me in my inbox. I actually utterly fail at reading lately tbqh. But now this chapter is a thing that exists and that makes me excited!!

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

Thanks! That's so nice of you. I sorta figure it's been so long, no one cares. And I'm all flailing about the Big Bang -- how to work it into AW -- or just do something else. This chapter was really scary because forever and ever this was supposed to happen so much later and... stopping now. Too much navel gazing. I had to deal with Silver Chair and bring all the players together if only to split them up again. It is fun to pull in elements that have been in there for SO LONG. In the next chapter, I get to add in a bunch of things from the AU playing around, including the camels and the Duns Scotus books in the bottom of the Amazon.

[autumnia]

Read, reviewed and very much enjoyed the chapter. It's an interesting look at Jill, to see the diversity in Russell House through her eyes and also when she talked about her own background.

I finally got around to watching "Mixed Britannia", that BBC series I linked a preview to for you a while back. I think you'd be fascinated by it. The first episode (the only one I've watched so far) discussed mixed race relationships in the UK from WWI up to start of the second War. There were interviews with adults who had grown up as part of a mixed race family -- British women marrying Arabs, Chinese marines, and West Indians, along with others from other far flung parts of the Empire. (You can catch interviews and some clips/episodes from the series on Youtube if you're interested.)

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

I should definitely follow up on that. There was a whole part that was supposed to follow, actually, in which Jill spends time with Kun in the garden and then goes and helps Lee cook. It was to end with the observation that Richard seemed to like Jill quite well, and then Kun pulls out the photo album that's behind a plaster block in the library and shows Jill pictures of Richard's family in Kenya, who he will never see again. Jill reminds him very much of his daughters/granddaughters. Further, there's the fact that Ruby will be there, too. It all just got too long.

It was also interesting to write Jill as observant, the first time I had a point of view character who I could characterize in that way. The others wouldn't notice things like the pots and the height of the Lady of the Green Kirtle, but Jill does. They've either seen it all before so it isn't new, or they just don't notice things that way. The ideas of her mother being so fashionable provides another lens -- her mother is from money and unlike most women who have appeared in the story, she's very conscious of her appearance. Appearance was very important to women and they really worked to maintain it to "keep up morale." It really puts a different spin on Susan's lipstick and nylons.

I thought it read as a huge info dump for Jill, but it did move things forward. I had to address Silver Chair. I had to develop Jill who is probably the least written of any canon character. I had to rebuild the story as this was the first HUGE departure from the original outline, parts of which I'd already written. They were always going to Russell House but it was in 1946, after the war, and the school was close (but there are no moors in Oxford, so I had to change that). The nurse (who was not Ruby) comes in at breakfast saying there's been quite the to do at the school, with a lion and all. Edmund and Lucy hare off to the school realizing what happened and Asim drives them and Mary is, again, in the dark. They don't let Peter go because he would go all Royal We so he rattles around the house and he makes a nuisance of himself and breaks things until Patel drags him off to go carry compost.

Errr, stopping now.

[cofax7]

YAY!

How lovely to see Jill and Eustace again, especially this particularly-interesting Jill. I loved how attentive she was to Richard.

Now I was unable to discern this form the chapter (or perhaps I wasn't reading closely enough): is Jill's mother white, or her father? Would they accept a black woman into the WRENS at that time?

And yay for beautiful non-venomous green snakes, they're so lovely.

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

Thank you! for some reason, I did not think you were reading AW! Thanks so much. Yes, Jill's mother is white. It's in there, and some of it is inferred. I had seen pictures of women of color in the British service but I think they suffered much as the men did from the limited research I did. I remembered you saying that the WRENS at Bletchley Park were connected, wealthy women and t his became another instance of happy coincidence (this happens a lot in the story) as that was the direction I was taking Jilly's backstory. Her mother is from a wealthy, well connected family in the sugar cane business and her father's family is poor and black, though her father had the added cache of being a cricket player. There's this whole scene I had written and took out for later involving Jill discussing how Puddleglum's skin was brownish green and how much she liked being in a majority again, even if it was a majority of two to one with Eustace.

The full measure of British treatment of its colonial citizens in its service is one I really can't fully comprehend. There was obviously discrimination though I don't think it was as bad as the American, fully segregated service. There is a lot of anecdotal information about how well the Brits got along with the American black servicemen. And then you see posters like this:

Source: http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~pv/pv/courses/posters/images3/colonies3.jpg

[edenfalling]

Oh, pretty snakes!

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

They are! If you like snakes! I didn't think you are reading AW?

[(Anonymous)]

I just want to let you know that my day was completely made by the notification e-mail of AW. I haven't read yet (exam tomorrow, I am planning on reading as a celebration of the fact that I will no longer be under the tyranny of exams for a whole 2 weeks) A review will be along soon, but I wanted to share the smile you put on my face just by updating!

~LotL

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

Good luck on the exams! I'm glad I gave you something to look forward to and I hope it doesn't disappoint!

[adaese.livejournal.com]

Magnificent! And what a wonderful owl!

One very small point of information - not, I trust, plot-bunny-boiling - there is actually a moor just a few miles north of Oxford. It's called Otmoor, I don't know if Lewis knew it at all but Tolkien certainly did. It certainly isn't the moor behind Experiment House, though, as it's a sunken moor, not a raised one (this makes it Very Rare Habitat, and since I lived in the area they've turned it into a bird reserve; http://www.rspb.org.uk/reserves/guide/o/otmoor/index.aspx. Quite right too). Whether or not Lewis knew it, I'd like to think Richard, Digory and Polly were regular visitors at one time, if only because they really ought to have met Makareti Staples-Brown, who lived on the edge of the moor until her death in 1930.

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

So when I had your friending, I cringed inwardly, for here was a person who actually knew something about what I ficcing about. it's so humbling to pick up readers who continue to read even as I blunder through their expertise -- I've never been to Oxford, never been to Shropshire, never studied paleontology, or vertebrate behavior and anatomy, or ornithology or World War 2. I've merely spent 12 years dragging children to and being dragged by children to zoos, aquariums, and natural history museums all over the US and Canada. Thank you so very, very much for reading.

This particular moor placement was not an issue -- I could pack Polly off to Shropshire. I certainly did not realize the difference between a sunken moor and a raised one as is presented in Silver Chair. I know that as much as I try to be true to the time and place, there are some things that I cannot discern based on reasonable research, or that I have to have in place for the story to move forward and so just ignore. Sometimes it throws the knowledgeable reader out of the story and sometimes I have to rely on deus ex Leo.

Thank you again, so much. I really appreciate hearing from you. (and I love the puffin)

[l-a-r-m.livejournal.com]

So happy you updated!

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

Thanks so very, very much for reviewing. You are shipping Jill and Peter now? Funny, I was just thinking that would be an issue. Jill is, by the way, really reminding Richard of the family he will never see again and that's why he's being so emotional about it all.

[the_rck]

Yea! Reading this made my morning. It's fun to see Jill and Eustace fitting in with the Russell household and trying to get used to being back in England.

Thanks for writing!

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much!!! I'm glad you liked it!

[min023.livejournal.com]

Wonderful chapter. I love the way you've reworked the Under Cover materials it all makes contextual sense. Nice one with Richard and Jill too - I hadn't considered the aspect of Richard missing his other family, and thus connecting with Jill. I've starting re-reading AW from the beginning, because it felt like I'd lost the context for the latest chapter. Reviews will be along in a day or so, once I've run the gauntlet of hips, spies, and reunions. : )

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

Awww, thanks, Min! I look forward to it!

[jenett]

Reading this was awesome. Yay, update!

I really love the additional depth to Jill (she's long been one of my favorite characters, and it's great to see her trying to figure out the Russell household - and, as you say above, the stuff she notices the others don't.)

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much! I so appreciate that you enjoyed her and I'm very happy that you posted over here! Welcome and thank you! Jill is such a blank page, it's been very challenging to try to start filling it in.

[(Anonymous)]

I can't wait to read it!! In the meantime, happy Halloween and enjoy a singularly appropriate image of an attempted murder: http://imgur.com/gallery/5fGK8. (Hope the link works.)
~Syrena

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

LOVE the picture of the crows and attempted murder. Absolutely wonderful!!!! I hope you enjoy the chapter, Syrena. Thank you!

Yay!

[linneasr.livejournal.com]

I'm very happy to be back on the Apostolic Way. Enough hanging about, mooning over chapters 1-9! And this is a lovely one: a wonderful way to introduce Jill as one of the central players in the story as it is now.

Incidentally, when I was about ten years old, my (divorced) Dad had a girlfriend from Jersey. So we visited, and it turns out that I met Mr. Durrell at his zoo. I do remember the zoo, but not the Great Man himself, sadly; it's too bad, 'cause his books are sooo much fun!

Re: Yay!

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much! I so appreciate it! I love Durrell's books. My Family and Other Animals is especially hilarious.

[snitchnipped.livejournal.com]

Late to the LJ party, but the sentiment is the same as I left over at ff.net. Loved this chapter, so happy to finally meet Jill, and that last scene between her and Richard is very touching. Of course he misses his family... that moment really stuck out to me.

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

Thank you! You were right that her culture shock isn't as great. She was hardly in Narnia at all and unlike the Pevensies and Eustace, came from a more varied place in the first place. Something to develop a bit, maybe in the next chapter, is how much she liked the fact that Puddleglum had skin more like her own -- except of course she's not greenish. There's a lot of the AU in her development here and I'm still toying with Jill moving toward healing arts or going back to the idea of her being more artistically inclined -- or both. If I do that later, writing Jill as visual will surely be as challenging as writing Morgan with her finance. Maybe some day I'll try writing a character who is a middle aged, white, working mom from 2011 who falls into Narnia. "Wash your hands!" "Eat your vegetables!" "Pick up your socks!" "Punctuate your sentences properly! You call that an essay?"

[squishykat.livejournal.com]

That is an awesome owl video. Also awesome are Durrell's books and your new chapter. I enjoyed it a lot and look forward to Peter meeting Jill. I don't have much constructive to say right now, but thought I'd let you know I'm still here, reading your fic. :)

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I really appreciate it!

[(Anonymous)]

The new chapter had to wait printed for a whole week until I finally had a chance to read it with attention it deserves. The only consolation of this sorry situation is that I will have a week less to wait for a next chapter...
But here I am, ready to tell you what I think about all that.
First: Russell House. Good to be there once again. I love the ambience. And I like how Jill suited there perfectly well.
Second: Polly Plummer. Very professional investigation. No doubts we’re in the country of Sherlock Holmes...
Third: Jill. I must admit that I don’t remember much about her from the books. Chronicles of Narnia were my favorite books when I was 8-9 years old. When Eustace and Jill replaced Pevensie children as main characters I simply took umbrage at them and all the books which were not about Pevensies and was reading only those with PSEL. As a result I can still quote parts of LWW or PC, but I remember hardly anything from SCh. Nonetheless, Jill which you created (there is so little about her in books that we may say that this one is your creation) is a person I really like despite my old prejudice. What is rare, my first thought was that I like her not as a book character, but as a person - I believe her consideration for Richard is to be blamed for that. Her attitude towards him is really charming. Such a simple, but intelligent kindness.
I must say that at first I was a bit skeptical about making her half-black - I thought it’s a bit too much of a coincidence considering your interest in a topic of non-whites in Britain and multicultural Russell Household. Yet, in this chapter I bought it easily. But if you would write: "Oh look, an African girl!" I would throw all the pages with your story printed and never come back to it again. Luckily it was subtle enough for me to swallow. But I declare, that if you’ll listen to some of your readers and “ship” Jill with Peter I will take the first plane to USA and bash you in your head. Really, we have enough maritime stories in the fandom, don’t turn yours into one [*maritime story - story which can be fully described by information who is shipped with whom]. Anyway, they all die young so they won’t have much time for romantics. Good for me!
One general thought: your chapters are too short. I don’t know if that’s only me, but after ending each chapter my first thought is “Wait... Where’s the rest of it?”. I do understand that it’s a problem of having many characters without labeling few of them as “main”. But I really wouldn’t mind reading about Jill’s interaction with Kun and Lee.
Waiting for a Return of the (High) King. Hope you won’t make us wait too long.
Krystyna

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

Krystyna, only you could look at at 14,000 word chapter and wonder where the rest is! I'm working on it the next chapters and thinking about the Big Bang and how to do both at the same time. Harold and Morgan is on hold until I work through this. I am very weak willed. When someone says, "You know, what about?" And "I'd really like to read about..." and I usually have no self control and end up writing it. This is how I ended up with all of TQSiT and now am stuck writing the War when I never think I have the skill to write war stories. But, here I am.

I'm writing Jill's first meeting with Peter now. I'd originally thought to include Susan as well, but I'm trying to trim characters and so didn't want to write that. They'll be Christmas.

Several readers in ff.net have wondered where the idea of Jill as Afro-Caribbean came from. How counter to book canon am I? Well, the fact is, the books say nothing of her appearance or family at all. Nothing. She's a blank page. And for all that I've got this international cast of OCs, to my mind, it's different when you make a canon character a person of color. It's rare too that the source material is so vague that you really have no idea at all what she looks like. So, that's why I went with it. There was room here and I decided to not default to the white character. With all the others it can seem overkill -- I'd not decided to do Jill in this way when I started. I had no real ideas about Jill at all other than that she would bond with Kun and Lee over art, cooking, and gardening. I'd originally seen her too as finding a surrogate family at Russell House -- I've not fully resolved that as in my head, Jill's family is pretty solid. I suppose I could kill them off....

Thank you again for reading and reviewing.

[(Anonymous)]

So happy to see another chapter from you! You did a great job of showing Jill's initial insecurities about going to stay at Russell House and then having her fit right in with the whole crew. Thanks, and looking forward to the next one!

J. Apple

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much! I"m dithering right now over what Peter and Jill discuss and h ow to make it different from what has gone before. I so appreciate your comments!