Date: July 08, 2024 10:03 am Title: Railroads
I could read hundred thousand word-story based on this prompt! I cannot wait to read the rest, even though it will probably end too soon.
Date: March 30, 2013 10:46 am Title: Paper
I'm really loving this! Looking forward to the next update. :)
Date: March 25, 2013 01:47 pm Title: Railroads
I want to first thank you for the fact that though the reviews were low, as all of them seem to be theses days, you don't allow that to affect you in a way that leads to an unfinished story and I think I appreciate that more than I appreciate probably anything else a writer can do. It's so frustrating to put your time and emotion into reading a story, really getting involved with it and then have it just end, mid storyline and never have the author come back and complete it. There are some EXTREMELY awesome stories on this site, ones I am absolutely in love with and in spite of the lack of an ending, I reread them time and again because I love them SO much but I NEVER get over the disappointment that the author never properly ended it. I mean, I can't imagine putting the time and emotion in and not finishing. Even if an author has a grander story planned but for whatever reason cannot see the entire thing through, to do like you did here and look at what they had planned and summerize it, condense it into a chapter or just a few more chapters just to properly end it, I don't think many authors really realize just how much tha would mean to us as the readers. You know, I know they can't do it but I have wished that there was some way that after a story sits abandoned for a certain amount of time, that another author could step in, and using the route the original author seemed to be taking, could add onto and finish a story just so some of the stories that are BEGGING to be continues and finished could have a proper ending. Would that be fair to the original author? Maybe not but then again, it isn't fair to the readers to have so many stories dangling out there left at such juicy, wonderful places and we're left just begging PLEASE, give us more.
Anyhow... sorry for my little rant there. The way tou handled this so perfectly just kinda gave me a bit of a perfect place and platform for something that has been on my mind for a long time.
As far as this story... I am SO sorry that I didn't get behind it and show my support from the first chapter because it was definately a story that I was extremely interested in and I'll be honest, and I blame myself for not jumping in and showing my support but I REALLY wish I could have gotten the full version of this. Honestly there was a story VERY similar to this, I mean, AMAZINGLY similar except it wasn't the short version but rather the long one, over on another site and was just completed not all that long ago (though I think with long delays between chapters and one really long delay where she decided to totally switch the direction of the story so it took her time to collect her thoughts and reoutline her new plans for the rest of the story.) In her story like this Jim and Pam were in high school and deeply committed to each other. Jim was backing Pam no matter what. Oh, a main difference is that there were two other characters that played a very large role, Jim's best friend Mark and Pam's best friend named Alexis or something like that. Anyhow, in it Pam went to the abortion clinic but couldn't go through with it. So as things progressed and Pam decised on adoption Jim was kinda trying to tell her that he wasn't ok with giving the baby away and you could sorta sense that Jim's mom very much wanted them to keep the baby but Pam just powered through and they met with couples and Pam primarily picked one and started becoming I felt too close with them. All the time it kept being obvious that Jim was just not okay with it all. I told the author in my reviews that first I felt if there was ANY young couple who could make it through an unexpected teenage pregnancy, I very much felt that Jim and Pam could. I also said that I felt that if Pam went through with giving the baby away I thought it would be effectively putting a death sentence on their relationship because first off, Jim has to sign the papers too and all it would take is for Jim to say no, I'm not signing I want to raise my child and that would end the entire adoption because the father also has the option to parent. If he hadn't done that and the baby would have been given away I just feel that the two of them would have never been able to recover from the loss of their first born child. In that story it was all about Pam discovering open adoption and finding that she could keep up on how the baby was doing. She didn't have to be a complete stranger but it bothered me because she presented that as a perfect solution and honestly, there is NO perfect solution to teenage pregnancy. Open adoption, as compelling and enticing as it may sound to some can end disaterously and also, the adoptive parents can tell you they will keep in touch but there is nothing after the birth and hand off, papers signed, that is forcing them to keep their word. It's us to them. I felt, having had to go through the whole being pregnant as a teenager (thankfully not a high schooler. I was 19 when I got pregnant) I felt that this all was presented as this simplistic, easy way out when in reality there is NO simple easy way out and you have to live forever with what you decide. I'm thankful that I honestly never had agonizing decisions to make because I KNEW based on my beliefs that I was having my baby and I also knew based on who I was that even though I didn't have support from the father at all during my pregnancy (though at this point we've now been married nearly 25 yrs so, he came around) if I was having a baby, that baby was MINE and no one else was getting her. Now that baby has her own baby, thankfully under MUCH better circumstances and my sweet granddaughter will be one in just two short months.
Anyhow... Sorry I always get so off track. I appreciate how realisticly you approach and write these situations. I felt like throughout the entire story, all three chapters, it felt very VERY real. Very true to the situation and true to who they are as characters. You have this awesome, extremely magical way of taking Jim and Pam and putting them in all sorts of circumstances and yet you somehow have this crazy ability to keep them Jim and Pam. It's nuts. I mean, Jim showing up with the sunchips because she wasn't answering the phone. Pam trying to solve things herself secretly by going to the c;inic alone yet when the baby suddenly became real when she heard the heartbeat she couldn't do it and all she had to do is text Jim and addy and ask him to come get her and he was there. But mostly in the last chapter. I love how you handled it all so perfectly and realisticlly. You made it real. THey couldn't do the things they planned. Pam had to graduate late. Jim didn't go play ball in college and Pam didn't go right to art school. At the same time, they were still working towards their goals while having the focus of their life change showing that now Cecelia is their absolute number one priority and there's nothing either won't so for her. I like that you have it that Jim has a key and a room in the Beesly house because I just cannot see Jim being okay with living away from his child and also I would think that after going through with all this with Pam he would feel close to her and want to be near her and the baby, together, a family. At the same time I personally would not have found it realistic had Pam's parent's allowed Jim to move into Pam's room with her. I think you struck a fantastic balance. I also love that you showed how tired they are, the circles under Jim's eyes and Pam being up late working on a paper with a sick babe in her arms. Jim coming in from class so late but being willing, though he is wiped out himself, to take his daughter and work on getting her to sleep to give Pam a break.
I think this is just fanstastic. I guess if I had anything I found lacking, other than wishing I could have read the story in it's entirety, I really wish you had expanded more on Jim and Pam's relationship at that point two year into the future as they are struggling to raise their babu girl. I love that you made it clear that their parents let them know that they were the parents and would be the responsible ones but I just wish I could have seen where were Jim and Pam relationship wise at this point. Were they still fully involved? Plannng a future together? Maybe engaged? Or did it all take it's toll and they are (OMG I REALLY hope there's no way this was true) parenting together as friends who have a baby together. Assuming they are still in a realtionshio and I do very much assume that I would have liked to have seen how they make time for them, which is VERY important being young, already being parents, both going to school. I'd just have likes to have seen that they still make their relationship a priority, are hopefully moving towards marriage and just seen how they make time for each other. Maybe a det of parents has a night once a week where they take Cece to give Jim and Pam time to nurture their relationship because the best thing the could do for the baby is love and make time for each other.
Anyhow... another absolutely stellar story by you. I really REALLY hope we'll see more by you SOON! My heart is absolutely ACHING with the end of the show, I KNOW that authors like you have the ability to keep things alive for us with your incredibly talented stories!!! Thank you SO SO much for sharing this with us! :)
Date: March 25, 2013 09:42 am Title: Paper
Just beautiful. I love the way you wove actual "Office" dialogue into this story. The whole thing was a real treat.
Date: February 04, 2013 04:31 pm Title: Coal
I'm really loving this story. This chapter felt very realistic. Please continue!
Date: January 03, 2013 01:29 pm Title: Railroads
This has been here a month and I didn't even realize it and that makes me sad. Very well written and I hope you decide to continue.
Date: December 10, 2012 05:24 am Title: Railroads
I haven't checked in over here in a minute, and was pleasantly surprised to see you had a new story up! I'm very interested, and will check in more often hoping to see that you've added to this!
Date: December 07, 2012 09:27 pm Title: Railroads
Thanks for posting! I miss reading new stories, and this one is really unique. I hope you'll continue with it, I'd love to see where it goes.
Date: December 07, 2012 04:26 pm Title: Railroads
Continue! I don't think I've seen this twist before. :)
Date: December 06, 2012 09:40 pm Title: Railroads
This is such an interesting setting for a Jim/Pam story!! I've read some with them set in high school, but never under these circumstances. I love how even though it is in a different place and time, they still seem like Jim and Pam. I'm intrigued to see where this all goes!! I'd love to see this continue :)