1 [Report This]Date: November 07, 2021 06:29 am Title: Couch
This entire series is just brutal. But the reveal at the end of this one that they're on different couches is particularly painful.
Date: July 27, 2009 08:31 am Title: Sink
What a vivid picture you've conjured up here. Awful and haunting- how wrong, a world where Pam and Jim are not together. I never watched China Beach, but this is surely a lovely tribute to that show, if it conjured up such a well-crafted gem.
Author's Response: Wow, thanks, Lis! The finale of China Beach is a heartbreaker, but so were several of the episodes. I'd be interested to see it again to see if it's still powerful. The best episodes had interviews (a lot like TO's talking heads) with actual Vietnam-era combat nurses.
10 [Report This]Date: July 27, 2009 08:08 am Title: Flicker
Oh, this is sad. A Jim whose life went on at DM without Pam. a tree too weary to grow toward the sun. Too rooted to die
I'm so happy this won't be his fate. Love this, and hope you're doing well!
Author's Response: Thanks, Lis, I am. Like you, I doubt the show's writers will put Jim through this!
10 [Report This]Date: May 29, 2009 08:19 pm Title: Flicker
Wow...love this, I'm so glad I stumbled upon it!
Author's Response: Thank you, I'm glad too! :)
Date: February 17, 2008 09:26 pm Title: Flicker
Heavy. I almost cried.
Author's Response: Thanks for reviewing, iheartcreed
Date: February 08, 2008 07:33 pm Title: Flicker
Aw, so heartbreaking. Loved it. =)
Author's Response: Thanks, FinerThings :)
8 [Report This]Date: February 07, 2008 03:55 pm Title: Flicker
This was so beautifully sad, especially this part: "Looming over her desk, a tree too weary to grow toward the sun. Too rooted to die."
As I read it the second time it reminded me of visits with my mother who is in a nursing home with Alz. Sometimes I can see past her eyes, too, to the dark booth behind and I'm able to see my mother as she was.
(not saying that your Jim had Alz., just what it reminded me of...)
Author's Response: Thank you, Karen, and thanks for sharing something so personal. I hope you're able to have quality time with your mother. :)
Date: February 07, 2008 02:33 pm Title: Flicker
D: So sad but so so beautiful. Excellent job and tactile imagery!
Author's Response: Thank you, bebitched :)
10 [Report This]Date: February 07, 2008 10:24 am Title: Flicker
So sad, but so beautiful.
Author's Response: Thanks, Puff :)
8 [Report This]Date: January 15, 2008 08:24 pm Title: Sink
"She had sat in her car outside the hotel and watched them arrive. A few fond memories tagged along behind them like ducklings, but nothing (no one) compelling enough to draw her out from behind her seatbelt. She had told herself that she was just curious. As the minutes became hours, though, curiosity had rolled over into disappointment, then sadness, then embarrassment."
So beautiful, as always.
(FYI, after "Couch", I thought you were naming stories after household things.... yes - I am a dumb a$$)
Author's Response: Thanks, kaystar - and you weren't wrong about the household object thing - I wanted titles that evoked ordinary objects, but that also had other meanings - hence her moment over the sink in this one, followed later by the sinking sensation. :)
Date: January 15, 2008 03:49 pm Title: Couch
ZING! Shocker ending--I like it! I always like it when an author surprises me. You caught Jim so well here; his despair and resignation and longing and all those angsty bits of him. Well done. I enjoyed this.
Author's Response: Thanks, NeverEnoughJam, glad it was effective!
Date: January 08, 2008 05:10 am Title: Couch
AGGHH!! I knew it! And now you've explained it and put it plain English! Oh well, just makes it that much harder to pretend I didn't get it. I'm still gonna pretend! ^_^
(You know I loved this story, right? I'm addicted to twist endings, and I've never read one so devastating as this one!)
Author's Response: No worries -- glad you liked it!
10 [Report This]Date: January 08, 2008 05:07 am Title: Sink
beautifully tragic!
Author's Response: Thanks, StarShine!
10 [Report This]Date: January 07, 2008 01:13 pm Title: Sink
Just read it again after our lovely PM convo on the boards and i didn't think it was possible but it's even more heartbreaking than before. Your ability to convey so much loss,sadness,and giving up in a short amount of words amazes me. I love it.
Author's Response: Thanks, elly, for reading + reviewing again - I love hearing that a piece is just as effective, or more so, on a second pass. :)
Date: January 07, 2008 12:13 pm Title: Sink
Once again, you break my heart with surgical precision. Those final three lines were aimed right at my aorta. And since I've now worked this heart metaphor to the ground, I'll end here - just so good. It hurts.
Author's Response: Thanks, Colette! I hear that happy Jim/Pam is good for a broken heart...
10 [Report This]Date: January 07, 2008 11:55 am Title: Sink
Wow, this was great. Truly stunning and to repeat what everyone has already said, the imagery was superb! I can't think of any more positive adjectives to describe this story. Can't wait to read what's next in this series.
Author's Response: Thanks, elly! I'm always happy to hear that a fic created vivid images for the reader.
9 [Report This]Date: January 07, 2008 11:33 am Title: Sink
What. You wait for me to write something fluffy and then smack me down?? Nice. Reallllllll nice. I see how it is.
I wish I could be mad at you - but with words like these I simply can't. My heart aches for Pam and the poor guy on the other side of the phone - whoever that was.
Like lis said - the imagery is so vivid throughout. I felt like I couldn't breathe at times.
Or maybe that's just my sinus infection. ;)
All kidding aside - because this was too good to make light of - I'm so very glad to be reading something you've written - even if the angst makes me feel like I'm drowning too.
Author's Response:
"...the poor guy at the other end of the phone - whoever that was."
Heh. Deny much? Seriously, thanks, Krissy - I think I'm working up to a longer angsty piece but for now, they'll be short - so you can recover from them :)
10 [Report This]Date: January 07, 2008 10:50 am Title: Sink
It came again, the voice, like the beam of a lighthouse. Scattering the dark, illuminating the crests around her. A path to shore. She closed her eyes against the light, felt warmth on her face, and filled her lungs with fresh air. Then remembered the pain. Rocks, and hidden piers. Riptides. That was no safe port. Besides, it was no longer her home. She lived here, in the water. At least until she tired of treading.
You really are in the angst zone, aren't you? Lovely, staggeringly powerful imagery here. The idea that she still reacts like that to him, even though at some time, the path to happily-ever-after flooded and left her so adrift. Gorgeous.
Author's Response: Thank you very much, Lis -- and your review continues the theme of the fic -- awesome :)
9 [Report This]Date: January 07, 2008 08:58 am Title: Couch
Ok, I've read it three times, and apparently, my mind is unable to comprehend any fic that doesn't end in happy jam because I still don't get it. But I can tell it's a defense mechanism. My mind just doesn't want to get it. You get it?
Now that's some damn good writing!! So powerfully angsty my mind completely rejects it. ^_^
Author's Response: You make me laugh, Star Shine :D I think you know what's going on, but just in case: Jim's married, not to Pam, but watches episodes of the documentary with Pam over the phone. When I mention that they "sit apart" for the episodes, you can take that to mean they're on different couches, in different homes, possibly different states. It's fucked up. :)
10 [Report This]Date: January 07, 2008 02:04 am Title: Couch
Ooh, very nice, as always. What do you know, I found time to read a fic too!
Author's Response: Thanks, Andi -- hope everything's going well with new baby K :)
Date: January 06, 2008 12:27 pm Title: Couch
Oh, ouch! That was an unexpected kick to the gut. Well done!
Author's Response: Thanks, Semby :)
Date: January 05, 2008 06:34 pm Title: Couch
Wow! Was not expecting that.
Author's Response: Thanks, grammarfreak!
8 [Report This]Date: January 05, 2008 04:11 pm Title: Couch
My title for this would be "How to go from the happiness of seeing a fic from your most favorite author to pain and heartbreak in 494 words". Brilliant twist that I didn't see coming.
And this seems a bit hopeful to me:
"He wonders if she ever thinks ahead to the end then remembers there hasn't been an end."
PS I was so happy to see you had posted something that I totally missed the word "angst" under "genre". Oops!
Author's Response:
Thanks, kaystar! Unfortunately, the line you quoted wasn't hopeful so much as bitter. ;)
"I'm just a little rain cloud..."
Date: January 05, 2008 09:10 am Title: Couch
This story did make me sad (I'm with Krissy with being a sucker for happy endings), but I am so glad to see something new by you! :) It was some lovely writing. Your writing always allows me to picture mentally your stories so easily, and I love how you put some motifs (repetitions of sentences, for example) and play with words.
Author's Response: Thanks, Gen! Unfortunately for some, I don't foresee many happy endings in my future fics - I'm having too much fun poking around in the dark stuff :)
Date: January 05, 2008 07:26 am Title: Couch
Leave it to you to come back and write something that leaves me dead on the floor. :) Though you know me and my penchant for happy endings - I always enjoy reading something new from you. You're able to play with words and ideas in such an interesting and lovely way I can't stay mad at you.
Plus - I'm also imagining I'm the one sitting next to Jim on the couch so it helps a lot. :)
Author's Response: Nah, don't think that way - you deserve someone who isn't pining for someone else! Thanks, Krissy :)