"It's not where you take things from - it's where you take them to." ~ Jean-Luc Goddard
61 
A series of Season 5 episode related stories.
10 Hell yeah it was nice. Because Kelly knew how to throw a party.
As do you, Steph. Of course, we asked you to write to this episode in the hopes that you would tell us all about Kelly. I love they way you captured Kelly's breathless patter and her wildly shifting confidence. A well-written Kelly always makes me want to hang out with her while also realizing that it would only take about ten minutes before I was trying to sneak off and crawl out the bathroom window. And Ryan! That weasel! Of course Kelly isn't malicious enough to go after Jim and Dwight alone. Thank you for the backstory, the lovely party.
10 The men of Dunder-Mifflin, by Sweetpea! The word for this chapter is charming, I think. I went in excited to see what you would do with Pam's return, but found myself distracted and delighted by how well you wrote both Andy and Oscar. You handle Andy with such care, getting at the gentler forces that drive his sometimes ridiculous behavior. And your Oscar makes me think that he's a character that just doesn't get enough love in fic. So much saddness there. Well done all around. Thank you so much for participating - don't be a stranger!
10 LF, this story gets better with every chapter you add. First you buckle *my* knees with some of the finest short-form smut I've seen around these parts, and then you break my heart with your most recent chapter. It's beautiful and honest and I've read it three times already this morning. The dialog ("I think with planning the wedding I haven't really been able to think so much about the baby and...) demonstrates what an ear you have for these two. You've handled middle-of-the-night confusion and fear so deftly.
Brava. I can't wait to see what you share next.
Author's Response: lol. Short form-smut. You saying you read this chapter 3 times is just...wow. Thank you. And Thank you for saying that I know the characters. More than anything when I write this stuff I just want it to sound like something they'd do or say. So thanks so much again. I hope you like the latest. It's definitely different.
These are meaningless, short and simple ways for me to pass the time. Most of these have been sitting on the hard drive I've been cleaning out for the past couple of weeks (slowly but surely). Just pregnant Pam and baby fluff. They were all labeled "babytimes01.txt" on my computer, hence the name. Just vignettes, not necessarily chapters in order, and the rating is caution for later. Spoilers for the Delivery in the last chapter.10 This. Keep doing this. I can feel you swinging for the fences in this one, moreso than in anything else you've written (and I have read it all, fwiw). It's clean, concise, and economical. This reads like a story working in concert toward an ultimate goal, that lovely last line you've left us with, and, because you've done so well here, beyond. Thank you for sharing it.
Author's Response: Such a kind review, thank you for that. =)
"She knows that she’s supposed to sleep when the baby sleeps, but she can’t help but sit and study tiny little fingernails, and the way her nose wrinkles up when she’s about to cry, and memorize the lines of her face."10 I'm a Regina Spektor novice, but :: sings :: I've got a perfect bo-dee, 'cause my eye. lashes. catch. my. sweat...
Bashert, this is sweet (she feels warm when she realizes that her daughter is less than a day old and she knows things about her already), vivid (I'm childless, but her pain made me recoil), and so, so touching (more examples than I can point to). Thank you so much for sharing this with us. Please don't stay away so long next time.
(...yes they do, they do-ooo-ooo-ooo!)
Author's Response: Regina Spektor novice huh? Keep going. She's amazing. I'm going to try not to stay away so long, stupid writer's block...
Snow, wine, Bolsheviks, but no marshmallows. A cold night in Scranton. Set sometime during the winter of S210 I have thoughts (many of them), but no time at the moment to record them. I'll leave you with my most immediate reaction: it's a great testament to your skill that, even though I know full well how this movie ends, I was just as desperate as Jim for that shift, that something else. Brava.
I hope to find time to re-read and re-review in the next couple of days.
Author's Response: Love that this put you in Jim's frame of mind....Pam just wasn't there yet, back in the day - much though we/he yearned for it. Always appreciate hearing your thoughts and reactions - whether the short of long form.Thanks much, you!
Motherhood.10 I am not a mother. As such, I didn't feel qualified to or capable of writing this particular version of Pam's story, though the thought did occur to me. I'm glad that someone with more skill and insight than I posess did and that it is so, so beautiful.
I don't want to say love, because it's the wrong word, but I love how cleanly and vividly you capture Pam's desperation, her sense of being trapped and misunderstood by her husband, her coworkers, and even her child. I don't know why you chose to obscure the child's gender, but the effect of doing so is striking - it creates a distance between Pam and her child that subtly underscores her confusion and amazement at the situation.
Finally, "Love set you going like a fat, gold watch" is perhaps one of my favorite lines of poetry in English. This felt like an extension of the knot of misery and love that Plath was reaching for in some of her Ariel poems. And nice Eliot reference in your disclaimer. I like that. :) Please do share your writing with us more often - it was a pleasure to find this here this evening.
At this point, all I have for you is a bouquet of early-blooming tacklehugs. I hope that's enough.
I'll just leave them here.
:: thump ::
Author's Response: Awwww, a pretty posy of tacklehugs for you too, T! Certain things about this story make it a bit of a sister to Talk, so I hope you like it.
Totally true story: I was in London last month and standing on the Heathrow Underground platform at 12:30 on a Saturday night. A ten hour flight + my own private, personal Jim = giggling like a loon at "Cockfosters" but trying so, so hard not to.
For future reference (though I'm sure you know this) - there is a statuette of Priapus in one of the Greek antiquities rooms at the British Museum. Might come in handy. *snert*
Author's Response: Ha! I have done it myself many times (giggling like a loon at Cockfosters, that is). They end up looking at some Greek antiquities, but not that specific one. You may imagine it as a deleted scene.