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Interrupted Journeys: Part 3 Journeys Begin  by elliska 8 Review(s)
wenderful51Reviewed Chapter: Prologue on 2/1/2015
I LOVE your writing!! Love it!!

JaylenReviewed Chapter: Prologue on 1/29/2005
So glad you are back!! Loved the precocious Legolas, especially the "Sarcasm is not becoming, ada." Cute. Can't wait for the next chapter.
Jaylen

Author Reply: Hi Jaylen! I am very glad to be back. I like to write about little Legolas. It is a lot of fun to think about what he would have been like. When I was a little kid, I used to point out to my parents when they exhibited the behavior they punished me for--did it because it obviously enfuriated them but they couldn't argue with me. I was a complete brat. So I couldn't resist having Legolas do that.

Thanks so much for the review. I know how hard it is to find the time for the things but I just love 'talking' with everyone in them. Really it helps me think as I post chapters about whether I am really doing what I mean to do with the story. And also, I'm a chatterbox. Can't help it. :)

Elena TirielReviewed Chapter: Prologue on 1/29/2005
Good to see you start a new story, Elliska! Look forward to reading the family adventures...

- Barbara

Author Reply: Hi Barbara! It is good to be starting the new story for me too! I am enjoying so much being back and hearing from everyone at SoA. I love the community here and I appreciate it so much.

I hope you continue to enjoy! Thanks so much for the review. They mean a lot to me. :)

daw the minstrelReviewed Chapter: Prologue on 1/29/2005
Oh! Oh! I am so happy to see this series continue. I've been waiting for it!

Legolas is a little sweetie and I love how everyone around him treasures him and pets him. His grandmother is probably right that Thranduil will someday regret not having been a little firmer, but then, everyone has something to regret. Extra affection seems like a might small sin.

Author Reply: Hi Daw! It is great to be continuing the series finally! I am so happy to come back and hear from everyone again.

I do think Legolas is a sweetie, a little brat too :), but a sweet heart. I cannot help surrounding him with with family (even if it isn't super close family) to love him. Surely the wonderful person we saw in Legolas of the Fellowship must have been surrounded by loving family whether is was big brothers like Eilian and Ithilden or 'uncles.' :) Can't resist.

I think Thranduil might wish he'd listened better to his mother one day indeed :) but I also think parents tend to over-indulge their first child a bit. It's natural. It is a small sin indeed. :)

Thank you so much for the reviews!

BrazgirlReviewed Chapter: Prologue on 1/29/2005
I missed your stories so much! I was glad I received this alert! I am glad you updated!!! Curious about something: where is Lindomiel? Where is she??? What is this surprise?
Cute elfling you gave Thranduil. Very real.

Author Reply: Hi Brazgirl! I very much missed having more time to participate in the fan fiction realm over the last two months and I am very glad to be back and so glad to hear from everyone!

I'm glad you liked Thranduil's elfling. :) I love writing children. But part of the reason I set this story up so that we see this little glimpse of the future (the next chapter goes back to Third Age 1938) is to make you wonder about certain family members, including Lindomiel. So I will leave you to wonder. :-)

Thank you so much for the review!

BodkinReviewed Chapter: Prologue on 1/29/2005
What a gorgeous elfling!

But I'm worried - there's no mention of Lindomiel or Amoneth. I hope their offspring haven't lost their mothers already.

It's good to see the closeness between Legolas and his adar and the 'family'. Although, come to think of it, I don't remember Dier...., Thranduil's naneth being there either.

Oh dear, oh dear. I hope the next chapter comes quickly!

Author Reply: Hi Bodkin! Glad to see you in the new story!

I'm glad you like Legolas. I find it hard to write children (though I love it), especially one's whose adult personality is so well known. It's fun and hard to explore how a child develops into the adult you know. One thing is certain for me though--I like to surround these people with lots of loving family since Tolkien didn't. I just can't help myself. So in addition to loving ada, Legolas is also going to have loving 'uncles' in Thranduil's councilors. Even Uncle Engwe. We will see a bit of each of their backstories in this story.

Die...Dieneryn, Thranduil's naneth :-)(sometimes I look at the names I chose for these people and I think--'couldn't you have picked something easier, or at least eaiser to type!) is in this story. But to be honest, I set this up so that the prologue is set in the future of the rest of the story as a cheap trick to make you wonder what is going to happen to some of the characters that aren't mentioned yet. So I will say no more about Lindomiel and Amoneth's fates here. Or anyone's because, as usual, I have two versions of the last chapter written and I haven't chosen which to post yet. It is another of those places that turns the overall plot of the full story in one direction or another. We will all have to wait to see which way it decides to go.

In the meantime, thanks so much for the reviews! I really appreciate them. In truth, the thoughts/reactions of reviewers are what help me decide which direction to take these plot turns when they come up.

French PonyReviewed Chapter: Prologue on 1/28/2005
Happy Begetting Day to Legolas! He is the very picture of five-year-old brattiness. Thranduil may be King, but Legolas is the Begetting Boy, and we all know who trumps who today.

Good of Hallion to think of a way to keep the kid distracted so Thranduil can finish whatever it is that he's doing. Visits to ada's office are always special. My ada is a college professor, so there were always lots of writing and drawing supplies at his office. It's like going into this secret den, where your ada becomes something very different than what he is at home, and it's very exciting. Almost like your ada becomes a whole new person. Legolas will grow up to be a very clever Elf with a start like that.

Secret passageways in the palace! Were those Nana's idea? Or are they put there as escape routes, following Idril's eminently sensible example? Seeing the secret passageway into the garden reminded me of that bit in Alice's Adventures In Wonderland where she finally gets to go through the door into the garden of the Queen of Hearts where the cards are painting the rosebushes red. I almost expected this to go off in a Victorian-hallucinatory style, but I suppose Legolas isn't quite as sophisticated yet as Alice was -- she was seven, and he's only five.

But one does have to wonder what he's seen already that makes Thranduil so nervous. Or is it Thranduil's own paranoia?

Whatever. The party is starting. Out with the party hats and tootle on the noisemakers! Yaay!

Author Reply: Hi French Pony! I'm glad to hear from you in this new part. :) Legolas is a little brat isn't he? He has ada wrapped around his little finger. I think first kids can do that. For a while anyway. I used to love to visit my ada's office for exactly that same reason--whole reams of paper and pens of different colors and thicknesses and ink pads that you could put stamps into...this list of fun things goes on and on. And ada is a whole different and interesting person in the 'office.' I think that intrigues kids or at least it did me.

The secret door in Thranduil's office is, in my mind, Nana's idea (though I didn't make it clear anywhere in the story because the description got too long). This door goes to her garden which she designed as Thranduil's refuge. And it is supposed to have a sort of magical element to a little child's mind. :)

We get an look at what makes Thranduil so nervous (both current situations and his own childhood in flashbacks) in this story. I set up the story with this prologue showing a bit of the 'future' for several reasons and one of them was to make you wonder about Thranduil's nervousness. :) Thanks so much for your reviews! They make my day.

lwarrenReviewed Chapter: Prologue on 1/28/2005
Yaaay!!!! Part 3!!! I feel like the little kid who says, "I've been looking and looking and looking for this!" I have thoroughly enjoyed the other parts of Interrupted Journeys, and one of these days I'm going to go back and review every single chapter. As things are at school, I haven't been able to, but I am going to review for this part, or else! (HA!)

The first chapter is great...I love your Thranduil, and right off we have Legolas making an appearance! And on his Begetting Day too! The entrance of small children into places where they are not supposed to be is always so very entertaining! :-) Legolas' poor nanny - the long suffering expression for the willful child, who just happens to have his Ada on his side! lol I love Hallion, too! He's still the steadying influence, I see, and what he says, goes - even with elflings! Legolas practicing his writing while Thranduil completes his correspondence is great...I often have to do that with my grandkidlings when I'm grading papers! Legolas and his logic about the use of beech or oak was absolutely priceless, too! I mean, really, if part of Oropher's name meant "beech", it stands to reason he shouldn't use oak!!!! :-)

Oooh, a secret door! Into a beloved garden! What a neat present for his father to give him...rather like the magic in those bedtime stories. The interlude in the tree was wonderful...I love the elves' connection to their trees, and the trees' connection to the elves. Let the party begin - I have only one question...where's Legolas' Naneth!???? (I'm almost scared to hear the answer....) Lovely beginning.

linda

Author Reply: Wow! It is so cool to hear from someone new in honor of a new part of the story. I understand all too well how difficult it is to find time to read, let alone put in such thoughtful reviews as this one. I appreciate it very much--it is nice to know who's reading. :) I am glad you enjoyed the first parts and I hope you continue to enjoy.

I was excited to get this part started too. I postponed because I like to have time to give each chapter on last thought before I post and time to answer reviews very promptly but I see that won't happen for a while so I'll just have to do my best. :-)

I'm glad you liked the first chapter. I arranged the story so that the first part is set in the 'future' and the rest fills in the plot for a number of reasons. One of them is that I wanted Legolas in there right away, as you said. Given Legolas's personality in the LotR, I love to imagine what sort of child he was. First children are so unique. I think they are probably a little over-indulged (at least initially) because the parents are so happy to have children. And in LotR we see almost no family for Legolas--I just feel the need to surround him with lots of loving family.

I love Seidreth (the nanny). She is long suffering, I think. Elven childhood is long. :) I like Hallion too. We see a bit of each of the council members' backstories in Journeys Begin.

I like the secret door too. It plays a role in later parts of the story and this was a fun way to introduce it. I kind of thought of it as a cool present since it went to such a special place.

I hope you continue to enjoy. Thanks so much for the review!

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