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Avoidance  by Stefania 5 Review(s)
LarnerReviewed Chapter: Prologue on 4/10/2007
A most interesting reason to go movie-verse here. Now to see how Faramir comes to realize the truth of the statement he didn't stay to hear.

Author Reply: Hi Larner -

Welcome to the world of Avoidance.

I went movieverse for this story, originally to fill my own desire to see more of Faramir and Eowyn than we were given in the films. I started Avoidance almost three years ago, so it's been a long, unveiling process, almost at an end.

Thanks for reading. I hope Avoidance continues to hold your interest.

- Steff

Celebne Reviewed Chapter: Prologue on 9/1/2006
Hello Steff!

I have just read the beginning of your story. I love the idea of 33 years old Éowyn. I think too, that she is more mature in this age.

Author Reply: Greetings, Celebne. I hope you enjoy Avoidance and hope that it holds your interest enough so that you stick with it. The fact that Eowyn is 33 really becomes important in the later chapters, starting with "An Uncertain Future" and "Torn," which I just put up on SOA.

For Celebne and anyone else new to this tale, I wrote the Prologue over two years ago (January 2004) for a challenge. IMHO, the writing and story telling improved as I got more experience and read more of others' fan fiction, especially SMOR and Raksha, my esteemed Beta reviewers, and Linda Hoyland, the queen of "edge-of-your-seat" fan fiction.

If you just want to read a few characteristic chapters of "Avoidance," my favorite chapters have been "Black Breath" (which is humorous), its companion "The Stranger on the Patio," and "The Day Our Lives Changed." The latter is my take on the day the Ring is destroyed, from the POV of Faramir, Eowyn, and the people of Gondor. I've gotten good responses on the party sequence in "An Uncertain Future," too.

Anyway, enjoy the story. Celebne, I'll see you elsewhere on ADW.

- Steff

Shieldmaiden of RohanReviewed Chapter: Prologue on 4/7/2005
Yay, it's up! And did I mention that Faramir is absolutely adorable when he's jealous? I love how defensive he gets when he says he's taller than Aragorn and Eomer.

Anyway, you already know my thoughts on the other things in this chapter, but just wanted to drop a note to say that I'm glad it's getting up here now.

Author Reply: Hi SMOR -

I'm glad to see that you've got "The Best Laid Plans" up, too. I have a technical question for you. I noticed that you got italics to work for you in one of the chapters of "The Best Laid Plans." I tried to use the italics icon offered in the Stories of Arda interface. All worked well in the window where I input the text. But when I viewed the published text before submission, the italics were gone. I tried putting in raw HTML code [I]jkljlj[/I] but that didn't work. Did you have to do something special to get italics.

Probably better to respond to my email address than Stories of Arda.

Raksha The DemonReviewed Chapter: Prologue on 4/6/2005
Oooh; this is interesting. But who's thicker, Eowyn, telling her hubby of less than three years that she understood what it was like to love Aragorn, or Faramir for getting huffy about it? Never, ever tell a man something like that; men are delicate sensitive flowers when it comes to having to be First in their true love's eyes, and they get all prickly (mixing metaphors here) when there's a hint that True Love loved someone else first.

Bring on Chapter Two!

ionaReviewed Chapter: Prologue on 4/6/2005
A most promising start - keep up with the good work! Your beginning scenario seems very realistic considering how both Faramir and Éowyn were used to keeping their own counsel before they met. You combine bookverse and movieverse effortlessly.

One correction only: Éowyn was twenty-four years old at the time of the War of the Ring (see LotR appendices). But considering that Rohan is based on Anglo-Saxon and Viking culture, I'd say most Rohirrim women might have married even before they turned twenty, so you need not change much.

Author Reply: Hi Iona -

Thanks for reviewing this so quickly and for your kind words. I hope that Avoidance continues to hold your interest.

Regarding your comment on Eowyn's age, I'm wondering if I should put up an Author's Note on this. Eowyn's age in my story has given pause to some who have read "Avoidance" on Live Journal--including my excellent Beta reviewer, SMOR. Here is why my Eowyn is 33:

I've tried to make all characters in Avoidance who were cast in the LOTR films abide by how they were depicted in the films. I portray Faramir as a moody (but not weepy!) guy with the large nose, ginger locks, and loud voice of David Wenham. In a planned chapter of "Avoidance", Faramir describes the (in)famous, movies-only suicide charge.

Film Eowyn, of course, is Miranda Otto,age 33 when LOTR was filmed. When "Two Towers" opened, a number of book-savvy critics at first decried, "She looks and acts too old!" Abiding by film verse, my Eowyn is also 33. When I first read LOTR, I thought Eowyn saw herself as "an old maid" at 24. Imagine the issues Eowyn might have if she was Miranda Otto's 33! Some of her Rohirric contemporaries would already be grandmothers, while poor Eowyn was still a virgin. I thought this very topic would give Eowyn a new set of issues that would be fun to pursue in fanfic.



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