The Way of the Wombat

Here it is, after ten months of writing this story, THE LAST CHAPTER!

Hurrah.

Many thanks to my inestimable beta, speakr2customrs who counts my commas, points out my over fondness for dashes - and reminds me that 'affect' is a noun and 'effect' is a verb (or vice versa - see comments!), as well as being available to check out plot points over coffee, or lunch, or even, occasionally, his breakfast. There is a whole sentence in this chapter that I wrote just for him... mutual friends may even recognise which line it is!


Chapter Thirty Four
4,250 words

Is ( under here! )

Thanks, too, to everyone here who has let me know that they were reading, and left me feedback! Hugs to you all!


Now back to the Winter Tale....

I have always wanted to know, with any book or film that I have really enjoyed, what happens next? What happened to that character who appeared in chapter six for a few pages and then went off somewhere else? If there was a banquet what would they have eaten? And so on. In effect I have always made up my own stories to cover these questions - I have always composed fan-fic. But I haven't always written it down and, sometimes, it has seemed to me that actually doing so is too much like hard work.

I commented when I posted the chapter of Brotherhood last week, that I realised why the ‘Return of the Key-verse’ stories are such a delight to write as I worked out the scene between Orophin (an elf) and a middle-aged lady of the court.

I realised that I like to write almost as if the point of view characters are social anthropologists… and with these stories I am always able to write from an outsider’s point of view. I can consider how they look to those who don’t really know exactly what is going on and both the character and I can ask questions that an insider wouldn’t need to ask. To me the everyday is fascinating, and occasionally very funny, when seen by an outsider. ( if you are interested, click here! )

The possibilities are still fairly endless. I have a feeling that, even if no-one were to read them (and very few people here seem to – but they are still read by a few hundred over at Twisting the Hellmouth), I would tell these stories to myself anyway.

When I talked about this to S2C he said he thought that many people enjoy writing cross-over stories to look at the familiar through new eyes. Works for me, anyway!

Here is the next chapter of Brotherhood. We are quite near to the end now, but the next chapter might have to wait until after Christmas, depending on how off-line life is going! There is also a short story for Christmas coming along as well.


Look, also, at the beautiful Tindómë icon that Ningloreth made for me!

Any way - here we go -


Word count 4,375
Rated 15 as usual
Beta'd by the inestimable speakr2customrs



( Chapter Thirty-one )

As usual comments and feedback are greatly appreciated.

Here is the next chapter of Brotherhood - in which we find out how Legolas' plan to rescue Tindómë works out...


Word count 3,150
Rated 15 as usual
Beta'd by the inestimable speakr2customrs



( Chapter Twenty-nine )

As usual comments and feedback is greatly appreciated.

A small squee moment so that I have it noted - Return of The Key has now had over 34,000 hits at Twisting the Hellmouth - so has passed 2,000 hits per chapter!

The hunt is on...

Previous chapters are Here.

Chapter Twenty-seven.
Rating 15
4,460 words.
Beta'd, as usual, by S2C. ( Is under here. )

Hmm - the fireworks are about to start, both here and in Gondor...!

Here is the next chapter of Brotherhood - in which we find out what 'the dung-beetle' said to Éowyn...

Previous chapters are Here.

Chapter Twenty-five.
Rating 15
5,450 words.
Beta'd, as usual, by S2C. ( Is under here. )

The next chapter is already 1,200 words long, but I am away at a conference and visiting D-d for most of next week, so it might be a few days longer than usual before I post it - which is a bit mean, considering that last sentence... Depends on how wild my social life is when I'm away, I guess!

Here is the next chapter of Brotherhood. See if you can guess the line S2C thinks is definitely 'line of the week'.

Previous chapters are Here.

Chapter Twenty-three.
Rating 15
3,750 words.
Beta'd, as usual, by S2C. ( Is under here. )

D-d heads back to York tomorrow - she is driving herself in the C3. We have loaded lots and lots of stuff in the boot - amazingly large amounts. She is a big girl now, but I already have butterflies at the idea of her driving herself ...

Well, the daughter felt well enough to go on the 7am boat this morning, en route to Amsterdam, and has rung to say that, apart from a really bad cough, she is bearing up! She has been to a pharmacy and got some cough medicine, and so hopes to be able to survive the holiday.

Here is the next chapter of Brotherhood.

For new friends who are interested, it is part of a crossover series which started with Return of The Key - in which Dawn, from the Buffyverse, was the one who closed the Hellmouth - but fell through it, and landed amongst the dead at the end of the Ring War in Middle Earth. Where she didn't fall in love with Legolas - or Aragorn or Frodo for that matter!

Anyway - Brotherhood is the fourth, and longest, story in the series - and is much more ME than BtVS these days!

So - Previous chapters are Here.

Chapter Twenty-one.
Rating 15
3,160 words.
Beta'd, as usual, by S2C. ( Is under here. )

Hmm - not sure what name to give this chapter when it goes to Twisting the Hellmouth and Open Scrolls... 'Getting the Picture?' Any better suggestions?

Here is the next chapter of Brotherhood.

I learnt at WriterCon UK that putting fic and news together can make it hard for anyone who wants to copy the story into a file, either to print or put on an e-book or whatever.

So no news -

Previous chapters are Here.

Chapter Nineteen.
Rating 15
4,500 words.
Beta'd, as usual, by S2C. ( Is under here. )

Although - if you do want to download the story/stories - most of the series can by found in an easier form by clicking the link in the sidebar to Twisting the Hellmouth... Just saying!

Here we go folks - the chapter in which we find out what it was that Tindómë overheard in the library...

So - previous chapters are Here.

Chapter Seventeen.
Rating 15
3,400 words.
Beta'd, as usual, by S2C. ( Is under here. )

It is wet. I am tired. I am back to being a taxi-service for the offspring.