Meet Molly

Jul 06, 2013 11:43

YOU GUYS YOU GUYS, TERRIBLE NEWS. Well, okay, mildly unfortunate news. AMERICAN GIRL IS RETIRING MOLLY ( Read more... )

children's lit, books, american girl, book review

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asakiyume July 9 2013, 05:45:28 UTC
Epistolary fic could *definitely* be a thing--go for it!

Meanwhile, Wakanomori and the healing angel are in the land of cream tea, and Waka posted this picture of a cream tea, which immediately made me think of you!


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osprey_archer July 9 2013, 12:40:11 UTC
Look at those beautiful scones! And preserves, and...is that real clotted cream? I've used cream cheese as a substitute, but it's not quite the same...

The world always needs more epistolary stories, and I think having Molly send Emily food she couldn't get in rationing would be a good way to start the correspondence.

The big danger with epistolary fic is that it won't go anywhere - that the characters will send each other letters that are individually interesting but don't add up to anything.

Do you think ending with Molly breaking the news that she'll be visiting England (her dad was there during the war, maybe he made friends with his fellow doctors) would give the story enough direction?

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asakiyume July 9 2013, 12:50:03 UTC
Ha! I am *not* the person to answer this, as the only feedback I got back from an agent about Pen Pal was that it was too slow for the first half and then veered suddenly to the too-dramatic for the second half. Which is to say, I'm not sure I'd recognize too-slow. To be honest, too, when it comes to fic, I just enjoy reading for vignettes and scenarios, so I don't really require a whole lot of direction. If it's you writing, I'm pretty much guaranteed to enjoy it.

Breaking the news about coming could be enough, though, sure. Or, if you're thinking about rationing, what about an arc that starts with Emily letting Molly know what it's like, and Molly then trying to get together a care package or something. There was rationing here too (I remember my mom talking about getting butter and sugar for Christmas cookies), just not as severe, so maybe the drama of realizing that Emily's rationing is a whole magnitude more severe.

.... I'm just thinking out loud. I know you're going to write something excellent, whatever tack you take and whatever events you put in.

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osprey_archer July 9 2013, 13:47:08 UTC
I'm thinking I would set it a year or two after the war - or maybe even later - when American rationing was over (although apparently sugar was rationed until 1947) but British rationing was still in effect. (I think it went on until 1955. I was astonished when I first learned this.)

And you're definitely right, Molly would be just stunned by the fact that Britain still had rationing - and how severe that rationing was.

I wonder how travelers got food when they went to Britain during rationing? Maybe they got ration books along with their visa stamps. Hmm...

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