In which I take a deep breath and hit the post button anyway

[rthstewart]

So, Chapter 8, The Queen Susan in Finchley, is up.

There’s not much research here. The information on the SS Seatrain came from here. 

Comments

[elouise82]

I am finally - FINALLY - getting caught up on reading. Which right now involved a whole lot of re-reading the earlier parts. Which leads me to mention again, in case I didn't already leave a review on it on ff.net, how much I adore the interaction between Eustace and Mary in the museum. And how your Eustace is not, as so many portray him, a mindless drone to whatever Alberta tells him, but that his interests in science are very much his own. And his grimly realistic expectations of what life at Experiment House will be like (and the hint, perhaps just present in my own mind, that his school might have played a large part in his horridness, as much of it might have been necessary for self-preservation) now, and his desire to talk to Digory and Polly about how to be a not-royal Friend ...

Well. I love Eustace. Obviously. And you write him very well indeed.

(I will try to leave more reviews on ff.net, but I'm reduced to typing with only my left hand for a few days, so they may not be very long or detailed. Typing left-handed is slow and painful, for me anyway, though better than trying to write on paper with my left hand.)

[rthstewart]

I do hope you are feeling better! OUCH to the elbow!!! I have really enjoyed writing Eustace. I did it a bit in Part 2 and then got into his head when I wrote Under Cover. I really like him and I'm looking forward to Jill as well. I don't want to malign Eustace for reading all the wrong books when my own children have so enjoyed those same books. The school certainly plays a role and it is awful (I'm going to deal with the rabbit and the torture that he mentions to Jill in SC!) but alas in this vision I do see Harold and Alberta as very unaffectionate and neglectful parents. But then, I've been exploring parenting for a while in the story and while there are some good parents, I've not put Harold and Alberta there. I do love the idea of Eustace really embracing the "science" with Mary as a mentor and having the rigorous intellectual curiosity that Richard found was lacking in Peter -- that ability to do more than take things on faith.