Yitzock wrote:

A few days' gap sounds fine to me.

Agreed. :-)

Sounds fine to me as well. My fic is more or less finished, but I want to improve upon it. Put a bit more meat on the bones, so to speak. So a few more days would be excellent! 

No worries stoertebeker, these things unfortunately can happen! Don't stress
Just wondering, can you connect your laptop to your tv screen with an HDMI cable? I do this a lot when we want to watch movies that are stored on our laptop or external hard drive, but it would work if I was using Word or surfing the Internet or whatever.

Just as I thought, I will be delayed for a day. But my story is almost finished now. 

ukaunz wrote:

Okay, thanks Nakahara


Does anyone know what the Boss is up to these days? Haven't heard from her yet...

I wrote her a PM on another matter yesterday but got no response. Maybe you should try to use her mail adress, that always works better.

[b]Starry Night, Oil on Canvas, June 1889[/b]

Dear unknown author,

what a truely marvellous opening to the Midyear Fic Exchange.

A very emotional piece of work with so many beautiful sentences. Some of my favourites:
During his absence as he prefers to call those unspeakable years far from Baker Street he often looked up to the sky and whenever there were stars he remembered the time he gave away something of himself and John did not understand. 


He takes his scarf and coat, anxious for John to say something - I need you please stay do not let me do this alone not this time - but John remains silent. (sob)

Your take on Sherlock is spot-on, I think. You managed to show his pain with only a few scenes. The whole fic starts so sad and ends so lovely.

I love the flashbacks that go backwards, they make reading it even more interesting. And IMO you found exactly the right balance between flashbacks and the present.

You found a good way to end the Watson marriage btw. Evil Mary is omnipresent in fan fics these days. You wrote her out without judging. Well done.

Last edited by Schmiezi (June 20, 2016 5:42 pm)

Starry Night, Oil on Canvas, June 1889

My thoughts echo those who have already posted; this is a nice start to the exchange!
I have always enjoyed stories told partly in flasback and this one is no exception.
Though there was some sad recollection for Sherlock here, it did not feel completely sad.
I liked how the beginning seemed like a description of the painting.

Yitzock wrote:

A few days' gap sounds fine to me.

As long as everyone finishes their stories and sends them in!  I've already submitted mine.  I'm looking forward to reading the one that's being written for me. 
 

Last edited by kgreen20 (June 20, 2016 5:05 pm)

Starry Night, Oil on Canvas, June 1889
 
Heart-stirring fic which evokes a magical sense of hot summer, of the lovely old Mediterranean town and of the past filled with sweet ghost of the gentle old woman. It is filled with peaceful resignation and nostalgia, conteplative silence, bitter-sweet sense of loss and yet it doesn´t need overabundance of words to convey all these feelings, it manages to paint all these things with the pair of well-chosen sentences. I sense the skilled hand of the master here.
 
The setting of the story was chosen with utmost care and oh, was it a delight to walk through this beautiful place in Sherlock´s shoes! Hmm, I wouldn´t mind to pass through Saint Rémy in reality either:
 




Dear author, you really managed to transport me into the middle of this wonderful corner of Provence and I thank you for that.
 
I love fanfics which are mingled with the real world to some extent and so I must highly praise your idea to include the RL Van Gogh painting into the storyline and to use it as a certain mirror for Sherlock´s mood and his introspection. „Being led astray, reaching for stars that were too big....“ Van Gogh´s words and yet I never read better descpription of Sherlock´s fleeting desires and failed efforts, these words convey it all in such a precise manner. Sherlock – Van Gogh parallelism lent an air of pending tragedy to the story and so I really feared for Sherlock´s fate here. That´s why your ending was so sweet. I relished it with all my heart.
 
And as was already mentioned, the structure of your story deserves admiration for the way in which it integrated plenty of flashbacks and scenes from various moments of Sherlock´s life into a wonderfully coherent, harmonious narrative. It felt absolutely natural and not a word seemed to be out of place, every colourful thread was weaved into the tapestry of your storyline with light hand assured of its goal. The sign of a skillful writer, no doubt.
 
Delightful summer relish tasting of chocolate, scented with lavender and honey. True magic at work.
 

Starry Night, Oil on Canvas, June 1889

Wow, this was so beautiful. Sad, but reflective. It was a lovely view into Sherlock's thoughts, and it was even more lovely in the setting you chose. Are you familiar with this place? It sounds like it! Very evoking, I could see the cobbled streets, the French, yellow village houses and almost smell the croissants. 

I loved how you manage to draw into bits and pieces we know from the show, and see how Sherlock thought about these things. Even with such a short and reflective piece, I think you managed to bring the characters of Sherlock, Mycroft and John into life in a very familiar and believable way.

John just needs his time. He always does. Thanks a lot for your fic. 

Last edited by Vhanja (June 21, 2016 5:02 pm)