Date: 14 Jul 2014 06:51 Title: Chapter 8
Jes, you’ve written a wonderful story. I’ve just spent the last forty minutes reading over every detail of your fic. Time-travel fics can often be tricky. But I applaud you for the way you handled this storyline. It must’ve seemed odd for Geordi and Wesley to see all the different ways of living in the past. It was nice to see them get to know Rosemary, and that they got to see a baseball game. I could really picture every scene and emotion as if it were an actual episode on tv. Thanks for such a great story, and I hope you do more time-travel fanfics in the future. Thanks for sharing jes. It was a well-written fanfic and I enjoyed every bit of it.
Author's Response:
Oh, thank you, sweetie!
You don't know the half of it - I have a whole time travel series (but the vibe is different; there are bad guys) and there's also Concord.
Anyway, you made my day!!
Date: 14 Jul 2014 05:17 Title: Chapter 8
Aw. This is a perfect ending for this story, and it seems Wesley did intenalize the messages he learned over those two days. This was a fantastic read. Well done.
Author's Response:
Oh, I thank you so much!
I do occasionally write Wes and L. as young lovers and I have a drafted series (needs work; maybe I'll haul it out for Unblock the Block week) following him after the Traveler when they first start dating.
Date: 14 Jul 2014 05:14 Title: Chapter 7
I really, really love this story. I'm glad they got their fusing done and managed to get back to the Enterprise in one piece. I hate that Geordi had to leave Rosemary behind, but perhaps he will take more chances from here on out, and maybe Wesley learned something as well.
This is a very enjoyable story, and I can't wait to see how it all ends up.
Author's Response:
Oh, thank you! And I wanted to comment on the music - that was a lot of fun to put together, not only to find what they might be hearing on the radio, but also what goes with each chapter.
Date: 14 Jul 2014 05:08 Title: Chapter 6
I find it interesting that they have never heard of a lady doctor, but I guess that would be right for that time period. I guess it just never occured to me because we had a female pediatrician who practiced medicine in our town for 85 years. She died two years ago or so at 116. She delivered most of two or three generations of babies there.
I like that Geordi decided to show her his eyes without the glasses, and that he made her promise to keep the secret. I'm not sure who would have believed her if she had told them, anyway. I'm glad he took that precaution, though.
And I like the repetition of the line "My memory has enough film in it."
Author's Response:
That is THE line (and I'm glad you picked up on it). I had never seen a female doctor until I was a teenager (in the '70s).
Date: 14 Jul 2014 04:57 Title: Chapter 5
Doesn't every father want what's best for his children. Rosemary's a great character, and I love we get a little more backstory on her here. Her mom died of a heart attack and her brother fell in with the wrong crowd and died, so now it's just the two of them and of course he's overprotective of his little girl. I like the interchange between her and her father, where she reminds him that the words he speaks in church on Sunday are also words to live by every day. Likewise, the interchange between Geordi and her father is a solid scene.
Those cross burnings are bad business. I don't and have never understood why someone would do that to a neighbor, but I have seen it happen and helped clean up the mess once or twice, and I totally understand the family's fear. You've captured that time in history very well.
Author's Response:
Thank you - we are Northerners and always have been, but of course it's appalling to see (and to know that it still sometimes happens). I remember busing riots happening in a city I'd never been to (at the time) called Boston.
The reverend definitely wants what's best for Rosemary, and that's probably to get her married to a fellow with a steady job. He just can't see that with Geordi (and he's right, although not for the reasons he thinks). I also recall my mother, who is about 12 years younger than Rosemary, going to college and basically learning that there were three jobs for college-educated women: teacher, nurse, and librarian. She picked the latter.
Date: 14 Jul 2014 04:31 Title: Chapter 3
Aww. Maybe Geordi's having an easier time with Ms. Rosemary than he does with women on the Enterprise because he knows they aren't staying. That kind of takes the pressure off. I am glad that he's met someone and is having a good time.
You just can't beat the prize from the Crackerjack box. I think everyone looked forward to those.
I like that Wesley is giving the two of them some time together, and going for food.
Author's Response:
I wanted to give Wes some sensitivity and a little of a grownup air, that he could realize to do that without having to be told to make himself scarce for a while.
Date: 14 Jul 2014 04:22 Title: Chapter 2
When I saw the date, the first thing that came to mind was that this is three months before the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, so all is right with the world for 1941. I don't know if that plays into the story at all, but I'll keep reading to find out.
I really like baseball, though I don't keep up that much with the history of it, and couldn't tell you who any but the most famous players were.
I found the play between characters interesting here. We are still twenty some years away from the Civil Rights movement, in Washington DC, which isn't southern by anything but a technicality, and all of the different attitudes and reactions regarding a white man and a black man together were very believable to me. We were very much a nation still trying to feel our way through the issues of race and prejudice at times, and I think you've demonstrated very well what DC in the 1940s would be. Some people are trying to help and some are flat out racist and I think that lends a depth to the story that works well.
Author's Response:
Thank you - I wanted DC because of the obvious connection to government, justice, and equality - but unfortunately life was not like that for so many people.
Date: 14 Jul 2014 04:08 Title: Chapter 1
I love the fact that this is a story within a story, and the music adds much to the experience.
I find it interesting to think of Wesley Crusher as a 100 year old man, with five grandchildren.
I like the interplay between Wesley and Giordi here, but my first thought when Wes programmed the replicator for sun-glasses was that surely they have the technology in the twenty fourth century to make sunglasses out of the same material they used to make the visor, so that Giordi would be able to see, and then I realized that they probably did have the technology, but not with a replicator. That would be a job for someone working by hand, and they didn't have that option once they were already back in the past.
I'm glad they were able to get Geordi's glasses to cover his visor posts. No one in the 1940's would understand what they were seeing there.
Author's Response:
This story was originally written for a child, and the truth is, I hadn't thought of that. Thank you for the insight!
[Report This]Date: 15 Dec 2011 17:36 Title: Chapter 7
Well done! I really like the links/jpegs you are excellently fitting with each chapter. I have always thought Wes/Geordi would make good friends, and it certainly shines here. One of the most inspired stories running on AD ASTRA currently. Keep it up!!!
Author's Response:
Thank you! :)
I had an idea about, well, it was a few ideas -
- Wesley as an aged family man
- the 40s as a time period
- prejudice within the heart of the capital of the US
- Geordi's blindness vs. race but also how he would interact with the world (sounds, including music, the feelings of things like Rosemary's lace gloves, or the little tin ring from the Crackerjack box, the smell of dinner cooking, etc.)
- the US only a few months before Pearl Harbor, a kind of calm before the storm
- the feeling of being displaced both temporally and spatially
The jpgs and music are, of course, to set the scene (the time travel tales I will being posting next year will carry over that idea).
Thank you so much for reading and reviewing! :)
[Report This]Date: 14 Dec 2011 17:13 Title: Chapter 6
This is wonderful! I don't know anything about baseball, but I followed it completely. Wesley is actually being not annoying, and who could guess, he's actually pretty good when he's not being all boy genius. I feel bad for Geordi - just when he finally gets the girl, he has to leave her (okay well...that happens as usual...). Am I correct in thinking that this is same Rosemary Parker that later will not give up her seat on the bus? :D
Author's Response:
Oh, thank you! I wanted it to be a story that would be accessible to all.
I did feel badly that I had to break up Geordi and Rosemary. She isn't meant to be Rosa Parks - the names are just similar - but she is meant to evoke the time and people's values and beliefs. Wes and Geordi can't influence this time *too* much. But maybe they made her a bit more assertive, where she might have an idea that she can have a future that isn't just being Mrs. someone-or-other who only went to secretarial school so that she could be married off.
And Wesley - no one ever seems to write him older. It just seems that it's accepted, hook, line and sinker, that he would be with The Traveler forever (I know a lot of people despise this rather Mary Sue-ish character), but I figured, eventually, wouldn't he miss being around people?
Date: 11 Dec 2011 02:19 Title: Chapter 2
Wow, what a nice contrast between "we don't serve ones like him here," to "you're kind to help a blind man."
Author's Response:
I wanted Geordi in this - and this time period - for that very contrast.
[Report This]Date: 09 Dec 2011 19:25 Title: Chapter 1
Off to a good start. Love the baseball picture you included. I wonder where the hell they are??? MORE!
Author's Response:
Thank you! There will be more pics ....
Date: 09 Dec 2011 13:10 Title: Chapter 1
Hmm...there are some aspects of WWII that I am not very versed in and Iran is one of them. Maybe it's just my lack of knowledge, or maybe there is something wrong with that picture and...it's not what it seems to be and Geordi and Measly...err...Wesley are not where and when they think they are.
Author's Response:
You shall see (and this was written for a kid, so ...) ....