inclineoftrees | lotruniversity guestbook

hiya. how lame is this that i'm only reading this now, and that i'm adding to this thread so after the fact, but i'm now much too engrossed in the series to do otherwise.

i just found you guys recently through the recs on monaboyd.net and i've not been reading much else for weeks. suffice to say that you're keeping me from my own studies. i think it's likely the fact that i can relate that's got me so taken with this, though, which is certainly not a bad thing.

it's all brilliantly written and characterized, but i'm certain that each one of you already knew that. and as a science student, i especially appreciate that cate is portrayed as just as passionate and creative as everyone else; not all of us involved in such studies are cold and uninteresting.

/rambling
thank you, and i hope that you will all be still writing when i work my way to more recent entries =o)

Missed that there was a guest book and posted this at the end of a chapter. Once I realized my mistake, I quickly deleted it and moved it here. Sorry!

Ok, first, I happened on this entire thing by accident and couldn't stop reading! I am completely hooked. I love the Sherlock Holmes references and was particularly fond of Reichenbach Fall! Also love Hitchcock! More importantly, I can see Billy as a professor. It seems very in character, a sort of what might have been kind of thing. The very beginning with him being so hard up for cash and selling things had a truth to it as well. I love the sort of wired tension in Dom's character in all of this too and the dialogue is wonderful! Found the fact that the old German Bookseller could see things about both Billy and Dom that each thought were hidden, very interesting. I thought it quite entertaining when he saw through Dom and then warned him to be careful the way that he did. Have I mentioned how much I like all of this? LOL I have read very few RP fictions, but I am enjoying this a great deal! It is so well written and so entertaining. I am wondering when Dom will tell Billy he's taken the bookmark or if he will, what was special about the song the street musician was playing that moved Billy so, what are Dom's problems at home?

Thank you so much for maintaining this guestbook thread. I discovered LOTR University last weekend, via a rather long and convoluted chain of friends lists that culminated in "A Trick of the Night" (which is very good and I am following the daily installments quite avidly). I then found the revised Index page and read through the entire work in two days.

What can I say? It's an outstanding work - well-rounded characters (perfect in their imperfections), drama and heartbreak, schmoopy moments, great sex scenes, gay blokes being blokey and not girly, the not-so-sleepy groves of academe, hints of malice and impending doom and the promise of a happy ending (if the references to "Life in Paris" mean what I think they mean - it appears to be a closed community).

I cannot thank you enough for all the effort you have put into this work. I look forward to future chapters and I will be following this story to the very end.

Mark awarded: Higher Distinction

I am so in love with this universe. It's like crack. *sigh* I even feel sympathy for Evilijah. Damn you. But seriously, this is a fantastic series.

I *never* read AU stories, this one is my first and I can't part from it. It's sooo but soooo good that I even read some chapters again. You guys are doing an incredibly fantastic job here. It took me about a week to read the whole thing. Can't wait for more updates (like Dom's graduation, that would be a sweet chapter). This is wonderful.

Like someone else, I don't ever read AUs, in fact, I religiously stay away from them, due to them usually being awfully written. This one... I don't even know/remember why I started reading, all I know is that I'm so addicted that I was getting plot-bunnies from this AU in the middle of serving a customer at work. That is meant to be a compliment, in that, I just about never write fic and plot-bunnies are extremely few and far in-between.

Took me ages to catch up (and I'm going to have to make another round for tigs I probably missed too) but was so worth it.

I admit that I have the occasional problem with characterisation, but the brilliant writing and storyline/s more than makes up for it. =)

Keep up the great work!

Several of the unfinished stories now end abruptly with this error message from LJ --

Error running style: Died in S2::run_code running EntryPage::print(): Excessive recursion detected and stopped.

I've just reciently started trying to catch up and everything so far has been great.
I got questions though, where do I ask them?

You can either post your questions to

office_hours or email me at almaviva @ gmail.com

I'm supposed to be making the family dinner now, but can't think straight after reading the new updates, they are soooooooo good. I want more.
you should put a health warning with new posts. I'm even having problems with my spelling, i've got to calm down.

Well. I'm very, very late to this party. As many times as I've heard the praises of this AU sung, you'd think eventually I'd break down. I did. You people took a day out of my life and dropped two massive lives into my day.

I don't think I've ever seen characterization this complex, this completely thought through. It is exquisite to get lost in. And I like to think I don't say that lightly. I'm not much of a commenter, so fiction has to be something pretty spectacular for me to want to say so.

And this is just that. I'm humbled to the point of awe here. They're aren't enough words.

I'm on another reread of this story and i've found a time line problem, I hope you don't mind me pointing it out to you. in book 2 chapter 5 Come and take a ride, Billy wakes up on sunday and Dom wakes on saturday, and they are together. I know this is nit-picking on such a long running and fantastic story, keep up the good work.

Hi. thanks for pointing it out. We are in the process of our first revision of the whole and are going in order. Currently we're at chapter 16 of book 1 so we'll get there eventually and get it fixed. :D

(I apologize if this was sent twice. *shakes fist at lj*)

thank you for your reply.
no need to apologize, i only got one reply.
can i ask you something,why can't i read some of the stories eg Sin, i've tried friending them but i'm not allowed, is there a reason?

Ali, re-reading again and not getting any work done.

Some of the communities we write in are closed membership for the writers only. That just means you can't join the community but not that you can't watch. Go to "manage" "friends" "edit friends" and add the communities you want under "add friends." This will let them show up on your friendslist.

The reason we've done it this way is because we have some posts that are friendsonly that discuss plot points, characterizations, and such away from the readers. We also sometimes like to write a thread behind closed doors in case we need to change things or if one of the writers is uncomfortable writing in public (that would be me, usually). All of the finished "chapters" are public. There are no "friendsonly" secret chapters that members are missing out on, merely things that aren't posted yet at the writers' discretion.

Long, around the bend answer to say you aren't being purposefully excluded. The three of us don't operate that way with these communities. If someone is a member of the communities (except office hours, of course) it's only because they slipped in at the beginning and we haven't cleared them out yet :D

please, please can we have some more updates, i know the weather is getting warmer and the holidays are upon us, but do you think you ladies could write a bit more to add to lotruniversity.
please, please, please, I'm on my knees.

Hory clap, you guys. Just ... amazing.

Okay, so I'm very late in the game on this (and on lotrips in general).. and I almost never give feedback on anything, even stories I really enjoy. But I can't stop myself from doing so in this case.

This is an incredibly complex, layered, beautiful story you are writing. Every chapter gives me very physical reactions, and I find myself unable to stop thinking about the imagery long after I'm done.

The characters are so REAL that I truly think that this story has ruined me, as far as monaboyd and maybe any other pairing goes. Monaboyd's my 'rips OTP, and it's so chock full of material in canon that I've always preferred real life Billy and Dom. I've found myself unable to enjoy or imagine most Billy/Dom AUs.. until this story. Now, I feel I can't read any story featuring real life Billy and Dom without craving Professor!Billy and Student!Dom. Both characters have worked their way under my skin and will never leave, even after the series ends.

To be honest, I can't help but leave feedback because "The Incline of Trees" hits very close to home for me in many ways. As an academic and as someone who's experienced one particularly powerful case of forbidden attraction (though not AS an academic, thankfully).. Billy's inner turmoil consistently leaves me in actual physical pain. And there is so much attention to detail in your characterization of the college itself that I can see it and feel like I'm there. You've truly captured that utopic but also somewhat claustrophobic quality that enclosed campuses have.

I want to thank you with all my heart for putting emotions to the page (or to the screen) for which words still often fail me. Your story is very real and it consumes me. Much love!

A quick question: After

msilverstar rec'd this the other day, she suggested (when I asked) that I start with Acting on a Crush in Book Two, read that book to the end, they go back to the beginning. But I might as well go right to the source for confirmation: how should I approach my reading of this series, and if there is a backstory elsewhere, should I start there first, and where is it? I'm ready for a new epic but I want to start off on the right foot. Thanks. I've had this site marked for a very long time.

Hi :D I'm

almaviva.

If I was first coming to this story, I would start at the beginning ( the index is here (http://community.livejournal.com/inclineoftrees/44249.html)). What

msilverstar linked to as the suggested beginning is what we actually first wrote when we started this story some six or seven years ago so to her, it probably is the logical beginning, in a way. But if you start at Office Hours (http://community.livejournal.com/inclineoftrees/57913.html), then the characters will build for you and you can see why they do the things they do as well as meet the other characters that play a part in the story.

I hope you enjoy it :D

And that is exactly what I'll do -- enjoy it, and follow your advice. Thank you. :)

I still thoroughly love this world and its inhabitants. I'm once again going through the chapters. It's a massive and beautiful creature. I feel very fortunate that this story is one of the first I'd ever read although it has spoiled me. It's made me have high expectations for fic that few are able to meet.

I'd love to have this in the form of an actual book. I'm even crazy enough to have pondered a cinematic version but I don't know if justice would be done. Some things can only be left to words.

It is all near and dear to my heart. Although I discovered it about a year/year and half after its start, I feel I've grown along with the story. It has helped me overcome some issues, most unexpectedly and thankfully.

I am so happy and grateful that you amazing writers have continued this. No matter how many times I read any specific piece, the impact of the emotion is the same as the first time I read it.

I look forward to more here and in Paris. :D

/fanboy

(deleted comment)

Hello! Thanks for the comment! We are going to finish and had actually planned to post the next part tomorrow, so great timing, you :D

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