Waterlily

JavaJoe

I love your newest story. Love. I think it is the most beautiful story you have written.
Wow. Nothing more specific to say just at the moment. Maybe after I’ve digested it and read it a few more times.

helen

I'm thrilled to hear that. I can never really tell how a story will be received, but I had a good feeling about Waterlily from beginning to end. I even discovered a few things about the story when it was completed that played into the feelings I had that not only the narrative but the title played into exactly what I wanted.

Without spoiler tags, I can't say more, unfortunately. Maybe I should see if the BBS package supports spoilers.

helen

It turns out that the forums support spoiler tags directly, using >!. So I made a separate thread with my thoughts on putting the story together and the "discovery" I made once it was complete.

JavaJoe

Not to diminish anything in the story, but I did realize who she was early on. I think it was in the conversation about her not seeing the lord of the mountain for a long time. I was thinking she might be a Hollywood level female star to survive by herself up there, but in China that seems unlikely. Unless she was actually the lord of the mountain. I didn’t see the dragon thing coming though. I just thought she was some kind of elemental spirit.
To be fair, I read voraciously. Mostly fantasy and SciFi. So my brain already goes to that sort of explanation.
I do love the picture of the water lily. It SO looks like a Chinese dragon. It’s almost like their artists designed the dragons to look like that flower.