Reviews for Unexpected Findings
Wendy Thompson135th chapter 3 . 6/25/2010
'To Morgan's other side was the parent's of Caleb...' Here you have a verb number problem and an unnecessary apostrophe. The two people WERE, so it's 'To Morgan's other side WERE the parent's of Caleb... The possessive, which you use correctly here '...Morgan's other side...' is not what you want to use here '...parents..' Here you want the simple plural: To Morgan's other side were the parents of Caleb... And while correct, this is still an unnecessarily complex phrase. More simply: To Morgan's other side were Caleb's parents...'

"He'll be fine by tomorrow." The healer said ~~The most common punctuation mark in dialogue assignment sentences, which is what you have here, is a comma: "He'll be fine by tomorrow," The healer said... ~~That makes the who said it and the what was said one sentence. Since it is a single sentence, DO NOT capitalize the first word following the closing quotation marks unless it is a proper noun. Most correctly, the sentence goes like this: "He'll be fine by tomorrow," the healer said...

'...Caleb weakly asked everyone to leave. ~~ That's not exactly what he asked, is it? Since it isn't what he said, and is in fact a sort of confused bastard narrative sentence, it shouldn't be attched to "Can I be alone with Morgan for a moment?" at all. The problem with this particular construction, you're telling the reader what you should be showing her, and you're also quoting yourself wrong. Try something simpler: Propping himself up on his elbow, Caleb asked, "Can everyone but Morgan leave?"

'I saw it's black robes and then it's face.' ~~Homophones are always difficult. Its, which is a possessive pronoun like HIS and HERS, but for monsters and other third person neuter subjects, and the contraction of it is, it's, are easily confused. To double check, replace the it's/its with the full phrase: I saw IT IS black robes and then IT IS face. ~~If that makes no sense, and here it does not, DO NOT use the contraction, it's, use the possessive pronoun, ITS.
Wendy Thompson135th chapter 1 . 6/24/2010
You seem to be trying for an ornate style. I'm not sure this is a good idea. Sometimes, this comes across as padding. Here, for example: 'Arien Dewen watched the small country side town, littered with people busying themselves with work.' would read better if it were simpler: Arien Dewen watched the small country town, dotted with people at work. [[Littered implies a certain aimlessness or pointlessness, like discarded newspapers. 'Dotted' describes the workers' placement in a neutral way. Country side is generally one word, countryside, but that's unnecessary here. It's a 'country town'. There is a difference between working and busying oneself with work. One sometimes busys onself with make work. Simply 'working' reads better here.]]

Glancing further down the hillside, a horse galloped, nipping the flanks of another. Their manes blended into one giant wave of colors, mixing browns, blues, red, blacks, and whites together. ~~The introductory phrase 'glancing down' needs a subject: Glancing down, Arien saw ... There seem to be only two horses. How many manes can two horses have? If there is a herd of horses, mention it earlier.

His father would probably tell him to sheer the sheep tomorrow to put into the shop. ~~Sheer/shear: The first as an adjectove, describes thin fabric or a nearly perpendicular cliff. As a verb, it means to swerve from a course; as a noun, it is a swerving or deviating course. Shear, the second is a verb, meaning to cut off. What, exactly, does the father want in the shop tomorrow? The shorn sheep? Arien? If what he wants is the wool, you need to say so. [[Shorn wool is sometimes refered to as 'the pack' or 'the clip' or 'a fleece'.]]

'...average men outgoing journeys and rough times ...' ~~men going out on journeys... men undergoing journeys and rough times... 'Outgoing' is not really right here.

'I found one stocking one of our sheep...' Stocking is an article of clothing. Stalking is trailing a quarry.

'... Nothings worse then finding ...' ~~A contraction uses an apostrophe to indicate the omitted letters: nothing is... nothing's... Then/than ~~Then means many things, but it does not mean the same as than, which is used to introduce a second clause or, and, in this case, is used to introduce a second, unacceptable alternative. '...Nothing's worse than...'

Before you elaborate the text, make sure you've said what you want to say. That may mean getting a dictionary and checking definitions or just reading what you've written as if you've never seen it before. In any case, more attentive proofreading is called for.
Sabi2 chapter 1 . 6/23/2010
Just wanted to drop a note by. I think you have a wonderful attention to detail in your descriptions! I can appreciate the horse language because I myself also ride and love horses. Keep up the quality!

Sabi2~