Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Lois & Clark Fanfic FDK - April, Come He Will by Millefeuilles (1/3)

Story is here.
Thank you for reading! I’d love to hear your feedback.

Wow.

This is so wonderful. It reads beautifully. Even your writing style is very romantic. Your sense of place is so grounded, and so well thought out (without being overbearing as settings sometimes get), I felt immediately transported. The level of detail in this is perfect.

I love Sandrine. Girl after my own heart. I'm still a little concerned about Marc and wondering if we'll see more from him, and more of a conflict to come... But I hope not because Marc stinks.

I love Clark's introduction here as well. Somehow you've written him exactly in character, and yet he really seems younger. Full of excitement. I know he has to move on to other places and eventually to Lois and the Daily Planet, but it's a testament to your work that I kinda don't want him to leave. I want him to stay in Paris and write interesting articles and watch movies with Sandrine and hopefully not get caught (although I'm wondering if it was a specific someone on the roof). Although I wouldn't mind the reveal and Sandrine knowing the secret. She might be a documentarian but I am sure she'd respect his trust still.

Great start! Will Sandrine find out the truth about Clark? Will this friendship blossom into something more? Will things end on amicable terms? Will Clark one day run into Sandrine again in the future and introduce Lois? (I imagine they'd have a tough time at first, but Lois and Sandrine seem like they'd be fast friends).

Can't wait for more!

What a delight. I thoroughly enjoyed this first part of your latest story. And as an added bonus, not only did it prove entertaining, it was also quite educational on several fronts (language, culture, movies). I very much appreciated your sprinkling some French into the story. Some of it I would have been able to translate on my own, other parts used vocabulary that I am quite confident I had never seen before, but your writing made it very easy to understand it all.

One thing especially stood out to me: ‘No Sky Was Harmed During Filming’ .

My only concern is that I have listened to the title song and its lyrics have me worried about how this story will end. I'm hoping that gender-swapping the song's title character isn't the only liberty you took with the song.

I'm looking forward to the remaining two parts.

Joy,
Lynn

I truly enjoyed the first part (two parts?). Your writing style reminds me somewhat of Morgana's as both are extensively researched and offer in-depth detail into each character. So far this story has been exclusively from Sabine's POV, will Clark's POV enter in a later part or will this be exclusively Sabine's view of the story? Now we all know that Clark will leave eventually and that will be interesting to see how Sabine handles that departure and how you will tie that up with the lyrics...

thanks for writing this beautiful story.

Mike

Wow. Mouse, Lynn and Mike, I’m awed and very grateful for your FDK: I drafted the plot and began writing the first two parts of this fic back in 2016, and then, I let it lie in my hard drive as I feared it wouldn’t be interesting enough. You’ve relieved me of that worry.

@Mouserock
<Blushing> Thank you so much, you’re very kind!

Phew! I was afraid that the details were a bit much, but I wanted the setting to be as vivid as possible. I also wished to display some worldliness in my picture of Paris, and to go to places a little different that the ones tourists usually visit. By the way, the Quartier latin (Latine District/quarter) developed around the Sorbonne, which was the Paris University in Medieval times. Traditionally, a lot of Universities are still situated there, and you still find a lot of libraries, bookshops and art (movies) theaters in this district. (Paris is still the city where the widest panorama of film history is available daily. When I was a student, I used to go regularly to the Action Christine and watch lots of 1920s-1960s French, British and American movies. Pandora and the Flying Dutchman was shown every three to five years. I bought the restored version on DVD and still watch it regularly. It really is a work of art.)

I’m really glad you like Sandrine, I like her, too! Contrary to appearances, she isn’t a Mary Sue at all, as I never was a cinema student. However, we share the same appreciation for James Mason’s movies and Albert Lewin’s. (His Bel Ami and The Picture of Dorian Gray are also movies worth seeing.)
Marc won’t be a problem. At least, not in the way you think he’ll be.

Clark’s enthusiasm and love of life is a quality that shines in D. Cain’s portrayal, and I’m glad I caught it a little. Thank you!

Hmmmm... Keep reading, and All Shall Be Known.

Sandrine may meet Lois in the future. I’m working on it.

@Lynn
I’m glad you didn’t find the French words bothersome, as I was adding a bit of local flavor. (I kept it to a minimum, but I hope it’s clear that Clark and Sandrine speak mostly in French: after all, Clark is fluent in the language, and knows how many more.)



This part bothered me, too... but I found a way to twist the lyrics. (Okay, I cheated, so what?)

Thanks. I hope you’ll like them. As the fic is complete, I’ll post soon.

@Mike

I posted several parts in a row in order to have consistent lengths in my three posts.

Having my writing compared to Morgana’s is very complimentary! So, THANK YOU.

The story is exclusively written from Sandrine’s POV. I wished to examine what impression Clark may have left on the people he met during his travelling years.

Why and how Clark leaves is the crux of the story. I will merely say that friendship may sometimes have as deep an impact as a love story.

Oh Millefeuilles, what a lovely journey to Paris in the early 1990's! Sandrine is the perfect guide to take a trip through the fabled city's theaters, tea shops and a certain 'poor' writer's tiny studio apartment. It is not often we read stories about Clark's wanderings, this one is a gem!

Is Paris your home? From the descriptions and intimate knowledge of the city it is either that or the subject was endlessly researched before posting. Love it! It makes me feel as if I was standing by Clark's side during his conversations with her.


What a perfect way to meet Clark! I especially liked the way he spoke French almost like a native, with a slight accent Sandrine had a little trouble recognizing. It is sad to know that someday he shall eventually move on. In fact, he has already laid the groundwork for his departure because he has applied for a post in England. Will he and this kind young woman remain friends? One very much hopes so.

Bonjour, Morgana,
I’m really glad you’re liking the story.

Indeed, I live and work in Paris and I drew on my own experience to write the story, even if Sandrine isn’t a Mary Sue at all. I wished to show another side of Paris than the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre Museum and department stores!

Maybe a kryptonian accent?

Maybe. Maybe not. Keep reading!

PS: HUGE KUDOS should go to Cuidadora: she did a STELLAR Beta-reading, helping me above and beyond the call of duty, correcting all my exotic turns of phrase and helping me to polish the rest.

Wow.

I wish I'd written this. It's both ethereal and deeply rooted in reality. It floats on a cloud of steel while drawing in the reader with its gentle prose, sketching a Clark Kent who's lonely for the right woman but completely unwilling to lead one on or deceive her in any way.

And Sandrine? She's beautiful, smart, talented, determined, gentle, compassionate, and motivated. She's going to need all those qualities and more when she learns Clark's biggest secret. I would guess that she'd eventually offer him her heart, but if she does that offer would be qualified and would come with an expiration date. Still, Clark would be a fool to shut her our of his life completely.

The one thing I really hope doesn't come to pass is her demise. That would almost be cheating, and it would scar Clark deeply - especially if he thinks he could have prevented it.

Now a few words about the other wonderful character in this tale, the City of Lights herself, Paris.

As Sandrine's perception of America and her cities is informed by movies and television (not the best way to learn about another country), the majority of my information about France comes from movies like Charade and the occasional foreign screenings on TMC. Rarely do I get to read the thoughts of a Paris native as (in this case) they are being shared with a non-French national. It's truly eye-opening.

When my father was in the US Air Force in the mid 1960s, he had an extended temporary duty assignment in Paris. He couldn't speak directly about what he was doing due to security restrictions, but he did sent us tapes about the city itself. I'm sad to say that he wasn't impressed. It may have been the still-recent hangover from the German occupation or the disappointment he seemed to feel that the city wasn't New York where people spoke French. Or maybe it was something else. I do know that he didn't see the Paris that you are showing us, a place where people are pretty much like the people everywhere else and the best parts aren't the ones that jump out at you. Thank you for this intimate look at this pearl of Europe.

So where's the next chapter? I want to know what happens next!

I've already told Millefeuilles privately how much I love this story and her writing. And this is just Part 1.

This prequel to the series gives us a rare glimpse of what Clark's life might have been like while traveling the world. I'm thrilled for her that her story has generated such lovely comments, which she earned. She did an amazing amount of research for this story, which she beautifully incorporated into her tale. You'll see as she posts more because she generously shares many of her sources in the author's notes/references.

Hi, Terry! I’m really flattered that you like this fic.
Thank you... <blushing deep scarlet> Your description of my story is much more beautiful than my humble prose, so it’s a real treat to read it... "Ethereal", I'm not sure, but "rooted in reality", that's true.

I’m not sure Clark is attracted in that way to Sandrine, but both their loneliness find support and warmth in the other. That’s what friendship should also be.

I’m afraid that my perception of America is much like Sandrine’s…. Charade is a lovely and fun movie (a favorite of mine!) but very different from the reality. (Amélie Poulain’s Paris is also very different from my everyday Paris, too!)

Is it? The city of Paris itself is a backdrop in this story and not such an important character. But I thank you for your thoughts and the way you perceived it. Perhaps beauty is also in the mind of the reader!

I’m sorry your father didn’t enjoy his stay in Paris. Again, the time he visited wasn’t perhaps the best moment in history to do so…

Did you doubt it? Parisian life isn’t all glamour and fun… as Part II will show you.
And, without further ado, I’m about to post Part II! (I know, I know, I told Cuidadora that I’d post tomorrow, but does it really matter?)

And I feel really priviledged to have been on the receiving end of your comments and grammatical edits. Thank you for being such a fantastically PATIENT Beta-reader.