Letter from the Understudy

I found this story very well written, very good.

I espeically loved the end part, so clever.

Exceptional.

i have to do a report on short stories for school and i though this was going to be boring but it was fantastic. very clever with the i wish i had a heart, i wish i had a part idea

Though the plot line isnt extremely original, I love the convention of narrative summary in the form of a letter. Nicely done and well written.

A very well written and deftly planned piece. The idea of using a letter format was original and stimulating, although certain points did lose the tone of a letter and lapsed into a standard first person story. Overall, and excellent and enjoyable read.

not spectacular. a lot of it felt very forced and the wrap-up was lame. writing and ideas show potential thought.

Very neatly done, it made me laugh!

The "Tin Man" turned out to be putty inside? An
enjoyable read.

a good read. tightly done, if a little contrived...

i find the story boring and uninteresting so i didnt continue reading it...............an

that was pretty good but it was way too predictable(sp?) too me

a good read... but the ending was oke dokie...was expecting something interesting...

It doesnt seem that interesting i stopped reading after the first couple of sentences.

i liked this story alot.. creative ending although i think it could of used a sort of twist
i oculdnt stop reading untill i found out what happend!

Dont know if it was just me but I thought it was brilliantly funny, and refreshingly fast paced. Good stuff.

I thought it was fantastic! Although, I believe the ending could use a little spice. Overall very enjoyable!

i enjoyed the story.. made me hahaha in the end... like the shakespear quote and also the bit about the tin man.. .
the end could have been more dramatic

really good and a funny ending

I enjoyed this story immensely. The letter format and the tin man reference was excellent. Kept my attention.

I do a lot of understudying myself, but so far Ive only ever had to understudy pleasant, modest, talented performers. Could easily relate to this, though, if I ever did have to understudy some of the people in the business...

Brilliant, funny and well paced story, I really enjoyed it. Only the ending felt somewhat bland, like it was building up to some great climax that never came. Even so, this is a really enjoyable piece and the author certainly has talent.

clever story. You set up a tough challenge for yourself, by beginning after the crime, then providing the naive/cold-hearted personality. Enjoyed the humor.

The best part of the story was the detail about the protagonists mother; how she was impressed with the sister because of the car she drove, the fact she had introduced her to olives and that she was purchased bottles of oil with ribbons wrapped around them.
Those are the sort of details that give the story real heart, stuff that doesnt make sense necessarily or seems trivial to most, but is so distinct "you cant make it up".

Very well thought through story. Sometimes lost "letter" format. Loved the reference to the "Tin Man" and the song. The change from If I only had a heart to If I only had a part. The end was a bit sudden and needed some sort of...twist? Seemed like you were building up a climax which never really came. But I definetely LOVED the story and made me want to read it all the way to the end, clever and brillant story!!

this was a pretty good story though i was lost at a couple points and the ending kind of was too soft. it kept building and i was on the edge of my seat and then compared to what i thought the ending would be like it was just stupid. i liked the voice though. write some more.

I think it is good story because the story has good organization. I was interested.

really this story is very bad especially in end , we abhore this style in discription the situation we need from writer to change your technique in write the stories in the future

Kathryn Simmonds is an awesome wrtier. The minute I started reading it I loved it. This story is unbelivable...........it has such a wonderful and happy ending.

How can you put comments up (below) that dont even make sense!? I think you should sort your own writing out first! I liked this story.

i found this story facinating. I was a little unclear as to whom the protagonist was addressing(I think is was the director) but everything else drew me in completly. I felt as if I was moving along with the charactor as he descovered his interest in theatre, introduces the family situation and moved us into the R&J production.

I found the story very amusing and well done.

I found this comment even more amusing:

"really this story is very bad especially in end , we abhore this style in discription the situation we need from writer to change your technique in write the stories in the future"

I think its a comment writen this poorly to amuse us all and to poke fun at the streams of terrible tripe typed out by people who have never done a story in their lives :P

Well done to whoever did it. Unless you are serious, in which case I recommend an English course at the Open University.

clever, well written, and very goooood! :P

very nicely done though! fascinating, amusing, interesting story! the ending was my least favorite AND most favorite part at the same time! it doesnt make much sense, i know, but GREAT JOB!!

Read it all the way to the end, unlike some of the stories posted here. Good job, Kathryn, looking forward to reading more...

GOOD

I quite enjoyed this story, especially how the character described more and more of his life as it went through, giving hints about what had happened, yet not really giving you enough to jump too conclusions until the end.

Very nice!

Really enjoyed this one.

turrific

I thought that this story was decently written and incredibly suspenseful. The whole time I was wondering what was going to happen between Gavin and Alex. However, I thought it could have used more detail than it did. It took a lot of thinking to figure out what they she was trying to say in the story. All in all I wish there was more specifics than leaving it up to the reader to figure out what happened. I like the clear cut stories or at least one that would give you more to work with. I give it 3.5 out of 5.

I like this story I thought it was funny, and I loved how they changed everything up on you towards the end. We all thought that the husband was going to die, but we were very wrong! I thought the story had humor, mystery, and suspense in it. This is ine of the favorites that I have read of this site, I thought that the author did a great job!

looking some kind of unreality in this,
and also for doing some kind of bore
specially by the reader who is the target
one to read this in a very nice way.
doesnt eem it so?

The plot was very predictable with Alex surviving
or dying being a mere trifle. The structure was
fine but could have been more elaborate. All in
all its a little less than mediocre piece of work.
But I would like to add that the writer is fluid and
can come up with masterpieces if she doesnt
lack imagination. She should think abstract but
write deterministic.

i like d story...keep doing d gud work..:)

I enjoyed this story a lot! It was very suspenseful and not too violent! :)

At first I was really interested in what was going to happen, it really drew me in right away. After reading a couple of pages I had somewhat of a hard time keeping up with what was going on. I liked the coyness of the way he was narrating everything, but only to an extent. After a little while it gets a little confusing. I really liked how there were two different things unfolding all at once. You were learning more and more about his life, while slowing getting hinted off about what happened to Alex. Over all it was a pretty nice story though, it had wonderful flow throughout a majority of it.