The Eth (ð) character is pronouced kind of “th” but with a bit of “d” in there. So it would be Gudthni and Gerdthur – more or less…

How old are the characters?

I hadn’t really thought about it till now, as they aren’t major players in the novel:

Ben and Helen’s parent’s
Guðni – probably early fifties, he’s grey-haired and wise, but still active.
Heather – a few years younger probably about the same age as her husband’s sister:

Eyrún – late forties?
Baldur – not sure, probably about the same…

Main Players
Helen and Gerður are both 21 – Helen has just finished uni this summer, and Gerður is about to enter her final year.

Ben is a year younger at 20, and about to enter his final year at uni.

I could see it wasnt polished, that’s why I hadnt really offered any criticism before now, since the underlying story was very smooth – but you did ask 🙂

I agree very much with your second paragraph. Not everyone’s criticism is useful, and when you find someone who tells you what you want to know (and you can accept it as what you need to hear), it’s very valuable indeed.

I feel embarrassed only because you have a lot of practice at creative writing and I’ve not put any serious effort into creating stories since I was 16.

Re: a writers’ journalling/review website – someone should definitely create something like that if it doesnt already exist (which I’m pretty sure it does, somewhere). Dont tempt me though – I’ll end up working on it instead of writing :p

Rallies v. Rounds on: I probably meant the latter 🙂

I think I probably agree with most of your suggestions – although considering it was written this morning between retrieving files from the FTP site, parsing the XML another issue of some horribly scientific journal and converting some unsightly graphics… I shall pass you some more finely polished words of mine next time 🙂 – although I stand by that period, at least for the time being.

I’m intrigued that you feel quite embarrassed to be critiquing someone else’s work – why should you? You’re a writer and a reader and a knowledge of these things. A useful thing about reading what someone else writes is it gives you an idea of whether their views on your writing are going to be useful. I like your writing. And the way that you respond to my suggestions and comments gives an idea that your comments on my work is something that would be valuable to me.

It’s interesting this writing experience shared in an online journal – I haven’t had this kind of dialogue about current writing since I left university, and I think maybe it’s been missing. If only I were clever enough to create a similar journal/message system that I could host and taylor on my own website so that writers could log in, post work, choose to have some bits public and discuss theirs and others work… Sadly I’m not clever enough to design that kind of programme…

Sure… erm, let me see… this line: “You don’t know what it’s been like this year? More hikers than ever have been lost this year – not just tourists too, but Icelanders.”
Is the first sentence a question or a statement?
I cant decide if the repetition of “this year” works. But then repetitions always sound awkward to me and they’re probably fine.
I’d personally say “not just tourists either” but I guess that depends on where you’re from?

Eyrún rallies on her brother
Is rallies the right word? I’d have used ’rounds on’.

…telling her it’s not so. It’s just coincidence, that you are only noticing these things…
I feel it would sound better as “…coincidence, that she is only noticing these things now because it’s happened to one of their own.”

“What’s happened to your daughter. That’s proof of it.”
Is the period deliberate? I would have written “What’s happened to your daughter – that’s proof of it.” or used a comma.

As a reader these are the bits that read a little strangely to me – but then the whole present tense thing reads a little strangely so I wouldn’t put too much store in my opinion :). Actually i feel quite embarrassed to be critiquing someone else’s work. Like, what would I know?

Leaving aside my petty niggles, the dialogue seems very convincing. How old are the characters?

By the way, any views on my dialogue as viewed here? …or the narrative? Any comments received gratefully…

It’s somewhere where I always wanted to go as a youngster (I have three Icelandic cousins – my dad’s sister married an icelander), but it’s expensive to get to and so I never.

Then I got into the conservation volunteering thing with the NT, and after a few years of going to he lakes or yorkshire or the southwest I heard that BTCV did holidays building footpaths (amongst other things) internationally. In 2001 I went out with them and built some footpaths, fell in love with the country, and went back last year and built some more. The sad thing is, that on both occassions, my itinary was such that I didn’t have the time to see the family whilst I was out there (so I have to rely on seeing them when they come over here) – but one day…