Altivo

*has just caught up on the last few chapters, whee!*

Yes, Chapter 20 is certainly interesting enough to include. The two canids' seemingly asexual, loving relationship has been perking my ears for my own reasons, of course.

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I think you'll like the ultimate conclusion of all this, though I warn you that the real action climax has not yet arrived at all, let alone the resolution of emotional and character issues.

I'm glad you liked Chapter 20. I'm pleased with it, but I so rarely get any feedback that I'm never sure whether these things just look silly to the reader. Even though the statistics on FurRag suggest that I have somewhere between 20 and 30 ongoing followers, only one or two have made any comment at all.

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This was something I expected, and am glad you took the time to write. That is why I will never go into politics or any other profession where appearance is so important. Give me poor living conditions, call me any name you want, may I be forgotten the moment I draw my last breath... but without the men (young & old) in my life- the experiences and feelings we have together- there would no point in living at all, to me.

Technically, this chapter hurt a little to read, but I'm glad you wrote it. Kudos, Altivo... and know I've cleared another small hurdle in order so that I could read your words. Thank you.

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I promise that things will be good for Argos and Fennec before it's over. I felt this was important motivational information, but didn't want to reveal it too soon. Better to let the reader wonder about the background of the friendship. Thanks for sharing your reaction.

I haven't forgotten that I owe you some comments on that piece you e-mailed. Cranking out the NaNo quota every day has eaten up my time so that I didn't feel I could do it justice, but that will be over in another 24 hours and I'm pleased to say I'll make the deadline with time to spare (probably even tonight.)

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No rush on that... take your time. I appreciate you mentioning at, simply because I was beginning to wonder if it had reached you... but there's no real urgency. Besides i have a lot of catch up reading to do on your story, anyways... I got a new library card and now have full access to your works :) Ain't you proud :P

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Proud and delighted. Anything I can do to encourage someone to get a library card and use it, I'm glad to do. :)

If you are going to read the whole story, by all means let me know what you like, or don't like, or don't understand. This is valuable information and I don't often get it from anyone.

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I do plan to read it all... and would be happy to add my input...and, furthermore, am delighted you asked for it :)

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It certainly looks as though you'll make the deadline, so congratulations. I now know from experience how difficult it is - though, natch, I always was impressed by anyone with the guts to write.

Hope you'll keep posting the story after until its conclusion. No quitting on us just because you're a winner, now! ;D

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No fear of quitting. This story now compels me to finish it. The characters are speaking to me, telling me what has to happen. I just need to know that there are a handful of people who want me to post the draft to its conclusion, which may take another 20K words, though I think a little less than that. I don't intend to leave it posted long term, but will pull it once readers have had a chance. Then it rests, gets revised, and will be submitted for publication. This one I have no doubts about. I believe it is worthy of that.

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I can only speak for myself, but I'm generally enjoying and being inspired, as well as wanting to find out what happens next. I imagine your silent readers are the same, even if they are too shy or lazybutt to comment.

And I mean it about the inspiration. Jake's story influenced Mews to the extent that it came from a completely different part of my brain - the non-violent, everyone-is-generally-good-willed side. All because I'd seen that stories of that nature truly can work. And I'm really pleased with how Mews turned out. It reads like a children's book, or perhaps a book wrote by a childlike author, but it seems somehow appropriate, even for a 21st birthday present. (He is my baby brother, after all.)

I still mean to rewrite that story after I've let it rest a while longer, but because it was a gift I probably won't submit it for publication. Though I keep getting told to, even by the recipient!

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Oh my. Thank you very much.

Though I must say if Taking Flight was the first tale to convince you that optimism and non-violence can be successful, you've missed a good bit of literature... and history. ;D

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Oh no, not the first. But certainly the most striking recent example I'd read as an adult.

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*takes paw away from the Gandhi piece he was about to advance against you*

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Hee.

Not that anyone's going to wean me off my cynical fantasy novels in which everyone gets their heads thoroughly messed with, the siege engines are loving described and everything generally succumbs to Murphy's Law. But hellmutts, like white wolves, need variety in their diets.

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I admit to my biases in that direction. I'm still struggling to finish Ben Goodridge's novel White Crusade, which is excellently written and has some characters I absolutely adore but is also filled with the sort of violence-ridden angst that repels me in the same what that a firehose might.

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I think you'd take K.J. Parker's books in the same way. *nods*

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Status is never attained with sacrifice, never held without anxiety. It's loss- even in a good cause- is never contemplated with fear... never faced without shame.

This chapter touches on another idea I've been kicking around awhile... you've reminded me of it, and where I left off. I think I've experienced enough to complete it now...

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