Thanks so much for another rousing round of congratulations, Feathers! It warms me clear through to bask in such enthusiastic generosity!
First off, please let me apologise for taking so long in getting around to reading the latest installment of your on-going epic masterpiece. I am afraid the troubles and foibles of real life have demanded such attention of me as of late that it has left little else for such tender indulgencies. However such skill should not be met by cold council so I will give such praise as I am able of such a deserving piece. 🙂
Jeez, something about your delicious work sends into a very Tolkeinesque speach. 🙂 Apologies for the rambling. 😀
Never an apology needed, my good friend (and certainly not on account of your deliciously Tolkienesque effulgence!) No reply can be considered long in coming when the recipient is still active to appreciate it! I'm most grateful for the hardy bump and fully understand how pressing need can interfere with even our most ardent wishes. Here's hoping that your trials are ordinary and easily dealt with, leaving no troubling residue. This is a busy time for everyone; I'd not hold it against anyone for not responding to every chapter in this very long series, certainly not against someone as generous as you've been!
Your wonderful sense of pace has been maintained throughout this piece, my friend. I always find pacing comics such a delicate matter but it must an ever greater burden on such length and complex pieces. Yet you have delivered it with skill. 🙂
Thank you! One of the benefits attending a really long story is the freedom to play with pacing: lulls are excusable if they set up action or deliver needed exposition; side-trips are permissible if they don't distract from primary narrative thrust; one can plot laterally, exploring several characters' motivations and actions instead of being tied to a single protagonist; one has the latitude to extrapolate with flashback and fantasy musing. Short story structure tends to be more demanding, in fact; one must fully satisfy reader expectations while reducing incident to its essentials! Short fiction requires huge discipline to successfully create... not the past-time for a drifty attention span!
You have that positive effect of making me reassess my own methods when it comes to my art. 🙂
Very flattering of you to say so! An encouraging, exciting prospect too, anticipating further Feathers comix and pictures! I'd love nothing better than to see your pending comix completed and new ones in the works! The saga of Angels and Katts (with infernal Feathers pulling all the strings) grabbed me from your very earliest posts! And while your lavish contributions have assured your place in Community legend, the eager fan always pines for more! We're an obsessively demanding mob, we fans... please forgive our endless appetite and feed us the manna we desire so dearly!
The character development is really coming along, espcially in Mercy and, of course, big cuddly Sid. Heehee. I too really appreciated the banter and romantic discussions about how they all think Sid is, depending on what they want. Very true to life. We all paint our thoughts and desires onto the unknown. 🙂
I'm very pleased you found the girls' silly fantasy musings to be fun! I had hoped the scene wouldn't turn out to be too trivial... it is rather off-topic in the face of impending momentous events. Still, I felt the ladies could use a little definition... that, and the opportunity for a few silly tickles! Working such teasing into the proceedings isn't always easy without making it seemed forced... I need to take advantage of every opportunity possible!
I'm starting to really really like Sid and I literally cannot wait to see what he does to the poor Tabor folk. I can almost picture it. Heehee. Such wonderful anticipation.
Sid's a bit of a clown, though one with scars beneath the grease-paint. His turn-on-a-dime demeanor is great fun to write... I'm very pleased you've enjoyed reading it! Also, I'm most heartened to hear that tension is building nicely for the Swillwell raid! It's been a long time coming (and, thank heavens, the wait won't be very much longer!)... thereafter, the story's pace should become swifter and its tone less relaxed!
The teasing and tickling at the very start was sweet and heart warming. Very nice. ANother masterful piece with a nod, as has all ready been pointed out, to rustic and hard working labour way of life.
I'm very pleased you found it so! I very much want Tabor County to appear to be a credible place, one in which characters live complete lives (and not simply serve as props in a fetish gimmick). It's been critical to me that we get some measure for their ordinary cares and needs; rest, food, their jobs, their personal ambitions, their entertainments... all helpful in making them seem whole. Fetish intrusion has little heft if it happens only to mannequins... inflicting or blessing it on someone you feel you know (and, hopefully, have come to like) gains the activity real resonance.
... Definitely an edge of the seat ending! ... I look forward to the next edition. 😀 😀 😀
It's of great satisfaction to learn that the chapter's end led to anticipation! That, without relying on a cliffhanger, too! I enjoy cliffhangers, but I was starting to overuse them... the long wait between installments made them an unkind tactic. A few more will inevitably sneak in, but I'll try to use them only when plotting makes such use essential. I don't dare rile Low Roads readers unnecessarily... we all have a long, long way to go together!
