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As the Gentle Rain by Lindelea	5 Review(s)
Connie	Reviewed Chapter: 41 on 6/1/2004
Pilgrim and Brant are really starting to make me think of Gollum and his split personality. I'm glad Pippin's feeling better. I wish someone would hurry up and reassure Merry that everything is still all right with Ulrich. You really aren't going to let Ferdi die like this, are you? I just can't see that happening. You are not that kind of writer. Thanks. Connie.

Hai Took	Reviewed Chapter: 41 on 5/29/2004
Oh my! I do believe Pilgrim is insane, I had thought on it a bit beofre but now I am positive! AT least Pippin is up and about again, I hope Ferdi will be soon to follow. Although I am thinking he will not wake unless Nell can come back to him! I hope Bergil is able to get on top of things and find these ruffians pretending to be guards! Looking forward to more!

Grey Wonderer	Reviewed Chapter: 41 on 5/29/2004
Meanwhile, back at the ranch? LOL No, I don't think there are too many characters and I love it back at the ranch with Faramir and Goldie. I just don't know how you do it. I think stories with lots of characters are more interesting because there is more going on. I admire your ability to write using more than a few characters. I can never make them all fit together properly. I shall be happy to visit the ranch as long as you are driving the buckboard. The horses always seem to get away from me. :>)

Grey Wonderer	Reviewed Chapter: 41 on 5/28/2004
Poor Nell and poor Fredi! I loved Pippin's reaction to the healer and how she took it as a compliment! Made me laugh. More trouble on the way in this one I think. I admire how you manage so many character so well all at once. I would be completely lost trying to keep them all in place. You do it beautifully. I am never lost when I read them and so I know how much work you've put into them. Each, even the originals, get their fair share of the story and come off as fully realized individuals. Waiting for more... Author Reply: Glad you picked up on that healer insult... er... compliment. I appreciate the comment about juggling so many characters. Does this mean I can go back to my original plan of inserting a "meanwhile back at the ranch" subplot, showing what's going on with Farry and Goldi, or are we juggling just as many characters as people can handle at the moment?

FantasyFan	Reviewed Chapter: 41 on 5/28/2004
I guess I need to learn to be patient. I don't ever think of anything you haven't thought through and planned out already - you take such good care of us with your wonderful stories! Pip's with Ferdi now, and Merry has been putting his clever brain to work. I thought they would be trying to come up with something to delay the hanging. They wouldn't have been in time, though, so anything that saves Ulrich now is a blessing. I found this paragraph a little confusing: Elessar laid him upon the bed, and he took up Ferdi’s free hand. ‘Ferdi, do you hear me?’ he said. He did not mention Nell, for Elessar had told him that Ferdi did not know of her disappearance and he did not want to distress the Man. Pippin would beg to differ. Nell was not by his side, and if Ferdi were aware of anything at all, he’d know... At first I thought it was Elessar taking Ferdi's hand, so when I got to the next sentence I was somewhat confused, and I was not sure who Man referred to - Ulrich? or maybe Ferdi for an odd reason? I had to read it twice to figure out that it was Pippin thinking, and he meant Aragorn. Perhaps if your editor changes the second pronoun it might read easier? I just got caught in one of those ambiguous grammar loops. Pilgrim and Brant are scaring me. The escalation of violence I've heard is typical for serial killers, and I think I'm glad Nell is still asleep. The bad thing is, Pilgrim's plan could just work. Many of the searchers out now are amateurs (not that the professionsals did such a good job) and could be easily fooled by a clever and brazen psychopath. Eventually he will be caught, but there is a lot of tragedy that could come before. I'm going to trust you that I'll be able to handle reading this story when you've finished it. Author Reply: Well, yes and no (patience, that is). A couple of times (most memorably Frodo's departure in "Small and Passing Thing", where he drank the draught and was made well enough for the journey, though not well enough to keep fighting Shadow) you have pointed out places where I made an assumption and confused the reader. More than one review of yours has sparked a spirited discussion between my editor and me and led to a tighter, stronger story. I do appreciate the good words. I think a lot of the cohesiveness has to do with the fact that the story is outlined beginning to end before the writing ever starts, and often the final chapter is written before the first chapter is started. Can't post in that order, of course, so you don't see it. Thanks for pointing out the confusing paragraph. My editor hadn't even looked at that yet; she was much more concerned that I had put Merry in two places at the same time and needed to rewrite his scene in the records room to bring it in line with an earlier chapter. The good thing about Elessar keeping them moving is that "they" have to re-drug Nell each time in order to lower the risk of moving, keeping her asleep longer... Believe me, you can trust that there is a happy ending. I don't have to wrestle with canon, either, to make it so, but there will be a bit of psychological exploration in the next chapter before the action to follow. Perhaps I ought to write a note of thanks to my Abnormal Psych professor, but sadly after all these years I do not remember his name... Author Reply: p.s. Just remembered another story that you significantly impacted! You commented on something in "Runaway" that both Jo and I had completely missed, and so we ended up scrambling to get it in, and it was in regards to an essential plot point. So... we couldn't have done it without your help!

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