Mind and Spirit

Authors notes and reviewer feedback:

Hello all, very shortly I will be updating the chapters (in the next day or so). Firstly I would like to show my appreciation to all the readers and reviewers, there were some horrendous grammatical errors in the first version (hopefully I got most of them!) and you all did very well to get through it.

To my great pleasure, despite the grammatical errors, I have received enormously encouraging feedback, and I am immeasurably happy that everyone appears to have enjoyed reading the fiction as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Firstly I will go through all the reviews, up till now:

Sirius-strider: Thanks for the early encouragement, it really helps in those early stages.

Quin: Same again, comments like that are always well received :-)

Toma: Thanks for the more specific encouragement, I'm glad it was a smooth follow-on from the original story. Hope you got some good sleep! ;-)

Kakashiclone1120: Thanks for the encouragement, and for pointing out both the highs and the lows of my technical writing style, occasional poor grammar mixed with occasional sophistication. ;-)

Jedi3: Thank you for your kind words, particularly as I am always worried that my stories start too slow, wonderful to hear I had you hooked early, thanks again

Sally the ragdoll: Thanks for the advice, I should have done that before posting originally, the new updates have been checked and re-done, it really should be a noticeable improvement.

Don redmond: Thank you for the more specific analysis on the characters, nice comments like that give me confidence in the elements of the story I hold most important, character development and the story itself.

Mousewolf: he he… Thanks got that beta reader finally, sorry it took so long.

And finally, Gwyddion: Highest appreciation and thanks on a thorough and accurate review. Reviews like this is what I write for… I accept the criticism and hope to improve on the points raised in future, and the wonderful comments on my writing style have extra meaning given your own skill and background, once again a hearty thanks.

Authors notes:

After reading through the story again, as part of the correction process, I must admit I am happy with how it all came out. The format of the 'present' tying the two seemingly separate 'flashback' stories together seemed to have worked, I only hope that the present storyline was not do sparsely spaced to be effective. A friend of mine commented about the format of the separate stories and it was really the first time I thought of it as such. I suppose that I always viewed the story format as a progression of Ashitaka's and San's relationship to a stage where their two cultures would no longer be a separating factor.

I also received some comments about the characters, particularly Koroku's hidden talents, I have to admit I have a large soft spot for the ordinary person rising to the challenge. Leaders are taught to be brave and selfless, they almost don't have a choice, but for the ordinary person to do so, that I really like. Plus I really wanted to flesh out Toki's and Koroku's relationship, there was a whole dynamic there I thought was worth exploring, particularly the fact the two had total different mindsets, but could come to the same conclusion about such important matters as Ashitaka/San etc… I hope I got across that Koroku did not always simply follow his wife. ;-)

I also wanted to talk about the few character insertions, luckily they did not appear to annoy anyone, I deliberately picked characters that would fit the roles with their existing mentality, but would not overburden the main players. The two wolf cubs did not get much attention in the movie, so I felt free to manipulate them as I saw fit, they really developed as characters, and I hope you enjoyed them as much as I did. As for Kagato and Washu, the story did bend a bit to allow for them to remain more 'in' character, but I thought they complimented the story well, and allow for the readers mind to wander a bit.

Well, that will do, hopefully this section was interesting to some people, or at least was not boring ;-) … he he, thanks again all, don't gorget to check out my other epic "Hearts and Minds" an Evangelion continuation (and don't worry this one has been checked and updated!)

Thanks again…

Biz