Jenni, I loved Clark and Patrick. You wrote the scene so well I could envision all the action. You could almost feel Clark's frustration and then elation that he had something to go on.

I am glad that you are still writing. I have enjoyed this tale very much.

Great story!! Keep writing.I'm always looking forward to a new installment of this story.

Jenni, don't be disheartened. The way the boards are nowadays, 8 (or so) people responding is quite a nice turnout, especially with a story that's not in an angst-patch right now. But then, I can perfectly understand how you're feeling And if you check with the other boards, you can see how many people are actually checking it out, even if they don't FDK. And I imagine, here there's even more fans lurking about.

So Clark has finally found a name and the greasy diner. cp is right, you did describe the scene quite vividly. The only diwnside was that we have to wait another week (?) until we find out what happened with Liz and Ms. Bowen-Timmons. BTW: did you have Thomas ramble on about how the name-bit was the only thing that got stuck from his childhood or was this the first time it popped up, because the way I see it, it would be great irony if he didn't even know he shares this tick with his aunt.

Michael

I'm still reading! I just haven't been able to comment lately. I'm not usually a big fan of a-plot, but that is definitely not the case with your stories. It's a relief to know that Clark finally has a lead on the bomber, and it's great to see his hero side coming out in the compassionate way he treats Father Ninian and Patrick.

I'm very curious about what happened to Thomas' aunt...

Amber

Jenni

Michael's right about FDK posts these days, but my guess is that there's at least 2-3 people reading for everyone who leaves FDK. I have looked at the other boards and like the 'views' column. That would be interesting to see...

Anyway - CLARK HAS A LEAD!!! GO CLARK!!!

Thanks to Father Ninian and Patrick!

WOOHOO!!!

More ASAP!
Carol

I'm still reading and liking it, Jenni, but I'm tired and not really coherent right now...

Anyway, I very much liked your portrait of Clark, Father Ninian and Patrick and the interaction between the three of them!

Ann

Yea, Clark is making progress on the investigation. The whole interview was great. I could feel Clark's frustration and irritation and then his calmness. I think it is important for Clark to find his own way and get in touch with who he really is. This chapter showed the progress he is making. Great movement in the plot although I could use a little Lois and Clark waffiness about now.

Anxiously looking forward to the next part

I'm glad Clark's investigation is on the right path. It's going to be a long work, but he's getting there. I'm curious about what happened with Thomas's aunt. Maybe Clark will put two and two together and find the connection between them.

Eagerly waiting for next part.

Andreia

Hey Jenni, I'm still reading and enjoying every minute.

Oh, the anticipation of the latest possible bomb!

I am on pins and needles.

JAMES

Funnily enough, I was asking the other admins about a view column a little bit back. As I recall, we didn't come to any conclusion. Some seemed to recall that we'd had one back at the start, but that it had been disabled because some FoLCs didn't like it - authors were discouraged by it if the numbers were low.

Which is a point - in reality it would probably be no better or worse for an author than the number of posts in an FDK thread. Some would be encouraged to see that more people were reading than were taking the time to post FDK and some would be discouraged just as much by a low viewing figure as by a low post count on FDK.

I remember that I was going to set up a poll to see if members wanted one or not - but I wasn't able at the time to figure out if it was actually possible to do.

Once I've discovered that, I will do a poll. We have many different members now than we did then, so perhaps feelings on it will have changed. Who knows?

LabRat

You know, I think I do remember that Labby.

If there's no counter then author's can believe there's 800 non-FDKers reading the fic. If there's a counter, they know there's only like 4 [for whatever reason]. And the decision was made for no counter.

Carol

Yes, that was pretty much the argument as I understand it. And, of course, it's not really that accurate, besides. If someone opens the thread three times you're going to get three 'readings' recorded in the view column. But in reality, it's only been read once.

So, conceivably, you could end up with a view column showing the fanfic has been read 100 times, but it's the same person opening the thread 100 times, rather than 100 readers.

Not that I think that would happen , but it does speak to how little true value the view column has.

LabRat

Actually, if you check with zoomway's, at least as long as no new posts are added to a thread, the view count won't increase when the same person opens a thread multiple times. Something to do with the "read posts"-feature, I'd assume.

Anyway, I'd be for making a poll before just not doing it

Michael

Actually, I read this on Zoom's boards, but I don't have my password for her new boards on my laptop.

Sorry I haven't commented before now, but I'm finally feeling human again just now.

Man, getting the information out of Patrick was like pulling teeth! However in the end it was worth it. Now I hope something will happen to save Liz. The bomber sure doesn't seem to have much empathy for the innocent victims caught in the fallout, does he--even assuming that his targets deserve what he's doing to them, which, of course, they don't. His wife was innocent, but he doesn't care about other innocent people. He only cares about himself. I wonder if he ever really cared about anyone else.

I want Clark to track this psychopath down -- and it would be nice, I repeat, to see Clark defy the odds once more and for Superman to return. I keep having this image of a bald eagle with a broken wing when I think about him.

Nan

Hi,

Thank you all so much for assuring me that you are still reading.

I know we writers should write for our own enjoyment, and I do love to write, but sometimes when life is stressful, it can be a little harder to get the words on the page, so the extra encouragement from fdk does help.

Michael, thanks for pointing out the number of hits to the stories on Zoom's new boards, and for explaining how it works. I thought that perhaps the numbers included people making more than one visit to the folder.

LabRat, I think that taking a new poll on this question might be a good idea, though I appreciate that you are very busy looking after these MBs and the archive also, not to mention a thing called real live. I'll wait patiently until you have the time.

Nan, it's good to hear you are feeling a little better after your surgery.

Once again, I do appreciate people taking the time to leave comments when they are not in the habit of doing so. Posting on the MBs is not always easy. I remember many years ago when I joined Zoom's MBs -- the Fanfic MBs weren't about back then -- it took me quite a few months before I found the confidence to post a comment.

So thank you all very much.
Yours Jenni