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Durango

Max: start one. If you build it they will come.

I tried adding my Amex card, but the window doesn't go all the way down, so I couldn't put the card's renewal date, or click on any button that says 'add.'  However, at least it no longer says 'upgrade' for my portfolio's appearance.  I till don't know for sure if my portfolio is public.  To know that, I rely, as I always have, on the kindness of strangers.

OK.  My bio.  Well, it all started in a 5000 watt radio station in Fresno, California...

Seriously, I have been an assistant professor of philosophy, a tutor, especially for special needs children, have a PhD in philosophy, an MA in history, and 48 graduate credits in Special Education, not to mention my Black Belt in kenpo and my sharpshooter's patch from the NRA (scared yet?)  I speak a little German, a little Spanish, and write in Welsh, but mangle the grammar sometimes.

I have a number of short stories published in various places like Bewildering Stories and Deathbus.com.  About 11 years ago, I stopped writing, was diagnosed with CHF, and my spouse was told I had six months to live.  They didn't tell me, but when I found out, I simply refused to die.  Will wasn't enough, so I finally got the valve replacement, the artificial heart valve, and the 8 or so pills and injections I need to take on a regular basis. (Let's hear it for health insurance.) I stopped writing when a publisher who had previously published everything I wrote said that my latest wasn't fresh or had any new ideas.  Hence...why I rejoined TNBW.  To reboot my Rhiannon series, and generate new ideas.  My Rhiannon book(s), if taken together, except for the 3rd, which will wait until the first two are finished, are pushing 700 pages, and I have notes, partials, sketches, drafts of new short stories.  So thanks, in part to you all, the re-boot is working.

I like pina colatas, getting caught in the rain. making love at midnight and the taste of champagne. However, I am into health food.

I'm married, (sorry, guys) have two dogs, and live in the woods. 

Thanks, Gacela, C.J., Suin, Akhere, John, Lance, anyone I've forgotten to mention, Mr. and Mrs. America, and all the ships at sea.

Oh, and I name myself after my character because she is the one who is doing the actual writing (why it's in 1st person).  I'm just the amanuensis.

Rhiannon.

Congratulations!

Don't understand why it says 'upgrade' on my portfolio to make it visible, as the only upgrade is to premium membership, which I have, and which doesn't expire until February of 2017.  I would like that fixed so people can see my portfolio.  Also, do you accept American Express.  Would prefer to use that for my auto-renewal.

Steatopygia

Only three things matter:  the satisfaction of your own self-expression, your communication, measured, in part, by readers' responses), and the money.  That's it. (Oh, and the peace that comes from being in your own world for a while.)

Well, I started "The Fight for New Fairy" first.  It actually was the backstory in another novel, which I dropped when the backstory got to be over 300 pages long.  But it needed a prequel, which is where the story starts.  So "Jeb & Rhia" started. There is actually a scene that is in both books, toward the end of the prequel, and toward the middle of Book II.  Some people prefer the strong female lead, the action, the world building, and the pure fantasy of the second, others prefer to start at the "beginning," and go for the first.  There is world building there, but the main character is more naive, more innocent, hasn't been kicked in the head by reality yet.  It is a mixed plot:  of descension, forbidden love, and escape.  The second is a quest plot, but the quest is subtle, and it could be mistaken for an adventure.  Hope that guides your decision. 

Njc:  Your post about the clock-etc.-murder reminds me of Mark Twain's quip:  "Of course truth is stranger than fiction.  Fiction has to make sense."  A similar thing can be said for drama:  of course fiction is more dramatic that reality, fiction doesn't dare be boring.  Sometimes we forget that when writing, but there has to be literary devices:  foreshadowing, figurative languages, characters being consistent with their character (or consistently inconsistent).  Even if, as a reader, you go, "Hah, that's where the red herring occurs," so you know, w/o regard to clues, who to exclude, it's part of the comfortable feeling that yes, you are no longer in the real world, no longer have to worry about how to afford the roof repair, or which clown is going to be President.  You're here, where you belong:  in fiction.

Welcome to the site, Iris. I hope this experience is a good one and you get desensitized to sharing your work with others.  We're a supportive group, and that should help.  Fritz Leiber, one of the great fantasy writers, started out writing for a pen pal.  Look forward to reading your stuff and being read by you.

Not knowing where a novel is going, and then going back and making adjustments is not unprofessional, well, unless you think George Lucas and Isaac Asimov aren't professionals.  Asimov's way of writing was totally right-brained.  He referred to his creativity as his "daimon," after Socrates.  He'd set down, and write it until he was done.  He'd even do this on vacations, so he took his typewriter with him.  Said people looked at him accusingly, as if he was deliberately trying to spoil "the great American vacation."  He would cock up the details too, have inconsistent levels of technology, have one character's great adventure occur before she was born (and not due to time travel, due to cocking up the dates).  In his later stories, there was less of this--probably had graduate assistants pour over, but there was still some.  Have the Second Foundation start with 50 people, forgetting that that was just a ruse to get the First Foundation off their backs. 

George Lucas notoriously goes back and digitally alters the early Star Wars series to fit the later one (occasioning a parody of the Gotye song, "The Star Wars I Used to Know," which has the hilarious device of a naked body double for George Lucas in the video, singing with a naked Anakin Skywalker.)  For example, in the original, Hans Solo shoots someone under the table (talk about sucker-blasting).  But in the edited version, the other guy draws first, as Han Solo is now a good guy.  (He should have kept it in my opinion, as Solo is a Rick character:  he gets his idealism back not from the love of his life (unless he's gay), but from his friendship with Luke.