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The notes for [J e n n a]'s story were basically 15 rows in a spreadsheet... possibly 200 words. Yet, like Amy, I had dozens of scenes mapped out in my head. One scene (her wedding) never made it in. This makes me sad because because a lot of people find creative ways to get into her cross hairs during the ceremony

Due to the vast amount of time between now & then, you can just make up gods for Joseph.

Example:
Perhaps the Mormons flew off and were isolated from the galaxy for 200 years. They showed back up as a cult named "The Greater Mormon Church of the Revered" and started doing door-to-door religion selling.  Peopl kept calling them Mormons but they kept saying they were Greater blah blah blah. People love to shorten things, so by 500 years ago, people just called them "The Greats" or "The Greater Church"

The Greats teach there was a second ark (this guy can bear the brunt of the Moses jokes). They teach in a garden of Eden they found on their homeworld (here go the Eden jokes). They believe in 4 gods, including one called "Baba Yaga" whose "Book of Life" has chapters and verses very similar to our own and are held sacrosanct by a population grasping for meaning after a deadly virus almost wiped them out.

--End example--

If you write such a thing carefully enough and have enough religious characters to carry the reverence, then you can make it work without touching Christianity.

(Note: This advice is coming from a guy whose characters worship the stars.And I still squeezed in a concept of ghosts, ghouls, and vampires. My world left religion behind, but I'm careful to throw in the occasional old altar that people hope is good luck. When I wrote the Pearly Gates scene and the Angel of Death (Victorious Chapter 13) I carefully stepped around the word God or Heaven or Astral Travel by renaming them. I could be irreverent with Sara-Kael by getting him beaten up. No reviews came in "I really don't think you can treat an arch angel this way" or "It's unholy to climb the pearly gates")

They key element is to remember to have 80% of the cast respect it (even if they don't actively practice). This is one of the few areas that Babylon 5 dropped the ball. The Vorlons should have been much more respected once the big reveal came of what they were. When the second Kosh showed up, how come there weren't crowds of people waiting to bow? I think ir was one guy. Anyway, you need the people to get offended if Joseph says "By Baba Yaga's beard!"

I remember that episode, unfortunately

Here's some fuel on the fire...

I'm arguing with an editor who says I can't say:

The editor said it would have to be "newspapers". Me, foolishly thinking that newspaper could be a count noun or a non-count noun looked it up. Most people agree with me. But here

https://www.italki.com/question/273932

you can see answer two, perhaps "They had newsprint for seating" would actually be more correct.

Interesting. time to bump them higher up on the dance card

Excel might be the better choice. Sort 655535 rows by any number of columns.

Ya know... a good editor is worth his weight in gold. But they're so hard to find. It's a kind of relationship - it's a person you're 'dating' because you'll need to trust them with something close to your heart (btw I'm referring to a good substantive editor). In the original VQ, I had one and he was like there's no way this can be one book, and I hated him, and he was right. He billed me 3k and I was so mad but I'd get him again if I could find him.

From here, on the outside, we're all wandering around in a daze

Hey Sol...

You need the ability to move threads so you can transplant contentious debates rather than having to end them.

Sure fire way to have to fill out post-mortem paperwork in the afterlife

William, thank you.