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That sounds like the one I'm in. if so, how long do I have? If not, ignore my rambling

I am trying not to target an audience. My platform's modus operandi is I stay in character.

I check the demographic charts sometimes. I wonder if more than 1% have read the story or they're along for the ride. I'm not promoting as much as creating new free content in a world of re-tweets.

Make images of the words and include them as part of the body of work. Not as slick, I know, but works.

bzzt!

Re-read the chapters of interest after a bit of a gap to see if I still saw what I first saw. Here are my takeaways:

Chapter 37
Elsbeth saves Rhiannon from having her head bashed in (She was pinned)
Rhia's men get surprise attacked but the birds swoop in to save her
Shortly after, Harpies join the fray (I'll consider  them separate from the birds because they got their own entrance)

Chapter 38
She tracks Seidel to his castle but gets surprise-attacked in the streets and gets bailed out by a pair of Wyrms
Yeomen show up to help
Red kites show up because she'd have no other way to track Seidel
Branwen shows up in a battleship just in time to bring catapults to bear
(House of Gwyrdall and the wolves show up to help now, but we can give these elements a pass because it was announced earlier that was the plan)
Trolls show up with banana peels once the enemy archers get too dangerous
[* Here's the can't-lose part - See notes below*]

Chapter  39
The wyrms re-appear conveniently when needed against the juggernaut
The birds and Harpies are reactivated (I presume they were on stand-by)

Chapter 40
An unexpected rebel attack had occurred in the Delta -> oh... Pirates showed up and dealt with that

So right about where the trolls appear, it's established by the story that no matter how bad it gets, some cavalry will appear and solve the problem. There is really no danger for her - I mean she even has Death on her side, so I'm thinking she can't really die.

This is all easy to fix eg...
a) Ensure the birds never leave the battle so that they don't appear at the perfect moments
b) Mention the Wyms & the wyrm camps and their comings and goings - again removing the nick-of-time effect
c) You don't get much bang for the buck by having the pirates show up - maybe have Rhiannon lose that city and has to go rescue it herself
d) Reduce the red kites to only the vrouaca - since they were already introduced to the story - one less divergent element
e) Basically I'd recommend the trolls be the only surprise cavalry in this secction

Imagine I leave you a glowing (yet detailed) review detailing a flaw I found in the story. Impressed, you hand me an extra point.

I review members A, B, C. None of them like that I'm exposing these flaws. They don't give me extra points. Guess who I'll review next? Whoever is awarding me extra points.

A, B, C, if they want my reviews will have to pony up the extra points - or their work will sit there unreviewed.  They will be forced to reward points they don't want to. Otherwise, reviewers will flock to people who award points.

People like you & me who have amassed ridiculous amounts of points to give away will soon start harvesting the point-starved reviewers. We will create literary fiefdoms based on the gold standard of who has more points to spend to buy reviews.

I picture this Starfury launching from one of three docking bays in the Babylon 5 forward hangar

That strikes me as a hangar, but I dun care which term or even if they're swapped

This is a tough act to follow

Regarding when to publish, for a first ever book, I highly recommend waiting until at least the 2nd is written. There'll be things in the first you'll decide to change by the time you've written the second. Little plot-related things in a book 2 will undo a book 1.

Also having smaller gaps in series is good for bridging readers. It's often I see a copy of book 1 sell, then shortly after, sales on books 2 & 3. This is good because books 1, 2, 3 centre around the same half dozen characters ([J e n n a] doesn't even get a mention in them. Books 4, 5, 6 revolve around another half dozen characters, culminating in Victorious, so I'll release those relatively close to each other. Lorraine takes over in Books 7 and 8, so I'll release up to 9 together and advance her supporting cast to that culminating plot.

I'll always be fresh on a reader's mind... if he liked 1-3 then a few years go by and he sees 4, he won't have to wait long before 5 comes out then 6=satisfaction/conclusion.

Unlike Frederick Pohl, one of whose series I'm still waiting on the conclusion of. (He dies 23 years after writing it but even if he did write it with a 10 year gap, I know I'd have read the last page i na bookstore looking for the words "The End". If I saw "To be continued" I'd gently put the book down and walk away).

Hungry readers gotta be fed!

1. When I see an expression like "This scene needs X characters" I always ask myself "All at once?".

One trick in wrestling that's so famous people don't even see it happening under their noses is "spooling in wrestlers during the match". Four people are in the ring. Some guy #5 wants to be in the match but that's too many people for the choreography. A member of the original four will take a hit and fall off the ring apron. He will proceed to lie on the floor while #5 interacts - it's still a 4-man fight until someone gets eliminated (usually #5) and then the guy on the floor will rejoin the match.

Another trick wrestling uses is to break the unneeded opponents away into a simple brawl at the side of the ring while the main participants continue the match. You (the choreographer) may add as many extras to the minibrawl as you like. It doesn't matter what's going on down there - only matters that punches are being thrown and some combat occurs. The voice announcers will not discuss the brawl until some winner emerges and rejoins the main event.

2. I've learned over time that I can only take three new names per chapter. After that it's just so&so, son of so&so. This averages across chapters, so if chapter one contains 9 names, I should have them all straight by chapter three. You can safely exceed this limit. Return of the Jedi did in its final battle. For me it was just so&so in an XWing and so&so in another XWing. I don't think Lucas cares if I can't name the 3rd guy on the left five minutes after watching the movie.

3. I've heard the dog-fighting complaint before, but it's the future. Fighter craft can still chase each other. Sure they don't need to "bank" as they turn, but they can still turn. And they can try to get "uplight" of each other so one side a quarter second behind due to the speed of light. The guy who's behind is gonna have a harder time scoring hits.

In the VQ stories, Firestarter is in a ship that is braking in space, and a reviewer commented that ships couldn't really brake in space. This is true for "current" ships - they just plow into the atmosphere as full speed, but the Enterprise had to problem coming to a dead stop.

Net point: If you deem your ships will maneuver for tactical advantage, just go ahead and do it. Maybe just don't call it "dog-fighting" so people don't get confused.

You're on fire