Half-arsed? Oh, that's a problem.
2,801 2015-08-20 20:59:38
Re: Male to Female Ratios (99 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)
2,802 2015-08-20 18:49:31
Re: Acts/ Dictates/ Mandates/ Mantle - Amy's Thread (1,905 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
Hmm. You use the term 'death magic' ... . Is your new term how the others describe them, or how they describe themselves? If it's how others describe them, is the term in use from the beginning, or is it revealed as time goes on? Do the priests of Behira know the real term? That last question also applies if it's how they describe themselves.
Discovering the name could be a major plot point.
Since I don't know where the story is going, I have to offer avenues. These mages use other people, body and soul, as objects of their casting and as tools. They rejoice in destruction, but it seems that there is a guiding drive behind them--which I assume will be a big plot point. They do not obey the common laws that apply to mages, whether malum in se or malum prohibitum. They obey their own drives and imperatives, some of them more freely than others.
Anver has had a quiet semi-apotheosis. Kha has become a lynchpin in a battle that could destroy the gods.
And Geron ... when it was finally time for Geron to act, the crypt was already closed to the way up from the Three Hells. All Geron did was to close the earthy gate--and the crypt remains in the hands of the Three Hells. (I'm also assuming that it's important that there are three.) What happens when the next Master--maybe even Geron himself--dies?
2,803 2015-08-20 06:38:58
Re: Northern Skies - Janet! (520 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
Local commercial for a web travel service:
Caller ... my boss sends me on a guilt trip!
Captain ObviousYou're lucky! I've never been to Guilt. But hey, a trip's a trip, right?
2,804 2015-08-20 05:49:27
Re: Northern Skies - Janet! (520 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
And I thought that road train line was a good one, too.
2,805 2015-08-19 14:50:20
Re: Male to Female Ratios (99 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)
.... My wife once exclaimed (of the car) that 'if it were invented by a woman then it'd be a far better machine."
I remember we contemplated that for a while and then burst out laughing as we simultaneously realised that no woman has ever invented anything.
Not true. The invention of the circular saw is attributed to a Shaker woman who was spinning and watching the wheel when she looked out at the men sawing wood. I'm sure she wasn't the one to build it, though.
Stereotypes wouldn't exist if there were no basis for them--but sometimes the basis is no longer true, or never quite was, or is ironic falsehood. And even the truest of stereotypes has exceptions. I've met Wrench Wenches. One of them was an automobile service manager.
2,806 2015-08-19 04:58:25
Re: Northern Skies - Janet! (520 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
Okay, you're going to come after me for sure after this review.
2,807 2015-08-19 00:23:29
Re: Linear vs. Non-linear narrative (3 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
I think you've got enough material for the first scenes in the past. It's long enough to be awkward as a flashback. Unless there is strong reason to begin the telling in the present, after then past episodes, I'd start with the older part of the story.
2,808 2015-08-18 23:38:22
Re: Acts/ Dictates/ Mandates/ Mantle - Amy's Thread (1,905 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
Amy, up until now we've had nothing about counting spells, or reducing questions of their strength to simply minor and major. This is a change, a kind of rigidity that hasn't appeared until now, in Dictates. Dictates is well away from the school, and thus seems a poor place to change the mage-rules.
2,809 2015-08-18 23:21:27
Re: Northern Skies - Janet! (520 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
Don't we al.
2,810 2015-08-18 20:26:07
Re: Northern Skies - Janet! (520 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
Yeah, but we've only seen part of it!
2,811 2015-08-17 20:49:36
Re: Wishlist Cont. (212 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)
In an inline review, the 'return to posting' link takes you to the first chapter of the work. It might be helpful to return to the chapter of the review.
2,812 2015-08-17 04:22:03
Re: The Sorcerer's Progress (1,528 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
Janet, if a side bit about some abusive soldiers will get you to read a chapter ... well, when Jose Luis Borges picked up The Napoleon of Notting Hill he said that the opening, less than a complete sentence, convinced him that the author was a master. Anyone who could throw away a line like that must surely be sitting on a wealth of story. The opening? "The human race, to which so many of my readers belong ..."
2,813 2015-08-17 00:10:20
Re: Acts/ Dictates/ Mandates/ Mantle - Amy's Thread (1,905 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
Depends on how you define 'better' and 'worse', and how you rate the PhD.
The author of Dilbert wrote that he had so many real cases sent in by readers that he had more than a lifetime of material. He also appeared on Babylon Five as a fellow consulting a private detective, worried that his cat and dog were out to get him.
2,814 2015-08-15 13:34:19
Re: Acts/ Dictates/ Mandates/ Mantle - Amy's Thread (1,905 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
Pointy-Haired Boss (Dilbert)
2,815 2015-08-15 05:05:36
Re: Acts/ Dictates/ Mandates/ Mantle - Amy's Thread (1,905 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
njc wrote:Don't get all meeting'd out by the PHBs. It's what they do.
You had to go and mention meetings now, didn't you njc? ... this week, it was meetings all day long, every day ...
It's what they do.
2,816 2015-08-14 23:39:17
Re: Acts/ Dictates/ Mandates/ Mantle - Amy's Thread (1,905 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
If Airen is convinced only by Ganolin to trust Kha, then when she goes off up the mountain with Kha, her memories might still give her misgivings. We should see her holding something back in Tell Me True (great invention, BTW) and telling Ganolin what tomdo if Kha comes back and she doesn't. Sil and the cleansing of Kha should mean more to her than is heretofore obvious.
And Kha's acts with the Black Staff and his training of an army may be what make him so dangerous to Behira ... and his cleansing and choice would reverse all that. Zyrtec knows more than Big B.
2,817 2015-08-14 23:10:10
Re: Northern Skies - Janet! (520 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
(Insert sound of mad laughter.)
2,818 2015-08-14 23:05:21
Re: Hello! -Newbie Alert- (10 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)
And some of us like to debate grammar, both in narrative and dialogue.
2,819 2015-08-14 20:39:14
Re: Site Bugs 2 (342 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)
njc wrote:njc wrote:Sol, I ran a print copy of the inline review that Amy_s recently did of my Sorcerer's Progress Book 1, Chapter 5. Starting on page four, a number of the comments were missing, even though the text was highlighted.
Fascinating ... it does not occur on the screen version, only when printed. That's through IE. The print preview from Chrome shows no such problem. I'll run the print from Chrome, too.
The print preview on IE shows the problem. The preview on Chrome does not. I'll run the Chrome print and get you a screencap of the IE.
Postscript: The IE preview was actually the preview via the Epson driver. When I take that same preview after the preview from within Chrome, the text shows up correctly. I'm printing that copy now.
2,820 2015-08-14 20:34:18
Re: Site Bugs 2 (342 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)
njc wrote:Sol, I ran a print copy of the inline review that Amy_s recently did of my Sorcerer's Progress Book 1, Chapter 5. Starting on page four, a number of the comments were missing, even though the text was highlighted.
Sol, I looked at this again, and I thin the problem may occur when there are unquoted double quotes in the review text. I'll try to get some useful screencaps. Is the snassi address still correct?
Fascinating ... it does not occur on the screen version, only when printed. That's through IE. The print preview from Chrome shows no such problem. I'll run the print from Chrome, too.
2,821 2015-08-14 20:18:54
Re: Hello! -Newbie Alert- (10 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)
If you are debating about using or not using points, I suggest you use them. It will require you to review the work of others, which well benefit both you and them, and it will make your work valuable to other point-users.
2,822 2015-08-14 19:59:08
Re: Site Bugs 2 (342 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)
Sol, I ran a print copy of the inline review that Amy_s recently did of my Sorcerer's Progress Book 1, Chapter 5. Starting on page four, a number of the comments were missing, even though the text was highlighted.
Sol, I looked at this again, and I thin the problem may occur when there are unquoted double quotes in the review text. I'll try to get some useful screencaps. Is the snassi address still correct?
2,823 2015-08-14 14:49:27
Re: Acts/ Dictates/ Mandates/ Mantle - Amy's Thread (1,905 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
K is going to have to teach me how to spell all those ou words. Also, I'll need help with the pronounciation of z and about.
The key to it all is that 'receipt' is used in the old sense to mean 'recipe'.
'Victor Emmanuel, peak-haunting Peverill, Thomas Aquinas and Dr. Sacheverel."
This is the same Wm. Schwenk Gilbert who once rhymed with 'executioner' 'diminutioner', 'ablutioner', and 'you shun her'.
2,824 2015-08-14 09:39:57
Re: Acts/ Dictates/ Mandates/ Mantle - Amy's Thread (1,905 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
Not sure now why this came to mind .... https://youtu.be/n4Bn5TDcN_I
2,825 2015-08-14 04:11:18
Re: Northern Skies - Janet! (520 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
Steve Smith was freshly promoted to an executive position, complete with a window office with (gasp!) a lock on the door. He was getting ready to leave on Wednesday when the phone rang. He answered it and a heavily accented voice declared "Mr. Smith, this is the Viper. I am coming for you on Tuesday."
Steve had no time for jokes. He hung up, locked up, and went home.
On Thursday, there was another call: "Mr. Smith, this is the Viper. I am coming for you on Tuesday."
"Who is this?" snarled Smith.
"I told you. I am the Viper!"
Steve hung up.
On Friday, the same call came. The Viper, it seemed, had one purpose in mind: To come for Steve Smith on Tuesday.
Smith tried to shake it off, but he slept very badly over the weekend.
Monday passed, and no call came. But Steve was just locking his office when the phone rang. He wanted to walk away, but part of him wanted to have it out with this Viper, whoever he was. As he feared, or perhaps hoped, the call was from the Viper. "Tomorrow, Mr. Smith. I come for you tomorrow, at this hour!"
Steve smith wasn't so sure this was a joke.
On Tuesday, he waited, his mouth dry, as the day wound to its end. He'd gotten a little work done in the morning, and almost none in the afternoon. Now, as he waited, there was a noise in the hall. Then the doorknob began to turn.
The door swung open, revealling a short man in coveralls and a battered cap. In his right hand, he carried a red bucket that sploshed when he moved. "Mr. Smith, finally you are here! Every day I come, and every day your door is locked. Finally, I can come and vipe de vindows!