Asimov, =Nightfall.=. Card, =Ender's Game=.
352 2018-05-18 00:59:57
Topic: Moral Lessons, and the Bad Guy's PoV (2 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
Exceptional short lesson here, even if you don't like the speaker.
353 2018-05-15 00:34:01
Re: Acts/ Dictates/ Mandates/ Mantle - Amy's Thread (1,905 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
Oh, and it's Smaller Than A Saucepan. With 12 knobs on the front panel. In two rows. And with 18 binding posts. In three colors, and six bent columns.
But no Buttons to Push.
354 2018-05-15 00:13:49
Re: Acts/ Dictates/ Mandates/ Mantle - Amy's Thread (1,905 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
Oh, I'm alternating between making story notes, reviewing and doing Unrelated Things, and drilling and cutting and threading and grinding for the physical design of project TopOfStack. I'll have to find another photo hosting service so I can put some pictures up. It's gonna look like Cousin It (in Lovecraftian Color) crossed with an hour-slot TV show's idea of a mad scientist's doomsday lottery machine.
355 2018-05-15 00:05:52
Re: Acts/ Dictates/ Mandates/ Mantle - Amy's Thread (1,905 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
Somehow I think he's going to get off easy, no matter what you do to him. Derek Lowe's 'when you're locked in a self-storage unit with two rabid wolverines, why not add a third?' seems far too tame, a whole different order of mellow. Even if Ghen gets Most Seriously P**sed with him, it's not enough.
356 2018-05-12 23:35:09
Re: General Comments Section (281 replies, posted in Alpha to Omega - Review Group)
No, definitely an alpha level test.
357 2018-05-12 21:09:31
Re: Date Wierdness in Reviews (13 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)
Anyone got a TARDIS I can borrow?
358 2018-05-12 13:50:12
Re: Date Wierdness in Reviews (13 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)
But I started in yesterday.
359 2018-05-12 07:43:07
Topic: Date Wierdness in Reviews (13 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)
Why does my most recent review--How to Breathe Underwater, Ch. 8--appear with a date of March 31?
360 2018-05-10 10:29:46
Re: Ponies (15 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)
On horses and humans: https://phys.org/news/2018-05-foundatio … nship.html
361 2018-05-08 06:15:28
Re: General Comments Section (281 replies, posted in Alpha to Omega - Review Group)
I spend an hour to several on every review. I'm trying to get to your latest chapter.
362 2018-05-07 08:44:24
Re: The Galaxy Tales - Dirk B. (1,217 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
But scale changes call for different engineering solutions. Surface area vs. volume, multiplied by higher energies that can be sustained in larger volumes. Structural forces needed to hold the thing together versus the distance over which the forces must be fransmitted. (See 'buckling' and 'deflection' in Structural Mechanics.) Ordinary metal conductors in smaller weapons vs. superconductors necessary for the larger volumes compounded by higher energies.
Scaling is a frighteningly simple matter. But if you make it simpler, the results can be frightful, costly, catastrophic failures. The sort that ACME likes to hush up.
363 2018-05-07 05:00:03
Re: The Galaxy Tales - Dirk B. (1,217 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
Same tech, some differences. You don't load a pistol the way you load a belt-fed gun, and neither is like loading a battleship's guns.
364 2018-05-01 14:50:38
Re: General Comments Section (281 replies, posted in Alpha to Omega - Review Group)
Writing analytical reviews can make you a better writer, too, as you learn from other people's work.
365 2018-04-29 19:59:21
Re: The Sorcerer's Progress (1,528 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
Thought I'd pass this on: Things I Won't Work With. Janet R. might find it especially interesting, in Jean Shepherd kind of way.
366 2018-04-27 12:50:54
Re: Discussion of C J Driftwood's, Raven's Curse (14 replies, posted in Alpha to Omega - Review Group)
I was thinking of the phone operator ... but the driver is very good, too.
367 2018-04-26 23:13:49
Re: Discussion of C J Driftwood's, Raven's Curse (14 replies, posted in Alpha to Omega - Review Group)
CJ, did you consider showing the leak at work in the AZ HQ at the end of the chapter? It would up the stakes as much as anything you've got, more even than the 'all the time' dialogue
368 2018-04-26 20:00:00
Re: For the GrammarHunden (3 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
Yes, but it really does take off before the end. And burn. And crash. And then the roof caves in. Just your mug of coffee.
369 2018-04-26 09:43:37
Topic: For the GrammarHunden (3 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
Somewhere around the fifth paragraph from the very end of the story body, the author of this story says what he thinks about people who worry too much about grammar and punctuation. But don't jump to the end. Read the story through. The journey is the point. Especially the part about the all-night auto parts store.
K, I'm talking to YOU.
370 2018-04-24 23:37:01
Re: General Comments Section (281 replies, posted in Alpha to Omega - Review Group)
njc wrote:I don't agree with covercritics.com all the time, but the guy makes good points.
OMG! Thanks for the link, this is validating! I agree with 99% of what they said. And some of those covers- sorry, not even worth 5 dollars. Harsh, sure. But I am a professional. You get what you are willing to pay for- and mostly you get less. Keep that in mind when shopping for cover-art and design.
It's an old but oft-neglected principle that you should expect less than you paid for--and more than you bargained for.
You're welcome, glad to help.
371 2018-04-24 16:28:20
Re: General Comments Section (281 replies, posted in Alpha to Omega - Review Group)
I don't agree with covercritics.com all the time, but the guy makes good points.
372 2018-04-24 07:15:05
Re: (Plan8 Slaves) - Rayner Jamie Ye (34 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
Per last review: -homo economicus-.
'economic' is derived from a Hellenic Greek word meaning household management.
373 2018-04-23 21:27:39
Re: How Many Words To Publish For Review (10 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)
If the reviewer has found twenty or thirty instances and commented in them for just a few issues, I think he's justified in leaving the author to find the others. It's probably more helpful to offer explanation and general suggestion in the end comment.
And if there are more than 80 comments, you could argue for a softball 'mercy rule' for both author and reviewer. Yes, I recently did one whose reported comment count went over 100. I've learned not to trust the exact count, but I'd be surprised if there were fewer than 85.
374 2018-04-23 08:08:44
Re: The Sorcerer's Progress (1,528 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
Searching for info about 'Heinleining', I found this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exposition_(narrative) .
375 2018-04-21 20:31:21
Re: (Plan8 Slaves) - Rayner Jamie Ye (34 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
It's the engineer-tinkerer in me. When something works, I want to know why. When it doesn't, I also want to know why.
Experts have been trying for over two hundred years to understand why this works They've got some interesting theories.