No hurry. Just finished a class on writing about place as a character.
Rub it in Amy! Rub it in. We poor weeping schleps over here all alone without you will somehow make it. Somehow. *weeps some more*
But really, I hope you have an awesome time! And no flu bugs this time! 
An update to the current computer crisis:
I have now determined that what I may have is a Linux driver problem. I Booted up the machine and put it into terminal mode. (It looks like a DOS screen in B&W). I ran some diagnostics, moved around the file system, and generally played around for over an hour. No screen problems at all, and no freeze/crash.
The instant I went to a GUI, it messed up and froze. Now I have to figure out how to install new video drivers from the command line.
Boring stuff for most here, I know. I'm still here for one more week, and then back to normal.
@Elishiva: I've always loved UNIX and Linux. We used it on loads of military projects when I was in the Navy.
~Tom
*takes notes* This is much better than my "I'm so sorry, rough week at work!" excuse! hehehehe 
Seriously though, hope you figure it out in no time Tom!
http://time.com/3998563/virtual-love-japan/
http://www.cbc.ca/news/trending/sex-rob … -1.3231089
Personally, I can see pros and cons to this. For: it could probably have uses in sex therapy and so on. Against: I'm no expert in human psychology, but I can see why some people are concerned about the possible impact this could have on society.
For most, I don't think the majority of the population will be fussed or inclined to do this i.e. life will largely carry on as usual and therefore, like so many other things that is the exception to the rule rather than the rule, I think we'll be okay.
It would be interesting to hear everyone else's thoughts.
Not to mention drop bears (we never went to war against them though) ...
http://web.archive.org/web/201305271338 … /Drop-Bear
I also strongly urge you to read the wikipedia page ...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drop_bear
But really, it's a lovely place to visit, and cheap these days too!
Emus had been a protected native species up until 1922, when they’d made such a nuisance of themselves that they were officially reclassified as ‘vermin’.
^--- your mates are epic over there
I'm assuming you are referring to the emus and not the Aussies when you're syaing "epic" ... Serious, don't f#ck with them (the emus). They are bullet-proof, powerful and big. They quickly went from "vermin" to "enemy #1" and we went to war against them. And lost. Won't do that again.
http://www.emugigs.com/emuwar/
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/2315839
Sadly, I don't think our defense force has improved since either. *sad face*
Well, you did ask for it:
Does your handwriting only look so small or do you actually write that small?
It could also be my eye-sight that is really getting old ...
Also, one of the sticky notes tried to get away - hope you didn't allow it!
Truth. Sometimes a fact or two has to cross a resistant barrier in order to bloat my brain.
Though instead of calling me funny, don't you mean salty? Hmmmm?
Hilarious but salty. Will that work better for you, milady?
Pictures?
Clearly I'm losing my touch *blushes prettily*
A photo of a sketch would also do ... I miss all those capacitors and resistors and diodes 
ps - Amy, you're funny - osmosis, LOL! I can see where Alda gets it from!
How is the turn-table thingy thing coming along?
Janet, I apologize. I didn't mean to mis-convey that I like anything
*cover ears with hands and sings tra-la-la-la-laaaaaaaa*
Elisheva Free wrote:Thing is, the authors were obviously aware of these rules and went against them with intention.-Elisheva
Oh yes, absolutely. Stephen King shatters his own rules often.
Therein lies the rube. When you're established and have a loyal following, you get piss all over the rules. But just starting out? No, sorry.
About speech tags. I know I am preaching here and I don't mean to offend anyone. This is Writing 101.
Speech tags such as yelled, shouted, exclaimed, added (I love that one--it was a hard habit to break), explained, reported, etc--all these are the crutches of a lazy writer.
Writing 101:
Rodger opened the door and found his wife in bed with his best friend.
"What the hell are you doing?" he shouted.
"See?" his wife smirked. "I told you he's an idiot."
The problem: Can you imagine Rodger saying "What the hell are you doing?" in any other way than a shout? And it's so hollow!
He slammed the door and his hands became fists. "What the hell are you doing?"
His wife smirked. "See? I told you he's an idiot."
(...and don't even get me started on "smirked." How does anyone smirk words? You can smirk and then say words or say words and then smirk. But try smirking and talking. Try it now. Seriously.)
Again, writing 101 and I don't mean to lecture or preach. But "He slammed the door and his hands became fists" is so much better than "he shouted."
Yes?
Yes, much better. But as far as I understand (haven't read the books), the millions and millions of Fifty Shades of Grey readers disagree (side-note - I sincerely doubt EL James deliberately broke any of the rules). And therefore "breaking" the "rules" do not automatically equals "no readers, publishers, agents or editors" and only lonely, isolated islands. YMMV. Neither am I saying I think EL James is a good writer. *shudders*
True. If you and your friends are the only ones you want to read your books. I am far too pussy whipped by the system to ever believe this.
1. You must not write in Third person omniscient.
2. You may not use too many adjectives.
3. You may not switch POV in Third person, single point of view.
4. You must avoid "was" whenever possible. You may never use "very" except in dialogue.
5. You may not use any speech tag other than said, asked, answered or replied.Sure, break these rules. Be a rebel. Maintain that your vision and power and passion of your storytelling will trump all these pointless guidelines. This is YOUR art, YOUR way. To hell with what readers, publishers, agents and editors want.
Have fun on your little island with a single palm tree. Maybe a cruise ship will pass by and see you.
Whoa! No need to take my comment personally or read more into it and putting words in my mouth as a result.
My opinion that there are no rules in writing is based on the risk that if every writer followed every rule to the letter at all times, writing will become boring, formulaic and non-differentiating, so I view it as guidelines. Rules starve creativity. Guidelines are optional, a personal choice, a decision to take it on-board or not. You can call it rules if you want to, I don't mind. For the same reason, I can call it guidelines though which, by the way, is saying nothing on whether I am disregarding the advice or not.
Nowhere did I imply that good advice should be ignored at all cost either, just that as writers we need to be careful of blindly following so-called rules as well as handing out blanket advice/so called rules. Neither did I imply that all and any advice ("rules") are useless - just that so-called rules can be challenged and should be challenged. I like what Elisheva said and 100% agree with her: go against the advice, but purposefully and deliberately. She said what I said/meant, just better.
I also believe rules should never be thrown around at will without any regard to whether it is applicable or not - it's about context and relevance. And I have also seen many so-called rules being thrown around with very little basis to back them up or understanding why the so-called rule exists in the first place. In this thread alone quite a few "rules" that you have posted have been challenged. Does it make it wrong/incorrect? No, of course not. Just that (1) care should be taken when "rules" are promoted and (2) that if you do, expect to be challenged on them (and even for doing so "blindly"). For most, I think most writers are in agreement most of the time on what is good writing, so it's not all doom and gloom and lonely little islands (where one disagrees or have a different opinion) necessarily.
YMMV.
That first one reminds me of Alice in Wonderland, only less childish than the film.
The second image, however, gave me a "Wtf?" moment, then my brain went off on all kinds of theories. Thanks, A.T. Now I'll be thinking about erotic mechanical aliens for the next few days.
-Elisheva
Looks the Southern Beach is best avoided! LOL
Two of many ...
There is only one rule for writing:
All rules are guidelines!
I'm two seasons behind with GOT. That says something. Time for another binge weekend to catch up I think. And that's the only way to watch tele - recorded/DVD/Netflix - no ads. Ads are time sucking suckers. Since I've started writing, I'm watching even less TV. I'm down to 3 shows a year (max).
Once GOT runs out, if not sooner, I'll try and watch Outlander. Curious to see how that would compare. Thanks for the heads up!
Oh, please. Any psychotic can get themselves locked up for days in a rubber room. But grabbing a chainsaw and chasing after the world's most powerful lightning, now that's fiction worthy of Lady Kay.
It takes much more though to get locked up alone for days and enjoying it!
The moral of ths story, some things are better not questioned and when things are going your way shut up and enjoy it. LOL
MIke
Then again, going "1-2-3 and don't say a word woman!" might leave him the manliest of them all, all by his lonely self ...
I also think saying, "1-2-3 and don't your dare end your next question/sentence with a preposition!" might lead to talking and talking and talking and not so much manly pursuits ...
LOL
I still enjoy reading. I am constantly nosed into a book. I selectively pick them, mostly by the jacket blurb, but favorite authors comes into play too. I rarely toss a book, though, for any reason. Maybe it's because I'm chintzy. I have noticed, however, that I now read with an editor's eye and can see some glaring mistakes at times. I owe this entirely to having joined this site. I don't like electronic books, mainly because of my eyes.
~Tom
I'm really running out of books to read, so I'm pretty desperate and are giving books I'd never otherwise would've looked at, a chance. But yes, being more selective and reading fewer books, but finish reading them, is a better way to go.
I work mostly on computers at work, so I also prefer the paper version. *high fives Tom*
Janet R...
TryGirl On The Train by Paula Hawkins
I could not put it down.
And I am getting the same way about books...I don't know if it's because I've developed an overly critical eye sussing out mistakes on the site or because I've read so much over the past 61 years that make me toss a book if it doesn't grab my attention and keep it.
Probably a combination of the two.
dags
Thanks Dags, will add that one to the list!
I've really been thinking and trying to analyse the reason behind gently putting the latest one to the side. These are the best ones I could find:
(1) It focuses only on the relationship - girl falls into river (too stupid to live moment to be honest, so I should've known by page 3 this wasn't go to end well - K is wise beyond his years! ) and boy rescues her and that's the last time anything really happened
(2) Nothing about them meeting afterwards flowed or felt "natural" ie it was too forced - this indicates to me lazy writing ie it was too hard for the author to put in the effort to show these two were meant to be in each other's lives
(3) It's a historical novel which takes place just after the American Civil War which I know very little about and should've been exciting to have as the background, but the research "worked into" the story is too much/overwhelming and I skipped half pages at places because I wasn't looking for a history lesson ... [the author mentioned all the research she had done in a dusty section of her local library on her recognition page ... maybe I should've known on page i already?!]
(4) The writing is pretty good and the concept, albeit probably a bit of a cliche (a Southerner moves north and falls in love with -too dumb to live- heroine that hails from the north - great friction/tension), can still be pulled off, but it still needs to have something else/more to carry its weight - North meets South by itself isn't ever going to be enough to make the novel work ...
Added to (2), the whole "inciting incident" was also a bit hard to believe. She returned home two days earlier from a visit, but didn't tell anyone and walked from the train station home which from what I could gather was a fair distance. So why not tell your dad so that he can come and pick you up? Oh, of course, *slaps myself over the head*, then she wouldn't take a short cut over the frozen river despite thinking the ice is too thin to save a few minutes/yards walking to the bridge (quick change of mind from someone who was just a day before willing to walk MILES to her home for the stupidest reason ever - to apologise for fighting with her boyfriend about a fight she didn't start) just a bit further up the river and the hero won't hear her call for help and they wouldn't spend two days together in his cabin with no one none the wiser and then they can go on and on about their "secret" for the next 90 pages while SFA happens otherwise. *end of muddled rant*
Reason one is very flimsy, because I've read Tom's "You Only Love Twice" and loved it although it's purely relationship driven (I can really recommend you lot should read it while you can "for free"!). So I think it's not so much that it focuses on the relationship only, but maybe more that the author didn't pull it off like Tom did for example. But I also know I prefer my romance novels to have a secondary plot in general, so I guess if it doesn't, it needs to be done exceptionally well or else it's going to go flying and Mike (our newest member around) will have to sharpen his skills to avoid missiles around here!
So at least it's not a complete waste of time as I'm learning how not to write historical fiction from a reader's perspective and witnessing the reason "rules" exist - I knew before reading this book that (3) is a BIG no-no. (2) is really common sense ie never underestimate your readers!
How not to overestimate your readers is a topic for another day!
Hey, Janet Reid! You're mentioned in it and have shameless pre-release marketing quip on the back!
Don't forget Broken's acknowledgements ...
Maybe I should be blushing already?! LOL 
I just added some rereplies to your replies to my comments on your latest chapter.
I've replied to your rereplies of my replies to your comments For most, I'm hoping that giving it some time, I'd find the best/better way to incorporate your suggestions. Or even better, that other reviewers will come up with some brilliant suggestions where I can not! LOL *Amy!!!! Dirk!!!*
The water was usually foul because there weren't any sewers. It was safe to drink ale because the ETOH killed off the bacteria
I was thinking rural areas - I don't think anyone would swim let alone drink the Thames' water!
And ha! ETOH still kills bacteria till today! Have to love those molecules!
There is a slang term in the US called Hangry. Hungry + angry. Thought you might like that one-)
That was clearly done in anticipation of my arrival! LOL
You've seen the Mars bars (I think it's also called Mars bars in the US) ads?
I'm not that bad, but I do recognise a little bit of me in them!
janet reid wrote:Is Norm back yet?! Hope the downsizing was a success!
Thanks for asking. I'm getting there. I'm still reading/reviewing here on TNBW, but I can't concentrate on writing with so much stuff to do. My list is still five pages long. I'm also watching movies and documentaries about Roman times and Christianity, which is research, mostly for the next draft. In between I torture myself with bi-weekly dental work. One infection and three dry sockets so far. Damn do those hurt!
Just found out there is a six week lead time for the Salvation Army to do pick ups of donations. Seriously? I'm drowning in bags and boxes. Anyone in New Jersey need an overly-cold fridge, a gently used king-size bed (okay, it's broken), or a large living room wall unit too small for most flat screen TVs? I've started dumping stuff on Craigslist, but when they see they have to carry a free fridge or mattress down three flights of stairs, they scurry away.
Good luck with that list! I get grumpy when my list is 5 lines ...
How does that work? You have to decide 6 weeks in advance if you may have something for them to pick up? I'm guessing most people will be able to do away with the items long before then, so it seems counter-intuitive.
Does this mean you're moving one of these days?
