Search options (Page 100 of 169)

Chapter 24, Maya Reborn, is up. It incorporates everyone's feedback from v2. Billie makes a comeback when Joseph's life goes off the rails.

Quick, go read!
Dirk

Yeah, it'll be third person. I haven't planned enough yet to know if I'll have a reason to get into the POV of other characters.

This will be one heck of a useful case study. Be sure to include the Marketing Your Writing group when publishing it, so we can find it later.

One question I have is this: Is there a self-publishing entity that works like Amazon, but distributes the book in all major e-book formats, and makes the English version of the print book available for international purchase (e.g., in the US, Canada, England, Australia, etc.)?

Thanks
Dirk

This went faster than I thought. This is the epigraph for South Haven Strikes Back (the cadet massacre). Let me know if you think it works.

Judy Wood: An update now on our ongoing coverage of the manhunt for the elusive Queen Aussie. We can now report that Realm agents executed a raid on a suspected Aussie hideout on Electronic Junction, a deep space station that is home to many sentient AIs. Unfortunately, the raid yielded little new information. Authorities found only vast quantities of discarded fried Kiwi bones, a closet full of dresses, and numerous images of roboserfs in various states of undress. To help us analyze these findings, we are joined by famed criminal profilers, Drs. Shields and Brooks. Dr. Shields, let me begin with you. What do the findings in this alleged hideout say to you about Aussie?

Dr. Shields: Well, Judy, I’m convinced that Aussie is an Australian woman with a love for fried food and a contempt for New Zealand, with a fetish for roboserf pornography. Based on the quantity of Kiwi bones found, Aussie is almost certainly morbidly obese.

Judy Wood: Dr. Brooks, do you agree?

Dr. Brooks: No. I believe Aussie is a man from New Zealand who masquerades as an Australian. He’s allergic to chicken, so he eats Kiwi. He’s killed many women and kept their dresses as trophies. Also, he works as a tailor of sentient AIs on Electronic Junction, hence the pictures.

Judy Wood: Does this raid on Electronic Junction suggest the authorities are homing in on Acme Corporation’s CEO as the mastermind of the attack on the Royal Family? She frequents that station, and her artificial body has taste buds, so she might be eating fried Kiwi for pleasure.

Dr. Shields: Preposterous! In spite of the ability of Acme’s CEO to run their company, it is beyond the ability of an AI, even a sentient one, to dream up acts of violence as a means to increase weapon sales and drive up Acme’s share price.

Dr. Brooks: I agree. The idea is laughable. AI sentience is highly overrated. And let’s not forget her safeguards against homicide.

Judy Wood: And there you have it, folks. Don’t forget, we are a public service, so please donate now to pay my pathetic salary. Anyone who gives over one hundred crowns gets a free Kiwi deep fryer delivered to your door by Mama’s Little Shipping. Operators are standing by.

— Biblical News Network, New Bethlehem

Following is where I'm going with Queen Aussie. She is an AI product of Acme Corporation who becomes its CEO in AD 3994 (the same year she became sentient and ejected from Admiral St. James's destroyer), and she is a suspect in all the violence committed by a galactic criminal mastermind who goes by the same name/alias. Acme share prices go up after each violent event. Slowly, the noose will tighten around her, all reported through news stories at the beginning of violent chapters. Acme's Queen Aussie doesn't show up in person until the end of the book in a surprise twist.

Following is from the modified epigraph/news story of chapter 5 (Cain's trial and execution):

Naturally, Acme products are not always reliable (not sure yet how far to push that), and Acme's Aussie even admitted in the book's prologue that her safeguards against homicide overloaded after she became sentient.

Thoughts?

Guy Fawkes vs King James I was a doozy. Almost blew up in King James's face.

Sol, this bug should really be fixed. It makes the author chapter note field a sloppy mess for all newly posted and edited chapters, and it makes a poor impression for new users wondering about the professionalism of the site. This should be an easy fix.

An old related bug is when a user views an inline review in x-line mode (that's probably most of us). The reply box is tiny (less than 2" by 2"), even on a large screen. I reported this about a year ago. Here, too, it affects probably everyone, should be an easy fix, and makes a poor impression.

Thanks.

I need to spend a few days going back and doing cleanup of earlier chapters, so no new posts until late next week. One way or another, I'm going to decide the fate of Queen Aussie and Warheads Et Cetera this weekend. Until I change it again.

Based on my math, I'm less than six months away from finishing this book. Yay!

Thank you, both.

One of the nice things about editing over the existing chapter is that those who haven't reviewed it yet will still receive points for doing so. The advantage of reposting is that everyone receives points and your posted work reappears on everyone's home page.

If you repost, increment the version number for the new chapter, and hide the previous version, unless you want reviewers to see both. You can also delete the previous version, but then you lose all of the reviews associated with it (I think).

Any potential problem with free points is entirely "localized". If I give you free points and you grow to expect them every time, then I haven't managed your expectations. No one besides you and me is affected. People who can't or don't want to give extra credit, aren't affected by what I do with my points.

It's like telling me I can't give my son a $20 allowance for chores because other kids in his class get nothing for doing chores.

I yield to the lady with 2013 points.