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I'm wondering how detailed to get with armed forces on New Bethlehem. In v2, I had just the Armed Forces and robots providing all forms of guarding and policing. In v3, I've added a separate Royal Guard for the Royal Family comparable to the US Secret Service, and the Regent deployed the Armed Forces to secure the Senate when the Imperium invaded early in the book.

It seems easy to add a separate police force, but then come questions like who guards the Senate, who guards the traitors, who guards the parade, who guards the funeral route, and who deploys into the havens during the second invasion? Robots will be everywhere, but they're always overseen by humans. Most of these could probably be handled by police, although it seems odd (to me) to use a police force to handle the public hanging of the traitors.

Thoughts?

I'll ping you when Aussie reappears. He's definitely going to have a kickass scene in the book's revised wrap-up chapter.

Cool. Thank you. Much better.

Yet there are verses in the NT that seem to support capital punishment.

Unless you're guilty of treason on a world under constant threat by the Imperium. I'm trying to decide if it should apply for all capital offenses, or just for treason. As a strict law and order world, it would probably be the former. If I want them to be a little more humane, it would be just the latter.

I need Andrew's execution to be traumatic for Joseph. Joseph has a chance to speak on his behalf but is too afraid of what people will think if he comes to the defense of a gay kid. Andrew's homosexuality comes out during interrogation and is public knowledge by the time of the trial. The Senate vote in favor of Andrew's execution is very close, so Joseph's input might have made a difference. Ditto if he had pressed his mother to intervene.

His execution does kinda blow the idea of a friendly Christian world out of the water, though, huh? I'll find a way to include a debate about executing a minor, probably after his rather traumatic death.

What about the paragraph below to tack onto the end of the New Bethlehem Galactipedia article? I hacked away at all the detailed Biblical references from yesterday because there are too many conflicting/confusing points of view about key Bible verses I was hoping to use. I'm trying to establish that New Bethlehem is not an evil place (e.g., there are opposing points of view about punishment for crimes based on the Bible), but that being on the border of the Imperium necessitates strong rule of law. Should I eliminate the term inquisition, given its negative place in history? I could simply refer to them as harsh interrogation techniques...

Thanks
Dirk

New Bethlehem has been criticized for its use of harsh interrogation techniques, known as inquisitions, and death by public hanging for capital offenses. The term inquisition, with its troubled history, is meant as a warning to would-be criminals. There is growing pressure from other members of the Realm to eliminate these practices. Nevertheless, many Christians claim that hard punishment for sin is consistent with the Bible’s Old Testament, while others argue that Jesus was the fulfillment of the old laws, cleansing sin with his blood. Regardless, most inhabitants of New Bethlehem accept strict rule of law as a means of defending their world from the Imperium, which many believe is the literal realm of Satan. Conspiring with the Imperium is considered the worst possible crime, and high-profile cases are tried in the Senate, where the conviction rate is 97%. Overly vocal critics of these proceedings are often accused of being Imperial sympathizers.

>> because I've dawdled and spun my wheels for the last twenty years.

That makes me feel a little better, given that my first book will take eight years, part-time. Although you're writing multiple books in that time, so you're moving at a blistering pace compared to me. I write about one chapter a month, including edits from my reviewers.

I can't believe there are authors who can crank out entire books in a few months.

Done.

Why Quantum?
Veil of Redemption - doesn't tell me anything
Redemption of Souls - I don't recall much in your stories so far that suggests anyone needs redeeming.
What's a Quarum? Did you mean quorum? If not, it doesn't mean anything to me, other than the Latin genitive feminine plural of quī, which also means nothing to me. :-)

What's your series about, besides a group of mages trying (not too hard) to figure out what happened at Earthwound? I've read two and one half books and besides Earthwound and overlapping characters/story arcs, I don't know where you're going. I must however allow for the fact that I'm a blockhead, so there's that. Is it meant to be a series of largely independent and interesting stories in the same magical world? If so, then you're doing fine.

You have only a few words on each cover to make people want to stop and read the book summary. Make 'em good ones. I'm either going with The Mind of God (good fit for most of my series - Into ..., Through ..., Out of ..., Beyond ..., etc.), or The Galaxy Tales. The Mind of God is an existing book and it's too likely to draw unwary serious Christians to a series that is almost impossible to make Christian-friendly, although I am trying in v3. That said, I want to avoid the nasty reviews that could follow, hence The Galaxy Tales.

Taxes done! Happy dance!

Okay, technically all I did was send a big ass spreadsheet and tax slips to my accountant, but it took two weeks to pull it all together.

There's a Nazi-inspired IRS form called FBAR that you have to file for every foreign account that you hold. It was meant to avoid tax cheating by millionaires and billionaires, but they of course decided to extend it to everyone, and penalties for innocent mistakes can be huge. It's electronic-only submission and the user interface was designed by idiots, so every year you have to reenter the same damn personal and bank information from scratch, including the maximum value for each account. Including old (now closed) and new Canadian accounts, I had to fill it out 10 times. It's virtually guaranteed that you'll type something wrong. Imagine my joy at sifting through all of my bank statements looking for the maximum amounts. My main bank made that extra pleasant by not having all of my electronic statements online, like they're supposed to. I then forward all of the FBARs to my accountant because he needs to enter the exact same information on form 8938 at his end. Turns out there are two IRS departments who want this info, but they don't play well together. Futuo!

Fortunately, this is either my last or second-to-last year of filing those. However, Canada wants the same information about my U.S. accounts. Needless to say, I'm closing those ASAP. I'll be stuck with three, including two IRAs that are doing remarkably well under your tweeter-in-chief.

If only TurboTax supported FBARs. At least they know to import data from prior year returns.

Okay, I'm done venting.

On to my next chapter. Tomorrow. Maybe.

Also good as Rudolph's nose. :-)