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I'm all caught up on Dictates of Faith. Waiting for more. Bzzt!

Also, I finally settled on Warheads Et Cetera, Inc., as the replacement for Acme. Plus a whole bunch of changes from your review, Amy.

Also started reading the Pendragon books by Rebecca Vaughn.

I'm now trying to figure out if Joseph is Catholic or Protestant. He's going to talk with Elder Amos about everything going on in his head, and I'm trying to decide if it should be a confession. If he's Catholic, then where is the Pope in my universe? Still on Imperial Earth? I'll probably make him Protestant to avoid the issue, which means I need to rename the maid droid, Rosary. Minor stuff.

Bill, it happened to me quite a while ago. I think Sol had to eventually fix it for me.

War & Stuff Corp.?

It's intended as a background character that shows up in news reports, blamed for murder and mayhem, but is not seen until the second-to-last chapter. Mostly there for fun, to keep the reader guessing what it'll do next.

I can't use Latin, Bill, since Latin implies the Imperium, whereas the tech company also sells to the Realm.

Possible names so far:
1. Monopoly, Inc.
2. Warheads and Toys Corporation (Wartoys Corp.)
3. The Company, Inc.

So far, I like 2 the best.

1 is good as it needs no explaining, but it may remind the reader of the board game everytime I refer to it.
I could use the short form for 2 (Wartoys Corp.) after first introducing the full name. The name Wartoys seems acceptable on its face as a potential defense contractor, but becomes a subtle gag as the book progresses and I add more and more stuff that they make.
3 is meh.

Thoughts?

Thanks K, Bill. The original idea was to explain Acme in a Galactipedia article about interstellar travel.  A. Hinkley (a riff on R. Hinkley, the Gilligan's Island professor) discovers the starlanes, builds the first stardrive, founds Acme, which eventually becomes a galaxy-spanning monopoly. Unfortunately, that Galactipedia article won't appear until late in Act I, so I would be using Acme (or some other name) unexplained for a dozen chapters. Acme has the advantage of being slightly silly (too much, from what you're telling) and somewhat self-explanatory.

The three options I can see are:
1. Get rid of Acme altogether.
2. Include a sentence early on explaining that Acme is a galactic tech monopoly, and expand on it before the end of Act I.
3. Rename it to something unique to my story (like Mama's Little Shipping) and, if needed, explain it briefly up front.

I'm leaning toward 3.

Go to your profile page (second menu item on the dropdown) and click on Edit Profile.

K, I gather you weren't a fan of Acme, Inc. in the latest chapter. Is it because the chapter is relatively serious, or just a general dislike of Acme? So far, I've used it as the manufacturer of wisethings, droids, crispers, interstellar drones, and sound scramblers. It's meant to be a running gag the same way Mama's Little Shipping ships everything, including pizza and sewage. Speaking of nonsense in a serious chapter, there is the appearance of Aussie in chapter one. Like? Dislike?

Thanks.
Dirk

a) IMO You don't have to say 100% time "Hey there's guards"... saying "They walked down the hall" instead of "he walked down the hall" would suffice.
Apollo left his suite and they walked down the hall. Doesn't really work. I'll fool around with it.

b) Rebecca has had great success in naming 2 of the honourguard such that they can interact with the scene a little. This is great for keeping them valid.
I totally forgot that Captain Lucilius is head of his Candidatii detail. Duh.

c) I know I couldn't pull this off. You mean there are 4 cannon fodder characters hanging around? They'd be dead within 2 chapters, I promise.
Soon. I promise. The Imperator has 8, the Imperatrix has 4, and Apollo has 4. That doesn't include the regular guards posted around the palace. And then there's the guards who launch the suicide strike. I may need some molten grenades. Crispers ain't gonna to be enough.

d) He has a knife??
Nuts. Too much time between posts. Apollo always had a knife. Granted, he's no Maud'Dib. This time around I gave them to the whole Imperial Family.

Question. Apologies if I've asked this before.

Apollo is always accompanied by a quartet of guards (the Candidatii). I'm trying to decide if I always need to say they're with him, or if it's sufficient to say once they're always with him and then maybe an occasional reminder that they're there. If I did the latter, would the reader think they're not always with him? I forget at times that they're supposed to be with him when I write his scenes, so I had to add it to my chapter checklist to be sure they're included.

Seabrass's story of Lake-Ellen includes a staff called Dandelion that she uses for defense, and he always mentions it's with her. I can't recall how often Tolkien wrote about Gandalf's staff.

Thanks
Dirk

Hmm. Having Apollo, Augustus, and Augusta in the same scene makes for a lot of 'A' names.

I'm not sure I understand your point. Cain still makes an appeal on his son's behalf, but only after failing to save his own skin. If you recall, Cain was not exactly the pinnacle of fatherhood. He freely admitted (in the paragraph that follows the speech above) that he forced Andrew into the attack. He also sent Andrew flying into the study wall because Andrew refused to shoot Joseph. Also called him a useless creamer, which is this world's equivalent to fag or faggot. You still rooting for him? I suppose I could shorten Cain's appeal to save his son. I could let Joseph think about the fact that Andrew refused to shoot him; it would add to Joseph's big fail when he refuses to speak on the kid's behalf. The latter is worth doing regardless, so thanks for the inspiration.