Interesting idea. I'll look into it. What about to-do related to book?
Do you mean a separate to-do feature, rather than sending messages to self? It sounds interesting, but I know you have limited resources. Messages to self are a poor man's solution that probably require a lot less work. Your call.
Thanks.
Dirk
I was wondering how easy it would be to allow sending messages to self? I would use them as to-do items related to my book. Currently, I flip over to email and send myself messages there. This would create a record of them in my TNBW account. All doable using other software, but this puts them together.
Only worth doing if it's a simple tweak.
Thanks
Dirk
Can someone please suggest an image file type that translates well into book format? Compression ratio? Also, how to insert it into chapters here online. Bill suggested adding timestamps to my Royals Forum posts, and basic formatting doesn't lend itself to that. Should I use a Word table?
Thanks
Dirk
Almost wrote three whole drafts without looking up shogun. Turns out the word I was shooting for all along was samurai. Some days....
Spicy creme brule
v4 of chapter five, A Pax Romana, is up. I can't believe you folks allowed me to get away with v3.
K, I kept what you wanted and ditched the rest, then added the new material.
Quick go read!
Universal descendent!
Noah survived :-)
Grand Teetering Ark
Thanks.
Dr. Georges Gilles de la Tourette
I'm looking to keep it within the realm of physically possible, albeit improbable. I'll punt cold fusion in favor of generic power cores if I have to. I used the latter in my second draft. Cold fusion is a little sexier, without requiring an explanation. Assuming cold fusion is ever made to work, it is expected to emit heat, which is converted to power. Instead of the leaked coolant in v2 causing the pilot to be cooked from within, I assume I can vent excess heat into space. So I would need to destroy the ability of the fusion core to vent heat to get the same roast pilot. Yes?
The subways are definitely very loud when they go shooting past.
Sparkanium it is.
Next item. Does anyone think it's particularly bad to have both cold fusion and dark energizers in the book? I don't dwell on it, but cold fusion is used for low power applications (e.g. flying cars, starfighters, etc.) while the energizers are used for all the big capital ships. I'm not sure where to draw the line, though. Should a garbage scow have an energizer?
On a related note, my understanding of cold fusion is that it produces excess heat, so I have a damaged fusion core overheating in a starfighter to the point of killing the occupant. I introduced coolant in the starfighters to prevent this from happening normally. Reasonable?
I was considering a mineral called sparkle, which would explain why one of the names for a dark energizer is Old Sparkie. I like the name, but dark energizers only appear in my battle scenes, so I'm not sure a nickname for a dark energizer would be used by people in a life-and-death battle, especially in the military.
Can someone suggest a real mineral on Earth that might be used in energizers to draw dark energy from the void as a means of very high power generation. I was considering radioactive tritium, but it's normally a gas. I'm hoping for a relatively rare mineral that might exist on other worlds in greater quantities. Think of it as Arrakis's spice, but for power instead of navigation. Should I just make one up?
Carrot Top.
Amy, if you look down, you'll see concrete. If you look to the front, back, left, or right, you'll see buildings. If you look up, you'll see sky. And crowds everywhere. (I'm 6'3", so they're like bloody hobbits underfoot.) And the occasional smell of pee. Look for signs that say 'Dirk was here,' especially near the pee. Re-watch Blade Runner before you go.
Seriously, there are two very nice cemeteries downtown, one with tombstones dating back to the 1600s. The World Trade Center, of course (I never saw the rebuilt version, unfortunately). The NYSE on Wall Street with lots of security. Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island boat tours leaving from the very south tip, Battery Park City downtown (lived there once), and the walkway up the whole West Side of Manhattan (especially nice downtown in spring), with views of NJ. Tour boats around the island (a must, IMO, right under the bridges). If you like the stink of fish, go to the Lower East Side. 42nd Street (unbelievable crowds, hold onto your kids). Central Park. Broadway shows. A zoo in Queens, I believe. There's a botanical garden somewhere, too. I don't recall anything in Brooklyn, but I never went very far there.
And on day two, .... :-)
blatant oppression
Hoof in butt.
Depends on whether you ask Paul or Moses.
I decided to give Trump a break after I read that a well-known televangelist (guess his name), after being caught in his third sex scandal, told his congregation, "The Lord told me it's flat none of your business." Talk about balls, pun intended. It was too funny to leave out, so I just threw in a few extras. I was listening to Elvis Presley sing An American Trilogy on repeat as I wrote this. Damn he could sing! My brother is selling a VW cheap, if you're interested.
New Bethlehem was founded by religious conservatives descended from the followers of the Reverend “Bombast,” as he was affectionately known by his flock. He was a Bible-thumping “prosperity gospel” televangelist with fiery rhetoric who grew his megachurch to over ten million members, before it was discovered that he embezzled church funds to buy a palatial mansion on a secluded estate, a private jet, two-hundred-year-old paintings by W., jewelry once worn by an Elvis Presley impersonator, and luxury cars, including a fully restored 2015 Volkswagen Golf (diesel). Bombast refused to resign, telling his followers, “The Lord told me it’s flat none of your business.” His eight-hundred-year-old church eventually fled Earth in the late third millennium to escape that planet’s ever-worsening Warming and strong religious bias in the face of renewed interest in the Roman pantheon under the Imperium.
I think Robert Stockington's review was the one that caused me to abort my first draft halfway through, not because he was blunt, but because he was right.
One way to avoid the overuse of dialogue tags is to have the speakers say the other person's name from time to time in the dialogue. Also, you don't need them if the context makes it obvious (e.g. One person is mad, the other is trying to mollify them. In that case the dialogue should make it obvious.)
As for fancy tags, when they contribute value to the dialogue, I use them. Mostly I stick with said, asked, and replied, and even those can usually be eliminated. For example: "That hurts," John said, wincing. becomes: John winced. "That hurts."
Orio face Kleenex.
