Welcome, Greg.

To maximize the number of reviews you'll receive on the site, have a look at one of the dedicated posts on that topic in the Premium forum. It's pinned near the top of the forum.

Hope it helps.
Dirk

277

(309 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)

It didn't previously, but I'll add it to the list of things it could be. smile
He's actually called that because I renamed the combat pit to rumble pit.

278

(309 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)

A collective gasp and a low "ooh" rippled through the crowd.

Better?

I'd create the group, but I'm at the limit (10). I'm the creator or sole moderator of most of the other groups, so, like Hotel California, I can never leave. smile

Feel free to create the group, though. We can always delete it later if it goes unused.

Music to ease the anxiety of our American brethren before Sol closes this thread and banishes me (my fault for derailing my own thread with a snarky political joke):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gb8AGuD2uOI
https://youtu.be/WOmaTsyXyuM?si=ff9Bn525Yf3p3WRx

Both of these singers have stunning voices. The latter is only 14 years old.

Enjoy!

281

(260 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

Welcome, LN.

There are definitely SFF readers/writers here who will most likely have a look-see, myself included. Many folks here, though, including published authors, often read/write other genres but will read the works of others regardless of genre. My Archangel Syndrome book (work in progress) has had quite a few members review it who normally fall outside SFF. They're experienced writers/reviewers, so their feedback is consistently excellent.

Have a look at another post in this forum for tips on how to maximize the number of reviews you can get. It's one of the posts pinned at the top of the forum.

Best advice is to dive in and start reviewing. Almost everyone here reciprocates. Be sure to click on their member name and check their profile to see when they were last online. If it's been more than a month, they may be offline for an extended period (people come and go as life and health dictate).

Try to avoid big monolithic posts like your first short story. It's harder for potential reviewers to find the time to dedicate to one long story. Many folks here prefer to review works (stories or chapters) in one sitting. You can split your stories in two (just name them to be obvious (e.g., -part 1 of 2, -part 2 of 2). I have chapters I've had to split in three to help keep my reviewers sane.

If you have any questions, feel free to post them here in Premium. That's one of its main uses. Also, you can send me a connection request, if you like, so we can talk about members behind their backs. tongue  I'm happy to help you get up to speed as quickly as possible.

Funny spelling isn't a problem. Plenty of Canadians here, myself included, although I'm primarily targeting a US audience, so I use their philistine spelling and quote marks. Also, at least one writer from Scotland, a land of great music, fast talkers, and optional punctuation. :-)

Dirk

Or sing it to the tune of "Let it be."

Marilyn Johnson wrote:

He bought himself a president, so why not?? smile

Musk probably wants to play president. You know, the way Dick Cheney ran everything under Bush Jr.
The only good news I've heard recently is that Musk was born in South Africa and is a Canadian citizen. He can never run for president of the US! smile  The scary part is he can probably run for prime minister of Canada.  >:-(

The only reason the Canada-as-51st-state idiocy drives me nuts is that the media on both sides of the border keep covering the damn story, keeping the nonsense alive. Apparently, there aren't enough people suffering and dying around the world to keep the media entertained. In 2017, I told Google's news feed to stop showing me any stories about Trump. I'll do that again soon, but I just can't look away from the impending train wreck yet.

Y'all are welcome to seek refuge in Canada as needed.

As you can see above, the cognac has begun to kick in.

It occurs to me that if Donald tells his legions that the vaccine contains the disinfectant he suggested people inject, far more folks would be vaccinated. Of course, then RFK Jr. would have come along and revealed to people that the manufacturers, all of whom are secretly working for the Chinese government, are leaving out the Lysol for batches of vaccine going to red states. But once they're wise to the conspiracy, MAGA will storm Costco locations throughout the blue states, looking for Lysol. And if they run out, they can inject the highest quality maple syrup imported from the Union's newest northern member state.

The South shall rise again!

Lots of cognac! That's as close as I'm willing to get to injecting a disinfectant. Tell Donald it doesn't work, but you'll be so drunk you won't give a hoot. Until the hangover, of course, so be sure to stay drunk!

Thanks, Alan.

Marilyn wrote:

(By the way, I triple-checked this for nits before posting—did I miss any)

Just the closing question mark. smile

Thanks for the best wishes, George and Marilyn. I'm feeling better today. Let's hope it lasts this time. Apollo, Joseph, and Connor aren't getting any younger.

Dirk

P.S. Just messing with ya, Marilyn. Made you look. tongue

289

(309 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)

Funny thing. I forgot that, in American English, a rumble usually involves gangs/groups. So now I'm trying to decide if I should keep the rumble/rumbly terminology. I'm leaning toward keeping it.

I'll go with Sir Remington (Rummy) Rumblebottom IV. It's unused. And that gives me Sir Rummy, which is perfect.

I've been fighting off Covid since before Christmas, so I'm only here sporadically, usually via smartphone. Everytime I think it's going away, I wake up the next day to discover I was overly optimistic, although I have made some progress. I can't imagine what this would be like if I hadn't been vaccinated recently. Yeesh.

I hope to return to doing at least one review a day soon. Sorry for the delay.

Thanks
Dirk

Sol,

The help documentation still refers users to support@thenextbigwriter.com rather than contact@thenextbigwriter.com. Also, last I checked, the site references the support email address when new users are trying to sign up and have to verify their email address. If they have an issue at that point, they won't be able to sign up, and we'll never know it.

At a minimum, is it possible for you to set up a simple forward of support emails to the contact email address, so that it's at least being monitored? The latter approach seems like it would involve less work.

However, the help documentation also still references the obsolete phone number, which should simply be deleted.

Thanks
Dirk

A nice right-click menu at the moment you want to start commenting would probably do it as long as the site could take you back to where you were at that moment.

293

(309 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)

Thanks for checking that. Didn't even occur to me. I had a look at it. Although you can use copyright to try to prevent anyone from using a unique name (Harry Potter?), if its important enough to protect all uses of that name in any fictional work (Harry Potter?), they'd almost certainly have to go for a trademark (eg droid). The example you found doesn't appear important enough that anyone would bother. Also, I only use the name once (I use Sir Rumbly everywhere else), and mine is Sir Reginald Rumblebottom IV whereas they use Lord Reginald Rumblebottom. Also, mine is the name of a relatively unimportant android in one chapter of a sci-fi novel, whereas theirs is something totally different.

I'm pretty sure I'm safe.

294

(309 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)

I added an android sports commentator for the combat pit, which I've renamed the rumble pit. Unfortunately, the android grew sentient and went off the deep end as Lo Bidda androids like to do and began making ludicrous British-slang comments in an English accent. Rather than replace it, the kids renamed it Sir Reginald "Rumbly" Rumblebottom IV (Sir Rumbly). Part of the credit for the slang goes to Gemini.

I'll probably do a full repost of chapters 8 and 9 once the cleanup is done. In the meantime, I highlighted the new nonsense in bold.

I have to admit I laughed my ass off writing Sir Rumbly's dialogue.

295

(68 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)

Okay

296

(68 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)

Ah. Cool. I forgot to ask, is there a way to export an entire thread from the backup to a text or Word file in some searchable/browsable format? That would probably be the easiest way to handle huge threads, although currently I'm the only one who still uses any. It would allow searching the file(s).

Thanks
Dirk

297

(68 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)

Cool. What do you foresee people uploading?

298

(0 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

I asked Gemini to make up some absurd expressions for my demented space opera that some distant future British commentator might use while describing a martial arts fight in a mud pit (as if that wasn't absurd enough):

- "Not half bad, old bean! Though a bit like a walrus on roller skates."
- "Gadzooks, that was a barnstormer! Like a runaway wheelbarrow chasing a flock of pigeons!" 
- "Well, I say! That was quite the carry-on! Like a tea party on a runaway rollercoaster!"
- "A right bobby dazzler, that was, like a giraffe tap-dancing in a teacup!"
- "A bit of a rum affair, if you ask me! A giraffe wrestling a penguin!"

Sol, happy new year. We have a returning user (whatta) whose account was created in 2006. He can post chapters and short stories, and the posted works show on my home page, but when I look in his portfolio, the book (Tropical Cancer) doesn't show up. Any idea why this might be?

Thanks
Dirk

Also, hit the escape key to attempt to bypass that popup.