3,526

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

This would be the same King James who commissioned the Bible, i presume? I'm surprised he let 'Thou shalt not kill,' make it through final edits. One of these days, I'll have to research when 'kill' was replaced with 'murder.' It was probably in the original NT, otherwise they would have had to rewrite the OT with its deity-approved wholesale slaughter.

I'm itching to get back to writing after so much chaos with my move. It's now tax season in two countries, so the final carnage of the second draft will have to wait until May. The only big unknown in the final act is whether or not it all falls apart. There's a major 'unbelievable crap' moment coming up right at the end, assuming you haven't already reached that conclusion. :-)  Book two yearns to be born!

3,527

(1,528 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)

K. wrote:

I find conversations where he is being addressed, but when I look for his posts, they're not there

Yeh. I'm not leaving my posts around for Google to harvest. I try to delete them within 72 hours max.

Hopefully, you haven't deleted all of your old posts to my own thread. I refer back to them from time to time....

I thought Amy blocked us from internet prying...

3,528

(1,528 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)

K appears to be winking in and out of our universe. I find conversations where he is being addressed, but when I look for his posts, they're not there. It's possible Professor Hinkley's time machine has disrupted the spacetime continuum. Perhaps K (aka Gilligan aka guy with the cool hat) has always been in 1966, sending us posts from his smartbanana while his head rests in the lap of a beautiful woman. The only question left to be answered is: Ginger or Maryanne? The camera pans up from K to follow the curvaceous outline of his buxom paramour. The neck comes into view, thrice encircled by glittering diamonds. We move up over the chin to the full mouth with ruby lips surrounding pearl-white teeth, so perfect they could be ... dentures? WTF? Mrs. Howell, K?!

3,529

(7 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

NJC, you don't automatically lose your old reviews when you post a new version of a chapter. If the old version is made invisible to reviewers, *you* still have the ability to see it and its reviews. If you want reviewers to have access to the old reviews, you can leave the old version visible alongside the new version. That way everyone will see the old version and reviews, as well as the new version.

3,530

(1,528 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)

AJ Reid wrote:

Nah, swords are the best!!! tongue

Pffft. Wait until the Almighty reigns down his righteous fire of destruction on your pathetic literary spawns of Satan. Hallelujah!

3,531

(2 replies, posted in Spirituality & Religion)

Congratulations, Janet. It was a pleasure to read.

3,532

(1,528 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)

Harder.

3,533

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

Elisheva Free wrote:
njc wrote:
amy s wrote:

Elisheva, go to bed :-)

This is our time of day!

I don't even get off work until 10pm. wink

As far as the summary goes, I've decided to deal with it once I'm done with the first draft. Until that point, most of the plot is subject to change anyhow.


-Elisheva

I routinely tell TNBW members to make the book summary here on the site as if it were the back cover of the book. It's your primary chance to nab would-be readers, whether here or when published. You can always update it anytime you want as the plot and characters evolve.

3,534

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

amy s wrote:

Here is another attempt for Dictates.

In Dictates of Faith, Jaylene comes back from the dead, a sure sign that the goddess needs her. But for what? The same day, someone tries to kill her. But who? As the plot is revealed, she will need the help of a friend to unravel  the answers. They journey into a series of underground caves…where magic is real and even the gods are in danger.

Still boring?

This I like. Who is Jaylene, btw? Your summary is worded as if we should already know her.

Here's a variant:

In Dictates of Faith, one in a series of four books, a character named Jaylene is brought back to life by her goddess to unravel a mystery where magic is real and even the gods are in danger.

3,535

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

K. wrote:

-.-

Too funny.

3,536

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

I like the first four. Based on the last one, though, that book must really suck. Also, it's "nova" fire, but I quibble.

3,537

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

Elisheva Free wrote:

Ack! I suck at summaries, but here goes...

Twin girls Maya and Vierra and young Dragons Noi and Dea find themselves at the center of a war where all may not be as it seems and their very existence could mean the difference between victory and genocide.

As for yours, Unbar, I really like K's version. Either way, it makes me want to read the book. smile

-Elisheva

I like it.

3,538

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

Apparently, I need two sentences as well:

Into the Mind of God is the story of two teenagers who are visited by a being who calls himself God and who leads them on a galaxy-spanning quest to save mankind. But is God a real deity or the imagination of two mentally boys?

3,539

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

amy s wrote:

I need two sentences. Dictates: "Jaylene is a priestess who saves her best friend from jail: together they combine forces and uncovers a threat to her goddess and everyone she holds dear. They journey into a series of underground caves…where magic is real and even the gods are in danger."

Yawn. This doesn't draw me in. I haven't read it, so I can't suggest anything better. At a minimum, drop the bit about jail unless it's a major part of the story and character arcs.

Acts: "Anver is a mage forced to run a a school of magic, surrounded by other teachers who want nothing more than to see him fail. He finds a secret room, and this leads him to discover an ancient evil within the walls of a place he calls home."

I would have loved to know this up front. It clearly defines the scope of the book. I would have stopped asking you what the quest was. Was this in the book summary? If so, smack me.

Mandates: "Kha is a mage who is dying after a cave-in that kills his apprentice and scatters his friends to the wind. In the process of healing, he finds the love of his life, a woman named Sil. Now, he just has to save her from herself…and everyone else who wants to kill her."

Kha's apprentice is killed at Earthwound? He had another apprentice besides Anver? As far as Acts vs Mandates, I don't recall a lot of backstory in Acts that summarizes Mandates. Again, if it's there, smack me.

What about your fourth book?

I assume I'm about to get smacked.

3,540

(1,528 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)

I occasionally kill my main characters only to show later why they're still alive. K prefers actually killing his characters only to resurrect them later, no matter how mangled they were. K i m b e r l y  R o s e got nuked and was still able to give birth to a live baby.

I only just discovered apricot brandy. Beats wine hands down in my book. Too bad it interacts with my medication, otherwise I could develop a serious addiction.

3,542

(10 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

As others have said, versioning is the way to "republish" work on the new site. I use it quite a bit. You can have many versions of the same chapter, usually as a way to hang onto old reviews associated with prior versions of the same chapter. For the most part, the workflow is similar to adding a new chapter, beginning with the Add Chapter step. When you reach the page where you specify the chapter number and chapter notes, choose the same chapter number as the one you want to replace, but increase the version number. As you follow the wizard, you'll have a chance to publish the new version, make it active, and make the older version inactive. If you want, you can keep older versions active as well, assuming you want feedback comparing the versions.

3,543

(1,528 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)

njc wrote:

Actually, the question was for Amy.  Would HH Norton I, a generally peacable fellow, be CCFCCP or something else?

When someone issues currency in your name, it begs the question who was CCFCCP, him or those around him.

3,544

(1,528 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)

Rindfleischetikettierungsueberwachungsaufgabenuebertragungsgesetz - meaning "law delegating beef label monitoring" - was introduced in 1999 in the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.

Brings Google Translate to its knees.

I now return this thread to its rightful owner, Professor Hinkley.

3,545

(1,528 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)

If CTD is cumulative trauma disorder, then Google's "kumulative Traumastörung" looks right. If it's connective tissue disease, then Google has a really cool translation that also looks correct: Bindegewebserkrankungen. Don't you love the way we Krauts can keep making longer and longer words just by stringing them together? I'm sure there's a contest for that sort of thing.

I learned a cool new acronym today: CCFCCP. Given it's tie to the English commercial, it would almost certainly be used in it's English form, assuming they don't have their own independently developed equivalent.

3,546

(1,528 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)

Not sure about CTD and CCFCCP, but I'm 95% sure Google Translate got this one right:
    Seine Hoheit , Kaiser Norton I. von den Vereinigten Staaten und Mexiko
or (slightly tweaked):
    Seine Hoheit , Kaiser Norton der Erste von den Vereinigten Staaten und Mexiko.

Common sense suggests that I, II, III, etc. are used after names in German as in English, although I never came across an instance in my Donald Duck comics. That said, I think "der Erste" sounds more cool, especially for a highborn.

3,547

(1,528 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)

Upon reflection (I.e. I gave it thirty seconds of thought), ver does occur frequently in German words, but I can't think of any rule that would apply to all ver words.

3,548

(1,528 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)

Since you insist, veruekt is roughly crazy or nuts. Scheisse is poop.  In the sentence above, possible translations for scheissveruekten would be bloody or damn (i.e. every bloody Saturday). I'm not aware of any special function for "ver", but my German is limited to basic conversations.

Dieser Scheisse schreibt sich einfach selbst is: this sh*t just writes itself.

3,549

(1,528 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)

Google Translate is your friend. :-)

3,550

(1,528 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)

I was just thinking today that I should make Joseph of German stock, so I can use German curse words for his ever-increasing potty mouth. I know a lot of the bad ones thanks to years of German school every scheissveruekten Saturday morning when kids should be home watching Bugs Bunny. Who wouldn't love to see Joseph's mother (speaking through Joseph) unload "Leck meine Eier!" at the guards outside the Imperial Palace after he's hit with the first stun blast? One wonders how they would react... tongue

Dieser Scheisse schreibt sich einfach selbst.