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On the home page, if would be very handy to have a checkmark to the left of each work (chapters, shorts, essays, etc.) showing which ones I've reviewed. That way, when I see something in the list of books or my connections, I'll know at a glance whether or not I've already reviewed it. This would probably be most useful for books, where we see that someone has posted a chapter (e.g., 17) but don't readily know if that's the latest of their chapters that we've already reviewed vs. a new one to be read.

Thanks.
Dirk

I hope you find a release from all that stress, Karen. I'd recommend finding a new job, but that can be very stressful too. I know the feeling about not having the energy to write, although for different reasons than yours. I decided to stop writing at least until I get my office organized and my taxes done. So, however long that takes, I'll just be reading for a while. I  don't know about you, but I always find starting a new chapter is the biggest hurdle. Once I've planned it, I can usually write it within a week, but it takes me several weeks to get up the desire to do the next chapter. At the rate I'm going this is going to be a five year odyssey just for the first book.

Dave, thank you very much. That's great to know. Also, cool that memory is passed to our offspring.

I only know Annelie through her FB posts, but I'll keep her in mind.

Thanks
Dirk

Thanks, Vern. I usually research way more than I use. I'm sure we all do. It will probably distill down to just one to two paragraphs, but I'd like it to be at least theoretically possible. I posted my question on a few science forums as well. If the real answer is too complicated to write simply, then I'll probably just write it as a rushed vaccine that caused sterility in the kids.

However, as a result of this exercise, I realized that the human engineering disaster can be the same one that causes civilization to collapse in our century, leading to the future world as I've written it. If I weren't doing the homework and thinking about it, the book would have had two major disasters to describe instead of one.

I went through the same exercise with a future version of an auto recycling plant that allowed me to create a very simple solution that accomplished what the scene needed without totally ignoring reality. Otherwise, I would have had acids, and one-way force fields, huge vents, etc., none of which is needed in the version I eventually settled on.

I can't wait to write the physics for dogfights in space.

Dirk

I think this may be easier than I thought. Most of us are carriers of one disease or another due to recessive genes. It's only when you pair up two recessive genes that you get an actual disease. Given that, I think it would be easy to create an effect with an undertested vaccine. You vaccinate the population in one generation causing recessive gene damage in that generation, leading to a pair of damaged genes in 25% of the offspring, who then have an actual disease. In this case, the disease is sterility.

How's my logic?
Dirk

Have your mages/characters be responsible, whether intentionally or not, for either the rise or fall of the entire Maya civilization, before the Spanish arrive, of course, and kill everyone off with new diseases and weapons. That would give you epic scope. Maybe even more than one book.

Okay, I did the hard part. All you have to do is figure out a few details.
Dirk

I researched the ancient Mayans, Inca, and Aztecs for one of my chapters. All three would be fantastic settings/cultures for a fantasy story. I focused on the Mayans (technically, it's Maya, but whatever). Their pyramids, monuments, culture, and technology rivaled those of the Egyptians. All three of the aforementioned societies could be quite violent, though, including human sacrifice. If you want to see how bad it might have been, rent Apocalypto.

Dirk

Max, I'm very sorry about your health problems. Feel free to go off on tirades any time you like. PM me if you want and we can trade horror stories. :-) For my own demons, I tend to incorporate them into my two main characters. As a result, they are two very screwed up characters, increasing with each chapter.

Karin et al, thanks for the additional info. I'll start hunting where you suggest.

Following is the part I'm most unclear about. Let's say that most men and women are innoculated via gene therapy against a highly contagious and fatal disease. Everything seems fine. People go back to their normal lives and start having babies who are now probably carriers of the modified gene by inheriting it from their parents. Those children have babies, etc.

How might the modified gene eventually cause sterility or defective babies several generations beyond the original innoculation? I understand the basics of DNA from the parents combining after conception, but not how such a defect would creep in after a few generations.

Thanks.
Dirk

Now to put this baby on steroids!

As mentioned in my earlier post, genetic engineering of humans will be banned some time in the next few hundred years because of too many unintended side effects, including Apollo's incurable Trembler's disease. I was hoping to make the cause for the ban huge, big enough to scare the human race from ever resuming engineering on humans.

Specifically, I've always wondered if it was possible to genetically engineer ourselves into sterility that doesn't show for a few generations. Billions of people potentially becoming evolutionary dead ends. Probably the result of providing resistance against an ebola-like worldwide epidemic. The unintended consequence would be a great reason for a universal ban. They'll call it God's Law (i.e., don't mess with creation).

Can anyone envision a scenario as to how that might work?

Thanks.
Dirk

That's a cool quote.

Mike, I just want more than "It's a mental illness and there is no cure." I'm hoping to make it a genetic change that can't be altered because, as NJC, suggested, the change would be incompatible with the human body in that future era because of too much tinkering.

I'll probably include a galaxy-wide ban on genetic engineering, enacted some time in the 22nd or 23rd century after too many severe side-effects come to light that can't be undone. Apollo's illness will just be one more resulting illness. A ban on genetic engineering will explain why humans in 4017 aren't genetically-engineered supermen, which seems to be where we're headed.

Thanks to all. I'll follow up on some of the posts to this thread.

Amy, tsk, tsk. Shouldn't you be writing?

I'm still considering Swarm as the Realm's roaming equivalent of the Praetorian Fleet.

Besides that, I want it very simple. I'll either go with Fleet/fleet or Fleet/force to distinguish the whole fleet from a subset of the fleet. Hopefully, I won't find it necessary to name battle groups.

Most readers probably won't give a damn about Fleet/fleet, but it eases my OCD. :-)

Gracias to all.
Dirk