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Chapter ten changes are up (Campagna meets Connor). Not enough changes to be worth annoying people for a fresh review. The most important thing is that the Antichrist is at least half human. That's one of the ways the cops will distinguish him from mere demons. If you douse a demon with holy water, he dissolves like the chief exorcist did in chapter eleven. I'm going to include toy water blasters among the weapons, filled with holy water. :-)

Next, a very quick polish of chapters eleven and thirteen, then I need to start plotting new stuff. It occurred to me that I could include another murder in this act, if I want to. Chapter twelve will include Campagna investigating Connor's early life, the first meeting of the task force hunting the Antichrist, and the evaluation of evidence from the historical murders.

Does it matter that the only detectives on the task force are Campagna and De Rosa? The rest are beat cops from the scenes at the basilica and the villa, chosen because they already know about the crucifixion. Mostly constables. Since this is no longer a conventional investigation with lots of clues and sleuthing, I figured the beat cops would be good for chase scenes, no-knock searches, and shootouts.

Those promotions for the inspectors seemed like a nice touch as I was writing it, but I just realized I now have to write Senior Inspector Campagna, where it used to be just Inspector Campagna. That's going to get tiresome. Also, technically, there is no Senior Inspector in the Vatican, but I don't care.

The new chapter eight is up. Time to see if the centuries-old secret passes the smell test.

Frank Herbert can be tedious at times. I have no doubt he often wrote to force his readers to think, which is part of the challenge, but I just finished another chapter of God Emperor of Dune that's as muddy as most of Dune Messiah. What remains interesting is that he wrote such a long book (God Emperor) filled mostly with conversation and little action, yet is generally entertaining.

Thanks, NJC, but the bad press leaves me unwilling to try it. I read an article tonight that suggests Naproxen has antiviral effects, as opposed to Ibuprofen, which we're supposed to avoid, both based on limited evidence, of course. I appreciate the suggestion.

Congratulations, Bobbie. Well earned recognition.

I moved on to God Emperor of Dune. Still as enjoyable as I remember. Surprisingly, Frank Herbert used a lot of summaries of history for those not familiar with the first three books. Most notably, a report within the Bene Gessirit that provides an "update" on every aspect of the Dune universe and how it changed over 3500 years. A number of writers on this site would have told him to get rid of it and work it into the story as it goes along. Personally, I like the report. Kind of like my Galactipedia articles.

When you add the new chapter from inside the wizard, you can reuse the same chapter number, but you need to increment the version number.

Okay. Four Dune novels is enough for now. Back to writing...

> Did I thank you for all your reviews?
Of course you did. Your folks done did raise you right. I saw your monster posts of War & Peace. Still looking for time to review chapter 2 to do it justice. What's your deadline?

Thanks
Dirk

Welcome, Julian. Mysteries & Thrillers is relatively inactive as forums go. The best forum to say hello and introduce yourself and your work is in Premium. Next to that, Medieval/Fantasy Magic is a diverse mix of writers, including me (writing a supernatural thriller). Others there write fantasy and sci-fi in spite of the legacy group name. Each long term member of the group usually has a long-running brainstorming thread in that group's forum, where we exchange ideas. Mine remains the most active, called The Lord of the Earth. Ignore most of the first ten pages; it was mostly me going insane trying to find an unused title for my series. I also post comments there about books I'm reading (working my way through the Dune universe) and critiquing plot holes in Gilligan's Island episodes. :-)

If you don't think you'll have a need for a brainstorming thread, you can still post your mystery/thriller stories in this group (it's one way for people to find it), but be sure to cross-post to Premium, as that's where most of the users are. For writing or site questions of virtually any type, you can try your brainstorming thread, or post it to the Premium forum. The latter will probably result in the fastest and most complete responses.

Again, welcome!
Dirk