I'm just editing my chapters, and one of my reviewers suggested that exorcist should lowercase in the following sentence:
“Where is your God now, Exorcist?”
Which is correct? If the person were addressing a priest, the word Father would be capitalized. An exorcist is simply a priest with specialized training and duties. I should add that the person being addressed is not actually a real exorcist. The demon addressing him is using the term derisively, hence the italics.
Thanks
Dirk
Just finished Heretics of Dune. Pretty good overall. Three books to go, then It's off to the Foundation series. Haven't read that in decades, and I'm pretty sure I only read the original trilogy, not the whole series. When I browse suggested books on Kindle, I realize I've already read many of the classic sci-fi novels from my teens. For the most part, I only remember the titles.
Isaac Asimov was once asked what he would do if he was told he only had a year to live. His answer: write faster! :-)
Milano, Marino, Moretti, Michel(Angelo), Maria. Time to update my names bible before I use any more names with an M. And I've lost count of the number of names I have that end in o.
Thanks, Dagny. I'll add it to my list. I like short episodes, as I'm easily bored. You've probably heard of Thirteen Reasons Why. The first season is about thirteen reasons why a teenage girl killed herself. It's intense. I had to watch episodes be of Friends in between. Season four includes some of the best acting I've ever seen. The lead actor, Dylan Minette, plays a teenager in his final year of high school who begins to fall apart mentally because of all the s--t he's gone through in high school.
It's available in Canada. I live in Calgary. I agree about content problems, though. Since I no longer own a TV or have cable, I keep paying for Netflix. I just started a new series called The Forest. French with English subtitles, but the story is good so far. It's a mystery set in a small French town. As often as not, I rent a movie from Google. Just watched Terminator 2 again after many years. The liquid metal Terminator was awesome.
I need a name for the team that Campagna and De Rosa are leading. I threw in a dedicated forensics unit to scrape demons off the pavement. I'm considering the Alpha-Omega unit.
You should post that to Premium. It's really interesting. Older readers like thrillers and religious books. I better write faster before they all die off.
I decided to keep reading until the end of the Dune series timeline, including the final two books written by BH/KA. I recall not particularly liking their two books, but I'm enjoying Heretics of Dune more than I remember. I also liked Chapterhouse on past reads. 3.75 books to go. Also good progress on plotting the investigation of Connor's history by Inspector Campana. I originally thought I would spread it out over many chapters, but I'm now wondering if I should roll most of it into one focused chapter, albeit with a lot of minor scenes as Campana bounces from location to location in her search, something like a Law & Order episode.
And Leto is history. I think I'm going to take a breather from Dune and skip to the Foundation series.
I study the writing technique from these masters, even if the story is boring.
The best description of Jonathan I can give is that it's a train wreck in slow motion.
80% of the way through God Emperor of Dune.
I'm considering rereading the Foundation series after I'm done with Dune. It's been forever since I read those.
I highly recommend the Heechee Saga if you've never read it. I've read it about three times. I think it's five books.
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.
Hmm. Ray has left the site and closed his account.
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.
For those with Netflix, check out a movie called Jonathan. Although I've seen stories about multiple personalities, Jonathan is a sci-fi spin on that. It's about two personalities (Jonathan, an uptight nerd, and John, the rebel) who each get to live 12 hours at a time, then their personalities switch thanks to an implant created by their doctor/adoptive mother. The film shows their structured lives and how they communicate with each other, and then there's this girl, and the threads completely unravel. I've seen it three times. I find it spellbinding.
The new chapter eight is up. Time to see if the centuries-old secret passes the smell test.
My thanks to everyone for their well wishes. Whatever I had is pretty much gone. I won't know for a few days if I had Covid. Felt like the flu and food poisoning combined. Thankfully, I didn't need to go to the hospital. I do, however, have to buy new shower doors. Lost my balance and crashed into them a few nights ago. Fortunately, they weren't glass. That would have been really bad. Still managed to give myself some permanent scars, though.
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.
Just a quick note to let everyone know I haven't abandoned your stories. I fell ill recently and am being tested for Covid tomorrow. Unless there's a relapse, I'm over the worst of it. Will try to catch up on reviews soon.
Thanks for your patience.
Dirk
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.
As if my writing wasn't going slowly enough, I appear to have caught Covid in spite of having practically shut myself off from the world. There are practically no cases of this stupid disease in Calgary when compared to the total population count, and I still got it. If the early studies are correct, that having this disease doesn't confer long immunity, we are in for one hell of a decade. A recent camp outing of hundreds of kids under somewhat careless conditions ended up giving the disease to almost half of them in just a few days. How does one reopen schools with a virus like that? Say goodbye to eat-in restaurants, bars, cruises, air travel, gyms, cramped stores, etc.
Congratulations, Bobbie. Well earned recognition.
Oh, I don't know. I would have loved to have had interludes fleshing out the past of the universe he created even in book one. Instead, we have the prequels/sequels by his son, whose characters I rarely warmed up to. Admittedly, I doubt Frank Herbert would have written 13 more novels (and counting) in the Dune universe. I suppose I should be grateful there is a Dune franchise at all, given that FH died before he could finish book seven. There are a lot of people who would pay good money to see the notes he left behind for that book.
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.
