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If you see new forum posts in your groups list, instead of clicking on the post, click on New Forum Posts. That takes you to a page that gives everything in the forum. From there you can click on the words 'new posts' next to a particular thread. I think that works. It's still a few too many clicks, but you saw what happens when someone makes suggestions for improvements. Vern is particular annoying because he likes to shoot down any changes to the site.

Actually, the fog isn't a problem. This is a supernatural being, not limited by lack of oxygen caused by dry ice. Romano charges into the mist but doesn't pass out, so he's left wondering if it was dry ice or supernatural fog.

Vern, in the time it took you to write that, the thing could already be fixed. And things don't get prioritized if we don't mention them.

The tricky part to work out next is the sleuthing/hunting/chasing to be done to fill half a book. Each death is a scene. The historical conspiracy in the Church archives will fill several scenes. A bunch of false leads will add some more. Security footage is good for at least a scene. There will of course be the obligatory car and foot chases. Reporting to the higher ups will be a scene. The ending will run five or more scenes (that overlap with Connor). I may add the special ops team back in for added tension and action. Add a stake out.

Also, there'll be an early scene where Angelo first introduces Inspector Campagna to Connor at the orphanage before the kid leaves for the Holy Land with Romano. Connor looks suspiciously like what Campagna's stolen baby might look like at age fourteen. Of course, according to chapter one, Connor was almost killed in a car accident that took his parents' lives, so could he really be her son?

Plans within plans.

Kdot, what's your opinion of my supernatural entity being able to change shape at will between demonic fog, the dark figure with glowing red eyes, human, and one other yet to be revealed? Basically he's a shape shifter and can take on whatever form he wishes. I plan to limit it to about four different forms, one of which doesn't appear until the end of the book.

Thoughts?

Yikes! Someone on my Catholic forum quoted a Christian definition of atonement which states that Christ atoned for the sins of all humanity. That almost broke my trilogy. If there's no one left to redeem, then my ending wouldn't have worked. Fortunately, someone else clarified that it was only the righteous who were redeemed.

Thank goodness for sinners.
Dirk

Hmm. One option for the kneeling/praying position of the deceased is glue. The glue would hold them in position until rigor sets in. That would give me a non-supernatural solution that delays the recognition of the crimes as being supernatural. The autopsies would find that the deaths were due to terror, but that still doesn't confirm it as supernatural. If you read scene 2.2, there remains a semi-plausible explanation for the dark figure with red eyes and fog on the streets outside Cardinal Vitale's building, and for the fog in the hotel hallways of the other two dead clerics. The first real confirmation that something supernatural is going on is in the chapel when the fog attacks Connor. It's Cardinal Gallo, the Secretary of State, who puts it all together (the autopsies, the attack on Connor, the dark figure, and the omnipresent fog).

Interesting.

Hmm. Bookbaby just sent out a mailer that two of the biggest Christian bookstore chains have/are closing all of their stores. That puts a bit of a dent in my plan to target Catholics/Christians with my new books.

I'm still reworking the murder mystery half of my story, but I definitely need more murders than the first three. One of the reasons they send Connor to the Holy Land is to satisfy some skeptical members of the Pope's Council that he's not responsible for the deaths. So the deaths must continue when he is gone. The deaths are also necessary because the killer wants to maneuver his minions into positions of power. He's been doing it quietly for centuries, but now that he's almost ready to seize control, he wants to terrorize the remaining  Church's leaders.