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Elroy Wrinkly?

Thanks. I found a few "just then" in my Strongest Start entry. Good thing I can still edit my chapters.

Thanks for the tips.

Are you saying to have no transition (interruption) words at all? Just go on to the next paragraph? If so, how do you convey that the next event is a surprise to the character?

Amy, it relates to replacing phrases like just then, without warning, suddenly, etc. Apparently such words are considered poor writing style.

Chapter 38, Apollo's Faith, is up. This is a minor update, including suggested changes by reviewers of v2. Please let me know if the ship names cause confusion (the RSS Ark of the Covenant, the IRS Actium, and the IRS Pompeius Magnus. The last of these is Governor Decianus's ship, which is only referenced once before Apollo designates it his new flagship and renames it the IRS Marcus Decianus after the governor).

Only three chapters to go! Yay!

No Stigmata on Netflix and I just ended my trial of Amazon Prime earlier today. Didn't see anything worth paying for. I'll have to see if they'll let me rent movies like they do on Amazon US. They didn't when I last checked.

I did, however, find a scary flick called Open House starring the same actor as the lead in 13 Reasons Why. Good buildup and scary score, but the ending made it a complete waste of time.

I also found the Exorcism of Emily Rose. It's finally available on Netflix. Cue that up for tomorrow, preferably in the daylight. :-)

Yup, although I'm still trying to find a non-supernatural reason for the suppressed hammering noise. A loud TV or stereo? Good soundproofing? Molten nails from the fireplace pushed through the flesh/wall/joists?

It occurs to me that I have to use different ways of killing the clergy to provide a little variety from crime scene to crime scene. Technically, the killings are supposed to include (apparent) natural causes, suicide, accident and murder. I think I'll save the crucifixion until near the end of book one. Save it for someone special.

I don't want to be gruesome, though, with blood and entrails everywhere, since I want a teenage and adult Christian audience. Admittedly, the Apocalypse is violent, but not gory. I'll hurl a few crows against car windows to make up for it. :-)

My FBI profiling book says there are generally two kinds of serial killers: disorganized mentally ill ones who are usually caught quickly and highly methodical psychopaths like Ted Bundy and John Wayne Gacy. The book will probably focus on the latter unless I want to throw in a red herring or two.

I'll return to my original plan that two ailing cardinals died of apparent natural causes (no autopsies deemed necessary) before the story opens, and the first actual case is of an apparent suicide by hanging. I envision another case where two bishops sharing a residence are found lying atop their beds with their upper bodies exposed, each with a cross carved across the chest. The rest of the apartment suite is in perfect order.

Any other good deaths?

The murder of bishops and cardinals presents a minor problem. Each clergyman will be scourged and then nailed to a residence wall in the standard crucifix pose, with nails through the wrists and feet, stripped of clothes, and wearing a crown of thorns. The killer can gag the victim to avoid screams from being heard in neighboring apartments or by people in the hallways. However, hammering of large nails is going to be noisy. I can't allow the murder to be interrupted by someone investigating the noise. Since these are supernatural killings, I was thinking of relying on the supernatural aspect to avoid the noise of the hammering. In other words, the nails are driven through noiselessly.

Thoughts?

In about a week, I should have enough detail to write my first scene involving Connor and my first murder of a bishop or cardinal. Each will be a separate scene, published onsite as individual chapters to keep them small, the same way Seabrass is doing with Maiden. I'll combine them later into book chapters that will be two or three scenes each.

I'm just finishing a book on FBI profiling of serial killers, then I can identify the number of scenes and flesh out parts of the outline.

So close!

I almost forgot about Snoke. Talk about a short character arc. The elevator full of people that plunged to their deaths in Kdot's story had a better run than Snoke.

The only thing that can save this trilogy now is if Kylo Ren turns away from the dark side. The Star Wars EU had a character named Jacen, who was Han and Leia's son. He turned to the dark side and caused countless deaths, so much so that it was obvious he had to die. It would have been a far more interesting story to watch him redeem himself. Jacen was killed by his twin sister Jaina. I wonder if they're setting up Kylo and Rey to rehash that story. Wouldn't surprise me given how much they keep rehashing parts of the original trilogy.

I would use Fiverr again, though. I just need to be clear about what I'm expecting.