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Never mind. I finally found it.

Well, I'll be damnare! Amazon Canada has finally added video and music to its prime membership. It includes the latest seasons of CSI. I was hoping for the early seasons with the original characters, but it's a start. I have 30 days to cancel, so we'll see what else they've got. No Law & Order or Big Bang Theory, so those are strikes.

But then we have this from a grammar website: A DEPENDENT CLAUSE ALSO HAS A SUBJECT AND A VERB, BUT
LACKS INFORMATION NECESSARY TO CONVEY A COMPLETE IDEA.
Note the comma and the word 'but' in the above sentence. The coordinating conjunction 'but' is used with a dependent clause, all preceded by a comma. This usage matches what Kdot did.

I ran this through Grammarly and ProWritingAid, and they had no objections: Tia thought, they might have more, landing areas, closer to, the center, but couldn’t, make any out.

To me, it's the ideal vacation getaway.

Thanks. No Dexter up here either. I'll start with what I've got. Worst case, I can always buy a few DVDs of CSI or Criminal Minds. Surprisingly pricey up here. Obviously, the distributors still make too much off DVDs to bother with streaming. There are similar shows on Netflix, though, so I'll plow my way through them first.

Tomorrow I have to begin binge-watching murder/CSI-style shows to get up to speed on writing a compelling supernatural serial killing. Unfortunately, CSI (the series), Criminal Minds, and Law & Order are not available on Netflix in Canada. Found a bunch of stuff that looks promising, though. One revolves around the FBI and another around a new special team assembled in Europe to fight crime across borders in the EU.

If anyone knows of any good serial killer series or films, please let me know.

This week's episode of Gilligan's Island involved quite a few quirks. First, Ginger was cutting the Skipper's hair. He had on one of those capes to keep hair off his clothes. More interesting, though, was that Ginger was wearing a barber's jacket that fit her perfectly. The shit they carried on that boat never ceases to amaze me.

This week was all about oranges. The Skipper was surprised to discover he was so weak he couldn't lift a log that Gilligan could lift with one hand. The professor ran some tests using an island-crafted version of a stethoscope and blood pressure monitor. He eventually diagnoses vitamin C deficiency due to insufficient citrus fruit. Apparently, because the Skipper was the biggest person on the island, he was most affected. Turns out, the bigger you are, the more quickly you're affected. I'll let Amy deal with that one. In what was impeccable timing, Gilligan shows up with the last orange on the island. It's also the first orange seen in the show. As they stand around arguing about who should get it, the sun dries it out until all that remains is the skin and the seeds.

Their solution is to plant the seeds and grow orange trees. They set up two-foot-high torches to keep the seeds warm in the ground. I never knew torches could warm the ground from two feet up. Perhaps they should have relied on the fact that it's 90+ degrees on the island. They made a big show how cold it was at night.

Gilligan stands watch to keep the torches lit. You would think they'd learned after 2+ years that Gilligan should never be on watch. Naturally, he falls asleep and they act out Jack & the Beanstalk in his dream. The beanstalk is actually an orange tree. The Skipper is the giant, and he had crates full of oranges in his castle, along with a goose that lays oranges. In a cute scene, the Skipper chases a "tiny" Gilligan around the stacks of oranges. They used a really young boy dressed as Gilligan, so the Skipper would look much bigger. If I remember correctly, the boy was Bob Denver's (Gilligan's) four or five-year-old son.

Eventually, Gilligan wakes up, the torches had gone out, and the orange seeds were ruined. Shocking! Fortunately, the Professor shows up with a large supply of grapefruits and lemons that he found on the island. Like the oranges, none of these fruits ever appeared on the island outside of that episode. Turns out Gilligan knew about the grapefruits and lemons all along. He just didn't know they were citrus fruits.

A fun episode, actually.

I reread it in context. You're absolutely right.

Thanks
Dirk

Waiter: Your choice of entrees this evening are lobster, salmon, hamburger, steak and fried chicken.
You: I'll have the steak and fried chicken.
Waiter: No, you have to choose one.
You: I did. You said steak and fried chicken. That's what I want.
Waiter to Manager: Harry, put a damn comma after steak in the menu!

Hmm. Three of my common transition phrases are way at the top of the cliche list of another online article: all of a sudden, just then, and suddenly. Fortunately, I've known for quite some time that many of the writers I review don't use them, so they should be easy to spot.

Deck, there's a big difference between a loud pop breaking the air and an explosion rocking the prison. The former sounds like someone passing gas. :-)  Seriously, I switch to telling for action sequences. Check out the sub-article embedded in the one Alan linked to above. It goes on forever with examples of transitional phrases, although primarily for non-fiction.

Alan, I'm between books at the moment, so there's not much to review. Seabrass and Kdot are helping me wrap up minor changes in acts III and IV of my Galaxy Tales story before I shelve it. I decided it needs a complete rewrite some time in the distant future. I'm currently planning a supernatural thriller series based on the Bible's Apocalypse that I want to work on next. It could be up to 3 months away before I'm ready with the first chapter.

Thank you, both.
Dirk