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I figured the bombs fell because they're still close enough to the planet for gravity to do its thing.

Still not sold on Rivera as the priest's name. Odds are I'll go with Romano. Screw the lack of creativity. I like the name.

This evening's episode of Gilligan's Island has Gilligan catch a wooden crate while fishing. He opens the top and tosses it aside only to discover all kinds of vegetable seeds inside. They plant the seeds, which grow at an astronomical rate and look bizarre. Nevertheless, they eat them and soon discover superpowers. Maryanne ate tons of carrots and can see halfway across the island. Gilligan ate spinach and becomes super strong. Mrs. Howell ate tons of sugar beets, so she goes on a sugar high, cleaning her hut at lightning speed. Then comes an announcement on the radio of experimental radioactive seeds having fallen overboard near Hawaii. The report notes that the crate was clearly marked. Gilligan retrieves the lid from the crate, which is indeed marked radioactive.

At first everyone is lying around not sure what to do, when the professor discovers in his books that they need to keep moving around so the radiation doesn't settle in one place and kill them. He subsequently discovers (using big fancy professor lingo) that the best way to fight the effects is to eat lots of plant fats, since they'll encase the radioactive particles in the body. One assumes they'll poop or pee them out, although those terms were never used in the show in that era. The  best source of plant fats they have is the soap they make for themselves. So, they sit down and all begin eating soap, which results in bubbles coming out of their mouths in huge quantities. The special effects for this were pretty bad. The professor's island geiger counter suggests it's working. However, Gilligan starts to form a huge bubble that keeps growing until it's bigger than a beach ball. It then explodes.

Cue end credits.

The professor's description of why they need to eat plant fats to counter the radiation reminded me of Data babble on Star Trek The Next Generation. Just complicated enough that most people in the 60's wouldn't know the difference.

One of their better episodes.

Finally saw the Last Jedi on Netflix. Meh. The opening with Poe going unopposed against a destroyer was ludicrous. The idea that the admiral had to sacrifice herself to plow into Snoke's ship was also dumb. Even my story has AIs that can ram vessels. On the other hand, the ending with Luke projecting himself across space was more believable than I expected. If I hadn't known about that spoiler, the scene with Luke surviving all of that cannon fire would have been mind blowing.

I received my first two trial chapters back from the Fiverr editor. There were virtually no edits, and certainly nothing in depth. Here's what the editor promised on her Fiverr page:

Here's the fine print at the end of her Fiverr page that I missed:

Based on the first description above, I assumed I was buying a line edit, not a copy edit.

Lesson learned.
Dirk

This week's episode of Gilligan's Island involved the crash of a huge meteorite on the island. The professor builds a geiger counter to test it for harmful rays. They discover it is putting out huge quantities of cosmic rays. The professor concludes that by putting up a lead-coated fence around it, they can focus the rays to be spotted by a plane overhead. To install the fence, they coat their clothes and skin with lead, then proceed. There is a small sapling next to the crash site. As they walk away, they hear a strange sound, which happens to be the lead fence disintegrating from - get this - old age. In the meantime, the sapling has grown into a tall tree. The professor concludes the cosmic rays are causing everything on the island to age at an enormously accelerated rate and that they have only a week left to live. They hear on the radio that an electrical storm is coming, so they create a lightning rod and stick it into the meteorite. Lightning strikes the meteor and it disintegrates, leaving no measurable cosmic rays behind.

Isn't lead smeared on skin dangerous for one's health? It drove plenty of Roman emperor's insane from drinking out of lead vessels.

I think I need to increase the nonsensical science in my book to keep up with the show. In hindsight, it amazes me that so many kids went into science because of the professor.

Horton hears a Who.

How then do we explain The Lord of the Rings, with its meandering plot and nauseating attention to every blade of grass?

Also, sign up for Grammarly for a month and run your manuscript through it. It catches many errors. Others prefer ProWritingAid, although I couldn't get it to run on my computer, and the support was lousy (one email reply per day).

Haven't tried them, but yes, they are expensive. Google for book editors for cost comparisons. Also, google 'bookbaby complaints' to see what problems others have had with them. On their own website, they advertise themselves as rating four out of five stars.

There will also be a cab driver named Leonardo. :-)

Mistake #5 - Dialogue Tags: I get it. Using “he said” and “she said” is boring. However, dialogue tags are meant to be functional and not descriptive.
Gee, how about trying tags that are functional and descriptive? If your going to put a word on the page, making it serve more than one purpose seems like common sense.

Or how about the way those tags distract the user? When one of my admirals snapped at one of her subordinates, I didn't hear any feedback from distracted reviewers.

Sure, they can be overused, but having to read a fancy dialogue tag doesn't distract me in the least. Why should I write a sentence showing how my admiral is pissed off when I'm in the middle of a fast-moving battle and short choppy sentences are best suited for the scene?

Technically, I could have written "As you were, Ensign!" the admiral said, and let the exclamation mark serve in lieu of a snapping dialogue tag, but I find that I scan over punctuation marks since they're so small. I use said for regular conversation and other tags to give them added weight.