This next trilogy is getting expensive. I bought four books in the last two days looking to trace Jesus's ministry throughout the Holy Land. I couldn't tell from the book descriptions and reviews which would be best, so I said screw it and bought them all. :-) Thank goodness (for buyers) that Kindle books are inexpensive. As a potential seller, I doubt I'll ever make my money back. If only I could read them all concurrently; I'm bouncing around between them. I love Kindle highlighting. You don't have to slow down to take notes. I'll convert those to Word later. It will probably take until late-April to read and convert it all since I also plan to keep editing Galaxy Tales. Hopefully I'll have another chapter cleaned up this weekend.
2,126 2018-03-16 01:49:40
Re: The Gathering Darkness (the Connor series) - Dirk B. (1,415 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
2,127 2018-03-15 20:19:02
Re: Need help with my novella (18 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)
Technically, that's just editing in the text window, even though you deleted text. There is a separate menu option to completely delete a chapter. I believe it's under the Content tab of the Publish Wizard. I almost never do that, preferring to make the old chapter inactive and adding a new chapter with the same chapter number, but with an incremented version number. Only the owner of the portfolio can then see the inactive chapters (and their reviews), whereas your readers only see the active chapters. Although editing the text requires no additional points, the chapter also doesn't reappear on the home pages of everyone on the site. Adding a new chapter with an incremented version number requires points and makes the new chapter reappear on everyone's home page.
2,128 2018-03-15 19:18:05
Re: Need help with my novella (18 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)
Christine, did you edit them, or delete them and republish? As far as I know, the reviews only disappear if you delete the original chapters.
2,129 2018-03-15 04:02:52
Re: Need help with my novella (18 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)
Question: once I amend a chapter along the lines of what is suggested, how exactly do I post(repost?) the corrected chapter?
Thanks,
Mike
You can either edit over the existing chapter contents with the changes, which requires no points, or republish, which requires points. Generally,, if you want people to rereview the new version of the chapter, hide the old and republish the new. If you just want to make the changes for new reviewers going forward, then edit over the old. It's all done through the Publish Wizard. Just explore and you should be able to figure it out. If not, drop another note here along for help. Note, if you delete a chapter, all of the reviews associated with it will be deleted as well. Fortunately, you can just make it inactive if you plan to revisit it later. Also, publishing the revised chapter for points will make it reappear on the home page of all members.
2,130 2018-03-14 19:45:08
Re: Need help with my novella (18 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)
Mike, I've never seen anyone with a portfolio as large as yours. Very impressive.
2,131 2018-03-14 19:03:15
Re: Need help with my novella (18 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)
JP, Christine,
Mike has multiple pages of stories up under his portfolio (many actually). It's on the second page. Published with points.
2,132 2018-03-13 03:28:44
Re: The Gathering Darkness (the Connor series) - Dirk B. (1,415 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
Moving on to research all of the key places that Christ visited and all of the miracles he performed. Once I have that, I may be able to write my first chapter. There'll be two major threads throughout the book: Connor travelling throughout the Holy Land as the Church tries to figure out if he is Christ, and a series of deaths (including accidents and suicides) among the clergy in Rome attributed to the Antichrist. Not sure yet if I should put cell phones in as the mark of the beast somewhere in the trilogy.
2,133 2018-03-13 03:17:50
Re: The Gathering Darkness (the Connor series) - Dirk B. (1,415 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
Woohoo! Done with Revelation study guides. Sick to death of them. The last one really needs an editor. 800 pages of repetition and rambling and endless chapters, although the author made a cool case that cell phones are the mark of the beast. It turns out that when you convert www to Hebrew letters, you get the sequence 666 (w in Hebrew is the sixth letter of their alphabet). The mark of the beast will be required to buy and sell goods in the Antichrist's era, and any web-enabled smartphone gives you access to e-commerce on the global 666 network, which is filled with all kinds of immoral and anti-Catholic content. He argues that the mark of the beast was mistranslated from the original Greek and actually refers to phylacteries, the religious objects frequently worn by many ancient Jews, including John, on their hands or heads. So the cell phone is the mark on the hand, and Google Glass was the first instance of a mark on the head. The book is painful to wade through, so I'll save it for when I'm bored.
2,134 2018-03-13 02:34:56
Re: The Galaxy Tales - Dirk B. (1,217 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
They resurrected Frank Poole, the co-pilot of the Discovery, in one of those books. Found him adrift in space. Not sure how it ended.
2,135 2018-03-13 02:08:30
Re: The Galaxy Tales - Dirk B. (1,217 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
I've got it. I'm going to make Aussie/Michael a galactic news anchor. After all, she and whoever controls her are trying to change events in her time, so where better to put her than reporting the events of her time. She'll be the one impersonating Saint Michael the Archangel et al and I'll drop hints in her broadcasts that it's her doing so. Rather than involve Hinkley in this unrelated subplot, I have a much better candidate: Dr. Jorge Francis, the religious scholar and historian who lives in the year AD 7329 and regularly researches and writes about Joseph and Apollo and their effect on history. His reports already appear as epigraphs in recent drafts, although I'll probably do more of them in the next pass. Talk about a perfect fit. The last book in the series was always intended to be set in AD 7329, long after Joseph and Apollo are dead.
I can die happily now.
2,136 2018-03-12 02:48:56
Re: The Galaxy Tales - Dirk B. (1,217 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
Keep in mind that in the next draft the AI will no longer be evil. She is pretending to be Saint Michael the Archangel (my replacement for God) and all of the other ghosts inside Joseph and Apollo. I could just toss her out of the story entirely and go back to a pair of aliens (two males, the last of their kind) who mess with humanity for their own pleasure.
2,137 2018-03-12 02:06:51
Re: The Galaxy Tales - Dirk B. (1,217 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
Here is a thought. The AI character is too powerful. There are no warts visible.Every character needs a weakness, otherwise the story reads like a game-boy fantasy.
A classic example is Batman and Superman. Two people tried to explain their character as 'Batman' (in my story). I threw the book at one and eliminated the other character. (Kha and Conleth) Good characters need flaws. It makes them human. It makes them weak. An AI who stays in the outskirts and just supplies weapons and destruction isn't weak, and revealing them as the villain is unsatisfying because it is a deus ex machina. The AI needs a visible arc into success or failure, rather than appearing in the end and being the answer.
Short of making her a roving reporter, I'm currently at a loss for a role for her. If I put her near Joseph (e.g., his assistant) it then begs the question why him and not Apollo.
2,138 2018-03-12 02:03:10
Re: The Galaxy Tales - Dirk B. (1,217 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
Removing Aussie as the homicidal CEO of Acme would also tone down the violence in the book, which would be a good thing given my intended audience.
2,139 2018-03-12 01:31:57
Re: The Galaxy Tales - Dirk B. (1,217 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
I don't have a single Darth Vader. I have Nero, whose purpose is to drive Apollo and Joseph to finally begin their journeys by way of the first attack on New Bethlehem. At that point in the story, Admiral Lupus takes over until the very end, bombing 20M people on Magellan and then destroying New Bethlehem. Aussie was intended to play a contributing role by arming terrorists/rebels to ratchet up the chaos throughout the story. She wasn't intended to appear until the very end, at which point she's on the run and becomes Caligula's robopilot when he flees for his life. Her 'character' arc isn't working, IMO.
2,140 2018-03-11 22:16:59
Topic: Opening stories with prologues and dreams (20 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)
How many times have you read that you shouldn't open stories with prologues or dreams? I just read a review of the novelization of Star Wars: The Last Jedi. It uses both. How much do you want to bet it becomes a New York Times bestseller?
2,141 2018-03-11 21:05:22
Re: The Galaxy Tales - Dirk B. (1,217 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
Potentially, Professor Hinkley could secretly continue to run his company, jumping around time to bring futuristic inventions to market. Him running Acme eliminates the need of another character to do so. It simplifies that aspect of the story. He founded Acme, invented time travel, and is believed to be using the latter to keep his monopoly on tech.
2,142 2018-03-11 20:58:48
Re: The Galaxy Tales - Dirk B. (1,217 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
Does anyone have any ideas as to how to improve the integration of Aussie into the story? My original plan was this: Aussie is Brain in the prologue, renames itself to something else (Michael?), becomes CEO of Acme, secretly receives messages from the future, telling it what tech to build, initiates carnage throughout the galaxy to drive up Acme's share price, and pretends to be Michael the Archangel, among other spirits. That's a lot for one character, especially one that's only ever referred to in news broadcasts.
I think I should drop Aussie/Michael as the CEO of Acme and leave plotting of the book's carnage to the Imperium or to a different unseen character. That would allow Aussie/Michael to focus on being Michael the Archangel et al. I could use conversations with Saint Michael to drop hints that Michael is really a robot. This has the added advantage that the robot doesn't need to flee at the end of book one, since the spirits are around until the end of the trilogy. But the robot should also appear physically in the book, otherwise it only appears as Brain in the prologue and during the final reveal of book three, which isn't enough.
One idea would be to make the robot a news reporter in many of the news epigraphs I sprinkle throughout the story. Currently, I have many different news broadcasters on different planets. That would raise its role in the story.
Thoughts?
2,143 2018-03-11 03:08:06
Re: The Galaxy Tales - Dirk B. (1,217 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
No, I want The Prophecies to foretell actual events, even though they don't get into specifics, like naming Joseph and Apollo. Also, if I add another character, it will further complicate the story. I already have Hinkley bouncing around time and Queen Aussie running Acme, receiving instructions from the future and communicating with Joseph and Apollo, pretending to be Saint Michael, among others.
In the current draft, a mysterious character named Aussie pops up every few chapters to cause carnage, leaving 'Queen' Aussie (CEO of Acme) to deny any involvement, yet Acme's share price goes up every time there's an attack because governments buy more weapons. Neither Aussie nor Queen Aussie appear physically in the story (until the end), but rather through events told in news broadcasts. The two Aussie's are one and the same, of course. The authorities eventually come to that conclusion and Aussie takes off, assuming the role of robopilot for Caligula, who goes on the run across the galaxy because he was indirectly responsible for the destruction of New Bethlehem.
In theory, all of this should remain in the book, otherwise there's no reason for Aussie to appear, not even in news broadcasts, until the reveal at the end of book three. However, I don't care for how Aussie currently appears in the story. She doesn't really tie into the story. I need a way to use Aussie to give the reader clues that she is the one haunting Joseph and Apollo.
2,144 2018-03-11 01:19:46
Re: The Galaxy Tales - Dirk B. (1,217 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
'Third Testament' will be too controversial for Anglican readers, which is a surprisingly large Christian denomination. Perhaps a treatise called 'The Prophecies'? It would prophesy the spiritual coming of Saint Michael the Archangel to prepare the way for the Second Coming. Takes God totally out of the book, except perhaps for the appearance to Joseph by Jesus in act III. TBD.
Joseph is currently four when he first hears God. He'll have to know who Saint Michael is instead, which comes primarily from Revelation. He leads God's armies against Satan in a war in heaven, so it's not too unusual that Joseph's parents would have read him that part of Revelation. Star Wars for the religious.
2,145 2018-03-10 21:19:33
Re: The Galaxy Tales - Dirk B. (1,217 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
I'm considering Britannia because Joseph's home world is a monarchy that serves as the head of the church on his world, based on and descended from Queen Elizabeth. If I introduce Brother Hinkley and the Third Testament early enough in the story, I think the reader will give me some latitude when Jesus appears to Joseph, apparently fulfilling one of the crackpot prophecies of the Third Testament. Ponder I must.
2,146 2018-03-10 20:30:33
Re: The Galaxy Tales - Dirk B. (1,217 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
A monk known as Brother Hinkley appeared from out of nowhere in the third millennium and wrote the Third Testament of the Church of Britannia, explaining why Jesus didn't return and speculating (based on controversial historical evidence) that He may have been married and had kids. Hinkley then entered a monastery and was never heard from again. The Church believes that Jesus's descendants may be hidden somewhere in the Julian and St. James royal lines, and will one day reveal themselves. The Third Testament includes prophecies about these descendants that seem to describe Joseph and Apollo, and that describe events that will occur later in the story.
Since the Church of Britannia is British, I need to rename Aussie. It adds too much complexity to keep unrelated details like that straight in the reader's head.
2,147 2018-03-10 19:27:19
Re: The Galaxy Tales - Dirk B. (1,217 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
Another twist. What if the Professor jumped through time and was responsible for the Third Testament of the Church of Britannia? I could use 'Father Hinkley' as the historical prophet who wrote the Third Testament. This makes him the one who has been messing with events throughout time. After writing the Third Testament, he entered a monastery and was never heard from again.
2,148 2018-03-10 18:53:53
Re: Day of the Dude (3 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)
The Phantom Menace
Attack of the Clones
The Last Jedi
2,149 2018-03-10 18:49:33
Re: The Galaxy Tales - Dirk B. (1,217 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
This keeps getting better and better. If Jesus had kids, as the Church of Britannia believes, then Joseph and Apollo could be His descendants. I could hint at it by suggesting that the Church has been looking for His descendants for almost two millennia, believing that they are the last hope for mankind.
2,150 2018-03-10 18:37:40
Re: The Galaxy Tales - Dirk B. (1,217 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
My thanks to everyone for their input. I'm definitely going to go with an AI god. That means I can now tell you that my original plan for the end of the series was two male aliens, the last of their species, playing "chess" with the human race by using advanced technology embedded inside the boys' brains for instantaneous two-way communication to pretend to be all the characters in their heads. They've been playing this game for millennia, steering the course of mankind for their own amusement. Alexander the Great, Emperor Augustus, Hitler, Stalin - they were all under the control of the aliens. I might try to fit that into the Aussie subplot, although I think that's more complexity than I could readily incorporate into the story.