Jeanne, are you able to open the draft review? You have to access it from your Reviews screen (available on the menu in the upper right of the home screen). I believe it appears on the Inline Posted tab on the Reviews screen. If you explicitly "saved" the review before exiting, the comments should still be there.
2,152 2018-04-26 03:22:50
Re: The Galaxy Tales - Dirk B. (1,217 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
This evening's episode of Gilligan's Island featured a lion whose crate fell off a ship and floated into the lagoon. Naturally, he escapes and the castaways set out to trap him. They must have forgotten to use the machine gun they captured from the ape in an earlier episode. Costumes this week included Mr. Howell as a circus ringmaster and the skipper dressed like a clown, including a fake round nose. At least they didn't give him clown shoes. They probably had to leave those behind to make room for Mrs. Howell's fur coats. Naturally one would bring those to a three-hour cruise in Hawaii. Interestingly, the lion (in a bamboo cage) was pulled out of the lagoon by the tide and was found by a Navy destroyer floating thousands of miles from land, having drifted for less than a day. That puts Gilligan's Island somewhere between Hawaii and Great Britain. Kudos to the actors for filming with a real lion, no matter how well-trained.
2,153 2018-04-24 18:53:29
Re: Introduction (26 replies, posted in This is US!!)
The link to your editorial website isn't working. I get error 403 - Forbidden.
2,154 2018-04-23 20:56:09
Re: How Many Words To Publish For Review (10 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)
I just checked the word count on each of your three-part posting. They're roughly perfect in size, in my opinion (1 to 2 points). I've posted longer chapters (up to 3 points), but I have a very forgiving group of readers. If the material is compelling and polished, then larger chapters are fine. If they need dozens of edits, shorter chapters are better, otherwise the reviewers may begin skimming.
2,155 2018-04-23 17:52:30
Re: How Many Words To Publish For Review (10 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)
Break it into smaller chunks. Something a person can easily finish in one sitting. The alternative is to structure your story so your chapters are shorter to begin with.
2,156 2018-04-23 12:01:16
Re: Savior of the Damned (the Connor series) by Dirk B. (1,492 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
I stumbled on a book called The Single Gospel, which brings together the four gospels into one narrative in chronological order. I couldn't resist. Yet another book to read, Admittedly, this one should make it possible for me to quickly identify and organize all of the key events in Jesus's life, even more so than the brief pdf I noted above.
2,157 2018-04-23 05:36:06
Re: Savior of the Damned (the Connor series) by Dirk B. (1,492 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
Too funny. There's a one hundred-year-old story about the end times called Lord of the World. Someone recently converted it to Kindle, and Pope Francis recommends reading it. It's very different from my series, so I don't plan on renaming mine. My next book will probably be one of the consolidated Gospels that weave all four Gospels together into one coherent story.
2,158 2018-04-23 03:10:03
Re: Savior of the Damned (the Connor series) by Dirk B. (1,492 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
Turns out the Gospels are not all organized chronologically. Spent half a day hunting for an intelligible chronological ordering online. Finally found this: http://aschmann.net/BibleChronology/Chr … ospels.pdf
As expected, I identified fifty events that I may want to use in book one. Many are in the same place (mostly in Nazareth, Capernaum, around Galilee, and in Jerusalem).
2,159 2018-04-22 15:53:14
Re: My first novel published. (24 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)
Congratulations, Alan. There is no specific thread for published books that I'm aware of. A published book is a big deal and deserves its own thread. :-)
2,160 2018-04-22 01:41:30
Re: I have a question (5 replies, posted in This is US!!)
The site provides two ways to handle this:
1. Edit (overwrite) the existing chapter by simply replacing the contents of the chapter. This allows you to put up the changes for those who haven't yet read it, avoiding the hassle of everyone telling you about the same errors. You do not require points to edit an existing chapter, but it also won't appear on everyone's home pages as a new chapter, and it won't pay points to those who already reviewed it. The system sees it as the same chapter, albeit with different text.
2. Create a new chapter with an incremented version number. This requires points and will appear on everyone's home page as a new chapter, and will pay points to everyone who reviews it. You then have the option of making the old chapter inactive (invisible), which is usually advisable to avoid confusion. One time when you may want to leave the old chapter active is if you want people to be able to compare the old and the new. Even though an inactive chapter is not visible to others, you still have access to it and to all of the reviews associated with it. If you're completely done with the old chapter and its reviews, you can also delete the chapter, which will eliminate the old reviews with it.
Most of the above steps you can find by clicking around inside your portfolio from your menu at the top right of the home screen, and from within the chapter view of individual chapters (i.e., where you normally go to view your chapters). One word of caution, there are two ways to edit a chapter when you're viewing it. The white edit "button" will take you to the 5-step publish wizard that you're already familiar with. From within there, you can do anything you like (simple edit, add chapters, publish, make active/inactive, delete, etc.). In addition to the edit button, there is also an edit "link" further down the screen on the chapter view. The edit link is a shortcut to editing your existing chapter text without replacing the chapter (i.e., option 1 above).
Clear as mud? Feel free to post back if you need more help.
Dirk
2,161 2018-04-21 06:48:49
Re: Savior of the Damned (the Connor series) by Dirk B. (1,492 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
Woohoo! Now tables work. I can put a row in a table for each major event in Jesus's life and put each of the five pilgrimage books in a column, then place cross-references in each cell. This also works for the four Gospels (one per column) in a separate table. Finally the chapter & scene outline, probably in plain linear note form, color-coded by scene POV character, of which there will probably be two throughout most of the book, except near the end of book one.
2,162 2018-04-21 03:44:39
Re: Savior of the Damned (the Connor series) by Dirk B. (1,492 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
I finally figured out a way to handle the ton of notes I'm getting from the pilgrimage/tourist guides. Highlight them in Kindle and create a cross-reference by subject in my notes file for each book. There are probably fewer than fifty subjects I want to highlight (key events/miracles and details of their modern locations), so I don't have to spend weeks copying endless notes out of the books, none of which would be organized. I'll probably skip to the Gospels to create the list of subjects first, then come back to the guides to fill in the cross-references. Fortunately, I only recently began copying notes out of the guides, so I've only lost about a week.
I'll edit a chapter of Galaxy Tales before I dive into the NT study guide.
2,163 2018-04-20 15:28:19
Re: The Galaxy Tales - Dirk B. (1,217 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
Don't worry about reviewing Galaxy Tales. I'm just editing the final chapters based on feedback from Kdot and Seabrass, then I plan to shelve it. It needs a major rewrite.
Yes, I saw the Monty Python film. I didn't care for it. Given the nonsense in my book, I might like it better now than then. No time for it, though, since I can't sit still for a movie while I have research to do. Star Wars VIII may be an exception, so I can join the ranks of Jedi who despise the film.
2,164 2018-04-20 12:08:00
Re: The Galaxy Tales - Dirk B. (1,217 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
Lynne, if you want a good laugh, check out the beginning of chapter 33 in my book Into the Mind of God v3. It begins with a two-page news broadcast, including Mama's death. I'm told it's my best opening, by far. Fyi, Lady Kay (mentioned in the news briefing) is named for Kdot, who used to go by the screen name K. Most of my regular reviewers have been included as characters in my story (e.g. Dr. Amy Ess, who brings down civilization in the late 21st century). She appears in chapter two in a short Galactipedia entry.
2,165 2018-04-20 11:57:38
Re: The Galaxy Tales - Dirk B. (1,217 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
I can do better. I have a restaurant owned by the galaxy's biggest (400 lbs) Mob boss. He calls himself Mama of Mama's Little Shipping. If anything needs to be delivered anywhere in my story, it's always delivered by them. I was going to call the restaurant Le Chic, but then I thought Le Chick was more nonsensical. They serve succulent baby chicken dishes. Mama is eventually killed by a poison that causes the gas in his intestines to expand at nearly the speed of sound.
2,166 2018-04-20 06:35:44
Re: Savior of the Damned (the Connor series) by Dirk B. (1,492 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
Ugh. One of my books that follows in the footsteps of Jesus is 500 pages on my cell phone. I sure hope it's shorter on my Kindle. So far I've read two of the five books I bought on this topic, although I have yet to transfer the notes into my Word file. Once those are done, I'm left with the Catholic New Testament study guide. I plan to read the whole thing, but I only need notes from the Gospels, which overlap the aforementioned books. Then the story outlines and my first chapter. Allowing for time to finish editing Galaxy Tales, I'm going to need six months. It should make it easier to write more quickly, though, once that's behind me. I'll probably need to research the Jewish Messiah and Islam's Mahdi before writing book two, but not nearly in this crazy level of detail. I'm debating whether the Antichrist can attack all three religions or, better yet, pit them against each other.
2,167 2018-04-20 02:41:12
Re: Writing courses (22 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)
Also, do a search under Read & Review for memoirs on this site. Connect with the authors or review their work and they'll probably reciprocate.
2,168 2018-04-20 02:21:37
Re: Savior of the Damned (the Connor series) by Dirk B. (1,492 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
1 Peter 3:18 (FR) wrote:Christ aussi a souffert une fois pour les péchés, lui juste pour des injustes, afin de nous amener à Dieu, ayant été mis à mort quant à la chair, mais ayant été rendu vivant quant à l'Esprit...
Note that Spirit is capitalized and might translate better into Holy Ghost (After checking this I went back and checked. It seems it's likely capitalized in English too). Like being "baptized in the spirit" kind of means "baptized in the name of the Holy Ghost".
You speak French that well? Impressive. However, both Hebrew and Ancient Greek had only one case, so it's up to the people who did the translation. A quick check of the English-language Catholic Bible has it capitalized as well. Modern translations tend to go with Holy Spirit instead of Ghost.
2,169 2018-04-19 18:00:22
Re: The Galaxy Tales - Dirk B. (1,217 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
It's the poor quality of modern coconuts.
I may add that to the Galactipedia entry about the professor and his time machine. There is speculation as to why the professor disappeared. Perhaps they attribute it to insufficiently ripe coconuts or to genetically modified coconuts (reinforcing the millennia-old ban on most forms of genetic engineering).
2,170 2018-04-19 17:16:15
Re: The Galaxy Tales - Dirk B. (1,217 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
I have a thought about guilt about killing his mother. Joseph needs to NOT have her in his head. Having conversations with a mother figure after death would help assuage the guilt because he could imply or ask for forgiveness.
Agreed. I simply don't have enough lines for both the mother and grandmother in every Joseph chapter. The grandmother is integral to the 3rd draft, so I'm going to give the mother's few lines to her. I'm probably going to have God visit Joseph as he tries to kill himself. That will probably be his first appearance in v4. He'll appear again after Joseph causes the destruction of New Bethlehem. He'll visit Apollo at least once, when Apollo is about to die aboard the damaged raider that's rapidly losing air.
2,171 2018-04-19 13:38:24
Re: The Galaxy Tales - Dirk B. (1,217 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
*sspull is such a great name. I think the wisewatches in Galaxy Tales qualify. They do everything I want whenever the need arises. Made by Acme Corporation, of course, which was founded by Professor Hinkley. For some reason, Acme technology has a high failure rate.
2,172 2018-04-19 05:43:53
Re: The Galaxy Tales - Dirk B. (1,217 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
This evening's episode of Gilligan's island included an ape throwing grenades and firing off machine guns (surplus WWII munitions) as a form of play. The castaways, not knowing who the enemy was at first organized into a quasi military structure, with General Howell in command. He had a general's hat, Ginger (as a spy) wore a raincoat, and Mary Ann and Mrs. Howell wore nurses uniforms. It's no wonder the damn ship almost sunk. It was overloaded with ridiculous crap.
2,173 2018-04-19 00:49:58
Re: Writing courses (22 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)
If you're considering The Only Grammar Book You'll Ever Need by Susan Thurman, I felt that it doesn't have enough examples of grammar rules. I would have liked a lot more correct and incorrect examples of grammar rules. I ended up returning it.
I ended up getting the Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation, which has the basic rules and more examples, but is not nearly as in depth as the above book.
Both books are highly recommended on Amazon. For any books you want to buy, click on the Amazon cover and peruse the table of contents to see if it suits you.
2,174 2018-04-18 14:17:09
Re: Savior of the Damned (the Connor series) by Dirk B. (1,492 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
Note that Peter says He was put to death in the flesh. That means He should have shed his body at the time of death, which my quote from Jesus says is not the case.
2,175 2018-04-18 14:12:37
Re: Savior of the Damned (the Connor series) by Dirk B. (1,492 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)
No, the Catholic forum states that Christ was taken up body and soul, which is how will return. Ditto for the prophet Elijah. If Christ had been taken up in spirit only, there would have been a dead body to bury, which wasn't the case.