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The song is in the public domain. I was asking if I could mention the name of the singer. According to numerous web sites, I can, but that won't stop someone from taking frivolous legal action if they don't want to be mentioned. I'll mention the song but not the singer.

Thank you, Malcolm. I tell other people to use Google, but I often forget to do so.

Too bad I deleted my Facebook account. Too many cat videos and half-naked Russian women wanting to be friends. Too much like the Kardashians. Somehow, I don't think they're my target audience for Christian-friendly books.

Just rewrite them all using was/were. ;-)

Chapter 33, The Imperium Cracks, is up. It's a cleaned up version of the same chapter from v2. Lots of minor edits.

Quick, go read!
Dirk

Rage of the Unholy Trinity

Another is Treachery of the Unholy Trinity.

I'm reading a book called the Final Days of Jesus by an archaeologist who claims that the much-venerated Via Dolorosa route that Jesus supposedly walked to his crucifixion is in the completely wrong place in the Old City (i.e., the original part of Jerusalem). Via Dolorosa begins just north of the Dome of the Rock (site of the historical Jewish Temple) in the NE part of the Old City and moves roughly SW to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, in which is found the Rock of Golgotha (i.e., Calvary), which held Christ's cross. The church also houses the family tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, who, according to the Gospels, made his tomb available for Jesus's body. In this new book, the author points out that Pontius Pilate stayed at the palace of King Herod the Great when in Jerusalem. The palace ran along the western wall of the Old City and included barracks for Pilate's soldiers. The Gospels are clear that Jesus was taken to Pilate to be judged. Pilate wouldn't have traveled across Jerusalem to deal with a troublesome preacher. That means the route to Golgotha should start in the west and head east. I'm going to highlight this error in the novel. It's the least I can do for an archaeologist who only charges $1.99 for his Kindle book. He seems to have a strange affinity for ritual bathing pools in the first century, though. The details dragged on for an entire chapter. The only relevant part was that Jesus sent people into the pools to heal them.

Google 'version control Scrivener'.

Version control aside, I think Scrivener might be a pain if you start working with a professional editor. You'll have to export to Word, have the editor mark it up, then you accept or reject their edits, then you cut and paste accepted text (scenes, I think) back into Scrivener. Or just manually make all the corrections in Scrivener. It was the main reason I stayed with Word.

Left you a review.

I tried reading Dune three or four times but got bored each time. After watching the original movie with the awesome soundtrack, I read the book in one weekend and eventually read all the rest, including some of those (ick!) written by his son. Dune and God Emperor of Dune rock!

When we first meet the Nero and Elizabeth, one of Apollo's thoughts was that he prefers to follow his mother's style of ruling, which is fair but strong. However, she can be dangerous when provoked (esp. if Apollo is in danger), which is why the samurai ends up in prison. She also humiliated Caligula for days in a packed Throne Room because he convinced Nero to withhold anesthesia from Apollo after his whipping in the Colosseum.

Part of the reason Apollo is so weak is that the paranoid Nero feared him too much to prepare him for rule. Apollo banishing his mother later in the story is just an excuse to allow her to go to New Bethlehem and secretly negotiate for peace with the Realm. The concept of a fake fallout between mother and son is right for the story, but I still don't like the way it turned out in v3.

At first, Apollo continues following her style of leadership, which is why he tries not to act violently in response to what's going on around him. However, like you said, he orders a hit on Nero and tells his aides he may execute Mama (because he knows too much about the hit). The hit was something Apollo felt forced into after Nero's first attack on New Bethlehem. Apollo also orders the failed commando raids to arrest Admiral Lupus and Governor Hadisius.

After the 2nd (final) battle at New Bethlehem, he decides to force all of the senior officers (those promoted by Admiral Lupus) out of the Praetorian Fleet and scrap the Praetorian flagship altogether. He's also going to do a purge of senior officers of Earth's home fleet, which was commanded by Governor Hadisius. Hadisius fled the battle, but Apollo expects to capture him eventually and execute him. He also banishes Caligula from the Imperium forever, providing him with nothing more than an explorer ship that will allow him to flee to distant outposts in the galaxy, where Realm bounty hunters are sure to pursue him.

So, you see, there is a progression from weakness to strength forced on him by circumstances. Assuming I ever finish the story and write book two, it was always intended to be much darker. Joseph will be haunted by his guilt for unintentionally triggering the destruction of New Bethlehem, and Apollo will pursue galactic colonization and the Imperium's conversion to Christianity aggressively.

If there's a book three, it was originally intended to be an upbeat ending where Joseph and Apollo together discover the dying alien race that has interfered with the human race in a game of galactic chess (hence the reason there are two versions of God), responsible for the rise to power of Alexander the Great, Stalin, Hitler, etc. The last scene was intended to be the two dying aliens saying to each other they have time for one more round before their deaths.

Since I'm going to use Dr. Francis in the year 7329 to interfere with the human race in 4017, there's no need for the aliens. I may write the second, dark book (set in 4021) and then jump forward to 7329 where the descendants of Joseph's fanatic followers attempt to overthrow the galactic government. The story set in 7329 is the one I tried to write first, but eventually came around to Joseph & Apollo first.