Somehow, and I have no idea why, my chapters became mixed up. Now chapter 15 is correct, but I screwed up again and got 16 out of order. The current chapter 15 is the corrected chapter, but 16 has been taken down because it really is chapter 17. i will replace the text in 16 and move 17 to its proper place as soon as I get all my stuff in one bag.
It's been a tough week. My wrists are killing me and it is so hot outside, it looks like a Dali landscape.
Bill
Three months ago, I had over 1000 points. Now that I've begun two novels,they have dropped to just over 800. Still, that's a lot of points and I would love to be able to donate points to loyal readers. I also second the suggestion by Seabrass. Even a 5% refund of posting costs would be welcome.
Bill
Here's the skinny. AT&T became evasive when I asked them the current state of their links and DNS servers. They grudgingly admitted that one of the backbone hi-speed servers went down and they had to reroute traffic a little. I affected some URLs but not others. I found four more of my sites (ones I don't use that much) that were slow or timed out.
I did a total system restart on my uVerse modem and when it came back, Everything was a lot faster -- including this site. I ended up with a completely new IPV6 subnet address address as well as a new "normal" IPV4 address. Apparently, they weren't kidding about a server going down. This clears the DMS cache and reloads a fresh set.
I hope it stays that way.
Bill
I'm running some tests now, but I may have found the problem, Corra. A series of PINGs against the DNS servers my router lists shows one of them responds 150ms slower than the rest which are nominally around 12-15ms. It is also interesting that a TRACERT to this site has two more intermediate stops between it and me as Booksie does. Any of those intermediate relay points could have something wrong with them also.
Today, 4 entries in my Event Viewer showed this error:
"Name resolution for the name www.thenextbigwriter.com timed out after none of the configured DNS servers responded."
If Sol is doing some maintenance to the site, it is possible that the DNS servers aren't keeping up with the listing on a timely basis.
Still checking.
Bill
Thanks, Marilyn. I think the program you're thinking of is Revo Uninstaller. I use that extensively. It allows the normal uninstalled (if any) to run first then it charges through the Registry and finds every instance of that deleted software, letting you pick what to get rid of. I've disabled Grammarly, but not uninstalled it. That will be done.
The delays are a naggy problem that has cropped up before on this site. I think NJC may have the right idea. I have a home page link set up for tNBW and when I click it, the status line shows "looking up www.thenextbigwriter.com". That remains there for as long as 10 or 15 seconds before finally changing to "receiving data from www.thenextbigwriter.com" and the page loads. Firefox won't display the first indicator unless the DNS server(s) isn't/aren't responding fast enough. AT&T recommends that I reboot my modem, but that can take up to ten minutes so I have to find a good time to do that. This could/would/might cause the DNS server cache to be cleared and rebuild. It has helped in the past.
I'll give it a whack when I go to lunch.
Bill
Are your neighbors hacking into your wireless network?
Another possibility, but not as far as I can tell. I monitor my wireless logs regularly and toss out any MAC addresses I don't know. I change the passwords once a month also. I have four active wireless access points for full coverage of my house. If my bandwidth is reduced it would slow all the sites I visit, not just this one. I can watch streamed movies with no buffering. AT&T uVerse is really good at that.
Bill
Do you have Grammarly downloaded and working in the background as you type? If so, that could be your problem. For some reason, it slows me down like you describe. I have to go to my extensions and disable it when I come on this site. It works fine anywhere else for me, just not here. Just a thought.
Funny you should mention Grammarly, Marilyn. I only had it installed for a day before I kicked it out of my browser. It was intrusive and appeared on EVERY site that had an edit box or some form of operator interaction. I slowed down things badly. So, now it's gone and I still ahve delays - but only on tNBW.
Bill
It doesn't seem top have anything to do with Windows as I get the same thing from Linux and a different browser. None of my other sites are slow or have any trouble loading. Just this site and on Windows/Firefox and Ubuntu/Opera. In Linux I can monitor the IP stack easily and there simply is no response from the site after the browser receives the DNS reply for location. It goes into a wait state and sometimes it will time out, giving me the error "site timed out".
Bill
Thanks, Vern.
According to AT&T, all the DNS servers are online and functional. Yet, when I clicked the link to this thread in the email, I was told "cannot locate thenextbigwriter.com make sure you have spelled it correctly blah blah blah" I had to put the URL directly into my browser address bar in order to get here. Something strange is going on here. I'm going to try flushing my DNS buffer and see if that helps. It might for locating the site, but not for the delays I'm seeing.
Bill
Over the last week, I've been experiencing increasingly longer delays when reviewing, replying to reviews, or even reading the forum. Today, when reviewing a chapter every comment I made took from 15 to 30 seconds to close and allow me to move to the next spot I wanted to comment on. Even logging in to the site takes 10 to 15 seconds for the logon popup to appear. All the rest of the sites I visit are as fast as usual, including Booksie.
Is anyone else experiencing these delays?
Bill
Shoot! I start my latest in the middle of a card game. Of course, I have a big-ass Prologue before that, to set the stage. But... right in the middle of a card game. And as kdot suggests, a lot of the backstory is told in slow moments through character's recollections, or in conversation between characters (when the moment is right for such backstory, of course). And did I mention... in the middle of a card game?
My own take on this is now leaning toward not messing with it. I'm sure to have a few more bits of input, and I'll heed every one of them, though. I've written up notes on where I could eliminate the backstory in dialogue, but I'm reluctant to just rip it out. However, if I go with the two intro chapters from each POV, I can still leave the dialogue because they don't know how each other got to where they are now.
Bill
I vote: Forget the past and dive right in.
You know how Hamlet starts?
Shakespeare wrote:Ghost: I've been murdered. Avenge me!
About the halfway point in the tale for the entire story to come out.
Now, that's what I call succinct. Hamlet's timeline is a real twisty tale, that's for sure. No doubt Shakespeare was thinking in reverse - killing the MC and then telling us how it happened.
Bill
That's good advice Al. I could do that and eliminate some of the backstory in dialogue that Marnee and Shell have. As for Marnee's POV, I have noted several places where I could include a chapter only from her perspective. In fact, there might be as many as five or six chapters spread out through the novel that would be from her viewpoint. I've found that writing in first person and showing reaction from others is hard to do. Changing POV is a good way to do it. I've read several books that intermingle POVs in the same chapter, but I always have a hard time keeping the timeline straight between them. I suppose i could insert a long break with the person's name between asterisks or something, but that also is disruptive.
Let me wait and see if anything else turns up for discussion.
Bill
I saw the review, Randy, but I haven't read it yet. When I originally posted the story the way I outlined above, I was told several times that it felt like an info dump and not a true beginning. This was probably true because I didn't have any dialogue at all. If I did this again, I'd have a lot more dialogue. I feel this is a good story, but I'm having trouble getting it underway. In most of the stories I've read, if there are more than one MC, then they usually meet or are active in the first chapter. I'm basically floundering here after my inability to get my first one on the road.
Bill
Chapter 15 is our of order. I somehow messed that up. So, I've taken it down and will repost when I straighten things out. I'm sorry about that. Good catch, Megan.
I have something else I'd like to gather opinions on. Should I insert. before Chapter 1, Two more chapters? The first chapter, would give some background on Shell's travels and his brush with the robbers, plus his decision to travel to where he meets Marnee. The next chapter would be a departure from Shell's POV and be totally in Marnee's POV as to how she fares after being captured and sold to the slaver camp. I'll also detail how she escapes and ends up falling over Shell in the woods.
Would this help to improve some of the confusion as to where they're coming from (literally and figuratively)?
Bill
I got mine already. An Epson printer that is so cool it even has its own email address. If I want to print an email, I forward it to my printer. Land sakes! Where will all this newfangled stuff end?
Bill
Does anyone have any experience with this software? It's the only one I can find that will work with my 2003 version of MS Word. It seems to be fairly thorough. Grammarly will not work with Word 2003 - and it is an add-in, not stand-alone.
Bill
I like the dragons also. I sent you a PM.
Bill
Apparently, the editor I dealt with at Wild Rose Press was able to tell from three chapters (the first two and the last) that You Only Love Twice basically stunk. Why that opinion took 7 weeks is beyond me. Actually, it took more than 7 weeks as I had to wait 5 weeks before the initial return. So, after 3 months, I am back where I started.
I am not bitter, although it may sound that way. Instead, I've done what I did with the other rejections - I stuck the email on the wall and drove a big pushpin through its heart.
Oh well. Kindle Self Publishing is looking better and better.
Bill
I didn't see this thread until after receiving the email connection request. Luckily, "Nyx" was gone before I clicked the link.
Bill
To paraphrase Lincoln, You can't please everyone all the time.
Bill
Aha! He reviewed Chapter 7 of The Long Trek Home. It was similar to Randy's review, short and filled with generalities. Nothing more since that review.
Bill
I've had that happen a couple of times. When I quickee'd one reviewer back, asking how well he liked the interplay between the two main characters, he told me he'd loved the dialogue. This was bogus, as I'd made the two names up just for this particular quickee. Needless to say, I didn't reciprocate.
Bill
Welcome to tNBW, Jonathan. I write several genres you may be interested in. I am currently shopping a post-apocalyptic adventure.
Bill
Actually, Norm, I thought that might be the case, but a friend has Word 2016 and she can import my RTF files with no noticeable errors. I often write while I am on trips, and my laptop runs Ubuntu 16.10 and Apache Open Office Writer. That software also translates to/from Word 2003 just fine. It could very well be that I don't use any real fancy formatting tricks, though. OEWriter on Windows works the same. What is odd is that I've found (and reported) a bug in translation between OEWriter for Windows and OEWriter for LINUX.
Bill
