Dirk B. wrote:

I also have to be careful not to give any hints about either Connor or De Rosa. Two of my story's four Christian readers to date guessed that Connor is/may be the Antichrist. There's a huge hurdle to jump when it comes to Christian readers since most serious Christians are highly sceptical right from the get go that Connor could be Christ returned as a boy because, to them, it can't happen. As a result, they may never even read the book.

You had me fooled! I assumed too much. Connor's lie bothered me, but I guess I let it ride perhaps hoping to change your mind.
I'll be tougher next time round!
:-)

Dirk B. wrote:

From Wikipedia (article about Michael):

Michael is mentioned explicitly in Revelation 12:7-12, where he does battle with Satan and casts him out of heaven so that he no longer has access to God as accuser (his formal role in the Old Testament). The fall of Satan at the coming of Jesus marks the separation of the New Testament from Judaism.

I'm not a theologian but don't you mean his role in the OT and NT? I've heard Satan described as the accuser of the brethren.

Dirk B. wrote:

Kdot, don't forget the Christian cross around De Rosa's neck. As he admitted to Romano at the end of book 1, Michael the Archangel slipped it around De Rosa's neck while he was distracted. It's essentially a chain around De Rosa that limits his powers, causes his excruciating stigmata when he kills clergy, and prevents Satan from leaving De Rosa's body. Thus, no whisking. I based my story's "chain" on the one used to chain up the dragon in Revelation.

I have to admit you approach on the chain is interesting. Rev 20:1-6 is quite different from what you're doing BUT I like how you borrow from it. Very creative.

Kdot wrote:

In Matthew 4, Satan is able to whisk himself and clearly passengers wherever he needs to be. You'll need to do some legwork to understand why this Satan cannot

before Connor throws the dagger, he already knows, if he kills his father, then Connor is himself still destined for an eternity of suffering

Is this a catholic teaching?

Wouldn't it be premeditated murder? I have a feeling that that is hellish behavior.

230

(309 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)

I don't remember if this was mentioned... How about if the shield reduces the energy beams by some amount, say a 20% reduction? Or if you pick something like a 50% reduction then the ships really have to duke it out before damage can be done. That might reduce the magic level.

I'm trying to remember how much de Rosa did. Should he jump in a little more with a slip here and there that causes people to wonder? Maybe have him and Connor lock eyes at some point and Connor turns nastily away. De Rosa always goes with the flow. Maybe he should swim against the flow. Or at least go in a different direction than Campagna sometime.

I might be stating things that you've already done but I have a great excuse in that I was on brain fog meds for a while :-)

I'm sorry. I thought you were talking about being in Israel! Oops.

Dirk B. wrote:

K and George, I'm wondering what you think of the hunt for the Antichrist. I personally think it reads like just a bunch of "episodes" that don't build on each other sufficiently. I think it's missing ever-increasing tension and "thrill" as the detectives get ever closer to identifying the AC. There is continuity between those chapters, but nothing particularly important ties them together.

That's going to be a bitch to fix.

Comment:
1. Really? Even with the Zombie Nuns and floating Conner? You manage to weave the history, geography, and story quite well. I remember commenting to you that it was not really a vacation of any sort! There was so much stuff going on. I'd have to reread it again but at this point I might respectfully disagree with you.

2. If you mean that the final revelation is about 100% and not a slow build, then you might be right. Conner lying was a flag that bothered me, but I told you about it and now I understand why you never anything with it. Perhaps a couple more things like that might be useful. Just some stuff that would cause increasing large question marks. Maybe he burns his fingers when it picks up the element when the monstrance is knocked over. The near 100% really caught me off guard.  But which is better? And of course, Darth's statement "I am your father." caught the world off guard by 100%. It was great.

Dirk B. wrote:

Absolutely. If I remember correctly, Muslims consider Jesus a prophet but nothing more. Although, technically, Connor could try to convince them their beliefs are simply incorrect, that woud be something he'd be unlikely to be able to sell to most Muslims. However, his performance at St. Peter's Basilica would certainly help. Or, if I wanted to go nuts, I could have many non-Christian holy places "collapse" without explanation around the world as acts of God. Ditto for any places non-Catholic Christians revere but Catholics do not. Those are much more convincing events than mere attempts at persuasion. And, after all, these aren't actual acts of God since any reader of book one will know he's the Antichrist.

Let me revisit something. Yes, Muslims believe Jesus is a prophet, and that He did miracles and healings which is interesting. And apparently, they believe that He can still heal today. Also, he will come back on the day of judgement with someone else. I wouldn't be surprised if you already knew all this but here it is again if you need.

235

(309 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)

Dirk B. wrote:

I may, however, mention in the Galactipedia article on FTL travel that if a ship's atreidite-based reserves (batteries) are drained (e.g., in battle) and the ship is too far from a major source of neutrinos, then the vessel can become marooned in space, unable to power the boiler and recharge the atreidite. That adds a nice element of risk to space travel, although primarily for vessels forced to move away from a major neutrino source (e.g., a star). That could be military vessels engaged in combat, civilian ships fleeing pirates, etc. In those situations you better hope your atreidite-powered interstellar drones are fully charged to go for help. And since drones can't carry huge reactors, they can only make a limited number of jumps before they run out of power.

Interesting points. I like the added risk factor. Can the smaller vessels use "cables" to recharge the mother ship? Even if it's only a limited charge, it could be useful. Every car (spaceship) should have a set of cables. Can the larger ships recharge others?

236

(309 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)

I did not try to read the article. I just like some of the words it used (antineutrino sounds cool) and that it included collapsing.

237

(309 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)

Dirk B. wrote:

I finally came up with a theoretically possible future power source to serve as the core of powertrons: neutrinos. Fusion will still be used for smaller power sources. The only down side of both neutrinos and fusion is that neither will come close to doing that implode-explode thing when the powertron is breached. Perhaps something about the way energy is "gathered" from neutrinos makes imp-exp explosions possible. Hard to imagine though since researchers are talking about neutrino-powered smartphones and electric cars in the coming decade(s). Apparently it's not a particularly dangerous tech.

Perhaps if I use neutrons (from an artificial baby neutron star in engineering) rather than neutrinos....

I found a paper entitled "Neutrino-antineutrino annihilation around a collapsar".

It has neutrinos, antineutrinos, annihilation, and a collapsing collapsar (star going through gravitational collapsing).

https://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu//fu … 9.000.html

And, apparently, within the cold fusion process you can get neutrinos and antineutrinos emitted. With enough arm waving can you use this to create a car collapse/explosion or a ship collapse/explosion?

I really like fusion because hydrogen is the most common element in the universe. It's a natural energy source.

George FLC

238

(309 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)

Very well written. The intersection part is very good. However, why would it bypass the shields and hit the hull? Are you saying that the shields don't intersect but the hull does?

Wouldn't they be toast with all the time they're taking to explain things? It must take a while to charge the weapons.

Keep busy Dirk! Thanks.
George

240

(309 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)

I'm not sure I've ever heard of a side effect like that. Interesting and useful.

241

(309 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)

This is just evolution! Survival of the fittest. Be strong, grin, and survive. Canadians might take over some day. A chunk of the US is getting hit as well. I probably won't go to church on Sunday. Online services! Yeah!

242

(309 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)

How about something that disrupts the shield? Like a photon torpedo (Star Trek) which causes intense ripples in the shield? Then the energy blasts through the rippled/compromised area. Or a plasma comprised of radioactive something like Helium. It causes a fusion explosion that blows holes into the shield which is followed by other weapons.

243

(309 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)

Initial comments:
1. Dish? I imagine a big thing hanging off the ship. Also, does the dish always create the hole in front of the dish (ship)? It just seems clumsy or clunky. Remember the cloaking devise the Romulans used? Wasn't it internal to the ship? But you need some external geometry to have this discussion. I would make it sound more streamline.
2. "As you know" seems rather old fashioned or trying to spell it out too much.
3. You wrote: "Therefore, our shields were never designed to work there, leaving our ships’ fourth dimension unprotected.” I ASSUME you mean that the ships 4th dimension is sort of a portal (?). I'm trying to wrap my brain around my own personal 4th dimension.
4. I would spell out π. Pi or pi.
5. Great discussion on trying to explain what's going on. I'm confused though since apparently the blast can skip the shields and appear interior to the ship (?). Your average techno geek might enjoy this.

244

(309 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)

Basting is good since it's concise and you're basting in your own sweat.

245

(309 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)

Dirk B. wrote:

Slight tweak. I've gone back to hyperspace as the name of my story's extra dimension(s). I'm going to be intentionally vague since I don't want to suggest that my extra dimension is in any way related to the 4th spacial dimension of string theory, where the math says the extra dimensions must all be the itsy bitsy curled up ones. If I call mine hyperspace, then it falls into that classic sci-fi category known as "made up crap". The beauty of space opera.

Interestingly, I came across an article where scientists were able to test indirectly for the existence of a fourth spacial dimension, and two different teams using different tests found evidence that suggests it actually exists. It's not conclusive proof, but a cool result nevertheless.

Good approach. Go for vagueness and don't worry about the details till maybe later. It doesn't add much to the story anyways, does it?

Thanks Sol and Dirk.

247

(309 replies, posted in Fantasy/Magic & Sci-Fi)

Dirk B. wrote:

One thing I don't understand is that hyperspace is usually referred to as a higher dimension. Shouldn't that be dimensions (plural)? You still need three of them. Four if you count time (hypertime?).

Are there alternatives to hyperspace or does modern math/tech require it? The Wrinkle in Time had a 5th dimensional tesseract. I don't know if that's the same as a wormhole or hyperspace. And CS Lewis in the Chronicles of Narnia used a ring crafted in Atlantis and it took you to a garden that connected to other worlds. At least that's what I remember without looking it up. Star Trek used warp speed.

Did Dune ever explain their drive mechanism?

Is there something else to use? Brainstorm time!!!!

248

(14 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

njc: Grammarly is not perfect but is great for catching 'simple' errors and rephrasing sentences. I liked your initial post. I won't argue with you. After Grammarly graces my prose I try to go over the writing tips that reviewers have given me.

How does one put art into a program? There is that certain aspect mentioned called flow. You can tell when a story flows. Will even AI be able to cause prose to flow? Good conversation.

249

(14 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

njc wrote:
George FLC wrote:

njc - well said. Perhaps I should go over your grammar in this comment. :-)

Have at it.

The top is what you wrote. The bottom is what Grammarly suggests:

Welcome!
To follow up on George FLC's comment on grammar, and since I'm mostly lurking these days, here's my minimized lecture on grammar:
Grammar is not just a thing right or wrong. Grammar is a tool of the writer. In English's magnificently rich grammar there are usually many ways to present a structure of ideas. In a complex sentence, we choose which idea deserves the high seat of the main clause, and which ideas should support from subordinate clauses. We decide which modifiers deserve the weight of a relative clause, which justify a prepositional phrase, and which can be budgeted an adjective or adverb, according to how much of the reader's attention we want to spend on each. We order our clauses and sentences with care so that the prose flows smoothly through one topic and into the next, with a minimum of jumping back and forth.

Grammarly
Welcome!
To follow up on George FLC's comment on grammar, and since I'm mostly lurking these days, here's my minimized lecture on grammar:
Grammar is more than just a thing, right or wrong. Grammar is a tool of the writer. In English's magnificently rich grammar, there are usually many ways to present a structure of ideas. In a complex sentence, we choose which idea deserves the high seat of the main clause and which ideas should support from subordinate clauses. We decide which modifiers deserve the weight of a relative clause, which justify a prepositional phrase, and which can be budgeted as an adjective or adverb, according to how much of the reader's attention we want to spend on each. We carefully order our clauses and sentences so that the prose flows smoothly through one topic and into the next, with minimal jumping back and forth.

Please, anyone, tell me what you think.

250

(14 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

njc - well said. Perhaps I should go over your grammar in this comment. :-)