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(13 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

Hey Marilyn,
Ouch. Sorry to hear it. This definitely is one for your Bless this Mess writings. Infact you could almost cut and paste it into a chapter. Very easy. Get better and don't worry about reciprocation right now.

Keep on healing.

George FLC

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

Yeah. Dirk is real good at finding mistakes. I keep him busy!

A few decades ago, I worked in AI. I considered a career change into doing AI. But I didn't which I'm just as glad. I'm behind the current state of the art but I'm not convinced that creating a computer program that can create is possible. It's one thing to know what an apple and the earth are but it's another to get hit on one's head and come up with gravity and calculus like Newton. A computer can know about space and time but to come up with the space/time continuum like Einstein is another.

AI will be another tool like computers, phones, fire, wheels, etc.

So, keep on writing everyone!

George FLC

>>instead, Connor's descent into evil will be a gradual thing from the beginning of the trip onward until he's cured in the water

There can be advantages to a gradual descent into evil. If your reader is analytical then they can get caught up with the agony of watching it occur. 'Oh no! Connor really is changing!' Or they're lulled to sleep and get a shock at the end. 'Connor's the AC?!?!'

I was wondering about the age of the child priests and nuns. This reminded me of the Children's Crusade. This is from AI - The children involved in the Children's Crusade, which took place in 1212, were primarily between the ages of 10 and 18.

Is that the general age you plan to use? I couldn't find a range of child priest ages in what you wrote.

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(30 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

Marilyn Johnson wrote:
George FLC wrote:

I'm an optimist - No! It's not too late. How can we just give up? If we aren't striving to adjust and improve then we have big time problems.

I get the optimism—we really need it. But hope alone won't save us. Every time someone pushes for real change, there's a crowd of people who are too lazy, too cynical, or too entitled to help. They'll argue online all day but won't actually do anything. They act like they know everything but won't plant a tree, clean up trash, or even recycle. They expect someone else to handle it.

Well, those "someone elses" are gone. We've pushed away the people who kept our food system running—field workers, laborers, the people who actually do the work—and now farmers can't find help. The privileged class won't step in because they think manual labor is beneath them. They'd rather complain online than get their hands dirty. Our supply chains from other countries no longer exist thanks to a man who never got past page 1 in Economics 101, the part where tariffs are explained in detail... that says tariffs levied on other countries only mean higher prices for the consumers of those products, which of course are you and me. Example: Mexico just cut off their supply of tomatoes to the US due to imposed tariffs, while the US sits with fields of tomatoes rotting on the vines because there are no workers to pick them. Wonder how that happened? This only means that for Thanksgiving dinner, you can expect to pay $10 for one tomato, if you can find one.

We've got a "leader" (somehow that word doesn't feel right) whose only plan is "drill, drill, drill," selling off public lands to the highest bidder. Goodbye, Yellowstone. He doesn't care about conservation or climate change—just money and power. And we've got corrupt judges, including Supreme Court justices, who've been bought and paid for. Corruption is so bad it's basically official policy now. And goodbye, Big Bird and Ernie... PBS was just slashed because it didn't feature anyone with an orange face. Kids grew up on Sesame Street, which taught them how to do good, how to be neat and tidy, how to care about others, how to be a friend, and how to live in these times. For some kids, that's all they had because their parents are too busy for them. But no more. No more Public Broadcasting System. Gone by the wayside, soon to be replaced with only one TV station, and for those of you who are smart, you know who that TV station will feature non-stop. Ask North Korea what that's like.

So yes, George, you're right in that we shouldn't give up. But let's be honest: we're not just fighting climate change and trash. We're fighting greed, laziness, entitlement, and a system that's falling apart because nobody cares anymore. If we don't start being real about what we're up against, we'll just sit here watching everything fall apart, wondering how it happened.

Where is that asteroid when you need it most?

Oh, yes, about those temperatures... we are back to normal today, but that's because it rained last night and it's raining here today with thunderstorms, gigantic cracks of thunder and lightning.

Good comments, Marilyn. You and I have tangled with issues before, and I think discussing these topics is crucial. I watch CNN and Fox just to make sure I'm not totally slanted one way. Of course, it's strange at times - things are great, things are terrible, and repeat. I plan on not becoming bipolar by watching those two outlets. :-)

I'm confused about many things. I don't understand why other nations can impose tariffs on us, but we cannot impose many, if any, tariffs on them. Our factories are shutting down. Check the rust belt.

And I've worked in the automotive industry, utilizing computer models. You've got to make sure those models are really good BEFORE you start cutting steel for tooling. How good are the climate models? I've read conflicting things.

I don't understand why we have to pay so much to protect nations, and they didn't have to pay their fair share. Fortunately, our current leader has secured NATO's commitment to increase efforts. 

We were told that nobody is above the law. But I guess illegal immigrants are above the law. And why are farmers hiring illegals? Isn't that illegal? Let's increase the number of people we let in legally.

PBS gets 15% of its funding from the federal government and 8% from universities (whatever that means). Can't they adjust and survive?

We should fund fusion and nuclear. Take some of those billions of dollars that are fraud, waste, and unknown-where-it's-at and fund these things more.

And just think, it's only been 6 months! Has it been perfect? NO! The 51st state and Greenland stuff was bad. The Gulf of America? Really? I don't know how great it was to go after all the tariffs at once, but it seems to be working. Our economy increased by 3%!!!!

George FLC

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(30 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

My big problem with climate change is with the models. They are better but are they good enough to plan massive solutions around?

The next problem is with politicians. They have constituencies that will want solutions that don't require inflation, unemployment, or too much cost/pain. The politicians want to keep their positions without causing grief to their constituents and hence lose their positions.

The next issue is anecdotal. Doesn't it seem like it was colder when we older people were growing up? Now it just seems warmer. But are these just natural fluxuations?

When will AI be unleashed to solve this problem? But then, it might just say to get rid of the human race...

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(30 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

B Douglas Slack wrote:
Dirk B wrote:

All it would take to fix everything that's wrong with the Earth is a monstrous asteroid. I'll allow your imaginations to fill in the blanks. :-)

First, I'd say we here in the US would have to get rid of the huge hemorrhoid first. Then we could prepare to the asteroid. :-)

Bill

If I understand what you're saying, then be careful. We're having a decent conversation and don't need to throw stuff like that around. I could say things, too but would rather not.

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(30 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

Dirk B wrote:
George FLC wrote:

We need to be good stewards with what's been given to us.

We're a bit late for that, don't you think? Try to find a piece of land, a river, a lake, a tree, a crop, an animal, a teabag(!), etc. that isn't contaminated by micro-plastics or other industrial pollutants.

Years ago, I thought about writing a story about some chemical/pollutant/GMO crop/etc. that causes all the men on Earth to become sterile. That eventually morphed into the faulty vaccine in Archangel Syndrome that brought civilization to its knees. Good thing too, as the world was running out of trees for toilet paper. A disaster of biblical proportions was narrowly averted thanks to Professor Elroy Winkley and his time travel equation: N=jc^2.

I'm an optimist - No! It's not too late. How can we just give up? If we aren't striving to adjust and improve then we have big time problems.

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(30 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

Let's get technical! Good stuff. I've never heard of the Milankovitch cycles. Very good.

I try to be a pragmatist. I don't want to spit in the water and give it to my children. We need to be good stewards with what's been given to us.

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(30 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

Are we getting global warming and y'all are getting global cooling? That's not fair!

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(30 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

I think we only hit 93 degrees, 34 C.

How was Canada Dirk?

Perhaps the biggest difference is the centrality of the ring compared to the dagger as you mentioned. The entire LOTR is centered on the one ring. Not so with the one dagger. The ring controls the story the dagger is a tool in the story.

And it does look different when two holy or crazy people snatch it compared to an obsessed lunatic creature biting off Connor's finger.

How about
"The Dark Coming of the Holy Emissary"
"The Coming of the Unholy Emissary"

Agreed - "The Coming of the Holy Emissary"

To me it sounds like you're talking about the Pope. But you're not. He's not given that title that I could find. However, I wonder if many people would assume the story is about the Pope. That aside, it sounds good to me.

How about "The Chronicles of the Holy Emissary"!   :-)

Kdot wrote:

Chronicles of Connor has a nice sound, but might be a little too zero'd in on MC

Fear not, I will find loopholes in everything or my middle name isn't trouble

I prefer "The Chronicles of Connor" more than "Connor's Chronicles". The first one sounds more noble.

Dirk B wrote:

Slight change of plans.
I could call the series "Chronicles of the Lord's Shepherd."
At least that title refers to Connor, even if only indirectly, rather than Satan. Although the "Lord's Shepherd" gets a ridiculous number of false hits on Amazon due to titles like "The Lord is my Shepherd," the Chronicles title is unique and only brings back a few false hits.

Still not a true fan of "The Advent Chronicles" (from my previous post), so I'm leaning toward Chronicles.

"The Advent Chronicles" is pretty good. Why not?
"The Glorious Advent Chronicles" - yuck.
"Chronicles of the Lord's End Times"
"Connor's Chronicles" An alliteration!

Dirk B wrote:

"The Advent Trilogy" or "The Advent Chronicles", perhaps? They're unused. That would make the titles "Advent - The Rise of Connor," "Advent - The War for Souls," and "Advent - The Lesser King."


I like all of them. "The Advent Chronicles" is good because it reminds me of the "Chronicles of Narnia". Using Chronicles is good.
"Satan's Chronicles"
"The Final Chronicles"
"End Time Chronicles"
"Chronicles of the Lesser King"
"Earth's Final Chronicles"

Some thoughts:
I like the Staff of God because you can mix it with the cross and because of Psalm 23.

I like the Hand of God because it gives you a wide range of uses. The Hand of God welcomes you home to the real church. But if God is upset then it becomes the Fist of God and He can Punch and Slap you around. That poor guy got a Holy Hit.

The Right Hand of God, that you mentioned, is good, too.

Is the Hands of God any better? Or the Holy Hands of God? Or the Holy Hand of God?

Can he become the Hands and Staff of God or is that too clumsy?

Put a new tattoo, 333, on the hand which stands for the trinity.

I've heard of non-literal interpretations of Revelations. Fine. But I've never heard of the 666 in any positive way. I've never heard of God being the source of the 666. The Beast uses it. So, of course if you consider audience then you might lose some people. Considering how fractured the modern church is then you might not lose a ton of readers. I realize that your story is not a biblical critique but some of your audience might not like it. I know that there are things you won't fool around with (e.g. birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus), many people would not like that, but I don't know people's limits on the 666.

I learned about audience considerations on this website so let me apply it! :-)

An upright staff with crossbar is interesting or perhaps the opposite. The cross would almost seem to carry the staff.

I will challenge your 666 branding.

“It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name. This calls for wisdom. Let the person who has insight calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. That number is 666” (Revelation 13:16-18).

Christian means 'little Christ'. So, the youth could all be little Staffs. The cross that Christians wear could be supplemented by little staffs. Or joined together. Cross and staff tattoos next to the 666...

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(7 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

Great news, Randall. Keep on writing!
George FLC

"The Staff of Christ." It goes back to Ps 23 hence it hides things well.