The Galaxy Tales - Dirk B. (Page 45 of 49)

I've received feedback that nova and (especially) supernova cannons suggest more powerful weapons than they actually are. Nova cannons are roughly the equivalent of what the Millennium Falcon fires (fast, maneuverable, able to target incoming missiles), and supernova cannons are the equivalent of what a Star Destroyer fires. I also have some flying cars fitted with novas. I'm satisfied with the name nova, but supernova is admittedly over the top. I could simply refer to them as light/heavy novas. They both have to be a form of the same technology for story purposes.

Thoughts?

Light/heavy novas doesn't work well. Unless someone has a better suggestion, I'll go with novas and meganovas (and mininovas for the cars).

They're all just variants of a blast cannon, scaled for different purposes. I added the extra characteristic that meganovas can't maneuver quickly, so they are for battle between big ships. Novas are lighter and less powerful, and can fend off star fighters and enemy missiles. Mininovas are theoretically even more maneuverable, but they're generally fixed to flying vehicles.

All this "nova" talk gave me a character name. Thanks!
Renaming "Naya" to "Nova". Never liked the original name - makes me think of bottled water.

I have a question about how to represent my ghosts in the next draft. Currently, they are a presence in the mind of Joseph and Apollo, and they "radiate" emotions. The ghosts are not physically visible. I had to do that because God currently appears to both Joseph and Apollo. If He were visible and the two versions of Him looked different, then the reader is likely to assume they are not real. However, if both versions of God look the same, then they almost certainly would be real. But, since I'm replacing God with the archangels Michael and Gabriel in the rewrite, I have the option of making all the ghosts visible as if they were real humans travelling with Joseph and Apollo.

This raises a couple of tricky issues. First, when Andrew or Joseph's mother use Joseph's own hand to smack him upside the head, should they temporarily jump inside Joseph and force his hand to act as described, or should I simply have the visible ghost smack Joseph with the ghost's own hand? I'm leaning toward the latter. In Apollo's case, God currently creates in him strong urges to pee at the worst possible times, and I want to keep that. I'm debating whether Apollo's archangel can simply cause the urge without explicitly "jumping" into Apollo long enough to do it.

A big issue is communication. I can't usually have Joseph and Apollo talk out loud to these ghosts when they're around other people, otherwise they'd both be locked up. So communication would generally remain as thoughts. That then begs the question whether the ghosts use their mouths for anything. Should I have the ghosts actually speak, but make it only audible to Joseph and Apollo?

What about the case when Joseph's mother chews out the Imperial guard for not letting Joseph into the palace to see Apollo? In that case, the ghost would probably have to jump inside Joseph to force those words out of his mouth. The other alternative to jumping inside would be for her to tell Joseph exactly what to say and he stupidly obeys, as already happens in a scene in v3 where Joseph and Paul accidentally board the slaver and Joseph tells the ass next to him, "I don't say sorry to an idiot."

Thoughts?
Dirk

I'll have to scan through the chapters to see if there are any places where Joseph or Apollo must use mind speech. There probably are, which sucks because I really want the ghosts to be fully realized beings. Perhaps I can change the conversations so that the ghosts speak through their mouths, but Joseph/Apollo respond by their actions, pretending to think out loud, or actual verbal responses to the ghosts when no one else is listening. I can use accidental verbal responses to cause people around Joseph/Apollo to wonder about their sanity. That's primarily dangerous for Apollo. Joseph is technically free to admit he has Archangel Syndrome. It's a common enough occurrence among the elite and it's not dangerous as long as you ignore the archangels, which Joseph doesn't do. He's convinced the archangel is real.

It'd be hard, but you could have the teens deliberately not interact with the apparitions when observers are about. For example, in VQA chapter 14, my main is partially aware that no one sees the child so they simply stop talking when others arrive. The 'apparition' has the option to interject  as it wishes, but MC must wait for quiet time to respond

This evening's episode of Gilligan's Island featured an impostor pretending to be Mr. Howell back on Wall Street. He promised that after resuming his position as CEO of Howell Industries he would sell his Amalgamated stock. Upon hearing this on the radio, the real Mr. Howell runs into the lagoon and attempts to swim to Hawaii. Gilligan and the Skipper stop him. Mr. Howell offers one million dollars to whichever castaway can devise a scheme to get him of the island. Gilligan makes a pair of wings and leaps off the top of the hut. It actually works until the Skipper tells him it's impossible, followed by a Wyle E. Coyote-like crash. They settle on a pontoon boat powered by peddling on a bicycle-like contraption from a previous episode. The professor gives Mr. Howell a flare gun and tells him to fire off a flare if he gets in trouble. I should note that they used up the last of their flares in an episode in season one. They push the pontoon boat into the lagoon and it promptly sinks, taking Mr. Howell with it. A hand reaches out of the lagoon and fires the flare gun. Eventually the impostor falls overboard from a yacht and washes up on the island. He knocks out the real Mr. Howell, switches clothes, and pretends to be the real Thurston. After being discovered as the impostor, the fake Howell takes off and swims to Hawaii, where he is rescued. He refuses to say who he is because the police are looking for him for impersonating the real Mr. Howell. This episode begs the question why he never offered a million before now and why they didn't try building a pontoon boat sooner. After all, they've been on the island for two years. I like the choice of Amalgamated for the stock. They previously used Consolidated Acme, also good.

This week's episode of Gilligan's Island had everyone sneezing and itching when they came near Gilligan. Pathetically poor fake sneezes by some of the actors. The funny part was the Skipper. His sneezes were so severe he repeatedly blew out candles, blew open the hut's door, and knocked over a palm tree. At one point, he tried to hold it in and his cap went flying straight up from his head. When it seemed like he was about to let loose a titanic sneeze, everyone ran for the jungle, followed by ... nothing.

I'm pretty sure they used up all the matches (for relighting the candle) in one of the first shows, but what the heck. Perhaps the Professor made some. At one point they went through all of the women's makeup and perfume trying to find out what was causing the allergy. I never knew women needed that much perfume for a three hour tour. And let's not forget the Howells. She brought out a large diamond collection to see if it was the cause. She also had four different types of furs (mink, sable, etc.) with her. In Hawaii? In 90 degree heat?

Did you ever notice there was no discussion of building a latrine on that show? They must have been pooping all over the island. At least they had plenty of palm fronds for toilet paper.

Nova sounds masculine. Naya is feminine.

Eye movements. It doesn't really bother me. It catches my attention, yes... but I'm able to overlook it (unlike a mixed up their/there, for example, which is just upsetting). Consider this my eyebrows waggling in nonchalant acceptance.