C James

But, but, but... That one bit I suspect you refer to was not my fault!! And I'd never misdirect!! The answer here is simple; it's all Shadowgod's fault!!

Good point about the Americans in Toowoomba. That would be enough to get him a US Federal death penalty, i think. BTW, this reminds me of an issue I want to bring up in the post-story discussion; I largely ignored Australia after the big boom. There were no scenes with the OZ authorities, etc. I did that because it wasn't the focus of the story, nor relevant to the outcome, but I felt bad doing it. BTW, do I take it that you don't like ?

Benji!!! What a thing to say about poor me!! And what, me, misdirect? Would I ever do such a thing as that? It's not misdirection if something is written that leaves several possible interpretations, and the reader assumes the wrong one, now is it?

I hereby deem this thread ?

At shorty after eight o'clock on Sunday evening, Emoe's father lost his fight to recover from surgery, and began a journey that we must all one day take. My sincere condolences to Emoe and his family. Please join me in keeping Emoe and his family in your thoughts and prayers. CJ

Guys, how could you do this to poor Shadowgod, and on the anniversary of LiS 26!!!

Ack, now, now, no goat roasting! I can't control what Jerry does. Yes, this is true, even cliffhangers, which of course I almost never use. ACK! WILDONE!! Those aren't cliffhangers! Ok, I answered some (edited in in Red, above) , but left others unanswered as they are in the remaining chapter and epilogue, or in the case of the Tequila, in "Changing Lanes".

War criminals don't always go to the Hauge. For one thing, not all nations recognize it (the US included, in some cases) and they don't have the death penalty. For example, if the US captures Bin Laden, he isn't going to the Hauge, but more likly getting a federal death penalty. Or, like Saddam, getting his neck stretched. Jerry is a tricky case. Australia has the biggest beef with him, and should IMHO get first whack. The US has the legal situation of him planting, and trying to use, weapons of mass destruction on US soil. There's also the matter of his involvement (as a con-conspirator) in the murder of Gunter, the pilot, and the Sheriff's Deputies. Under the law in most states, that makes him guilty of capital murder. However, Paraguay, should it survive, certainly has their own score to settle with Jerry. Jerry does seem to have a knack for making people upset with him? Poor Jerry! BTW, at least the first four of your loose ends will be dealt with in the next chapter and the epilogue. The Carlisle's parents are the one thing we won't see more of in LTMP. However, the same is not true for the sequel, "Changing Lanes", which will start posting within ten days of the end of LTMP. However, I think they are about the only "loose end" that will be left for the sequel. I'm not personally fond of leaving a lot of things unresolved in a story, so I wanted to use the final chapter and the epilogue to do quite a bit. And hrmmm, No one had any objections to my mention that "Changing Lanes" might be all about Jerry, once he finished off Instinct? Well, Okay, just so long as you're all okay with it.

Yes, agreed! MikeL, Graeme, and I are the some of the very few GA members who use their personal pics as avatars.

Thanks Tim!!! I originally tried the opening parts in 1st, then 3rd, but then 2nd just seemed like a better fit. It was a tricky one to write; I was trying for a sort of formal style, and some eloquence, and I'm not skilled at either. It was fun to try it though. I've now written in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. I've yet to try 4th.

Jerry did indeed start loosing his grip, starting with the shipping container incident where he killed the road boss. The stress got to him, and in spite of his high opinions of himself he doesn't handle stress well. He also tried to get too fancy on some of the details, and had some bad luck. I had no idea!! I don't watch much TV, so I didn't know that. As for going crazy... How does one go where one already is? ROFL! I have never claimed to be sane!

One of the reasons for the technical detail about the nuke in chapter 36 was to try and make the disarming procedure understandable; if someone doesn't know how a nuke works, the idea of preventing it from detonating by blowing it up or shooting it might seem a little odd. However, those are the real procedures. The "happy Landings" just happened while I was writing, it wasn't planned, it just came out and I thought it fit. Of course, the sequel could be all about Jerry. His coup might still work, and then he's got a war on his hands. Thank you Conner!! About the fear of heights... I didn't emhasize Brandon's well enough; it's mentioned in a couple of places early on and in chapter 19, but not clearly enough. However, yep, that's why they both have a fear of heights; for the final showdown way up high.

I'll reply more in detail tomorrow (3am here!) but just a couple of points for now. First, THANK YOU ALL! BTW, the Offshore banking was added by Emoe... I originally had it as Offshore Baking, but Emoe didn't think that quite fit. LoL! I dunno why... a conspiracy involving offshore baking sounds.. delicious! Things are not going Jerry's way, but he's still got a good chance; the bribed officers have to back him even though the bribes are worthless; if their government remains in power, they bribed officers are in major hot water for being involved in Jerry's antics. There are a lot of loose ends at this point in the story, but the final chapter and the epilogue should work for tying them up. The final chapter is 47: Endgame and it should post on time. The epilogue will be posted a few days later. Okay, now, a question for everyone; what loose ends do you feel should be tied up?

Vote no, VOTE NO!!!!!

This was a great edition!! And Tim, Thank you.. I've done a few interviews myself, and having been here Tim was, i want to say, he did a GREAT job. It was fun for me, and having someone I consider a friend on the other end of the line made it even better. I guess I do like living on the edge a bit. I've certainly had people tell me I'm crazy for some of the things I do, such as getting lost while driving on a dirt road near the Bosnian-Croatian boarder late last year. I"m still not sure whether I ended up in Bosnia or not... (I'll drive most anywhere...) Bondwriter, that's a GREAT pic!! Lol!!! I love it!! I'll also say this; he did one of the hardest things in image rendering; he put an object behind glass. That's very hard to do. Great edition!!!

Happy Canada Day!!!

Kit.. Wow, thank you!!! Indeed I did have problems with "too many words" in NSNP (and also in the early parts of my novel "For the Love". I had no idea how to advance time, so it ended up being linear, and way too wordy. I love using short stories as a means for trying new things. For example, "The Muse" was my first try at third person, and "Requiem" my first try at second. I originally envisioned and outlined Requiem in third person, then in first, but Second seemed a better fit. Graeme helped me on the tenses (and much else) with that; the tenses in second person are a little different, and tricky. Three for Jake was largely written while I was drunk. LoL. I'd been at a neighbor's party, doing tequila shooters. To be honest, the ending surprised me too; I had no idea where I was going with it when I started it, which is unusual for me; on novels, I tend to write at least a draft of the epilogue right around the time I'm writing chapter one. I'm still learning, and I've got a long ways to go, but I'm having loads of un along the way. BTW, speaking of "three for Jake", that short story is not a prologue for "Jake", a serial I'm working on and hope to begin posting soon. Thank you Graeme!! I've had a great deal of help along the way. I do try and write serials to be like a print novel rather than weekly serials, and I agree, I'd do better if I finished them completely prior to posting. But, for me, so much of my drive to write is the fun I have in this forum, so I know my pace would slow down. CJ

Mike, that was one great article!! Thank you!! There were indeed varius types of viking ships, and the ones used in Greenland were more like the warship briefly mentioned,not the coastal raider. The key ability of the coastal raiders was their shallow draft; they could navigate in a couple of feet of water, and beach easily. Their lack of a keel was another key aspect. The warships were more stoutly buillt and wider, and also had removable (often carried stowed) roofing, used as protection from arrows and other small projectiles. Even so, saling back then was risky. For example, of the 20 or so ships taking part in the initial colonization of Greenland, 13 survived the journey from iceland. . Thanks Sacha!! I love doing the research for stories, but in this case it was easy; I've long had an interest in the lost Viking colony. So, the entire non-fiction part was easy to write.

Thank you!!! See? I'm not the only one who thinks so! But, but, but, I almost never use cliffhangers!!! And mine aren't evil like Shadowgod's!

I can say conclusively that Brandon hasn't died in chapter 45; at the end of the chapter, he's physically fine, except for a few scratches and little gravitational issue. Steve!!! I'd never use blackmail!! And I'm not evil!! Have a wonderful holidays!! But I'm innocent!! Thanks!! I thought so, based on my tests, but I was unsure. BTW, Benji, I'm glad you raised this issue; while at the mineshaft I found my trailer-hitch cover, lost a year before! As for me going into the old mineshaft, I respectfully decline! You're right! However, a little tsk tsk of my own (I just can't resist!); the acceleration rate of gravity, if we're using metric, is 9.8 m s/s. It's 33 feet s/s, not meters.

A couple of thoughts on the title, "Blood and Sacrifice". What does Brandon believe, based on his thoughts about Chase right before the leap? Saving millions of people, at the willing cost of his own life? Sort of... I checked by googling, and a bowling lane is about 60 ft, but Dimitri would have had to keep the grenade airborn about 40, so about 2/3 of a bowline alley length. That's a very good way of visualizing it though; think of hurling a full can of soda (which is about the right size, shape and mass) 2/3 to 3/4 of the way down a bowling alley.

Agreed about Dan's stories and cliffhangers. Dreams of Humanity is my favorite of his stories, and I highly recommend it. I seriously don't use that many, ummm, shall we say, slightly tense situations spanning chapter breaks. LTMP has 47 chapters, and the first tense was chapter 19, halfway through, and then from there it went all the way to chapter 37, and from there I think the next was chapter 43, then 45. (I do tend to have them cluster towards the end of a story, due to the story climax.) See? I have no claim on this title.

But, but, but... there was no cliffhanger in this chapter! Brandon isn't even touching the cliff at the chapter end!! ACK!! But, but, need i remind you all of Shadowgod's LiS 26? OK, a serious question; Dimitri's Grenade Toss. In the chapter he tossed it 50 feet, sort of; it was depicted as bouncing when it came out of the shaft. So, he had to toss it at least 40 feet. The problem here is the shaft roof; I don't specify it, but given the descriptions it's about eight feet. So, he can't lob it up. There's a somewhat similar shaft between me and town (horizonal, like the one in the story), so I stopped by this afternoon. I used an old and battered plastic flashlight that's a bit harder to throw, and stood at the shaft mouth (about five feet back). I clicked on the flashlight and chucked it in. I can't be quite sure how far it went; the light went out as soon as it hit. As a guess, fifty feet, but I have no real idea, and I have no intention of going in and looking (old Mine shafts are dangerous, I almost never go in them). I tried to look in using a handheld spotlight, but couldn't see well enough, and there's rubble on the floor in places. I then tried chucking a full can of soda at a tree. The soda can is a decent approximation of a cylindrical concussion grenade in size and weight. I pegged the tree at fifty feet, about two feet abbove the ground (and three feet below my aim point) and soda went everywhere. A tree trunk is smaller than a mine shaft mouth by quite a lot (this tree is about three feet wide, a shaft would be seven or eight. A baseball pitcher stands 60 feet from home plate, but they need to get the ball over the plate at high speed. Demitri didn't. BUT, unless there's some decent speed, it would need to be lofted and the shaft roof would preclude that. My feeling, based on all this, is that Dimitri, if he had any experience whatsoever throwing a ball or a graende, could have made it to the needed 40 feet. However, my test was IMHO noninclusive. Anyone have any feelings on this, or test ideas? BTW, I won't entertain any suggestions that involve me going into the mineshaft.

Hi Old Bob!!! Thank you! This is my first try at a running battle, so figuring out how to get the back-and forth right without slowing it down or making it confusing took me a little time. Thanks!!! Benji, thank your for your declaration of "no Cliffhanger".. You are, of course, correct. Brandon is not hanging from a cliff, so no cliffhanger. Also, Brandon is fine! Just a few scratches (that happens when you charge through an old mine shirtless) and that minor bullet crease. Granted, he has a little gravitational issue.... BTW, do you think I over-stated things by calling it "a little tense"? You might be right! Maybe I should re-phrase... Perhaps "a slight trace of possible unease"? I guess it's a good thing the next chapter isn't named "Impact"... Er, oh, well, it is, but for that, we have to blame shadowgod... At least I did not give in to the Evil One's demand that I name it "Splat"... Who? Me? I'm not cruel... And I think forum opinion has moved away from lynchi8ng ant towards open-spit roasting.. The rocks at the base of the slope would not make for the softest of landings. However, I can say without a doubt that the fall would not be fatal... Falls are NEVER fatal. The sudden stop at the bottom might well be, but the fall itself is never fatal. Okay, for some general comments from me; the acceleration rate of gravity is 33 feet per second, per second. A dropped object will travel 33 feet in it's first second, 66 in second #2, 99 feet in the third second, etc. However, that's without air resistance. Terminal velocity for a free-falling human is, at sea level, about 125 mph. I don't give an altitude in the text, but the mountains east of Last Dollar road have areas like the one I describe at about 9500 feet. The air is thinner, so less resistance, hence faster terminal velocity. Going from memory (always a bad idea for me) but at that altitude, air density (and thus drag) are about 55% of at sea level. So, as a ballpark figure, say 50% less drag and increase terminal V by 50%. That would make it roughly 185 mph. Of course, that's very rough, and many things can change; assuming a head or feet down position lowers drag and increases velocity. In a vacuum, a feather and a hammer do indeed fall at the same rate. Dimitri and Brandon would fall at roughly the same rate, though the determining factor here would be air friction; Brandon might fall slightly faster due to less drag (he's shirtless). BTW, if anyone is curious what happens, the clues are in Ch 45.

Hrmmm, Bikes-a-crashing... That's now been in LTMP. So too was a certain cave-in. Seems to be working it's way down the list.