C James

ROFL! Beware of Canadians, i always say! Ahha! You've deduced Mario and Dimitri's plan! They aim to kill Instinct via high cholesterol! BTW, there might be a change in what I promised regarding larger chapters for 36 and 37. The total size will stay the same (the equivalent of almost four standard chapters) BUT, due to some good advice from Emoe and Shadowgod, either some of 36 will be moved to 37, or visa versa. If it's the former, and it likly will be, ch 36 will still be a little larger than normal, while 37 will be almost the equivalent of three chapters in length. Of course, I'm a little worried about my safety.... Dimitri did promise Vladimer a Roast Goat when the job was done....

Awww, Sacha! But, but, but... ummm, LTMP is set in the future... So therefor, I'm merely channeling future, and real events! How could I possibly conceive of anything as evil as that? I'm just a sweet, quiet and shy lurker! Why, I've even said that only one character is based partially on me... Though no one has yet guessed who. (Hint... it's not a member of Instinct). Now, now, We all know that His Shadowyness is Evil... And I can prove it beyond all doubt merely by mentioning LiS 26! Bondwriter was the first to point out that Shadowgod is the Lord of Darkness. And the Lord of Darkness is one of Satan's names. Look, too, towards the clues he leaves... Remember his short story Prelude to Destiny? About Egyptioan Mythos? IMHO, that was a first-hand autobiographical account. I had him mistakenly pegged as Ra at first, but no, Apep, the god of evil and darkness. is a far, far better fit. Take a look at his avatar; an Ankh... An egyptian symbol, bracketed by two griffens! BUT, it's a heiroglyph... The Ankh is the symbol of life, but, when combined with other symbology it becomes part of the heiroglyph. The Ankh in Shadowgod's sigil is bracketed by two Griffins, and Grifins in the ancient times were the symbol of divine power. Look closely, the avatar heavily features shadows, the realm of Apohis (Apop), lord of darkness. In other words, this avatar is no less than a heirogliph, proclaiming its bearer as the god of evil and darkness, whom we would call Satan. There are a plethora of other subtle cluyes as well. For example, he has the nickname of "Fossil" that denotes his antiquity. He dwells in the nether regions, and he has an abiding love of the malevolent precipices. But, but, but... LTMP is set in the very near future, so all I may be doing is providing a recount of future events... Goats do have links to fortune-telling and predicting the future, you know... Granted, it's usually via entrail reading, but who knows my own gut better than me? We don't even know that Dimitri and The Scar are the antagonists of the story! I've never said that they are.

ACK! I am most certainly NOT the spawn of Shadowgod, so your statement is manifestly false The Shadowy one, of course! He's evil incanrante, the lord of Darkness! ACK! Benji!!! That's not fair! It was Dimitri be brought down that airliner early in the story, not me! And in FTL, only a few of the bad guys died! And in LTMP, well, Jerry and Dimitri do tend to get a little, errrm, protective. But they just want to be left to their own devices. Besides, what about all the blood and death in His Shadowynesses stories? In "Almost Home" and certainly in "Prelude to Destiny" he had deaths!! He's evil, I tell ya, EEEvil!

I agree. It's early in the story yet, so I suspect that we are seeing only a tiny fraction of what His Shadowyness has to reveal. One of the things I love about Shadowgod's stories is the way he paints the picture; we were kept guessing about Joe, but now we've had a major serving of info. In other worde, he seems to use varied pacing, and does so very well indeed. So, any more guesses regarding what that EEEvil cliff'ed between Cody and Joe was about? It could be something utterly different to what we expect. Trouble paying the rent? Yes, he probably did, but do remember, His Shadowyness is EEvil like that. ;-) My prediction is that DnCW 6 will appear either on, before, or after April 22nd. I'd be willing to bet money on that, too! CJ

Uhoh... I was worried that SPiCE might object to the bit about Eric kicking a live nuke... But it was quite safe, really! The anti-tamper device is a net of wires inside the outer skin of the bomb case. He couldn't break them without putting his foot through steel plate! And, Helen was only trying to do the right thing. Eric did try and squirt her! And he was on tequila... As for Jerry, he was only being neighborly: He thinks about garroting most anyone who comes near that shipping container. Now, now, we don't KNOW that Blackheart hasn't done that or worse! Remember, we are talking about he of many names: Shadowgod, Blackheart, Apophis, Apep, Mephistopheles, etc. Apophis (also called Apep), in Egyptian mythos, is the ancient spirit of evil and destruction, a demon that is determined to plunge the world into eternal darkness (Shadows). He is also the god of Shadows and other manifestiations of evil and destruction. A western concept would be to call him Satan. So how can you say he isn't evil?

I can't actually comment on your questions, but I can propose several scenarios. Mario wants to hire the goose to subcontract out the hit. Picture this; The goose, winging his way through the skies, wearing a bomb belt and an MP3 player, listening to the resounding refrains of "Ride of the Valkyries" as he swoops down upon his intended victim's hotel. The goose, disguised as a bellhop, gains admission to Instinct's suite and guns them all down. Or perhaps Mario wants the goose to drive the getaway car?

In order to head off any objections from SPiCE, I'd like to point out that Eric kicking a live nuclear warhead put him in no danger from the bomb! The anti-tamper mechanism is a net of wires inside the case. Therefor, unless he can kick through plate steel, he was in no danger of triggering it.

Welcome, Rob!!! Thank you for joining us, and wow, that's one heck of a great analysis! I really can't comment on any of it yet without giving spoilers, but that's a great post, THANK YOU! Mike mentioned the bit about Mario and The Goose in his above post (thanks Mike!). It was just one small bit in Ch 35. Hi Steve! I think I can answer a little of that as the answer is fact-based rather than in the text. Gunter works for Instinct, but like much of the permanent staff (as opposed to the road crew) his contract does not end with the tour. That's standard in the industry for a head of security. They do often hare additional staff for a tour, but the core remains throughout. And yep, Gunter was talking to Jim about Telluride. Oh, and BTW, before any shadowy entity says otherwise (he's evil, so he just might...) I need to remind everyone that Ch 35 was not in any way a cliffhanger. The slight bit of tension over Mario's orders is nowhere near the end of the chapter. CJ

I just thought "Tri-sexual" was a good moniker for someone who likes 3-ways. LOL ROFL!!! I love it! I kind of presented it piecemeal all along, sorry if that was confusing... Let me see what I can find... OK, I found this in Ch 32:

My sincere thanks to all who acknowledged that this chapter was cliffhanger-free! Writing Eric's conversation with Chase was fun. Honestly, *I* wasn't quite sure what his sexuality was when that began. It basically revealed itself during the conversation. I was wondering if anyone noticed this bit? That isn't a goof on my part. That sets the year that LTMP is taking place as 2010 or later. And yes, Mario is consulting the phone book in search of a goose. However, that's totally logicial IMHO: he's new in town, and as such where else would he go looking for a goose? All the background info on Penn station is, to the best of my knowledge (and per some considerable research) true. Even the staircase structure under which the bomb is planted is real. The natural radioactivity of granite is also very true. Well, now we know for sure who Mario's targets are. As for chapter posting days; I try and post on Tuesday, but, I was expecting to be busy today, so I figured I'd post Monday afternoon instead. I often post late monday. Oh, I have a little surprise coming... I was fairly far ahead when writing the next two chapters, and also I didn't want to break them at normal length. As a result, chapter 36 is about 50% larger than normal. Chapter 37, however, is over twice normal size. I can't speed up the posting rate, but at least this way they are far larger chapters. BTW, FrenchCanadian, I can assure everyone that the band survives the tour! I can do this without fear of the Echidna's anti-spoiler spines, becuase it's in the posted text. The tour ended at the end of 35, and they were all alive, so therefor they survived the tour! Okay, there are, per the text; three bombs. They are identical. What we know so far is that they were desighed to have a shelf-life of about ten years, unmaintained. That means the two in the US can sit where they are for years if need be. We don't know, for certain, all the details of The Scar's plan yet. However, there have been references and clues all along. We know he's expecting to have unlimited funding for his Paraguay takeover. For those who are curious to know exactly what the plans are, in detail, you don't have long to wait. Oh... It's a bit early to mention this, but the next chapter is entitled "Prometheus". Seeing as The Echidna is on holiday and thus unlikely to read this, I'll even give tidbit of info about it ; we find out the meaning of the story's title, and it is not what you think. I'll come back to the thread soon; I'm also always happy to answer any questions, though in some cases I can't if the answers would be spoilers. Ok, a question...

Well, Jerry is a complicated character. He's got his bad points, true, but he did push Brandon and Chase together (his "seize the Day" motto.) The Scar isn't quite as evil as Blackheart... Nobody can be as evil as Blackheart! But, 'tis true, The Scar is unlikly to win any humanitarian awards.

ACK! He's threatening his characters! That's EEEVIL!! See? I keep telling y'all that he's evil, and here's further proof! I'll also say that as this threat could well be directed at Cody, the Cody Liberation Front should address this issue forthwith! I'll also mention the His Shadowyness put Cody in a perilous, life-threatening situation in DnCW5! Surely the Cody Liberation Front must act? (I'm referring to Cody almost getting garroted, though His Shadowyness only alluded to it in DnCW 5; the road boss reaching into his pocket (which is where he keeps his garroting wire). So, what sayeth the members of the Cody Liberation Front regaring these outrages? Save Cody! But that can't mean me; Everyone knows that I'd never have anything to do with a cliff! Yes, His Shaddowyness must learn to be more tolerant of typos. He's so unreasonable over little things like that.

Yes indeed, I did mess that one up! Ooops... <blush> Ah well, at least I didn't make a truly horrendous goof, like putting The Castro in the waterfront financial district or something. LoL It was a reference to Shot of Bourbon, BUT, what was the name of the author when the first two chapters of Shot of Bourbon were posted? That would be Blackheart. ROFL!! Yes, indeed it was a blast. I'll also mention that all Cody did was to suggest a kiss. And I take objection to the use of the word "rape" regarding Jerry's tequilaing of Eric... That makes Jerry sound like a monster! All he was doing was digging for a little information. Helen was mainly upset by te tequila. Cody, however, didn't know that. Poor Cody, caught AGAIN. Hrmmm, I hate to admit it, but His Shadowyness might have a point. People do say unkind things when upset, and she was clearly perturbed by the comment from Joe, again. Also, Joe's unease the first time it happened would sure as heck make her wonder. Indeed! Very much looking forward to Dreams & Cliffed Wings 6 here too!!! I'm wondering what is up with Benji... Now we know that he was unaware of the money theft by Cody's Mother (Whom I think has to be the most evil character I've yet encountered, though Catherine Harris is some damn tough competition for that "honor") BTW, given the eeevil Cliffhanger at the end of chapter 5, it's plain to see why the story is called Dreams and Cliffed Wings!

Awww, but Your Shadowyness, I didn't try and blame you! In fact, i exonerated you! I have no idea why you could possibly object to my post. Ahhh, see? And y'all doubted me when I said that His Shadowyness was the ultimate source for any perceived cliffhangers that might appear in the posted versions of my stories!

OK, it's all back, and fixed. I had some problems this morning and tried to fix them, which caused the index to vanish for a few minutes. However, Shadowgod was not involved, so there was no evil at all,.

It's up.

I can't say exactly when it will be up, but it will be up within the hour. I've just got a few minor things to fix.

Y'all caught me in the middle of a bug fix, sorry!! It's all back, except the LTMP 35 (the chapter that's due) as I'm still waiting for one small detail to be verified. That will be up sometime today at the latest though. Sorry for the confusion!

Tiger uses eevil cliffies. Thanks Kevin!! I was wondering how Cody would come across to anyone not familiar with DnCW. I had no idea if I'd made him a passable free-standing character (which is what I needed to do). I had a far easier time writing Adam Creston, the old road boss. BTW, seeing as the Echidna is away, I'll give a little spoiler; Adam Creston will no longer have an active role in the story. Ummm, although, Shadowgod might not have appreciated it had Cody shared Adam's fate. Hi Conner! ROFL, yes, Goat-themed bagelrys! Shadowgod might have started the latest trend! Heck, if Starbucks coffee shops could become a hit, anything is possible! Awww!!! But surely I am more sweet and innocent than even a lamb? My quiet and shy nature, and my cheerful love of irony.... But I never write cliffhangers! ROFL! Actually, I did say, earlier in the thread, that I might try writing a cliffie one of these days.

I agree with everything Graeme said, except in the quoted bit, I feel he didn't go far enough. I'd say that the author should have the details of the next few chapters, plus of course the overall plot, in mind when writing a chapter. As for endings, those are usually what I write first. Granted, a few details sometimes end up changing, but so far I've always felt better when I write the final scene in a novel first. I'm not saying that this should be done, its just my personal preference, but I do believe that the ending should at least be in the author's mind.

Well, true, no one twisted Eric's arm; that's true of both Jerry and Cody. All Jerry offered was a friendly drink, too. And why are you comparing Cody, who I think is very nice, to Stalin? Surly you don't mean Jerry? Well, Ok, Dimitri's nickname for Jerry, "Vohzd", means "boss" and is how Stalin himself was often addressed (and that's why Dimitri, who adores Stalin, honors Jerry with it...) but, um, well, err, ok, maybe I better quit this argument while I'm behind. What makes you think The Scar is Evil? I've never actually said he's an antagonist, let alone evil. Eric does indeed have an extreem weakness for Tequila, but he doesn't use it often. LoL. ROFL! Well, I admit I love tequila too, and yes, it affects me a little like it does Eric (though nowhere near as much... usually). Eric, though, isn't the only LTMP character who shares one of my traits. One of the other characters is based, in part, on me, in one or two ways. Any guesses as to who? I'll give one hint; the main similarity is a kind of humor that we both very much enjoy. CJ

Steve! I do agree, the cliffhanger was between Cody and Joe, AS FAR AS WE KNOW. I don't know how it could involve any of my characters, but, given His Shadowynesses deviousness, who knows? (Only The Shadow knows...) But, as for my chapter, a squirt bottle and Helen do not make for a cliffhanger! Nobody thought it was a cliffhanger when Eric was drinking with Jerry, so how could this be one? Eric, well, what harm could he cause if he gets out of that utility closet on tequila? Thank you Lissa!!! :worship: CJ

Sorry, Blackheart will be back, but in FTL II Yes, last we heard, he was brain-damaged due to flying off a cliff on a motorcycle, and was living in California writing stories on the internet. There was also a reference to one of them in LTMP: Brandon was outed to his parents becuase he was reading a story about a guy and his dirt-bike... (Shot of Bourbon, the early chapters of which were posted on the net by Blackheart) . Cody's sorta-boyfreind in the beginning of the story. Hyper possessive, seemed a bit unbalanced to me. Bad news IMHO. We don't know if he'll be back in the story or not. Good question... I think it might have been at the bagelry, but, cody's question about the phone number belies that. I don't know... Good question! I wish I knew the answer! My guess is that Val knows Julie, but might have met Joe but not often. I don't think she knows that Cody exists, or that he's THE Cody Jacob knew. My guess is that Julie is at least a little homophobic, based on the "queeny" remark and the "should i get tested". Grrrr Yes, he seems very OK with Cody's sexuality. I don't know if he'll step in or not, but its clear someone will need to.

Actually, I'll use this as an opportunity to thank Shadowgod for one other first; For the first time, I can actually say that I've had some of my characters in a chapter with a cliffhanger (DnCW5). In fact, it was fun! Actually, I liked it so much that, thanks to Shadowgod, I might just try and write a cliffhanger of my own one of these days!

I'm loving this discussion! I've wrestled with this issue myself, many times. When I started writing, I used first person. In my opinion, it is often easier for a new writer in spite (or perhaps because of) its vast limitations. However, with third person, you can get just as "into" a character as with first. The advantage is, you can do so with more than one. You also aren't limited to whatever location a protagonist happens to be at. If something is happening across town or on another continent, you can show it easily without having to get the protagonist there to see it. I wrote my first serial story in first person, and often I had to get my protagonist into all sorts of places so he (and thus the reader) could find things out (it was, in part, a mystery with a complex plot). That was fun, but also quite limiting. changing POV was not an option to me, as I have a very strong personal dislike of alternating first-person POV's. In part, it's becuase that is severely frowned upon in professional writing, and also in part because I, as a reader, find it jarring. (just my opinion; I mean no offense to anyone who does this.) Journal entries can be used, though my personal preference (as a reader) is to use them sparingly. It can be useful, for example, in a 1st person story to have your protagonist find a journal to glean some new information they otherwise would be unaware of. Another technique is to use temporal interjection; in a first person story, if the reader needs to know something but the protagonist can't know it, one option is to have the protagonist, as narrator, interject along the lines of, "I had no idea at the time, but so-and-so did such-and-such... etc." and then the protagonist goes on, blissfully unaware, though the reader now knows whatever it is they needed to know. I've written stories in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd person, and my preference is to match the voice to the story. For short stories I still often use 1st, becuase it does offer a speedy way to develop the character and get the reader into the story. For novels, I can't ever imagine using 1st again. For example, my current serial would be impossible in anything other than third, so there wasn't a choice to make. In one short story, written in third, I found myself needing parts in 1st and 2nd person, just brief parts, and did so without changing perspective: I had the protagonist sit down and write out those passages in his notebook. In fact, the story is, in part, a tounge-in-cheek jab at the "rules" of writing. (It's The Muse if anyone is curious). Another "Best of both worlds" technique between 1st and 3rd person is to use a 1st person prologue to intro one of your protagonists, then shift to 3d for the chapters. Truer words have never been spoken. CJ (who is hoping that his editor, Emoe, is not reading this thread! )