C James

Wow, Steve, thank you!!!! I'm definitly not looking for sympathy (edit to add: not for me, certainly, but my team deserves some. ) ; I just wanted to explain why goofs like "Untied" appear. As I say, I have a mild case; I just have major problems with spotting transposition errors or missing letters. And indeed, teasing me is VERY appropriate, and I get a good laugh too; I still chuckle when I think of leaving the "r" out of shirtless. So please, don't take what I've said here today to mean I don't want to be teased, becuase the opposite is quite true. I have a lot of fun, and it should be obvious, I like to tease. In all honesty, yes, I do get a few butterflies when posting chapters. Not much these days, but when I first started, yowza... I came very, very close to withdrawing my first story, "No Shirt? No Problem!" from last year's summer anthology before it went online for that reason. So, yes, I still get a little nervous about my writing, but it gets easier each time I put something online. For example, in the upcoming anthology, I'm only slightly nervous even though I've submitted something decidedly weird (for starters, it's written in second-person voice). I'm still learning how to write, and trying to improve. I've still got a lot to learn, but I'm having an absolute blast doing so. I never knew that writing could be such fun, and a bit part of that fun for me is these threads and this forum. Thank you all, so very much. CJ Oh, and Steve... I think you made a typo of your own in the above

Well, Steve, this is a world tour, and they didn't list all the places they are going, yet. But Ieshwar, at least it wasn't a cliffhanger... (not that I ever use those.) It's just... a slight dilemma. Thanks Benji! Well, they are in Australia, so who knows what wildlife may appear? Hi Mike! No problem on the politics; its just partisan politics we try and steer clear of. You raise some good points, but I can't comment. But Bob, what did I do? It's just a teensy little dilemma. Thanks Frenchcanadian! And HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! Thanks Jan... And, um, uhoh... Well, ah, see, it's like this... The senator was so furious that he just came unstrung, and antied is sort of a synonym for unstrung... Actually, that is a VERY apt bumpersticker in this case Okay, seriously, time for me to come "out of the closet" about something that only a few people know... Y'all have noticed my penchant for look-alike typos; last week I left the 'r" out of shirtless, and this week we have an "untied" States Senator. Normally, there are half a dozen or more such typos on a chapter when the team starts work on it. I do of course proofread (often several times) the chapters before the team sees them, but I don't catch things like that.. and there's a reason: I'm dyslexic. I cope pretty well on most things, but I would never catch a substitution of "untied" for "united". Sure, I know which way it's supposed to be, but if I typo (and I often do, I'm a rotten typist) I just don't see the error in cases like that; my mind sees the word and reads it as what I meant, not what it is. This gives you some idea of what my team has to put up with; imagine half a dozen or more goofs like that in a chapter. ...OK, going back over the edits and betas for this chapter, I had; soft instead of sofa out instead of our.. Twice! two instead of tow range instead of rage note instead of not wining instead of winning was instead of way And this is for just this one chapter! I had edits or beta and zeta changes of some kind in fully half the pages in this chapter. The problem is I just don't see the error in look-alike words such as the above while proofing. Sure, once they are pointed out to me I see them as they really are, but when proofing I read them as what I thought they were. Anyway, I figured it was time I "came out of the closet" on this issue. I also REALLY appreciate it when anyone sees a goof that they let me know; I've already fixed the "untied" in the Ch 12 on my system, and the fixed chapter will be uploaded alongside Ch 13. Thanks! CJ

:king: :king: :king: Happy Birthday, Frenchcanadian!!! :king: :king: :king: I hope you have a great day and an even better year!

Good morning everyone! The chapter announcement just went up so I thought I'd start a thread. Hope y'all like the chapter. CJ .

The problem, especially in very low population density areas such as Australia, is that there are many miles of seldom-traveled road. Also, lowering the speed limit for such long distances is impractical abnd puts human lives at greater risk; differences between vehicle speed are far more likely to cause accidents than most anything else, and when you have artificially low speed limits, you get a lot of speeders. A fence is a good idea, but one argument against would be (and I have no clue if it would apply) are they can do more harm than good; if they block wildlife from migrating or relocating, they can cause more deaths than traffic. Another thing to beware of is deceptively easy "legislative fixes". One example is deer whistles for cars. These airflow-driven whistles are supposed to scare deer out of the way by generating a whistling noise. Every so often, after a human fatality, someone proposes making them mandatory. The only problem is, they don't work. The other thing to consider is that Kangaroo populations have exploded since the advent of farming in Australia. So much so, as I recall, that Kangaroos need to be thinned out ever so often. In fact, as I recall, they were once (and might still be) officially designated as a pest species. Also, with runaway numbers, starvation becomes an issue. What's my point? The heck if I know... :wacko: Just raising some issues that IMHO need to be thought through. However, for both humans and critters, I do agree that reducing the car-critter impact rate would be a good idea.

Ahhh, but Graeme DOEs have cliffhangers in HoTT. Also, the point I was making is that Graeme is proposing criteria (evaluating a numbler of completed works) that Shadowgod can't meet, but Grame, due to his much larger array of published work, CAN. I therefore can only conclude that Graeme is out to seize Shadowgod's title for himself. How very EEEvil...

Steve! I'm shocked that you could twist my words so... Here I write a sweet, lovable vignette about a Goat named Scarp, and give it the moral of "A goat would never go anywhere near a cliff". and then you try and claim it's a cliffhanger, and twist my words... Shame on you!

It's dark becuase it's part of the Eeevil Antipodean Plot! I'm a lurker, I tell ya, I lurker! Why won't you believe me?? And sorry, but it's still Monday here. For another two hours anyway. But yes, if Joe is able, there will be a Ch 12 on Tuesday, thanks (as always) to our wonderful team. But Bondwriter! You can;'t count the story threads.. thos are pat of my author's duties! Please go have another look... And maybe a 10% raise will help clear your mind of these horrible manipulations that certain antipodeans (and Canadians, amongst others... ) are using? Of course I lurk, that's what lurkers do... It's the posting that I almost never do...

Hi LC! The one thing that worries me here is your comment of "he wants to move a little fast". I hate to be a downer, but online dating, from what I've seen, rarely works well as so many guys who do online dating seem to be wanting just a quick hook up. (caveat; I've never tried online dating myself, and I do know of exceptions to what I'm saying). I'm just worried about that in combination with the "move fast", you and he might have very different agendas. I will say this; don't do anything unless YOU want to. If you feel like you "have to", then its wrong, period. Just be cautious... CJ

Now, I will point out that my story has a moral; it's proving that a goat won't have anything to do with a cliff, or, of course, a cliffhanger. :pickaxe:

But BK, that's just a statistical glitch! An unexplained anomaly with the post counter! And of course I come before Myr on the top posters list... C comes before M, so I'm ahead of him there, due to alphabetical order. But Ieshwar... It's just a statistical hiccup! Well, yes, NSNP was my very first story, and I was indeed very excited, as well as EXTREEMLY nervous. It was in the summer anthology last year, and, well, let's just say that nervous is an inderstatment. I was so releived to be getting comments that didn't say "it sucked" that of course I replied... Now, as for the story threads, I really don't think y'all can count those.. Remember, it's part of my duties as an author to participate, and also as an author I need to acknowledge and thank all the thread participants. So of course the story threads should be disregarded for this... Please, Bondwriter, return to the light, remember the dark and horrible secret Mauritius hides... It's actually south of the equator! That's right, Ieshwar is an ANTIPODEAN! Don't let the antipodean conspiracy pull you under!

Ahhh, but surely you can't expect a goat to count? And currently, all members of GA with over 4000 posts are lurkers. A GA admin even said so. That makes it official, right? Hi Shadowfire!! That's true.. And dang, are they fast! I remember a walaby running up from the side of the road, and then paralleling the car I was in, which was doing about 30 mph... Wow, are they fast... And Kangaroos, well, they are sure big, I was astounded. In my area, we have deer and elk, and both cause fatal accidents. The deer are actually pretty large, and then a car hits them, they are often in mid-leap, and impact on the windshield. When that happens at speed, its often fatal to the occupants, becuase the deer comes through the windshield. I imagine it is much the same for kangaroos, given their leaping. From what I remember, the roo guards were often mounted on windshields for that reason. They won't protect the vehicle much, but might save the occupants. Yep, but Graeme has those spines too! Plus, Echidnas are sneaky...

Underneath This Big Ol

Empress Kellene by Krista :nuke: :nuke: Spoilers Below!!! :nuke: :nuke:

Red's Rescue by Lugh :nuke: :nuke: Spoilers Below!!! :nuke: :nuke:

Yay Bondwriter!!! I'm so glad that someone believes me!!! And Bondwriter is quite right; the chapter threads are part of my author's duties. So Ieshwar, I hereby declare you our official resident postaholic!

BK!!! I'm shocked, shocked I say, that you could possibly doubt Shadowgod as the King of Evil Cliffhangers! Why, did you know that if you google on "king of evil cliffhangers" the #1 link brings you right here to this very thread??? Besides, I never use cliffhangers... If any appear in FTL, it must be becuase Shadowgod adds them during the beta. I means, some of my chapters might, possibly, end in a slightly unresolved way, but surely not a cliffhanger? Not I! In LiS 26, Shadowgod had his much-beloved protagonist, Jacob, in a motercycle wreck, and Shadowgod took great pains to make it look like Jacob was dead... I mean, he's showing the symptoms of collapsing lungs, AND when they load him into the ambulence, the very last we see of Jacob in that chapter is him wishing that he could see Matt, one last and final time And THEN, we have Matt and Val getting the news in such a way that it appears they've been told he's dead... Now that has got to be the Mother of All Cliffhangers! In contrast to that, there were only a few minor slightly tense chapter endings in FTL... The guys staked out in the sun, Steve barreling towards Piedmont and certain death with Chris behind him and no way to stop him, and then in the next-to-last chapter the Sheriff trying to ventilate Steve's head, his lifeless body falling to the ground, and with Chris about to get the second bullet. And of course, Shadowgod is to blame for those anyway. So All Hail the King of Evil Cliffhangers, Shadowgod!

Ieshwar! You are sadly mistaken! I do not have 5 times as many posts as you; 5 times 950 would be 4750, and I do not have 4750 posts! Besides, anyone with between 400 and 4000 posts is a POSTAHOLIC! Absolutely 100% certified... And I'm no post-whore! I'm a lurker, i tell ya!

Satyamev Jayate by Beastkid :nuke: :nuke: Spoilers Below!!! :nuke: :nuke:

It's reading 10k now... And maybe I just misread the 9999? I know the views aren't updated dynamically, but I thought posts still were... In any case, it looks like you made the 10,000th post! And just 10%? Vic... I think you underestimate your postaholic ways. :P CJ

I just wanted to mention that tonight, the post count for Dom's forums hit 9999, so i thought I'd let everyone know that there are now 10,000 posts in Dom's forums (this one being the ten-thousandth), which is one heck of a landmark. Edit to add... I thought it would be 10k, but the counter still says 9999... Hmmm...

Our weekend tradition! Sooo, for some activities, we could have another round of Shadowgod-blaming, or maybe some Emoe-teasing? Or we could discuss why, exactly, someone with almost a thousand posts chooses the title of "Certified: Not Postaholic"?? Hrmmm, very suspicious that... Certified how? And by whom? I suspect denial...

Hrmmm, I note with great interest that Graeme's criteria would exclude Shadowgod from contention, yet not himself. This rather bolsters my theory that Graeme's attempt to deprive Shadowgod of his throne is at attempt to seize it for himself!! As I've warned before, this is a dark and prickly antipodean plot to steal Shadowgod's title!! Oh, and Wildone, I question your data... I think it's a statistical glitch.

Just as long as you think twice about such things in the future... this my smelly friend was but a warning shot across your bow, next my friends wont't be as forgiving. Steve ACK! Now what have I ever done to deserve such a thing? You should go get Graeme... He's the one trying to steal your title... ACK! A real stinker! However, the scent is fading today, so before its gone, I feel I must take advantage of the situation to lay claim to a tile, however temporary, of my own; I'm the most aromatic writer on GA!

I wrote this in response to Ieshwar's writing prompt in the writing prompts forum Ieshwar and Graeme wrote too, and they were so good I wanted to post a link here. Ieshwar, though, seems to be under a misaphrenesion that I use cliffhangers. Graeme, the Aussie rules football isn't so bad.. Now, Cricket, that would have been terrifying. BTW, I'd very much welcome anyone writing on that topic to add theirs to this thread. Now for my own little short (very short) story, entitled "A goat wouldn't have anything to do with a cliff." Stumbling up the precipitous path, the wizened old goatherd cried out out again, "Scarp! Where are you, Scarp?" as he pressed onwards and upwards, in search of his missing goat. Mumbling to himself "Where has that Damn goat gotten to now?" he fought for his breath, tired from the long climb, struggling to trudge the last few yards to the top of the windswept crag. Upon reaching the small, flat expanse, he cursed what he did not see; no black goat, instead, all he could see was rocks, and sky. Stumbling towards the overlook, buffeted by the roaring wind, he cursed his folly; the goat wasn't on the crag after all. But, it must be somewhere... "Scarp!" he bellowed again... Resolving to gain sone use from his climb, he edged towards the line between rock and sky, knowing that it was the edge of a vertical drop to his pasture land, several hundred feet below. Dropping to a crawl, he edged closer, ignoring the loose dirt and gravel and the downward slope as he neared the edge. Finally able to inch his head forward far enough to look over the dizzying precipice, the old goatherd laid eyes on a familiar black shape far below. "Scarp," he muttered, seeing the black goat looking up at him, "I've climbed up all this way, and there you are, right back where I started." Inching backwards up the incline, or attempting to, the old goatherd struggled for purchase, the wind buffeting him, fear gripping his heart as he began to slide towards the drop, the looming abyss seeming to reach out and pull him over the edge. Scrambling for a handhold that wasn't there, he spun around, sending his legs over the edge, as his wizened fingers tried in vain to stop his fall. Hanging by one hand from the final lip of rock, his body dangling, his grip failing, he glanced down at the recalcitrant goat, and heard himself say, "I should have known Scarp wouldn't come up here... a goat won't have anything to do with a cliff..."