C James

I'll give a hint... I had some other names under consideration for their home town: Dry Valley was one of 'em.

Welcome Clawviper!!!

Thanks!! ROFL!!!!!!!!! That wouldn't be a problem, it would be a catastrophe! Thanks Altimexis! I am in agreement with you and Graeme on the ending. I won't do it that way again. It is, however, perhaps possible that I may have another cliffhanger at some point. Thanks Bob!!!!!!! Had some snow here (a few days ago), but not enough yet, so still a drought.

Those are good points, and I was concerned about the repetition myself, which is why Chris' part was so abbreviated. I probably could have found a way to trim Veronica's part a little more. What I had to convey there was her side of the story (such as how she came to be able to intercept Steve), the very critical info that there are a few of the Piedmont PD involved, and a few other bits and how they related. Ch 12 contains more about the situation, enough to make most of it (Regarding the Piedmont PD) crystal clear. Thank you Low Flyer!!! Thanks Rick!!! I do agree that they need to stay out of Piedmont. The question is, will they?

Chapter 11, Bullet Riddled Body, is up. It is a little early, but I may well be offline until evening on Tuesday, so figured I'd put it up earlier rather than later.

No, no, adding errors is my job! LoL! Your job, as Anonymous Beta Reader, is to alert me to my many and varied goofs, plus offer ideas for wording, plot, etc. (Which, I might add, you are very good at, and this story is greatly improved thanks to your efforts). I'm the writer of FTL so mistakes are my domain! All mine, and I won't share!!! I do? I have no idea what it could be? Would I do such a thing as that?

THANK YOU! That's a cool pic. And thank you for calling me a lurker! You might find this hard to believe, but some folks hearabouts have been known to be a little skeptical about that. I have no idea why.

I should add that it is very rare for me to get sequential pages without red. In my first story (summer anthology) I even managed one and a half pages that were ENTIRELY red. LoL. Poor Emoe had to buy red ink by the barrel! I do actually make a lot of mistakes. My opinion is that my responsibility to catch mistakes and typos, so the Editor can focus on wording tweeks and other improvements. I'm a very long way from that yet, but I'm trying hard to get there. Also, I do have a very good Anonymous Beta Reader, Shdowgod, who catches some of my goofs before Emoe sees it. I did however conduct an experiment recently. Instead of just churning my way through a chapter and then going back to fix typos, spelling, punctuation, tenses, etc, I instead concentrated on making sure each sentence was right before writing the next. I think Emoe would have been very pleased with the lack of red ink. However, he would not have been pleased with the actual writing. I ended up with a page after page of single sentence paragraphs that was flat and dull. It also took me three times as long to write it. I deleted that chapter and started over (it was unsalvageable), going back to my "old" way. I also managed to bungle up capitalization in a few places in Ch 11, because I'd been trying to study punctuation while writing it, and had gotten a rule wrong. So, I went from not having a capitalization problem to having one. Oops.

I agree in many cases that I could have used it less, and should have. In this context, it is clear from the context who is being referred to in most cases, so a pronoun would suffice. However, if there were other people on the stage I'd go with his name, because one of my pet hates as a reader is having to stop when I hit a pronoun and figure out who is who (unless it is very clear). So that, I need to avoid, but in this case you are 100% right: I could have cut out about half the "Cody's". Thanks!

Hi Bob! In all seriousness, Editing is probably the hardest part of writing. I have tried editing, and I stink at it, but it gave me a much better understanding of what an Editor does. Emoe's comments make it sound easy. It isn't. In my opinion, it takes more skill to edit well than to write. I almost made it through the entire chapter title without a blunder this time. Yup, made it as far as the second word!! To be serious (though I did goof in the title this time!) most pages of a chapter have some "red" in them when I get them back, either corrections of errors or wording suggestions. If I see several pages in a row without an error, I'm doing well. I still have a lot of work to do to improve in that regard, but I'm trying, and Emoe is a great teacher. When i get a chapter back, I go through it line by line, checking not just places Emoe has marked, but all of it. I then individually accept or reject the proposed change (over 95% get accepted) though I often add a bit too. I then save the document as a Different file name in a different directory: All Emoe's edited chapters stay in their own directory, just as he sent them, so I can keep them intact for future reference. (I refer back to them often).

Thanks! I sort of have it on hold while I try and catch up and get a few chapters ahead with "For the Love". I'll keep that in mind about the differences. I also hear it varies a lot from band to band.

Good guesses! I can't say if they are right or wrong, and Graeme won't let me post any guesses of my own (he thinks I have inside info for some reason) but I'm loving all the theories! Thanks! What? Me, twisted? Why, I'm just a quiet and shy goat who likes to lurk, what could be twisted about me? I don't think we will be at the epilogue by Ch 28. My guess (and it is just a guess) is that we will be over 30 chapters. We aren't halfway yet. It will fit... What? Would I do such a thing?

Who? Me? BTW, not to tease anyone or anything, but the next chapter is entitled "Bullet Riddled Body".

It snowed once when I lived in SoCal, just a dusting, but it was strange.... Yeah, I heard that the citrus crop, the Avacado crop, and a lot of other crops took masive damage. Ouch!!!

I'm shoveling snow here, but we are in a drought so it is very welcome indeed.

Wouldn't it be canibalisim if he used those? :lmao: I've really been enjoying this recipe thread. I'm not a good cook unless I'm using a BBQ, but some of them give me ideas.

Happy Birthday!!!!! :king:

I had to be very carful to mention that it had been in the text and not a spoiler, otherwise I was fearful of becoming a pincushion.

I just thought I'd mention something that has been in the story a couple of times: The Pastor and the Piedmont Sheriff are Brothers-in-law. Great theories so far!! But I'm going to refrain from entering this contest myself. Well, Emoe, it's true that people would think that you have an inside knowledge, especially of the Pastor's motivations.

A contest! I love it!!!! Here is what I propose: The winner gets a dedication and thanks at the bottom of the chapter, AND an early look at a chapter. That sound OK to everyone? As for the winner, how about either whoever is right, or, whoever is closest even if they aren't fully right? Or course, out of fear of the Echidna's spines, I must now clearly state that I'm not actually admitting that the Sheriff or the Reverend are up to anything at all!

I don't see the humor, but as someone who worked in the Av industry for a while, I found it very interesting. Thanks!

Yup... That (the note) was set up in Ch 8 when Veronica said "Don't XXXX it up this time, Blondie." So, Chris over-reacted, got paranoid, and headed for friendly Piedmont. The chapter was over 6k words, about average chapter size? And maybe the Sheriff was just trying to give Chris a warm welcome? :lmao: :lmao: Thanks Graeme!!! It's the same in Arizona: Every firearms discharge in the line of duty is supposed to be reported. Out of fear of your spines, I cannot say more... Yep... Wise? Me? ROFL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Well, they got the first part of the prediction right... As a guess, 15 to 20 chapters to go. Probably 20. I originally had a detailed outline, but I ditched it around Ch 5 because things kept occurring to me as I wrote. I do have an outline of the major and minor plot arcs (which can always change or be added to) but how much I cover in a particular chapter is not possible for me to predict, so I can't really know. I'm looking forward to some of the upcoming chapters, as they might make Ch 10 seem a bit dull. Thanks! Yep, That's what I was going for: People sometimes do dumb things, and those things can have unforeseen consequences.

Happy Biirthday!!!!!!!! :king:

Happy Birthday, LB! :king: I hope all is going well for you!