C James

Grumble grumble... Well, you were right on JD not being bourbob, so I had to change that in the chapter to whiskey, but it's not where it comes from that dictates the name, otherwise there would be no such thing as California Champaign (flames coming from Bondwriter in 3... 2... 1...) It's the process, not the location, but you're (I cringe to admit this) right that Jack Daniels is not bourbon. OK, now, for the readers, this makes the "how to pin the Brandon-Eric problem on shadowgod" issue even more critical. Bikers are a part of the problem, and when one thinks motorcycles, one thinks shadowgod. Or... Hrmmm.. There must be stronger links that that, so please find them!~ You're right! OOps! Fixed now. Thanks! Uhoh, a whiskey-bourbon war! I don't know if this is the case with whiskey, but I can say that re-labeling is very common for some things. For example, the wine industry. I know of several "Wineries" that produce exactly none of their wine. It's all brought in from other sources.

ACK! NO!!! Wildone, you just don't see, do you? Isn't anything involving shadowgod evil by definition? BTW, the references to bourbon in the chapter have been changed to whiskey, except for one where I took Graeme's excellent suggestion and made it alcohol. BTW, on the biker fight issue, Benji and MikeL got it right: It's a respect thing. HAving Brandon take down the biker who had attacked him worked on several levels, not the least of which was earning Brandon some "respect" with the bikers, to hopefully mitigate future problems. Brandon got very lucky; Bruno's distraction came at the perfect time. What was really lucky is Jim's recovery; had he not recovered, Mad Mike was ready to step in, likely igniting a war between some elements of the two clubs. The irony is that it was Brandon's idea for a the fight; he's the one wo convinced Jim that a fight would be ok, Jim would enjoy it, so go ahead and invite him and Chase to the party. Brandon didn't know he'd be the one fighting, lol. Irony. LoL. Of course, General Bradson is counting on Eric's pre-wedding excursion to get to the Cape Verde islands... If the wedding is canceled, the General will have a problem...

I played around with that after seeing this post... I dunno, it just doesn't seem to fit right, but it's a styalistic thing. I'm leaning to "whiskey" at the moment. BTW, your post was spot-on; That's actually more accurate than my post and research. Mine was quite hasty. I was the first post on the issue and jumped to google, pronto! LoL... BTW, Jack Daniels is listed on some menus as Bourbon (It sure as heck is in the Navigator Bar on the SS Westerdamn!), which is how I made this goof. Basically, is there a good way to avoid these sort of errors? Look up everything whether one knows it or not? Oh, and I'll opine that Shadowgod is evil: he's got a bottle of Jack Daniels handy! (he checked the label, so he must have one handy! How evil!). What a shady character... and yet he's also right: I checked in my living room bar: both the regular and green lable Jack are sour mash whiskey, not bourbon. Oh, one other thing I see: the older bottle (a black lable) is 90 proof, but a newer one is 80!

ACK! I cringe to say this, but Shadowgod is right, and so is everyone else who points out that Jack Daniels is not a bourbon! I did a little research and found out that JD is made like any Bourbon, BUT it is then charcoal filtered. This is called the Lincoln County Process, and is the only difference between a Tennessee Sour Mash Whiskey and a Bourbon. Also basically all Bourbons are sour mash. So, Jack Daniels does taste like a bourbon, and thus is often listed on menus, eroniously, as such (and that's where my goof came from). So... I goofed! Therefor, I can see only two options: Change "Jack Daniels" to "Jim Beam" (which is a bourbon) OR, change the chapter cites of bourbon to whiskey. I'm in favor of doing the former, as bourbon is mentioned four times. BUT, Jack Daniels and not Jim Beam was the perennial favorite of the bikers I knew. However, having "bourbon" is useful in other ways (Makes it easier to pin the blame for this mess on Shadowgod). Any opinions on which should be changed?

I was thinking that it might be fun to have a contest! Ok, this is based on Chapter 10 of Changing Lanes: "Dance with the Devil" and contains spoilers for that chapter, so if you haven't read it, please go no further. OK, this contest is more of a creativity excercise. The prize? hmmmm. All I can offer is a pre-release look at a coming chapter. Now, the contest! We'll have it in two parts. The winners of both get a sneak peek at a chapter, a few days before posting (when I have access to one a few days early, so it might not be the next chapter, though I do hope to have that ready in time for this). Ok, enough bleating from me. For the serious part, I'd like to see who can best guess the plot. I've been leaving clues for some of it. So, what happens between Brandon and Eric? What's the fallout? And will they still have a wedding? OK, now for the fun part, for bonus points! What's the best way of pinning the blame for the Brandon-Eric perhaps-slightly-tense ending on Shadowgod? You've already heard mine in the other thread: Brandon drinking bourbon is a main cause, and Shadowgod is the creator of bourbon (His story Shot of Bourbon). Oh, extra super bonus points if whatever you come up with works for other chapters too, and of course, even more it it aids in the noble goal of restoring him to his cliffhanging throne. Doesn't this sound like fun? Any questions? CJ

Well, it's a very shadowy connection, I admit, but it would have to be in his case, wouldn't it? OK, a few questions for y'all. I'm curious to see if it came across okay why Jim had Brandon beat the crap out of Bruno. If not, I may need to add a sentence or two to the chapter. Thanks! :-)

One thing to remember about Brandon; he's just been in a very dangerous fight, he's coming down off a major adrenalin rush, and to complicate matters he has a head unjury and also chugged some bourbon. Then on top of all that, he had to chase Eric, and then got tackled. Then he gets another bang on the head. I'd say it's quite possible that he's not thinking too clearly. Thank you Conner, for seeing that this is not a cliffhanger! Eric always does crazy things on Tequila! He was going to take a Harley for a joyride.. Touching a biker's harley is a major disrespect... taking it? I don't even want to think about it. Tequila seems to bring out a certain.... side of Eric. You really, really want to know who the Devil is in the title? Keep reading, it's in my reply to Talonrider. Thanks Kevin! And welcome back! One thing about Chase...

The Devil, in this case, is not meant to be any person, but rather a situation. Or, it could be Brandon's "Dance" with Bruno. And this isn't a cliffhanger!!! It's a nice, relaxing, moonlit ending. Actually, we don't know what happens, really. How far do they get before, shall we say, guests arrive? So, no tense ending. And hopefully no goat roasting!

Chapter 10 is up. And BTW, the next chapter will be released a week from Monday. Have fun!

Wildone! If you keep up the Irony, I vote that we change your name to Jerry. Oh, BTW, I'll start a new thread for Ch 10, which I just posted. Have fun with "Dance with the Devil".

ACK... It's not easy, being a goatwriter!! Aww, ummm, I like the last pic, and rest assured, I always go for a happy ending. If anyone doesn't believe me, I'll refer them to my short stories "The Muse", "Requeim", and "Three for Jake" on my site. BTW, I will try and post Ch 10, Dance with the Devil, by tonight (thanks only to a phenomenal extra effort by Emoe and Bondwriter, it's ready!). However, to help me try and rebuild my buffer, this does NOT mean a new chapter Tuesday, but a week from Monday (for Ch 11). CJ

Nope! Sorry, Emoe, but when it comes to delays, the blame is mine, all mine, and I won't share!!! Seriously everyone: The delays here are due to my extreme lateness.

ACK! Jan, no need to go goat hunting! Don't blame me.. blame Graeme! Had i posted any more than that, it would have been a spoiler, and he'd have turned me into a pincushion!

But that segment was calming... the soothing soft whirr of the spinning chain, the relaxing, isolated barn, yes, all very calming... even Benji and Tiger said so too. ROasting? Spices? ACK! Now, now, no goat roasting! In order to calm everyone down, how about a sneak peek at the first part of Chapter 10, Dance with the Devil"?

You're beginning to see the light, Tim... Yes, what has His Shadowyness been doing with his time as of late? Concocting predicaments for Brandon and the rest of Instinct... He's evil like that, you know...

Okay, seems that Tiger agrees with Benji and I: the scene was calming.

Ahh, well, that one... Okay... Brandon was on a cliff, right? So, he's already in Shadowgod's domain. Also, remember the prior time Brandon was on a cliff? That was during the infamous Shadowgod cliffhanger, where a character coincidentally named Steve opines that "Being on a cliff makes you feel closer to God". And Steve was the leader of what? The shadows... Shadowleader... Shadowgod. See? His hand is in it, all along! (as one would expect, when we're dealing with cliffs and clifhangers...) So, therefor, I think I've proven my point!

No? Well, then by all means, blame Benji: He said it. Basically, I took the story in a certain direction, and when i got there, it looked rotten looking back. Graeme and Shadowgod both agreed. It wasn't any bloodshed type thing, just a change, but huge parts needed re-writing. I can't say what the blunder was, as that would give clues to what is coming next, but if anyone is curious, ask me after chapter 11 posts. Or, ask me now, and I'll comment on it, but only after posting 11. Oh, and don't worry: during the re-write I nixed the part that Shadowgod added, where every character was dangling over the edge of a crumbling cliff, holding on by their fingernails, slowly losing their grip...

Never? Let's take a look at the evidence. That's not all.

Sorry, it's late, and its my fault. I made a big plot blunder and had to re-do chapters 10 and 11, and so I was greatly delayed in sending 10 and 11 in for editing. We're likely looking at Monday, sorry! But look at the bright side: Chapter 9 left us with a nice, calm stopping place, so it was a good place to pause, right? CJ

I'm utterly shocked that the most obvious reponse was not the first thing in everyone's mind: "So, Shadowgod can dance!" Cliffhangers? In CLiff? Never! Well, not unless His Shadowyness adds one, as he sometimes does... I'll try my best to keep him away so we'll have a nice, relaxing chapter. That'll be a relief, won't it? TIM!!! I'm not at all evil! And I'd never put a character in danger! OKAY, now for some bad news... I had to make some massive changes to chapters 10 and 11 due to a huge goof by me. The end result is that I was horrendously late sending chapter 10 into editing. Long story short, chapter 10 will be late. Sorry!!! Part of the problem here is that I didn't get any writing done while I was away, and since I've been back I've written only two and a half chapters, so I no longer have the "buffer" that was so helpful in avoiding delays. I'll see what I can do to build it up again.

Thanks, but I think the post counter is just broken: I'm quite certain that it's not reading right.

OK, ok, I give up... Here's 7k. Let this be proof that it's all Shadowgod's fault!

There, are you happy now, I made a new post.