Backwoods Boy

1) Glad I found this. Even if Halloween is over. 🙂 2) I'm glad you didn't feel compelled to include current events. Escape is a good thing. 3) I would have one hell of a time loving Kippy. Way too mercurial. 🙄

Even I, with an aversion for TV, knew that one. I smell a generation gap. Okay, my sense of humor is waking up now.

1) The snow level across the river was at about 1500 feet the last time I got a look through the clouds. 2) It's about 40 degrees outside, 68 inside. Absence of pants would look strange with a hoodie and down vest. 3) My uncle, in his senile years, rarely wore pants and often answered the door in that state. I'm not quite there yet. 4) I have the perfect meme for this, but it might not pass the purity test here.

I'm revising my "who done it" theory. Levi seems like a first-class snake in the grass. Dorian may have just shown poor judgement and misplaced loyalty.

An interesting viewpoint. I wouldn't bet my SS check either way, but I bet the author is smiling at the conjecture

An interesting thought on the perpetrators, but I'm betting not. We have yet to learn why Dorian ended up being species-intolerant, when he starts out here being the opposite. I have a sneaking suspicion that the perps will turn out to be of another species, and most likely avian, because of the accuracy of the attack. But I certainly wouldn't make a bet on either answer.

A very emotional chapter. I do hope we find out "who done it."

I've had the same experience, about two days ago. Desktop with Windows 10, up to date.

That's a new one for me, and highly usable too!

resurrection?

Dorian seems to be very species-inclusive at this point. I'm now curious to learn how he migrated away from that since his attitude later seemed very different. I could speculate, but I'll wait and see.

As a devout Pastafarian, I resent represent that word.

Twelve miles, 2000 ft elevation gain on the Pacific Crest Trail, with a little snow at the top. Clear, cold, calm, and salubrious for sure.

The weather looks perfect for hiking today, my favorite salubrious activity.

I like the way Dorian's character is developed here. It will be interesting to see how it mutates to what we saw previously.

I'm happy to see another part of this story. I like your process of picking off an interesting character to investigate further. Looking forward to more.

I guess I spent too much time doing technical writing where the objective was to clarify, not not obfuscate.

I saw this in use a couple of days ago. I wish I could remember where because it posed the same unsolvable ambiguity as shown in the information link. Unless you're a lawyer or a politician, why use a word that has two opposite meanings?

Was that "437" by any chance "473? That would be twice the 237, and interestingly enough corresponds directly to the half-pint/16 oz container of half-and-half in my refrigerator. And I bet your "1L" carton now corresponds directly to my U.S. quart, which shows as 946 ml. Congratulations on taking a giant step backwards. So much for the metric system.

Those of us who grew up with typewriters (never leave for college without one) are probably the biggest offenders. But I leave creative documents to others. I note your disdain for Comic Sans, and observe that I have found Comic Sans Bold Italic useful for such diverse purposes as fake tattoos on photos and offensive social media posts.

I hadn't seen this topic before, and I find the responses interesting - and quite diverse. Which means you're never going to please everyone. So, as a writer, be sure to please yourself first. But for myself as a reader: In cost/benefit terms, it takes a lot of plot benefit to overcome bad-grammar costs. Run-on and poorly-organized sentences send me away immediately. Punctuation counts, and as much complaint as there is about the English language, the punctuation rules aren't that difficult to understand. For me as a reader, they don't have to be followed religiously, but the exceptions should be few and justifiable. I once went to a restaurant where every plural had an apostrophe in front of the terminal "s". Unfortunately, that spelled out the quality of the meal, too. As to the rest of grammar, the internet provides wonderful resources. And in spite of the value of grammar detection tools, good luck. To my own experience, even the best have serious faults. Every author needs an anal-retentive editor and preferably one or two beta readers. A grammar tool and one set of eyes isn't enough. An info-dump ends my interest. If it isn't critical to the plot, I would rather decide for myself why the guy is "hot" or "sexy". Let the readers exercise their own imagination, please. There's a fiction that circulates from time to time that the first chapter must introduce the main characters. I prefer the first chapter to grab my attention, and if some main characters don't show up for a few chapters, that's fine with me. I don't care for excessive detail. It only takes a sentence or two and a few well-chosen words to establish the environment, physical and/or emotional. Don't flog it to death. And individual relationships between each and every character expand exponentially, don't always matter, and bloat an otherwise-interesting story. I don't care if dialogue isn't written in the Queen's English. People don't speak that way, so why pretend that they do? On the other hand, about the third time an overworked cliche is used, I leave, just like in real life. I read several genres, and understand that some leap beyond earthly constraints of gravity, time, and space. But even with that freedom, the story still has to make sense, if only within the bounds the author sets. So, thanks for the opportunity to express my thoughts on the topic. Getting them out of my brain helps me understand them better.

On the flat earth theme, this came to my attention the other day:

Thanks much for the "update".

Well, I had to look up "Coruscant", so you can see how movie-literate I am not. I had never heard of coruscate, or any of its variants. I wonder how well-known it is. I think I'll take a poll among my 3D friends. But I have a use for it. When I remove my hat in bright sunlight, I can warn people to beware of possible blinding coruscation.

That you have not hardened your heart to others, speaks of the depth of your character. That you are able to express that, is an inspiration to all of us. Thank you for sharing with us again your innermost feelings, that make us all reflect.