Bondwriter

I got outside wearing just a shirt last night and it didn't feel cold! But if the weather truly gets screwed up, within a few decades northern France could have much colder winters if the Gulf Stream no longer brings warm water from the south in the winter. Let's enjoy while it's still enjoyable. And make the right choices so we stop making it worse!

I never did much until I started a serial this summer taking place in the US in 1932 (the adventures of an escape artist kid). The first stories didn't need too much research as all took place in one house plus a circus, and I didn't even research much about circuses at the time. But lately I had an episode taking place in Chicago with my little hero ending up in the middle of a gangs war. Thanks to the Internet I found tons of information (maps, reports, news articles, etc.) but I was glad I had visited this city a couple times. I imagine than when you write fan fic, this must be tough if you don't want to have people (well, fans!) pointing out the mistakes you might make. I remeber a few Star Wars fans looking at me really weird as I had made some joke about their favorite saga. I thought they'd choke me to death Darh Vader-style. I escaped this peril.

I had not used an adjective, had I? Now I'll have to think of a serious one. Brace up for the worst! :2hands: I think he's just fighting the urge, and if you look a bit, there seems to be somewhat of a pattern: CJames waits (or tries to) for two posts of others before he replies. This is step 4 of the therapy at P.A. "Group, I'd like to share with you last week's achievement: I managed to let FOUR people post in my story thread before I replied!" cheers "Way to go Brother CJames!" And notice how your taunts prompted a reply, Jack. Not very good for next week's meeting! This is incredible! It took me several minutes to realize this was for real! I'll pay even more attention to the disclaimers in the coming chapters. If we're asked to be the judge, I'd say it sounds more as a disguised sign of affection than as real malevolence. You know, the rugged-cowboy-who-mumbles-a-lot-but-deep-down-is-a-nice-guy type of thing. Especially since it was all so subtly pointed out afterwards so we'd notice.

OK. We're waiting while you're typing in a public space. Still like my office better, but if you can be more productive there, do it in a caf

So Jack, you're basically trying to antagonize everyone? You won't succeed, my man. I bet CJames will remain very serene. Still, I'm posting a second message so the author may reply without being taunted for his heavy posting habits. The Echidnas' circus: a circus from down there is touring Arizona with its Southern porcupines doing numerous numbers that amaze the young and the old. The cage is not locked, the echidnas' herd escapes and find a really nice shelter in Steve and Chris' bedrooms that they invade at dusk. Is it any weirder than the parade CJames witnessed in person?

I had not yet had a look at the accessibility issue, though a relative of mine just lost quite a lot of his eyesight in an accident and this is really interesting to know there are ways to handle this. Red A's input was helpful. It prompted me to do a little research; I found this article. I have at least a dyslexic reader that I know of and there must be others, so this is something worth thinking about. As for Dusk's latest recommendation of offering several formats, it means you are also the webmaster! So, for fiction sites, on top of writers, proofreaders and editors, there's a need for "display artists" or "display experts" who handle the text so it's readable for most people. (I think the primary definition of "graphiste" or graphics artist in French has to do with managing and presenting text. I know lots of graphics artists who don't care much about text or text content. Hence some frustration once in a while when I see some websites where text is so ignored the information doesn't come across.)

They might also have tons of them on the road that they drive over. But a responsible author will now try to build up some healthy competition in his team and then he might also make up some clever trick to boost one of his editors' ego, to have others strive in order to achieve the same thing in the following chapter. That's HRM 101.

Not exactly. My ideal temperature is 24

"Race with the Devil"? So the sinister Thaddeus J. Emoe (now I understand why you praised your team of beta readers and editors last week... Didn't want to alienate them before you started making fun of them...) is in fact the leader of some cult in which the followers revel in glorifying pain in the hope of a better future. A bunch of sickos, if I may. Is Eric in league with these evildoers, or is he himself the victim of some blackmail forcing him to act as he did? Hopefully Dex won't be delayed much longer and we'll know ASAP what the mysterious data stick conceals. Nobody seems really worried about the possible problem in the relationship, but could there be some other truth besides what we know from Veronica? Or did the conspirators forge some document to try to pull Steve and Chris apart? Will more of Cjames' team be lampooned as they're cast as villains in the story? Wait, wait patiently... The answers of these questions will come in the next 16 chapters!

Fat chance I need any before a couple months. It's been grey and cloudy for weeks. Sometimes it's grey, cloudy and it rains. The person below is sometimes amused by the spams that land in their mailbox.

I write illustrated fiction working with an artist. It is tons of fun to do, if only for the team work; it does also bring the problems of teamwork, but the pros outweigh the cons. And yes, it is aimed at a young audience too. It is quite different from a novel with just words. Otherwise a nice photograph (on the cover) of the setting does improve the reading experience if it matches the atmosphere of the book closely.

Can you actually eat goat meat? I mean, it can certainly be eaten but is it a delicacy as lamb or mutton? The only foods goats provide us with are dairy products, and milk comes from she-goats... (Rereading my innocent question. Please refrain from any improper comment that could arise from the above lines...)

More or less. My office is at home, so every second I spend putting serious and meaningful input in this forum is lost to my productivity. The person below me likes the weather outside his/her window and will be happy to take a walk soon.

I think the eFiction section is in Arial. There are other good looking fonts for onscreen reading but in HTML they need to be on your reader's computer. Times New Roman is OK with for printing, but to read onscreen. I like sanserif fonts better on screen. And large. (This message is in Century Gothic which I think is cool and quite easy to read) It took me a while to realize that as Graeme said what doesn't bother you on paper is usually different once onscreen. If I ever have to get a story printed on paper to be distributed as such, I will have to group 3 paragraphs of the onscreen version because it really doesn't work the same way. Even the space between two lines of dialogue is nice. (When I print out a story, I suppress the extra spaces with a search and replace command. It saves paper, and it's perfectly OK to read)

I noticed writers post their stories in lots of different formats. Even in the eFiction section, you may make different choices about spacing your paragraphs and line breaks. Some people lost me as a reader because they used a dark blue font color on a black background. Are you thinking of readers using a computer monitor when you post your stories? My POV: it is quite important to think about it; if I could I would post with something akin to Adobe Reader, so I decide of the font and its features and do not rely on the readers' browsers; I'd also decide of the lay-out on the monitor. With HTML if your window is opened big, you might end up with 20 to 30 words per line which makes a story difficult to read.

Nice story, well paced and well written (and with a happy ending!!! The peach preserves detail is way cute.) Is it the location? Some of the characters' lust for life reminded me of Kerouac.

I read lots of hard-boiled fiction and it often deals with people who have streaks of bad luck, and who eventually die. This usually makes sense as the whole plot leads to this climax. But if you get some sentimental fiction with loveable characters and one of them dies in the end just to have the audience shed a tear, ME NOT LIKE IT!

Nice chapter. I like the humor in it, and Steph should get someone to help him out for his French class as Cjames pointed out. But who could possibly tutor him? Let me guess... Oh yeah, this could work! But will it be serious studying?

I think Cjames answered about the fundies. I'm very glad it seems as exotic to me as tropical storms, yellow buses or the Rose Bowl, but I lived in a born-again family for a year when I was 17, and some things were really scary, even though I got along with and loved those people. I didn't feel there was so much of a jump in the story as the week is described briefly, but it seems Chris is just too happy with what's happening to him to bring up the problems Steve may have. And nothing relevant to the plot happens. I just saw it as a "getting back into a normal life" moment. Maybe some extra spacing to give the fast reader the feel of time going by?

I know it's not funny, but this story about the parade got me laughing out loud a lot. It's just a great comedy scene! Scary it is, but less than (young) people rallying to say Matthew Sheppard had it coming, the sick f...s Among the most traumatic experiences in my life were religious services in various born-again/ fundamentalist churches and being harassed by people who wanted to save me with vivid description of fire and brimstone. And at the time I was a church-going Catholic...

If you mean using a 4-wheel drive, it's no. If you mean getting into a motor vehicle with 4 wheels, I'll say: tomorrow evening (for me, morning for most of you people) The person below me has already solved plumbing problems: clogged drainpipe, changing faucets... (and is not a self-claimed lurker!)

I like the way Lugh phrases his suggestions. Song titles could work: "The Long Winding Road", "Stairway to Heaven", "Money"... I'm sure you'll have tons of ideas too!

Oh boy! It's getting better! Now the crazy fundamentalists, and some mysterious organization pulling the strings from behind, the nice small town atmosphere where everybody knows what others do... You're making it more and more difficult to bet on an outcome. Plus the cliff-hanger with the threat to such a great relationship... You know how to keep us salivating and willing to be next week already. Reminds me of the comic books magazine I got when I was 12, that had always these great cliff-hangers at the end. The fundamentalist thing is weird for us Europeans. There are homophobes, but it never takes such extreme organized forms. But as I visited relatives in the US over the holidays, I got to see 2 minutes of Jerry Falwell on TV, and it was enough to remind me that these people do exist, sadly enough. My only comfort is to imagine that if indeed there is an afterlife, St Peter will show Reverend Falwell his way straight to hell, for all the evil he'll have brought upon this earth.

I thought magicians did not give away their tricks? I only start having people proof-reading and editing my stories, but it's really good to get someone to have a fresh look at what you write. I'm currently writing a serial taking place during the Prohibition era, and I couldn't do without a more expert opinion on slang and idioms of this period, so I'm glad to have someone give me some input and reviewing the dialogues so they sound more genuine. Not speaking of Sterling's great work on the story I posted. I think it also helps you to improve your writing to have flaws pointed out. And yes, it makes it a bit of a team work also. Good thing, very good thing!