[Rilbur] Trillion Dollar Family

[Rilbur]

A little place to talk about what I hope is one of everyone's favorite stories.

 

As I noted in the announcement and the story itself, this is a rewrite of the original novella submitted in the contest. I hope everyone enjoys it.

[Rilbur]

OK, I kinda took the story offline so the entire thing could go up on GA.Stories once the system is ready -- and I just finished chapter 13 last night, so I'm getting pretty close to the new ending, which hopefully will be a little better than the hacked up one I had before.

 

That said, I ran into a small issue while writing. I'm trying to come up with ideas to match a theme. The basic idea is that morality isn't set in stone across all species -- that sometimes, biology informs morality. The basic idea is similar to what was shown in an early Star Trek Enterprise episode, when a woman keeps on denying her child a breather unit, and when a human goes to intervene, it's explained that the infant is being weaned off methane.

 

So far, I've come up with the following 'acceptable' ideas:

 

1. A sentient version of the praying mantis, where murder is necessary to get the 'female' to implant her eggs into the 'males' sperm sac. (Justification: Praying mantis)

2. A spider and wasp type species where the male has to (violently) implant the female, who is then eaten alive by the (many) resulting offspring. (Justification: sounds cool, and would be an effective reproductive system so long as females heavily outweigh males in birthing ratios)

3. A species for whom PMS is so severe, it counts as an immediate get-out-of-jail-free card for murdering other women. (Justification: PMS means you didn't get pregnant. Which means either there aren't enough men to go around, or there isn't enough food to go around to make children possible. Either way, killing other women solves the issue)

 

 

Problem is, I want more -- preferably ones that aren't rooted in sex. Cause, ya'know, the entire universe doesn't revolve around sex. (Just most of it...)

Edited December 19, 2010 by Rilbur

[Rilbur]

It took longer to reach the ending than expected... the chapters just kept on growing on me. And then editing all 19 chapters was a bitch. And then I wanted a last look over by some beta readers... some of whom came up with some really strong bits of advice.

 

It's done. All nineteen chapters of it (though the ending may require some tweaking) are now in GA.Stories. Of course... that doesn't mean you can read them. I've set it up so that one chapter will be released each day for a little over a week -- until chapter 10 or so. I didn't want to flood the system by releasing all of those chapters at once, or my readers by making them sit down and reread that much material all at the same time. You will need to reread these chapters. I'll say it again for those that missed it, even if you read the novella form of this story it is important to reread the entire story. While most of the changes aren't significant, there are a number of changes that you should catch for maximum enjoyment -- and there are some important changes. Chapter 4 is entirely brand new material, and significant sections of other chapters have been rewritten, edited, removed, or otherwise changed. What used to be the end of chapter 9 no longer exists, but you'd find the place it used to exist in chapter 10. Or, if you stretch your mind a bit, nearer the end of chapter 12.

 

Once we get past chapter 10, there will be a weekly posting schedule, with chapters released on Tuesdays, at midnight. (Whether that's California midnight or EST midnight I'm not going to guess). There are 19 chapters, so the last chapter will be up around May 10th or so... right around the time I'm going to be getting ready to graduate from college. The timing wasn't intentional, but I will admit to being tempted to push a few chapters back to get it even closer

 

Read, and enjoy.

Edited March 1, 2011 by Rilbur

[Rilbur]

Just as a heads up for those that may have been waiting, we've retread pretty much all of the original chapters by now. Every chapter from now on will be completely original material, even when it intersects somewhat with the original story.

[Rilbur]

I just noticed that chapter 17 is out.

 

Um... please don't lynch me? That way I can give you the next two chapters?

Edited April 26, 2011 by Rilbur

[J.T.]

I just noticed that chapter 17 is out.

 

Um... please don't lynch me? That way I can give you the next two chapters?

 

Does that mean there's only two chapters left?

[Rilbur]

One, now.

[J.T.]

One, now.

 

Well... Ch 18 was great. I look forward to reading the last chapter then!

[J.T.]

YAY!1!!!!! Loved the story. Submitted a review. Thanks for a great read!