I've been revamping things in E-ships even as I post and now some of the changes are going to impact what you read here. Not a lot, most of the changes are in parts of the story that I haven't posted yet, but Kurgan Brown's name is changing to Kurgan Umbago and the chapter breaks are different so the numbering may be just a bit off for the next post. It's not that any of the story is missing or repeated, just that the chapters have been renumbered.
I've never noticed a set pattern for chapter heading, in science fiction or fantasy any more than other genres, just that some people will do more than one scene per chapter and some won't. I do, generally, and don't like to have 50 chapters in a short book, and that makes it a little more of a challenge to know when to make a chapter break, but when I noticed that various other changes had created chapters that went on for more than 50 pages, I decided it was time to rethink the chapter structure. It's still a tad on the arbitrary side, aiming for 15-20 pages on average and once or twice breaking what would otherwise have been a single scene, but it seemed appropriate at the time.
If this leads to too much confusion, since you won't have the previous chapters to check back against for clarity, let me know and I can send you a copy of the new version of the preceding chapters of the book. More of the changes, however, will be in the flow and polish of the chapters to come and I hope you will enjoy them. Let me know if anything I'm doing makes it worse! Improvement is always a desirable change in fiction writing, never making it worse!
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Buy the Right Thing at the Right Time
Often, the right thing to buy is the more expensive one. Food, not so much, unless you need it for something special, like a fancy dinner or a hiking trip where every ounce of weight and every day it lasts is important. We go to the cheapest stores that carry what we need for our every-day meals. but when we buy things that are intended to last, we shop with something besides cost in mind. We've done the cheap route, and for some products, cheap lasts as long as the more expensive and does what it needs to do, but for many things, especially gadgets, cheap can be expensive. Cheap appliances have to replaced more frequently, cheap furniture doesn't stay looking nice for long, and cheap bookcases having sagging shelves shortly for anything but paperbacks. So we looked for quality, too, and if more expensive means better construction, we'll pay the difference.
On the other hand, we don't buy the better one when we have one that works. Chairs wear, but they wear slowly. Only when we see that over time a chair is beginning to wear out and it's not something that can be readily repaired (chairs can be re-apholstered if the stuffing beneath is still good, but sometimes it gets mushed beyond fluffing or decays, or springs give way and start poking through. Then it's time to start shopping, but not necessarily to buy immediately. Watch for stores that have regular or frequent sales. Study the options so that you're buying something you'll like for years, not just something that looks like what you have now or fits the current fad.
If you like brand names, look for brand names with a reputation of reliability and quality, not fashion, double for appliances and tools, which can look identical but are worlds apart in the quality of the metal and other materials and parts. For things that move, look for metal. If plastic is the only option, look for plastic that is strong, with sharper turns and steep angles. Gears and zippers that are rounded and shallow are more likely to become unusable quickly, because they are made that way when cheap, weak plastic is being used to make them.
Periodically, even long-lasting things begin to deteriorate or no longer served the purpose you need them for and expensive purchases will need to be made, but if the purchase is done with thought and care, it will be a long time before you need to do a second time.
On the other hand, we don't buy the better one when we have one that works. Chairs wear, but they wear slowly. Only when we see that over time a chair is beginning to wear out and it's not something that can be readily repaired (chairs can be re-apholstered if the stuffing beneath is still good, but sometimes it gets mushed beyond fluffing or decays, or springs give way and start poking through. Then it's time to start shopping, but not necessarily to buy immediately. Watch for stores that have regular or frequent sales. Study the options so that you're buying something you'll like for years, not just something that looks like what you have now or fits the current fad.
If you like brand names, look for brand names with a reputation of reliability and quality, not fashion, double for appliances and tools, which can look identical but are worlds apart in the quality of the metal and other materials and parts. For things that move, look for metal. If plastic is the only option, look for plastic that is strong, with sharper turns and steep angles. Gears and zippers that are rounded and shallow are more likely to become unusable quickly, because they are made that way when cheap, weak plastic is being used to make them.
Periodically, even long-lasting things begin to deteriorate or no longer served the purpose you need them for and expensive purchases will need to be made, but if the purchase is done with thought and care, it will be a long time before you need to do a second time.
I've put the follower button up top of the side bar hoping a few more of my readers will let me know they are out there. I've appreciated the occasionally comment (statistics show that no more than one in a hundred readers will post anything) but on my other blog (about writing, without the stories) I can also see stats, and that gives me a feeling for how well folks are enjoying my posts (or not). If there's a way to do that on this one, I haven't found it, yet, or don't understand what I'm seeing), so the follower button tells me a little, too. When I started, I thought it would be a pain to sign up, but it turned out to be fairly painless, and for me that's saying a lot.
I haven't posted a reminder about the stories, either, lately, so thought I should: I periodically clear out older story posts from the archive only because it's the opinion of some fellow writers that stories permanently posted online are less likely to sell to some publishers, even though the online version is always far different from the final published version and even though it actually helps build a fan base in practice. Still, I realize that some readers are coming in late and I'm willing to send the whole story to date if you'll drop me a line. On the other hand, I've found the feedback of those joining in late without the previous parts of the story to be very valuable: a good story will tell itself even in the absence of prior knowledge, like a sequel, and if things aren't making sense after a scene or less, the scene's probably need some work and clarifying.
More chapters to come!
I haven't posted a reminder about the stories, either, lately, so thought I should: I periodically clear out older story posts from the archive only because it's the opinion of some fellow writers that stories permanently posted online are less likely to sell to some publishers, even though the online version is always far different from the final published version and even though it actually helps build a fan base in practice. Still, I realize that some readers are coming in late and I'm willing to send the whole story to date if you'll drop me a line. On the other hand, I've found the feedback of those joining in late without the previous parts of the story to be very valuable: a good story will tell itself even in the absence of prior knowledge, like a sequel, and if things aren't making sense after a scene or less, the scene's probably need some work and clarifying.
More chapters to come!
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Easter Egg mystery
Exploring the web is always something I lose patience with as heavy graphics slow things down and graphics are popular. Still, a quick look before I back up to a faster page can provide a lot of information. Today I looked for egg dying methods and opted for onions, but a quick scan showed me lots of options for that, too, including free floating onion skins, different kinds of onion skins, holding them onto the egg with rubberbands, coffee filters, old nylon knee highs, and cheese cloth or fabric (it will dye the fabric too but may not be colorfast). I also came across references to adding shapes and colors with flowers and parsley tyed on the same ways. I'll have to try the parsley sometime, especially.
I opted for free floating, not knowing my family's reaction to seeing nylons in the pot, the kind of onions we had in the house (though the skins are rather pale) and have achieved subtle marbling and pale but pretty ochre for a color, and a question about how eggs are handled before they reach my house. About half the eggs I dyed have two very neat stripes of white circling them at about the third and two-thirds points of the height if you stand the eggs on end. It's kind of the effect, in reverse, I might expect of rubber banding if one were very neat and didn't cross the two rubber bands, but what would cause it in the trip from hen to kitchen? And do I want to know? Anyway, it looks like I went to a little extra work to decorate the eggs, so I'm not complaining.
I opted for free floating, not knowing my family's reaction to seeing nylons in the pot, the kind of onions we had in the house (though the skins are rather pale) and have achieved subtle marbling and pale but pretty ochre for a color, and a question about how eggs are handled before they reach my house. About half the eggs I dyed have two very neat stripes of white circling them at about the third and two-thirds points of the height if you stand the eggs on end. It's kind of the effect, in reverse, I might expect of rubber banding if one were very neat and didn't cross the two rubber bands, but what would cause it in the trip from hen to kitchen? And do I want to know? Anyway, it looks like I went to a little extra work to decorate the eggs, so I'm not complaining.
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