Robinski

Cool beans.

Hey @Kuiper, good to see you back on. You have my attention I'm interested. I'm not quite ready myself, but I'd be interested in doing a swap if you'll give me a credit for mine when it's ready? I'm thinking it will be a month or so.

I have had a tough few days too, standing in a field in England listening to hard rock / metal bands and drinking beer In other words, a weekend off (everything)

Ah, the things is, SFFpit is clear about things being proofed and 'ready-to-go' - in effect. I'm just not there with TMM.

I think I will give it a go. Toe on the water, and all that. Although I'm hesitant about the amount of work that TMM needs.

Lol, but no - I might send whisky.

I'm here, I'm here, jeez - keep your hair on. (Sorry, is that hairist?). Actually, while I'm here, would there be any interest in laying eyers on the first chapter of the new Q&M story? It's early days, but the first chapter is fairly self-contained. I'm on Chapter 8, but I don't want to submit the rest right now.

There is a poll option - but you need to start a new thread, I think.

___ WorldCon 2018 San Jose, California_X_ WorldCon 2019 Dublin ___ Both, cause why not?

At my age, I can't remember what I had for lunch - or if I ate lunch... Yay!! Go you.

In other news, I feel like I just 'crushed' the Bechdel Test with the latest chapter of TCC. Others will be the judge, of course. 2,883 words with two female characters dealing with some weighty matters. A man appears for like half a page before disappearing again. I know it needs work, but I just <3 character development!!

Yes; love me some Moorcock, one of my faves too, and would totally support @Mandamon on hunting out the Corum books. My favourite is probably Dorian Hawkmoon, of which there are 7 books (at last count). There is something seminal about Moorcock, certainly in that period of the 60's and 70's (which I guess kind of stands to reason!), that is very compelling in it's simplicity. The stream of ideas is just constant and it still feels like discovering some of them for the first time, even now. The other thing I just love about Moorcock is how how worked beyond the bounds of mere SFF and collaborated with like-minded musicians, usually on bringing Elric and the Black Sword into the sphere of rock/progressive music. Moorcock's collaborations with Hawkwind and Blue Oyster Cult are well known. BOC have always been one of my top bands, and Black Blade is a cracking song - worth checking out on YouTube if you like that 70's heavy rock sound. That segue neatly brings me even further off topic to Neal Peart, Rush's drummer and lyricist, who has long been a writer, but recently was published in collaboration with Kevin J. Anderson, writing the steam punk novelisation of Rush's last studio album, Clockwork Angels - which I have still to check out, and very much look forward to (Rush = Robinski's favourite band of all time).

Dublin would be fabulous. I have my doubts about California, personally. We (the good lady and I) had intentions of going on the WRX2017 cruise and ending up at WorldCon in Finland, but I just ran out of time - it's our 25th Anniversary this year, so it wouldn't have been the most appropriate celebration of that, me spending all day with my writing chums!! We can still call it REcon wherever it is. It would just be REcon at WorldCon, which seems kind of appropriate in itself.

Personally, having made two 'unscheduled' trips to Canada in the last two years, I'm looking to not cross the pond again in the next few years. There it is, my two-penneth. Having said this, while I would always big-up the UK, and it may be easier than mainland Europe, travel-wise(?), I'm up for a trip to Europe in some form.

Cool, very informative. I need to do more grammar swatting

Ha-ha. Yeah, we talk a good game! Good luck with the classes. I thought the whole point of chemistry was to blow things up? Man, it's got boring since I did it

Oh no! Get well soon!!

Hey Kais, welcome back and thanks for the comments. Much appreciated. Done. Agreed and changed up. Yep, for sure. "There had been times recently she wished she’d been able to do this – stuffing something in his trap to stop his constant blathering." Yes - I need to flag/tag better who is where. I'll do that. Not exactly. Q had several doses of M's spit over the course of the story, but the intention was that it was a bluff by Toni, and the effect was not long lasting. Q never had another attack after the initial period. I must admit I forget where the last one was; the space elevator? How do you feel about that? Betrayed, tricked? Did you have a different expectation of the spit thing? Hmm, okay - let me mull on that. Yeah - I do need some explanation in there. I will work on that. Thanks again - really appreciate your comments over the piece and you sticking with the story. You guys all have really helped me pick this up, and now I'm going to take a mini-break then dive back in with all my notes for Edit #2. Thank you, @kais; thank you Reading Excuses!! <R>

Mais, bien sur!

The only thing is I've made two unscheduled trips to Canada, in 2016 and 2017. Next year, I'm going to Nice (south of France). Feel free to join me :o)

Hey Mandamon, thank you for reading, and for sticking with the story all the way through - really appreciate that! Check, I will be taking more careful note of my promises to the reader as I got through so that the resolution snaps more, I hope. To some degree, it was Quirk being manoeuvred by Dav Pal (through Mary). There was intended to be some lingering affection, but never really a 'great' romance. I'll try and tag that better. Yeah, I'm considering inserting a Moth sub-plot. Although I don't really want to make it 90,000 words. Lol I will look for greater satisfaction in the resolution. I'm calling first draft and will try now to do clever writerly things to fore-shadow and pay-off better. Thank you again so very much - really appreciate all the feedback. I will now disappear into a hole for... a month maybe(?) and try to edit the whole thing before seeking some whole beta reads.

Excellent - thanks for reading, RD, and I'm glad you feel for the characters. I'll take a look at that paragraph. I was wondering how you felt about the ending, in terms of the keeping of (so called) promises to the reader. Does Cal's conclusion feel climactic Are you content that you know what happened to him, and is it satisfying? is there anything you feel wasn't wrapped up? As to the future, I'm 12,500 words into the next story, and helpfully learning my lessons from this one. Give me a couple of months (maybe) and Q&M will be back Thank you so much for reading, and for sticking with me through the whole story - it's really appreciated. You got any new material in the pipeline?

Comments. (Aw, man – I've got to type these out again instead of just keeping them in-line tracked changes). “and the density from all those glacial conversations” – I don’t quite follow the train of thought here. Is ‘density’ the word you meant? Just a bit tortured, maybe. “the coarseness of the scabs” – where are the scabs? Bit confused. “She lowered her hand back to my hip” – I know what, you mean, but I think you need the words when it’s a specific thing (the hand) that’s being lowered. However you could probably get away with ‘she returned to my hip’, which could be her attention. “reveling in the how much” “might have been a beaver’s house” – shouldn’t you call it a lodge? “They’ll be an inn tonight” – there’ll I enjoy Sor being tempted back to fungi I like the emergence of detail about the negotiations. Ooh, nice stinger at the end of the chapter. There’s lots of good stuff in this chapter, and lots of it links into earlier themes and references; very satisfying. The ‘breaking’ of the tension between Sor and Mag is also a relief. I feel like there’s a point where you can take sexual tension too far, and the reader gets p’d off, in a bad way. I think this timing is good. <R>

Hey folks, Well, here it is, the final part of TMM - I hope you find something in it to like! Most important apart from the usual stuff, of course, is whether I've kept the promises that I've made. Any comments very much appreciated. Robinski

Yes, well I am! I'm the only one today, so have at it (on the basis that Silk probably won't be back on today).