REP: Blog

My readers notified me of two major content errors in the text of Chocolateen, Part 2, Chapter 2.

(1) Auckland is not the capital of New Zealand - totally my error. I misread a passage in an article on Auckland.

(2) I copied the text from an on-line Chinese menu and pasted it into the file in order to easily create a list of Chinese food items. I deleted the portion of the menu that I pasted into my Word file, but somehow in converting the Word .doc file to a .txt file, the Word conversion program pulled the deleted text into the file.

I posted the first chapter of Chocolateen - Part 2 this morning.

The story is a cross over story that begins about 12 years after Part 1 ends. The story is told from James Schneider's point of view and it details how James Conrad enlists Frank and Jim in helping to accomplish the mission that the Guidance Council assigned to Jim Conrad.

I recommend that my readers read the first parts of Chocolateen and Ancient Abilities for background, so they will understand the parts of this story that are not fully explained by the storyline.

Thanks,
REP

I posted the final chapter of Opening Earth this morning. I hope you enjoyed Opening Earth and will be with me when I post its sequel, Opening Earth II.

Opening Earth covered the period of Doug becoming a D-Hopper, finding Earth, and presenting the UN with his credentials as the Multiverse's Ambassador to Earth. It also addressed his inheriting the Archer Conglomerate.

Opening Earth II will begin where Opening Earth left off. I am not sure of the period of Doug's life that will be covered by Opening Earth II; however, I can see the potential for an Opening Earth III in the future. The agreement to be negotiated with the President of the United States for his Embassy in Colorado will contain several unusual terms that will lead to some interesting situations and conflicts. His life on Vora, Slave World, and the other Multiverse planets will also present him with situations that will require his involvement in both personal and professional situations.

Next Tuesday, March 17, I will begin posting Chocolateen II. Chocolateen II is a crossover story that melds the main characters of Chocolateen Part I and Ancient Abilities Part I. If you have not read these two stories, I suggest you do so or you may have a few difficulties with understanding Chocolateen II.

Chocolateen II begins around 12 years after Chocolateen, Part 1 ended, and an unspecified time after Ancient Abilities, Part 1 ended. As you will shortly learn, James Conrad enlists the aid of Frank Tolliver and James Schneider in completing the mission he was given by the Guidance Council. Ancient Abilities II, which is currently being written, will backfill the period from the end of Ancient Abilities Part 1 until at least James Conrad, Frank Tolliver, and James Schneider forming their partnership. I may extend the period covered to beyond the period covered by Chocolateen II, but have not reached a decision on that at this point.

Opening Earth is almost complete, and I have one additional story ready for posting.

I am currently in the process of writing three stories, and I have made a start on about four additional stories. My mood determines which of the three stories I work on at any given time. Opening Earth II is one of the three stories, and the other two stories are Ancient Abilities II and The Ark. I will most likely complete Ancient Abilities II first.

The first story I attempted to write as a short story writer is called The Pink Monkey (PM) Chronicles and it is one of the four stories I have on hold. For me PM Chronicles began back in 2005. I had an idea for a story, but at the time, I was not a short story writer; however, I did have around 15 years of technical writing experience. The idea rolled around in my head for many months, until one day, I sat down and started to write it for my personal pleasure; I had no plans to post it. I had a great deal of difficulty with the story's setting and plot, so I set it aside until I decided how to resolve my difficulties. I'm going to take a look at the story once The Ark is ready to post.

The Ark is a story that I would really like to finish and post, but it is going to take a lot of work to rewrite and finish the storyline. I think my readers will find The Ark to be very interesting for two main reasons. First of all, I personally think it is a good story. Secondly, it is what I think of as a Pre Apocalypse story style. This story category does not exist as a SOL story code. In fact, I am not aware of any writer that has ever written a story using this concept (i.e., what the main protagonist does to prepare for surviving a disaster). If anyone is aware of such a story, I would be interested in reading it.

The story occurred to me about three years ago. I was reading Love and Family During the Great Death by Crumbly Writer. I was toying with the idea of writing a Post Apocalypse story; however, my thoughts took a turn in the opposite direction. Namely, if a person became aware of a future disaster that would kill the majority of our world's population and destroy all of its societies, what would that person do if they had the time and ability to take action to save a large group of people and a portion of our culture. That thought was the beginning of The Ark.


Unfortunately, my first attempt at writing The Ark resulted in a story that was extremely difficult to read. So I set it aside until I could figure out what was wrong with my writing style. While writing Chocolateen Part 1, I discovered and corrected the problem with my writing style. I am currently in the process of rewriting and completing The Ark. The story is currently 700KB of predominantly narrative text, and will probably grow to over 1MB. I need to convert the narrative text to dialog, which will make it much easier to read and I need to write the final several chapters. Altogether, I expect the effort to take at least 6 months of work, so don't look for it in the near future.


Of course, that assumes that all goes well in my personal life and that my wife doesn't overload me with honey-dos. Speaking of which, I need to end this blog entry and get back to remodeling our second bathroom.

Several readers have raised the question regarding the extraterritorial rights granted to an Embassy and its personnel. For those interested, Wikipedia has a good write up on Embassy personnel and grounds. I extracted portions of that write up to create the following. There are also many official documents that provide information on extraterritorial rights.

Contrary to popular belief, diplomatic missions do not enjoy full extraterritorial status and are not the sovereign territory of the represented state. The premises of diplomatic missions remain under the jurisdiction of the host state while being afforded special privileges (such as immunity from most local laws) by the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. The rights that a host country grants a foreign power in establishing an Embassy in the host country are determined by diplomatic negotiations.

One of the specific questions asked by my readers is 'Does Doug need a building permit?' As a general statement, the host country provides the buildings, facilities, grounds, etc. to the foreign Diplomatic Mission. Under these conditions, there is no construction so a building permit would not be required.

I am not positive that a foreign government would require a building permit if it were to purchase a piece of property and construct buildings on the property that will be used as the Embassy. However, I strongly suspect that a building permit would be required.

As far as my story goes, I am of the opinion that a building permit is required. It is also a valid point that a building department's function is to ensure that a new structure is constructed in a manner that will ensure that it is safe for occupancy and that any applicable health codes are met.