REP: Blog

Earlier this month I updated several chapters of The Ark Part 2. Today, one of my readers let me know that there was a directory at the end of Chapter 17. When I checked, I found that somehow I have pasted part of a Master file over about a page of the chapter.

I replaced the deleted text and the chapter looks okay now. If you read the corrupted chapter, you may want to reread that part of Chapter 17.

Good day to all.

The Ark Part 2 is fully posted and I hope you enjoyed the story.

Some of my readers used the Feedback link to let me know they didn't enjoy The Ark Part 2 as much as some of my other stories and nowhere near as much as Part 1. Unfortunately, a few of those readers indicated they intended to bail on the story. Not a problem for I had adopted a different writing style that many did not care for. Other readers let me know it was very good. One reader said he was in awe at the breadth and depth of the story. Another said he didn't see why I had laid such a broad foundation until he read the last chapter. I guess they saw something that others missed. Regardless of your opinion, I enjoyed writing the story even though it took up a lot of my time and was a lot of work.

I finished Sam's Hopping over a month ago, but waited until yesterday to start posting it. The posting interval will be once a week on Tuesdays. All six chapters of the story have been uploaded to SOL, so there is no reason to worry that part of the story will not be posted. Now I will have to focus on OE3.

As one of my readers mentioned in a feedback message, Sam's Hopping fleshes out my D-Hopping Universe. As far as hopping goes, Opening Earth is about Exploratory hopping and Sam's Hopping is about commercial hopping. Sam and Tom, the 2 main hoppers in the story will face a number of problems. At least one of which will be beyond their ability to fix. They will just have to deal with the repercussions, and that leads to an interesting series of events. I hope you enjoy the story for it was fun to write.

I asked if any of my readers preferred which of two stories I should work on when I needed a break from OE 3. The results say almost everyone wants me to work on Time Scope 2. I guess the cliffhanger that TS1 presented at the end of the story needs to be resolved far more than knowing how Carl will actually receive his revenge. I will have to work that out one of these days.

As far as Sauce for the Gander goes, you may have noticed that I don't always follow the path the earlier scenes in a story indicate as a resolution to a problem. Often something comes up that demands a different solution, I wonder why that happens. My original intent for Sauce was to have it be a standalone story, but my editor TeNderLoin convinced me to turn the story into a series.

Well that's all for now folks.

Lately, I have been doing several things in addition to correcting the errors that I made in The Ark Part 2.

I finished writing a new short story, Sam's Hopping. The chapters have been edited, so I will start posting its 6 chapters on a once a week basis once the last chapter of The Ark Part 2 has been posted; which is currently scheduled for 2/12/2019.

I updated Opening Earth Parts 1 and 2. However, the two parts are not ready for posting at this time. I need to reread the two parts and correct any further errors that I find. Like many authors, I seem to introduce errors when I edit a story to correct errors.

I have also been working on Opening Earth, Part 3. I currently have a final draft for 3 chapters and a preliminary cut on about 5 chapters. Currently that consists of about 191 pages, and for reference Parts 1 and 2 were about 460 pages. However, like most of my longer stories it will take a good bit of time to finish writing the story. When I need a break from the story, I will work on something else. Possibly 'Sauce for the Gander 2' or 'Time Scope 3'. Which of these 2 stories would you prefer to see developed next?

Good day to all:

Today I discovered several errors in the story that I would like to bring to the attention of my readers.

Problem 1:

This problem is totally my mistake, and I would like to acknowledge the reader who pointed out the mistake to me. I feel it is a bad practice to repeat the names people use on the site without their permission, but thank you very much JD40 - an abbreviated form of their name.

I have limited experience with load centers and other electrical work. When I wrote the scene of rewiring the BoA building in Chapter 8, I somehow overlooked that load centers receive 2-phase power. Shame on me for that. I also complicated the problem by overlooking that the larger generators that are typically towed by a vehicle generally output 3-phase power; although some have selector switches that permit output of a single phase.

I will be fixing that mistake in the near future and reposting the chapter. My initial thought was to do a quick and dirty fix, but decided it would be best if I fix the problem properly, which will be more work. It may take a few days to post a rewrite of those scenes, since I like to I let what I write sit for at least a day and then come back to it to proofread the fix.

Problem 2:

In the story, I use call signs. The call sign format is a word, such as Ark, that is followed by a series of single-digit numbers that are separated by underscore characters.

Today I noticed that in many places the underscore character is missing.

I checked the HTML formatted story files I submitted and the missing underscore characters were in the story files. SOL converts my HTML to the site format, and apparently there was a problem with the conversion algorithm. I notified our Web Master Lazeez of what I discovered, and we will correct the problem to include all posted files.

REP

FYI regarding my use of 'Over and out'.

When I first started posting the chapters, my radio traffic narrative contained the term 'Over and out' with the second party in the link confirming the end of the transmission by saying 'Out'.

An acquaintance, who was reading the story, informed me he had been in the Signals Corps, and that was improper radio discipline. He said that the convention of 'Over and out' was something dreamed up by Hollywood. Based on his information, I updated the posted Chapters to:

1. Change 'Over and out' to 'Out'.

2. Delete the confirmation by the 2nd person.

I will also be updating the chapters to-be-posted. Nothing was changed in the story. So you won't be missing anything other than no more 'Over and out'.