The Blind Man: Blog

You would have thought I would have done my research better; unfortunately I didn't and now a reader has caught me out. First off I will admit that the last time I touched a bow was sometime by in the 1960's and it wasn't a really good bow and I didn't even have arrows for it. I ended up firing lengths of sticks around with it. Obviously I'm not an expert. It's been pointed out by a reader that the ranges described so far in my story are on the verge of fantasy and given that my story is a work of fiction and isn't based on any reality then that's fine; however the reader is correct in pointing out my error. The truth is that much of what I've written in regards to the use of the bow in my story has been drawn from similar stories that I've read on SOL.


The truth is that my character would be lucky to accurately hit something at 400 yards and that his effective range should be closer to 250 at best given his high tech bow and arrows and his strength and height. This of course cascades down to Kola his mate who isn't as tall or as strong and isn't using the best bow in existance.


What does it mean for the story. Not much actually. I'll try and keep things under control and closer to reality in the future and I'll eventually go back and fix things where it is obviously closer to fantasy but for now I'll keep things moving along story wise so that the adventure will continue.


Again I like to thank everyone for their feedback and epecially those who call me on stuff and point things out when I go down a road that is obviously heading for a cliff.


Thanks

Thanks Ian for pointing out the correct usage of the word 'nocked' versus 'notched' as I had been using it in my story. Again all feedback is graciously accepted.

The next chapter to Game World is in the queue for posting and it should be up soon. For those who've asked but didn't read my original post on this story, I'm going to try and post at least two chapters a week. This all depends on my editor and my ability to not rewrite what he has already edited.

As for those who asked about stories similar to my current work, as I said in my previous blog this work is sort of a homage to CMSix. There are several authors on SOL who write tales about people being thrown into alternative Earths who have to make it in primative conditions for a variety of purposes. CMSix is one, Aubie56 is another, and I recently read a story called 'Bare Handed' by Howard Faxon that was really good. You can also check out my favourites page if your interested in some well written series that are similar, although also different.

Thanks for reading and commenting.

Starting tomorrow I'll be posting a new story. It's called Game World and it is your classical, stereotypical action / adventure story with the protagonist being the best at everything, who ends up winning the day. In a way it is a homage to CMSix and other authors like him whover entertained us all on SOL with their stories. Currently I'm planning about fifty-plus chapters but we'll have to see.

Dear readers, I've just posted the final chapter to 'An Awkward Situation' and I'd like to take a moment and thank all of you who have followed this story and supported me through the process of posting it. I appreciated all the comments that I received both good and bad.

I originally wrote this story about a decade ago but never published it. When I wrote it, I wrote it as an experiment, wanting to write something that was different from the traditional fair that SOL and other sites post. I didn't want to write a story about a kid who gets mind control powers and then turns everyone into his harem. Instead I wanted to write about a kid taken by surprise by the events of the moment and having to scramble about trying to figure out what was going on and how he could fix it. I mean the thought of have mind control powers is great, but just image what your reaction would have been at age sixteen or seventeen if you woke up to a relative having sex with you. I'd put money that a lot of you would have said 'whoa' if not something a little more expletive. Well that was what I wrote and while some people didn't get it and others scratched their heads and asked what the hell I was on about, others said that while strange they were going to stick with it and see where I was going. Again to them I say thanks for hanging in there and seeing my tale through to the end.

I want to talk about scores and states now. I received an email when I was three-quarters the way through posting the story by a reader who wanted to know why the score was so low. He loved the story and it baffled him. Part was my fault in that the story was written the way it was, taking things from a point of confusion on the protagonist's part and pushing it along until things made sense. Short chapters also affected the score. People wanted more and they weren't getting it. The final thing that brought down the score was the trolls. My first two chapters had descriptive scenes of incest and I got bombards with half a dozen ones and my initial score of 7.07 plummeted to 6.36 in a matter of hours. Since then the score has been continually climbing. For the longest time I had a nice stack of sevens and then around chapter sixteen my eights shot through the roof. Over all almost 95% of voters scored me from seven and up.

So that is it. Again thank you to the readers who stuck with the story. I'm glad that you liked it.