Forum: Story Discussion and Feedback

The details of that scene are vague. As I recall, John had made up his mind to go and the threat was stated as a time limit in which he had to complete his planning and be ready to go. He pushed during the planning stage to get additional capabilities built into his equipment. However, I don't recall him pushing things very far. The aliens fabricated those supplies during the flight while he was in stasis. They added a number of features to what they built on their own that John hadn't thought of. Self replenishing gas tanks and ammo cans where two of the mods if I recall.

edited to add:

Yeah, as I said I don't recall the specifics. I read a lot of his stories when I first joined SOL as solely a reader. The details of those stories have merged into one recollection.

I also recall a story, one of his or a similar story, where the aliens project was filming the MC's activities and showing them as an entertainment program to boost ratings.

revised version

I had a couple of problems with CMSIX's stories. I recall starting to read a "new" story he posted. As I read, I kept thinking, "What is going on with this story? The title is different from J&A, but it contains many of the same scenes sequenced differently with minor changes." Perhaps, he was revising J&A under a different title.

I liked all of the stories he completed. I don't know if his "new" story was his revision of J&A for I bailed on the story. However, not meaning to bad mouth him or his stories, that story is what caused me to reevaluate him as an author. I didn't like my conclusions, so I quit reading anything he posted.

Yeah, as I said I don't recall the specifics. I read a lot of his stories when I first joined SOL as solely a reader. The details of those stories have merged into one recollection.

That's a mark of the entire time-travel genre, rather than of the two authors. It almost a required prerequsite (pushy aliens picking the least likely candidates and then bending over backwards to give them everything they might ever desire). After awhile, all the stories begin to blend into the others, as there isn't a lot separating the different premises. (That's why I never tried one myself, because I wasn't sure I could escape the same traps.)

I have no info on whether he is still alive or has passed on.

As of 12 months back TenDerLoin called in on cmsix at the nursing home and he was alive, well, and angry - he didn't have an Internet connection worthy of the name and was angry with the world, and mega pissed with all the readers send emails asking him to finish stories. No notice of death since then, but the house he owned now has another resident, which is likely since he said he'd likely never leave the nursing home again. Can't live independently now.

Dumb maybe.

No.

Dumb maybe.

Nope not dumb at all. The two of you just met in a different medium and got to know each other.

So, ancestry.com seems to think he's dead

cmsix is his nick because he's Chessley M Grogan the 6 th - and has a few cousins the of roughly the same age (68) who all live in that part of Texas all with the same first name. It isn't easy tracking him down with any certainty. In 2013 he said he was in Rose Haven retreat in Atlanta Texas, and he was still living there about 12 months ago. A check of relevant databases doesn't show his death since then. But anyone can ring the nursing home and ask about him if they want to. Too expensive for me to call from Australia.

I remember he made a blog statement about his brother's death. Something about a train hitting him. Although his description was more along his personality as usual.

Nice knowing he likely didn't die, even if he's unable to write (I hate to think all writer croak when they quit writing!).

(I hate to think all writer croak when they quit writing!).

Most quit writing when they croak, but a few still have stuff published after their funeral.

Heinlein (grumbles from the grave) and with a co-author a book from his notes.

E E Doc Smith had several published from his notes by one of his protégées under the guidance of his widow.

(grumbles from the grave) and with a co-author a book from his notes.

When I go, my family will probably have about 20 to 30 stories for someone to finish and publish afterwards.

Sometimes that works nicely, other times what was a good to great story gets ruined.

A lot depends on the reason for the second person to work on it, and how it's done. It's rare that two people have the exacts same style of writing, although many often come close.

The best personal example I can think of is when I finished Shiloh I did a first draft in the best approximation of The Scot's style, and we both agreed it was awful - so we then agreed for me to rewrite what was already done in my style. The 2nd draft was very much my style but not still that good, however on the third draft I did it in the same style of my other DiD stories and it came out much better. Now, one change that upset a lot of people was the switch from 3rd person to 1st person, and I got some complaints about that, but I got a lot more kudos from people saying it read a lot better in the 1st person. I think it read better simply because my style for action then was 1st person and I was more comfortable writing it that way.

Now, in that case I was given approval to rewrite the story in my style and to take the story line where I wanted to after the point he stopped, as long as it was consistent with what was done up to then with the plot. If the sole purpose was to just publish then I would expect the story to not be as vibrant in the second half because the push for creative content isn't there. In Shiloh the creative push was there because the push was for a creative story and not just to publish.

If you ever get them back from the cops. Sorry. :)

that's another bunch - I've 13 I've started since then and am working on, of the 20 something the cops have I've got old copies of 14 of them from a year before the attack, but know 4 of the old copies are only a shadow of what the cops took, and there were at least 2 Rivers Region stories almost finished which i have no old copies off.

I have followed this thread in particular as I really like cmsix's stories and I can only wish,from a readers perspective,that more Authors would think about what would transpire with their creations should something happen to them. I know this sounds morbid and greedy on my behalf, but its also a way to finish sharing their gifts. Just my thoughts on the situation.

Not at all. Several of us authors have discussed options, if something were to happen to us, though few actually implemented any plans. Although my family knows I write, no one knows where or how to post and/or publish to my various sources, so they'd be useless. Ernest and I discussed it, but no real plans were made. My editors have access to all my 'almost done' works (i.e. waiting for final revisions/editing/publishing), but again, they'd have to transfer it to someone who knows how I go about publishing it, which gets fairly complicated.

I format all my books, but there's multiple sites to go through, multiple passwords, and various hoops to jump through. So I've got no idea how to assign it to anyone. I guess I'll need to write out detailed instructions, but at this point, it's almost easier writing another entire book than to outline all the details they'd have to know.

Still, the best bet is to form a collective, where we each list the instructions a survivor would have to go through, and list who has access to the documents and who they need to contact (whoever is a surviving member of said collective).

I format all my books, but there's multiple sites to go through, multiple passwords, and various hoops to jump through.

Since the attack by the Gestapo I've a recent copy of everything on DropBox which my brother has access to because he's also one of my editors. My son knows all my passwords, and they're also stored on my computer. One of my guides steps through the publishing process I use, and a few members of my family are all tech savy - thus they can publish them, the issue for them will be who finishes them. Knowing my brother, he'll probably ask a couple of other authors he edits for, and my son would probably ask my other editors for suggestions on who to finish them.

If the writer is a good enough storyteller. I think we can all use our imaginations to fill in the unfinished portions. Just I don't think the way I do it will actually match the storyteller's ideas as I have found out with cmsix in our old discussions of a couple of his stories. I will keep those ideas to myself since like I told him they are his stories, just shared with me and others to enjoy.

As we've mentioned before, CMsix was interesting because he was almost a cautionary tale for most authors, showing what can happen when you're unable to resolve story issues (i.e. he kept rewriting the same story, over and over, never quite successfully resolving the central issues satisfactorily). Often, he'd get mid-story and simply abandon it since he couldn't figure out how to resolve it.

As a result, he was often the most quoted author in discussions about 'incomplete stories'.

Although, in gave readers a perspective on writing issues, revealing what most readers never seen in unpublished/unposted stories. It was fascinating watching him continually wrestling with the same issues, always taking the same approach but expecting a different result.

So Jimmy and his group in "I feel Lucky" had to occur to save the time line from the organization which was going to release another virus that Jack took over the resources of in the Nanovirus. Jimmy's group was beginning to actively attack it from the inside.

Sadly, the 'I Feel Lucky' disaster (when he drastically altered the entire premise of the story, midstory), was when I decided enough was enough and quit reading cmsix altogether. His insistence that EVERY story had to coexist with a single story which circumvented any other story from continuing was both short-sighted and misguided.

I read a couple of his stories after that, but I had trouble accepting them, because of the flagrant inconsistencies. I NEVER finished the newer version of "I Feel Lucky"!

Chessley died on February 2, 1990 at 77 years of age.

That was a relative with the same name. At the time he was writing there were 6 close relatives with the exact same name. He was alive in a nursing home in Texas about a year ago when Jim visited him while going to Arizona from Florida.