Forum: Story Discussion and Feedback

There is another option. He has a Patreon page. It might be possible to contact him there.

The last status update on his Patreon page (you can get the URL from his SOL author profile) was Feb 28th. He's posting updates about progress on TSM chapter 139. No idea why he hasn't posted past 135 on SOL yet.

ETA: I took a look at the posting dates for some of the more recent chapters. While he would occasionally post two chapters in a month, for at lest the last year it has been one chapter every two or 3 months

Just to update @Dominions Son post, Ch136 appeared on Patreon in 2 parts, the first was posted 28th August and the second 1st November with the combined version 20th November. Ch.137 was 1st December with the final version 10th January, Ch.138 1st January with final version also 10th January and Ch.139 1st March with an update on the 13th.

So yes he's still writing but there have been some gaps over the last 7 months.

So yes he's still writing but there have been some gaps over the last 7 months.

Yes, and wide gaps in new chapters showing up on SOL have been common for at least the last year. The earliest chapters went up on SOL in 2016.

Note - posting the completed book to Bookapy in advance of posting to SOL meets the requirements for 'completed'.

That is a bit two-sided. Completed yes, but only for pay which means the author could very slowly post on SOL and immediately put it on Bookapy, but never finish the SOL posts. The postings on SOL will trigger sales on Bookapy but could also mean some readers are forced to buy it if they want to read the end, something which the other rules specifically prohibited. Nothing against Bookapy, I already bought a lot there, but the ruling seems a bit strange and open for abuse.

the author could very slowly post on SOL and immediately put it on Bookapy, but never finish the SOL posts. The postings on SOL will trigger sales on Bookapy but could also mean some readers are forced to buy it if they want to read the end, something which the other rules specifically prohibited.

but

Failure to keep up the progress will result in your work on Storiesonline being hidden until updated with new parts.

So presumably even if a story is on Bookapy, the author would be expected to release installments on a regular schedule, since it's not like it has to be written yet.

So presumably even if a story is on Bookapy, the author would be expected to release installments on a regular schedule, since it's not like it has to be written yet.

Yes, for example one chapter every 2 weeks, and then stop at chapter 45 of 50 total. That's the unwanted scenario that becomes possible.

You must keep the work on Storiesonline within two installments of the work on the support site.

So, Chap139 on Patreon and Chap135 on SOL would make him in violation of that...

Also, if a story is uploaded to bookapy and posted to SOL, isn't it expected to autopost at the writer's schedule?

As can be seen in that posting the completed work to Bookapy while having the story slowly posted to SoL is allowed.

Actually, by the letter of the contract, new chapters are to be posted at least weekly. Yeah, Laz might not do anything if you queued it up to post every 10-11 days instead of every 7, but posting once a month might be enough to trigger action.

If you take way too long with it Lazeez could evoke section 14

Presumably why the next book in the summer camp series hasn't been posted on SoL at all. Which is in line with the letter but not the spirit of the rules.

I doubt anyone needed to report anything after this thread. Laz likely monitors this forum.
Now as hammered890 reports, there has been an update. Interesting timing, no?

Interesting timing, no?

Given the status updates on his Patreon page, he may have one more to post before he is fully in compliance with the SOL author agreement section regarding Patreon and other similar support sites.

It will be interesting to see how quickly the next chapter (137) shows up here.

Laz definitely monitors the forum. However, he likely doesn't read every thread. (He may grep for his name being mentioned, tho...)

(He may grep for his name being mentioned, tho...)

He has said not on previous threads. He monitors the All Threads By Date like the rest of us.

From the FWIW category, Tefler has been spending the last year rewriting and expanding the original early chapters and selling them as the John Blake Chronicales on Amazon... he's up to volume 4 which covers the initial meeting of Calara's family through the first visit to Dragon March to rescue Rachel and the award ceremony in chapter 37... characters and storylines have been fleshed out and the sex scenes curtailed.... hence the probable reason for the longer passages of time between chapters... Edit: reversal of family meeting and Dragon March cuz I didn't remember the correct sequence...

From the FWIW category, Tefler has been spending the last year rewriting and expanding the original early chapters and selling them as the John Blake Chronicales on Amazon... he's up to volume 4 which covers the initial meeting of Calara's family through the first visit to Dragon March to rescue Rachel and the award ceremony in chapter 37... characters and storylines have been fleshed out and the sex scenes curtailed.... hence the probable reason for the longer passages of time between chapters... Edit: reversal of family meeting and Dragon March cuz I didn't remember the correct sequence...

Uh, volume 4 went on sale on Amazon in January 2019, two years ago.

His personal life has been crazy this past year, his wife had some stuff happen at work which resulted in an employment change, with that happening just before Covid hit and disrupted everything. Other family medical issues happened as I recall(not Covid though). He's had a period of writer's block, then a "pause" here recently as he shifts to working through plotting/fleshing out the next story arc now that he's made it to the end of the current one.

And he has some young kids to take care of and as he's the one who stays at home normally(paired with Covid lockdowns)...

It's been hidden because he is in violation of the SOL rules covering the use of support sites like Patreon.

The rules require that he keeps SOL within two chapters of what's available on his Patreon page. It's currently five ahead of what's been posted to SOL.

Per Lazeez it will reappear if/when he posts enough to SOL to get back in compliance with the rules.

Eek! No page breaks. If it's the same length as previous chapters, that's going to be a pain :-(

AJ

Lazeez announced some time ago that he got rid of the automated page breaks.

I thought the system now remembers where you left off and repositions for you.

That's browser functionality.

Yes, I implemented it thru the browser, but that's new. The site's code saves the scrolling position in the browser's database and it returns you to the saved position when you come back.

Ah, that's something extra, cool. I know the browser can save the scrollbar position but like your solution that doesn't work with private/incognito mode.

like how it repeats every ten chapters,,,, consistently..

Its the same formula for Xuanhuan-Wuxia webnovels. Only at first, it was more about the ship getting more powerful with each cycle of "cultivation."

The latter chapters spread that to the MC and support characters. When he went into the full mecha/Manga mode, I stopped reading.

but I can't prove it.

Of course you can't..!! :)

The guys need their egos.

;)

Then they should stoke themselves…

Ohh, they already do…

I sometimes think the female writers do it better, but I can't prove it.

You may be surprised who is and who isn't a female author. Many Chinese female authors take on a male pen name. My wife does translation work for a couple of them.

I'm surprised none have tried a feminine pen-name.

Just tell the publisher they identify as a woman.

Just tell the publisher they identify as a woman.

Where is the time when people were chosen based on knowledge, experience, and craftsmanship..., you know, the logical way.

Where is the time when people were chosen based on knowledge, experience, and craftsmanship..., you know, the logical way.

Dead and buried.

Where is the time when people were chosen based on knowledge, experience, and craftsmanship..., you know, the logical way.

Umm... never? Well, at least not completely.

Some groups, political views, and story lines have always been discriminated against, and therefore some more favored. That favor worked on behalf of white, heterosexual males (or those who presented as such) until rather recently. Now it tends to slant in favor of other directions.

The interesting thing for this group, it seems to me, is the extent to which web publishing has lessened the slant against types of stories, especially for extremely long form stories with a sexual component in the SF/F genre. Some folks are making a living writing in those fields completely outside of the gatekeepers in the publishing industry, a few even outside of the gatekeeping of Amazon. And, although I haven't become aware of any SOL authors supporting their family with their work here, it's clear that there are those working on improving their knowledge, experience, and craftmanship by writing for this market. Others are doing the same through other venues. That seems a step in the right direction. At least, I appreciate the efforts of those who have given me so many hours of enjoyment by publishing their works on SOL!

Where is the time when people were chosen based on knowledge, experience, and craftsmanship..., you know, the logical way.

Logic... we don't need no stinking logic...
That from a movie that would give the wokeadilles a heart attack.

Logic... we don't need no stinking logic...
That from a movie that would give the wokeadilles a heart attack.

Given the reference to wokeadilles ( :) ) I would guess you are referring to Blazing Saddles

1. IIRC, the paraphrased line does not originate with Blazing Saddles, it goes back to a serious western film.

2. Laughing too hard can trigger a heart attack, so it's not just the wokeadilles that are vulnerable.

IIRC, the paraphrased line does not originate with Blazing Saddles, it goes back to a serious western film.

"The Treasure of the Sierra Madre." The book from which the movie you mentioned got its name.

Blazing saddles would have been never made it as a movie in this day and time. There is something to offend damn near everyone in it.

Blazing saddles would have been never made it as a movie in this day and time.

Agreed. In today's world, probably most of Mel Brooks' movies couldn't have been made.

According to Project Gutenberg, L. Frank Baum did.

Of the 11 new novels reviewed in yesterday's paper, 9 had female names as authors, one had a male name and the other just used initials but was probably male.

And just try accusing the publishers on gender discrimination, you'll get skinned alive.

Women may have some recourse with western publishers, but the comments regarding chauvinism, was related to Chinese authors. Publishers for them could care less about western sensibilities, and as such, do on a regular basis, ignore and or dump on female authors.

It's changing, but I think Chinese women in general are deprecated because of tradition and the one baby policy.

https://thediplomat.com/2021/09/china-bans-sissy-men-from-tv/
https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/latenightlive/one-child-policy-leads-to-leftover-women-campaign-in-china/5611496

Between the "leftover women" and "masculinity campaign," I don't see it changing except for the worst.

Be very glad you aren't a young woman in China right now. I can't imagine things are likely to be very pleasant for any of the ones able to have children over the next 20 to 30 years. I halfway expect the Communist Party to start a forced impregnation campaign if they can't get their birth rate to at least replacement level.

Edit to add: I know its been something I'd been halfway joking to myself about Japan possibly doing to address its population decline(pretty sure they've even had some Hentai material venture down that path).

However, I think China would be the one to actually try it. The magic of being a centralized, highly authoritarian government, makes all kinds of things possible that shouldn't be.

I halfway expect the Communist Party to start a forced impregnation campaign if they can't get their birth rate to at least replacement level.

The one child policy was all about pushing the birth rate below replacement to reduce their over all population.

The gender imbalance results from a cultural preference for sons interacting with the one child policy resulting in the wide scale abortion of female fetuses.

From China, I would expect something more along the lines of prohibiting elective abortions on the basis of gender and prohibiting doctors/nurses from informing expectant patients of the gender of the fetus. This in order to bring the at-birth gender ratio back to normal levels.

Maybe topped off with a bounty for families that produce daughters.

However, I think China would be the one to actually try it. The magic of being a centralized, highly authoritarian government, makes all kinds of things possible that shouldn't be.

They started down that road already with the social pressuring.

Be very glad you aren't a young woman in China right now. I can't imagine things are likely to be very pleasant for any of the ones able to have children over the next 20 to 30 years. I halfway expect the Communist Party to start a forced impregnation campaign if they can't get their birth rate to at least replacement level.

Their first step was to start bringing in N.Korean women. Conditions there are so bad, they are trying to sneak across their border into China.

1954 winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature

"As the Laureate was unable to be present at the Nobel Banquet at the City Hall in Stockholm, December 10, 1954, the speech was read by John M. Cabot, United States Ambassador to Sweden*

"Having no facility for speech-making and no command of oratory nor any domination of rhetoric, I wish to thank the administrators of the generosity of Alfred Nobel for this Prize.

No writer who knows the great writers who did not receive the Prize can accept it other than with humility. There is no need to list these writers. Everyone here may make his own list according to his knowledge and his conscience.

It would be impossible for me to ask the Ambassador of my country to read a speech in which a writer said all of the things which are in his heart. Things may not be immediately discernible in what a man writes, and in this sometimes he is fortunate; but eventually they are quite clear and by these and the degree of alchemy that he possesses he will endure or be forgotten.

Writing, at its best, is a lonely life. Organizations for writers palliate the writer's loneliness but I doubt if they improve his writing. He grows in public stature as he sheds his loneliness and often his work deteriorates. For he does his work alone and if he is a good enough writer he must face eternity, or the lack of it, each day.

For a true writer each book should be a new beginning where he tries again for something that is beyond attainment. He should always try for something that has never been done or that others have tried and failed. Then sometimes, with great luck, he will succeed.

How simple the writing of literature would be if it were only necessary to write in another way what has been well written. It is because we have had such great writers in the past that a writer is driven far out past where he can go, out to where no one can help him.

I have spoken too long for a writer. A writer should write what he has to say and not speak it. Again I thank you."

Prior to the speech, H.S. Nyberg, Member of the Swedish Academy, made the following comment: "Another deep regret is that the winner of this year's Nobel Prize in Literature, Mr. Ernest Hemingway, on account of ill health has to be absent from our celebration. We wish to express our admiration for the eagle eye with which he has observed, and for the accuracy with which he has interpreted the human existence of our turbulent times; also for the admirable restraint with which he has described their naked struggle. The human problems which he has treated are relevant to all of us, living as we do in the confused conditions of modern life; and few authors have exercised such a wide influence on contemporary literature in all countries. It is our sincere hope that he will soon recover health and strength in pursuit of his life-work."

You may be surprised who is and who isn't a female author. Many Chinese female authors take on a male pen name. My wife does translation work for a couple of them.

One of the traditionally published dead tree authors I follow is a female/feminine pen-name, but is actually a wife/husband team that writes together.

The better xuanhuan novels manage to vary things up in their cultivation advancements with well-choreographed shifts in scale and cultivation system.

Would love to know of your favorite Xianxia or Xianhuan novels. I am running out of the usual suspects.

Thanks, there are some new to me titles there.

你太客气了

>snort< Nope, just a very rude foreigner who can barely navigate from his hotel to the Shanghai train station without insulting someone.

The odd thing is, the Chinese are not exactly polite to begin with. That's more a Japanese thing than a Chinese one.

Yeah, tell me about it. (Queue? What the fuck is a queue? Just shove your way to the front.)

Works that way in Turkey, too.

Thanks for the titles -- a few of them new to me.

The rudest country I've been in, turned out to be Russia. The most polite was Japan. Turkey was somewhere in the middle.
For the states, it was New Jersey as the worst, and Maine at the best.

Never had a problem in the Philippines, and they are generally polite people. The rest I would agree with you mostly. With France it depends on where in France. Paris and Lyon was flush with jackasses, but the rest of the country was nice in general.
ETA: Can't really comment on Hawaii as I've only ever passed through the airport there.