deleted

DCB  -  have you published yet?  

Edited by me for typing before I thought it through.

Edited out by me.  Sorry, my bad...

DCB - got any more Tony and Sylvia you can feed to us?  

Yup, it's fine from the desktop computer but odd and seemingly disconnected hieroglyphs from the iPad.  Hopefully they get that sorted soon...

my sincere apologies, linked when shouldn't have

VERY IMPORTANT GENERAL NOTE:  I was hoping I would not have to do this.

VERY IMPORTANT: It is not my intention that anyone not ENJOY AND SUPPORT ANY OTHER STORY---
-------------------------ON THIS FORUM-------------------.
-------------------PLEASE ENJOY AND SUPPORT ALL STORIES------------------

-------BUT PLEASE DO NOT POST ANYMORE LINKS, LIVE LINKS, COMMENTS OR LANGUAGE-------
------------------REFERENCING OR DIRECTING TO ANY OTHER STORY-------------

They severely distort the use of this three year old thread to measure interest, timing of interest, follow
through to Injured ( how many people are interested in going from extremely complex to even more
complex ) and MANY MANY MANY other things.  One example of dozens: SINCE THE NEW STORY WAS
POSTED, THE FOLLOW-THROUGH TO INJURED IS DOWN BY 60 PERCENT.  This is not an accident,
obviously.  IT IS NOT THE MONEY--INJURED MAKES FIVE/5 DOLLARS A MONTH.  It is the measuring
device.  This thread is an effort of thousands of hours.  I am trying to create "a brand."  Does
that make sense?

MUCH WORSE: It sets a terrible example on a thread designed to last for years:
Anybody can post their story, and put links to it, on this three year old thread??????
The intent is not the issue.  THE EFFECT IS IDENTICAL TO HIJACKING.

----------IT IS CONSIDERED---NOT GOOD---ON ANY FORUM I AM AWARE OF-----

For those who understand what I am saying here:

-------------PLEASE EDIT ALL POSTS/COMMENTS/REFERENCES-------
TO THE OTHER STORY.  Say "moved" or "edited"--not 'MOVED TO THE OTHER STORY'

That would just compound the problem. Which is severe.

I am very sorry to do this.  Not what we are here for.

If needed, I will expand on this post/message.

I very much hope that is not necessary.

Kermit, good luck.  I hope you are reading your messages.

DCB - my apologies if I inadvertently created a shit storm. I have edited my comment as well as my intent was NOT to redirect traffic.

On a separate note regarding your response about the I-20 corridor from TX to GA. You make it to my house, you sleep in one of my bedrooms. I have a Dillon as well that I need to get set up and have several nearby places to put holes in paper.

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Great update, and yeah, OH SHIT about sums it up if I'm thinking about this correctly...

Thanks DC!

--Beautiful, Stj.  Perfect.

GENERAL NOTE: IMPORTANT-- can anyone see "the reversal" here, and tell what
is coming?  Just a yes or no if possible.  I need to know if I need to "explain more"
in this very complicated story.

Oh so very...'yes'.

Can I say 'sammich' again now?

<---and with great difficulty shuts mouth.

Yes

I believe so, yes.

With full confidence, I believe I can appropriately quote Gollum here:















"Yeesssssss, my Precious!"

This, I'm not as well versed in literature as some of you guys here but I'm pretty sure that I'm tracking you on this one D.C...

Tell what's coming?  Absolutely?  No - I'm not a mind reader and you're good with twists.

That said, yeah, I think so.  And I wouldn't want it any clearer than you've made it.  Keeps the suspense level up till the final reveal.

GENERAL NOTE: tortoise/hare, splitting millimeters to the finish line, yes.  But closer
by the day.  Brute force cover person returns--ok now Mon.=midweek.

GENERAL NOTE: for those interested, forensic, elements of 'design'--this is not a spoiler,
but plays to the example of 'spoilers'=

1. I will use the example of the Gehr Waffen gate.  My point is that you should use this
example, and apply it to the entire story: every significant event, person, object, theme, etc.
When you first saw The Black Gate, with Brian Distrop and Sylvia, it was clearly
"A formidable gate" large, intimidating, robust, odd.  BUT YOU DID NOT SEE HOW
THICK IT WAS. Or the edge.  You certainly did not know that it was hooked up
to a worm screw and 6000 horsepower.  But NOW YOU KNOW that the gate was an
integral part of a massively complex "killing ground."  It makes sense now.  And hopefully
you looked back, and went "Oh yeah, cool, that's what that gate was for!!!" But note
that I DID SHOW you how thick the gate was, at the white gate.  Gate north.  IF YOU
HAD SEEN TOO MANY ATTRIBUTES OF THE BLACK GATE, ALL AT THE SAME TIME,
you might have seen too much of the purpose of this story, too early.  Make sense?
One tiny example.  But it serves across the entire story.

--StimpsonJ much thanks and close close close.  Messing with the above issue right
now, what to show, when, and how much to explain, in the text.  Tricky.

--Pfunkk, excellent, hope you enjoy method now that you know goals.

--oldcranck much thanks and by the end all will be made clear, wait to you hear Pop
Gehr's summation.  Pop Gehr designed the whole show.

--Former11b much thanks and got many more dials to turn.  Then I break them off.

--greyguy, if you've been here this long you definitely know that "something strange
is going on"--and it is.  Way past good enough.

--cpapspr, very good to see you, have I missed you before?  Have some sense of regular
posters--not a mind reader--actually, if you've followed this thread--some mind reading
has probably been available--your point of 'reveals/how and when' is huge, a big
issue to manage well.  We shall see.  Thank you.

Ok back to work.  Good to see everyone.  Update soon.

DCB

For those of you who have found Injured Reserves, much thanks.
At the end of this story, Billy Spears, The Six Sisters, and Injured
will make a lot more sense.

I have a hazy idea about "big plans" and "the Gehrs have done everything they can in their world", but I won't be surprised if I'm wrong.

It's getting exciting either way though.

--DFarm that's plenty good, now add that "a book" is supposed to be read in a few days,
maybe a week, not over three years because the writer is juggling anvils and commas,
so tons of relevant stuff is now 'really old/gone/forgotten' in the collective mind.

--so just consider this, for now, Tony has just told you THAT HE WAS RECRUITED

--TEXT REMOVED .RE EPUB TOS ETC.------------

I'm picking up what you are laying down, D.C.  In this world, there are NO coincidences.

--mnmiv--no coincidences--EXACTLY--twist that dial and break it off.

Thanks for the work D.C.

DCB, I happened across this story yesterday and began reading.  (I think I started it some time back and wasn't overly impressed with the original chapter, because of cadence.)
Regardless, I pressed on and found that either the cadence changed further in or I had become accustomed to it.

So, long story short, I finished all 43 pages today.  

I have purchased IR and will be reading that this week.  

And I'm now waiting, as anxiously as everyone else it seems, for TSS to appear in Amazon.  

I am an avid reader, and buy most of my reading material (conservatively 99% of my materials) in e-book format.  I've paid good money for shit books and little money ($0.99) for some that were surprisingly pretty good.  TSS is good, and you will doing yourself a great disservice if you price it at the $0.99 level.  I recommend $5.99 / $6.99 or thereabouts.  After reading here, I personally would pay full paperback prices for an e-book version.

Just a quick question: is Barnes and Noble out of the picture for any reason?  Is Amazon the only way for new authors to get their names out there?  

--zoe17 much thanks and some context in future a conversation minds/attributes/clusters.  Affects/determines
many things: professions, lifestyle choice, etc.  Many parts this story written for 'your mind'--

--moondancer very pleased to see you, very cool to see new name/avatar on now very 'seasoned' thread--
understood on 'cadence'--imagine the cadence/timing/text layout as a kind of 'screen'--also very long
lead to 'fight'--also what is called 'head hopping' from Billy to a Cartel shithead who will be dead soon--
a way of telling readers this will be a very complex/not normal/multi-character/slow to develop 'story'--
and there are many excellent stories that are told in much more accessible styles, move much faster,
etc.  Many many 'warnings' in the first pages/scene.  I am very glad you stuck with it.  I hope that the
"Resolutions" will pay off for the time invested, they are designed to do so, we shall see.

GE

DCB - I understand your need for marketing.  And I also realize in this world of TLDR I am an anomaly as I generally will not even consider purchasing any book that is listed as <275 pages.  I apparently am one of a sadly dwindling group of people who really LIKE to read things of some size.  Heck, I wanted King's The Stand to have even more than it did and eagerly bought the unedited version when it came out!

--moondancer, long books, exactly, if I like it, why the FFF wouldn't I want 'moar'???  The Stand, perfect.
Yes also bought...no found, discarded, full length updated Stand.  Stepehen King excellent metric 'length'
recent versions Soldier's Son all about 152-157,000 words.  Salem's Lot, and The Shining also between
150-160 thousand words.  Oh---Barnes Noble--complicated--possible, but different formatting/downloading/
other issues, and B/N now getting about 1-3 percent ebook market, pretty much dead.  As a book-keeping
issue, time best spent, literally, here, writing, thinking, other stuff.  Good to see you MD.

The only thing good about a series of short books is that they are published/posted sooner. I don't mind long books in a series as long as I don't have to wait more than a year before the next book is published and they don't repeat a bunch of shit from the last book.

--trapshooter you've seen the EXACT BOOK--ok, lots of edits, but essentially the same book and definitely
the same story, YOU HAVE SEEN 96 PERCENT OF IT, ALREADY, RIGHT HERE.

And it will be PUBLISHED ALL AT THE SAME TIME--short of computer B.S., IN THE SAME HOUR.

No waiting of any kind, in other words, and the exact same story, with some cool edits, one new
'major theme/issue' and about oh 900 typos/other corrected, which means at least fifty are
still buried in there somewhere.  GENERAL NOTE: check this out--this story has been read here,
many many errors/typos found.  And by me, on review, about ten thousand times.  I STILL FIND
A MISSING WORD/TYPO/SPELLING ERROR, at least one, EVERY DAY.  Just FFF.

GENERAL NOTE: been ffing around with covers/fonts etc. for a few months now.  Can't find a "font"
that means lettering style, that I like.  So the cover letters/title etc. will be PAINTED/DRAWN, by me,
on a panel/something/working on that now, and then photographed, reduced, channeled, colorized,
blessed by virgins, etc., and then published.  Lots of fun, actually.

MoonDancer -- I feel you about e-books and liking them on a B&N device.  I too have a Nook reader and find it to be much more readable than any LCD based device.  I am assuming that is why you have stuck with B&N.  I have also found that some of the stuff I want to read is not available on B&N, however there is a cure for that!  Calibre is a piece of software that will take an Amazon e-book and flip it to the B&N format quite nicely.  It will also flip other formats but I haven't tried it with anything else. 

https://calibre-ebook.com/

I too enjoy the longer books myself as more real estate can be devoted to the characters and the book doesn't feel rushed or squeezed between "scenes".

DCB -- I understand the Anvil and Comma Juggling Act and Cover Polishing but I have one very serious and troubling question...Looking around Here, Where are YOU going to find any Virgins to Bless the Cover???

DCB,  any chance of a "special edition" or first edition that is all one "book" for those of us in the know?  Price it above the "drive by, casual readers" comfort zone, say $10-$12?

I'd pay an extra buck or two to not need to change books in the middle of a good read. (I suppose that we've all suffered far more here with the tempo that's been the norm than just starting another book. Lol)  

It just seems to me like it would be a more complete "feeling" for those of us who have been here since the beginning to finally have it all in one seamless piece.

--DFARM--good question, actually critical question--

GENERAL NOTE: SHORT ANSWER--off DFarm's question--"almost sure" that I can have version of Amazon e-book that is COMPLETE.  
In other words, a first 'book' 1 /Massacre-Cantina, cheap, separate, to introduce new readers who would never buy a 600 page unknown--

-

---TEXT REMOVED 01082019 .RE EPUB TOS ETC.---------

So, with all of your troubles with kindle, how do I get a paper copy, signed by the author?

It's taking every ounce of self control I have to not read this last update right now, just to get a "fix".

I want to "experience" the book as it was intended.

And I thought this day was great,MAGA. Now a update and the time is not between 0100-0600, thanks BC, made a great day even better.

Good update. Thanks DC.

I wonder who chose that name?

----------TEXT REMOVED .RE EPUB TOS ETC.------------

--StimpsonJ--please watch issue of 'congruence' here, many times referred to--the name
Pilar was the name of Hemingway's Cuba boat.  If you made that reference, and I
did not comment, you: very wise, me: if I tell people what I am doing, it will spoil
some of the surprise.  Very much prefer people find as much as they can, on their
own.  The name Pilar was chosen, this story and
all the key elements and several hundred pages of notes were blocked out/written
before I ever posted here.  This story has been "tuned/fiddled/shaped" while on this
forum.  But all design elements/names/strategies/intentions were set-up before
I was here.  Kermit picked up on the Poe thing a long time ago.  There are MANY
style/other references to other works in this story.  Injured Reserves for instance is a series
of 'lifts/references' to literary/mythological/linguistic precedents, from Norse/Icelandic
through Homer to Shakespeare/Yeats/others, and actually begins with an EXACT duplicate
of shape/language/tone/intent to "Gorky Park" as I have mentioned, which was a very
very serious book.
The last chapter in this story, "The Devil's Hand" is nothing but a very specific
reference to what I believe is the finest and most original writer in English, of
the last fifty years.  It will be very clear who I have in mind, and why.

This story was written 'by...a mind....like us....for....minds
.....like ours.

Would it surprise you that I have long wondered, for instance, what 'other
tools' could have used all that 3 cent Russian capture 8mm back when it
came in?  You saw some in this story, yes? 
Musso bowie?  Who the FF knows what the Musso bowie was/is.
We do.  There will be more of this. 

Yes.  I'm a witch.

But I'm a nice witch.  Sort of.

DCB

I wasn't going to say anything since I posted the same question a couple years ago.

Pilar asked Billy if Maria was his sister.
Then Michael is Billy Dad so how can Maria be a sister to both.

--trapshooter--very good eye--this issue was intended to be a 'reveal' at end of story,
considering 'ideal' reading time of an actual 'book'--that doesn't work over three
years--and is now handled on edit/final version--and plays directly to family
structure of Gehrs--Pop Gehr's marriage habits/history--briefly--Billy's mother
left long ago, could not handle pace/intention/Gehriverse, Maria is Michael's
(Billy's father/The Deputy)
sister by another mother, Pop Gehr is father of both obv.
--Billy was too mature/odd to be anybody's 'son', Maria and Billy are both evolving
at same time/same pace through Gehriverse, Maria genetic 'label' is 'aunt' but her actual
role in Billy's life is 'sister'--this is handled on edit in talk with Lou, because
Lou brings it up on the dock when Billy is on Massacre/Cantina trip.
Very good eye, trapshooter.
GENERAL NOTE: I've cut several hundred pages to get this down to....150,000 words.
Had to be done.  Should be able to keep some and use later in other books.  We shall
see.

Excellent!  I'm glad I read it, and I hope there is more like it.

Two things;

First,
"And as soon begun, soon it was over. "- The way this reads is strange, clunky, to me.  It's entirely possible that it's written in a style that I'm not familiar with (of which there are many), but I figured I'd bring it up in case it was supposed to be something like "as suddenly as it had begun, it was over" or something like that.

And second,
"hurt, not injured."- nothing wrong with this at all, it's just a phrase that jumped out at me.  I've heard it one other time that I can recall.  Does it come from anywhere specific?

Thank you for the update.

Awesome.
Well played.
Keep on.

--DFarm on language, pretty interesting, I'd say about ten times in the last three years somebody
here steps in an comments when I 'push to hard/to far/too strange' on a phrasing that suits--
'my version' but is simply 'dissonant' which means in this case too fucking weird.  I will
review your comment on edit, because I can also 'hear it the way you hear it' and--doesn't sound good.
One thing I've mentioned before--the 'elongated'/structured down the page/as opposed to across
is a very specific attempt to 'stretch' the reading eye/mind across an interval of extended time--
because so much of this story/language will be unfamiliar to most readers--and many details
are very important.  The 'stretched'/beat/beat/choppiness is going to bug the shit out of lots
of people.  On injured/hurt--pretty common phrase in sports/etc., a searchable phrase, many
common uses, my guess is that you have seen it in many places.  A question an orthopoedist
is very likely to ask a regular patient, for instance.
And--  There will be at least a few more updates while I FFF around with logistical BS.

--PFfunk good to see you and understood always another day/hour/minute but....real close.
And I want this done more than anyone here.  Need to step back for awhile.  Just not yet.

I meant in the story, not why the writer chose it.  A name like that comes with a story, I was obtusely pointing out I was looking forward to that story.

Sorry DC, trying to slip a atta boy to the writer in  my edited post.

an hour and a half later...

Sweet project!

Are you planning on forging the bevels completely, or just to get the tip shaped the way you want and then finishing them up on the grinder?

I've never forged a blade, I've only done a couple by stock removal. It interests me greatly, but I have too many other hobbies to be able to set up a forge.  "Someday" is what I always tell myself.

--StimpstonJ I get it  my mistake yes Pilar has a story--insight into Tim Bassinger--structurally
she would be part of Gehr/allies saying 'enough is enough'--

--zoe17 thank you more very very soon, 'reveal' from Sylvia's point of view, also Tim Bassinger--
another layer--

StimpsonJ THAT IS FREAKING AWESOME--rasp knife!!!!  Forged and how tempered etc. can you show
some steps in process? Rough forging?  Then tip/edge?  Any way to put a Musso tip to spine 'arc'?

--DFarm a regular duty now to nag StimpsonJ for progress...reveals.