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Sci-fi novel now available from DC member kyrathaba!

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kyrathaba:
Ok, I'll look into the domain name tomorrow.

What r your fav rpg systems,  wraith?

kyrathaba:
Good news, Kyrathaba Rising got Premium Channel approval today on Smashwords. Since I'd already pubbed the book independently to the big A and B&N, I opted out of pushing to those retailers from Smashwords. But now they'll push my ebook to the following outlets: Sony, Kobo, Apple, Diesel, Page Foundry, Baker & Taylor Blio and Axis360, and LibraryDirect.

kyrathaba:
@Tuck

When you first got the idea to this novel, how did you develop the plot and characters
--- End quote ---

To be honest, I just sat down and started typing. All I had in mind was "It's 170 years from now. Only a few tens of thousands of people survived the alien attack of 2276, by being hustled into well-prepared subterranean enclaves." I knew my story would deal with one of those huge underground compounds in particular -- A-3. Of course, conflict drives narrative,  so (1) there's an alien ship still in orbit, and (2) the people of A-3 are dying of radiation poisoning,  even though for their first five years underground,  their anti-radiation measures proved adequate. Hmm... What's up with that?

As for ideas for characters, I had a roomie in college named Seth Slayton. I changed that to Sethra Slatten, my main protagonist.  I myself am locally known by my middle name, Bryan.  So, Bryan Miller became Byron Milner, the protagonist's best friend. Gave em each a girlfriend. Named Byron's girlfriend after a morphed version of my wife's name.



How did you set about writing it? I've got a few story ideas, and sometimes I sit down, fire up a word editor and ... very little happens...  I write a few sentences but what I write seems a bit phony (usinga word by a favourite fictional character of mine, guess who?). What was the start of writing this novel like for you?
--- End quote ---

I bought a copy of Jutoh, an all-in-one editor, note organizer, and converter. That set me back $39.95, which motivated me to start writing immediately: very rarely do I purchase software. I usually go OSS or donationware, or roll my own in C#. Jutoh was pretty decent overall, although Sigil is free. What I liked about Jutoh is that, come time to upload to the Smashwords meatgrinder, Jutoh can produce what it calls a Smashwords .odt file. That's an Open Document format file that's already been pre-processed to make it taste better to Smashwords. After saving in that format, I just ran OpenLibre and converted to a Word 97/2003 .doc (not .docx) that Smashwords demands.

TucknDar:
wraith and kyrathaba, thanks a lot for your answers! I hadn't really thought about the approach you're using wraith, creating the world, characters, etc. as a starting point. I can imagine that it might very well be a better approach for me than trying to develop a story from A to Z.

Good to know that once again I can rely on fellow DC-members to come up with something helpful :up:

kyrathaba:
Homographs:


1) The bandage was wound around the wound.
2) The farm was used to produce produce.
3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.
4) We must polish the Polish furniture.
5) He could lead if he would get the lead out.
6) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.
7) Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.
8. A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.
9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.
10) I did not object to the object.
11) The insurance was invalid for the invalid.
12) There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.
13) They were too close to the door to close it.
14) The buck does funny things when the does are present.
15) A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewerline.
16) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.
17) The wind was too strong to wind the sail.
18) Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.
19) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.
20) How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

Let's face it - English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant, nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren't invented in England or French fries in France. Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat. We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth, beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese? One index, 2 indices? Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? Sometimes I think all the English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell?How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which, an alarm goes off by going on.English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race, which, of course, is not a race at all. That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible.PS. - Why doesn't 'Buick' rhyme with 'quick'?

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