The Pub Discussion Board

I don't see it happening... But if you want really wild speculation, here is a suggestion that would secure Calamandia from Vrudena for all time.

1st.  David becomes a Vrudenan citizen... don't ask me how that would be up to Eric, if it's even possible.
2nd.  David waits for the current leader to die.
3rd.  David enters the contest to become King of Vrudena and defeats or kills all his competition.
4th.  David becomes the immortal ruler of Vrudena thereby securing Calamandia with a much more benevolent dictator on it's northern border for all time.

Of course I don't see any of this happening in Eric's story.

As to guns, I'll grant that supplying the Woodward students with them may be a bit asinine without any training.  But since they've been introduced to the King and his Generals, I'd expect them to at least be looking at them as being useful.  I'm sure the King's envoy could probably arrange a training program for the Calamandian military with the U.S. Military.  Besides I figure troops will eventually be stationed at Woodward Castle.

Of course our Level 1 Potion Master could probably come up with a broader range memory wipe potion.  Then hire a bunch of Techno mercenaries to aid in the fighting of the weres then wipe their memory after they've been returned to earth...  Of course this would probably require the permission of the King or maybe the permission of that Wizards Council or whatever it was that gives the Rhimors jurisdiction over all of Duguerra.  Then the mercenaries could operate the guns.

More speculation on my part:  Giendia as a part of the Centaur army returns to save David and Mount Woodward from a werewolf siege.

Last edited by Barbarian3165 (2017-03-04 09:09:57)

-  Importing weapons during a time of war is another RBI (just ask the Europeans from World Wars I & II).  You have then to keep a supply chain going from Earth to Dugerra, using up LOTS of money and resources.  Keep in mind that the Callamandian government is not a bloated beached whale like the US Government: It doesn't have an endless supply of money to throw around.

- Maybe you're willing to put the fate of your home in the hands of mercenaries.  David would not be.

- The king and his arkigos (Callamandian word for "generals") would generally (no pun intended) consider techno weapons to be dishonorable.  Especially after their recent exposure, they would consider them the tools of assassins and the barbaric.

- Exactly what reason would the king have to station troops at Mt. Woodward, even once the war was in full effect?  Again, it is no longer a militarily important position.  I even made this clear when discussing the history of Mt. Woodward, when I pointed out that smaller, more efficient defenses had been built that made Castle Woodward obsolete.  So, again, why would the king waste troops that he probably really needs elsewhere, defending an unimportant piece of land?  Oh, sure, there are some 2,000 students at Woodward Academy... but I imagine the king is also not defending a whole bunch of towns with 2,000 or more people in them... and according to David's vision, attendance will be down at the Academy anyway, so there won't even be 2,000 students there.

- Given that the contest for Vrudenan Alpha has already been pointed out to be skewed in the werewolves' favor, I think it would be fair to say that Vrudenan law probably requires the Vrudenan Alpha to actually be a were.

- Why WOULD David build his own country?  What does he have to gain from that?  He'd be in constant conflict with his neighbors because the attitude you espouse for him would make him a rogue nation, and therefore the Wizard Council would be encouraging his neighbors to take him out.  Sure, David himself could survive this.  Would anyone else in his nation?  Living alone is not something David aspires to.  I'm not even sure where you got the notion that David would want this.

- First off, the whole thing about the Rimohrs having jurisdiction over Haven was mostly hyperbole.  But they do handle cases that involve Haven: we saw them do so in book 6.  And Joe explained how:  they hire a demighost to enforce the rules.  Why would a demighost do this? Note I said "hire".  They do it to get paid.

-  Simulations are good for emergency training, not so great for life training.  You don't become more mature by living through simulations, nor would you figure out what you want.  When it comes to simulating something as subjective as life, either you know it's a simulation, which means your reactions to the situation are suspect, or you are so confounded by the potion that you don't know it's a simulation... in which case your responses are suspect because you're not thinking clearly.  More to the point, once again, why would David want to do this?  He's immortal, and will have millions and billions of years to live through.  Why does he need to create even more life for him to live?  What's the hurry for him to "mature"?  David is 24 in book 7.  He's already pretty mature for a 24-year-old.  There is no reason for him to even make an attempt to hasten this "maturity" process.  Also, you cannot learn "what you want" through an artificial process.  Life experience - real experience, where you're exposed to things beyond your control - is necessary for you to really mature, grow, and understand what you want to do with your life.

There are no shortcuts to living.

Eric Storm

SlaveMaster wrote:

Even if David were to go into a rage he is likely to get a reality by his designated banshee.

Might be tougher to do than you think, though.  Banshees have limits, too.  But if they were able to contain him as Gabriel mentioned, it would then STILL be bad for everyone, because they would have lost a very powerful wizard in David.

I don't think David would work the ranks to become a general I think the king would put him in a position where he can take a lead on the upcoming conflict, I think with his current ranks he is likely to be followed already.

Only if the king likes having his military killed off.  David has no military training.  Even that which he's getting from Lord Woodward is castle defense training.  There's a reason you "work up the ranks" to become a general (or an arkigo, in Callamandian terms): that's so you actually know what the hell you're doing by the time you're making decisions about sending people into combat.

David will never be a vrudenan first of he is loyal to a fault and to change over in his case would likely be considered treason.

Doing what was suggested would have to be enacted as a plan coordinated with the king.  And they didn't take it quite far enough.  David would have to switch his citizenship to the Were Nation, then he would have to wait for an opportunity to become leader (assuming that the weres allowed non-weres to become leader, which I'm quite sure they would not, but let's assume they do for the moment...)  Once David was made Alpha, he would then remove whatever obstacles there were to him having absolute power, and then he would simply sign over ownership of Vrudena to Callamandia, once again becoming a Callamandian citizen and loyal to his king, as he always was.

I can present this scenario because I can confidently say it will never happen.  The weres would never allow a non-were as their Alpha, and David doesn't have the means to "fake them out", because he cannot morph.

This is a world full of wizards and magical beings guns are as foreign of an idea as paying for Health care in Ontario Canada.

Well, they have a point that they've all been recently reminded of those weapons... but they would not in any way LIKE those weapons, nor would they know how to use them.

Eric Storm

Techno weapons only make sence to use in a mahic war if they are enchsnted to not be conserend but things lije gravity and whind resistence and honestly at that point it would be easyer to make a magic based rail gun from scratch esp if gwen improves her mage batteries

(posted from the Item Information Page)

I may have missed something, but is there no march post?

(posted from the Item Information Page)

well if you're going to be so snarky, may I suggest you look up the definition of maximum? Because I quote "2or3 days maximum"

(posted from the Item Information Page)

Heck, there is even just a better way to ask effectively the same question.  It's not just what you say, it's how you say it.  If you had asked "Any updates on the next posting, Eric?", you likely would have received a much more congenial response from the man himself, especially when you consider that Eric puts a TON of pressure on himself to get these chapters out as it is.  If you aren't used to deadlines or being an author or editor (I was for some people a while ago), it's difficult to understand the pressures involved with something like this especially since not only is he writing it, but has deided to be AWESOME and make it episodic instead of writing a book completely and then releasing it as a whole.  We get to read it as it comes out and not many authors can commit to a posting schedule like Eric's and still have the length of chapters he does.

TL;DR:  Please try to be patient and understanding of how and what you post.  The written word has no intonation or body language to assist with communicating your intended message.

Missed my post "amongst all the other ones"... Amongst all WHAT other ones?  You make it sound like this site has a hundred posts a day.  I posted regularly about what was going on.  My writing status thread has been in existence now since June of 2010.  I would think that anyone who was interested in knowing what was going on would take a brief look through the forum and find such a thing.  It's even marked as Sticky, so always shows at the top of the topic list.  If you already knew where my writing status thread was, it shouldn't have taken more than about twenty seconds to flick down a page or two to find my posts (Hell, I have a fairly recognizable avatar to mark them...), and then this conversation would not have to happen.

Now, you ask me to look up the word "maximum", because supposedly I used it.  Perhaps, if you're going to try to make a point, you should have your facts straight.  Here is my exact quote, from the original post:

Eric Storm wrote:

I would expect it to take no more than 2 or 3 more days before being posted.

Do you see the word "maximum" in there?  I don't.

Hey, do you see the word "expect" in there?  Perhaps you should look that one up.  It means that you consider something "likely to happen".  And at the time I wrote that, I considered me being done at that point likely.  Turns out I was wrong.  Oh, Heaven forfend!  Someone just shoot me now, I was wrong about my writing schedule!

Now, as to my "snarkiness", let's try an experiment.  Consider you're working in an office.  Every month, two or three people come by and ask, "You done with the monthly report yet?"  Now, let's say that you keep a Post-It note on the bulletin board to tell folks when the monthly report is going to be done.  Now, let's further assume that, with the exception of this questioning, you never, ever hear from these people.  They never stop in to say hello, they don't chat with you, they don't even make comments about the monthly report.  No, the only thing they EVER say to you is, "Hey, is the monthly report done yet?"

How long do you think it would take before you get ROYALLY PISSED OFF by this question?

THAT is why there's a writing status thread: so that I didn't have to get annoyed by my readers asking this question.  Because the question is RUDE.  It implies that I'm going to, for some reason, NOT post the chapter when it's finished, just to fuck with you.  I'm in book 7.  I have an established monthly posting cycle.  If I haven't posted, common sense says that it's because I can't post it yet.

If you read through the Writing Status thread, you'll probably find examples of folks like Fenixreign, Barbarian3165, SlaveMaster, some others, who have occasionally asked how the story is going, and I answer them calmly and with information.  Why the difference?  Each of the three I've mentioned have over 100 posts to this forum.  No, 100's not a magical number of some kind, but it shows that they are participants in the community.  They talk to me, they ask questions about the story itself, they give feedback.  You have... 6 posts, 3 of which are about this discussion.  So while you may have seen your post as "Hey, I really like this story, and I was hoping the next chapter was going to be posted, but it's not.  Can you give us an update on when it will be available?"  What I saw was, "Hey, where's my story, dude?"  I don't have a history with you to draw on to get any other message from what you posted.  I think even you can agree that the second message is rude. 

I also predict that one of the three smart-asses I mentioned above will now post, either at the end of this month or the beginning of next, "Hey, where's my story, dude?"  *rolls eyes*

Your question got the response it did because it asked for something (more story) without giving anything (feedback).  Oh, sure, there's implied feedback, in the simple fact that you want to read more of the story.  Trust me, THAT kind of feedback doesn't help an author in the least.  And after twenty years, it's even lost its "warm and fuzzy feeling".  Next time you want to ask ANY author a question like this one, assume they will have heard the same basic question 100 times, then word your question accordingly.

Eric Storm

Eric Storm wrote:

I also predict that one of the three smart-asses I mentioned above will now post, either at the end of this month or the beginning of next, "Hey, where's my story, dude?"  *rolls eyes*

Only ONE?

Ok, seriously, Eric, if there is anything I can do to help spur that awesome creativity and writing talent on, let me know.

islandman79#  I'm going to assume that was sarcasm, and thus ignore you.

Fenixreign: Okay, I'll be waiting the $100,000 bank transfer... 

Eric Storm

I'm not necessarily trying to defend Nadleeh here, but I think there is at least one thing to consider.

He's posting from the information page and not the forums themselves.  You don't see the writing status forum information from the information page.  For those that never peruse the forums directly, they would never see the writing status section of Eric's forum section.

It might be nice to do away with posting from the information page in favor of direct links to the related forums:  Writing Status forum, and the forum for the specific book.

This brings up another website issue I'd like to see addressed.  When you navigate to a book, it tells you the last time the book was updated.  However that information is changed or updated whenever a chapter is added and it treats the whole book as if it was updated on the date of the last change or addition.  You don't necessarily know when a specific chapter was updated.  I'm sure that in some cases there is a little editing done on some chapters before PRM status ends for a chapter.  Anyway, in my opinion, it would be nice to be able to tell when a specific chapter in each book was last updated.

Yes and no Eric. Sometimes posts DO get buried in more active threads, specially if for some reason you don't come back to the site for a couple of weeks, or a month, or more. I had a somewhat uncomfortable experience with you about that I think about a year back while simply trying to be helpful and reporting something I encountered with the page, because you were publicly asking to report if anyone encountered technical problems with it. It's not completely unreasonable that a person may not know about everything that has been going on on the page, and you ARE cranky from time to time. Completely understandable given context, but also a real fact. Still Barbarian has a point in most other cases. If in order to post on the information page you needed to enter the forum and were able to see all threads, or if on the information page there was a link, or section for "writing status", you would get much less stupid questions from readers that simply don't know better, or have never even seen the forums. A new reader may not even know about the existence of the forums, or where to find them, or that important information does get posted there. It may be bothersome to answer cordially such questions, but adopting the changes suggested by Barbarian, would probably reduce the number of people that do so and if necessary one can simply answer "check the writing status thread".

Last edited by Augur (2017-03-08 14:42:06)