Penny For Your Thoughts

Tell us what you thought about the June Issue.

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kailhofer
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Re: Penny For Your Thoughts

Post by kailhofer »

Well, I think you have to cut us lurkers some slack. Authors are skittish by nature, and have to feel safe that they're not endangering future publication before they speak up. <br><br>The last thing an author wants to do is say they didn't like something, and then find out the person who wrote it was really an editor. I'm sure stories truly stand on their own merit, but when your file of rejection slips passes an inch thick or crosses into the double digits of years rejected, who wants to risk it?<br><br>Now, when my own story was put up in April, I was desperate for comments about it (thank you Kevin Eastman), so I completely understand where you're coming from, but go easy on us. All that late-night writing makes our eyes sensitive to the light of day. ;-)<br><br>Nate
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kailhofer
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Re: Penny For Your Thoughts

Post by kailhofer »

That was meant to be somewhat tongue in cheek. Sorry.<br><br>However, I do think it is safe to say that Aphelion has a very strong feeling of community amidst its members, many of whom appear to have been here for a number of years.<br><br>Coming recently from the outside (I started reading only a few months ago), I admit that I felt a bit intimidated by the apparent closeness I would see in messages. I was afraid I would be perceived as "sticking my nose in" to a group of close friends who sounded like they have been together since they were in school, so I didn't post anything while I waited to see which way the wind was blowing.<br><br>I'm sure everyone here is an upstanding human being and probably would never be offended by any comment that was made, but when you're new to someplace... You don't really want to make waves. I think that is human nature wherever you are.<br><br>Aphelion is the best site I've found for feedback on the web. I saw that excellent feedback going out to authors and felt that if I was going to get that kind of advice/support whenever another piece I wrote was good enough to appear here, I'd better start putting out my own two cents in on other people's work. <br><br>Considering the hit counter's reading versus the number of posts, surely somebody else out there must have felt similarly.<br><br>Nate
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Robert_Moriyama
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Re: Penny For Your Thoughts

Post by Robert_Moriyama »

I, for one, would dearly love more comments on my stuff .... I've started breaking my old habits and posting comments since the new Lettercol began in the hope that people will comment on my stories in turn. ...

Dan
<br>Lordy, Dan'l, if THAT worked, I'd have a lot more comments than I do now on both the Nightwatch opener AND the Al Majius story (not even counting the ones that wander off topic)!<br><br>All authors who have benefited (or suffered) from my comments, fire at will. NO, not Wil Robinson, that annoyingly sweet super-genius who no doubt was an ancestor of Wesley Crusher. Let me be more precise: fire at Robert, or at his stories. Nitpick. Ask questions about motivation (or lack thereof), technology (or rules of magic), hybrid AmeriCanadian spellings, mangled cliches, tortured grammar. Rave (in the positive OR negative sense).<br><br>I know you're out there, I can hear you clicking and dragging. (Or was that just my aging knees and sagging ass?)<br><br>Robert M.
You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.

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Robert_Moriyama
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Re: Penny For Your Thoughts

Post by Robert_Moriyama »


Robert, I've unfortunately slacked off on my reading this past year and a half or so, which means that I've only read the first 3 Al Majius stories, but I do plan to plow through the lot of them one of these days, and comment severely on them ;-)


Hehe, have no fear Robert. I've read Nightwatch: Dragon's Egg twice now, and I'm in the middle of the third reading, red pen included. You want nitpicking? You got nitpicking! Hehe, as always though, my nitpicking is good-natured. I do have a bunch of questions though, but watch the relevant thread for those to pop up one of these days.

- Wishbone
<br><br>(Sigh) I asked for it. But I don't know if I really meant that I wanted to be Wishboned!<br><br>The "Materia Magica" web link now has links back to each of the stories in the series, and is in chronological (both in terms of writing and Al's life) order. It also has some background info on Al, Janine, Githros and Billy (events that occurred before the series), which will be part of the "novel" if I ever get around to reworking the stories into a coherent whole. The way magic works -- channeling mana (magical energy) -- is something that has been developing as the series progresses (or drags on -- you decide), and the fact that non-magic users can use magically-powered devices (pre-charged wands, mainly, and amulets, rings, and the like) may contradict the statement that Mrs. Hardcastle couldn't use a crystal to communicate because she had no Talent (from the first story). I DON'T think Al's early dependence on spoken-out-loud spells and wands and gestures is necessarily inconsistent with his later abilities -- Al himself says that he had to learn how to trigger spells by thought alone, so it's an acquired skill and probably one that requires more power than he had at the outset.<br><br>Boy, I'm defending myself before Wishbone even launches his analyses. Wishbone-promised critiques -- be afraid, be very afraid. :P<br><br>Robert M.
You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.

Jack London (1876-1916)
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