Paula’s Comments (group member since Oct 28, 2015)

Paula’s comments from the Science Fiction Microstory Contest group.

Sorry I missed the voting. This is a super story.
Jack, have you thought to turn this into sequence--or a book--even a series? The two characters--and the connection between them--and their situation--is so strong--and so deeply, yet so concisely, made real and felt--that it could potentially become something wonderful.

Jack, Chris, Jeremy, JF, Greg, Jot, you all know, I hope, that your advice--and especially as compiled in this couple days' worth of posts here--is gold. Sheer gold. It is overwhelming when I think how much people in this group have done to aid other members' writing and publishing skills, and for the group as a whole, both now and in the first years--when there was only about 50 percent overlap with folks now active, and when Carrol Fix and Andrew Gurcak and a couple of others, including (to state the obvious) Jot, did so very much for everyone's writings, and in so many ways.
Okay, just wanted to acknowledge--and to praise--all that. Now I'm going to put together all 8 or 9 of the suggestion-posts here into a Word document for (hopefully) future learning/trying/publishing.

Chris, you note "I've run across a few resources that have compiled some reviews on some of the publishing companies [so as to avoid the more sketchy companies]"; would you be willing to share links or info re those resources with us here?
Jack, does calibre include both mobi and aws separately, then--or--? Work/s from word or pdf originals, or from either?
Note, btw, anyone thinking of using an editor---having worked professionally as an editor for reputable (mostly academic, museum, and/or guidebook) publishers, I have noticed that even good AI-edited manuscripts come out most closely ressembling the academic manuscripts I used to receive FOR editing--that is, still needing a human editing round.

Great, Tom. Pro-labor, pro-public-health, pro-what's-left-of-the-once-was-the-environment, I hope--?

Thanks, Jot.

Oh my. Nice story, Tom!

Question, Jack--an era in *human* history? or in any species', anywhere?

Jot, sounds like it's been rough. Wishing you soon-healing and a full recovery.

Powerful story, Chris, and good suspense. Needs some trimming of the dialogue and of dialogue-tags (but keep the wonderful line "The birds"; it is powerful there!). Tightening the stretches of dialogue would also keep the action suspenseful throughout. ---Would also be good to somehow bring in a glance at/into what is going on in the countyside/outside the cities, especially since you mentioned it early on; however, okay if you don't, as we can well imagine, from what you've given us, what it must be. --fine and well-plotted tale, Chris.

Jot wrote: "All votes in from participants, but will wait until the end of the tomorrow to see if Paula or another member would like to vote."

Good of you, Jot. I have been working on non-writing stuff and getting another book ready, this month, and haven't had time to read more than half or so of these rather fine stories, so not voting this month.

Jot wrote: "Has anyone been to Iceland? Kelly and I are heading there on the 1st and driving the full circle. Should be a fun trip."
Jot, it was a long time ago and I wasn't in Iceland very long, but I remember how wonderfully nice, friendly, helpful the people there all were. Enjoy.

Greg, congratulaations. This was a wonderful story--one of the fairly rare times the term "heartwarming" genuinely applies!

Justin very kindly and wonderfully did a reading of five of my short fiction pieces for an ill friend of mine, and I can vouch for the professional quality and simple beauty of his readings. They are superb.

Beautifully and well done, Tom. An instant classic. Super and so appropriate for today. Bravo.

I'm not sure the "only if profit/monies/etc." suffices as basis for a copyright-infringgement defense; may be worth checking this further. Also, is "Enterprise" required as the spaceship name? ---Asking because one of the earliest, most notable spaceship names in film was the 1950 spaceship (and its film's name) Rocketship XM. With the wonderful screenplay by Dalton Trumbo (even though no one ever spoke exactly highly of the special effects, . . . .

Oh lovely one, Jot! Plot could get lost in its time twisties at moments, but of that's quite on point. Question--is that remark re who "can kill a king" intended as (among other references) a writers-world in-joke? And that last line, especially the last two words--!! Tremendous.

Justin wrote: "Paula wrote: "Wow, Justin, what a story. Superb suspense and dialogue. Excellent story. And the jump-to ending does work--and is quite beautiful, and neither too long nor too short. Lovely."

Thank..."

Oh yes, Justin--and the wondeful rendering of the pilot--tower dialogue is a real part of what makes the story such a winner.
n.b.--I say, and mean, "winner," but I am not going, in fact, to vote on this month's contest since really one needs to have read all the entries at least once to to vote fairly on them. But truly this story stands out.

Wow, Justin, what a story. Superb suspense and dialogue. Excellent story. And the jump-to ending does work--and is quite beautiful, and neither too long nor too short. Lovely.

Jot wrote: "Thanks. Anyone write down the themes for 2015? I had to take a guess at these."

Have you a copy (print or ebook) of TFIS 3? Most or all of its themes are from 2015 contests. Here they are, from the TOC, in order: Flight; Prophecy; Frequently Repeated; A Rite of Passage; A Repast; A Song; Signs; Vice; Business Commerce Trade; Monsters; Memory; End of the World. I don't know whether the first two or the last two of these were from (respectively) Nov and Dec 2014, or Jan and Feb 2016, however. In any case, folks, think ye the last five themes--beginning with "Vice"--could have been telling us something for our current (then, future) time? A good evening to you!

Oh I like it, Greg--"old-fashioned science fiction" in the best sense, and fine timely twists.