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Sure thing.
The home page relink is what it is supposed to do. Clicking on the link reposts to the main site with a flag that says “make me a beta demon”
This adds you to the site group “Heavenly Host Beta Demons”
Now, if the forum updated automatically at the same time, you would just reclick on “Forum” and see the beta demon only forums…i.e. things would make sense, it would be like relogging in.
Unfortunately, the forum (which is a add on module) does not sync automatically, and only does so periodically on a schedule I can not figure out how to control.
So anyway…you would eventually see the extra forums within a few minutes to hours…
However, I keep checking this forum and when people ping me, I force the update through.
You should be good to go now.
That is interesting. I have seen this once before. It is as if the link/url doesn’t take.
Sorry about that.
Looking at the site role/group. You are in there after Lafoia so my guess is that you reclicked today and it took, and you were now in that purgatory between synchronizations.
I’ve manually synched you, you are good to go.
However, I will point out that I am going to release Beta 2 this weekend (I had said Friday night, but while typing, I thought it was Tuesday night, not Wednesday night…so I need an extra day or so).
Beta 2 will have many improvements to both the story and the editing…
Done a couple things to speed up the first 15% through 30%.
The “codger” is there now, but he’s not so much a codger as a cipher that will end up introducing more plotline later, to replace some stuff that I moved forward. He was always going to show up, now he shows up sooner, if people realize who it is, and most probably will, it should not seem like filler, but rather an uncertainty.
There is probably going to need to be a third pass to more Tomize earlier things even as is.
The slow part of this is that I don’t want to throw things in for the sake of just action or whatever, because then it is actual filler, even if exciting. The trick is bringing action and Tom scenes in and reweaving them with the rest of the story, yet without disrupting or completely changing reality around it too much. There is plenty of that happening in the newer later half….I think…
Interesting observation.
Thinking about it now, it is far more arcane today than I was thinking it was. Trying to scour my brain for other people using it in modern conversations/tv…not coming up with it.
It may in fact be one of those phrases that I use more than most people. It’s one that I would have picked up a long time ago and probably from reading a lot of classic (50’s and 60’s) science fiction and such.
It might be out there for Damien as you mention it, will think on this. It is, however, clearly the sort of word that the Oorstemothians would use and probably the rod. A wizard, particularly a younger one like Damien probably not.
Status Update
OK, it is taking longer than expected, but that’s because I am going over the entire book from start to finish doing an edit…wow lots of horrible typos in the second half.
And as I work stuff in I have to update a lot of stuff to maintain continuity and have things make sense going forward
But, I think I am adding scenes/details stuff that should tie things together so they make more sense. I have to say I am pleased how adding these things is actually improving the long term story as much as the short term story in this book.
Right now, I am closing in on the ceremony. Working on a big Exador thing right now, which will result in substantial changes and surprises for Hilda and Damien when they return from their respective journeys (in beta 2, she is in drinking with the orcs at the moment, and Damien is waiting for the ceremony to start). Let’s just say we will resolve the Council’s conundrum on what to do about Exador and friends.
So biggest thing after that will be reworking the demons vs d’orcs, not completely sure there yet.
Hope to have Beta 2 posted by late Friday.
Thanks!
Sorry for the distracting errors. It was a rough draft without a full pass edit. I am doing that as I do beta 2. Will check to make sure I got these.
There will also be a professional editor going over it after beta.
However, as I found in the redo of book 1, readers actually caught some errors that she missed in book 1…so it’s great to have all eyes on deck!
As I go through, I find that the last half of the book probably has more errors than the first half since I was writing more quickly at point.
OK,
Went through, I had caught about 50% of them in my second pass. So great you guys are looking!
The Talarius’s was one I always screw up so I went and relooked it up and corrected it as you pointed out. And I am totally squishy on the who and whom, I noticed that in several spots in the book, oddly, this example is one I missed.
Now as to the bright and fierdy smile. Yes, this is bugging the potatoes out of a lot of people. But the correct term is fierdy. There is no sun in Astlan, they have a fierd instead. So sunny becomes fierdy! A bright and fierdy smile!
It didn’t come up a whole lot in book 1 since most of that was from Tom’s perspective and he was calling the fiery ball in the sky, the sun, not the fierd.
Actually, demons and angels would be pretty agnostic on this since every world calls it something different, but Hilda was born in Astlan so call’s it fierd as to the other astlanians.
Thanks!
Current action plan for Beta 2 at moment is:
More relevant G&J storyline by bringing more of what the tension of the Grove is into. Also showing connections between Exador & Grove
Will also be upping the Exador plot across the board and bringing in a bit more Rod interaction to him & his colleagues.
It is not clear yet what Orcus’s true power was since he was something of an outsider. Officially he was a demon prince and part of the Triumverate, Mephistofeles took his place in the Triumverate.
At the moment, Tom is effectively a place holder he is going to have to really ramp up his skills and mana/etc to actually play directly on that field. I.e. “he’s faking it” at the moment. Going from fake to real (presumably) is the main arc.
I need to do a number of things surrounding Mount Doom, Tom, the D’Orcs and True Death…that will probably mean more Tom development time, or more Tom interaction/plotting/planning and behind the scenes development with him.
Just not there yet in the writing.
Really want to explore Vaselle along that line as as well…not sure if I can get it in here though.
Beta 2 will have a new major demonic force get involved.
I think that’s basically correct…
different people coming to similar conclusions at different points in time.
Again, the problem is that it’s one really long book and while Book 1 had a great place to “pause” the story that happened to correspond to a maximum dead tree length….book 2 does not as in there a whole bunch of plotlines swirling around at the same time and not everyone connecting the dots equally.
On the Tom plotline, you basically have the first third of the book as the post-climax/recovery from Book 1, combined with the start of the Reggie story and the Vaselle story.
Ramses, Exador and Bess have been kicked out of town, they’ve gotta figure out how to get back to the book and not expose themselves to imminent notice by the expected arrival of Avatars. So they are trying to lay low until things blow over/cover their asses/try to figure out how to get back to getting the book. They had a major setback with the discovery of the small demons and the wards. That blew their plans out of the water and they are trying to recover.
Bess and the Nyjyr Ennead, well her part with Exador/Ramses is above, but we also get to start seeing their storyline and their desire to get back into power, which involves getting their hands on the book (screw Ramses and Exador–recall she was playing the two off of each other in book 1)
So that storyline, along with Reggies are coming together and getting started in book 2.The Grove storyline starts about 25% of the way in and starts to ramp up, but won’t really kick into gear until sometime in book 3. This is also the storyline of the Alvar/Elves.
The D’Orc storyline starts with the trip to the cave and has a high point after the ceremony, but it’s also the real start of the djinn storyline,
well technically that started earlier with Randolf. It will start kicking into gear with book 3.The Rod/Oorstemoth group was given a huge blow and are regrouping, we don’t see much but the begining of their new plotline at the end of the book.
Hilda’s storyline starts at the beginning of the book and is basically “co storyline” with Tom, giving us a perspective from the Forces of Good (or Tiernon in this case) Her story keeps building and doesn’t end in book 2. Hilda is the Heavenly Host to all intents and purposes. There was going to be an angelic host, but that got sidetracked because of Hilda’s more efficient work, where she basically parties with everyone, gets them drunk and extracts information from them like a prying bartender. (Not intentionally on her part though) She’s like the Hostess that invites you to her house to pick your brains.
And we see revealed the storyline behind Orcus’ death, and the potential new enemy, a real threat to multiple sides as presented by Aodh, Lilith and Sentir Fallon. These three are instrumental in that they caused the events that led to Orcus’ death in the first place and as they become aware that things are unwinding, they will step up their storyline/activity.
So my problem is, finding a good chopping point for all of the bigger storylines.
Thus, to at least explain the above explanation, beta 2 is working on trying to make a) things more exciting and b) make it clearer how these things interact.
My fear is that in doing (a) it may be counter productive to (b) so I am trying to balance stuff.
I am still back on the cloud fixing things there at the moment which demon was this again?
I agree that anyone that’s been there any length of time would be warped on that point.
Although a D’Orc would have a concept of D’Orc honor which would be pretty close to Orc honor.
And I know the busy with work feeling…that’s why book 2 took so long. But the whatnot is worse. I have no explanation for where so much of my time disappears to; clearly it is going to whatnot. I lost the last 4 days of writing on beta 2 due to whatnot…damn thing is so frustrating!
o:)
Yes, it’s a rough draft on the typos. After the beta there is a professional editor going to edit the whole thing.
Yes, in many ways Hilda is the star, she is “The Heavenly Host” or what’s left of it after they change their minds.
I take the point on describing the battle, sort of like replaying old High School football games one too many times…will try to cut some of this back.
Beta 2 will spice up the Jenn and Gastrope’ line and bring more development to them on a couple levels (I hope) certainly they are going to be doing a lot more to be ready for book 3, and they are doing more in book 2 in beta 2.
The Exador story line is going to ramp up much bigger as well in beta 2. In upping the Exador scenes, the Randolf scenes will also get upped to make more sense and seem less like padding. Basically I am escalating something I had planned for Book 3 and putting it in Book 2 so Randolf’s storyline will make more sense now. It will also ramp up Lenamare a bit as well, mainly because Lenamare and Exador go hand in hand.
At this time the Bess stuff is prelude, it ties out to Reggie, Hephaestus and much more in books 3 and 4.
That is what I am focusing on, less with the hook at the end. There are several things I can do for the end, filling out the beginning seems the more critical. I don’t want people falling asleep before things get interesting.
I can see that clearly, rereading it. I actually really like that old codger demon thing. I’d been thinking about Lilith trying to “scare” Tom into accepting her offer, but the logic and then logistics weren’t quite there timewise. There really isn’t that much time, given travel time for normal demons in the Abyss. While it seems like they are there for eternity before the trip to Hellsprings Eternal, it really is about two days. Most of which people are recuperating.
Yeah,
There are a lot of things I want in like Rupert/Tom and so many things, but I somewhat struggle to get it all in, keep the pace moving and not end up with a 1000 page book.
I will see about adding some more Tom/Rupert early on. Hey, they are stuck in a cave together, maybe some father/son bonding?
Of course, I would think most actual tweens like Rupert would go “ugh”
As for Tamarin being female, romance with her is not out of the question. I also point out that (while not obvious) Zelda is quite young for a D’Orc. 🙂
Actually, she is very young for her job, but it was hereditary. In the grand scheme of the Abyss, Tom and Zelda are the same age to rounding error. Of course, it doesn’t take much more rounding error and Fer-Rog is the same age as his mother. After 25,000+ years, age differences of say 20 years are 0.08% Less than a tenth of a percent in rounding error.
