Wandering Pom
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Posts posted by Wandering Pom
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Well done to Foster, for a neat solution - I am de-tenterhooked at last :)
Many thanks to Cole for a lovely story well told. I'm rather fond of the characters, and I'd like to know more about how their lives develop, but in the absence of a sequel I'll assume a modern-day version of "and they all lived happily ever after".
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10 hours ago, Camy said:
FYI Yarborough is Uppingham.
Thanks for that - I wondered where it was for a long time, but never quite worked it out. My best guess was quite close geographically, at least: Oundle.
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Part 2 suggests Lindybeige found some freedom amidst the regimentation. But overall it still sounds like a fairly miserable experience for him. I can understand how it must have been quite traumatic for a rather independently-minded person to be suddenly dropped into this environment after being used to conventional home and school life.
Overall I think it depends a lot on both the school (they vary a great deal in their approaches to discipline and control) and the person (some people need much more freedom than others). To take an example that I'm sure is familiar here, if Mihangel's writing reflects his experience of the real-life "Yarborough", then I think it was a combination of a less regimented environment with a personality that was better suited to it.
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It's all looking good for me so far - no sign of the previous problems recurring.
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Ah, Cambridge: a city I know quite well and am very fond of. King's College Chapel is probably its best-known and most beautiful building. There's perhaps a happy coincidence in the fact that the classic view of it (see the video at 1:30, and again at about 5:15) was used as the "cover photo" for Cole's Hammil Academy series.
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Alexei Mikhailov, if I've transcribed the Russian correctly. Filmed on 31 May 2018, according to the YouTube description; a few of the comments on the YouTube post look to have links to other performances by him.
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Not to worry: we're all human, and I certainly don't expect perfection. You're doing a lot better than many other writers, including some who are paid for it. Also, I'm doubtful that fewer words necessarily means fewer mistakes; I suspect instead that approach leads to more contorted prose which is harder to edit and understand.
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Incidentally I spotted a small but amusing typo in chapter 18. The Christmas tree was described as "a Noble fur", which produced some mental images quite different from what I'm sure was intended 🙂
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Well, the master of suspense has given us a double dose this time. I was already on tenterhooks from chapter 17, and after chapter 18 I'm now on double tenterhooks! How will I endure the near-eternity of waiting, a whole four days, until chapter 19 is published?
And back down from my soapbox, I'm glad that Christmas has been a time of goodwill and understanding for our protagonists.
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It's still going well, and I'm looking forward to tomorrow's chapter. It's good to see that at least some of Johnny's possessions have turned up, at last, though I'm a bit surprised that amidst all the legal activity Bernard hasn't been given instructions to ensure everything was forwarded ASAP. But I think the most poignant moment so far has been Johnny's line "I thought if I had sex with them, they would love me." Poor lad.
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I haven't (so far) had any problems replying to posts, but I have noticed over the last few days that some bits of the forums are rendering oddly. Some examples:
- Threads that run over one page now have the number page links listed vertically, not horizontally, so such threads get a longer block (with lots of empty space) in the forum listing.
- In each forum post, the member's icon is either slightly larger than before, or slightly shifted down, so it now covers the top half of the first line of the member description, e.g. "AD Author".
- The pin icon against the title of pinned threads seems to be jammed up against the text in a way that it wasn't before.
- In the main forum listing, the text indicating the date of the most recent post in each forum has a stray space + comma (i.e. " ,") on the end.
My guess is that the CSS or equivalent has been subtly altered in some way - a recent Invision update? If it helps for diagnosis, my browser is Firefox v. 80.0.1, running on Windows 10 v. 2004.
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More good stuff today. I won't say more at this stage for fear of providing spoilers.
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Until the next chapter, for which I am now waiting with bated breath. Good to see things developing for Daniel, and impressed by the maturity that Rob and Terry are showing in their friendship.
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Another good chapter. I’m impressed with Johnny, who seems to be finding his feet very quickly after deliberately launching himself into the unknown. Mike and Anne seem to be getting to grips with the new situation pretty quickly too.
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I’m sure Patrick & co. would welcome uneventful (and hopefully blissful) domesticity after all they’ve been through, especially Doug and Mike. I certainly wouldn’t wish another such adventure on them! I shall just try to imagine them carrying on their lives and coping with visitations from Mother...
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I agree about re-reading: I read this first a month or so ago, and then came back to it last night. Even though I knew where the story was going this time, I still enjoyed the development of the plot and character relationships, and the comeuppance for the villain. I'm not sure how a sequel could be arranged, but more of Patrick and his friends would be very welcome.
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Seconded (thirded?) on all counts: I'm looking forward to seeing how this develops.
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Oooh, another good one today: the deepening friendship between Robin and Terry, and another character introduced, with hints of something interesting to come.
From a technical point of view, I think the multiple first-person narration is working well. The present-tense Robin vs. past-tense Daniel helps give a sense of the teenager living in the moment and the adult looking back (and forwards) more. Also the viewpoint switches are infrequent, and each section advances the story - in contrast with one I read years ago, also with two first-person points of view, but much shorter sections, and very often entirely overlapping story progress or even dialogue.
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23 hours ago, Cole Parker said:
I might hazard a guess that in England, Christopher Robin had and probably still has such a presence that Robin might remain mostly a boy's name.
"Had" - yes, almost certainly. Plus the fact that 'Robin' had a long history as a boy's name even before A. A. Milne named his son and wrote the Pooh books. "Still has" - I'm doubtful, alas; the youngest Robin I know is about 35, and I suspect the name has gone out of fashion.
Another take on the gender distribution of the name, or at least a related one: the male protagonist Robinette Broadhead of Frederik Pohl's Gateway series. Almost the opening line of the first book is Broadhead's psychiatrist asking him, "Why do you care if some people think it's a girl's name, Bob?"
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Indeed - patience is rewarded. Many thanks!
It's nice to see Robin and Terry's friendship progressing - I think they're going to be good for each other. And good to see Daniel starting to settle into his first teaching job too.
Some thoughts on the name "Robin" from a British perspective... I think all the "Robins" I've known have been male; it could be used here as a female name as well, but I think it's more likely to be spelt as "Robyn" in that case. Also, it also recalls the bird of the same name. The European robin is rather smaller than the American one (typically about 5 inches long rather than 10 or so), so for me there's an implication of something small and apparently fragile, but often brave and determined out of proportion to its size. And also, of course, a flash of colour most often spotted amidst a dull grey winter. So I think our young protagonist may well be aptly named. I'm looking forward to watching him spread his wings.
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I'm currently itching for the next chapter. It's odd how the four-day wait from Saturday to Wednesday feels much longer than the three-day wait from Wednesday to Saturday.
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I found this story on Friday evening, and devoured it in one sitting, well into the small hours of Saturday morning. Completely un-put-downable. The 'flavour' is, unsurprisingly, a lot like Michael Arram's "Rothenia" series, but the setting is entirely new, and for me quite fascinating. There are generous measures of international intrigue, appealing characters, and a historical mystery unfolded piece by piece. Definitely one I will want to re-read.
The one thing I found myself missing was a map to show where all the action was taking place. It turned out that there is one, from another posting of the story at IOMFATS. However, I think the shape of the map is a significant spoiler for understanding at least the first part of the puzzle, so I'd recommend not looking until you're clear where this "New World" is.
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Aww.... And to follow the lead from the photo:
Greetings! I'm a new forum member, who's been reading here for quite a while and finally decided it was time to get involved. I'm immensely enjoying The Boy on the Plane, as I have pretty much all of Cole Parker's work, and I'd like to say: thank you very much.
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The Secret Life of Nerds, by Robb Warr
in Readers Rule!
Posted
I read the "old" version of the story a few weeks ago, shortly before the "new" version was posted, so I was curious about this too. As far as I can tell, the two versions as identical, other than minor corrections in the "new" version. Since the "Kewl Dad" author page has been removed, I assume the author discussed everything with Mike beforehand. At a guess, the author wanted to use a new nom de plume, and decided that "The Secret Life of Nerds" was suitable for publication under the new name.