The AH Coffee Shop and Reading Room 09

[old_prof]

As amusing as it is, I’m afraid it only corroborates AwkwardlySet’s stance. Something’s rotten in the kingdom of Denmark if the review time can swing between mere hours (or even minutes?) and literal months.

I disagree (and not just so I can disagree with AS again). I think approval is a two tier process. If you fly through the automated checks without a ding and nothing in the title or first few paragraphs triggers Laurel's attention and (maybe on this one) you're a name she recognizes, you'll get approved as soon as she reviews the arrivals. Miss any of those things and it will probably take a while longer.

I think that is working as intended. People seem to want it to be an absolute queue, so everyone stays in order, but that would be a terrible idea in practice. It would be horribly inefficient for Laurel -- people need time to shift between modes of working -- and result in very dry days of releases, when a batch of dubious submissions arrive, either from the same author or randomly from an assortment. I also suspect the harder cases requires a second or even third review by her, with necessary time between reviews.

I suspect that it's those additional reviews that trigger the purgatory and are the source of the problem.

 

[Candy_Kane54]

It's nearly sweltering here (upper 50s) for this time of year (and morning) but we're heading into the deep freeze tomorrow. It will be 64 at midnight tonight and by Monday night it will be in the low 30s and will stay there until Wednesday afternoon. Luckily, we should avoid any precipitation. Whatever good I got from using the Meloxicam had worn off and I feel miserable and my blood pressure is trending back up despite the increase in blood pressure medicine. Good thing I'm seeing my doctor next week.

There's fresh coffee brewing and the teapot is whistling a merry tune. The hot chocolate on the back burner is steaming so help yourself. There are donuts and leftover Christmas sugar cookies on the counter. The cheesecake is all gone and the punch bowl is nearly empty. Come next week, we'll have to start taking down the decorations and putting them away. The shipment of bubbly has arrived and will be broken out for New Year's Eve.

I'll be over in the corner working on my story. I didn't get anywhere on my current WIP, but I did finish up a major scene and have one last section of the story to write. I also did a lot of research and outlined my next story.

 

[NuclearFairy]

Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned: I used ChatGPT to help decide on the name of a fictional town and mountain in eastern Tennessee. The town is Piney Notch; when I Google it Google appears to believe that I mean the Totally Pine IPA by Three Notch'd Brewing. I've never had that, but their Belgian Tripel packs an absolute wallop. The mountain is Shanty Knob, which appears to be unique. I rejected eleven suggestions before deciding on the town name, and thirty before settling on the mountain.

I love using random name generators, even when I don't have a town or a mountain to name. I got clued in to them when I was seeking help naming a hospital.

 

[MrPixel]

I think approval is a two tier process. If you fly through the automated checks without a ding and nothing in the title or first few paragraphs triggers Laurel's attention and (maybe on this one) you're a name she recognizes, you'll get approved as soon as she reviews the arrivals.

This is my thinking as well. Consistently passing automated checks and a reputation for following the rules is the equivalent of express screening at the airport. Even better than that, it's free!

 

[MrPixel]

The wrap-up of Barstow seems to have expanded into three chapters, with the first of the three going live this Monday. I could end it with the subsequent chapter which is already finished, but the last two scenes are too much of a downer. So the last chapter - currently 12K words and on the way to becoming 20K - is a TV-series-style epilogue, a two-hour special of a one-hour serial, with a lot of retrospectives of the two and a half years, and "walk ons" of characters from a couple of years ago. Funny, that wasn't my intent going in, but that's the way it's playing-out.

I'm going to miss these guys. The universe and the lovely people I've created have consumed my thoughts throughout the writing. I have another universe still in progress, but the final chapters are finished, only needing a bit of development Swiss cheese filled-in.

Next move? I don't know. These are the novels I had in my head. There is one more I started five years ago that was back-burnered because it went off the rails into a taboo (even for LitE) topic, and undoing that mess breaks the story line too badly.

I have other hobbies and duties which have been mostly neglected as my wife will attest - "I'm so tired of seeing just the back of your head!" - so maybe I'll be taking a break. We'll see.