Ask the Authors (Fandemonium)

[Alipeeps]

This sounds awesome James... I'll definitely be getting hold of the SGA ones!

[Gate Geek]

Audio books???? Read by the cast??? How cool will that be! I'll have something to entertain myself on my 40 minute commute to/from work now!!

Really looking forward to these adventures and well, my first ever audio book purchases!

[Elite Anubis Guard]

Wow. That shound prove to be interesting.

[Randy_Watson]

This might not be appropriate here, but you can get a great deal on some of these books from www.fye.com

Most are 5.49 and you can use the following coupon codes to save 5$ on top of that (which pretty much covers shipping and tax if you are in the USA):

fyewel122907
fyewel122807
fyewel122707

I picked up 5 books, and am just missing Halcyon and a couple of the latest releases now.

[Atlantis1]

I have all of the Stargate: Atlantis novels. I'm impatiently looking forward to more. I'll probably buy the audio books from SGA but I really like having a nice book in my hands.

[Randy_Watson]

I have all of the Stargate: Atlantis novels. I'm impatiently looking forward to more. I'll probably buy the audio books from SGA but I really like having a nice book in my hands.

I hear ya. I usually download audiobooks (legally of course), but I will have to order these on CD so I have a case to look at.

[Shep'sSocks]

I have a query for Sonny and Elizabeth regarding Blood Ties, which I've just finished. When on their trip to Tassie, the SES told the Army captain about the fires. Why is the Army taking advice from the salad and egg sandwich brigade and not the Tasmanian Fire Service, whose actual role it is? Sorry ladies, it completely pulled me out of the story. Picky, yes, but how hard is it to get the correct service to advise the Army? I realise the editors in London, or wherever they're located, might not know the difference and nor might the vast majority of readers, but as an Australian I do and so should Sonny, surely?

[Elizabeth Christensen]

I have a query for Sonny and Elizabeth regarding Blood Ties, which I've just finished. When on their trip to Tassie, the SES told the Army captain about the fires. Why is the Army taking advice from the salad and egg sandwich brigade and not the Tasmanian Fire Service, whose actual role it is? Sorry ladies, it completely pulled me out of the story. Picky, yes, but how hard is it to get the correct service to advise the Army? I realise the editors in London, or wherever they're located, might not know the difference and nor might the vast majority of readers, but as an Australian I do and so should Sonny, surely?

Not being from Down Under, I'll leave the details to Sonny, but in the general sense, it seems to me that just about any permutation of emergency response groups could be rationalized by two words: red tape. Possibly it was the Tasmanian Fire Service who briefed State Emergency Services, who turned around and told the Army. Communication between bureaucratic agencies runs in all sorts of directions, only some of them logical. (Why, yes, I am a federal government employee. How'd you guess?)

[Shep'sSocks]

And the Army chain of command (and indeed anyone stupidly near the fire front - and the Army is unlikely to have been allowed there unless they were fighting the fire, which they're not allowed to unless trained) would have gone straight to the Fire Service. The Army, being the Army, would check with the right source.

[Princess Awinita]

(I can't help but say this).... Maybe if you came out of the drawer to get some air you could see the books as what they are(there I said it), nicely written, which in this case is the truth, the book IS written the way it should be in the minds of the writers of the book, I personally think the writers did a great job once again with Blood Ties myself!

The wrioters do a great job EVERY time to me, and by the way Beth, I just fisnied CoW AND Exo (12th for CoW and 7th for Exo) great books!!!

[Shep'sSocks]

Thanks for that, Teyilia, because your twittish comment helps so much.

[Elizabeth Christensen]

Hey now, let's all take a step back, shall we? I was really enjoying the non-antagonistic nature of this thread. Everybody's entitled to have an opinion. And every reader or viewer has his or her own threshold for suspension of disbelief.

For example:
(Now here's where I transparently attempt to defuse the tension via story time.)

I once took an engine training course from a retired F-15 maintainer who griped in class about the realism of the movie Top Gun. He said that it's standard practice in U.S. military aviation to identify the left engine as Engine 1 (if viewing from the rear of the aircraft) and the right as Engine 2. Or possibly the other way around. I forget which -- I worked on a single-engine airframe.

Anyway, that detail always jumped out at him in the movie because Goose calls "Engine 1 out" when it really ought to be Engine 2. (Or the other way around.) Drove this guy nuts.

I blinked at him and said, "This was a movie where a T-38 was meant to pass for a MiG and the F-14 ejection sequence allowed Goose to actually smack into the canopy when he punched out. And one line about numbers was what bugged you?"

<shrug> You never know what little detail is going to trip somebody's realism meter.

[Princess Awinita]

You never know what little detail is going to trip somebody's realism meter.

very true this line is... and I have a question I was wondering about.

When did you guys (the authors) actually start writing, was it somthing that hit you in school or the like? if so how/what did you start off with for actually getting published?

[Shep'sSocks]

Hey now, let's all take a step back, shall we? I was really enjoying the non-antagonistic nature of this thread. Everybody's entitled to have an opinion. And every reader or viewer has his or her own threshold for suspension of disbelief.

For example:
(Now here's where I transparently attempt to defuse the tension via story time.)

I once took an engine training course from a retired F-15 maintainer who griped in class about the realism of the movie Top Gun. He said that it's standard practice in U.S. military aviation to identify the left engine as Engine 1 (if viewing from the rear of the aircraft) and the right as Engine 2. Or possibly the other way around. I forget which -- I worked on a single-engine airframe.

Anyway, that detail always jumped out at him in the movie because Goose calls "Engine 1 out" when it really ought to be Engine 2. (Or the other way around.) Drove this guy nuts.

I blinked at him and said, "This was a movie where a T-38 was meant to pass for a MiG and the F-14 ejection sequence allowed Goose to actually smack into the canopy when he punched out. And one line about numbers was what bugged you?"

<shrug> You never know what little detail is going to trip somebody's realism meter.

There's only so far that people will suspend disbelief and that one was an easy one to check on; it took me about 10 seconds to google it. Interesting attitude there.

[JMSwallow]

When did you guys (the authors) actually start writing, was it somthing that hit you in school or the like? if so how/what did you start off with for actually getting published?

I started writing stories when I was at school, in English class, and I usually made them complex enough that they never got finished in time for the end of the lesson; it was in my early teens when I decided I wanted to be a writer. It took a while before I realised I had a shot at making a career out of it, though.
The first piece of professional paying work I ever wrote was an article for Challenge, a gaming magazine now long defunct.