Johne

fwiw, I think we should be careful with our language. If we want people to take us seriously, especially as Christians, we must speak the truth. Simply switching from 'Gestapo'–which is a charged term which suggests Nazis–to 'police' keeps your meaning and removes the conspiracy-theory overtones.

Speaking anecdotally, I can tell you I'm having more fun on the Mac side. Windows is powerful but a tad utilitarian. Mac stuff is also powerful but feels more elegant. The apps are prettier and I've enjoyed working over there more overall.

It's worth noting that now is a great time to try Mac - the new M1 chipset is a game-changer. I note that the MacBook Air was last year's Apple Product of the Year. (If I needed a laptop instead of a desktop, I would have gone with the MacBook Air over the MacBook Pro for two reasons: the Air has a better angle for extended typing sessions, and still has the physical F-keys instead of the Touch Bar. However, all I really needed was the Mac mini, and that was quite a bit less expensive while remaining both fanless and very powerful.) https://9to5mac.com/2020/12/31/m1-macbook-air-product-of-the-

For Christmas, I bought a base model Mac mini with the M1 chipset for $699. On Monday, I installed a KVM switch so I can use one keyboard / mouse / headphones to control either the Mac or my PC using both my monitors. It works pretty well. I did this so I could use Scrivener 3 in its native form in MacOS. I press one yellow button to switch between Mac and PC. Interestingly, video looks better on Safari / Apple TV+ than it does on Chrome, so I now watch most of my video on the Mac side.

Talk about the power of story! From author Mike Duran:

David Farland sent this around today:

From our own C.S. (Susanne) Lakin, who has gone on to create a very nice career writing HOWTO books. (I attended her Plotting Boot Camp a year ago - it was spectacular.) https://theselfpublisher.com/how-to-price-your-self-published-book/?inf_contact_key=07a62c52f7c61fe062ba90a33f4a35c4

(In the future, please split things like this out into separate threads. Thanks.)

It sounds like, yeah. (I write 'Plantser' but it's a neologism and there is no one correct way to write it imo.)

David Farland's Writing Tips: Plotting Your Novel

This is a thoughtful use for characterization, and it wouldn't bother me in that context. The vast majority of F-bomb uses is simple emphasis, and as such, I'd strip it out as extraneous language which adds nothing and cuts away a significant portion of your potential audience.

I've seen the F-word rise in such common usage to the point where even good and Godly people think nothing of it. It does nothing for me, I'm more offended by attacks against character than the lazy use of a mindless emphasis word, but I don't care for it and I can't think of a single instance where its inclusion makes the story better.

The very first Sci-Fi novel I read back in the 70s was a dystopic novel by a female author, Andre Norton. It's a well-established trope where Mankind looks at the future and sees the effects of our failings. While this resonates with me as a Christian, I don't often find it entertaining as a reader, but I am well familiar with the trope. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24739716-daybreak-2250-ad

From Alex Newton, the K-lytics Study reports guy. http://k-lytics.com/post-apocalyptic-dystopian