Diamonds under African skies, part 2: A rare stone

[hypatia-66.livejournal.com]

Short Affair challenge 2 April 2018. Prompts: fury, green

There is corruption, danger and loss in Paradise. Illya finds an answer.

Click on the diamond for AO3 





                               

Comments

[laurose8.livejournal.com]

Thank you for this enjoyable part 2. Good setting and solid ocs. And a nice, canonesque ending.

[hypatia-66.livejournal.com]

Thanks very much. I kept it more-or-less within the constraints of the Short Affair challenge, though I can't help thinking it ought to have been expanded - but I'm glad you liked it.

[jantojones.livejournal.com]

This one is definitely ripe for an expansion, though I think you tied the story up extremely well, and with plenty of action.

[hypatia-66.livejournal.com]

I know. The Short Affair challenge sets me off but it then needs editing right down - I probably ought to ignore the word count constraint and just keep going. On the other hand I might betray my ignorance of the subject matter...

Thanks for the praise, though.

[mrua7.livejournal.com]

I love the rhythm of your writing. Wonderful story and definitely worth expanding!

[hypatia-66.livejournal.com]

Very kind of you. Thanks for suggesting it could be expanded. I'm not sure I have enough personal background knowledge. It tends to show if an author doesn't have firsthand experience. I'll try and see what happens.

[mrua7.livejournal.com]

Still, it's fiction so hints of information to give it that touch reality will work. I've had many's the reader say that I must have been to certain place I included in a story, telling me they've been there and that's exactly what the place is like. When in reality I've never beentothe place, or that far from my own back door. Facts plus a little imagination and bit of creative license can go far.

Think of Anne Rice for instance; writing about 17th and 18th century vampires, or even the queen of the vampires were feats of pure imagination wth physical landmarks like New Orleans and Paris and period customs added to ground the fantasy,

If you don't have first hand experience then you research the heck out of it. Think outside the box.

I really hope you do get to continue the story!

[hypatia-66.livejournal.com]

Thank you again for the encouragement. You're right about the nature of fiction, of course. I also have vicarious experience to use which I gained from neighbours who travelled and worked in many places round the world, including Africa. Their stories were always very vivid.

So, I've been working on expanding this story and will edit it some more before posting it again. What's the best way to do that? With a new or related title plus an explanation? Or do I link it to the two short originals?

[mrua7.livejournal.com]

Friends who travel are a great source of information as they can tell you little gems that aren't in the travel books.

I wrote an NCIS story about Ducky and I had him going home to Scotland. I needed a little hamlet for the story that was close to the Isle of Skye (where the finale to the story takes place) I was telling a Scottish fiddler friend about it and he grinned, telling me his family had a summer home in that town. He gave me tons of info that I never would have found online.

I would suggest expanding the story with a new chapter. If you want to edit the what you've already posted. there is an edit option on your posting page on AO3. On AO3 if you look above your text at the top of the page, there is a radial to add a chapter, edit etc.

To get to it all place your cursor on your user name, and a dropbox will appear. Click on 'My Works'. On the next page that pops up look to the upper right where there's a radial for 'Edit Works.'

Click on that and another page appears listing all your published works. Find the title you want, click on it.

It takes you to the story, and upper right there is a radial that says 'Edit'. Click that, scroll down to your posting window, click 'Rich Text.'

Now you can start editing. When done, scroll to the bottom of the page, if you're satisfied with the edit, then click 'Post without preview''

When it's posted, at the top of the page appears "Add new chapter' Edit etc.

Every time you to go back to work on the story, you'll have to repeat the process to add a new chapter.

Hope this makes sense. Not hard once your get the hang of it. "D

[hypatia-66.livejournal.com]

Hi

Nice of you to take the trouble to explain like this. I'm actually fairly familiar with the edit function in AO3 - I wondered rather whether I should post a partly-rewritten story as a separate thing. However, I think I'll probably take your advice and edit instead. I hadn't thought of a new chapter, though, just an expansion/elaboration of the more cryptic parts of the two originals as the story ends quite neatly where I left it.
I guess I should also flag up the change on Section VII.
Thanks again for the encouragement.

[mrua7.livejournal.com]

You're most welcome. in regards to you question about how to edit. Looking forward to more of the story.

[hypatia-66.livejournal.com]

OK. I'll see what I can do... I had to cut a lot for the Short Affair word count, so it'll be an expansion within the existing framework (and I hope not just padding).

[mrua7.livejournal.com]

You could just repost it as a redux, telling readers it's an expanded version of a Short Affair story

I've done WIP's that start with s Short Affair, then continue with a PicFic, tying using each challenge to create a longer story. I once posted as an 8 chapter story based on each week's PicFic prompt. (that's when it was a weekly challenge) The story is called "The Oubliette." I let Glenna take over the prompts just to be fair.