I do have a problem with a few getting used... like "Alien Blue" (work in progress...) which was used by Nat Geo...

Like Valiant said some really good ones come from actual lines. (I know this won't help much unless you actually read them but here are some more of my examples) "The Mountaineer's Blood," "La Canción del Lobo/ The Song of the Wolf," and "Montañas en el Cielo/ Mountains in the Sky" are a few of my examples.

Yes, I got the title Victors in the Midst of Strife, from the hymn "Joyful Joyful We Adore Thee". I just thought it would be a cool title.
Now the pace has picked up with the arrival of Eydan (formerly Eslan). I'm just trying to finish this, but its taking a long time, because I'm stuck in the boring parts and want to get to the battles and stuff. Also impatient for the arrival of my favorite character, the reclusive prophet. But I'm getting to the Sarion Council soon enough, and they're always fun to write because they argue all the time.
EDIT:
The setting of Victors in the Midst of Strife has been changed from modern America to pioneer days.

In the book that I'm co-authoring with StarAsterisk, I've come to a part where I need to define a certain principle properly. I've thought of an instance in Prince Caspian where it outlines the principle correctly that I want to achieve, but I don't know why excactly Aslan made the made the decision that he did--read below for a quote from Wiki and my question.

"Reepicheep is badly wounded in the battle, and he loses his tail. He petitions Aslan afterward to have it restored, as the tail is "the honour and glory of a mouse." Aslan expresses concern about whether the mouse thinks too much of his honour. However, Peepiceek (the second in command of the mice) and the other mice prepare to cut off their own tails to avoid bearing an honour denied to their leader. This solidarity convinces Aslan to restore Reepicheep's tail, apparently not "for the sake of his dignity", as Aslan states, but for the love Reepicheep's people bear him."

If it wasn't for Reepicheep's people's love for him, would Aslan have refused to give Reep a new tail? If so, why?

I'll be honest in that I'll need to know more to be able to help you on that.

I have a big weekend where I will have my first official book signing that my church is doing for me. I ordered 100 copies of my book and I have already sold/given away (for gifts and marketing) 43 of those copies. I am actually concerned I may sell out of the 57 that remain before I am ready.

And reviews from those who are reading the book for the first time are coming in. It has been brought to my attention I still needed to spend more time on the editing side of thing, mostly for typos, and slightly misplaced words. But this is a first edition of a first novel and I really did all I could do in that regard. But Lighthouse did a very light job on the editing and I didn't have an official editor. But that being told, according to my mom it is still about 98-99% solid writing, so that is good to hear. My brother is going crazy about it and is actually talking about following it up with a real life application to it. He would not consider doing this if he wasn't really impacted by the book. So I am really excited about seeing what else God may do through it.

Still working on the sequel and seeking any time I can to get refocused on finished this draft.

^^

And reviews from those who are reading the book for the first time are coming in.

Where are the reviews? I clicked on the Amazon link, but didn't see any there.

~Riella

I'm happy because I actually got some writing done yesterday. It was actually a cute scene where Eydan meets his fiancee in the market. I finally felt good about something I'd written, and its been a while. I got a little bit written on Thiswold Thyster, but not much. It was mainly about how one character's maid is overfeeding the cat.

So far the reviews have just been coming to me. Only two have actually finished it from what I know. One is a professional pool player who performed here in El Paso a couple weeks ago, and the other is my brother. I'm going to try to get my brother to post a review on Amazon. The book is a 425 page novel so I have to give people time to read it. Most people can't finish it in the span of a week (though the pool guy did in one day). My mom is really going to try to finish it this weekend because she is going to talk to my church about my testimony from a mother's perspective and wants to have finished the book before she does that. Sunday is when I have my first book signing.

I'll be honest in that I'll need to know more to be able to help you on that.

Well, um, I'll try. This guy in my story, named Mich, well, he's wanting another guy named Felix to help him find his stolen computer. But Felix doesn't want to help Mich, because Mich is sort of rude and does illegal things with the computer.

The story about Reep's tail, I think, was similiar in principle.

The only problem is, I can't excactly figure out Felix's reason for refusing to help Mich. I need the wording of the principle, so that Felix can tell Mich why he isn't going to help Mich.

This would really be very helpful if you can give advice!

I have a big weekend...

Wow, it must be a great book! What's it called?

Still working on the sequel and seeking any time I can to get refocused on finished this draft

And you're working on a sequel! Awesome.

Check the link in my siggy. It will lead you to the Amazon page where it is listed. The only thing missing on the page right now is reader's reviews. And yes, I do have a sequel in the works. And the first real one-line review I've gotten is from my brother. He posted this on his Facebook status so I can use it. He said, "This book WILL change your life." My brother reads a lot and I'll will say I've never seen him respond to a book like this except the Bible. My book is still not perfect grammatically and that's mostly due to the fact that I had no official editor go over it the final draft. And there's only so much the author can do after going over it so many time. I'm so excited about Sunday and seeing what happens.

And as for your concept with your characters and Reep's request to Aslan in regards to his tail. I'm not seeing enough of a direct correlation. Reep was pure of heart and even in his request, he wasn't doing it out of arrogance or pride. He wanted to look his best before Aslan. And another thing to think about, the impression I got is that Aslan had already decided to do that before Peepicheek and the other mice were going do remove their tails. It's somewhat similar to God asking Adam "Where are you?" in the Garden of Eden. God knew where Adam was. God wanted Adam to know where Adam was. Aslan wanted to hear how far Reep and his mice would go, and in the book Aslan wasn't referring to Peepicheek and the mice cutting their tails when talking about the "love of your people" like in the movie. In the book, Aslan referred to when the mice chewed off the cords that bound Aslan to the Stone Table. That was when they became Talking Mice.

As for your character, I don't see the correlation between Mich's character and Reep's for this concept to carry through. Aslan wasn't convinced (even though he said it) to restore Reep's tail. He wanted to from the beginning. It's like many of Jesus' miracles. He waited for that step of faith or declaration of faith to perform the miracle. That's what Aslan was doing. I don't see your other character in this position. I think there might need to be a different reason to get him to help your character.

Hmm. I see what you're trying to say, Gwayne, but l'm also not really seeing the connect to Reep's tail. I did do some thinking about it, though.

If Felix decides to help Mich find his computer, fully aware that Mich uses that computer to do illegal things/commit crimes, then if he helps Mich get the computer back, he will indirectly be responsible for those crimes. Mich would have most of the guilt, of course. But since he wouldn't have been able to commit those crimes without Felix's help, there could possibly be some blame on Felix as well. Maybe Felix has a sensitive conscience, or maybe he's afraid of getting in trouble if anyone ever found out about Mich's doings. Also, since Mich is rude to him, Felix really has no obligation whatsoever to help him.

I hope this helps somehow!

God showed up at church today. I had my first book signing after the service. My mom shared a short-short version of my testimony (15 minutes was hardly scratching the surface) from a mom's perspective and the congregation gave the Lord a standing ovation for what he did in my life. Then the book signing. I had already decided to donate a portion of the proceeds to my church youth group. And here are the results. I started with 47 copies available. I returned home with 9. I've already gone over breaking even with my book order purchase and the $300 for the contract with Lighthouse. Every book I sell now is profit and from what God told me to give the youth group, I am able to give over $200 to them. And not everyone at my church who I know wants one was there today.

This coming weekend, I'm going to sell more at my Intervarsity Retreat and let God move from there. Those who've read it have all been thoroughly impressed and I have my first review posted on Amazon. It's a matter of time now as people read and for word of mouth to spread. But for me, the numbers are only a representation of how far my story has reached. I'm not deliberately out to be a New York Times #1 best-seller, but I am out to get my story to as many people as possible. God is moving with it and I am excited to see what happens.

FencerforJesus, I hope you don`t mind my asking, but do you know any good books about fencing and sword fighting?
I need to research that topic for my own novel. Thanks!

One of the best I can recommend is "By the Sword" by Richard Cohen. It has a good history about sword play and how it developed into the sport we know today. It's got just about everything in there, but it doesn't necessarily go into the depths about the techincal moves and describing those, but it will give you a good in-depth perspective about this culture of sword fighting from the ancient history to the modern sport and even movie culture. Anything else, let me know.

The other day, I went over my NaNo novel to edit it. However, as is usually the case, I do very little editing and a whole lot of reading. I did nothing more than catch a few typos and catch a few places where things didn't agree such as when my characters were in one town and then suddenly, in the next paragraph, they're some where else and it's impossible for them to have traveled in between the paragraphs. I added another fifty words to the end and still haven't finished it. *sigh*

I've been working on my ideas for next year's NaNo. I have a list of phrases that convey the whole story (girl does this, this happens, this then happens, this happens, etc.) and I rounded it out a bit more today. I really like the idea for it and am just hoping I can keep my hands off of it until next years NaNo.

I haven't really done any actual writing since NaNo. I've been busy and I just haven't been inspired lately.

I haven't been here for a while I've just about finished writing a play (the ending somehow doesn't want to come about the way I wish it would I hate it when something I am writing starts behaving differently than I want it too, I know that sounds really weird, has that ever happened to any of you, you have one thing in your head and somehow when you try to get it down on paper it doesn't come out quite the way you imagined it?)
My novel is making slow progress though all because I am absolutely clueless on how to begin