Comments on: The Final Paragraph From My Other Recently Completed Novel “Mars Outpost Alpha”

By: jacquie

jacquie — Tue, 29 May 2007 12:01:42 +0000

Does anyone else find it extremely ironic (and disturbing) that a person who calls himself a ‘wordmaven’, didn’t know the definition of the word ‘terraforming’?

By: Pauly D

Pauly D — Mon, 28 May 2007 03:18:46 +0000

Kartooner - First of all, I’ve played Guitar Hero and DDR. Whenever someone rings my doorbell or the phone rings (the equivalent of being startled by rescue ships on Mars), I have escaped the DDR scenario much quicker than the Guitar Hero scenario. That’s because in Guitar Hero, you have a guitar strap around your body and you have to remove the guitar, duck through it, and then put the guitar down. When stopping DDR, you just step off the mat. Henslaugh wouldn’t roll up anything, he’d just run to the portal, set off the distress beacon, and voila!

So unfortunately, I have to disagree.

By: kartooner

kartooner — Mon, 28 May 2007 01:44:51 +0000

The way I see it, Henslaugh probably has no chance of being rescued.

Let’s say he notices a rescue unit coming his way, yet he’s absorbed in whatever game he’s playing. I’m being vague because I still can’t believe that it would be DDR, of all things.

Now, if he were playing Guitar Hero he could just put the guitar accessory down and then shut the system off. Easy, right? There wouldn’t be any complications.

With DDR, he has to step off the pad, roll it up (or bunch it up) and toss it in the corner and then turn off the console - an extra step that will prevent his rescue.

Let’s just say, hypothetically-speaking, that you were to come up with a revised edition of this book. Might you consider then to replace DDR with Guitar Hero and end this pointless debate?

By: Pauly D

Pauly D — Sun, 27 May 2007 19:07:55 +0000

Dave2 - Fortunately, the answer to that will be revealed in Book Three in the Mars Outpost Series.

By: Dave2

Dave2 — Sun, 27 May 2007 18:53:28 +0000

And now I’m going to stay up all night wondering about whether or not Henslaugh got rescued. Though I suppose that’s not really the point… his love of Dance Dance Revolution transcends life and death… I just tend to worry about things like this.

By: Pauly D

Pauly D — Sun, 27 May 2007 17:17:29 +0000

Wordmaven - A “terraformer” is someone who takes a dead planet like Mars and changes the planet’s earth and atmosphere so it’s possible for people to live there.

By: Wordmaven

Wordmaven — Sun, 27 May 2007 16:42:32 +0000

Ooh - what are the skills required to be a terraforming coordinator? What are the wages? Uh, and what is it anyway?

By: Pauly D

Pauly D — Sun, 27 May 2007 16:36:54 +0000

Kartooner - Who’s to say Guitar Hero even exists in the future? See, what I did was make-up a future-version of Dance Dance Revolution. But Guitar Hero? You think some guy on a Mars Outpost would still be playing some old-antiquated video game like that?

I think not.

By: kartooner

kartooner — Sun, 27 May 2007 16:35:41 +0000

As an unpaid critic of all things, I’d just like to point out that this isn’t my job.

Rather, it was just a constructive, albeit “realistic” criticism. Would the protagonist play DDR over Guitar Hero? I think not.

Your world is full of silly things.

By: Pauly D

Pauly D — Sun, 27 May 2007 16:29:43 +0000

Kartooner - This is my novel and my world — I say what’s real or not.