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JH!

In the byline of 63897 you asked how many more "Death of Astras" I was going to write. The answer is - I'm not sure... you see, it is so much FUN! What I have been doing is searching for basically dead-end storylines, you know, the ones that have been forgotten, that have not been added to. Using the 'search' function I am finding the episodes that have not been added to in quite some time, storylines that have gone by the wayside that nobody has cared to extend. I am bringing them to the surface of everyone's attention and drastically changing one aspect of that storyline. Either my episodes, and the threads they are connected to, will fade back below the surface of the current writers' radars or someone will find a particular idea, plot, set-up interesting enough to add to.

The concept for this hunt of mine - searching for old, unused storylines - came to me after reading the whole slew of comments regarding "filling up the sixth level" and how that may or may not provide a flow of creative juices. That is an interesting conversation you folks have had/been having.

I have enjoyed finding different ways of killing off Astra - trying to keep it fresh forces me to be creative! I have also concentrated on the other characters and their situation with Astra and their situation once Astra is no more - yet again, this forces me to think out of the box! Having episodes where our heroes have one of their own ripped from their presence creates a whole venue of possiblity for you writers who want to tackle a shocked or depressed or enraged Fred - or Velus - or Alura - or whatever other character has to deal with the loss. I hope my stories are as fun to read as they are to write! I also hope I am setting up some scenarios that writers (currently and in the future) will find powerful, or shocking, or humorous (as the thread may dictate).

So, to answer your question, JH, how many Astras? As long as I feel the juices welling up within me and the desire to look for and read old, sometimes silly, sometimes stupid, sometimes not half-bad stories, I will hunt down forgotten episodes and kill the Astra therein! Hopefully I will write this in such a way, or with such words and images, or with consequences not seen before. Yes, I know that some of my death scenes repeat - esp. the knife in the neck (but, as any farmer knows, cutting a jugular leads to instant death - and Killer Astra is no sadist... she doesn't want her mirror self to suffer needlessly!) Remember, her mission is to gain enough power to return home and destroy the evil of the Dragon in her world, my mission is to find old episodes we've all ceased thinking about and bring them back from oblivion!

Welcome to the Bulletin Board! I'd have asked my question here, but I wasn't sure whether you ever read the board. I greatly enjoyed youy first few episodes of "Dead Astra", but I confess that it's become a little monotonous for me now. I have a fairly limited appetite for slaughter. That's only my personal opinion, though, and certainly isn't intended to imply that you shouldn't carry on.

BTW the last time that I checked your Royal Historical Society page it was no longer there. It seems a shame to lose it, as there was some good stuff there. If you don't have a Website where you can host it yourself, I'd be happy to do so on my own webpages.

I have to say I more or less agree with JH--I was very impressed by the initial episodes and by the "Astra Lives" episode, but I'm getting a little tired of all the "Dead Astra" episodes now. Having a lot of them works very well, becuase it increases the impact of the killer Astra's deeds, but maybe we've got too many now? And also, there have been a number of threads where Astra has died and Fred has lived on before, including several I've written, and I can't recall very many that are the reverse. Then again, this is partially subjective--writing 64090 and 64092, which had the last death of Astra, took a lot out of me, even more than the paper I was writing at the same time! They were very powerful and intense to write, but I don't know how good they actually are. Still, I hope it's an interesting setup. The Killer Astra makes a very fascinating villain, which is why I decided to yank this branch of the storyline back in that direction. And I like this thread's version of Belboz. It's interesitng how minor characters can surprise you like that. By the way, I came up with the basic idea for these episodes before Y posted 63888.

Also, I could have sworn I had an option in episode 64092 to switch the viewpoint back to Astra Blue, or whatever it is she's called now. If anyone wants to do that they can add the option. Oh, and welcome back Y! I hope you keep on writing.

Well, I am glad that the "Killer Astra" has gotten your attention - the melding of this character with the Blue Astra and, Knight Random, your most recent episodes with the emotional linking of Fred and Blue Astra, and the execution of Blue Astra by "Astra Blue" (aka "Killer Astra") is very well done and I can't wait to see where this is all going!

As far as my series of Astra killings. When looked at as a whole, I can see the repetitiveness and why people can get bored with it; but I see my "Killer Astra" as the modus operandi for bringing to the fore old episodes. Some are mundane and end up with "let's go back to Fred", true - but some offer new opportunities to look at characters rarely used or to rewrite them (I also like the version of Belboz that is being crafted in this thread -- his rudeness and edginess is refreshing; conflict makes for interesting stories!).

As to my idea on writing opportunity: One good example (I think) of new opporunity is "Orcs!" #42600 - yes, we lose Astra, and yes we keep Fred - but we also have these other noble women that, quite frankly, I don't even remember ever reading about! Will some author swoop in and delve into Fred's desire to get these women of note to safety, and if so, will we end up having stories in their lands? The Dragon is DEAD in this scenario - will Fred be feted by his King? will the Ladies also be feted and welcomed back to their lands?!? What will King Emry do when he discovers he is in possession of a noblewoman from the hated kingdom of Hespan?!!? So many posibilities!

So, though for me half the fun is going back to old threads (ie "Wow, I forgot about THAT!") and part of the fun is writing an Astra Death that incorporates unique elements from that dead-end thread, a full third of the fun is waiting to see what a future author may do with the set-up afterwards!

I'm annoyed with you, Y. I understand that you're doing it to 'dead-end threads' that haven't been added to in a while, however, on one of my pages, you made one of the links a 'Dead Astra page'... during the day the page was made!

How is a thread that was added to just a little over five hours ago a 'dead end thread that hasn't been added to in a while'?.

My episode: 63089 11/18/2006 3:10:42 PM
Your episode: 63438 11/18/2006 8:22:33 PM

What's your excuse?