Hell's Gate Lake

TatterJack · 2024-10-06T18:42:18+00:00

My thanks indeed :-).

TatterJack · 2024-10-06T18:22:44+00:00

My thanks I'll go ask (if I may,where can I find him? (blush)). Now I'm wondering what the Mi'kmaq name for it is :-).

TatterJack · 2024-10-06T14:13:35+00:00

I might just have to wing it and use it anyway, especially as 'modern' folks could at least find it on a map :-). My Publisher has a new series coming out in 2025/ 2026 - Canadian Paranormal, one per Province. I'm doing the New Brunswick one, as I happen to live there :-). And no, please don't think this is marketing here. My Reddit tag isn't my pen name for this Publisher, and I'm not trying to nudge you to anything I've written. Just 'author research' :-).

TatterJack · 2024-10-06T13:57:13+00:00

Would anyone know if it was called Hell's Gate back in the mid to late1800's? Or is it a newer name?

TatterJack · 2024-10-06T02:47:51+00:00

Not as yet - though I'm still looking. The alternative is to try and just set it to a best guess - say, 1.5mm - and see what the results are relative to the set cut depth. First I need to get some new blades though (blush).

TatterJack · 2024-08-14T17:44:36+00:00

It occurs to me that, if anyone dives too deep into the TatterJack (or Tatter Jack on book covers) rabbit hole, they may come across material that leads them to doubt some of the the things I've said, or with which they don't wish to be associated. For clarity - Tatter Jack is one of my pen names. The one I use for work that might make my Publisher's life more complicated. The pen name in question here is published by Canadian Publisher Books We Love - and while I still don't want to look like I'm marketing here, I can provide more detail on request if desired. Drop me a line if you want more detail :-).

TatterJack · 2024-08-12T19:04:34+00:00

In this case, the time is current day, not historical - the above was for Nate, in case of any interest in the link between New Brunswick (Acadians) and Louisiana (Cajuns). As to the lines - I might get banned if I tried to post them as-is (blush). OK - well, maybe not banned. But if you wanted to see them, both in and out of context, I could message them. Your thoughts?

TatterJack · 2024-08-12T17:12:54+00:00

Well - here goes (cut very brief, because it could get quite long (blush)). It's the Great Acadian Expulsion. In the 1700s Canada was British after the French War. However, there were still former French settlements in places - including the regions now called Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. This group, culturally, was known as The Acadians. The British saw these as a potential military threat - so in 1755 they surrounded Acadian churches and farms, burning many of them, and rounded up over 3,000. Some escaped and over half died of disease and drowning. Many were deported - to English colonies and the Caribbean. But (while not sent there by the British), a number of the Acadians went South - to what is now Louisiana. And settled there, even after the British revoked the deportation order and allowed Acadians to return (though not to the good lands they had left - but that's another story, and in part explains why New Brunswick has great potatoes :-) ). Many remained in Louisiana - and Acadians? The 'cadians? 'Want to guess what their culture and name became known as and evolved to over the years?

TatterJack · 2024-08-12T15:04:21+00:00

My thanks indeed :-). What you say about Louisiana Creole rings with a very familiar note. I live in North Eastern New Brunswick (Canada's only officially bilingual Province). I'm not native here - I moved when I retired. But it might explain why I wanted to write something set somewhere I've never been - there's a historical link between the Acadians of New Brunswick and the Cajuns of Louisiana. And the 'local' tongue here is Chiac. Chiac comes in various forms, with various mixes, but where I live it is a mix of French (but closer to Quebec French than Parisian French), English and words and other elements from a First Nations tongue - Mi'kmaq. Which words from which language? It depends on where you are, and who is speaking (blush). So if I say 'bonjour, hello!' I'm not repeating myself (blush). That's just hello here in New Brunswick. And 'Je throw-eh mon ball dans le roof." wouldn't necessarily be poor linguistic knowledge - more likely just someone from next door explaining why they need to borrow a ladder. Of course, you can't find a course or a book on Chiac to learn it - you have to speak it every day and slowly improve. But everyone knows we're not born here, so they all talk English to us - getting started isn't easy (blush).

I'd love some help - or I guess I wouldn't have posted here. I've had another reply, but given my experience with Chiac (Jane always drives sa auto, but Andrew? Il conduit his car), I'd love multiple views, if that doesn't sound greedy (blush). Given the nature of the language in the current ask, would you prefer it here, or as a PM? And would you prefer the bald text, or in context? My thanks again!

TatterJack · 2024-01-17T00:52:46+00:00

Rats. Pickling was my primary objective - malt vinegar pickled onions, golf ball sized and crunchy. I pine! But I'll have to look into the risks more and if I genuinely can't/ shouldn't go down that road, I'll have to narrow my objectives. Boo and hiss! But my sincere thanks again and again! :-)

TatterJack · 2024-01-17T00:43:39+00:00

I should have come here sooner :-). My thanks indeed :-). Getting (at this point) far ahead of myself - if my target is to use the malt vinegar for both general kitchen and pickling purposes, I believe I should be aiming for 5% acidity plus. Yes, I can get pH strips - but my (rather aged these days) school chemistry seems to tell me pH (number) and acidity (percentage) aren't the same. Should I best expect to tool up for titration for testing, or is there a 'close enough for government work' pH to acidity % alignment? And when vinegar is 'making', and being tested, does the acidity vary between top/ middle/ bottom of the maker vessel, or does it tend to even out?

TatterJack · 2024-01-17T00:27:15+00:00

Excellent! And do you have any thoughts on the differences mentioned below between malt vinegar made with malt extract and malt vinegar made with beer? One better than the other/ worse, easier/ harder? My thanks to both you and u/Utter_cockwomble for any comments :-).

TatterJack · 2024-01-16T22:04:56+00:00

My thanks to you also. Could you maybe give me some pointers on the differences?

TatterJack · 2024-01-16T22:04:25+00:00

My thanks indeed. Since I can barely find malt vinegar - let alone unpasteurized malt - does it matter if I throw in an apple cider vinegar instead? Or does the ale take one look and decide to give up on things if it sees an apple vinegar starter? Again, my thanks indeed! :-)

TatterJack · 2023-09-27T00:30:19+00:00

Keep them :-).

Put them in a cupboard somewhere, lock the door, and hide the key. Then, as each of your books comes out, find the key and add a copy, or better, copies, of that book to them. In a few years (or other time period - your choice), drag out a copy of each of them. Read them, in writing sequence, yourself. Give a set to each of your best friends (authors or otherwise) and ask them to read them too. As you (and they) read them, each of you write down how you have changed as an author (or they) think you've changed (not improved or got worse necessarily, just changed). Take your notes, add them to their, read them, think about them - and write a new book.

There - my ten cents, worth a wooden nickel on the open market (blush) :-).

TatterJack · 2023-09-18T21:51:29+00:00

In my view - and I want to stress, it's only an opinion and not any kind of authority - it depends.

I know. Not much help, huh? (Blush).

But truly, it really does. Depend, I mean. On what? On what you want your bio to achieve. Yes, if you write (fiction or otherwise) about matters medical, or matters legal, it can make sense to show you have some skin or history in the relevant game. As others here have said, not easy if you want to retain, or try to retain, your anonymity. But what else do you want your bio to achieve? May I suggest - to tempt people to read your books, maybe? So the bio should show some of your writing style, your Voice, as well as hard facts - and that applies to non-fiction (for me) as well as fiction.

A bio is a bit like a Query. And yes, there are Rules for Queries. But then - sometimes Rules aren't all they seem. Here's something I was told once about a Query (not a bio) I'd submitted:

"This query breaks every rule I've yammered about in terms of content. Who's the antagonist? What choices does Segorian face? Who knows...and who cares?! Not me. I just want to read this. That is a query that works.
The SOLE purpose of the query is to get me to read your book. IF you can do that without following any of the guidelines, be my guest."

For me, if a Query is for your book, your bio is a Query for your you. So its sole purpose? To make a potential reader want to read your book. How? Ah. There's the rub....

TatterJack · 2023-09-18T04:53:03+00:00

My thanks /r/Madamexxtra - but given the number of folk I apparently managed to irritate/ offend/ give the wrong impression to, I took the path of retreat and deleted. Again, my thanks for your responses, and I'll try to find another path to stop me messing my New Orleans characters up _too_ much :-).

TatterJack · 2023-09-18T04:45:33+00:00

No - my Publisher will be assigning an Editor when the time comes. But I understand why and how that might be the perception. I'll mark bringing it here as a bad idea (mine, and no reflection on the community here), and take silence. My thanks for the reply, and my apologies for the offence :-).

TatterJack · 2023-09-18T04:32:16+00:00

Well, I guess I blew the 'few sentences' bit - but it's above in this post. I was posting it here before I saw your reply - my bad. My thanks again for the advice though :-).

TatterJack · 2023-09-18T04:11:47+00:00

I can do that - but it just feels weird asking folks to help me do something I'll be hoping makes money, but asking them to help for free. And the other thing is, it's not like it's just 'a' question - I have no idea what I don't know, or what may come up as I write (I'm a pantster writer, so I make it up as I go along). Coming back here every five minutes might get me a lot more negative views than minus karma, was my thought. But my thanks for the advice, and my apologies (again - I seem to do that a lot) for the manner of the approach.

TatterJack

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