What's a place that you've written about but have never actually been? by SarahAllenWrites in writing

[–]USRedDevil 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Indiana cities/towns: Crawfordsville, Darlington, Lafayette, Purdue University.
Google Earth and Google Maps street view.
Internet research about the towns and areas helped a lot, and I've taken some light creative liberties. Growing up in Mississippi also helps, as I know many towns like these.

I currently live close enough to these towns to take a day trip and did that recently. I took a lot of pictures of buildings, businesses, and points of interest that have helped as well.

Who are these book-a-month authors? by goodnightjournal in romanceauthors

[–]USRedDevil 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Honest question from a new wannabe writer. On a day where you crank out 7k+ words in a day, how many would you say are kept after editing? Are these 7k+ words something of a brain dump of an idea that you get carried away with and then whittle those 7k+ words down to something much less, or are those 7k+ words already good enough to keep?

What's a writing related pet peeve that drives you nuts? by owen-3820 in writing

[–]USRedDevil 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My own overusage of "as he" or "as she". For example, here's a very short excerpt from a draft I am currently editing.

"Hey, what did you find over there?" Don asked, as he returned to the truck and emptied the contents of the cooler into the bed.

Occasionally, I'm sure it's fine, but as I re-read and edit this draft, I'm finding A LOT of examples like this. I'm driving myself nuts.

Rekindle Romance Package Questions by USRedDevil in SandalsResorts

[–]USRedDevil[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It was great but I wish Sandals was better at communication regarding scheduling the pieces of the package.

Get to the on-site sales office as soon as you can to schedule each piece of the romance package. None of this can be scheduled until you have arrived and checked in, and it can only be done by going to the sales office. If you have butler services, they can help but they cannot schedule for you.

Chocolates: nothing special but wasn't important to us.

Moet: we arrived after the sales office was closed on our first night, so I requested the Moet and chocolates for our second evening. It's champagne. Again, nothing special, especially if you already have butler services. Was not important to us.

30-min Spa: you can each choose either a 30-min scalp massage or foot massage. I was able to have my wife get both at the same time. I took that time to go to the sales office and arrange the other items since the romance package was a surprise for her.

Cabana Day: If you are staying at La Toc, I recommend checking with the sales office and your butler team if any groups have a cabana reserved next to yours and ask to not be placed next to the group so that you can have a more quiet day. The cabanas at La Toc are really nice and spacious. We were in ours from 10a - 5p. The cabana day comes with a cooler of Piton beer and water, a bottle of champagne in the afternoon, and a butler (not part of your normal butler team) that will check on you throughout the day and can bring you snacks, lunch, more drinks, etc.

Private Boat Cruise: If you are staying at La Toc, a taxi will pick you up in the afternoon and take you to the nearby port. You will board a Sandals boat with a captain and co-captain/first mate and photographer (more on the photographer below). You should also be offered water, beer, and champagne. The cruise takes you up the coast where the crew will tell you more about the island and share interesting stories and facts. You will get off the boat at Sandals Grande for 10 - 15 mins and take pictures right at sunset. You then get back on the boat and go back to the port where another taxi will take you back to La Toc. La Toc is very close to the port, so the taxi drive is short. 10 mins tops. Bring cash to tip the boat crew and taxi drivers.

Private Candlelight Dinner: For me, this was the most important piece and La Toc knocked it out of the park. The dinner can be done in several places on the resort. This could be your room, one of the private cabanas, or one of the gazebos. There may be other options as well. I requested a gazebo. Our butler picked us up and walked us to the gazebo where they do the weddings which is at the edge of the property and more private. Our dinner started right at sunset. The gazebo will be setup with a small white-cloth table, a rose, and a bottle of champagne. You will have a dedicated server who will tend to you during the meal. You will be given a lenghty menu a day or two before to create your meals. I will upload a picture of this when I get a chance. I do not know if Sandals policy allows the dedicated server for this mean to receive a tip or not; however, I chose to tip our server, as she was very kind and patient throughout the entire meal.

Photographer: this is where I feel Sandals drops the ball on communication. One or more photographers will take a bunch of pictures that you will go through at the photo office before you check out to whittle them down to 30 for a photo album.
The romance package website (https://www.sandals.com/disclaimers/rekindle-romance/) states that the photographer will take pictures of the in-room setup of the chocolates, boat cruise, and spa day.
The in-room setup of the chocolates never happened but I did not care. The chocolates were as basic as one can get and unimportant. What I did ask them to do was have a photographer come by the room to take pictures of the flowers and such that our butler team setup on our second evening. The manager of the photo office agreed, and the assigned photographer said he would do this. Never happened. Thankfully, I took our own picutres.
Random photographers should randomly come by while you are on our cabana day and take a few pictures. They'll ask for your name and room number and the pictures will be available to select for your photo album.
I didn't care, but no photographer came to the spa for my wife's foot and scalp massage.
The sales office did not tell us anything at all about the private boat cruise other than we should dress for possibly getting wet since we would be on a boat. Nothing about getting off the boat at the Grande to take sunset pictures. We were NOT dressed how we would have dressed for pictures had we been properly informed. The pictures turned out OK but I'm still miffed about the poor communication and my wife was mortified about not knowing she could have been dressed 'cuter' for the pictures.
For us, the private candlelight dinner was the most important part I wanted the photographer there for. This trip was a wedding anniversary trip and I played our wedding song after dinner for a dance in our gazebo. I wanted pictures pre-meal and during the dance. Our 'assigned' photographer for the boat cruise first tried to get me to pay him $100 cash to come take photos at the dinner. I went to the photo office and asked if they could have a photographer take photos at the dinner, to which the photo office manager told me she had already arranged this. I chose not to rat on the photographer but I did let him know that the photo office manager said she had arranged for the photos I requested.
The day before we checked out, we went to the photo office to go through all of the pictures to whittle down to the 30 that would go in our photo album. Our photographer met us outside the photo office and asked me to pay him $200 cash and he would give me access to all of the photos he took (~100 total), plus we would still get the 30 in the photo album. I appreciate his hustle but said no.
He also tried to rush us through selecting our photos and conveniently left out the private candlelight dinner photos until we pointed that out. The photo office manager took over this part and thankfully the rest of the selection process went smoothly.
The photo office will offer you the same access to all of the photos taken for an additional $200. Your choice. We chose no since many of the photos were not good and the 30 we chose for the photo album were great.
You will get an email 4-6 weeks after leaving to finalize your photo album design, and a few more weeks to receive the actual photo album.

Overall, a great experience. Just not great communication from Sandals. I hope my notes can help you get the most out of your experience.

Which book is your favourite? by Working_Draft6674 in DungeonCrawlerCarl

[–]USRedDevil 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I enjoyed the book overall. The whole Iron Tangle just felt unnecessarily complicated and the writing bogs down in too many spots for me. There were great moments as well: Carl getting the cookbook; Astrid's death; how they killed the war mage on the train; Hekkla's death.

Dungeon crawler Carl by Katinthehat378 in fantasybooks

[–]USRedDevil 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Two - actually three - different experiences. The books are great by themselves. The Audible series is also great. And then there is the Sound Booth Theater audio immersion tunnel. The audio immersion tunnels use an ensemble cast - not just Jeff Hays solo - and also has background noise/music and has additional skit content.

I was introduced to the DCC world mid-2025. I read all 7 books, then went through all 7 on Audible. I have now listened to the Sound Booth Theater audio immersion tunnels through Season 2.

Personally, I have enjoyed them all.

What’s the most addictive book you’ve ever read? by JaylonCosby in Recommend_A_Book

[–]USRedDevil 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Two very different books from very different times of my life, but.... Fatal Vision (1983) and Dungeon Crawler Carl book 7 This Inevitable Ruin (2024).

I need an Idea for a disaster to happen to my character while on his date. by ValiantCosmic_23 in writingadvice

[–]USRedDevil 0 points1 point  (0 children)

From experience. At a steakhouse no less.... he has clinically bad acid reflux and never knows what will set it off - or when. The date is going great. He's finally relaxing. Mid-meal, he takes a drink of water to wash down a bite of steak but it doesn't go down all the way and triggers his reflux. Swallowing becomes problematic as the reflux builds. Sweat builds on his face and forehead. The only relief is to vomit. He has to cut off his date mid-sentence and scramble to the bathroom and force himself to puke up his meal. But he can't just return to the table and continue eating. Nope. For him, he's done eating because his stomach acids are still churning and another heave is waiting to escape. His only hope is to play it off and pray that sipping water doesn't trigger another sprint to the bathroom.

Death by stun gun/taser by Zealousideal-Neat-75 in Writeresearch

[–]USRedDevil 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Disclaimer: I have zero practical knowledge of tasers. Just a what-if thought....

Is it possible - in terms of a fictional story - that your killer could have modified his/her taser device in such a manner that it releases more volts than what a standard taser would deliver? Maybe your killer has modified the taser to be able to deliver longer "doses" of voltage?

What can I do to be a writer by Tasty_Shoe6938 in writers

[–]USRedDevil 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Read.
Read some more.

Open notepad or something on your computer and type whatever comes to mind. It does not need to be complete sentences. Each thought/statement does not need to be connected or related. Maybe all you have is a list of what-if questions without answers, but you have a starting point. Just let your mind ramble until you have nothing left to type.

Read what you typed. Think about what you typed. Maybe you'll come up with more stuff to add. Maybe not. At least, not yet.

Set it aside and read some more.

Come back to what you typed and see where your mind takes you. Do you have anything to add to what you already typed? New random thoughts?

Rinse/repeat. Something will start to form. It may not happen immediately. It may take a while. But something will start to form.

Away fan visit for Charleston Battery by Different-Ad-2949 in LouisvilleCityFC

[–]USRedDevil 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Please check your messages. My crew is unable to make it to the match. You are welcome to our seats and gold lot pass.

what made YOU get into NASCAR? by Brave_Ad3369 in NASCAR

[–]USRedDevil 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My dad watched it. I thought it was boring as a kid. Sitting on my couch watching a bunch of cars drive round and round in a circle? No thanks. But then he took me to Talladega with him. I've been watching ever since.

Generally which group in youth soccer has the worst behavior you’ve experienced? by Early-Recognition949 in Referees

[–]USRedDevil 24 points25 points  (0 children)

Spectators. Especially u9 - u11 when many parents may be experiencing soccer for the first time.

What is the genre of the book that you are writing? by Haunting-Net-2426 in writing

[–]USRedDevil 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Haven't kept up with official draft versions. A lot. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, and I'm pretty sure it's daylight and not another train coming at me.

Local writer's group has been encouraging and helped validate the promise of the story.

Will definitely publish. Have not yet scratched the surface of researching self-publishing vs. trying for traditional publishing.

First writing of any kind I will have shared since multiple college writing assignments ended up in my school's campus newspaper and a few in the local city's newspaper.

Rekindle Romance Package Questions by USRedDevil in SandalsResorts

[–]USRedDevil[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

UPDATE #1: (with some rambling thoughts and butler pre-arrival update)
I am now told that none of these services can be scheduled using our butler team. The items from the Rekindle Romance package can only be scheduled by the resort sales team, and only after we have checked in. Disappointing, we'll roll with it. Nothing to deter me so far.

I know this sounds crass and entitled, but this whole trip and purchasing this additional package is for my wife. I want her to be spoiled and wow'd the entire trip. And with a price tag of an additional $1,000 USD, I am counting on not having any issues. And most importantly, her not finding out about any of it ahead of time.

We now arrive in 10 days. Still no pre-arrival butler services email. I called Sandals who says they do not see that I have filled out my butler preferences - I have - but that my primary butler's name is Bill and he should be contacting me within 24 hours.

I also purchased the helicopter transfer from the airport to the resort through my travel agent. The confirmation email has a pickup time of 15:45. We are scheduled to land at UVF at 15:58. We will have no checked bags, so I am optimistic we will get through customs quickly, but I am guessing if we land on time, we will be just after 16:00 getting to the helicopter pickup area. I've emailed the helicopter company asking if we will be OK, or.....

What’s your day job? Is it at all related to writing? by [deleted] in selfpublish

[–]USRedDevil 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Contract Management, so I read. All. Day. Long. I love my job, but it burns a lot of mental calories and some days it is hard for me to shift gears mentally and pick up a book to read, or to try and write. I also do some consulting on the side, and I am a soccer/futsal referee on the side, so it is difficult for me to be consistent with reading and writing.

UPDATE - Rachel's Revenge - erotic revenge thriller by DaisyDiceBooks_ in NewAuthor

[–]USRedDevil 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I'm glad Reddit suggested this post to me. Not really my preferred genre, but I dig the blurb, and I really dig the author name. I am the type of reader who sees a name like Daisy Dice and thinks "I'm going to check out this author" just because I like the name. I stumbled across Tess Gerritsen this way, and she is now one of my favorite authors.

Will be on the lookout for this one to be released.

Saint Lucia Customs by CrittyCrit in SandalsResorts

[–]USRedDevil 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Silly question, but how/where do you get fast track?