The prologue has been rewritten and submitted for the Lit Idol competition.

Please check the Lit Idol website for more.

Thank you.

Wow Ian you're real good! I'm impressed!!!

Agreed! Very good indeed. Looking forward to more!

Hi Ian! nice to hear you !
you was a long time away ;)


greetings ralf

I sure would like to know what happened next!


th: this is great, please, please keep it coming, Ian!!!!!!

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!
Keep it coming Ian th:

That writing grabs you by the eyeballs yike:

Great stuff!

Such powerful writing Ian!! Not one grammatical fault, no misspellings and a powerfully descriptive narration. You deserve high praise Ian. Are you a published writer? I would recommend you to any publisher with that high calibre of writing skill. It must have been wriiten down before you typed it here before you transcribed it! If not it must have taken you a while to type that out unless you are a very good typist to boot!! You deserve to be published and I recommend you to work out the kinks in Blue Ice.

Whoa!
That kind of immediate response is encouraging! Thank you!
Actually, I'm writing a full-size novel (wanna give CC and Jack a run for their money p: ), but I wasn't sure how appealing a story set mainly in Russia would be for American/European audience. And hence my motivation was gradually sagging. But now you added some juice to my batteries! That'll keep me going!

th: Excellent work!! There's nothing wrong with a novel set entirely in Russia. Keep it coming.

We need more books on Russia to keep the rest of us well informed in whats going on. I would buy the book immediately and with that powerful writing it will definitely be a world-wide best seller!! Write that novel Ian and don't let the publisher or editor compromise your honest story telling. w:

Very good Ian. I sure hope you plan on adding more to this story. th:

Ian, keep that writing up, this would make an excellent novel and I think having it set in Russia is perfect. th:

P.S I hope your fans can get a signed copy once this book is finished ;)

Chapter One First Draft ~ approx 3,500 words


REMOVED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE

wow Ian! Have you enough time? ;)

Very good. i would recommend you give up the hours of sleep and whatever sort of social life you have, in order to finish the book posthaste. If your story and plot match your narrative voice, you will have an excellent finshed product.

You might also want to start shopping around for a reputable literary agent, and I would recommend getting a good editor who's opinion you trust, to help you smooth out all the rough spots. Other than that, as much as it pains me to say as a reader, you should probably stop putting everything out here for public view. Why would any of us buy the book if we've already read it. Do keep us posted though!

I am very much enjoying reading such a talented writer and like nick kismet says you should be publishing your work!!!! I can't wait to see published books by you Ian!!!! Hope I can be half as good as you with my efforts. :) Keep up the work Ian!!!! w:

:o Wow Ian very good indeed, I was right there through the whole thing, you are extremely talented (as I've told you before)

I will definitely be buying this...................the book will be heaps better once you've perfected the drafts ;)

Keep up the good work th:

Folks, you are amazing.

Now I think I know why authors go into this writing business - it's the fans :lol: th:


I certainly agree with everything you've all said.

Nick - I'm taking this novel very seriously. A first draft is just that - i need to proofread, edit and re-edit. By the way, I never intended to post the entire thing here (hence the orgiginal topic title) - i'm just giving you a teaser. According to my flow chart here, the really juicy stuff will start after 10-15 chapters or so. At most, i'm going to post only one or two more in this topic and then post progress reports only.

Kelly, tony - thanks for your fantastic support again.


Everyone who's bothered to read this thread - a big thank you! :lol:

:o Wow! Excellent stuff. You certainly have talent. Can't wait for your follow ups

Cheers beer:

WOW, your good. Very talented indeed :)

Fantastic job Ian!! I hope you consider entering the Literary-Idol contest in February!! Looks like my Ace Roberts character has some new "stiff" competition, LOL!! Can't wait to read the finish!!

Very well written, Ian. It was very enjoylable story. th:

Dirkpittne, Loren, ace, Sapper: Thanks! :lol:

Ace, I thought Literary Idol was cancelled yike:
So is it still running? I'm not sure now.

Why wasn't I told about this?!?! :angry:
Fortunately, there still appears to be time for me to mount a campaign.

Ian, Taxman has fallen off the map. But, we have someone who has volunteered to take over for him. What we will probably do is give it till November to see if he shows back up. If he doesn't, we may design a mirror-site to run the contest. Too much work and effort went into the current site, contest, and prize to just abandon it. At least that's my thoughts.

Nick Kismet, are you a member of the Simon & Schuster CCDB?

To prevent the Literary Idol to be flooded by non- or "sudden" Cussler fans, Literary Idol would have been restricted to certain boards. The literary idol site can still be accessed and the rules are available there.

Apologies Ian, I hope everyone wil get back to posting their admiration for your work. As the Literary Idol is a SSCCDB matter, I suggest that question, etc are handled on that side. Reference to the fact that Ian's work will be worthy competition there, is of course a compliment. :)

Unfortunately, I decided to remove the first chapter.
The reason for this is almost incredible.
As it turned out, the name for a fake oil company that I came up with perfectly matched the name of the Sikorsky helicopters manufacturer. So to avoid using a trademark of a real cmpany, I've removed the post for a while.

Very good th: th: