KSK

Meh, the one thing I learned from The Last Jedi and The Force Awakens was not to get sucked into the Star Wars fandom, nor to trust their audience ratings, since my opinion of both films seems to be more-or-less at odds with the prevailing 'wisdom'. Solo isn't on my 'must see at all costs' list by any means but I have enough Star Wars geeks in my circle of friends that I'll probably see it on opening weekend anyway. I'll take it as it comes and form my own opinions.

Forget dogs - what you need is a spherical owl.

I do not aim with my hand. He who aims with his hand has forgotten the face of his father. I aim with my inertial control unit hooked up to my TVC actuators with roll control provided by... Yeah, never mind.

Hooo boy - I'm still working on that myself. I have a terrible fondness for the passive voice (mostly because it works well for formal report writing and such - which I do quite a bit of at work) and have to stop it leaking through where it's not needed.

I had to go away and check that I had my definitions right but 'prose' covers a lot of ground. Taking a dictionary definition, prose is: "the ordinary form of spoken or written language, without metrical structure, as distinguished from poetry or verse." So, yes - as @steuben said, it would be good if you could narrow the question down a bit. In the meantime, I've heard a lot of good things about The Elements of Style by Strunk & White. It's not without its critics either mind, but even those critics seem to agree that it's a book that every writer should read. Sadly, I'm not yet one of those writers (although I do have a copy), so I can't tell you much more about it.

Well you got one part right - it probably was her truck.

Oh I do like me a good noodle incident! Shamelessly borrowed from a former writer on these forums:

I think this is one of those things that makes creative writing an art or a craft rather than a science, so I imagine you'll get quite a few different answers here. With that said, I'll give it a punt. You could try using actions or short descriptions of body language, either on their own or along with any dialogue you're including. If Jeb is sitting in a meeting paying more attention to his coffee cup or the view out of the window than whoever's talking, what does that tell you about his state of mind? How about if he's sitting forward in his chair, eyes fixed on the speaker? What about if he's sitting back, legs crossed, watching the ebb and flow of conversation around the table? If things are getting heated he might scowl at somebody. His verbal delivery might change or he might start using sarcasm. "Yes - and an absolutely marvellous job you made of it," Jeb snapped. Maybe throw in some punctuation there too: "Yes - and an absolutely marvellous job you made of it!" Jeb snapped. I'm personally not a great fan of using too many 'weird speech words' - plain old 'said' is usually good enough but changing that up occasionally can add emphasis. One other thing - and as my good editors will tell you, this is definitely a case of 'do as I say not what I do' - try to minimise use of adverbs. Don't tell me that Jeb said something angrily - show me! Have him slamming his fist on the table. Have him jabbing a finger at somebody or jumping to his feet and getting in somebody's face. Or maybe have him go very cold and controlled, only his blazing eyes giving away exactly how angry he is. OK that last one is a bit cliche but hopefully you get the idea. For what it's worth, strong emotion is something I struggle to write too. I'm never entirely sure that I'm not slipping over the line into melodrama. Incidentally, I sometimes find it helpful to act out various gestures or body postures and see if they fit the mood I'm trying to convey. This is possibly a technique to use in private though.

Love it! Scuse me a moment though. Be right with you... yup that'll buff right out... almost done... Your lampshades sir. All polished up and good as new. Hope you don't mind - couldn't help notice them hanging there and figured you'd want them back.

There's a challenge for you, Jim. Write a four line précis of Emiko that you can fob off 'interested parties' with. So, you see, it starts out as this but then it has this classic sci-fi inspired villain and then it goes this-a-way but wait-a-minute I forgot to tell you about this bit and... You know what - here's the URL. Knock yourself out.

I'll get you my pretty - and your little kerbals too!

Well there's an inspiring message to the community. Congratulations to this month's winners though.

Looks like they sorted out the cameras for this one. Could have sworn I saw Earth in the background there. Snark aside, that's another successful launch (seventh of the year?) and another fistful of dollars into the BFR kitty. Not a bad way to end the day. Edit - ninja'd by @CatastrophicFailure. Launch cadence though - I recall that being another running joke about SpaceX. Until it wasn't.

As a wise man once said: John F. Kennedy Rice University Stadium Houston, Texas

Methane isn't actually that bad. Ammonia would be another option but with a lower mass ratio of hydrogen. You could go a bit earlier in the Periodic Table but I wouldn't fancy parking large amounts of lithium, beryllium or boron hydrides on top of a rocket. Getting the hydrogen back out again without contracting a severe case of Kessler Syndrome is no picnic either. Storing large amounts of hydrogen at something approaching room temperature and pressure is tricky. It's one reason why fuel cell powered vehicles never really took off in a big way. Wikipedia has a decent summary for the interested - or at least it looks like a decent summary to me. Count me as an informed layperson here rather than an expert - my degree is in chemistry so I have some background but... I got my degree the best part of two decades ago.

Nah - for my money it's just plain old bureaucracy. Speaking as a former faceless bureaucrat and someone who deals with 'em on a regular basis - never underestimate the stopping power of a jobsworth with an out of date rulebook that almost-but-not-quite covers the situation at hand.

Tell me about it. I give myself a solid 10/10 for perseverance and a big fat 0/10 for managing feature creep.

Cheers @peadar1987. Short answer - rant averted. Things are heading in the right direction and no longer feel quite so unmanageable, even if they're not precisely fixed. @CatastrophicFailure - it's getting late on this side of the pond so more on this tomorrow. Should be able to oblige reasonably soon though. Cheers, KSK.

Single rooster recovery nets you some cash but to be honest it's pretty much chickenfeed in the overall scheme of things. Sorry...

Not unexpected given what Val was prophecied to be and what Edgas ended up being... I see things getting very interesting indeed if and when they team up (in whatever context you choose to interpret that). Much potential for righteous smiting in the name of the Light... And much potential for heartbreak along the way.

The good author doth give me too much credit. Very little input required - and it was a pleasure in any case! A fun, lighthearted chapter that every so often throws you a sudden curveball of a line, just to remind you that there's a serious point to it all? Sign me up. “No, you’ve lost your memory,” bounce bounce twist, “your mind might follow, if you keep staring into that darkness.” Also - and this is probably admitting more than I should admit but... wiggle, jiggle, poink? Slow that down a little and doesn't it remind you of something? wiggle... jiggle... poink! Pidgey was caught! Or perhaps that's just me.

Why not both? From what I've read, if you do end up making the grade as an astronaut, then pulling a stint or two as Capcom or some other flight control duty may well be part of the job anyway. Right now you can have a long career as an astronaut without actually flying into space very much.

So was Falcon 1 - until it wasn't. So was sub-cooled LOX - until it wasn't So was landing a rocket on a barge - until it wasn't So was Falcon Heavy - until it wasn't Wish all my jokes had punchlines that good.

Looking forward to it - but I'll try to keep some perspective.

*waiting for the other shoe to drop* Government officials (let alone Presidents) don't tend to show up with unexpected cheques. And a President with superiors....? Interesting. Very interesting.