Hey Lynn, thanks for visiting. Adult Voice: Yeah, well, I am ancient. In my thirties. That's practically undead. Mirror scene not only don't work with vampires, they are also stupid. C J Cherryh says you get to use that trick -once- in your career so save it for something special.

Myself I prefer the "movie" approach used by Terry Pratchett in many of the early diskworld books. Picture the scene from high above, bird high, aeroplane, spaceship... Zoom in until you can make out the city.. zoom in until you can see the location... zoom in... Then switch to character viewpoint and start the action - BAM!

Glad you liked the stories. Waiting for Andrew is a personal favorite. It was fun to write precisely because it's a mood piece. There's really no meaning or action there, it's all about mood and description. Hades is a moody place, I guess.

Re: The World in Play, Chapter one: Thanks. It was the first piece of HTML I ever did. Later efforts had paragraph tabs and everything, but I remember fretting about this one the most. I looked over the chapter, and I think you're right, there could have been more description of the alley, the fight, and what the vanquished vampires looked like before they disolved into dust. If it were easier to post on Elfwood, I would revise more often. Because of what I felt to be plot constraints, I didn't get around to describing Martin until Chapter Four: Julia, sinct the usual ploy for decsribing the POV character is having him look in a mirror, and that doesn't work with vampires.

I looked at some of your stories. I liked The Fisherman's Tears and Waiting for Andrew. You have an adult voice, which is rare here.

I just startede writing this again for a very interesting reader who said nothing about any of my grannar or puncuatuion.... I dont care if i have just a few weirds sentences, i do agree that i draw on some but u dont need to tell me about my horrible perfection, i wrote this originally in a notebook and im going to keep it notebook style bad grammar and all until i have typed this alll out! Thx very much, buty no thanks if u want it done, do it urself!

Che Franz-Joseph Monro replies: "Hello Carly, Thank you for visiting my page. Um, your comment is rather hard to read. May I suggest that conventional paragraphs and punctuation would help your readers to understand your post? I'm sorry that you do not appreciate my comments on your story - I worked hard on it. As your reader it is not my job to edit your work and improve it - and we would need to negotiate a fee if I were to do so as an editor. Since you don't like my comments I won't visit your page again unless you invite me directly. The best in Life and Love and Happiness to you! Che"

Just for ur information, i was trying a new writing style wen i wrote this and its the very fiorst draft! Im going to revise as soon as i finish writing the whole damn story. I wrote it for ppl to enjoy not nit pick my grammmar! And i like my "stupid" words like quell. Thats wat makes my writing mine. I use old twists and old words to put in to give the story a drawn on feel. This storyis supposed to be a conclusion to a i dont remember 500 year old battle! If u really want that stuff fixed then u do! In the mean time ill be writing the rest and propbably making the revise on deviant b/c lfwood takes too long, so if u want to see it revised there then just go to lhena2.Deviantart.Com! Tha very muchg. God damn it good bye ans good redends. Oh and just to let u know, i dont care if u r a mods choice writer and that i shoupl be taking ur advie and not flaming u, i likemy writing style for this, but remember i have revamped my style so is nothing like mercury!

hello, i am sorry for flaming at you. but i'd rather u not directly comment on my grammar. i dont care hpw bad or good it is, just to tell you. the mercury story was a notebook idea, i wrote during school while i was bored and typed the same thing from the notebook. i don't mind if u read anymore, but i'd rather you didn't work hard and waste your time on excessive grammar problems i have in mercury, that story is under first writing, meaning i am going to finish it then revise. i kniw i have a lot of runons in that story and thats its got some odd words, but that was just a way to express myself(odd words, not runons). i do apprcaite what you pointed out for, however. i'd rather my comments start out with how the reader liked it, then some mild critic on plot, major grammar(like runons), and if they had any trouble understanding any of it. I am very very sorry for blowing up on you, but I had just looked that morning. I'm not trying to make excesses, but I need to explain. I'm had just gotten three wonderful comments pushing me to finish mercury the day before and then i here from you and see your three mod's choices and think "oh, looky here. some mod's choice writer is picking on me to make himself feel even higher in elfwood's ranks..." I know it must be through your head now that I'd rather not have extensive crtique and if u wish i will say so in all my future revisions and new chapter on the summary. Thank you, have a nice time writing!

About character names: I used to spend too much time worrying about them -- I still do for some of them -- that I evolved a system involving lists from the obituary columns of the local paper (sometimes I want a typical San Francisco name), a massive collection of given names from the 21st century, the US Social Security records for historic names (1900-1999)and five or six two-sided dice. In other words, for some characters' names, I toss a coin. I also start with a character named one thing during the rough and shift to another name during the rewrite. It's not terribly original, but at least I no longer waste time trying for an ideal name for a walk-on character we may never see again.

Che Franz-Joseph Monro replies: "Yah, It's an issue aint it. Lots of writers don't name their minor bit characters at all, or try to avoid it. I'm always trying to find the name which feels right, and I look up name meanings and ponder stuff. I had to rename a character a couple of days ago. The name I finally came up with: Fawn - which is perfect for her, really."

Hey there, thought I would never get back on the extranet! Still not sure how to get there! LOL How are things in your part of the woods?

Che Franz-Joseph Monro replies: "I am having an awful day, full of violence and shouting and confusion. And beyond and before that I'm feeling depressed and lonely. Aren't you glad that you asked?"

Dear Che,
I am trying to contact my (half) brothers and sister, children of John (Darby) Monro and Betty. My brother Robert and I were the older children of Darby. Is this you? Surely there aren’t two Che Franz Joseph Monros in the world?

Che Franz-Joseph Monro replies: "Hey Katy, yep, that’s me! I don’t think there can be many Che Franz Josephs out there... I’m living in Melbourne now for the past four years. Anna is in Canberra and Fred is up in Brisbane. Daddy is up in Applethorpe in SE Queensland - I think Robert keeps in touch with him? How are you? Where are you living? What are you doing with yourself these days? It’s good to hear from you!"

I live in Canberra also. I sent an email to a CSIRO address to Anna. No reply as yet, but it was only yesterday. I am unfamiliar with this (Elfwood) site. I actually sent two mesages to you yesterday. On one of them I ticked a box that said "private message" - does that also go to you? The reason is, I had rather write via email address and I don’t like sending out my address in such a public forum. I see from some of the things you mention that you are a fan of Terry Pratchett. (Who isn’t). I am spending these holidays working on the cut-out-and-glue model of the Unseen University.Very relaxing. I am a teacher (mathematics) with 4 children. Two are still youngish (at school), two are grown up with children of their own. I am a grandmother of four. So that makes you a great uncle my dear.

Che Franz-Joseph Monro replies: "Moo! Um, no, actually it didn’t show me your email address, so you should probably mail me directly at chemonro@bigpond.com . Glad to hear you are a Pratchett fan. Actually I thought you said you worked AT the unseen University over the holidays! That would be interesting. I’m sure the Librarian could use some extra hands. But then again he has four? "

Hey, it’s Jake. I just want to let you know that i have a new story coming out and come to my page in nine or ten days... It’s called the Reaper Chronicles...talk with you later