All Comments on 'The Curator Ch. 17'

(It seems to me that this story will likely have a later made prequel about the lost civilization itself, because it feels as if it is going to have fans who will recreate the artifacts and have their own participatory engagements, websites).

What is, had been and maybe ought to be for forward thinking fans the relationship or the institutional cultural theme among the different senior, retired, dead, or those who have moved on (perhaps back to the field, to other institutions, to the military programs wanting the features learned, to family life) among the senior scientific and technical staff? A sub question about the guards protecting the institution and its personnel. A guard ON the Board is not practical, unless the Institutional Culture was to have that adopted formally as a Corporate Governance element, which would be as intriguing as your having explained Sue's own trauma and disappointment from the cultural practices found in modern field work. (If a guard were on the Board, that would be explained on that part of the website for the institution, and, maybe we missed Sue looking on line at the Squid or the Museum websites?) Ask about the impact on the tourists in the exhibits, not sure whether to focus in more depth on transformations about Maya, Cindy or even the Director. The panties and bra, the lost civilization items of apparel for the priestesses, it is unclear for the arc but there should be more clues if they are only POST whatever the rites will do for Sue. Lastly, her friend and the device, particularly in light of the passions for programming from Chapter 17 for the Eager Beaver, the Squid development or operational team, even customer service representatives, are omitted without the impact or interaction in the arc.

Thanks for your comment. Fans? Wow. I haven't really thought about having fans that much. You've made my day.

Let me see if I can answer/respond to some of your questions/comments. I generally like the details to come out of the story itself, so I haven't been one to write articles about the world background and such. I know some authors are as much into creating the setting and world as they are into the writing itself. I like to create world elements, but I don't think of them as a worthwhile story of their own.

I'm a little confused with the first paragraph (excluding the intro paragraph in parentheses). I think the gist of it is that you are looking for some background about the people and institutions involved.

Eros Technica is one of element. In this story, they are the squid creator, and employer of Sue's friend Stephanie (who hasn't made an appearance so far, but has been mentioned). ET is my model for a high tech sex toy company. I generally think of them as division of a huge corporation. Basically, they make high-end sex objects for the wealthy. I've used them in other stories and they tend to be an on-going theme of mine. I have a draft underway which features them more.

Within The Curator, I mention the military and some elements of the museum's institution. Sue doesn't know much more about the military involvement than the reader. I could create a backstory sometime for their involvement, but within this context I think it suffices to say that they would obviously be interested in some of the material involved. However, much like UFO stories and other such claims, they aren't very interesting in other claims about the Nuymeans.

The museum institution, including Charlie's membership on the board, has a little more going on than mentioned in the story. I don't think I can comment on either one without it being a spoiler. Let me just say that Charlie is more of a board member who is a security guard than a security guard who's a board member. He's also somewhat in the "silent partner" category. More on this should come out in the story later unless it becomes something of a "deleted scene." There is a backstory to Charlie, but I don't think it's an interesting enough story to write on it's own.

Would Sue know he's on the board? I suppose one could say it would be possible if they posted pictures and if she made the connection with names, but she really didn't figure out that Charlie's last name was Barnes until within the context of the story which starts after her hire.

I'm not sure what this line is asking, "Ask about the impact on the tourists in the exhibits, not sure whether to focus in more depth on transformations about Maya, Cindy or even the Director."

The smaller artifacts, especially the lusterite apparrel, have an interesting place in the story. I didn't want them to be the focus of the story so didn't spend a lot of time with long descriptions and the like, but I'm not done with them. I can't really say much more without risking spoilers.

Stephanie, is an open thread, as is the squid in general, at this point in the story. The Eager Beaver is really presented as if another artifact in the museum. It could have an interesting story of it's own, but I didn't want to sidetrack into that within this one.

I'm also on deviant art and it's a little easier to exchange questions and answers on there if you happen to be on it as well (requires a free account to view mature content). neglected2much.deviantart.com

but it seems to have stalled a bit. the sex is, of course, great, but the plot hasn't really advanced for a while now.

I think you are talking about the main events in the plot line about the Nuymeans and Sue's investigations. At the same time as that plot develops, Sue is trying to wrap her head around what's going on, what she wants, what she's trying to do, etc. She has gotten away from that original focus as part of her journey, but it's kind of hard for her to find meaning with all of that while she's sorting it all out on a personal level. At least that's where I was trying to go. She'll be circling back around shortly.

You mention in this chapter that Sue is surprised to find out she had a g-spot yet in the chapters with the squid the squid working on her g-spot is mentioned quite frequently. I'm assuming you simply forgot that bit because quite a bit of time has passed between this chapter and the squid chapters, but if not you need to explain in the story how Sue hasn't realized her g-spot was stimulated before. So you need to either add to this chapter's narrative or delete from it the stuff concerning her realization that she had a g-spot.

Also, I think it was mentioned or at least hinted in the first chapters that going through the third stage is life-threatening and that is why Dr. Barnes died. Later on it appears not to be so and also that Maya was Dr. Barnes's daughter. I'm guessing these inconsistencies appear because you haven't thought about using Maya as the daughter of Dr. Barnes, but in the future it's better to add a character like that, rather than give an already existing character a new role. Maya's being Dr. Barnes' daughter feels faux, because it's hard to imagine Sue not even noticing that Maya had the same last name as Dr. Barnes (and if she didn't then her behavior around her father should be noticeably different than her coworkers implying that at least they know each other - and that should be hinted at in the story if you don't want readers like me picking at the perceived inconsistencies in your story).

On the whole, though, I love the story and can't wait to see what happens next. Please hurry up with the next installment, the cliffhanger is killing me!

Thanks for the careful read. These are things like in a movie where the wine glass if empty one minute and then full the next: it's easy to lose track. (Just saw that happen on an episode of The Big Bang Theory the other day, Howard's wind glass on the train.) In fact, it's a lesson learned about writing longer works for me. Since I do like to clean these kinds of things up, I'll take a look at some edits.

The G-spot inconsistency is a reflection of what I was thinking. I wasn't really thinking Sue knew specifically that her g-spot was being stimulated in the one section. It doesn't come out right in the text though. I see what you mean.

Sue not recognizing the connection between Maya and Maggie could have been handled better. Again it was something in my thinking that didn't come out right in the text, Sue was not supposed to be a close associate of Maya at work. That's the main reason she never made the connection. In my original notes (very old and written on clay tablets), Charlie and Maggie had a falling out and Maya did not have the same last name.

I'll take a closer look at the other references to Dr. Barnes death and/or non-death. I suspect that one reflects Sue's assumptions.

I'm anxious to continue as well (I have a couple pages of the next installment written). I've had a lot of things going on with work and life in general so I'm lucky to get a half hour writing time in a day, but I've also had problems with other story ideas sort of running interference. It's hard to explain, but sometimes my imagination and thought stream get "hijacked" by other stories I'm thinking about. I've found the best way to get past that is to just spend some time getting the other ideas written down.

Thanks for taking the time to comment. I'm so glad you like the story. Positive comments are like writing fuel to me.

Have just read the whole series through thinking ch17 would be the climax.... and it isn't! You've been away a while, hopefully you can pick up again. An interesting story a bit different from the run of the mill stuff on here. Be good to see it through to the end

It's a complicated explanation of finding time, being distracted with other stories, illness and the like, but I do plan to finish the story. Chapter 18 is up on my deviantart page (my home base for now, neglected2much.deviantart.com).