Navel fluff general persiflage and help please

a very nice review of Muffled Drum over at Creative Whimsy. Thank you!

http://creative-whimsy.blogspot.com/2011/07/muffled-drum-by-erastes.html

i see a pattern in my reviews, and that's regarding endings. Time and again (not everyone, because everyone's different) I see people saying that the ending was a bit rushed, and that's been the case in more than one of my books. I think all of them at some point or other have been accused of having too abrupt an ending. I don't really know what I can do to change this, to be honest. I write the story as I see it happening, and generally it's with a flurry of action. Partly I suppose because I tend to write cinematically (so I've been told) with slower beginnings and faster endings.  (Heh, that's changed for the opening section of the Book Still Loosely Titled Minced Spies!)

By the time we get to the end, I generally feel that all the romance elements are in place, but some readers don't feel the same, and there must be a disconnect there that I can address—make some kind of compromise, do a bit longer for them without feeling I'm being over-laboured "LOOK THEY LOVE EACH OTHER ALL RIGHT?" 

It is interesting what readers see in your books that you don't, or don't see what you do. One reviewer actually said (not of the ending, but of the eventual bedding of Rafe and Ambrose in Standish that it was abrupt and far too fast!  This did baffle me as Rafe's seduction of Ambrose took months.

AND HELP NEEDED. Anyone know what the arresting sentence would be around the 1920's?  I suPpoSe i should check out Christie books and see if I can find it, but the nearest thing I can find is a 1940 reference on Wikipedia. But after 1912, a caution to remain silent had to be made. Perhaps it wasn't universal like it is today and each force didtheir own? If you don't know – do you know of any UK equivalent sites to "ask a cop" that there might be? And don't suggest Little Details – I ain't NEVER going there again.

When Algorithms go Bad.

 

Saw this on the tail end of an article about the legal process in England and Wales.

Wales Looking For Wales? Find It Nearby With Local.com! Local.com

Well, if I found Wales nearby to me, I'd be a bit startled.

a question for historical writers and readers

It's a pretty solid tradition for writers to invent members of the aristocracy and pass it off as historical—there are thousands of counts and earls and lords etc.

But what about royalty?

I mean, if you can invent counts and earls, some of whom are likely to be in the line of succession, why not a Richard IV or a John II? Or princes of wales (or lesser) that didn't exist?

I ask because I've just seen a review on Elisa Rolle's blog of a made up Japanese Prince and my first thought was "oh that's not historical, so I can't put it on Speak Its Name" but now I cometo think of it, why not?  WHY Are earls and lords not AU and yet Kings and princes Who didn't exist AU?

HELP ME please. my head is about to explode. I need to ask the same question of the Historical Novel Society.