This is mark Joseph “young” blog entry #523, on the subject of Versers Crashing.
With permission of Valdron Inc I have previously completed publishing my first ten Multiverser novels,
- Verse Three, Chapter One: The First Multiverser Novel,
- Old Verses New,
- For Better or Verse,
- Spy Verses,
- Garden of Versers,
- Versers Versus Versers,
- Re Verse All,
- In Verse Proportion,
- Con Verse Lea, and
- In Version, in collaboration with Eric R. Ashley,
in serialized form on the web (those links will take you to the table of contents for each book). Along with each book there was also a series of web log posts looking at the writing process, the decisions and choices that delivered the final product; those posts are indexed with the chapters in the tables of contents pages. Now as I am posting the eleventh, Con Version, again written in collaboration with Eric R. Ashley, I am again offering a set of “behind the writings” insights. This “behind the writings” look may contain spoilers because it sometimes talks about my expectations for the futures of the characters and stories–although it sometimes raises ideas that were never pursued, as being written partially concurrently with the story it sometimes discusses where I thought it was headed. You might want to read the referenced chapters before reading this look at them. Links below (the section headings) will take you to the specific individual chapters being discussed, and there are (or will soon be) links on those pages to bring you back hopefully to the same point here.
This is the nineteenth and final post for this novel, covering chapters 217 through 228. Previous mark Joseph “young” behind-the-writings web log posts for this book include:
- #498: Characters Restart covering chapters 1 through 12;
li> - #501: Characters Orienting, covering chapters 13 through 24;
- #502: Verser Setbacks, chapters 25 through 36;
- #503: Versers Progress, chapters 37 through 48;
- #505: Versers Advance, chapters 49 through 60;
- #506: Characters Involved, chapters 61 through 72;
- #509: Character Challenges, chapters 73 through 84;
- #510: Versers Debate, chapters 85 through 96;
- #511: Characters Change, chapters 87 through 108;
- #512: Versers Work, chapters 109 through 120;
- #515: Verser Troubles, 121 through 132;
- #516: Versers Stymied, 133 through 144;
- #517: Versers Moving, 145 through 156;
- #518: Versers Plan, 157 through 168;
- #519: Versers Congregate, 169 through 180;
- #520: Versers Employed, 181 through 192;
- #521: Versers Act, 193 through 204; and
- #522: Versers Traveling, 205 through 216.
There is also a section of the site, Multiverser Novel Support Pages, in which I have begun to place materials related to the novels beginning with character papers for the major characters, giving them at different stages as they move through the books. This is also the longest book to date, and has quite a few long chapters in it, so there will be quite a few of these background articles.
History of the series, including the reason it started, the origins of character names and details, and many of the ideas, are in earlier posts, and won’t be repeated here.
Quick links to discussions in this page:
Chapter 217, Cooper 69
Chapter 218, Takano 152
Chapter 219, Brown 362
Chapter 220, Cooper 70
Chapter 221, Takano 153
Chapter 222, Cooper 71
Chapter 223, Brown 363
Chapter 224, Takano 154
Chapter 225, Brown 364
Chapter 226, Takano 155
Chapter 227, Cooper 72
Chapter 228, Takano 156
We sat on this for a few days, trying to work out the details of the battle. Eric had set up some of the scene, and I made some proposals for the action, and after passing ideas between us for a while I drafted the chapter in which Mister Justice and the local heroes deal with Sewer Savage and his Shamblers.
Eric provided the song selection, and commented that he likes listening to Alison Krauss sing that song.
After some discussion about the sequence of events, I put this together as the first half of the fight against the Blackmasks with a cliffhanger ending.
Eric drafted this, but I spotted some flaws in the use of Derek’s different body forms, so it had to be adjusted a bit.
Eric drafted this. I made the point that Cooper would be tired from having used the sword’s ability enhancement power.
There was significant discussion in advance of me writing this, which incorporated ideas from both of us. Eric suggested that Lady Nightmare herself was an illusion, but that would prevent them from catching her and would make it more difficult for her to monitor the activities of her workers, so I went with the idea that the illusory fire wasn’t burning anything.
I also thought it necessary for one of the heroes to stay with Sewer Savage to detain him; I picked Sockajawea because I thought it more likely that The Eagle would fly to help Michael Gabriel.
We discussed what should happen in this swordfight, and agreed that Justice would try to damage the computer but fail to do so, that the sword could parry the energy weapon, and that Brian would be killed in this fight. Eric put it together.
Eric had suggested I write two more chapters to finish the book, but when I got called away in the middle of writing this Eric thought I had come to the end of a chapter and started the next one, so the book got extended a bit further.
Eric drafted this, but there were a lot of little problems that had to be fixed, mostly in relation to the use of psionics. I had devised the eject skill for Tommy and Vashti to fight back against Nightmare, and then created the psionic grounding skill for Tommy to protect them all.
Eric left this for me, and I laced the fight scene with conversation. We had agreed that both combatants would die here, in a bloody confrontation that would result in Mordenslice becoming scriff infected to reappear in some future world.
I drafted this, giving Tommy a psionic attack to disable Nightmare.
Eric drafted this as the final chapter, but that put two Takano chapters in a row, so I moved it.
Eric drafted this; I made a few tweaks, but left most of it intact.
This has been the nineteenth and final behind-the-writings look at Con Version. If there is interest and continued support from readers we will endeavor to continue with more behind-the-writings posts and another novel.