This is mark Joseph “young” blog entry #532, on the subject of Versers Chilled.
With permission of Valdron Inc I have previously completed publishing my first eleven 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,
- In Version, in collaboration with Eric R. Ashley, and
- Con 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 twelfth, A Dozen Verses, 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 ninth post for this novel, covering chapters 97 through 108. Previous posts are:
- #524: Twisting Worlds, covering the first twelve chapters;
- #525: Character Battles, covering chapters 13 through 24;
- #526: Versers Adjust, chapters 25 through 36;
- #527: Characters Reorient, chapters 37 through 48;
- #528: Versers Investigate, chapters 49 through 60;
- #529: Characters in Action, chapters 61 through 72;
- #530: Versers Move, chapters 73 through 84; and
- #531: Versers Roam, chapters 85 through 96.
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.
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 97, Slade 283
Chapter 98, Kondor 288
Chapter 99, Cooper 105
Chapter 100, Slade 284
Chapter 101, Kondor 289
Chapter 102, Cooper 106
Chapter 103, Slade 285
Chapter 104, Kondor 290
Chapter 105, Cooper 107
Chapter 106, Slade 286
Chapter 107, Kondor 291
Chapter 108, Cooper 108
I wrote this immediately on the heels of writing Slade 282. Eric had already written Kondor 287, and we had an open Cooper chapter, but I had ideas about the direction for Slade, and wanted to pursue them while I had them.
Eric wrote this after I wrote Slade 284. There was a question about whether C’s scriff tracking satellite network could track objects containing scriff. My answer was that I thought not, but given that it s not addressed in the book I would allow a particularly good General Effects roll give it to the character if that’s what the player wanted.
Eric left me a note that I should start the Farmland Alpha in Cooper 106, but Cooper 104 had left an uncertain outcome, and I did not want the entire crew of The Energetic killed in a crash. Thus I wrote this to give us a verse-out with the possibility of the ship being saved, and to expand on the power of the glove.
I was on a roll with Slade stories, so I jumped over Kondor and Cooper to write this. I had gone through the equipment lists for both characters, and the bayonet struck me as the most promising tool for the purpose. I also worked out how to cook the fish, but saved that for the next chapter, which I wrote shortly after this one.
Eric decided to split Kondor from Zeke and do a bit of spytech gadgetry here. I raised a couple minor points which he fixed.
Eric left me a note to start the Farmland Alpha world here. I had to go back over the end of the previous book to determine that Cooper was at Stage Two, so either should move to Stage Three or have another dream, and I went with the dream. I knew when I versed him out of the last world that he once again would be some distance from his gear, but not, I think, so far as last time.
Eric commented that he was eager to see how Slade solved the cooking problem, but it wasn’t really that difficult–the hard part was to make it seem like he hadn’t remembered doing this before, since it was a significant part of the first world described in the first book.
I had expected Eric to write this, but realized that there were aspects, particularly in regard to his equipment, that I wanted to handle, so I drafted it. He was tweaking it before I had finished writing it, largely because the delivery system was his baby and I had not fully understood it.
I drafted this to reunite Cooper with his gear and begin to give a feel for the world. We don t plan to keep him here long, for several reasons, but we do need to establish the world before he leaves it.
Eric drafted this, looking for ways to improve Slade’s situation with the tools they have.
Eric put together this last leg of the journey to the targeted facility, and the initial assault.
I needed to inch this story forward, so I wrote this, with a lot of retrospection. The discussion of Doctor Mordenslice is setting up a future scenario, since it appears that outside Cooper’s knowledge Mordenslice became scriff-infected in his battle with Derek, and so is in the verse and going to cross paths with Brian again.
This has been the ninth behind-the-writings look at A Dozen Verses. If there is interest and continued support from readers we will endeavor to continue with more behind-the-writings posts and another novel.