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Books by the Author

#542: Verser Initiatives

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This is mark Joseph “young” blog entry #542, on the subject of Verser Initiatives.

With permission of Valdron Inc I have previously completed publishing my first twelve Multiverser novels,

  1. Verse Three, Chapter One:  The First Multiverser Novel,
  2. Old Verses New,
  3. For Better or Verse,
  4. Spy Verses,
  5. Garden of Versers,
  6. Versers Versus Versers,
  7. Re Verse All,
  8. In Verse Proportion,
  9. Con Verse Lea,
  10. In Version, in collaboration with Eric R. Ashley, and
  11. Con Version, in collaboration with Eric R. Ashley,
  12. A Dozen Verses, 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 thirteenth, Multiverser:  The Thirteenth Story,  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 fourth post for this novel, covering chapters 34 through 44.  Previous posts were:

  1. #538:  New Adventures, covering chapters 1 through 11;
  2. #539:  Adventures Begin, chapters 12 through 22;
  3. #541:  Characters React, chapters 23 through 33.

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.

Chapter 34, Beam 207

Eric wrote this.  There were a couple glitches which he had to address, such as that he confused Beam’s history with that of another character, but they were relatively minor.

Chapter 35, Takano 168

I had been trying to get to this for several chapters, and finally managed it, despite that there were several things I had not thought through.  I put it together in pieces though, and got everything I wanted.

It kept coming into my head that Aceydeecy’s secret identity name should be a member of the band.  Unfortunately, they are actually after my time and I didn’t know who was in the band, so I had to look it up.  I’d actually heard of Angus Young, and noted that he was one of the reported founders, so I went with him despite sharing a surname.  Eric proved to be less informed than I, as he later said he had assumed Angus was one of my sons, and missed the joke entirely.

I’ve given her a new problem, because she knows exactly who Aceydeecy is, but none of her evidence is admissible in the courts of that world, even if she could testify without compromising her identity.

Chapter 36, Brown 376

Eric wrote this, spending a bit more of the money and finishing the trip to Joliet.

Chapter 37, Beam 208

Eric tossed the ball to me, to see what I would do with Beam.  I consulted with Kyler, who created the original character modeled on a mutual friend and long-time player, and concluded that having defeated the top ruler of the facility Beam would declare himself emperor here, and start letting the underlings know.  My intention was to take this back to security and start spreading the word there, but I decided that my last line here was a good ending for the chapter.

Chapter 38, Takano 169

I’m not certain either what the villains are going to do next or what the heroes can do about it, but I knew that Tommy would have to explain what she knew to Keller.

Chapter 39, Brown 377

I recognized that Derek’s current problem was a place to sleep for the night.  I remembered, though, that my brother bicycled across the United States when he was eighteen or nineteen, and he said that when he was west of the Mississippi he often was permitted to sleep in churches.  This being a good half century before that, I figured that hospitality would still be found among at least some churches east of the river.  In any case, asking a pastor for advice on where to stay was certainly a reasonable course for Derek to take.  Having the pastor’s wife provide meals for them was an afterthought.

It was at just about this point in our writing that we received word that John Mastick, who had requested we include him as the character Johnny Angel, had died.  It was always our intention to include him in this book, and indeed much of the reason for taking Derek to New Orleans previously was so that he would have a trumpet and some practice on it so that he could come back to New Orleans now and join Johnny in what was John’s first Multiverser game world, but we now were the more determined to include him.  Eric also made the suggestion that we should dedicate this book to him, which seemed quite reasonable.

Chapter 40, Beam 209

My discussions with Kyler concerning what Beam does next brought up the notion that the atmosphere could actually be dangerous, and there would be worlds in which it was.  Thus I had Beam consider that.  I have not at this point decided, and left it at a cliffhanger.

Chapter 41, Takano 170

Eric wrote this, finally introducing the previously mentioned hero Fisticuff and giving us a potential new supervillain, as yet unidentified.  He expressed concern that it might be over-the-top, but I wasn’t unhappy with what he had so far.

Chapter 42 Brown 378

Eric wrote this, with only minor editing on my part.

Chapter 43, Beam 210

We discussed what would be outside, and this is what we came up with.  I wrote it.  Originally I had envisioned Beam sending people outside, but I decided instead he would create a place where the outside could come in.

Chapter 44, Takano 171

Eric had introduced Hecate Tower, and suggested that it was magically constructed.  I ran with that, suggesting that it might be a magical construct, and therefore that it could easily break a lot of the ordinary rules of reality.  They decide to investigate anyway, because that’s where the story takes us.

The reference to the movie with the dwarf opening the door to two different places is Labyrinth.

This has been the fourth behind-the-writings look at Multiverser:  The Thirteenth Story.  If there is interest and continued support from readers we will endeavor to continue with more behind-the-writings posts and another novel.

Books by the Author

#541: Characters React

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This is mark Joseph “young” blog entry #541, on the subject of Characters React.

With permission of Valdron Inc I have previously completed publishing my first twelve Multiverser novels,

  1. Verse Three, Chapter One:  The First Multiverser Novel,
  2. Old Verses New,
  3. For Better or Verse,
  4. Spy Verses,
  5. Garden of Versers,
  6. Versers Versus Versers,
  7. Re Verse All,
  8. In Verse Proportion,
  9. Con Verse Lea,
  10. In Version, in collaboration with Eric R. Ashley, and
  11. Con Version, in collaboration with Eric R. Ashley,
  12. A Dozen Verses, 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 thirteenth, Multiverser:  The Thirteenth Story,  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 third post for this novel, covering chapters 23 through 33.  The first post, covering chapters 1 through 11, was web log post #538:  New Adventures, and the second, chapters 12 through 22, #539:  Adventures Begin.  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.

Chapter 23, Takano 164

I had the impression Eric wanted me to write this, so I did.  I felt like the heroes just weren’t up to speed, but I needed the villains to accomplish something so I made Tommy hesitate.

I’ve already decided that Aceydeecy in his secret identity works for Wells Fargo.

Chapter 24, Brown 372

Eric said he had other things he wanted to include on the journey, so I left this for him.

We had some discussion about starting the Model T.  Eric envisioned it as a two-man job, that one person had to sit behind the wheel while the other worked the crank.  My father had driven a Model T when he was in college, and had talked about it occasionally, so I had some understanding of how it worked despite never having seen it done.  Eventually we got it to fit.

Chapter 25, Beam 204

I skipped Beam with a note that I wasn’t sure whether Shatner would take Beam outside and what that would mean, or whether he would take him to security to report his criminal activities, and waited for Eric’s response.  Eric suggested that Shatner would try to take him outside but security would catch them, but I didn’t see that working.  I also had the problem that Bob would know what Shatner was thinking, but I resolved that simply by having Shatner himself all jumbled with indecision, not sure whether to break the law by taking them out or risk taking them to law enforcement.  I decided that the decision would be made at the last minute, so that Beam would have to confront the security.

I’m not sure whether there’s going to be a bloodbath here.  After all, Beam isn’t a nice guy, and the indigs are not going to understand him in the least.

Chapter 26, Takano 165

I wrote this to move forward into an investigation that would uncover the mole at Wells Fargo.

Chapter 27, Brown 373

For what it s worth, Eric picked Hilton, and said that it could be Marriot if Hilton didn’t work.  I commented that when I was in college I met the Hilton heir, Ron Hilton, who perhaps appropriately was handling housing for Gordon College.  I didn’t figure it made much difference, but while I was writing this chapter I decided to make sure that the Hilton didn’t have some considerably older history or something.  Turns out it was actually launched in 1925 in Texas, but I m fine with that.  Maybe this was another hotel in the new chain.

I made up all the prices and meals.  I also decided to give them sandwiches, mostly because I was worried about what they were going to eat even if I found a good reason for Derek not to.

Chapter 28, Beam 205

Eric wrote most of this, up to the point where the guard who was not shot is explaining to Beam that he’s been shot and has to lie down now.  I added the last paragraphs in which Beam shoots the other guard.

Chapter 29, Takano 166

I had left a note that I had an idea for this chapter, so Eric skipped it while I was sleeping, and I returned later after reading what he had done overnight.

I wrote this in pieces, and it kept getting pushed into more.  I wanted to start with Tommy leaving work early Monday to try to identify Aceydeecy, but I realized that she already had two things she had to do on Sunday, first talk to the pastor about what happened to Brian and then have lunch with Robbie.  Then as I was thinking about her walk to Robbie’s it struck me that she should break up a robbery on the way, which delayed her arrival to the next Takano chapter.

Chapter 30, Brown 374

Eric wrote this.  He left a note to the effect that he’d read about drivers running pedestrians into a ditch in another book, and so included it here for color.

Chapter 31 Beam 206

When I was reading over Eric’s work in the middle of the night (don’t ask) I decided to write an opening for this chapter and see where it went.  I came back the next day and added more to it, and then he took over right after Beam shot two officers and threatened to shoot another.

I had left a space for the title of the leader, and Eric filled it with “vibgyor’.  Eventually I asked if the word had an etymology, and he affirmed that it was the reverse of the mnemonic for the colors of the rainbow, Roy G. Biv.  We had not decided whether to make anything of that.

Chapter 32, Takano 167

I started this as soon as I had finished Takano 166, but again interrupted just as they were starting to talk about God, because I wasn’t feeling all that well.  I finished it in several spurts.

Chapter 33, Brown 375

Eric wrote this, continuing the road adventures of the Browns.  This was not at all the story I planned for this world, which was supposed to bring Derek into New Orleans so I could bring Johnny Angel back, but as long as they were still headed that direction and the story was interesting we had time to get there.

We got into a discussion over the price of the meal.  Eric wrote that it was ten cents for a plate and a quarter for all you could eat, and that they spent fifty cents for all you can eat.  I thought that was overpriced in two ways, first more than such a situation would charge and second more than they would dare pay.  I reduced it to a nickel for a plate and twelve cents for all you can eat, and said they paid the quarter.  We then got into some discussion, and I tackled a bit of research to get a sense of what things ought to cost.  I came up with $1 in 1920 equals $15.26 in 2023, and that the average urban negro wage in Chicago was just under fifty cents per hour, with rural wages presumably lower.

This has been the third behind-the-writings look at Multiverser:  The Thirteenth Story.  If there is interest and continued support from readers we will endeavor to continue with more behind-the-writings posts and another novel.

Books by the Author

#540: First Novel Revisited

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This is mark Joseph “young” blog entry #540, on the subject of First Novel Revisited.

I was recently asked about how Verse Three, Chapter One came to be, and I wrote more than I expected, so I decided to copy it here for your appreciation.

File written by Adobe Photoshop¨ 5.0

I wrote about this in mark Joseph “young” web log post #18:  A Novel Comic Milestone, but let me outline a bit of it here.

The publication of Multiverser:  The Game was the real beginning of my writing career.  As mentioned in #279:  My Journey to Being a Writer, I had previously written a company newsletter and some satire in a local newspaper, but that was always adjunct to something else.  With the game I had books in print with my name on the cover.  Everything else sprang from that, and in fact most of it was trying to support that.

The company that put it in print, Valdron Inc, got a new president one year who I think was probably an astute businessman who knew nothing about role playing games.  He suggested we focus on creating a comic, and it fell to me to write this.  I worked a bit with our art director, Jim Denaxas, on creating the characters–I remember specifically that he suggested the surnames Kondor and Slade, and that Robert Slade’s middle name should be Elvis–and I began writing, in panel form, the text of a comic series that was going follow three characters with regular cliffhangers, Kondor and Hastings in the first edition, continue Hastings and bring in Slade in the second, continue Slade and return Kondor in the third.  Kondor was based on someone I had never met, named Richard Lutz, who had contributed to the form of the game and some of our ideas before I met Ed (Jones, who was the primary creator of the game).  He was in the army, I think he was a medic, I know he was a tech-head–Ed often commented about how he had a VCR with no buttons but was operated by knowing which wires to cross.  I made him black because I thought the characters should be distinct from each other, and on that I’m probably indebted to Kevin Deas, spelling unsure, who was at the Presbyterian music camp at Camp Lebanon in New Jersey with me several years.  Lauren was based largely on me, as I mention below.  Slade was a blend of the two Jones players, Ed who developed the game and gave the concept of turning to Norse religion when he died and didn’t land in heaven or hell, and Chris who provided much of the rest including tall with long hair, although the blond was my addition.  I wrote six issues like this, three chapters for each character, when the art department said that a comic was way beyond anything the company could produce (they said we would need a dozen artists; we had two, both part-time).  So the comic got buried.

But I liked what we had–the characters, the storylines.  After a few weeks I asked if it would be alright for me to turn the three stories into a novel, and that was greenlighted by the the directors.  I converted the panel-arranged text into story text, giving me the first six chapters, and continued each story from there.

I hadn’t gotten too far before I realized that if this was a novel, eventually the three stories were going to have to come together.  So I began thinking in terms of where it was going.  That meant a type of foreshadowing, in the sense that I had to prepare all three characters for the roles they would play when they came together.  I certainly didn’t have all the details, but I was beginning to get there.

Kondor’s first world was a world I had written for Multiverser:  The First Book of Worlds, and the world he lands in at the end is from that same world–the design of the world was intended to show that you could use the same basic story elements (in this case, a crew aboard a cargo ship) in multiple backgrounds (in this case, an early gunpowder sailing ship and an interstellar spaceship).  His second world, Sherwood Forest, also came from that book.  I went into it thinking he would learn to use a bow, but instead he sharpened his medical skills and learned tracking.  The third world, Quest for the Vorgo, was something I wrote inspired by Army of Darkness which I thought particularly appropriate for someone who doesn’t believe in magic.  It was originally published as part of a poorly-constructed stripped demo version of the game, and later expanded into a two-part story in Multiverser:  The Second Book of Worlds (if memory serves), and I used the second part in the second novel, Old Verses New.  From there he went to the “gather world”.

I’ve mentioned elsewhere that Lauren Hastings is very like me, and I don’t know whether I made her like me because I needed to have some connection to a female character or whether I made her female so she would be different from me.  Her first world borrows heavily from one of the first worlds Ed Jones ran me in during playtest, which was in turn drawn from White Wolf’s Vampires game.  My experience there went a lot longer, but I realized I needed to truncate it.  She went from there to the gather world.

I wanted to have three very different worlds for my characters at the outset.  I had Kondor on a spaceship and Lauren in a modern horror adventure, so I put Slade in a medieval.  I learned very quickly that as much fun as they could be to play, dungeon crawls were particularly boring on paper, but I pressed on and tried to keep it interesting.  I introduced Shella and made a serious mistake.  I’d actually made the mistake previously with Lauren and corrected it before going to print, but at this point I never expected to see Shella again so I never described her appearance.  (One of my problems is I’m not a terribly visual oriented person, so I don’t always think about what things look like.)  What happened with Lauren was I had always pictured her as I described when she finally meets Kondor in the gather world, but when my wife was reading the draft that scene shocked her because to her Lauren was a blonde.  I fixed it by adding the mirror scene in the vampire world, so I could describe her sooner.  But Shella returns in For Better or Verse, and because I failed to describe her in the first book I realized I couldn’t do so later without breaking what the readers already thought.  In any case, when Slade needed a new world I decided on another space adventure.  This one was largely inspired by the British sci-fi show Blake’s 7, and some of the stories within it were drawn from that.  I’d actually run two test players in a Blake’s 7 scenario which used the show for the storyline, replacing Blake with the player character.  From there, he went to the gather world.

I had some sketchy ideas about the gather world, largely because I needed to prepare the characters for it.  The bird people were drawn from a world I’d created for that aforementioned demo, but everything else was drastically changed.  I knew fairly early that Slade was ultimately going to be the hero, although I wasn’t sure how he would get there.  But I brought them together, gave them time to get to know each other, and then sprang the problem.  I needed to make the journey to rescue the girl interesting, and I also needed to strip Lauren and Joe away from Slade so he could face the final challenge alone.

I knew intuitively that Slade had to be the hero, but hadn’t really considered why.  A few years after it was published I read what is extant of Aristotle’s Poetics, and recognized that this was a sort of hero’s journey, that Slade goes from being an ordinary auto mechanic who imagines himself something more, and becomes the hero who rescues the girl.  That’s also why he isn’t in the second novel–his story had ended–although I brought him back in the third because I came up with another story for him.  For Lauren, this was the first chapter of her vampire trilogy.  She returns to that world at different periods in its history, fighting vampires in several of her worlds but also putting together the resources she will need ultimately to defeat them in the end of the third, including four people who will be allies in the fight.  As to Kondor, he moves forward from world to world without a lot of connection, although he has a few aspects that connect.  He keeps improving his medical skills and learns more physics.  His hatred of piracy and of slavery come together eventually when he lands on a pirate ship crewed by escaped slaves who are fighting the slavers.  Periodically I’ve added new viewpoint characters for various reasons, and maybe I’ll write about that sometime.

That’s more than I was going to write.  I hope it answers the question.

Books by the Author

#539: Adventures Begin

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This is mark Joseph “young” blog entry #539, on the subject of Adventures Begin.

With permission of Valdron Inc I have previously completed publishing my first twelve Multiverser novels,

  1. Verse Three, Chapter One:  The First Multiverser Novel,
  2. Old Verses New,
  3. For Better or Verse,
  4. Spy Verses,
  5. Garden of Versers,
  6. Versers Versus Versers,
  7. Re Verse All,
  8. In Verse Proportion,
  9. Con Verse Lea,
  10. In Version, in collaboration with Eric R. Ashley, and
  11. Con Version, in collaboration with Eric R. Ashley,
  12. A Dozen Verses, 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 thirteenth, Multiverser:  The Thirteenth Story,  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 second post for this novel, covering chapters 12 through 22.  The first post, covering chapters 1 through 11, was web log post #538:  New Adventures.  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.

Chapter 12, Brown 368

Eric wrote this, but it bothered me that he had them leaving Chicago and following dirt roads first, because I had already established that there were quite a few paved highways around Chicago, and second because it seemed to me obvious that Derek would recognize a paved highway as going somewhere and so would follow it.  I changed the beginning to have them travel some distance from the city on the highway and then give them a reason to take the dirt roads, after which I connected it to what Eric wrote, with only a few minor edits and suggestions on my part.

Chapter 13, Beam 200

Eric wrote this also, and my edits were even less significant, as I m still getting a feel for this world.

Chapter 14, Takano 161

I wrote this.  I had originally intended to go directly to the restaurant, but I had asked myself whether Belle sat in front or back on the drive, and decided that she would want to sit in the back and get to know Tommy, so I did that and stalled the dinner conversation to the next Takano chapter.

Chapter 15, Brown 369

We played a bit of tag team on this, as Eric started it, and I took over to have them count their money.  I also put an hour or so into trying to track down rail and steamboat fares from Chicago to New Orleans, with only limited success.  I then left it for him.

I was going for a world as much like our own as I could get, so I specifically researched the availability of maps and determined that Rand McNally didn’t publish its first road atlas–the first available complete roadmaps of the US–until 1924; we had established that this was 1923.  I knew that gas stations routinely gave away free maps in the 1950s into the early 1960s, but internet sources suggest that free gas station roadmaps were launched in the 1930s, although there were available road maps before that.  Eric was not persuaded of this, and decided that whatever the truth of the matter, he wanted Derek to get a free roadmap from the gas station, so he wrote it, and after we discussed it a bit we let it stand.

Chapter 16, Beam 201

I started this, taking it as far as reporting to maintenance, entirely because Eric had left things with Beam following Sharon in the direction of maintenance to report the broken door.  I then was uncertain what to do next.

Eric had presented this to me as a boffer weapons world, and so he was looking for an excuse for a confrontation.  Part of the problem was that he had created an emotion control aspect, so the indigs wouldn’t get upset, but he decided that there would be a class of autistic people immune to this who would do meaningful work.  At this point he introduced this, using Turbirb’durpa as the excuse for the man to become upset.

I changed the sword from wooden to styrofoam.  For one thing, this world makes everything from some kind of plastics (I don’t know whether it will enter the story, but I envision the technicians carrying a toolbox filled with plastic tools).  For another, a wooden sword can be a very effective weapon, and this needs to be obviously harmless.

Chapter 17, Takano 162

I finally got to the dinner, and started working out details about the robbery.

Chapter 18, Brown 370

Since we had agreed to use the map, I tackled the issue of figuring out where they were going.  I had considered whether he had any string or any other device he could use to measure, and even thought about using a long stem of grass, which I decided would not be long enough.  I even considered that his oversized belt would be too large and awkward, particularly as it had scabbards on it for the knives.  The toothpick-sized arrows were a last ditch solution.

It had always been the plan that Derek was going to New Orleans.  In fact, the only reason he was in Chicago is that it was a recognizable place roughly the same distance from New Orleans as Yellowstone is from Berkeley, so we could put his equipment near New Orleans and land him somewhere that had potential transportation options that would be the right distance away (versers are always in the same position relative to their possessions when they enter a new world), and it would give them reason to go where we wanted them to be.

More on why New Orleans later.

Chapter 19, Beam 202

I skipped this chapter, not certain exactly how Eric was going to handle things–he was talking about a confrontation between Beam and the maintenance administrator, whom he had decided would be mildly autistic and would challenge Beam to a fight to the death, by which he would expect boffer weapons.  But I had thoughts on the other two characters and wanted to move their stories forward.

Having provided the setup at the end of Beam 201, Eric wrote the first paragraph here and tossed it back to me.  I had a bit of fun with the conversation, and decided that the fight itself should be in the next chapter.

Chapter 20, Takano 163

I wrote a few paragraphs of this mostly to get it started, and because I wanted to write a bit of Brown 288 before the story went much further.  I returned to it and figured out more of the robber’s plan, and added the ideas of the decoy truck and the garbage truck blockade.  I decided to end the chapter just before the direct encounter.

Chapter 21, Brown 361

I wrote the first paragraph of this to set the idea that they could catch a riverboat.  I noticed that it appeared there might have been steamboats running up the Mississippi and up the Illinois River to very near Chicago, and based on fares for other trips thought that it might be $8 for a berth and meals for one, but since they could share the room it would be $12 for the pair of them, which I left for Eric to consider, as I was not sure if he had other plans for their travels at this point.  But then before he got to it I realized that Derek could ask a police officer for directions, and with a bit more research I put them in the direction of a steamboat.  The chapter was short, but it did what it needed to do, so I left it that way.

Chapter 22, Beam 203

I had pushed the fight to this chapter, even though I expected it to be very short.  I padded it a bit, and when the inevitable breaking of the sword occurred I remembered children complaining that it wasn’t fair because they weren’t ready, so I went with that.

I realized that Eric had made the sword wooden in Beam 201, but that everything in this world seemed to be made of plastic, so I changed it to styrofoam.  I had intended to have the claymore break a wooden sword, which would not have been any more difficult to my mind, but it seemed to me that these people don’t make anything out of wood, everything is plastic.

This has been the second behind-the-writings look at Multiverser:  The Thirteenth Story.  If there is interest and continued support from readers we will endeavor to continue with more behind-the-writings posts and another novel.

Books by the Author

#538: New Adventures

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This is mark Joseph “young” blog entry #538, on the subject of New Adventures.

With permission of Valdron Inc I have previously completed publishing my first twelve Multiverser novels,

  1. Verse Three, Chapter One:  The First Multiverser Novel,
  2. Old Verses New,
  3. For Better or Verse,
  4. Spy Verses,
  5. Garden of Versers,
  6. Versers Versus Versers,
  7. Re Verse All,
  8. In Verse Proportion,
  9. Con Verse Lea,
  10. In Version, in collaboration with Eric R. Ashley, and
  11. Con Version, in collaboration with Eric R. Ashley,
  12. A Dozen Verses, 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 thirteenth, Multiverser:  The Thirteenth Story,  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 first post for this novel, covering chapters 1 through 11.  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.

Chapter 1, Beam 196

I started writing this when we were around chapter 120 of A Dozen Verses, mostly because I had some ideas for the next Takano chapter and realized that I could start this one.  However, we had not yet come up with a world for this, so I didn’t get further than waking up Bob.  Eric proposed a few ideas, and one caught my eye, but I wasn’t sure how to present it initially so I called on him to do it.

We agreed on a world Eric calls Styrofoamia, although I didn’t fully understand the concept.  He continued the story with Bob waking up in Beam 197, but I didn’t think that this chapter was long enough so I moved his material from there to here, and wrote a beginning for 197.

Chapter 2, Takano 157

As mentioned, we were around chapter 120 of A Dozen Verses when I envisioned this opening, so I came here to write it.

I was looking for a name for a supervillain, and my mind went to someone like Magneto.  My first idea was Metalworker, or Metalman, but then I thought of the name of the band.  Kyler suggested I alter the spelling.  I’m also considering giving him a sidekick called Aceydeecy.

In my first draft I planned the robbery for “tomorrow”.  Then as I was writing chapter 5 I realized I had a complication that there wasn’t enough time for Tommy to contact William Tell Junior and stop the robbery, so I came back and made the robbery Saturday, when she wouldn’t be at work anyway.

Chapter 3, Brown 365

As short as this is, I drafted it in bits, mostly to bring everyone back up to speed concerning where the Browns were relative to each other and their gear, and to begin setting a scene as somewhere outside Chicago.  Unfortunately, I’m still a bit vague concerning what they brought with them from Berkeley.

I came back to it maybe a month later (still working on setup for the eleventh book) and expanded it with Derek’s effort to contact Vashti telepathically, and then had her use the radio, a technological substitute for telepathy.

Chapter 4, Beam 197

What Eric wrote here I moved to the end of 196, and then I wrote the entry into the new room up to the point where Beam introduces himself and asks his questions.  Then I wasn’t sure where to go with it, so I tagged Eric to take over.  That created some confusion because I returned two days later and did not see more added to the chapter, so I finished it–and then saw that he had written Beam 198 as a continuation of this.  Fortuitously I had ended this chapter with him heading into another room, so I made a few adjustments and got his scene to fit.

Chapter 5, Takano 158

I had been thinking about Tommy’s situation, and realized that she would call Tell to find out about the villain.  I had her call from the office during lunch, but realized as I was writing that this wouldn’t work because she had to know before that.  I went back and moved the robbery to Saturday.

At the same time, I was still putting together updates on characters from Con Version, including a sheet of information about Berkeley people and places, and got the idea of Tommy gathering information from sources like Luciano’s Italian restaurant.  It also occurred to me that they never solved the murder of Gorillaxe.

Chapter 6, Brown 366

It struck me that we were going to need to know exactly what Derek and Vashti had taken with them from Berkeley to Yellowstone, as they would now be returning to New Orleans with only that.  To their advantage, they should have at least a little money from their previous visit to New Orleans, set in the nineteen-teens so still good in the nineteen-twenties.  However, they were ill-equipped for the road when they left, and Eric suggested that they took very little with them, which made sense in the context of the time, so they were going to have to make do.  This chapter was mostly to give us an inventory of what they had.

The city is Chicago, which makes a good start for a prohibition jazz age story even if it’s going to happen in New Orleans ultimately.

Chapter 7, Beam 198

Eric wrote this as follow-up to my hanging middle of Beam 197, and as I mentioned I did not see it until after I wrote the second half of that chapter, so I made a few adjustments to put this in the next room.

My treatment of the styrofoam caused Eric to add the notion that the cities were within a “weather control area” so they had a chance to survive.

Chapter 8, Takano 159

I wrote this trying to shift back into the new normal routine.  Billy was going to be around, Tommy was going to be living alone in the manse, and people were going to be told that Brian and Derek had been killed by a supervillain.

Chapter 9, Brown 367

I went with tomatoes because they can be an early fruit and they don’t keep well.  I went with June because I wanted it to be early enough in the year that they wouldn’t have to deal with much foul weather on their journey, and put it on my birthday as easy to remember.  I thought of the encounter with the policeman while I was writing, which I thought might add some color to the story.

I had originally thought that they might earn a few coins doing some busking on the corners of Chicago, but when I tackled the inventory chapter I realized it was not possible that they would have their instruments with them.  Eric says he has ideas for getting them to their destination, which I’m eager to see.

Chapter 10, Beam 199

I was still trying to wrap my head around Eric’s world.  I wrote the first three lines of this and walked away.  Eventually I thought of where to go with it.  I thought seriously of having Beam shoot a hole in the ceiling, but I didn’t want to decide what would happen then and some of my options were such that I wanted to save that for later.  I also didn’t make any guesses what the colors on the handles meant, other than that black was barred.

Chapter 11, Takano 160

I was going to carry this forward into the conversation at the restaurant, but decided that would make it too long.  I had to check a few points, such as confirming that Tommy and Keller both knew each other as both superheroes and secret identities, and that Tommy and Belle had not met.

This has been the first behind-the-writings look at Multiverser:  The Thirteenth Story.  If there is interest and continued support from readers we will endeavor to continue with more behind-the-writings posts and another novel.

Books by the Author

#537: Authorship Review

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This is mark Joseph “young” blog entry #537, on the subject of Authorship Review.

Lately I’ve had several people ask in private e-mails about authorship–how and why I started writing or continue to write.  As this has more than once sent me on a search, I decided it would be practical to post a brief index of the web log posts and pages I usually include in my answer, most from my mark Joseph “young” web log.

Blog post #72:  Being an Author discusses what it means and who qualifies.

#279:  My Journey to Becoming a Writer gives a lot of that history.

#504:  Why I Started Writing looks a bit deeper at that.

#18:  A Novel Comic Milestone is specifically about the origin of the Multiverser novels.

#439:  Corpoises:  Toward a Story provides a similar background to my novella Corpoise.

#132:  Writing Horror provides something of a how-to on the genre.

#426:  A Christian View of Horror looks further at the genre, tempering the previous article to some degree.

#331:  What’s With the Names? connects to my history in writing, explaining why my books and articles appear under different bylines.

A complete list of books I have or have had in print can be found at Books by the Author:  M. Joseph Young.  The novels have been published serialized online for free reading; the index of the first and links to the indices of all the others are at Verse Three, Chapter One:  The First Multiverser Novel.  The M. J. Young Net web site long ago exceeded a thousand pages, originally at several other addresses, covering many subjects including Bible, Law, Politics, Dungeons & Dragons™, Multiverser™, Martial Arts in Role Playing Games, and Time Travel Theory, hopefully reasonably well organized.  The blog itself has exceeded five hundred entries; #500:  A Five Cent Review selects sixty-three of what I thought were the most notable when it hit that milestone.

I rarely mention it, but sometimes people ask, or perhaps challenge, what makes me think my thoughts on all these subjects matter.  Although I didn’t recognize it until I was an adult, I’m smarter than the average bear, as the saying goes.  Years back I posted a page called M. J. Young’s Bragging Rights, which references a few of the recognitions I’ve received over the decades which mark me as a bit smarter than average.

I expect if these prompt more questions, I’ll provide more answers, but as I said to one of the questioners, that’s a good place to start.  Feel free to write to me at mjyoung@mjyoung.net if you want to talk about any of these things.

I hate to have to include this here, but for anyone who thinks it’s a good idea to offer to sell me their services as web designer or book reviewer or promoter or anything else, the budget is $0.00, non-negotiable.  If you can work with that, we can talk.  I get at least a dozen such letters every day, and consider them Spam, what is properly called U.C.E.:  Unsolicited Commercial E-mail.  Please don’t contact me for that.

Books by the Author

#536: Character Confrontations

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This is mark Joseph “young” blog entry #536, on the subject of Character Confrontations.

With permission of Valdron Inc I have previously completed publishing my first eleven Multiverser novels,

  1. Verse Three, Chapter One:  The First Multiverser Novel,
  2. Old Verses New,
  3. For Better or Verse,
  4. Spy Verses,
  5. Garden of Versers,
  6. Versers Versus Versers,
  7. Re Verse All,
  8. In Verse Proportion,
  9. Con Verse Lea,
  10. In Version, in collaboration with Eric R. Ashley, and
  11. 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 thirteenth and final post for this novel, covering chapters 145 through 156.  Previous posts are:

  1. #524:  Twisting Worlds, covering the first twelve chapters;
  2. #525:  Character Battles, covering chapters 13 through 24;
  3. #526:  Versers Adjust, chapters 25 through 36;
  4. #527:  Characters Reorient, chapters 37 through 48;
  5. #528:  Versers Investigate, chapters 49 through 60;
  6. #529:  Characters in Action, chapters 61 through 72;
  7. #530:  Versers Move, chapters 73 through 84;
  8. #531:  Versers Roam, chapters 85 through 96;
  9. #532:  Versers Chilled, chapters 97 through 108;
  10. #533:  Characters Traveling, chapters 109 through 120;
  11. #534:  Characters Transition, 121 through 132, and
  12. #535:  Character Plots, chapters 133 through 144.

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.

Chapter 145, Slade 297

We needed this battle to run a few chapters, so Eric started it with this chapter in which Slade closes the gap, the enemy starts discovering its limitations, and the two sides threaten each other.

Chapter 146, Cooper 120

I was not yet on top of this fey fantasy world, so Eric drafted this, introducing a couple humans and a couple of talking dogs.

Chapter 147, Kondor 307

I drafted this, to get Kondor’s team to their motorcycles without arousing suspicion.  I left blank what Amanda was wearing, which Eric supplied.

Chapter 148, Cooper 121

Eric had drafted a rather long chapter in which Cooper is made aware that Yolanda is trying to make a deal with an evil spirit to defeat the elves, but I pointed out that we had left Cooper 120 hanging on the expectation of three questions.  I then drafted a section asking three questions, and came up with the idea that if the dogs couldn’t answer the third they would still owe him an answer, which he could get later.

Chapter 149, Slade 298

I wrote this in two sections, taking it to the point where Slade crashed into the shield and the enemy suggested it was a stalemate.  Momentarily stymied, I realized a couple points which I went with when I returned the next day.  I also had some ideas for what happens next.

Eric was encouraging.  I had commented previously that I struggled to write combat scenes, and he said that I had done this one well.

Chapter 150, Cooper 122

Eric drafted this to bring Cooper to the festival, introducing the talking moose.  I added the place where he dons the Mister Justice outfit.

Chapter 151, Kondor 308

I had a very limited concept of how this fight was going to go; all I knew was that Kondor had to get close enough for Amanda to dart the bodyguard, and then they weren’t going to escape alive, but their deaths would be in the next chapter.

Chapter 152, Cooper 123

Eric drafted the beginning of this and a rough outline of his expectations.  I tweaked it a bit and wrote Mister Justice’ introduction of himself, and left it with the suggestion that the chapter further include a battle in which Cooper defeats the first forty-nine knights in a single blow and is left to face the last fight in his next chapter, the chapter in which this story comes to an end.

I also raised the question of whether Tom (and possibly Sarah) might verse out with him.

Eric had suggested a few points for the remainder of this story, and then returned to finish drafting the chapter, but did not include some of his points or my suggestions.  The wind was an interesting touch, though.  He noted, “I got confused or something.  Oops.  I was planning on using MJ’s bit, but in the next chapter, which is where I ended up kinda fitting it in.”

Chapter 153, Slade 299

I drafted this before the previous Cooper chapter was finished.  I had outlined some expectations for how this would happen, because I needed a credible way for the psi-clone to be killed but Slade and Shella to verse out at the same time, without it appearing that Slade lost.

I made a mistake which I didn’t catch until I was doing character sheets late in the process:  I had Shella arrive stage 2, having a nightmare.  However, she had arrived stage 3 in the New Ice Age, and while reversions to an earlier stage are not unknown they are unusual.  I made the correction to a stage 3 arrival before anything published.

Chapter 154, Cooper 124

Eric wrote this to wrap up the Fey story.  In discussing Cooper 123 he had said something about the Fey being trapped by their own clever words, and I had drafted a bit about the Fey telling him he had to defeat these fifty warriors, and him vanquishing them all with a sweep of the glove but for the last fighter.  He said he was going to use it, but wound up bouncing it to this chapter.

Chapter 155, Kondor 309

As I drafted this, I thought it would be the last chapter I wrote for this book.  I had already drafted the one which follows, and was expecting Eric to write the one before it with Cooper’s final fight.  There were still a few questions about Cooper 123, but I expected he would resolve them.

When Eric read through this chapter, he thought that I had written that Zeke versed out first and Amanda saw him go, and he said that was a good idea.  I said yes, it is a good idea, but that didn’t happen, and I gave him an outline of how it had gone stating what has to happen for Amanda to see Zeke verse out, and he wrote a substantial set of paragraphs to make that happen, to which I made only a few minor edits.

I had a lot of work ahead–I was barely over a third of the way through setting up Con Version for publication, and we had already started on both Multiverser:  The Thirteenth Story and Verse a Tile.

Chapter 156, Cooper 125

I had drafted this long before we got here, even before we had decided that Amanda was going to be present when they versed out.  Eric then tweaked it some, and I came back to it and split it into a part that would end this book and another part that would be a Lauren Hastings chapter launching book 14.  I removed or altered quite a bit of his points, such as that he had made the room small and put lights that were identifiably light emitting diodes in the ceiling, when it needed to be very large to accommodate the arrivals of all our versers and the technology should not be readily identified.  I also removed an appearance of Eric’s pet verser rabbit.  Eric expresses sadness at this, but writes, “This is an inside joke that goes way back.  I still hope to have the bunny come back, and maybe even his future incarnation as General Something Something.  But we are pretty much done!!!!  Snoopy happy dance time.”

We officially finished the draft on April 8, 2023, with the final form of Kondor 309, although there was to be a complete read-through edit before I began working on setup for publication which itself would be delayed, as I was still doing setup on Con Version, only about a third of the way through, and realizing that I was going to need character sheets on any supers who might continue in future books, including the one we were just starting, Multiverser:  The Thirteenth Story.

All the chapters were converted to web pages and this final behind-the-writings post drafted on August 27, 2023.  Since today I published In Version Chapter 37, it will be at least a year before these chapters start to reach the public.

This has been the thirteenth and final 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.

Books by the Author

#535: Character Plots

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This is mark Joseph “young” blog entry #535, on the subject of Character Plots.

With permission of Valdron Inc I have previously completed publishing my first eleven Multiverser novels,

  1. Verse Three, Chapter One:  The First Multiverser Novel,
  2. Old Verses New,
  3. For Better or Verse,
  4. Spy Verses,
  5. Garden of Versers,
  6. Versers Versus Versers,
  7. Re Verse All,
  8. In Verse Proportion,
  9. Con Verse Lea,
  10. In Version, in collaboration with Eric R. Ashley, and
  11. 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 twelfth post for this novel, covering chapters 133 through 144.  Previous posts are:

  1. #524:  Twisting Worlds, covering the first twelve chapters;
  2. #525:  Character Battles, covering chapters 13 through 24;
  3. #526:  Versers Adjust, chapters 25 through 36;
  4. #527:  Characters Reorient, chapters 37 through 48;
  5. #528:  Versers Investigate, chapters 49 through 60;
  6. #529:  Characters in Action, chapters 61 through 72;
  7. #530:  Versers Move, chapters 73 through 84;
  8. #531:  Versers Roam, chapters 85 through 96;
  9. #532:  Versers Chilled, chapters 97 through 108;
  10. #533:  Characters Traveling, chapters 109 through 120; and
  11. #534:  Characters Transition, chapters 121 through 132.

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.

Chapter 133, Slade 294

I drafted this to reunite Slade and Shella and begin introducing the new world.

Eric writes, “One of our differences is that I consider evolution to be laughable, unscientific nonsense (hey, I wrote a comedy novel about it!), and MJ disagrees.  But in the Multiverser setting, all stories are true somewhere, so, here we are.  It’s cool, or it will be once all the rains fall on the hot rocks of this wasteland.”

Chapter 134, Kondor 302

Eric left this chapter for me to write the discussion of plans, and skipped ahead.

Having no idea how they could succeed in this mission Eric had created, I did what I usually do when I don t know what the characters are going to do:  I had them discuss it.  I still don t know how it s going to work, but we ll get there.

Chapter 135, Cooper 116

Eric drafted this, having Cooper create cuneiform.  I couldn t follow a significant part of it, and thought it rather elaborate and somewhat implausible, but ultimately we both did a fair amount of rewriting and modifying to get it into a shape we both found acceptable.  I created the two constellations , and established the cardinal directions from that.

Chapter 136, Kondor 303

Eric drafted this trip to Riyadh.  I made a minor edit to suggest that they were traveling under their New Zealand identities, and then recognized that there was a time frame problem–Eric had had them leave Heathrow at 10 A.M. London time, take eight and a half hours, and arrive at 8:00 A.M. Riyadh time.  I pointed out the discrepancy.

Chapter 137, Slade 295

Eric drafted this, giving the Slades something to do in this strange world.

Sometimes in running Multiverser, a referee will begin with an idea for a starting point, and see where it goes.  Several of our worlds had a lot of that in this book, but this one particularly so.

Chapter 138, Kondor 304

I still didn t have a plan for this, but had previously said they would have to do recon, so I considered how they could do that and came up with this.

Chapter 139, Cooper 117

I drafted this mostly to get rid of the planets problem and move the calendar forward significantly.

Chapter 140, Kondor 305

Eric originally drafted this chapter, but I did substantial rewriting and commenting, because I did not want it to appear that Amanda had been driven by a chauffeur to the palace, but needed her to appear an ordinary British Muslim tourist.

Chapter 141, Slade 296

Eric wanted to make something happen in this world, so he had Omigger appear (and far more powerful than he had been in previous iterations) with the intention of trapping a powerful psionic monster on a planet with plenty of magic but no psionics.  I presented a few issues with this, and we quickly resolved them.  Because it was setting up a bit of an extended fight, and Eric was accelerating Kondor’s story but Cooper had to spend at least a couple chapters in another universe, I slowed the Kondor stories down.

Chapter 142, Cooper 118

Eric originally set this as chapter 143, but left it for me to draft; I decided to slow the Kondor story, and so moved this to 142, and did my best to verse out Cooper on a free climb without making the chapter too short.

Chapter 143, Kondor 306

Eric had written this as chapter 142, but I moved it to slow the Kondor story.  I had put forward the notion of getting the King to move the offending sheik out of the United Nations, an idea I had gotten from son Kyler, and Eric wanted to find a reason why that wouldn’t work.  He was moving this toward a violent confrontation that would result in versing out our versers and bringing them to the final world.  He says he wanted to find a way to use Kyler’s and Adam’s and my ideas without making it too easy and non-adventurous, and he supports having input from “Clan Young”, hoping more is incoming in the next book.

Eric had originally identified this as a camel race, but I had recently learned that adults don’t ride camels, because the camels’ backs can’t support the weight.  Jockeys in camel races are usually children, although in modern races they have experimented with lightweight robotic controls.

Chapter 144, Cooper 119

Eric launched Cooper in a new world which was going to take more chapters than we thought we had left, so I accelerated the Cooper story at the same time that I decelerated the Kondor one.  I made a few edits and asked some questions.  At this point we had a rough outline of the remainder of the book.

This has been the twelfth 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.

Books by the Author

#534: Characters Transition

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This is mark Joseph “young” blog entry #534, on the subject of Characters Transition.

With permission of Valdron Inc I have previously completed publishing my first eleven Multiverser novels,

  1. Verse Three, Chapter One:  The First Multiverser Novel,
  2. Old Verses New,
  3. For Better or Verse,
  4. Spy Verses,
  5. Garden of Versers,
  6. Versers Versus Versers,
  7. Re Verse All,
  8. In Verse Proportion,
  9. Con Verse Lea,
  10. In Version, in collaboration with Eric R. Ashley, and
  11. 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 eleventh post for this novel, covering chapters 121 through 132.  Previous posts are:

  1. #524:  Twisting Worlds, covering the first twelve chapters;
  2. #525:  Character Battles, covering chapters 13 through 24;
  3. #526:  Versers Adjust, chapters 25 through 36;
  4. #527:  Characters Reorient, chapters 37 through 48;
  5. #528:  Versers Investigate, chapters 49 through 60;
  6. #529:  Characters in Action, chapters 61 through 72;
  7. #530:  Versers Move, chapters 73 through 84;
  8. #531:  Versers Roam, chapters 85 through 96;
  9. #532:  Versers Chilled, chapters 97 through 108; and
  10. #533:  Characters Traveling, chapters 109 through 120.

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.

Chapter 121, Slade 291

Eric drafted this, bringing out Slade’s beliefs that this was preparing him for war against frost giants.

Chapter 122, Kondor 296

I had commented to Eric that I was interested in what he had in mind with Amanda contacting Kondor for a favor, and he said he had nothing in mind.  I sort of punted on this, leaving open the possibility that she would ask for his help despite his claim that his organization was tracking him constantly, but also taking a step in their relationship.

I had commented at some point that if Kondor married again it should be someone like Cali from Blake’s 7, that is, someone with some serious skills.  When Eric introduced Amanda, I recognized that she just might be the right sort of person.  I don’t know if that s going to happen, but I m putting the possibility in place.

Chapter 123, Cooper 113

I drafted this to get Cooper settled into the campsite.  The plan is for him to stay here for an extended time which passes in a couple chapters, and then be killed when the volcano erupts.

Chapter 124, Kondor 297

I doubled up the Kondor chapters at this point because I recognized that Cooper might be in his penultimate world and Slade might be versing into his penultimate world very soon, and that we wanted to end with all three characters coming into the same world and have it be the twelfth world in the book, so we were going to have to move the Kondor story more swifty.

Eric created this conflict.  I made a few adjustments, because he had given Kondor a sword and had him kill a man with one blow, but Kondor has no training in swords so I gave the sword to Zeke and let him deal the fatal attack, while giving Kondor a knife, with which he had been in training.

Chapter 125, Slade 292

Eric wrote this, continuing the battle against the climate.

I had read something about Third Man Syndrome, and decided to drop it into Slade’s experience here.  I inserted it and ran it past Eric, who said it added good color.

Chapter 126, Kondor 298

I drafted this.  The explanation of the video was something Eric had put in the notes for inclusion here.  I kept it short mostly because I liked the cliffhanger ending with him charging at the enemy.

I realized when I was doing setup that Kondor left earth a few years before the events happening in this world.  In the text, he had made the suggestion of uploading the video to the internet and pushing it to go viral, but I deleted that because it wasn t something he would have known.

Chapter 127, Cooper 114

I drafted this.  I needed to pick up speed, but had to get Brian settled into the camp before moving forward.

It was about this point that we agreed that the final chapter would have all three viewpoint characters verse into the same world, something Eric calls Lovecraft’s Starship; that the ship would be named the Chris J. Henderson and nicknamed the CJ, after the author; and that Lauren Hastings would also be present in the room.  We tentatively agreed that it would be from Cooper’s perspective.

Chapter 128, Kondor 299

I put together this combat to wrap up the museum scene and move forward into the next adventure.

Chapter 129, Slade 293

I decided it was time for Slade to lose his battle against the ice age, and also that he should go to somewhere incredibly hot next.  That’s about as far as I got, and left some notes for Eric for the next Slade chapter.

Chapter 130, Kondor 300

While I was thinking through this scene, Eric started writing it.  Significant parts of the setting did not match my imaginings, so I came back later and made significant changes, although I saved his in the notes for discussion.  I retained his description of the atrocity, but removed the suggestions of a hood over Amanda s head and a secret location, and threats against her life, and replaced the old school paper files with an advanced video system.

I had to rewrite a fair amount of what I’d written in this chapter and Kondor 299 because I had mistakenly thought Bradley was with the agency; he’s with the fusion project.  When Eric pointed out my error, I did a lot of fixing.

Chapter 131, Cooper 115

Eric drafted this, but I made some changes for style and some because he wasn’t well oriented to the island setting as it was described in For Better or Verse.

Chapter 132, Kondor 301

I decided that I’d have that coffee date I’d promised between Kondor and Amanda, and that he would explain things to her, so that’s what happened here.

This has been the eleventh 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.

Books by the Author

#533: Characters Traveling

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This is mark Joseph “young” blog entry #533, on the subject of Characters Traveling.

With permission of Valdron Inc I have previously completed publishing my first eleven Multiverser novels,

  1. Verse Three, Chapter One:  The First Multiverser Novel,
  2. Old Verses New,
  3. For Better or Verse,
  4. Spy Verses,
  5. Garden of Versers,
  6. Versers Versus Versers,
  7. Re Verse All,
  8. In Verse Proportion,
  9. Con Verse Lea,
  10. In Version, in collaboration with Eric R. Ashley, and
  11. 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 tenth post for this novel, covering chapters 109 through 120.  Previous posts are:

  1. #524:  Twisting Worlds, covering the first twelve chapters;
  2. #525:  Character Battles, covering chapters 13 through 24;
  3. #526:  Versers Adjust, chapters 25 through 36;
  4. #527:  Characters Reorient, chapters 37 through 48;
  5. #528:  Versers Investigate, chapters 49 through 60;
  6. #529:  Characters in Action, chapters 61 through 72;
  7. #530:  Versers Move, chapters 73 through 84;
  8. #531:  Versers Roam, chapters 85 through 96; and
  9. #532:  Versers Chilled, chapters 97 through 108.

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.

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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.

Chapter 109, Slade 287

I suggested the polar bears, and Eric said he liked the idea, so I drafted this.  I had still not decided whether the bears would attack the Slades or not, and whether they would settle inside the comfort bubble for a while, and whether arctic wolves would come after them, but those were all possibilities.

Chapter 110, Kondor 292

I left this for Eric to write, partly because when I mentioned what I expected would happen next he observed that the generator had not yet been deactivated, and I hadn t realized that.  Thus he finished the mission, with only a few tweaks and comments from me.

Chapter 111, Cooper 109

I drafted this.  We knew where this was going, but not how it was going to get there.

Chapter 112, Slade 288

I got the idea of wolves attacking the bears, and worried that this might be fatal for the Slades–but I realized that the insignificancy spell should work, and so I created this scene in which Slade helps fight the wolves.

I had written the bulk of the chapter and was just getting to the survivors retreating when I decided that I d better make sure arctic wolves actually did hunt in packs, so I checked.  Wolf packs are relatively small, mostly, but can reach thirty, and for the reasons Slade gives I decided that they would need to hunt in larger numbers to bring down their best choices in prey.

The story Slade remembers is by O Henry, and I did read it in high school, probably as a freshman.  I remember much more about the story, but not the title.  On a quick search I came up with The Cop and the Anthem, which appears to be it.

Chapter 113, Kondor 293

When I started writing this chapter I realized we had a problem.  Eric had written in Kondor 291 that he had injured an ear.  I had added to Kondor 292 that his divergent self, Skink, had treated it, but at this point as I was starting to write about a trip to the hospital thinking that plastic surgery would be required, I realized that in Kondor 290 he donned his spy gear, which meant he was wearing headphones.  I stopped writing and posted questions for Eric.  He answered the questions and wrote the rest of the chapter, and I responded with a few more questions.

I resolved one of those questions myself, adding the paragraphs in which repairs to the headgear are discussed.

Eric addressed my concerns that the shattered headphones would have resulted in bits of shrapnel having to be removed, and Kondor s negative reaction to the suggestion that he was lucky.

Chapter 114, Cooper 110

Eric wrote this, moving quickly toward the climax of the world situation.

Chapter 115, Slade 289

I drafted a very short chapter focusing on Slade s thoughts and concerns relative to the litter of lupine carcasses around their water hole.  Eric added the mice.

Chapter 116, Kondor 294

Eric drafted this to tie up some loose ends and move the physics forward.

Chapter 117, Cooper 111

I had some thoughts on this, and Eric wanted me to write it anyway, so I put together this somewhat gruesome capture and execution.

Chapter 118, Slade 290

I had suggested versing out Shella on a botch on the shelter spell, and so I drafted this chapter to make that happen.  I m not sure how long Slade will last here without her.

Chapter 119, Kondor 295

Eric drafted this to bring Amanda back to into play.

Chapter 120, Cooper 112

I suggested letting Cooper see Lauren leaving the tropical island, and Eric agreed and said I should write it, while he skipped to the next Slade chapter.

This has been the tenth 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.