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.

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.

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.

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.

>

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.

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,

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 ninth post for this novel, covering chapters 97 through 108.  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; and
8. #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.

Chapter 97, Slade 283

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.

---

Chapter 98, Kondor 288

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.

---

Chapter 99, Cooper 105

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.

---

Chapter 100, Slade 284

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.

---

Chapter 101, Kondor 289

Eric decided to split Kondor from Zeke and do a bit of spytech gadgetry here.  I raised a couple minor points which he fixed.

---

Chapter 102, Cooper 106

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.

---

Chapter 103, Slade 285

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.

---

Chapter 104, Kondor 290

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.

---

Chapter 105, Cooper 107

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.

---

Chapter 106, Slade 286

Eric drafted this, looking for ways to improve Slade’s situation with the tools they have.

---

Chapter 107, Kondor 291

Eric put together this last leg of the journey to the targeted facility, and the initial assault.

---

Chapter 108, Cooper 108

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.

This is mark Joseph “young” blog entry #531, on the subject of Versers Roam.

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 eighth post for this novel, covering chapters 85 through 96.  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; and
7. #530:  Versers Move, chapters 73 through 84.

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 85, Slade 279

Having written the original sightings of the mammoths, I wanted to cover the eventual realization of their full import, so having skipped Cooper 100 I wrote this.

---

Chapter 86, Kondor 284

Eric picked up the thread of Kondor’s spy mission, bringing Amanda back in play and suggesting the involvement of a third party.

---

Chapter 87, Cooper 101

Picking up from what Eric wrote, I sent Cooper to find the breach and repair it.  I decided that I didn’t want to deal with the complications of other crewmen, so I found excuses for why he didn’t encounter any.  I also had to figure out what he was going to do about the problem, so I invented the emergency stations.  I had a nebulous notion of how the patching worked, so I prepared to write a note and left it at that.  Of course, my life is crazy enough that I was called away for several hours before I got around to writing the note, and Eric wrote the next two chapters in that time, but I managed to convey my thoughts before the next Cooper chapter was written.

---

Chapter 88, Slade 280

Eric wrote this.  I suggested too late that Slade would follow the mammoths to find water, but he decided to have them head south.  He made the mistake of having Shella conjure food and share it with the mice–outside the bias, but he hadn’t realized that, so I edited that out.

---

Chapter 89, Kondor 285

Eric wrote this chase and capture.

---

Chapter 90, Cooper 102

I had set up the repair, so now I completed it.  I had specifically not stated in the previous chapter exactly what equipment Cooper had brought, although I had some bits of it in mind, so that I could invent things and pretend he had picked them up at the emergency station.  It crossed my mind to have him miss something, but that seemed an unnecessary complication to this story.

---

Chapter 91, Slade 281

I needed to find a reason for Slade to stop walking blindly south, but the answer was obvious:  he needed to find water, and water was downhill.  I figured he would find his way down, might have to cross a glacier, but eventually would come to a watercourse of some sort, and would find fresh potable water plus fish.  That would then present him with the problems of how to catch fish and how to clean and cook fish.  He would have cleaned and cooked fish back with Lauren, but I’m not sure he has any cookware or any way to start a fire, so there would still be survival problems ahead.

---

Chapter 92, Kondor 286

I drafted this mostly because I wasn t sure where to go from the capture.  I checked on the history of cell phones in London and made a rough guess concerning what Kondor and Zeke would have.

---

Chapter 93, Cooper 103

I started this, but then left it hanging at the point of moving cargo as I ran out of ideas for the Mercury visit.  Eric said he was also having ‘um, um, ah, what next?’ issues at this point, but he came up with something based on my notions of the winds on Mercury to finish out the chapter.  I had a lot of little problems, and added the ground lights and view of the stars, but it’s essentially what he wrote.

---

Chapter 94, Slade 282

Eric left this for me, and skipped ahead to write Kondor.  I had thought about it for a few days.  My experience with recognizing slight slopes came from canoeing on lakes and rivers, which Slade did not have, but I worked out how he could get to the same conclusions.

---

Chapter 95, Kondor 287

Eric wrote this.  I had a few questions.  I did not know what either groomers or footy meant.  The latter is apparently a British slang term for what Americans call soccer, football in their vernacular.  The former apparently is related to pedophile practices.

---

Chapter 96, Cooper 104

Eric had wanted to verse Cooper out, but I objected that he had to discover some of the power of the glove before he could go, so he wrote this chapter (after I wrote Slade 284).

---

This has been the eighth 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.

This is mark Joseph “young” blog entry #530, on the subject of Versers Move.

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 seventh post for this novel, covering chapters 73 through 84.  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; and
6. #529:  Characters in Action, chapters 61 through 72.

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 73, Slade 275

Eric did this entire chapter, with only a couple questions about whether he had character details right.

Shortly after this, Eric suggested that we include several short worlds and see whether we can actually put twelve universes in this one book.  He made a quick count and got eight.

He also suggested a magic spell for Shella that would explain how she knew something magical was about to happen.  I said I’d figure out what it was later.

When I was doing setup I needed an image just for this chapter.  In my mind I thought of an image of Stalin and a hammer-and-sickle, and although I found plenty of available hammer-and-sickle images I also read that they are illegal to display in several countries, so I decided to leave that out.

---

Chapter 74, Kondor 280

Eric had written this private library bit when Kondor first arrived in this world, and I didn’t like it both overall and in some of the details, but I set it in the notes for later consideration.  He resurrected it here, with corrections, trying to put in color and backstory.

---

Chapter 75, Cooper 97

I had made some notes about orbital mechanics in connection with why Angle had to make special arrangements to go to Luna, and so Eric took those into consideration in drafting this chapter.

---

Chapter 76, Slade 276

Eric suggested that I find a world for Slade that wouldn’t keep him too long.  I wasn’t really in a very creative mindset at that moment, so I searched my list of worlds I can use at convention demos and suggested New Ice Age from The Second Book of Worlds, but said I was going to have to go read it again before I could write anything on it, and went on to write Kondor’s next.

As I read through the text of the world, I began forming some ideas, so I wrote this chapter plus a few notes on what might happen next.

---

Chapter 77, Kondor 281

We had talked about what to do for Kondor’s next assignment.  I had wanted C to tell Kondor and Zeke what was on the drive, and Eric suggested it could tie into the next mission.  I then suggested that one of the researchers from the university could be kidnapped, although I thought that cliche; the alternative was to have him threatened.  Remembering that Kondor had an honorary Doctorate of Physical Sciences and had worked on the artificial gravity project, I decided to put him in undercover, and wing it from there.

---

Chapter 78, Cooper 98

I had created the situation of a longish trip from Venus to Luna, and so I was obligated to figure out how to use the time.  I thought through the idea of encountering a meteor storm, but realized that the appearance of meteors as random wandering rocks in space is an illusion.

While I was writing that note, Eric started writing the first paragraph of the chapter, but he became aware that I wasn’t finished, and we talked about what I was expecting to do.  He suggested I finish the chapter, which I did.

---

Chapter 79, Slade 277

I had written Slade 276, and left a few notes about my direction.  I had then drafted the intervening Kondor and Cooper chapters, but went to bed.  It was late the next day that I returned, and found that Eric had jumped over Slade to do Kondor, so I wrote this, and then leapt ahead to do Slade 278.  When I got to the point of him identifying the creatures as mammoths, I thought that was a good cliffhanger, so I paused there and picked it up with his next.

---

Chapter 80, Kondor 282

Eric drafted this.  He had suggested that the researcher in question was a retired jockey, based on some stuff he’d read about them in connection with someone else’s books.  I had suggested he was a fellow at this university, which he included.  He surprised me with the idea that the researcher had just been attacked, but it worked.

---

Chapter 81, Cooper 99

After writing Slade 278 I decided one of us needed to handle this chapter, so I covered the visit to Luna briefly and pushed the ship forward.  It needed a new destination, and I was thinking Mars but decided it was too cliche, so I chose Mercury, and wondered what Eric might do with that.

---

Chapter 82, Slade 278

I leapt from Slade 277 to write this; Eric had already written Kondor 282, but there was the intervening Cooper 99 still unwritten.  I didn’t completely resolve all the questions about the mammoth, but raised a lot of questions about the world.

---

Chapter 83, Kondor 283

I wanted to bring Kondor’s spy gear into play here, but the best way to do that seemed to me to be to have him give it to Zeke.  I also wanted to tag Professor Albert Philip with something that had scriff, and the diktar are always the obvious choice for this–but he needed an explanation that would satisfy a nuclear physicist.  So I wrote this.

---

Chapter 84, Cooper 100

I put a couple notes down and skipped this chapter, because I thought Eric had a vision for a Mercury with two races living on it, and I hoped he would get this started.  He picked it up, but created travel events and set it up to be resolved in the next Cooper chapter.  He protests, “Vision?  I have perfect 20.20 hindsight.  Is that what he meant?  No, I didn t have a vision–Eric.”

---

This has been the seventh 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.