{"id":6004,"date":"2024-03-10T20:21:32","date_gmt":"2024-03-10T20:21:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mjyoung.net\/weblog\/?p=6004"},"modified":"2024-03-10T20:21:32","modified_gmt":"2024-03-10T20:21:32","slug":"494-warring-worlds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.mjyoung.net\/weblog\/494-warring-worlds\/","title":{"rendered":"#494: Warring Worlds"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is mark Joseph “young”<\/em> blog entry #494, on the subject of Warring Worlds<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With permission of Valdron Inc I have previously completed publishing my first nine Multiverser<\/em> novels,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. Verse Three, Chapter One:  The First Multiverser Novel<\/a><\/em>,<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Old Verses New<\/a><\/em>,<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. For Better or Verse<\/a><\/em>,<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. Spy Verses<\/a><\/em>,<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  5. Garden of Versers<\/a><\/em>,<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  6. Versers Versus Versers<\/a><\/em>,<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  7. Re Verse All<\/a><\/em>,<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  8. In Verse Proportion<\/a><\/em>, and<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  9. Con Verse Lea<\/a><\/em>,<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    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 tenth, In Version<\/a><\/em>,  written in collaboration with Eric R. Ashley<\/strong>, I am again offering a set of “behind the writings” insights.  This “behind the writings” look may contain spoilers<\/strong> 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    This is the tenth post for this novel, covering chapters 109 through 120.  Previous posts were:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \n
    1. #476:  Versers Deduce<\/a><\/em>, covering chapters 1 through 12;<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    2. #478:  Character Conflicts<\/a><\/em>, covering 13 through 24;<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    3. #480:  Versers Think<\/a><\/em>, 25 through 36;<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    4. #482:  Versers Engage<\/a><\/em>, 37 through 48.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    5. #484:  Characters Maneuver<\/a><\/em>, 49 through 60.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    6. #487:  A World in Space<\/a><\/em>, 61 through 72.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    7. #489:  Battle Worlds<\/a><\/em>, 73 through 84;<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    8. #491:  Verser Ventures<\/a><\/em>, 85 through 96 ; and<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    9. #493:  Verser Engagements<\/a><\/em>, 97 through 108.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

      There is also a section of the site, Multiverser Novel Support Pages<\/a><\/em>, 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.<\/p>\n\n\n

      \n
      \"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

      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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Return to Top<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Quick links to discussions in this page:
      Chapter 109, Kondor 247<\/a>
      Chapter 110, Slade 241<\/a>
      Chapter 111, Beam 188<\/a>
      Chapter 112, Brown 273<\/a>
      Chapter 113, Kondor 248<\/a>
      Chapter 114, Slade 242<\/a>
      Chapter 115, Beam 189<\/a>
      Chapter 116, Brown 274<\/a>
      Chapter 117, Slade 243<\/a>
      Chapter 118, Kondor 249<\/a>
      Chapter 119, Beam 190<\/a>
      Chapter 120, Brown 275<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Chapter 109, Kondor 247<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Our discussions suggested that this city had more survivors and thus more work, and that they had captured an alien and a ship, but both had been caught by the tsunami, with the ship visible in the shallows off shore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      I live within an hour of the southern New Jersey Atlantic shoreline, and my wife and I often walk along the Ocean City boardwalk in the evenings.\u00a0 The houses edging the landward side of the boardwalk are generally rather large and cost millions of dollars.\u00a0 The opening of this chapter calls these to my imagination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      While I was somewhat socially isolated the acronym \u201cPOC\u201d arose to refer to non-whites as \u201cPersons of Color\u201d.\u00a0 Bothered by unnecessary acronyms generally, I decided to give the designation a different meaning in Zeke\u2019s universe, and use here it in a universe where the meaning in our world would be effectively meaningless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Return to Top<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \n\n\n\n

      <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Chapter 110, Slade 241<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Eric invented the Tso and gave me a rough description; I set about creating the fight.\u00a0 The combination of avian features and the alien name made me think of General Tso\u2019s Chicken, and so there were several jokes along that line in Slade\u2019s thoughts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      The difficult part about writing a lot of combats is making them different enough to be interesting.\u00a0 It was obvious that this creature could pounce, but Slade\u2019s first opponent had leapt at him and I didn\u2019t want to repeat that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Return to Top<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \n\n\n\n

      <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Chapter 111, Beam 188<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Eric raised the stakes in the propaganda battle when he created this chapter.  It was an interesting move which kept the conflict alive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Return to Top<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \n\n\n\n

      <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Chapter 112, Brown 273<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Eric drafted this chapter, bringing in criminal efforts to throw a fight and the detail that the verser\u2019s apartments were rentals paid for by the Kelp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      This chapter includes a cameo appearance of a race called Vrai.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Return to Top<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \n\n\n\n

      <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Chapter 113, Kondor 248<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      I drafted this, pulling the ship out the seabed.\u00a0 Having Zeke do it keeps the sidekick useful, something that sort of matters to the reader.\u00a0 The decision to leave it behind was made for all the reasons given in the text and no others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Return to Top<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \n\n\n\n

      <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Chapter 114, Slade 242<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      I wrote this.\u00a0 Part of it was that we had agreed we were going to have to skip fights (top contenders probably have to fight near a hundred times before being eliminated), and I was suggesting a way to accomplish this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      The notion that alien restaurants would be as varied as human ones is an extension of my frequent suggestion that alien cultures can\u2019t be monolithic, they just have to have elements that distinguish them from human consistently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      The idea of an alien race using something like arsenic as a spice comes from the Volturnus series of modules for Star Frontiers<\/em>\u00ae from TSR.  The Ul-mor referred to a flavoring they used in their food and much of their water as \u201cspice\u201d, but it was actually poison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Return to Top<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \n\n\n\n

      <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Chapter 115, Beam 189<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      I composed this, an attempt to overcome the obstacles Eric had created in relation to the combat robots.\u00a0 The information about robots being all the same was established in Derek\u2019s stay on The Wanderer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      The number 32,768 is eight to the fifth, and thus written 100,000 in base eight; it is thus a round number in their math and language.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Return to Top<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \n\n\n\n

      <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Chapter 116, Brown 274<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      This was mostly Eric\u2019s work.\u00a0 However, there was an extended section in which he had the versers order outrageous clothing from the vid screen, including custom-tailored tuxedos and ridiculous nineteenth century hoop dresses, and I objected first that it would be impossible to get those without special tailoring in this universe, there being no human clothing at all, and second that none of the characters would be at all willing to or interested in obtaining such clothing, so it was cut.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      For the record, a tuxedo is a high-fashion dress suit with a vertical stripe of a silk-like material down the outseam of each leg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      A Tniap is introduced in this chapter, and they have a minor role in a few future chapters at the party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Eric had written that there were 640 columns in the center, and explained it by saying that Chlorophytes built it, a reference I didn\u2019t grasp until the final edit–it was intended to connect to the fact that they work in base eight.\u00a0 I changed it to 512, the base eight value of the digits 1000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Return to Top<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \n\n\n\n

      <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Chapter 117, Slade 243<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Eric wrote nearly all of this, but left it with the mention of two green-scaled aliens doing something and a note that he wasn\u2019t sure how to handle the middles of parties, and I finished out the chapter with the Slades exiting and the note that I didn\u2019t do parties terribly well, either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Return to Top<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \n\n\n\n

      <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Chapter 118, Kondor 249<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      I drafted this, originally intending only to cover that they were headed for another town and possibly the arrival, but getting sidetracked into Kondor\u2019s realization that the charitable effort was failing because the parakeets didn\u2019t have the kind of religion that humans had.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Return to Top<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \n\n\n\n

      <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Chapter 119, Beam 190<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      I drafted this chapter, which would simplify the battle by taking the combat robots out of the equation entirely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Return to Top<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \n\n\n\n

      <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Chapter 120, Brown 275<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      I drafted this chapter, following up on the notion that the alien mafia was looking for Slade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Return to Top<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \n\n\n\n

      This has been the tenth behind-the-writings look at In Version<\/em>.  If there is interest and continued support from readers we will endeavor to continue with more behind-the-writings posts and another novel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      This is mark Joseph “young” blog entry #494, on the subject of Warring Worlds. With permission of Valdron Inc I have previously completed publishing my first nine Multiverser novels, 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 … Continue reading #494: Warring Worlds<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[28,29,18],"class_list":["post-6004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books-by-the-author","tag-fiction","tag-multiverser","tag-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mjyoung.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mjyoung.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mjyoung.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mjyoung.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mjyoung.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6004"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.mjyoung.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6004\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6007,"href":"http:\/\/www.mjyoung.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6004\/revisions\/6007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mjyoung.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mjyoung.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mjyoung.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}