This is mark Joseph “young” blog entry #505, on the subject of Versers Advance.
With permission of Valdron Inc I have previously completed publishing my first ten Multiverser novels,
- Verse Three, Chapter One: The First Multiverser Novel,
- Old Verses New,
- For Better or Verse,
- Spy Verses,
- Garden of Versers,
- Versers Versus Versers,
- Re Verse All,
- In Verse Proportion,
- Con Verse Lea, and
- In Version, in collaboration with Eric R. Ashley,
in serialized form on the web (those links will take you to the table of contents for each book). Along with each book there was also a series of web log posts looking at the writing process, the decisions and choices that delivered the final product; those posts are indexed with the chapters in the tables of contents pages. Now as I am posting the eleventh, Con Version, again written in collaboration with Eric R. Ashley, I am again offering a set of “behind the writings” insights. This “behind the writings” look may contain spoilers because it sometimes talks about my expectations for the futures of the characters and stories–although it sometimes raises ideas that were never pursued, as being written partially concurrently with the story it sometimes discusses where I thought it was headed. You might want to read the referenced chapters before reading this look at them. Links below (the section headings) will take you to the specific individual chapters being discussed, and there are (or will soon be) links on those pages to bring you back hopefully to the same point here.
This is the fifth post for this novel, covering chapters 49 through 60. Previous mark Joseph “young” behind-the-writings web log posts for this book include:
- #498: Characters Restart covering chapters 1 through 12;
- #501: Characters Orienting, covering chapters 13 through 24;
- #502: Verser Setbacks, chapters 25 through 36; and
- #503: Versers Progress, chapters 37 through 48.
There is also a section of the site, Multiverser Novel Support Pages, in which I have begun to place materials related to the novels beginning with character papers for the major characters, giving them at different stages as they move through the books. This is also the longest book to date, and has quite a few long chapters in it, so there will be quite a few of these background articles.
History of the series, including the reason it started, the origins of character names and details, and many of the ideas, are in earlier posts, and won’t be repeated here.
Quick links to discussions in this page:
Chapter 49, Brown 299
Chapter 50, Cooper 16
Chapter 51, Takano 100
Chapter 52, Brown 300
Chapter 53, Cooper 17
Chapter 54, Takano 101
Chapter 55, Brown 301
Chapter 56, Cooper 18
Chapter 57, Takano 102
Chapter 58, Brown 302
Chapter 59, Cooper 19
Chapter 60, Takano 103
We had discussed this at length, and Eric had penned most of the encounter with the Devil which, as mentioned, got moved here to the music hall and after Halloween. We had also agreed that as they were leaving they would meet the Chinese drummer; Eric came up with the name Lei He.
The trick with the cards has often been used to mark someone as a card sharp in film. There’s a joke in my family that one night my father-in-law ran a deck up to his arm that way, asked if anyone wanted to play cards, and flipped them all over in one smooth move. No one volunteered to play.
Eric drafted this, following the outline we had discussed. It had to be a tightly plotted story at this point, because there were several scenes that had to have Cooper, Wilhelm, and Hans in the right places.
Picking up my musings about all the women from whom Davey might choose, Eric drafted this to move toward integrating him into the tribe.
Because this involved music, I drafted it. I had a pretty good idea of how Chinese Waist Drums were used, and I thought I may actually have seen a performance once.
This was part of the outline, that Wilhelm and Cooper would be on a transport downriver to separate trials but the water would be rougher than the soldiers could manage, so they would untie Cooper who would get them to safety and then escape. Because I have over a thousand miles of canoeing experience we agreed that I would draft it.
We could see Cooper’s exit coming, and began discussing worlds to which we could send him.
Eric drafted this, along the general lines of the story we had been discussing. He had by this point decided who Davey had chosen to marry, but hadn’t told me.
Since I was the primary writer on the music sections, I drafted this chapter. The mention of Thanksgiving reflected something we had begun discussing behind the scenes, that we needed a Louisiana variant of Thanksgiving dinner to be served at the restaurant.
Since I was writing and we had an agreed outline for this, I drafted this chapter to move the story forward to the next connection.
Eric drafted this, bringing in the idea of a verser rabbit and discussing what happens to animals when they die. I pointed out, privately, that the Bible doesn’t actually tell us what happens to animals when they die, probably because we don’t need to know.
The intelligent verser rabbit with the cybernetic eye is a motif in some of Eric’s stories, a sort of reminder of the ridiculous things that could exist in the multiverse as conceived.
I drafted this, but the Thanksgiving menu was concocted by Eric (I added the salad, whipped cream, and coffee).
Again this fell to me for the theological aspect, as Cooper had to be convicted of heresy by a twelfth century Inquisitor based on some nuance of theology on which people were convicted at the time, while holding to the core of orthodox theology. The statement of faith is essentially the Nicene Creed in the Western version, somewhat paraphrased in spots and from memory.
We had by this point chosen the next world for him, and also decided that we would make it a gather world.
Eric started writing this before I started on the previous Cooper chapter, and finished it about simultaneously with it. It was roughly following the script.
This has been the fifth behind-the-writings look at Con Version. If there is interest and continued support from readers we will endeavor to continue with more behind-the-writings posts and another novel.