This is mark Joseph “young” blog entry #518, on the subject of Versers Plan.

With permission of Valdron Inc I have previously completed publishing my first ten 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, and
10. 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 fourteenth post for this novel, covering chapters 157 through 168.  Previous mark Joseph “young” behind-the-writings web log posts for this book include:

1. #498:  Characters Restart covering chapters 1 through 12;
2. #501:  Characters Orienting, covering chapters 13 through 24;
3. #502:  Verser Setbacks, chapters 25 through 36;
4. #503:  Versers Progress, chapters 37 through 48;
5. #505:  Versers Advance, chapters 49 through 60;
6. #506:  Characters Involved, chapters 61 through 72;
7. #509:  Character Challenges, chapters 73 through 84;
8. #510:  Versers Debate, chapters 85 through 96;
9. #511:  Characters Change, chapters 87 through 108;
10. #512:  Versers Work, chapters 109 through 120;
11. #515:  Verser Troubles, 121 through 132;
12. #516:  Versers Stymied, 133 through 144; and
13. #517:  Versers Moving, 145 through 156.

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.

Chapter 157, Takano 133

I pulled together several of Tommy’s concerns into this chapter, and managed to get Cooper pointed at some of their domestic problems.

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Chapter 158, Brown 339

This began the second half of the chapter Eric previously drafted, bringing in his idea of an attack on the diner through legal proceedings.  Looking for a solution, I decided to involve the bishop.

The line “I don’t know what you came to do, but I came to praise the Lord” comes from a song sung by Barry McGuire in the early 1970s.

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Chapter 159, Cooper 51

I wrote this mostly domestic chapter to try to get the new home in order to some degree.

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Chapter 160, Brown 340

I wanted to resolve the banking crisis quickly but also set up some expectation for Mardi Gras itself, so I drafted this.

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Chapter 161, Takano 134

When I had suggested that National Parks didn’t exist, Eric had suggested that the volcano under Yellowstone could be part of Mordenslice’s plot.  After writing the chapter in which Gorillaxe was questioned, I put forward the suggestion that he would be killed in his cell but scratch a cryptic clue into the wall.  Coming to this, I wrote that part, but the only cryptic clue I could think of was Yellowstone, so I went with that.

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Chapter 162, Brown 341

Eric took over the Brown story at this point, putting together much of the Mardi Gras festivities with only a few comments from me.  He wrote a massive chapter which he then divided into three, with minor editing from me.

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Chapter 163, Cooper 52

Eric was hoping for a behind-the-scenes look at being a choir director, which I thought would be terribly boring, but agreed to tackle it and started with this.

Dame Maggie Smith is the British actress who played Professor Minerva MacGonagel in the Harry Potter films.  Mary Bligh, the organist, was just the first given name and the first surname that came to me when I was writing.

There are actually two well-known settings of Crown Him with Many Crowns, either of which would lend itself to a decent choral arrangement.

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Chapter 164, Brown 342

This was a continuation of Brown 341, the second of three parts very much as Eric had drafted it.

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Chapter 165, Takano 135

I decided to have Tommy go to church as well.  Her family was Presbyterian, so it made sense.

The name Megan Fairchild came to me exactly that way, and as I repeated it to myself I recognized that it must have come from the name of the actress Morgan Fairchild.

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Chapter 166, Brown 343

Part three of three, of what Eric wrote as Brown 341 and then divided.

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Chapter 167, Cooper 53

I was looking for a name for the pianist, and trying to avoid another “M” name came up with Donna, then Brown.  I had to look up a lot of details including the name of the church secretary Miss Granger, whether Tommy had any music skills on her character sheet, and the date of Kumbaya.  I finally could no longer get away without naming Cooper’s predecessor, so I grabbed the name of my own high school choral director.

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Chapter 168, Brown 344

Eric left this final confrontation to me; my first draft was not nearly so complicated or long as it needed to be.  Eric picked it up and expanded it significantly, and I came back and split it, inserting a continuation of the Cooper choir story in the middle.

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This has been the fourteenth 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.