All posts by M.J.

Books by the Author

#515: Verser Troubles

January 19, 2025 M.J. Leave a comment

This is mark Joseph “young” blog entry #515, on the subject of Verser Troubles.

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 eleventh post for this novel, covering chapters 121 through 132. 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;
#503: Versers Progress, chapters 37 through 48;
#505: Versers Advance, chapters 49 through 60;
#506: Characters Involved, chapters 61 through 72;
#509: Character Challenges, chapters 73 through 84;
#510: Versers Debate, chapters 85 through 96;
#511: Characters Change, chapters 87 through 108; and
#512: Versers Work, 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. 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 121 Cooper 39
Chapter 122 Takano 122
Chapter 123 Brown 326
Chapter 124, Cooper 40
Chapter 125, Takano 123
Chapter 126, Brown 327
Chapter 127, Cooper 41
Chapter 128, Brown 328
Chapter 129, Takano 124
Chapter 130, Cooper 42
Chapter 131, Brown 329
Chapter 132, Takano 125

Chapter 121, Cooper 39

A lot of disconnected details merged here. I had noted that Brian had no way to transport the sword without it showing, and suggested that a duffelbag would be the solution, but then forgot; however, I noticed that Brian s clothing selection was quite sparse and had nothing appropriate for 1950s office work. Also, Eric had earlier attempted to send Tommy clothes shopping, until I pointed out that she had purchased several period-appropriate outfits in the suburbia world and that chapter was redirected to laundry. So I suggested that Eric put together a shopping trip here, and gave him some tips on what people wore to the office in the 1950s.

The suggestions that Cooper wanted to acquire some camping gear. that he was worrying about depleting his money, and that he decided to go on patrol were Eric s. I made a side list of exactly what was purchased, along with prices, to get the total in the text.

Chapter 122, Takano 122

I tackled this, trying to think of ideas that would make sense to researchers in the 1950s that Tommy and Brian could bring to the table.

Chapter 123, Brown 326

Eric had made some suggestions concerning the direction for Derek s story, and before I managed to respond he had drafted most of this chapter. I was intending for there to be two things before anything else happened, one that Derek would share information about the vampires with the band, the other that there would be news that suggested a vampire attack. However, the rat attack was going to be the next step, so I wrote a new opening for the chapter and then went with what Eric had created.

Chapter 124, Cooper 40

Eric suggested that Cooper should join up with Tell and face a supervillain. I suggested Blue Ray, and they discussed his identity and powers. I then drafted this, bringing Tommy into it as well.

Chapter 125, Takano 123

Eric had given a couple ideas for this fight, and I had tossed out a few more, and then returned after dinner to put it together.

Chapter 126, Brown 327

Eric drafted this entry in which one of the Mardi Gras black tribes becomes integrated, joined by a group of liberal Whites calling themselves the Club of the Blind Men, and supported by the music of the Living Colors Dixieland Gospel Band.

Chapter 127, Cooper 41

I drafted this, realizing that we had done nothing about Cooper looking for a church, which is something that would matter to him. As I started I had forgotten the encounter at the bank and so was thinking Tommy had done better than he had, but it came back to mind so I included it. I also remembered the difficulties of the early days when banks closed at three and people got paid by check late on Thursday or sometimes Friday morning.

Chapter 128, Brown 328

Stuck on what to do with Tommy, I changed the heading here to Brown. We had discussed the notion of Derek locating the mausoleum by aerial recon, and I decided to introduce it at this point.

Chapter 129, Takano 124

I started this but was called away; Eric picked it up and finished it, but there were a lot of issues with amounts of money, 1950s pay rates and prices, so I did a bit of tweaking.

Chapter 130, Cooper 42

Eric wrote this, introducing a retired superhero and setting up a disaster. I decided that would be a good cliffhanger, but went back and backwrote what Cooper would have taken with him on the hike so that he would have the duffel with him.

Chapter 131, Brown 329

I drafted this. I wanted it to take a while to find the mausoleum, but didn t want a lot of boring chapters about it.

Chapter 132, Takano 125

I wasn t sure what to do with Tommy, so I did the mundane things. Eric expanded it to include the near death experience and the encounter with Robinette, and left it for me to resolve.

This has been the eleventh 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.

Bible and Theology, Law and Politics

#514: Legalized Drugs

January 8, 2025 M.J. Leave a comment

This is mark Joseph “young” blog entry #514, on the subject of Legalized Drugs.

Once again I’ve received a difficult question which I shall endeavor to answer: “now that marijuana and shrooms are legal, is it a sin against god to use them?”

Having not so long ago written web log post #508: Christians and the Law I find myself returning to the issue of rules and Christianity, and the question whether having said there that there are no rules, in the sense we think, I will backpedal and say but yes, there are some. I’m not going to do that–but it is again complicated.

Sin, in the Christian sense, is not about breaking rules. It is rather about an attitude of putting self-interest ahead of God. Christian faith is about trusting God and seeking to be as close to him as possible. As I wrote in What Does God Expect?:

Many Christians are asking entirely the wrong kinds of questions. Are Christians permitted to drink wine, or coffee, or beer? Does God forbid smoking cigarettes? How far can you go on a first date, or with your fiancé, if you are a Christian? What clothing does God permit? These questions fundamentally misunderstand the heart of the gospel. Law is about limits and license, about going so far and no further. These questions are like asking how close you can get to the edge of the cliff without being in danger of falling, how hard you can push against God before you push yourself out of His hand. The gospel does not lead us to ask how far we can run away from God before we are out of His reach. It invites us to discover how close we can get to God and to each other. Too many of us are asking whether we can get away with choices God might disapprove. We should be asking what choices will bring us closer to Him, what actions will build our faith, what conduct will encourage and strengthen those around us and bring us all into greater unity in the faith. Christianity is not about how far we can pursue our own selfish desires while staying within the bounds of God’s expectations. It is about how near we can draw to God when that becomes the object of everything we do.

Permit me to elaborate.

Several times in I Corinthians Paul wrote the words “All things are lawful.” There are no rules. However, he gave three qualifiers to that, caveats to this lawless concept.

The first caveat is not all things are profitable. That is, you can do anything, but it’s better to do things which benefit you than things which don’t.
The second caveat is not all things edify, that is, build up, strengthen the church, the fellowship we have with others. One of our priorities is to draw closer together with other believers and use our gifts to strengthen them as they use theirs to strengthen us and each other.
The third caveat is I will not be mastered by any. You should feel free to do anything provided you are equally free not to do it.

That will work out differently for different people. One obvious example is that many people can drink wine or beer with meals or snacks or simply for refreshment, while alcholic beverages destroy the lives of other people.

That example raises another issue. In Ephesians 5:18 Paul advises “Do not be intoxicated by wine…but be filled with the Spirit.” The verb here, often rendered “drunk”, is built on a word that refers to any intoxicant. I, personally, have never understood the appeal of altered states of consciousness (other than sleeping and waking), but beyond that the question really is what value is there in these. Do they have some profit, some personal benefit to the user? In most cases they seem to do more harm than good. Do they build our unity and strengthen other believers? I’m inclined to think the reverse. And there seems to be a rather high danger that use will result in dependency, that the user will be mastered by the use.

So I cannot say that partaking of such intoxicants is “a sin”. I can say it’s a bad idea, and probably inimical to the goals of a Christian life.

I hope that helps.

Bible and Theology, Books by the Author, Elections, Games, Law and Politics, Logic and Reasoning, Memories, Reviews, Temporal Anomalies/Time Travel, Time Travel Movies

#513: Another Year

January 1, 2025 M.J. Leave a comment

This is mark Joseph “young” blog entry #513, on the subject of Another Year.

Once again, as we did last year in web log post #490: Looking Back and in previous years linked successively back from there, we are recapping everything published in the past year–sort of.

I say “sort of” because once again some material is being omitted. There have been a few hundred posts to the Christian Gamers Guild Bible Study which can be accessed there but aren’t really fully indexed anywhere. Meanwhile, the dozen articles in the Faith in Play series and the similar dozen in the RPG-ology series were just indexed on the Christian Gamers Guild site in Christian Gamers Guild 2024 Index, and won’t be repeated here. I also posted several days a week on my Patreon web log, which announces almost everything I publish elsewhere on the same day it’s published, but again omitting the Bible study posts. There is also a bi-monthly review of my work at Goodreads under the title The Ides of Mark, now at eighty-six installments, which does include some information about those Bible Study materials.

I continued posting the tenth Multiverser novel In Version, featuring Robert Slade, James Beam, Joseph Kondor, and Derek Brown, from chapter 92 through the end, and then after uploading support site character papers turned to the eleventh, Con Version, continuing stories for Derek Brown, Tomiko Takano, and a new character, Brian Cooper, through chapter 122. Behind-the-writings posts on these two books dominated the web log this year:

#491: Verser Ventures covering chapters 85 through 96 of In Version;
#493: Verser Entanglements covering chapters 97 through 108 of In Version;
#494: Warring Worlds covering chapters 109 through 120 of In Version;
#495: World Crises covering chapters 121 through 132 of In Version;
#496: Character Setbacks covering chapters 133 through 144 of In Version;
#498: Characters Restart covering chapters 1 through 12 of Con Version.
#501: Characters Orienting covering chapters 13 through 24 of Con Version;
#502: Verser Setbacks covering chapters 25 through 36 of Con Version;
#503: Versers Progress covering chapters 37 through 48 of Con Version;
#505: Versers Advance covering chapters 49 through 60 of Con Version;
#506: Characters Involved covering chapters 61 through 72 of Con Version;
#509: Character Challenges covering chapters 73 through 84 of Con Version;
#510: Versers Debate covering chapters 85 through 96 of Con Version;
#511: Characters Change covering chapters 97 through 108 of Con Version;
#512: Versers Work covering chapters 109 through 120 of Con Version;

Late in the year my collaborator Eric R. Ashley and I finished the fourteenth novel, Verse a Tile, and began writing the fifteenth, When Verse Comes to Versed. I finished setting up the twelfth, A Dozen Verses, and have begun that work on Multiverser: The Thirteenth Story.

Depending on how you count I published two or three books this year. That’s because An Analytical Commentary on The Book of I Corinthians had to be released in two volumes due to its size. Before that, my little light horror novella Corpoise was released. I am working on editing and setup for the II Corinthians commentary.

There was some time travel work, in web log posts:

A couple decades back I told a story in an installment of Game Ideas Unlimited. That series was lost, almost entirely, so I retold the story in an installment of RPG-ology. Then Regis Panier and the staff of the French edition of Places to Go, People to Be found many of the lost articles in The Internet Archive, and I began restoring them through RPG-ology–but when I got to this one, it was too like the previous retelling to include in that series, yet too different to allow it to fade into obscurity, so I republished it as web log post #497: Game Ideas Unlimited: Vivid Recovered.

When I hit the five hundredth entry in this mark Joseph “young” web log, I decided to take a look back in what I dubbed #500: A Five Cent Review, in which I listed, linked, and briefly identified sixty-three of the previous articles I thought were memorable.

I was asked a couple questions which warranted web log level answers. The first was a bit of a biographical, #504: Why I Started Writing, somewhat self-explanatory. Then a Pagan friend (thank you again, Harry) challenged Christian legalism, so I wrote #508: Christians and the Law. I also wrote #507: Something About New Jersey’s 2024 Election in advance of the event; I did not follow it up, because there were no surprises and nothing of interest.

Early in the year Ken Goudsward of Dimensionfold Publishing put me on their podcast, as the Time Travel Episode with Mark Joseph Young. I was also in another podcast a month or so later, Christian Music Network Presents–Season 4, Episode 17 with Mark J Young, so if you wanted to see and hear me, that’s two ways to do so.

I wrote a couple book reviews on GoodReads, but didn’t read that many books this year, really.

In other news, my youngest got married on a beach in September. AnimeNEXT wasn’t held due to some administrative error. While I was hospitalized for two weeks my wife broke a leg, had surgery, and went to rehab, and is presently not permitted to walk. Valdron’s directors decided to move toward republishing Multiverser, and had me create a Valdron/M.J.Young Linktree to that end, although our art department is holding up developments there. I edited the third book in my friend’s trilogy, BeautyAndTheBell.

So as we begin 2025, there’s a lot behind and more ahead. You can keep up to date through Patreon and other social media.

Books by the Author, Uncategorized

#512: Versers Work

December 28, 2024 M.J. Leave a comment

This is mark Joseph “young” blog entry #512, on the subject of Versers Work.

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 tenth post for this novel, covering chapters 109 through 120. 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;
#503: Versers Progress, chapters 37 through 48;
#505: Versers Advance, chapters 49 through 60;
#506: Characters Involved, chapters 61 through 72;
#509: Character Challenges, chapters 73 through 84;
#510: Versers Debate, chapters 85 through 96; and
#511: Characters Change, chapters 87 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. 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 109 Cooper 35
Chapter 110 Takano 118
Chapter 111 Brown 322
Chapter 112, Cooper 36
Chapter 113, Takano 119
Chapter 114, Brown 323
Chapter 115, Cooper 37
Chapter 116, Takano 120
Chapter 117, Brown 324
Chapter 118, Cooper 38
Chapter 119, Takano 121
Chapter 120, Brown 325

Chapter 109, Cooper 35

I decided it was time to go back to alternating the three characters, so I started with Cooper heading back toward Tommy, and then inserted the Takano chapter after it.

Chapter 110, Takano 118

I flowed from Cooper 35 into this, but got confused in the middle of it, shifting to his perspective, and had to go back and rewrite it to keep it with her.

Chapter 111, Brown 322

Eric drafted this, taking Derek to another predominantly segregated church, where the segregation makes sense because most of the congregants speak Chinese and are trying to learn English.

After what was to have been the final edit, as I was setting up Derek’s character paper, I realized that we had confused Mandarin and Cantonese–Mandarin is the dialect Derek had learned as a spy, and Cantonese the one he was only now starting to learn. I had to come back and make a few changes to this chapter to clarify that.

Chapter 112, Cooper 36

I drafted this after finishing Takano 118, because I wanted to get in the conversation about computers and the suggestion that both Cooper and Tommy could possibly get jobs in the industry.

Chapter 113, Takano 119

In Eric’s original draft Tommy went shopping but bought things she already had. I pointed this out, so Eric rewrote it as a trip to the laundromat.

Eric put Tommy in a dark blue calf-length skirt, but I shortened it, thinking that the skirts worn by teens in the 1950s were knee-length.

Eric had ended this with Tommy taking a long bath, but wanting to accelerate events in their secret identity lives I had inadvertently continued with Cooper taking her to meet Keller, so Eric came back and backwrote this to fit that.

Chapter 114, Brown 323

On a readthrough following my hospitalization I spotted the fact that Pierre Hunter had given Derek a “ring of keys”, and realized that at this point he could only really account for the front door and maybe the back door. Between us we had dismissed the notion that there would be a gunlock on the shotgun, and decided that one of the keys opened a cabinet somewhere in the house that they had not yet found. We discussed what might be in it, and since I proposed that it would contain information about the monsters, I ultimately drafted this. I thought there should be “several” folders, but couldn’t figure out what they would cover besides the three monsters Eric had uncovered in his research, so I stuck to three.

Eric’s research gave him this: “locals believe that the city is actually the home of real vampires. During the 1930s, brothers John and Wayne Carter were executed for committing multiple murders. About a dozen bodies, drained of their blood, were discovered after a bloodied young woman managed to escape from their apartment. Sightings of the brothers are often reported to this very day, as their bodies mysteriously vanished from the family’s funeral vault.” We pushed them back a few decades, and discussed them in some detail.

Chapter 115, Cooper 37

I drafted this, but before I had finished Eric pointed out that the previous Takano chapter had her returning from the laundromat in different clothes and immediately taking a bath. Because it seemed important to streamline getting them working, we agreed to backwrite the previous material to fit with this.

Chapter 116, Takano 120

Eric drafted this, introducing the idea that Brian and Tommy were sort of “rubberstamped” into their jobs. He also came up with Janus Cutter as the name for Doctor Mordenslice’ secret identity.

Chapter 117, Brown 324

We discussed the design of these particular vampires, agreeing that they would be similar to but distinct from those in Lauren’s early stories. I pieced together some of what we had agreed on into Hunter’s file. We wanted there to be some sort of cryptic clue to the location of the graves, but all I could think of at the time was that they weren’t on holy ground so they could have been in a Cajun graveyard outside the city. I also added the notion that they were often active around Mardi Gras, as that was our next confrontation.

Chapter 118, Cooper 38

I was jotting down notes on this, and decided to go ahead and write it. The name Granville and some of the characteristics came from a veterinarian character in the original BBC television production of All Creatures Great and Small. I was going to cut it shorter, but decided to finish the meeting and then figure out what Tommy does next.

Chapter 119, Takano 121

I did this wrap-up of the day largely to get back to Derek and Brian, but thought that a bit of the lot of girls in the workplace ought to be considered. My plan includes that at some point she’s going to show her worth to the engineers, but not quite yet.

Chapter 120, Brown 325

I suggested that having been to a few Catholic services I should write the chapter in which Derek goes to church with Pierre, and Eric agreed that his own experience, limited to a couple weddings and a funeral, would be inadequate.

Realizing that there was separatism in the Catholic church that didn’t exist in the individual Protestant churches, I brought that forward into the theme.

This has been the tenth 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.

Books by the Author

#511: Characters Change

December 8, 2024 M.J. 4 Comments

This is mark Joseph “young” blog entry #511, on the subject of Characters Change.

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,

2 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 ninth post for this novel, covering chapters 97 through 108. 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;
#503: Versers Progress, chapters 37 through 48;
#505: Versers Advance, chapters 49 through 60;
#506: Characters Involved, chapters 61 through 72;
#509: Character Challenges, chapters 73 through 84; and
#510: Versers Debate, 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. 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 97 Takano 115
Chapter 98 Brown 316
Chapter 99 Cooper 32
Chapter 100, Brown 317
Chapter 101, Takano 116
Chapter 102, Brown 318
Chapter 103, Cooper 33
Chapter 104, Brown 319
Chapter 105, Cooper 34
Chapter 106, Brown 320
Chapter 107, Takano 117
Chapter 108, Brown 321

Chapter 97, Takano 115

Eric wrote this, covering a month and reducing Varlax’ absence to a single chapter.

Chapter 98, Brown 316

Eric wrote a massive chapter with a huge confusing dream or vision sequence here, and although I was uncomfortable with a lot of it, I decided to keep it, but to break it into shorter chapters and to make a few minor tweaks. I wound up with six chapters, not all of them actually short, but the first one covers all that precedes the vision.

Chapter 99, Cooper 32

Eric had set up the bank robbery, so I tackled the scene itself. We had discussed the powers to go with the names Major Pain and Private Problem. Having written as far as drawing the sword, I decided to make that the cliffhanger and return to the scene in the next Cooper chapter.

Chapter 100, Brown 317

Eric’s dream sequence begins here, and I made a chapter of what seemed the first natural chunk, an introduction to the vision within a vision.

Chapter 101, Takano 116

Eric drafted this as Tommy’s exit. We had agreed on the framework that she would be trying to rescue a child from copperheads and would be bitten, but we had some difficulty with the execution. Eric had envisioned a terrain that might exist in the mountains at the north end of the state, but not in the Cohansey Aquifer of this setting. I made a lot of tweaks to get it to fit the setting.

Chapter 102, Brown 318

Eric’s dream sequence at this point shifted into its first major scene, which I cut into its own chapter.

Chapter 103, Cooper 33

When I had left the scene hanging, I was not certain what I was going to do with it. I returned perhaps an hour later to finish the encounter. The Hebrews quote is in the language of Young’s Literal Translation, the preferred translation of the player on whom the character is based.

Chapter 104, Brown 319

The second major scene of Eric’s dream sequence was shorter, but still formed a coherent chapter.

Chapter 105, Cooper 34

This chapter was originally Takano 117, but when Eric wrote Takano 117 he brought it to a confrontation with Cooper, and when I was catching up I was unaware that this had been continued in Cooper 34 two chapters later, and thought Eric was asking me to finish it. I wrote the rest, and then when I got to Cooper 34 realized that there was overlap. Being uncomfortable with a chapter that took Cooper back to the bank preceding one that had him across town meeting Tommy, I swapped them and did a bit of editing to make them work.

Chapter 106, Brown 320

The vision shifts into a history lesson badly skewed toward what the south believed caused the war, and I included the suggestion that this was not necessarily the actual history of anything, and his vision was not something from the King but an explanation by the Spirit of New Orleans.

Chapter 107, Takano 117

This had been chapter 105, but there was some confusing temporal overlap between the Cooper 34 chapter Eric had written here and the Takano 117 chapter he had written there, so I swapped them, completed this one, and tweaked them to fit.

Chapter 108, Brown 321

This was the final chapter of the vision Eric had written, which I sliced into a conclusion with its denouement.

This has been the ninth 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.

#510: Verses Debate

November 19, 2024 M.J. 1 Comment

This is mark Joseph “young” blog entry #510, on the subject of Versers Debate.

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 eighth post for this novel, covering chapters 85 through 96. 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;
#503: Versers Progress, chapters 37 through 48;
#505: Versers Advance, chapters 49 through 60;
#506: Characters Involved, chapters 61 through 72; and
#509: Character Challenges, 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. 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 85, Takano 111
Chapter 86, Brown 312
Chapter 87, Cooper 28
Chapter 88, Takano 112
Chapter 89, Brown 313
Chapter 90, Cooper 29
Chapter 91, Takano 113
Chapter 92, Brown 314
Chapter 93, Cooper 30
Chapter 94, Takano 114
Chapter 95, Brown 315
Chapter 96, Cooper 31

Chapter 85, Takano 111

I wasn’t sure what to do with Tommy at this point, and suggested either that we skip her chapter and push into spring in the next, or that we shift to a substory I had proposed in which Boronir is badly injured in a hunting accident. Eric, though, wanted the story to do more with food shortages and then go to the Boronir substory, so he wrote this chapter.

Chapter 86, Brown 312

I had suggested that some clergyman would come to investigate the report of an angel appearing at Yule, and suggested possibly a Bishop. Eric confirmed that he liked the idea of it being a Bishop, and suggested that he would be mostly upset that God would choose the Baptist Mister Hunter and then a couple who didn’t even attend church on Christmas to be protectors of New Orleans. I stitched it together into this chapter.

Chapter 87, Cooper 28

Eric had written the notion that Cooper should go to Lance’s Gold Emporium, so I started this chapter with that. I also realized that Cooper was going to need a place to stay for a while, so I included the decision to rent the hotel room for a week. Then still unsure what to do, I decided to introduce William Tell Junior, who it had already been said was in the phone book. We had agreed that Tell’s secret identity was William Keller (and his wife Belle Tell, or Belle Keller, also has a secret identity), and that the William Tell Junior listing in the phone book was kind of like the bat phone, a number people could call if they needed a superhero. Keller was the name of a recently deceased friend of ours with whom we both played Multiverser, and was also the fifth most common surname in modern Switzerland.

Chapter 88, Takano 112

Eric wanted me to handle the idea of Boronir being killed by a wild animal when he tried to make himself as highly regarded as Davey Wolfkiller, so he skipped this chapter and let me come back and draft it.

Chapter 89, Brown 313

Eric drafted this, bringing a lot of New Orleans flavor into it. He moved it into a discussion of segregation, in which Derek was losing the argument, being classed a “Yankee” who wants to control how they live, and that they should be allowed to keep their separatist world. I thought not only should Derek not lose the argument because a separatist world leads to things like Apartheid and World War II, but because if he loses here he loses New Orleans, because the battle against the devil in New Orleans requires that the people be united despite their differences, and if he can’t get that in the band, he’ll never get it in the city. We spent a lot of time expanding the text of that argument, each of us trying to get the last word, then Eric sliced it all and put it in storage for possible use in the climactic confrontation.

Chapter 90, Cooper 29

Wanting to have Cooper recognize that Tell is Keller, and work in the joke that Belle Keller is actually Belle Tell, I drafted this meeting. I left it hanging at the point at which Cooper says he’s open to suggestions, and Eric picked it up, suggesting powers and training.

Chapter 91, Takano 113

Eric drafted this death and burial of Boronir, and I left it as it was.

Chapter 92, Brown 314

I titled and numbered this chapter shortly before going into the hospital, with a note that before I wrote anything there I wanted to see what expansions we were going to make to the Brown story in earlier chapters. Those expansions pushed this forward two chapters to 92, Brown 314.

While I was hospitalized, Eric wrote this chapter in the notes at the end of the text. I slotted it here upon my return, as it was an excellent part of the theme I wanted to follow about uniting the people. Eric said it was based on a true story that had happened to his own parents.

Chapter 93, Cooper 30

Eric drafted this just before I went into the hospital. The notion of Cooper learning to swordfight from a supervillain was Eric’s.

Chapter 94, Takano 114

This was the last thing I wrote before going into the hospital; I read a bit of Eric’s additional work, but had become focused on expanding previous material in the Brown story so wasn’t moving forward. In my absence Eric wrote several Brown chapters to be slotted into what we had.

The issue of how to fill seats on the council was going to matter, and I wanted to use the Boronir incident to resolve it.

Chapter 95, Brown 315

It was at this point that I went back and wrote Brown 308, in which the integrated nature of the band becomes the point making possible more integrated bands.

While I was hospitalized, Eric wrote several chapters for the Brown story which I was sorting through and trying to work into the existing framework. This inter-racial police standoff was one of them, which I slotted here when I was editing and organizing material after his release.

Eric included this in the notes: “In 1900, the Robert Charles race riots occurred. Much of this is from that or partly inspired by that. He did kill something like four policemen after being rousted and getting shot. The Thomy Lafon schoolhouse, ‘the best Negro schoolhouse in Lousiana’ was burned. A number of blacks were killed as well as some whites. The Assistant Mayor did put two gatling guns in the streets to try to calm down the white rioters. I just moved it a few years later, and had Derek intervene before it got completely terrible. And yes, I put something about Yankees in there. It seems to me that the greater problem of racial unity is that of Yankees a.k.a. ‘Good’ Whites vs. Southerners a.k.a. ‘Bad Whites’. Your views are complicated, but Derek is very Yankee. And if we don’t want a pro segregation piece, well we also certainly don’t want the one-hundred-millionth version of banal, trite ‘if only whites would be nicer the world would be perfect.’ The truth of the situation is that it’s complicated which is something the Yankee notions ignore. I think that the New Orleans solution, like that of a brutally abused wife who just wants some peace and quiet, may not be perfect, but it has its points.”

Chapter 96, Cooper 31

Eric wrote this while I was hospitalized. He left the names of the villains blank, and we discussed them a bit before I proposed the ones used.

This has been the eighth 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.

Books by the Author

#509: Character Challenges

October 13, 2024 M.J. Leave a comment

This is mark Joseph “young” blog entry #509, on the subject of Character Challenges.

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 seventh post for this novel, covering chapters 73 through 84. 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;
#503: Versers Progress, chapters 37 through 48;
#505: Versers Advance, chapters 49 through 60; and
#506: Characters Involved, 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. 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 73, Brown 307
Chapter 74, Cooper 24
Chapter 75, Brown 308
Chapter 76, Takano 108
Chapter 77, Brown 309
Chapter 78, Cooper 25
Chapter 79, Takano 109
Chapter 80, Brown 310
Chapter 81, Cooper 26
Chapter 82, Takano 110
Chapter 83, Brown 311
Chapter 84, Cooper 27

Chapter 73, Brown 307

I suggested that we needed a chapter to fill in an ordinary December before we hit Yule, so Eric drafted this.

He left gaps for me to fill in music, and I picked I Heard the Bells because it comes from the Civil War.

There was also a question about the Rougarou, Eric having written that Emma Malcolm had mentioned it, and I not recalling that but thinking she had only suggested trouble coming at Yule. We discussed it, and went back to Brown 303, later bumped to 304, to add it.

Reading Eric’s section on the Biloxi hurricane, I suggested expanding to include questions of the mayor’s integrity, and eventually added several paragraphs for that.

Chapter 74, Cooper 24

We had a lot of discussion concerning the locale of our superhero setting. Eric wanted to avoid New York City mostly because everyone uses it. I wanted it to be close to the mountains because of the equipment problem. We agreed on somewhere in the Rockies, and by the time Eric wrote this we had agreed on southern Colorado, in the area currently labeled the Rio Grande National Forest. I suggested that John Muir and Theodore Roosevelt never met, and so the national parks and forests systems were never launched. Eric brought forward the possibility that some supervillain might plan to do something with the volcano under Yellowstone.

I rewrote much of this. Eric had overlooked the fact that there would be no light in the library until the power was restored, and when that happened there was at least every reason for Brian to believe the force field would reactivate. His take was that Brian would eventually find the force field generator, which would have been built of components he did not recognize but melted mostly to slag as a single-use device. My view was that it would have been built of components available in the 1950s, and so look very like the inside of a radio or old television with vacuum tubes and such, and would be plugged into the wall somewhere.

We were also uncertain whether he would get anything else from the house, or indeed whether the house would be left to him. Eric decided to give him a few things and leave everything else to family. That meant that he would have to leave the house, and couldn’t take the device with him.

I also am old enough to remember how you call the police in the 1950s.

Chapter 75, Brown 308

When it appeared that the Brown story was reaching the deadline date without having achieved sufficient backstory, I inserted this chapter as a space to be filled. I was brainstorming for story ideas, but for a time the only one was to have a white boy assault a black girl and apparently get away with it.

The insertion of course shifted all subsequent chapter numbers and Brown chapter numbers plus one, which made plus two.

Returning from the hospital, I began re-reading the entire book to get back into the sense of things, and saw that in what became Brown 309 Eric had mentioned that one of the bands at Yule was a mixed-race band. I immediately balked at this–mixed race bands were unknown before about the 1950s or 60s–but then thought this could work if 2) the existence of that band was emphasized and 1) if they could set up some kind of event which suggested that Living Colors was responsible for it. That was my objective here.

Chapter 76, Takano 108

Eric drafted this to give us more of a feeling of struggling through the winter, and to give Tommy bowhunting experience.

Chapter 77, Brown 309

We had agreed that Yule was coming, and the band would face the Rougarou, which would be rampaging through the city. Eric put it together with a bit of tweaking from me.

Chapter 78, Cooper 25

Trying to figure out what Cooper could do with his grocery bags, I considered a hotel room, which would require money, which meant selling one of the gold coins from the money belt. This put me on a search for the price of gold in the 1950s and the value of money at that time, and while I was working on that it occurred to me that a bus locker would be adequate to the purpose, for which he would still need money, but then I remembered that the equipment sheet Eric had provided included a few coins, and while they weren’t legal tender they were the right shape and weight for a coin machine, and particularly the nickel, which had not changed much. So by the time he had finished this chapter we knew what the gold coins were worth in the money of the time, and what that meant in terms of purchasing power, even though at that point we didn’t need it.

Eric picked up the story to create the Blackmask Gang encounter, which I tweaked a bit to eliminate a problem with reopening and relocking the locker.

Chapter 79, Takano 109

Eric had left the hunt in the middle, and after reading it I thought that the hunters were probably killing deer rather indiscriminately, and remembered that one of the rules of modern hunting is you prefer the bucks. If you kill enough does and fawns you reduce the deer population drastically, but as long as you have one or two surviving bucks you get another generation.

Picking up from this, Eric drafted this chapter, putting the problem directly in Tommy’s face.

Chapter 80, Brown 310

I commented about here that it often seemed we were playing Multiverser, that Eric would create a situation and wait for me to figure a way out of it. That, though, created interesting stories, so it was good.

Puzzling over the problem set up at the end of Brown 309 (previously 307), I considered and rejected the same solutions I wrote for Derek, and for the same reasons. However, when I thought about having Derek turn into a sprite, it struck me that a sprite looked like a tiny angel, and he could use that to his advantage, except that before he could become Morach he would have to become Ferris, who looks more like a gargoyle than anything else. That, though, got me thinking. The body skill Derek uses lets him reduce himself by up to half in every dimension, and increase himself by as much as doubling in every dimension, done by thinking of the person he is when that size. The only reason he couldn’t get larger or smaller ultimately is that he doesn’t have a named persona conceptualized for those sizes. Could he imagine such a persona, give it a name, and become that person? I posed it to Eric, and separately to John Walker (on whom the James Beam character is based, who has been playing since before the game was published), and while both were hesitant, both agreed it was possible, and so I drafted it into the story here.

Eric had to do a bit of editing at the end because I got the geography wrong, not realizing that Alphonso had left the stage.

Chapter 81, Cooper 26

I had left a note for Eric concerning the trip ahead, and in the process composed the meeting with The Eagle, including most of the conversation and the mention of William Tell Junior. He came back the next day and covered the hike very briefly, going directly to the meeting, and adding a few bits including the motorcycle and the offer of a ride to the city.

The comment about why it wasn’t a National Park is of course one of the differences between universes: in our world, this location is the Rio Grande National Forest, but we eliminated the National Parks system and put a city on the river here.

Chapter 82, Takano 110

I drafted this, and as soon as I finished it I realized that I had thought Davey would be at the meeting and forgot to include him, so I mentioned it to Eric who went back and tweaked it to include him.

Chapter 83, Brown 311

I thought it was important for Derek and Vashti to go back and thank the bull for his hospitality, and that it would only be meaningful if they had treats. I also thought that the restaurant would be closed on Christmas, recalling that so many people attended church on Christmas day back then that they had to make it a Federal holiday because of all the call-outs. That also meant that the members of the band would be in church. Pierre would be Catholic because it’s the leading religion in France, Maurice Baptist because that was strong among southern Blacks, and a lookup confirmed that Presbyterians were a strong group in China around 1900.

Chapter 84, Cooper 27

Eric drafted this, but I swept through and made a lot of suggestions for changes, because we had a different notion of when Cooper would change out of his uniform, Eric having it done at the bus station and so revealing his identity to The Eagle, I keeping him in costume until in the room so he could keep that secret. I also expanded the dialogue at the front desk, and this led to questions about later parts of the chapter. We agreed on a cooperative rewrite of portions to accommodate this.

This has been the seventh 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.

Bible and Theology

#508: Christians and the Law

October 11, 2024 M.J. Leave a comment

This is mark Joseph “young” blog entry #508, on the subject of Christians and the Law.

Someone whom I hold dear, a gamer who met me at a convention and played Multiverser there and later online, sent me a complex question in a message. It should be stated that he was once a Christian youth minister but was disillusioned and became a devout pagan. I promised to address the question here.

We begin with the question, in its entirety.

I don’t remember what prompted me to think of this, but I had a thought I wanted your opinion on…as essentially the only Christian I know.

Specifically, I was thinking about Matthew 5:17, “I have come not to abolish the law but to fulfill it.” Etc. etc.

If the Law has been fulfilled…Does that not have…not the same meaning but the same end result?

Think of it like this. You go to a baseball game, and it gets rained out. The game has been “abolished.”

You go again the following week, and the Yankees get their asses handed to them in nine innings.

In both cases, the game ended, but in one case it was called off early and in the other case it ran its course and was finished in a natural way.

If Jesus fulfilled the law, if his “new and everlasting covenant” supplanted the older, not-everlasting ones…

Doesn’t that mean that Christians are no longer beholden to anything in the Old Testament?

I don’t just mean the Jewish dietary laws and stuff that modern people ignore routinely. I mean all of it.

Like.

Christians have no reason to ever quote the Ten Commandments; the covenant of Moses was fulfilled.

Leviticus, Deuteronomy, all historically interesting but no longer binding?

Those things haven’t “passed from the law,” or at least hadn’t as of Matthew 5:17-20, but if the covenant is fulfilled and a new one is written…isn’t the Law itself no longer the Law?

You’re under a new Constitution now.

I’m still happily Heathen; none of this stuff is incumbent upon me, but something got me thinking about this and you’re pretty much the only person I could imagine talking about this with. So. What do you think?

I am tempted simply to say he is at least very close to completely correct, and leave it at that. However, there are many Christians who would think me a heretic were I to do that, so I have to explain in more detail.

The awkward place to start is to say that almost everyone misunderstands the Law of Moses, and almost always has.

In Exodus 19 (and later in Deuteronomy 5) we have the introduction to that Law, and although it is effectively identical it is poorly understood. It begins, roughly, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the house of Egypt, out of the land of bondage. It then continues You will have no other gods before me. This, though, is the opening structure of what is called a suzerainty treaty, something very common in the ancient middle east but perhaps analogous to some of the politics of the twentieth century.

Here is the set-up: there were a lot of little countries in the world at that time who fought with each other, the winner taking slaves and treasure and ongoing tribute until there was another battle which turned the tide. However, they were surrounded by three giants–Egypt, Syria, and Assyria. Every once in a while one of those would make a move against one of the little countries, and face it, if The U.S. or Russia or China decided to conquer one of the adjacent little countries there wouldn’t be much hope of stopping them. So when this happened, the victim country would send an envoy to one of the other big countries and apprise them of the situation, and that other country launches its military scaring away the aggressor, who really didn’t want to fight one of the other big boys. Then the rescuer sends his envoy into the capital of the country he just saved, and becomes the suzerain. He presents the treaty. It begins, usually very elaborately, “I did all these wonderful things to rescue you.” That’s our opening verse here, I brought you out. It doesn’t have to be longer in Exodus, because the first eighteen chapters tell us about that, and probably a good part of Genesis supports it. The treaty then continues, “Because I did this, this is how you are going to show your gratitude to me,” and that’s the content of the Law of Moses: This is how you show your gratitude to Me for rescuing you and making you My people.

Two things should be evident from this. The first is that that Law never applied to anyone not descended from the people rescued from Egypt, unless they in essence grafted themselves into that people, becoming Jewish.

The second, though, is that the Pharisees had it wrong. Jesus’ message wasn’t really, “I’m throwing out the Law and doing something different.” It was “The way you understand the Law is entirely wrong. It was never something to do to get God to accept you. It was always what you do to show how grateful you are that God has already accepted you. And because it is so badly misunderstood, we’re going to get rid of it and let you show your gratitude however you think does that.”

So we look a bit deeper.

When asked for the most important commandment, Jesus answered it was to love God, and that the second was to love people. That was actually not a new thought; there were rabbis who thought that. But Jesus said that the entire Law was summed up in those two commandments–that is, the Law was a picture of how to show your love for God and for other people. Loving looks like this.

So you are mostly right that we don’t need to quote the Ten Commandments–but that’s because they are effectively descriptions of love. We as Christians don’t refrain from killing because there’s a rule that says don’t kill. We don’t kill because killing is a very unloving action, and we are supposed to express love even to those who hate us. So indeed the Law is irrelevant–except that if we are acting against it, we might need to check whether what we are doing is against the concept of love for God and others. Sometimes it won’t be. You mentioned the dietary laws, and although we know that at least some of them had important health benefits (trichinosis, food poisoning from spoiled shellfish) their point seems to have been that this was a way of showing gratitude, and we don’t have to show gratitude that particular way as long as we show it some way.

I should add a footnote. It is evident in the New Testament that the Jewish Christians continued to keep the Law. However, it is also evident (see Acts 15 and Galatians) that they did not expect the non-Jewish Christians to do so. This supports the argument that the Law doesn’t apply to most of us: the Jewish believers were still Jewish, descendants of those delivered by God from Egypt and so adherents to that treaty. They understood that it was a way to show their gratitude, not a way to win approval, but it was still an obligation upon them. Thus we have examples of Paul making sacrifices and Peter observing the dietary laws, but at the same time we see that the non-Jewish converts did none of these things.

I know I’ve discussed this somewhere else, but am not certain where. I do know that this notion is not my own unique heresy–just to cite one other person, Augustine, who when asked about the rules of conduct demanded by the Gospel described them as “Love God, and do as you please.”

Thus my pagan friend is completely correct that the Law of Moses does not really apply to Christians, and exists more as a reference book for understanding how to love God and others.

I’m going to link to three of my books which I think elucidate different aspects of this.

Do You Trust Me? demonstrates that all through the Bible from Adam through Moses through David to the New Testament the way of salvation was always by grace through faith.
About the Fruit explicates a significant amount of Galatians showing that Christianity is not about rules but about love and grace.
What Does God Expect? A Gospel-based Approach to Christian Conduct shows how to live a Christian life without reference to rules.

I do hope this has been helpful, and to my heathen friend, thanks for asking.

Elections, Law and Politics

#507: Something About New Jersey’s 2024 Election

September 24, 2024 M.J. 2 Comments

This is mark Joseph “young” blog entry #507, on the subject of Something About New Jersey’s 2024 Election.

As the political fighting escalated I thought I really should write something about New Jersey’s 2024 election. This is that, for what it’s worth.

It is difficult to comment on the Presidential race without raising the ire of readers. For many this election is once again about which candidate you fear more. Former President Donald Trump is perceived by many as a lying buffoon and an embarrassment to the country, but by others as a bold leader unaffected by public opinion. Vice President Kamala Harris, meanwhile, is perceived by opponents as an extreme liberal leading America into socialism but by supporters as a defender of the rights of minorities. I cannot say what perceptions are more true, only that I fear both of them and think everyone is being misrepresented both positively and negatively, and the truth might not be out there.

Of more consequence perhaps is the United States Senate race. We wrote about the indictment of Senator Menendez a few years ago, but it has finally resulted in him stepping down from the Senate. Ballotpedia marks this as one of the battleground elections in this year’s Senate race, and it could help tip the balance in the Senate one way or the other.

In this regard, it is significant that the current breakdown of the Senate has 49 Republicans and 45 Democrats, with 4 independents who usually side with the Democrats. (Two seats are currently vacant.) Of the 33 seats slated for election this year, 19 are Democrats, 10 Republican, and 4 independent. More significantly, only one of the dozen elections identified as battleground states by Ballotpedia is currently Republican, and one Independent, the other ten all being currently held by Democrats. The election could easily give either party control of the Senate, with the Republicans favored in that.

It seems unlikely that New Jersey will be one of the states that does that, though. Democrat Andrew Kim has easily outspent Republican rival Curtis Bashaw, five million against one and a half million dollars with more left in his coffer than Bashaw has raised total. He also has the political experience, having served as our third district U. S. Congressman since 2019; Bashaw is a businessman with no reported political experience, but who believes he can help put the country on a sound financial footing. Further, the increasing urbanization of the Garden State has given Democrats the edge in state-wide races. It would be nice for New Jersey to once again have a split Senatorial represenation (one Democrat and one Republican), but it does not appear to be likely.

There are four “third party” candidates on the ballot, Green Party Christina Khalil, Libertarian Kenneth Kaplan, Socialist Workers Party Joanne Kuniansky, and Independent Patricia Mooneyham, but it is unlikely these will have much impact on the outcome.

It should be mentioned that all twelve of our Congressmen, that is, those in The U. S. House of Representatives, are up for re-election or replacement. The current breakdown is 7 Democrats and 3 Republicans, with two vacant seats. Currently the House is fairly closely split, with 220 Republicans and 212 Democrats plus three vacancies; the entire House is up for election, but Ballotpedia identifies 53 as battleground races, of which 28 are currently Democrats and 25 Republicans. In New Jersey, political analysts see only the 7th district in doubt, where Republican incumbent Thomas Kean, Jr., is running against Democrat Susan Altman, and Kean is generally thought to have a slight edge. Other districts are expected to stay with the party currently holding the seat, most of whom are incumbents.

There are, surprisingly, no questions on the ballot this year.

Books by the Author, Uncategorized

#506: Characters Involved

September 22, 2024 M.J. Leave a comment

This is mark Joseph “young” blog entry #506, on the subject of Characters Involved.

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 sixth post for this novel, covering chapters 61 through 72. 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;
#503: Versers Progress, chapters 37 through 48; and
#505: Versers Advance, chapters 49 through 60.

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 61, Brown 303
Chapter 62, Cooper 20
Chapter 63, Takano 104
Chapter 64, Brown 304
Chapter 65, Cooper 21
Chapter 66, Takano 105
Chapter 67, Brown 305
Chapter 68, Cooper 22
Chapter 69, Takano 106
Chapter 70, Brown 306
Chapter 71, Cooper 23
Chapter 72, Takano 107

Chapter 61, Brown 303

Eric tackled this, with a surprise twist in the story.

Eric had mentioned here that Derek and Vashti had explained being versers to Maurice before, and I had not remembered that, so I went back to Brown 291 and expanded it to make the reference more credible.

Chapter 62, Cooper 20

Continuing our agreed script, Eric drafted this. There were a few edits to deal with our language problems, but it brought us to where we wanted to be.

Chapter 63, Takano 104

Eric drafted all of this, with the washing and the cold water, the proposal and the gifts, and the reaction of the crowd. He had intended to include the wedding, but the passage was long enough.

Chapter 64, Brown 304

Eric had suggested that Derek’s group should lose this fight, but I couldn’t see how Derek, with his history and all his powers, could credibly lose a fight in these circumstances even if the entire neighborhood came down on them. It wasn’t exactly a bluff, but having Derek demonstrate what he could do enabled him to win without either hurting anyone or being hurt.

I had formed most of this in my head before Eric had written Takano 103, so I jumped ahead and wrote it.

We had been trying to think of a name for the band, and I was toying with the idea of brown and white, and thought of The Brown White and Yellow Band, but realized I was omitting Vashti, so I rethought it as The Living Colors Dixieland Gospel Band, which Eric agreed was good and fit the subtheme of interracial relations.

Drafting what was Brown 306 bumped to 307, Eric said that Emma Malcolm had mentioned the Rougarou, but in the original draft of this chapter she hadn’t. We agreed to go back and find a way to include it without making her appear prescient.

Chapter 65, Cooper 21

We had discussed this at length, but Eric went a bit off script with the miracle crossbow shot.

Chapter 66, Takano 105

I drafted this, wanting to have Tomiko conduct the wedding and put a bit more backstory into the text so it was explained that they had marriages and wedding ceremonies of a sort back in the caves.

Chapter 67, Brown 305

Both of us recognized that there would be questions after the display at the Malcolm house, so I tackled that here. I also wanted to bring one of the younger Malcolm brothers over to their side.

Chapter 68, Cooper 22

We were discussing possible next worlds for several weeks as we recognized the approaching end of Cooper’s William Tell story, and one of Eric’s suggestions was a low-power supers world. He wrote this to demonstrate how it would work, and when we reached the point at which Cooper versed out we moved it from the notes to the text as the next chapter.

Chapter 69, Takano 106

Having written several previous fictional weddings, I was hesitant to tackle another; but I wanted to write the next Cooper chapter and preferred not to leap ahead when it’s not necessary, so I pulled together a few thoughts to create this chapter.

Chapter 70, Brown 306

Eric started this. I had suggested names for the Malcolm family, and Eric took them in the order I had given and chose the penultimate brother as the one at the door. I added the last few paragraphs when the subject changes to discussing the band; we had agreed on the name of the band, and that the Malcolm boy would suggest it.

Chapter 71, Cooper 23

I had been worried about how Cooper would get out of the forcefield trap for several days, but then hit upon a solution and said I wanted to write this chapter.

Chapter 72, Takano 107

Trying to move the story forward, I decided to cover the construction of the log cabin. The idea of having Tommy come to dinner was quite honestly filling out the chapter.

The joke about the United States of Amiska was Eric’s idea, although I actually framed it within the text.

This has been the sixth 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.

A generalist: learning less and less about more and more, one day to know nothing about everything.