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 |  A hub for the "Book of Masks" universe. |
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The Interactives "The Book of Masks"  : A high school student discovers a grimoire that can make magical disguises."The Wandering Stars" : Sequel to "The Book of Masks.""Student Bodies" : A high school student is turned into a blue goo that can possess people.For non-WdC Members "The Book of Masks: Archives" : Dodges the "Servers Busy" barrier!"The Book of Masks (Abridged)" : Introductory storylines for new readers.Community "BoM/TWS Message Forum" : Community for readers of the interactives."BoM/TWS/SB Wiki" : Notes and documentation for authors. Spoilers!Current Polls None The Latest 6/29: Interactive: "Switching Husbands" 6/29: Public: "Switching Husbands"
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| And that's all for now. The latest chapters— "Invalid Item" (public) / "By Mystery Possessed" (interactive)—round off the last storyline, and will likely be the last chapters I publish until March. But keep alert for anything from rugal or other contributors. I say I'm "likely" to not publish anything until then, because there is a chance that I'll pop in long enough to add something extra. Probably not a chapter in a continuing storyline, but an independent short story that can be dropped in somewhere. I've got a couple of those floating around that wouldn't look out of place as an extra fiddly-bit on the main BoM interactive. The better news is that I am actually at work on a new storyline. I'm saving my main efforts for non-BoM stuff (I've written two short stories already, including this entry for WdC's Weird Tales contest: "The Forever Wife" ), but I've found that there's a little pocket of 20 to 60 minutes during the day when I have just enough time to dash off part of a BoM chapter but not enough time to ruminate on something more challenging, and I've been using that little pocket to keep my BoM hand in things. So there's a really good chance that I'll have something ready to run when March 1 comes along.Anyway, I want to emphasize that I'm not going anywhere, and I plan to pop up in this blog once a week or so just to say Hi and I'm still here and to otherwise wave a handkerchief at people. |
| Yesterday's chapter—"Invalid Item" / "Invalid Chapter" —took that storyline to a crisis point. Today I switch back to the storyline before, the one that was running in the middle of December. That one too had reached a crisis point, but I've pushed a little further into it to take it to another crisis point. For a very long time there has been some undeveloped background information about this corner of the story, and this is the perfect spot to finally put it onto the record. At least, I think it's been undeveloped. I don't think the revelations to come have ever been published, but maybe there is a chapter I've forgotten about where they get made. It's not going to run long, I'm afraid. Three more chapters, and then I'm done in until March. |
| And BOOM: There are officially three thousand chapters in BoM. A couple dozen of them don't really count, though, so maybe I'll drop another BOOM when we hit the real number. It might be awhile, though. As I said a little while ago, I'm going to cut back on BoM this year to write other stuff. Fair warning: After the current batch of stuff runs out it will probably be March before I start publishing in BoM again. And I regret to say I didn't write that much more during the rest of December. The storyline I was working on just didn't pan out in a way that I liked, and I think you guys would like it even less, so I'm not going to do anything with it. I do have one more chapter to publish tomorrow to round off the current branch. After that, I have four more chapters from an earlier storyline that I'll publish. I will try to remember to pop up in this blog, so you'll know I'm still around. And I will probably be checking emails every day. I'm not going anywhere. Just turning my attention in another direction. |
| My sense of the days got all messed up over the holidays, so I missed my usual days for thanking people for GPs. But I have special thanks to give three people, who dropped way more GPs on me than they needed to: smitch Tal werwerew Thanks guys! You really went beyond and above over the holidays. |
| So, esteemed reader Kenny has been reminding me for awhile that "The Book of Masks" is coming up on its tenth anniversary. And today is it. This universe is now officially ten years old. Okay, 12-30-2008 was the day I created the interactive and posted the first few chapters: "Prologue in a Book Store" "The Fake Book" "Making a Mask" "The Solo Magician" "Myself, the Guinea Pig" . But except for a few chapters posted in January and December of 2009, it was dormant for almost two years. Not until November of 2010 did it really get going. (I think I had it locked under "Private access" until then.)But still ... Ten years. Are there any other statistics I could mention? Well, as I post this, it has 2997 chapters, but that includes appendices and a few blog-like entries. If we subtract those, it stands at 2968 chapters; though if we include the spin-off/sequel interactive "The Wandering Stars" then the number rises to 3431. That works out to a publishing rate of almost 1 chapter a day, and more than 1 chapter a day if we lop off those two dormant years at the start. I don't know how many words are in it, but each chapter probably averages around 1500 words apiece. (Most of my chapters come in at around 1725 words, but I'll be conservative in my estimates.) That means that BoM/TWS between them contain about 5 million words. That's more than 10x longer than The Lord of the Rings, and five times longer than the Harry Potter series. If most novels run between 50K and 100K words, then BoM/TWS is equivalent to between 50 and 100 novels. EDIT: Wordsmitty asks how many page views Chapter One has. I've never really paid much attention. So let's see: The description page for BoM has 117,205. Chapter One (The Prologue) itself has 112,517. Ouch. Maybe I should revise the Prologue, for the first real chapter ("The Fake Book") has 27,424. * * * I don't mention all that to brag. I sure as hell didn't do it all myself, and you all know that this thing has had a lot of contributors, from rugal (most especially) and imaj and Wordsmitty and smitch, as well as past contributors (like Collider) whose names have vanished off their chapters after contributing some fantastic ideas to it. No, I emphasize those big numbers above because they're a testimony to steady work. If a journey of a thousand miles consists of hundreds of individual steps, then the composition of a 5 million word interactive universe consists in writing one chapter at a time. Patience and perseverance can do amazing things, as anyone who's seen what a stream of water did to the Grand Canyon can attest. I mentioned the work of my fellow contributors above. I have to give enormous thanks to them, for their help in making this ... thing. Not just for their own contributions of words and ideas, both inside the interactive and privately in email conversations, but also for liking it and being enthused enough by it to add to it. I am also deeply grateful to its readers. There aren't many of you, but each one of you, whether you've corresponded with me or have just been a number in the "Page Views" statistic, boosted my morale immensely. Authors are fond of saying that they are sustained by their readers, and that is certainly true in this case. It doesn't take many of you to keep me writing. Each of you is like a tankful of high-grade fuel. Is there another ten years in this thing? I sure don't want to make any promises, and there have been plenty of times in the past when I thought it had exhausted itself. All I can say now is what I would have said ten (or eight) years ago when I started: Let's write another chapter today, and let the tomorrows take care of themselves. |
| I hope people don't mind that I took Christmas Day entirely off. You won't miss out on a chapter, though. Everything will get shifted back by a day going forward. See the text box above for direct links to the two new chapters from me. |
| If you look above this post you'll see a text box describing this blog. It includes a link to the "Invalid Item" where unregistered members can access non-interactive versions of my chapters hassle-free. Well, I've just added another little section to it: links to the most recent chapters I've posted (in both interactive and non-interactive formats) plus a link to the latest interactive chapter posted by an author who isn't me. I will try to remember to keep that slot updated when I add chapters, so that readers can just come to this page for a quick link to reach the latest stuff. It'll help me too, so I don't have to flip through multiple pages to reach the spot where I'm posting chapters. And it'll be less intrusive than posting updates in the blog itself, just to post links. I don't know why this didn't occur to me before. I am probably the stupidest person I know. |
| So, here's a little dividend: "Invalid Item" (public) / "Opinions Sought, and Opinions Unwelcome" (interactive). It's not much, but it's there for a purpose. Chapter 2, "The Fake Book," sets up the three branches that all the various storylines have spiraled out of: Will exploring the grimoire with friends; Will becoming a pupil or adversary of the warlock Aubrey Blackwell; Will getting rid of the book but getting roped back into it as others start using it. This new chapter is there to do something similar, but with a slight twist. The choice presented is "Show the book to your dad", and Chapter 3 is about that. But the choices at the end basically recapitulate the choices at the end of Chapter 2: Investigate the book; return it to the bookstore; get rid of it. Why is that? BoM has been a ten-year project, with new characters, backgrounds, and situations developed over that period of time. There are many early chapters and storylines that do not reflect or account for things that were developed later. I think that's okay. I have tried to turn that to an advantage by keeping all the storylines somewhat limited. Story-telling requires selection—the author selects what is important to the story—and a storyline that included everything would be too fat and clumsy to be enjoyed. In looking BoM over, though, I decided it wouldn't be a bad idea if there was a way of re-approaching older storylines from scratch with material since added. I don't mean by re-running and re-posting those storylines exactly. I mean by almost starting the interactive over again, with the chance to go down certain familiar avenues again but this time while knowing a lot more about the universe. My first thought was to start a new interactive—literally, start BoM over again. But then I thought that maybe there was a way of doing the same thing inside BoM itself. Hence, the chapter "Opinions Sought, and Opinions Unwelcome." It doesn't develop much off of "The Fake Book," and more or less ends with the same choices as ended "The Fake Book." But just in this way it's like an alternate to "The Fake Book," and so provides a place for slightly alternate, and maybe richer and more informed, storylines similar to those that come after "The Fake Book." I've no plans currently to add any sequels to this new chapter. It's only there to open up a possibility. Right now I'm intent on developing some new characters inside of well-developed storylines. |
| Okay, here's the start of the branch that will run through December 31: "Invalid Item" (public) / "Becoming Braydon Delp" (interactive). Background to the story is here: "Invalid Item" As I mentioned yesterday, I had the first seven chapters already written and waiting on my computer, so this is using up some of my archived stuff. But it's new to you, right? |
| We're eleven days off from the new year, but I'm going to go ahead and talk about the year ahead and my plans for it. I think I'm going to be cutting back on BoM. No, I'm not going to stop working on it. It's too much fun and it's far too useful to me. It's the sandbox where I develop characters and situations and ideas that I can use elsewhere. But I am going to be taking longer absences from it so as to work more deliberately at other stuff. The plan I have right now is to devote myself in month-long chunks to different projects. One will be BoM, and the other two months will be to other projects. I will rotate between them. This means that likely there will be only four months next year when you'll be getting chapters from me. Well ... Maybe more than four months. My idea is to devote a full month to each project, and since I can typically write more than thirty BoM chapters in a month, you will likely get more than thirty days' worth of BoM chapters at a time—probably between five and seven weeks of them. But if all goes to plan, there will be at least four lengthy pauses from me next year. I will still make make periodic updates to the blog, though, just so people know I'm still actively at the site. * * * Meanwhile, today's chapters—"Invalid Item" (public) / "Sleeper, Awake!" (interactive)— bring the second storyline of the month to a close. Yesterday I wrote the last chapter in the third storyline, which I will start publishing tomorrow. It's actually a branch where I had seven unpublished chapters already written, so I just had to write three more.But there's eleven more writing days in the year, days that I'm giving to BoM, so that there will be more stuff from me in January. At least, there will be if I put a period to this blog post and get back to w— |
| This week my thanks go to Tal and to Easy for the tips they have sent me. Thanks guys! Oh, and I might as well save some of you some trouble by linking directly to today's chapter: "Invalid Item" (public) / "Sufferin' Suffolk!" (interactive). |
| Today brings the first chapter in the storyline that you guys picked in the second monthly poll: a sequel to "The Very Busy Monday" . If you have trouble accessing the interactive, here is a summary of the plot thus far: "Invalid Item" . This plot line will also run for 10-11 chapters before I switch up again. The new chapter: "Invalid Item" (public) and "A Conspiracy Unmasked" (interactive).The just-concluded storyline can still be publicly accessed through the "Invalid Item" page. It will be accessible there at least through the end of December. |
| So today's chapters -- "Invalid Item" (public) / "A Science Nerd Reports" (interactive) -- bring the first 10-chapter contest commission to a stopping point. I liked writing it. I wouldn't mind continuing it at some point. I hope the people who sacrificed some of the GPs for it were reasonably satisfied with it. But I'm committed to writing a second storyline, one that will start tomorrow. I'm halfway through that one -- five of the ten chapters written -- and I would be further along except ... Well, the day before yesterday I woke up with the idea for a really bizarre plot twist for it. Yes, the old cliche about coming up with stories in your sleep does happen, and it happened this time. It was such a huge plot twist, though, that I'm not going to use it. Instead, I'm going to save it and introduce the basics of it in another part of the interactive -- probably in the storyline for the last third of the month. So instead of writing new stuff, I had to spend yesterday revising two chapters in order to put the next branch onto a new footing. But I know where things are going, and I don't anticipate missing any publication dates. |
| Well, that wasn't much of a contest, was it? "The Solo Magician" takes it in a landslide, both in votes and in GPs. That will be the last of the contests for awhile. You guys have given me writing material to last through the end of December. Oh, and here are today's chapters: "Invalid Item" (public) / "When Cheerleaders Try Calculus" (interactive).* * * * * Meanwhile, my thanks and acknowledgements to Achillesredux and Easy for gift points. I'm glad you guys liked "The Go-Between." |
| Reminder that there is a poll running: [Polls completed and deleted]. The polls close Saturday morning (EST). While I'm here, here's links to the latest chapters: "Invalid Item" (public) / "The Go-Between" (interactive). That storyline will run through Monday. |
| Just a reminder that you can access public versions of my current interactive storylines through this page: "Invalid Item" . That's in case I don't post direct links to them on the blog. But as long as I'm putting up this entry, here: * "Invalid Item" (public)* "Roles and Role-Players" (interactive) |
| At the moment, my plan for December is to write three storylines, each of 10 chapters, with maybe an 11th chapter for one of them. The storyline I just started publishing will fill out the first third of the month. The sequel to "A Very Busy Monday" will take the middle third. And ... Well, which storyline will finish out the month? Let's have another poll! (I think these things are actually fun, and they relieve me of the stress of narrowing my own choices down.) So, if you don't know the drill by now: 1. [Poll completed and deleted]. Click on your preferred choice or choices (you're allowed to cast GP votes for more than one), then send a number of GPs through the tip form at the bottom of the chapter that pops up. 2. [Poll completed and deleted]. Here you can cast a single vote. Each vote will be worth one half of the average number of GPs cast in the GP poll, unless no votes are cast in the GP poll, in which case each vote will be worth 1. The winning choice will be the one that garners the most GPs + Weighted Free Votes. GPs cast for the winning choice will be forfeit. (They are paying for the commission.) GPs cast for losing choices will be returned to those who cast them, along with a share of the GPs cast for the winning choice, proportionate to the share of GPs cast for the losing choices. Example: Choice A gets one vote of 9K dropped on it. Choice B gets one vote of 2K and one vote of 1K. The person who voted for Choice A gets nothing back. The voters for Choice B get back 8K (2K plus 2/3 of 9K) and 4K (1K plus 1/3 of 9K). * * * * * BTW, we will almost certainly continue doing polls, though maybe not as a constant feature, into the future. I am trying to keep the choices mixed up. But choices that were offered but which lost in earlier contests are likely to return in subsequent polls. Just not immediately. |
| "The Very Busy Monday" narrowly edged out "Switch Chelsea and her mother" in the free poll, but it also won the GP poll by a more convincing margin, so that will be the storyline that comes after the one that starts today. I'm going to share partial results of the GP poll here, because some big batches of GP got dropped on some entries, and the people who dropped them would probably like to know how their choice(s) managed to lose despite receiving some heavy-ish coin. So: The GP vote results: "The Very Busy Monday": 36,000 GPs "A Partner": 26,815 GPs "Switch Chelsea": 8211 GPs "My Brother, My Self": 7000 GPs Each free vote was worth 3251 GPs, so that the final vote totals were: "The Very Busy Monday": 36,000 GPs + 32,510 "free" = 68,510 "A Partner": 26,815 GPs + 13,004 "free" = 39,819 "Switch Chelsea": 8211 GPs + 29,259 "free" = 37,470 "My Brother, My Self": 7000 GPs + 9753 "free" = 16,753 Because of the way the GP vote influenced the value of the "free votes," it would have taken an additional GP vote of 46,000 to put "A Partner" over "The Very Busy Monday" and even more to loft any of the other entries into first place. BTW, the five biggest individual GP votes went to: "The Very Busy Monday": 35,000 GPs "A Partner": 15,000 GPs "My Brother, My Self": 7000 GPs "A Partner": 6000 GPs "Switch Chelsea": 5000 GPs Those who voted 36,000 GPs for "The Very Busy Monday" will get that storyline. Those who voted for the other choices will get their GPs back, along with a share of the 36,000 GPs proportionate to the size of the GPs they voted. Those dividends will be distributed later today. |
| So, it starts up again after a one-month hiatus for me: "Invalid Item" (public) / "Black Narcissus" (interactive). There's a chapter of background here: "Invalid Item" if you need to get up to speed before plunging in. My plan is to write at least 10 chapters. At the moment I've only got three, so I'd better get cracking. |
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