BoM/TWS Message Forum

"Just the Typical Hollywood Story" : It's a question that always comes up, eventually. If you can use the masks to steal an identity with no chance of being detected, why not use it to steal the identity of a celebrity or a billionaire? And there's three answers to it.

1. Every branch in BoM is "early days" for the mask-maker. Give him or her time, and they'll wind up in Hollywood, New York, Tokyo, with lots of money and/or fame. They just haven't gotten there yet.

2. BoM, to the extent it has a theme, is about self-creation and self-discovery, and the teenage years are the best arena for that kind of thematic exploration. So the interactive is going to spend almost all its time in a high school setting.

3. The authors at least went to high school. I personally won't speak for the others, but I have no idea what it's like to live and work in Big Entertainment, Big Tech, Big Money, or Big Politics. I'm not real comfortable trying to write within those worlds.

Still, it does seem like there should be one spot where a move is made in the obvious direction.

Masktrix already did this in "Beverly Hills Cult"  and its sequel, but my style is to take things slower. I need to write the characters out in order to get to know them, and that's what's going on in this string of chapters. Is the result a plausible sketch of the career and psychology of a D-list TV actor? I've no idea. I've even less idea if it was compelling or even minimally interesting, though judging by the GPs I got sent, it did get some love. And I enjoyed writing it.