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Paul Rose Jr. :
Art/Entertainment
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Posted by Paul Rose Jr
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11:14 PM Monday, 05 March 2007 |
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Well, I thought since I'm looking for input and reponse, I should start out with a bang. Almost 2 years ago now, Lucas Timmerman came up with the somewhat inspired idea to create a staff novel. We would start with a general concept and each of the involved writers (which consisted of almost all of the original Fuse Magazine/Infuze staff) would contribute a chapter. We even worked out a deal with a prominent editor, Steven MacDonald, to help us out. The only real problem was, in an effort to allow for broad creativity, there were very few ground rules beyond that. And while there was great potential, after a few chapters the authors and readers found themselves confused and unable to follow a structured plot. Then the confusion led to malaise and when other obligations got in the way, deadlines slipped by and interest dwindled. I admit that I, too suffered from this mild disinterest and laissez faire attitude.
Until one day when I got inspired. In the midst of listing all the characters we had created and trying to understand where they stood in the story, I suddenly saw a way to pull the entire story together, as written, and make it all make some sort of sense. Soldering on, I began writing and in about 2 days, created what I felt was a strong, solid turning point. A chapter that could take everything written before, make sense of it without further confusing the readers and hopefully inspire my fellow writers to get involved in the story again.
My efforts were rewarded by the response I got from Editor Steve, but the rest of the writers were far less interested, and it seemed that at the end, only myself and Andy were interested in committing the time necessary and the staff novel fell by the wayside. The chapter I wrote was never published.
One other thing I realized after I finished and sent it out... The chapter was numbered wrong. Somehow, in my zeal for scripting the thoughts of my relevation, I misplaced two other chapters that also were never published, one by Lucas and one by Andy, where they both added a new character and a portion of the story that would have to be resolved in some manner before my chapter could see the light of day.
I did in fact, come up with edits that would take into account the "missing" chapters, with little final impact on what I had written. In fact, it allowed me to add a little more dimension to the story. But, since I do not really have the rights to publish those other chapters (the other guys can do that if they want), I am presenting my "original" version of the chapter, which I honestly feel is my best writing to date. Maybe the chapter will serve to reignite interest in the story; maybe not. But either way, you get to read it and I get to see your reactions.
Of course, our readership has increased somewhat since we originally published the story, so if you've never read it (or you've forgotten it by now), start here to get some idea of the story before you read on. I humbly await your reponses...
Oh, one more note... There are certain, historical figures that appear in this chapter which have become very popular in the last couple of years. As I told our esteemed editor when he asked, I have studied and researched this particular organization and their history - real and mythological - long before Dan Brown made them water cooler conversation. So, rather than being derivative, I am simply writing what I know...
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