The Book of Masks Homepage

Turning Points

I have working on a long-suspended novel—"Invalid Item" —for the last few days. I don't know that anybody has noticed or has been paying attention to it. I don't know that anybody thinks it's very interesting. It's about a high school football player (not even the quarterback, just the back-up quarterback) who is trying not to notice that he has been dating the wrong girl.

He's a very different sort of character than Will Prescott, and it's been a challenge (a fun one for me, at least) to capture the inner states (through first-person narration) of someone who isn't very introspective, and who persistently shies away from facing his own thoughts and feelings even while being badly buffeted by them.

Anyway, there's been something else going on in the background while Charlie has been focusing (to the extent he can focus) on other things. But today's chapter—"Invalid Entry" —more or less brings it out in the open. Nothing gets explained, only acknowledged, but this chapter should make clear that this is not a realistic, slice-of-life YA novel.

But further chapters are going to have to wait. I've decided to make a side-step into another long-delayed project. I have a few scripts for my "Superior Spider-Man" storyline that I promised to write but never did, and I've decided to get them cleared away before returning to the above project.

EDIT: Also, today's Round Robin chapters:

* Interactive: "The Gentleman and the Warlock" 
* Public: "The Gentleman and the Warlock"