The Book of Masks Homepage

Something Finished, Something Revived

* Interactive: "An Ex- Marks the Spot" 
* Public: "An Ex- Marks the Spot" 

The chapters above bring the latest branch to a shuddering halt. I hope you guys liked it. I know it was a twisty, unexpected adventure for me. You can get more details on that in the commentary thread: "Commentary: "Someone Old, Someone New ...""  

Next?

Something throwaway. I've got a commission that I need to write, and I'm only one chapter into it, so I need a little time to get it packed and wrapped. In the meantime, we'll pick up with "Chelsea Wins the War" .

That's in the branch where Chelsea got ahold of the book and roped Will in afterward. Chelsea has transformed herself into Gary Chen, and Will has replaced Yumi Saito. But Will wants a new face, and in "Possibilities That Surprise You"  he decides on the piano prodigy Preston Spinks.

The chapters I'll be publishing are ones that I wrote a long time ago but held back because (I warn you at the front) nothing much happens in them. They're basically me practicing my descriptive powers, the way a musician might practice his scales and arpeggios. But I'm bringing them out of storage for a couple of reasons.

The first is that events in these chapters are almost coincidental in time with those in the just-concluded chapter run, and so they present a few trivial people and moments and concerns from an alternate viewpoint. (That they do so is NOT a coincidence, as I consulted this unpublished section of BoM for ideas when writing "Music Matters".) Secondly, Preston Spinks is supposed to show up in a future branch, and I might as well get him on record first.

"Possibilities That Surprise You"  and "The Piano Prodigy"  are new to the Archives, btw, so that readers who follow BoM there can go ahead and catch up.