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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 3/13: "BoM Poll: "A Slippery Sale"" [Closes Saturday, March 15, at 12:00 ET]The Latest 3/14: Interactive: "She So Mad" 3/14: Public: "She So Mad"
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| The vote in the last poll was relatively close, with "Screw it, stay here" holding a slight lead. But that was narrowly offset by some GPs for the other side, so that is the choice that gets published today: * Interactive: "She So Mad" * Public: "She So Mad" For the record, the final, adjusted tally was: * Go home: 57.1% * Screw it, stay here: 42.9% And this is where I'm going conclude the branch, at least for the time being. It seems like a good breaking off point. If you read today's chapter, you will also notice that it seems to curve around and intersect the subject of the other poll (still running: "BoM Poll: "A Slippery Sale"" ). That is mostly a coincidence. I had it in the back of my head the entire time that the Libra would reassert itself, and I knew that once it did so, a trip back to Arnholm's would be a possibility. While writing "She So Mad," it occurred to me that if Will and Sara were to meet, The Crystal Cave could serve both as a meeting place and as a way to get Will in to Arnholm's, thus bringing the story to a critical turning point. Perhaps the return of Blackwell in the current poll made this twist more salient to my subconscious. But I didn't deliberately try to force it, and simply accepted what looked like a convenient inevitability.What next? I'm going to take the weekend off from publishing and resume on Monday with a sequel to "Making Mickey." After that, we'll see. |
| Once again, a big GP vote swings in to upset things. In "BoM Poll: "The Desperate Collector"" , "Change your mind and keep the book" was having its way with a majority of the Free Vote, and was also collecting some GPs. But a truckload of points got dumped onto "Sell the book but decline the job," which had been trailing badly. How much did this shift the vote? See for yourself. Final tally [Free Vote in brackets]:Sell the book but decline the job: 54.3% [15.8%] Change your mind and keep the book: 30.3% [52.6%] Sell the book and take the job: 15.4% [31.6%] Something to keep in mind when looking at "BoM Poll: What Happens in the Warehouse" , where the Free Vote is currently very close.New poll has been posted: "BoM Poll: "A Slippery Sale"" . |
| There were no upsets in the latest poll, with the GPs only reinforcing the Free Vote tally. Final results: * Stick with those that brought you: 71.3% * Hang out with Carson: 28.7% The chosen sequel has now been posted: * Interactive: "What Happens in the Warehouse" * Public: "What Happens in the Warehouse" The other poll—"BoM Poll: "The Desperate Collector"" —is still open and will continue to run until Thursday at noon ET. |
| I guess people learned from the last poll that GPs can make a difference. In the Free Polls, "Keep investigating the book" and "Plots Have I Laid" held comfortable leads in their respective polls, but GPs skewed the outcomes wildly. Here are the final results, with Free Poll results in brackets afterward for comparison: BoM Poll: "The Fake Book" * Return the book to the bookstore: 52.1% [24%] * Keep investigating the book: 26.2% [40%] * Show the book to your dad 15.7% [24%] * Give the book to a friend 6.0% [12%] * Bury the book in your room: 0% [0%] BoM Poll: "The Continuing Story ..." * Making Mickey: 52.5% [24.1%] * Plots Have I Laid: 26.4% [37.9%] * Vengeance on an Ex-Friend: 15.6% [27.6%] * Taking One for Team Kendra: 5.6% [10.3%] As a result, the choice for "The Continuing Story" been settled, and I'll be continuing "Making Mickey" when we're done with the current branch. Meanwhile, there's a new poll on how to continue the other storyline: "BoM Poll: "The Desperate Collector"" And what's going on with the poll that is currently running ({item:})? We'll find out tomorrow ... GPs will be parceled out and returned to voters just as soon as I make some complicated calculations. |
| Both choices in "BoM Poll: "Making a Makeover"" got GP votes, but these cancelled each other exactly, leaving the final tally to mirror the free vote tally: * Accept his offer: 57.6% * Take your pick at the Warehouse: 42.4% The vote was consistently close, with the choices trading the lead back and forth, until near the end, when "Accept" took a decisive leap forward. Because it was so consistently close, I wrote chapters for both choices. One of them got a lot more sequels, but I'm not going to tell you which way I leapt. New chapter is now up: * Interactive: "A Drive to Distraction" * Public: "A Drive to Distraction" So is a new poll: "BoM Poll: "A Drive to Distraction"" , which will close on Wednesday.Two other polls are also currently running, and will close tomorrow: "BoM Poll: The Continuing Story ..." [Poll closed]"BoM Poll: "The Fake Book"" [Poll closed] |
| The poll for "Making a Makeover" will be open for another 24 hours, but I'm already thinking ahead. I've decided I'm going to run this storyline for only 5 to 7 chapters in total (we are 3 chapters in), will come back to it later. But what come after that? Let's do a poll! So in "BoM Poll: The Continuing Story ..." I'm asking the readership to pick one of four semi-recent storylines to continue. Two of these, "Making Mickey" and "Taking One for Team Kendra," would pick up where the chapter concluded. With the other two, there would be further polls to see which particular path would get continued.The idea is to have a storyline picked when the current one runs out. Longer term is the choice that gets picked in "BoM Poll: "The Fake Book"" . That poll starts at the beginning of the story, and will run out when we reach a choice that has not been written.And in this poll I will be posting the entire chapter, along with the choices, in order to mimic the experience of reading the interactive and making a choice. I want to make the experience for the community as close as possible to the actual feeling of reading the interactive (almost as though for the first time, I hope!) and making choices blind. |
| Poll closed. For most of the 48 hours the Plot Plinko poll was up, "Stick with these guys" held a large lead, but during the last 12 hours "Go home" surged to edge ahead of it. But even this last-minute come-from-behind move wasn't enough. "Go home" and "Stick with these guys" both fell before a massive GP vote for the Warehouse, so that the final results were: Warehouse: 40.3% Go home: 31.5% Stick with these guys: 28.2% This is mixed news for me, because "Stick with these guys" was the choice I had written, and had written out to 6 chapters. So now I have to write a different branch than the one I'd been planning. Luckily, that GP vote for the Warehouse came in early enough and was big enough that I was able to prepare, so you do get a chapter for today: Interactive: "Making a Makeover" Public: "Making a Makeover" And there is a new poll to go with it: "BoM Poll: "Making a Makeover"" As with the last one, it will be open for 48 hours. [Closes Monday, March 10, at 12:00 ET].I choose to look on the bright side. Though my plans were instantly derailed, I do have half a dozen chapters now in the backlog, which I can roll out at some other point. But for now, I have to scramble to find some way of continuing the story. |
| I was thinking anyway of turning this branch into a "Plot Plinko" game anyway, even before Nostrum mentioned that possibility in the Commentary thread. The new characters are only barely introduced in "Fröhliche Momente mit unbekannten Menschen" , but maybe enough to make a poll meaningful, so there's one up now: [Poll completed and deleted] That poll will run for two days, so there will not be a chapter tomorrow and maybe not the next day, even though there is one written. (I won't tell you which.) This is also a poll where GPs can be voted, so read the rules carefully. |
| * Interactive: "Nine's a Crowd" * Public: "Nine's a Crowd" I said last time that I wanted to write something that starts near the beginning of the story, with new characters. Today's chapter is a stab at doing just that. Confession: I really have no idea where this is going. I have no idea how long it will be before masks start being made. In fact, I have a backlog of only two chapters after this one, and I cannot even guarantee that this branch will last longer than those two chapters. This is going to be the most public, high-wire act I've done in a very long time. I'm even giving readers a chance to critique it in real time: "Commentary: "Nine's a Crowd"" Anyway, where are we? So, our protagonist, Will Prescott, bought a crazy-looking book at the used bookstore, but he didn't much like the look of it, so he buried it in his room and has gone about his life. Feeling restless, though, he has gone out this Saturday afternoon with his two best friends in search of adventure at the local mini-golf course. (Will's horizons are pretty cramped, let's admit right up front.) He has tried flirting with the ticket-seller, and has bumped into some girls from the local private academy. What will he do with these opportunities? |
| * Interactive: "Fading Thunder" * Public: "Fading Thunder" I have more written in the above line, but I think this is the best place to suspend things. It's an obvious turning point, and this branch has been going on for almost two weeks now. I'm not sure what I'm going to do next. I have an itch to try starting something near the beginning of the story, and also doing something with new characters. But that would require some serious thought. EDIT: Forgot to add the commentary thread: "Commentary: "An Alpha of Your Own"" |
| So, Civilization VII came out yesterday, and I bought it. There goes all my free time. Well, no, I'm actually forcing myself to budget time for writing, and this morning I already banged out another chapter. I'm also pretty engaged in the story myself, so it's easy to write and I want to get it written. So I don't think I'm going stop writing, at least not right away. But it might mean that this branch goes on for quite a while, instead of breaking off after 7 or 10 chapters, as these things usually do, because it might be that this branch will have to be the crutch that keeps me working. |
| Okay, I think three weeks is enough of a break. * Interactive: "An Alpha of Your Own" * Public: "An Alpha of Your Own" The story thus far: After buying a book of magic in a used bookstore, Will Prescott decided he wanted nothing to do with it, and sold it to his best friend, Caleb Johansson. That was all he knew of the matter, until he got a desperate phone call one night from Chelsea Cooper, the head cheerleader, who wants his help fixing her boyfriend, Gordon Black, who somehow managed to turn himself to stone. Well, it's all on account of that book he found, Will figures after Chelsea has laid it all out to him. It makes magical disguises and magical robots you can use to replace people with, and Gordon did something stupid with it. The only hope for Gordon is if he (Will) studies the book with the help of Chelsea. But Chelsea, once she understands the book and what it can do, has plans of her own. Before long, Will is wearing the mask of another cheerleader--Yumi Saito--and helping Chelsea with her scheme to remake the cheerleading squad. Oh, and Chelsea is impersonating the school's chief drug dealer. (Long story.) As the story resumes, Chelsea is trying to get Will to make another mask in aid of her scheme; moreover, she has promised Will that she and Will will have the same number of masks, and this new mask will make it even. So Will has to decide if he's going to turn himself into Amanda Ferguson (a bitchy AP student); into Steve Patterson (a basketball-playing bully); or hold out for a different alter-ego. I've already written seven chapters in this branch, and I'm still at work. I've got a long-range plan for this one, and there's going to be another evolution coming in the storyline. |
| * Interactive: "The Hungry Ones" * Public: "The Hungry Ones" * Commentary Thread: "Commentary: "How Alana Met Marcos"" That rounds off this branch. And there's going to be a pause in the publication schedule. I don't have anything else in the backlog and will have to write something. I do have an idea for the next thing, but I haven't written anything because it's not fully formed in my head. Also, I've been distracting myself with a railroad simulator instead of being productive. I won't be going anywhere, though, and will be checking in every day. |
| * Interactive: "Making Mickey" * Public: "Making Mickey" Last chapters of this branch are now up. Commentary post here: "Re: Commentary: "A Male Mix-n-Match"" Next up: "The Girl at the Drive-Thru Window" This is a line in the Sydney-and-Will universe. They started by replacing/impersonating Kelsey Blankenship and Amanda Ferguson. Then they added David Kirkham to their circle, with Sydney under his mask. Now they have moved in on Marcos Rivera and Alana Ocampo, with Will again taking the girl while Sydney plays the guy. |
| * Interactive: "Three In One" * Public: "Three In One" That finishes off this branch, which itself was interrupted about six months ago. Commentary thread, FWIW, is here: "Commentary: "Switching Husbands"" Up next is a sequel to "A Rescue and Retreat" , which was the last chapter in the "Conspirators Three" branch, where Will and Caleb and Keith are exploring the book and have unwillingly aded a fourth to their company, a sophomore named Teresa MacNeill.When last we left them, the guys had made some masks using multiple faces, and had gone out to a party in the country while disguised as girls, where Will narrowly avoided an intense fondling. He is now trying to recover his wits. But Teresa has made a new mask, and is prodding him into helping her out ... |
| * Interactive: "Taking One for Team Kendra" * Public: "Taking One for Team Kendra" That's today's chapter, and it rounds off a 7-chapter run. Commentary thread is here: "Commentary: "A Dolt Tries Setting Up a Date"" Tomorrow I resume where I broke off when I vanished, with "Solving Other People's Problems" . That's the one where Will and Caleb, looking for a safe place to do magical research (to fix Will's dad, who got petrified into a golem) replaced a school tutor and her university professor husband.That was supposed to be a five-chapter run, but I left after posting only three chapters. I could have posted the last two chapters, but decided to extend it, so there will be five chapters worth of material starting tomorrow. (I say "five chapters worth of material") because some of those chapters will be broken up into smaller chapters in order to facilitate choice-making. Short chapters will be posted in bundles.) |
| Today's chapter— * Interactive: "For the Love of Sarah Johansson" * Public: "For the Love of Sarah Johansson" —brings that short branch to a decision and a resting point. There's a commentary thread here in the forums: "Commentary: The Mother of All Revenge Plays" Next up is a return to a place where Will and Caleb are still friends. Collaborators even. And Gordon Black is there too. It picks up with "The Temptation To Be What Another Wants" . This is the branch where Will and Caleb, while playing with masks, accidentally revealed themselves to Gordon, who insisted on joining them. He and Will even swapped lives briefly; as a result, Gordon got thrown out of his dad's house and has moved in with Caleb and his mom. The latest drama: Gordon and Chelsea have broken up, and David Kirkham got turned into a golem. (So Caleb is pretending to be Kirkham these days.)The branch ended with a couple of different chapters, each pointing in different directions, but I'm picking up the one where Gordon tells Will that he wants to go out with Jenny Ashton; and he tells Will that if he gets Jenny to go out with him, he'll set Will up inside a new mask of someone who can be Chelsea's new boyfriend. What comes next starts tomorrow. |
| I've finally got caught up enough—and got my head back into a creative space, I think—that I'm going to start publishing my backlog. I left off in the middle of a storyline with "Invalid Entry" , and instead of publishing the last two chapters in that line, I'm to write a few more before returning to it. In the meantime I'm going to continue with a sequel to "Vengeance on an Ex-Friend" That's the story where Will and Sydney are plotting to create their own Brotherhood of Baphomet, and have decided to target his former best friend, Caleb. Readers liked the choice "Start with Caleb's mother", so that's where we'll begin. Here it is: * Interactive: "The Mother of All Revenge Plays" * Public: "The Mother of All Revenge Plays" |
| A general head's up to anyone who had been corresponding with me before my last vanishing act: If your name is not Nostrum, bickuribox, or ThePrussian, then I have likely flushed all your old emails away in a giant inbox purge. If you have important business with me please get in touch. If your name is Nostrum, I think I have all your emails going back to September '23. If your name is bickuribox or ThePrussian, I think I have all your most recent correspondence but a few emails might have gotten deleted by accident. |
| ... I ain't dead. There was no crisis or anything, it was just another one of those damnable collapses. But I am so disgusted with myself over this most recent one that I am determined not to disappear again. In future, even if I find my enthusiasm curdlng, I am going to do my best to resist the temptation to crawl into a hole offline. I'll do my best to grin my way through and be neighborly and helpful here. I've got a bunch of emails to get thru, will do that tomorrow. I do know that the email box was full, and it's cleaned out now, so if there's stuff you want to email me about, you can. Anyway, there's no real story to tell about what happened. It was just hitting the wall again, and I just found it impossible to get back onto my feet. I'm still having trouble with it. Usuallly I can pick up momentum again after restarting the writing. But though I did restart writing back in October, it just petered out again real quick. Depending on what I think of the chapters I wrote when I revisit them, I will probably start posting the thin backlog I've got in a few days. We'll see then how much I have recharged. |
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