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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 None The Latest 12/24: Interactive: "A Mother's Memories" 12/24: Public: "A Mother's Memories"
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| Today's chapter— * Interactive: "Dreams and Temptations" * Public: "Dreams and Temptations" —brings this branch to a halt. There's already some fun speculation in the forum about who is who and what is going on: "Commentary: Clover Mystery" As I mentioned last time, I was commissioned to write 20 chapters in this area, and the just-suspended branch gave you 7 of them; the others will come in the form of two new branches, at other points in the storyline. I don't want to leap directly into one of those other branches, though: I like to give people a palate cleanser between closely related storylines. Trouble is, I don't have anything to give you as a palate cleanser. I do have another commission I'm supposed to be working on, but I don't have anything written for it yet. I haven't even found a divergence point to graft it on to. So I'm going to take a short break and not publish anything for a few days. (Probably three days; no more than a week.) That will give me a chance to get ahead in my writing (I've been day-by-daying it, sometimes writing a chapter in the hour before publishing it) and to also catch up on some other, too-long postponed chores. It will also give readers a chance to clear their heads. And to further help you all clear your minds of recent developments in the Clover Mystery storyline, I'll tell you where the next branch is going to appear, so that you can review the chapters that lead up to it without (I hope) getting confused by events that happen later. The divergence will occur at the end of "Face-Time with a Cheerleader" . Will has been badgered by Clover Mystery and by mystery dates, and he lately made a fool of himself in front of Chelsea Cooper and Maria Vasquez at a coffee shop. But the next night, when he returned there with Caleb, Chelsea made a point of telling him that she wanted to talk to him. In the main storyline, he did sit down to talk to her, and we've seen what came of that. But what happens if he bolts the coffee shop without talking to her? |
| Today's chapter— * Interactive: "Minding Jessica's Business" * Public: "Minding Jessica's Business" —brings the current line to a close. There's a commentary thread on it in the forum: "Commentary: "The Third Time a Charm?"" Tomorrow I initiate another commission, and return to the Clover Mystery storyline. The story thus far: After showing the book to his dad, Will decided to get rid of it, but instead of putting it into the school time capsule he sold it to Jack Li; then, when his dad asked for another look at it, Will was told it had been sold to Christian Padilla as a prop for the drama department. There the trail petered out, as it could not be found. But while searching for the book he became reacquainted with Laura MacGregor, a drama student who was friends with him earlier in high school. Through Laura he becomes better acquainted with Jack's group of friends, including a bunch of girls who take turns flirting with him: not only Laura but Elle Moore and Leah Simmons; and Will even hangs out with Maria Vasquez (the cheerleader) at a dance club. Confusion sets in, however, as the various girls deny meeting up with Will, and he quickly gets a reputation as a fantasist who makes up stories about girls being interested in him. Worse, he is being taunted via text by a person calling themselves "Clover Mystery." This person took a video of Will and Caleb digging up the time capsule so that Caleb could retrieve his contribution. These texts have a teasing, but undeniably threatening, air to them. Things reach a pitch when Will is invited by Chelsea Cooper, of all people, to meet her after school. The upshot is that Will finds himself violently switching bodies with Jack Li, and the two are forced to impersonate each other. Of course, they know that Chelsea must be responsible—and Will now has good grounds to believe that she is "Clover Mystery"—but she denies it, and even sends her goon boyfriend to beat them up. That leaves them stuck for a way to force her into confessing her guilt, and forcing her to switch them back. The story will pick up— But wait a minute, I hear you interrupt: Didn't the story continue beyond that point? Yes it did, but it's been going in a straight line for forty-five chapters without so much as a glance to the left or to the right. I've been asked to write twenty chapters, and after some consultation with the commissioner, I'm going to divide them between a couple of new branches, so that there will be some variations. The story will pick up tomorrow with what happens after "A Message from Chelsea" , when Will goes with Jack to meet Chelsea ... |
| In case you couldn't tell from the bumpy posting schedule, this was a hard one to wrap up. I had a target—get to the point where Michelle has six masks, and Will is ready to move to another spot—and by the end I was pretty grimly set on getting to it. It wasn't much fun for me, because I wasn't giving myself room for surprises. At any rate, today's chapters— * Interactive: "Ambition from a Surprising Place" * Public: "Ambition from a Surprising Place" —have got it done. There's also a commentary thread: "Commentary: "A Junior Partner"" Tomorrow I start working on a commission: a return to the story of "Laurent and his gang of sports clowns," as the commissioner put it. (I love that description, and I'm going to repeat it as often as possible.) It will pick up here: "Thimbleriggery" . The background:Will needs money to continue researching the masks, and so he has shown them to Laurent Delacroix, the captain of the wrestling team, and to some of Laurent's friends. They all think the masks are hilarious, and are having great fun copying girls and then playing around as girls inside the masks. There have been some shenanigans involving Jessica Garner, though: At least twice, Will has had to put on Jessica's mask and sneak into the Garners' house, and each time he has managed to mess something up between the Garner siblings. And wind of things has apparently got back to Jessica, for she has shown up on Will'd doorstep with the news that she knows all about what's going on. Meanwhile, someone has been using Will's mask to get him in good with Eva Garner. Now, hang on just a moment, I hear you guys cry. The link above is pointing to "Thimbleriggery" as the place where the story resumes. But wasn't there a chapter that came after that. Yeah, and I'm going to start things off tomorrow by posting a new version of that chapter. It won't change the fundamental direction of the story, and in fact only parts of the chapter will get a revision. But I need to change it if I'm going to continue the story the way I want to continue it. |
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