One Over X News

Been Workin' On Other Things

It is a strange thing to say when I have been on vacation all week but ever since getting back from New Orleans, I have been workin'. I guess it is not so strange when you realize my second job is one from which I cannot readily take a vacation. I am a writer, after all.

I have been editing some of my older stuff, things I haven't worked on since I started the 'Wolf Stuff' (as I call it) back in 2000. Oh, I have worked on the first two books that were published and even a third one that got held up because of the 'Wolf Stuff' and some rethinking of strategy with the publisher. But mostly I have not touched One Over X for years.

Frankly, I felt the older stuff was garbage when compared to my newer stuff. I am a realist and so, I figure that I get better at writing all the time, right? I have made it through to what used to be book 5 in the original scheme of things. I am actually very impressed with the story. The writing is also on a par with some of my newer stuff. It was a pleasant revelation as I had been concerned that everything might require major and extensive revisions.

Some of you who know me personally have heard bits and pieces of the background stories. You also know that all the books have connections one to another. A few of you have even asked me about 'the rosetta stone' - how everything fits together.

I write series of books. I tell people the reason for that is that I am not good writing endings. Of everything that I have written I personally feel that Spectre of Dammerwald is the best story overall. Ironically it is almost a childrens story but my children have never read any of it - my kids have read much of One Over X and based on that have decided that they need to keep a close eye on me, just in case I lapse into another aspect of reality.

Spectre of Dammerwald is a book that I have always needed to write but never had found the time to devote to it, until about two years ago (spring 2003). In the summer of 2000, I wrote the foundation material that has since become One Pack. That story has grown in the revisions and such but the core of the storyline was composed over a 13 week period between May and August of 2000, while I was waiting for the editors to finish their work on the first book in the One Over X series and send it back to me so that we could debate the necessity of their suggested revisions. The notes and such that I had used in writing One Pack had come from my personal scribblings regarding online chats with a group of old D&D people. In the spring and summer of 2000, we had created a fantasy world on the fly where we played out the roles of members of a wolfpack. Ela'na, the Wolfcat was our leader and from her I obtained the character profiles that a good number of people who were designated 'wolves' had submitted to her. Although the server that we had used for our chats and role playing went down in August of 2000, some of the wolfpack pledged to be ever faithful and keep the pack alive. I do not give my word or make pledges lightly. And for the record some of the original wolfpack still remained connected through Ela'na.

I had already begun writing One Pack, although at the time I considered it more of a nice, exciting story to present to the Wolfcat Ela'na. At some point in the many conversations with her and the other members of the wolfpack I had promised her such a story. It seemed appropriate as I was the only one of the pack who was a writer and Ela'na had even designated me as the Scribe.

Later on the pack tired to re-form on other servers without Ela'na. It was never quite the same. The magic was gone. Regardless how much we wanted to make it happen again, it never did click without Ela'na. Still I had the notes. As we had become fast friends, Ela'na had shared with me everything that she had regarding the pack. I used the information that I gleaned to enhance the depth of the story that I had already written. A single book expanded and became what is now five novels in a series.

All along I wanted to write a story at least regarding the earlier times, before the somber events portrayed in One Pack. We had a lot of fun in chat being wolevs and doing all sort of amazing and sometimes funny things. One Pack was a very serious story. And then at the end of One Pack it was clearly not a conclusion to the whole story - I suck at writing endings as I have said before.

I continued to write about the two characters Rotor and Mang, they were left hanging at the end of One Pack. It had to be written. It was a natural thing that needed to be. So falling back on the original notes and the One Pack story I generated another story, in the course of thirteen weeks that has since expanded and been embellished beyond the original text to encompass three additional books called The Last Wolfcat.

It seems ludicrous how this story was assembled until you really think about it and in the context of One Over X that I was working on in revision during part of the time. In One Over X Andy Hunter spends some time in a fantasy world called Anter'x. I decided that Anter'x was the base world for the wolfpack as well. As a result everything that I had written upto that point was suddenly connected. The thread of continuity was the fantasy world and the strange constructs of the universe that the world of the wolfpack and Andy Hunter shared.

Writing the prequel to One Pack was a necessary element to the entire puzzle. Using the same notes and elements that were the foundation for the other two stories I was able to assemble a cast of characters that were members of the wolfpack and create a foundation story that established a historical context for the origins of the wolfpack of Anter'x, in Dammerwald.

I have farmed the story out to a number of people. The feedback has been universally positive. Since no one has ever read the One Pack or The Last Wolfcat books, that amazes me. I had to write Spectre of Dammerwald just for those books to feel more real to me.

E

posted by Unknown @ 9:18 AM