I have just been chastized by someone who is either a complete stranger or a new identity for a recurring “anonymous friend”.  The criticism is that my most recent Blogless Lepolt post has nothing whatever to do with Multiverser, and of course he is correct.  I may have again to rethink what I post here.

Fortunately, my inspiration for posting today is related to Multiverser.  Some of you will recall that as part of my work on the novels, I was creating character sheets based on the primary characters therein.  Judging from the blog posts, it has been entirely too long that those efforts have been sidetracked.  However, recently in the forums I launched one of my players in one of the worlds from the second novel, one which I am preparing for use in the next Multiverser Triple Play–that is, next after the horror one that is currently in the hands of the art director, the space-based worlds.  I was going to run it mostly by the seat of my pants and the notes and writing I’ve done on the world description–but as often happens in Multiverser games, the player’s character did something that changed things significantly.  He prayed another character into his scenario, and that prompted me to shift the plans to involve the story of that other character.  It also meant that I needed detailed information concerning the particular character from the story, including skills and equipment, so that I could put together events well.

Thus I returned my attention to the novels, and particularly to the character sheets.  In so doing, I found I had nearly finished all the data gathering from the first, and was almost ready to start the second.  I pushed forward into the beginning of the second novel, and the first bits of information about the character already involved in play, and hoping that this will facilitate both the ongoing game and the work on the novels.

I should apologize for my absence yesterday, but an explanation would involve details of family matters not at all related to Multiverser, and would thus raise the ire of people on all sides.

–M. J. Young

I have been pressured by several people who want to know when the blog will return.  I have wondered that myself.  Can’t you, they ask, write the blog without talking about the people who don’t want their lives made public?  No, I can’t, really, because the blog makes my life public, and they are part of my life.  There’s not much I can do about that.

Well, there is, really–I can stop talking about “my life”.  The point of the Blogless Lepolt, ultimately, is to let you, the Valdron/Multiverser fanbase, know what is happening with forthcoming product.  It is incidentally to let what might be called the Mark Joseph Young fanbase know about my other creative work being produced outside the Valdron/Multiverser stable.  In all this time, it has also been a place for talking about what has been in the way of producing such work, and thus the events and distractions of my personal life.  Part of that was because I was writing this every day, and I wasn’t getting anything done every day (or sometimes even every week), so I had to say something, and I felt I had to explain why there wasn’t any time to get something done every day.  One of the comments noted that this was something of value to him, to have some understanding of the conflicts that prevented me from writing so much.  That, though, is the part that gets personal–and thus the part that has to go.  Similarly, since I’m not going to be explaining why things have not been done, I will no longer be writing the blog daily–there will be posts when there is something to post; it won’t always be much, and it won’t always be very informative, but at least it won’t be about the progress I did not make.

It will also move that last blog post off its prominent position on the front page of this site, which will make me feel a bit better.

All of this suggests that I have something to tell–and indeed I do.  As I have been typing, I have realized that there is more than one thing to tell.

The impetus for resuming is that there is a new page in the Bible Studies section of M. J. Young Net, On Sabbath.  The brief story behind it is pretty much stated on the page as an introduction.  For those curious as to how someone who has always “regarded all days the same” justifies being part of a Seventh Day Baptist church which very clearly “regards one day above another”, there’s some insight into that there.

As I was typing, though, it occurred to me that I did not mention having made progress on the Multiverser Triple Play:  Horror.  I did what I am hoping will be the last text edits (and neither Jim nor John have commented on them, so I’m feeling fairly secure in that hope).  That puts the ball in the court of our art director.  He, however, takes an extended visit to family overseas every summer, so he might not get to the artwork as soon as he would like.

There was a third thing that came to mind while I was typing, and that is that Collision, the band, now has its own MySpace site.  There’s nothing there yet–not even a picture of the band, and no music–but it’s a start.  I had been thinking it was a necessary step, but that I did not have the time to do it and we weren’t really ready for it, when Baxter asked me about it.  He and Brittany have been overseeing it (I’ve not yet even had the chance to log in to the editing page–but I’m not particularly good at maintaining MySpace sites), and it’s progressing.  What do you think–should our lyrics be posted there somewhere, somehow?

Anyway, that’s the situation.  I will post again when I have something to tell.

–M. J. Young

Sometimes it feels to me as if I have not accomplished much–particularly when I wind up collapsing early, then going on late-night errands, then sleeping well into the next afternoon only to commit to long errands on behalf of others.  However, review of the facts suggests otherwise.

At some time within the last twenty-four hours I finished reading a book I have promised to review.  It was an allegorical science fantasy illustrated novel by a writer I know somewhat personally (never met but have corresponded), whose work I have reviewed before.  I’m not certain when I’ll get to the review, as I’ve a lot on my plate at the moment, but I will get to it.

I also returned my attention to the Multiverser Triple Play:  Horror supplement.  What I did was copy all the notes from the development forum to a document on my hard drive.  I was fighting a headache yesterday which is attributable to the fact that the disruptions of the day prevented me ever from getting a cup of coffee, and so I did not feel up to making all the checks as to what still had to be done with those notes.  However, it’s a step in the right direction, and as things appear now sometime after Ubercon I may be able to make progress on it.

I also provided an extensive response to questions about a developing temporal anomalies analysis of The Last Mimzy, which took probably an hour or so from today’s precious time but will mean a new page on the Temporal Anomalies site which might garner some traffic and interest in turn in the Multiverser books.

I’ve agreed to pick up the girlfriend of one of my sons tonight; he has agreed to help keep the dishes under control all weekend.  If he hasn’t got them under control before nine I guess I’m not going, and I’ll have more time to work, but I am hoping that he is sufficiently motivated by the desire to have her visit that he will get to them in time.

I’m also committed to a Collision concert tomorrow night, sans drums or major amplifiers, at the church coffeehouse.  They do this once or twice a year.  Brittany has a school assignment that requires her to be at another location fairly early, so we’re going to have to ask to be at the beginning of the night, but I think they’ll accommodate us.  Last night’s rehearsal went quite well, thank you, and I’m comfortable with our ability to do these two songs at a performance quality level.

I’m not as confident in my ability to finish everything else that must be done, however, so I’d better get to it.

–M. J. Young

Moments ago I was again reading the draft of Do You Trust Me? and I again spotted a needed correction; in making an edit just before printing, I had deleted one too many words in a string, leaving no sense in the sentence. It was simple enough to replace the missing word, which has been done.

Not yet done is taking a son back to his brother; he went with his mother on a middle-of-the-night shopping trip which short-changed her significantly on sleep (I had told her that I would take the boy shopping today, if necessary, but she felt that he wanted her with him, so that’s what was done). This trip is the more complicated, because one of our houseguests has some furniture that needs to be removed from a previous address, and the brother needs some of that furniture (and actually, we could use some chairs ourselves), so we’ll be organizing this as a truck delivery. This is in turn complicated, because the brakes on the pickup decided to go from leaking slowly to leaking rapidly over the weekend, so I’m going to be taking it into a shop tonight and will be renting a vehicle once again for the effort–Enterprise is even now on its way to get me. But you do what you must.

Finding myself alone last night, I turned my attention back to the temporal anomalies in Primer. I did more writing, in which I resolved a few more of the problems and reached some critical conclusions, but then being too tired to continue I retired to the bedroom, started the movie, and fell asleep in the first ten minutes. I awoke a few hours later, still alone, with the movie playing the menu screen, and restarted it. This time I was asleep before the opening dialogue, and I slept through to the alarm. I can’t say it helped my analysis, but that’s coming along pretty well.

There’s also been some discussion on the first of the Multiverser Triple Play collections, the horror group. My title Slasher Summer Camp is supposed to be a multiple-murder scenario in which no one knows who the killer is until it’s solved; but my crew tell me that if I call it “Slasher” it’s going to require that my villain wear a mask when he kills–and this is problematic, because part of the point is that even when you see the killer and the last victim together, you don’t know which is who unless you solve the mystery. A mask just ruins the whole thing. Of course, I’m thinking of this along the lines of Ten Little Indians, and not being a horror movie fan I’ve never really paid attention to all those nightmares on Halloween. I like the ring of Slasher Summer Camp, but do I really have to change the title to Seven Little Campers or something?

We’re working on resolving it. I’ll let you know if we change the title.

–M. J. Young

I spent a bit of time with family last night; it was unexpectedly disrupted.

It seems that while I was doing a bit if impromptu Christmas shopping, one of our houseguests called home. He had unexpectedly wound up in the hospital, and needed a ride. Another of our houseguests fielded the call, which was overheard (one of our phones is a speakerphone only, so many conversations are overheard). He left the house, and it was assumed that he had gone to pick up the friend in need.

I got this information some time later, after I returned home, when the stranded patient called again to find out where his ride was. It seemed possible, though, that the knight errant had decided to accomplish other tasks on the same trip. We called his girlfriend to see if she knew anything, and she denied having any such knowledge. We waited to see whether there would be any word.

In the end, sometime after midnight I made the half-hour drive to the new Regional Medical Center, waited half an hour while the release of the patient was organized, and drove back half an hour. I watched the sides of the roads for any evidence that the previous ride was stranded somewhere, but saw nothing. He did not return last night; his son made it to the bus unaided this morning; we are now going on twenty-eight hours without any information as to his whereabouts. We’re not terribly happy about that, as you might imagine; his son has special needs which he is supposed to be addressing, and he’s not supposed to leave the boy unattended without making arrangements for his supervision. On the other hand, we are a bit worried that something might have happened to him, and are unsure how to begin investigating the disappearance of a person on whom we have no real claim, who might just have decided to play hooky from life for a few hours.

When I got home and was getting ready for bed, I opened up the Multiverser Triple Play draft of space scenarios, and did a bit of reading. I realized that the opening summary of the first included world failed to mention something rather fundamental to the setting, so I added that to it. That, though, is about all I can claim to have accomplished on my light day.

Well, perhaps that is not all. It happened that Collision did not exactly rehearse–Baxter was sick, and Brittany’s mother was hospitalized for surgery–but Adam and I put some time into getting the first three songs a bit more solid on his end. I also practiced a lot of the vocals in the car on my various errands. I saw Brittany today (she works in one of the larger stores I frequent), who says her mother is doing well, and she will be here next Thursday.

I’ve got to figure out supper now. I’ll be back.

–M. J. Young

Having collected the input of some of the Valdron staff, I went back into the three worlds of the first Multiverser Triple Play–the horror one–and did a bit of tweaking and expanding to each of the worlds. I don’t know if they’re finished, but they’re a lot closer now. The tweaks have already been posted to the development forum, and so I’m awaiting comment there.

Fortunately Thursdays are usually light. I am expecting Brittany to appear late this afternoon, and I need to bring Baxter before that, so we can have our Collision rehearsal; but I have this nagging feeling my wife has already agreed that we will meet someone or be somewhere very early this evening, so the day has been squeezed. I’m not certain whether she remembers, but the person with whom she had the discussion has already left a message for her to call, so I think it’s on, whatever it is.

I had better keep moving.

–M. J. Young

Last night, once the dust settled, I went into the bedroom and put Lake House in the DVD player. Honestly, I was tired of thinking about the temporal anomalies in Primer, and wanted to wrap my head around something else. Then, while the movie was getting started (I had seen the beginning already), I went back to my office and got involved in writing up Terranova Habitat for the space-themed Multiverser Triple Play worlds package. I did that for a while, and then went back, rewound the movie (which seems entirely the wrong word for a DVD) to a point that looked familiar, and watched the rest.

Lake House is going to be a lot easier than Primer; on the other hand, it’s not going to be reconcilable. The story collapses within the first ten minutes, but it’s watchable because you aren’t given the proof that those first ten minutes are impossible until the last ten minutes. It has a happy, if totally impossible, ending, and is an enjoyable film whether or not you like its stars. I’ve been a fan of stories about architecture since having been forced to read ninety percent of Ayn Rand’s Fountainhead in high school, and some of the comments on architecture are insightful. There are a few spots where they get gimmicky, treating correspondence as if it were dialogue, which will have to be addressed; but in the main, it’s pretty clear what is supposed to have happened, and equally clear why none of it could have.

So I’ve accomplished something, but not nearly enough. Let me press on through today; maybe I can accomplish more.

–M. J. Young

The scheduled directors meeting was both sparsely attended and brief, but the ground covered was solid. Our new Multiverser Triple Play series has everyone excited, and there was some discussion of directions for that. We also began discussing the idea of creating a Wiki, which we agreed we would consider and examine, and try to reach some decision by February.

I might have yet another new player coming, someone I know from church who took an interest in the game. His preference is for real-time MMORPG play, but this sounded interesting to him, so we’ll see whether he manages to find his way here following my somewhat lacking directions. He was attempting to find several different sites (the Christian Gamers Guild among them), and I was attempting to make it simple by sending him to one site–my own–from which the others would be linked.

I also put a bit of time into updating some of the music sheets for Collision, late on Friday, but I’ve still a lot to consider and a lot to accomplish.

–M. J. Young

I might not get to finish this post, or at least, not for a while. I just spoke with Baxter, my lead guitarist, who has already spoken with Brittany, and both of them will be available shortly. I’m to pick him up at his place and then rendezvous with her at a local pizza shop, and then come back here to do some music. Collision might be coalescing.

I’ve got a few other things to mention. I did get hold of my friend yesterday, and he has nearly completed creating a character; also, earlier this afternoon I finished posting the draft text of the new Multiverser Triple Play to the development forum for comment. It’s a complicated process, because the formatting in the word processor document does not work as formatting in the BBS-driven forum, and particularly tables are a nightmare to rebuild. However, it’s a solid step forward, in which some of the gaps can be identified and filled before we take the next step.

My phone just rang; I’ve got to go. I will be back to the forums in a few hours.

–M. J. Young

Well, it’s not much to note, but some days I just have to note the little things. I had to go out this afternoon, but not in any particular hurry, and it happened that the book, the reviewer’s address, and the mailing envelope had all within the past week come together to the same spot on my desk. Thus reviewer John Cross now has a copy of About the Fruit headed his direction at the snail’s pace the postal service calls media rate. He’s reliable on these; there will be a review probably before the new year, although how many people will see it apart from those already visiting my site is more than I know.

Otherwise there’s not much to report. Yesterday and today I managed to post text from the new Multiverser Triple Play, including the introductory pages and the first two worlds, to the Valdron Development Forum, and our art director is already thinking about the art side of it (at least, he’s posted in response, so I’m assuming he’s thinking in that direction). I don’t know that it will be ready before Christmas, but it’s a nice target.

I’m still trying to wrap my head around the third world for the second of these, the lost colony spaceship. It’s not that I don’t have any ideas–it’s that I’ve got several ideas, all of which are very close to things already done by others. Of course, the second of those worlds has only been run in play once, that I recall, and I think the player dropped out before it really developed into anything, so I’m not sure what I’ve got on it.

I’ve promised to give a potential new player a call when I reach the forums, and I’m almost there, so I guess I need to find his number.

–M. J. Young