Stefan Gagne's Fiction Factory

25+ years of novels, games, and other creative fiascos.

Archives for January 2014

survey says… a casting game!

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So, no new City of Angles story content for you. But! I have other content for you to enjoy. I plan to post to the blog every Saturday, until we’re ready to launch vol//003 proper. This week: Survey Time, and a Casting Game!

Wouldya Like Ta Take a Survey?

After the end of vol//001, I send a survey to you all asking about what characters you wanted to see in the future, and what city topics you’d enjoy seeing explored. The results of that survey are why we got focus stories for Grandma Scarlett and Hollister, as well as a story about the Sideways Signals. Time has come to do it again!

This time, the survey talks about your favorite and least favorite characters, as well as how you prefer to read my stories and what stories you’ve read in the past. Also, a bunch of possible topics for my next story after City of Angles. I won’t OBEY the survey results as binding law, but it will help guide me to produce stuff my readers wanna read! Let your voice be heard and take the survey today! It’s spoiler free, too.

Hollywood Stars in City of Angles!

Lawrence Chu (our glorious Editor in Chief) met up with me this week and we got to talking about who could be cast in a live action version of City of Angles. It’s a bit of a fantasy cast, assuming we get the actors and actresses in their prime and at an appropriate age for the character. If you have any alternative suggestions, post them in the comments!

I’ll be frank — I don’t know much about celebrities. A few of these are head scratchers for me, but Chu knows his Hollywood, so I trust his judgment.

  • Dave Smith is Ed Norton. He can do the somewhat distant and put upon Dave quite well, assuming we get a young Ed Norton.
  • Penelope Yates is Emma Watson. She’s got the range to play her young, older, and play Bedlam and Echo as well.
  • Gregory Yates is Viggo Mortenson. History of Violence, nuff said.
  • Elizabeth Yates is Jennifer Connely. Has a good sacrificial beauty aspect.
  • Karla Berkowitz is Linda Hamilton. Kinda on the nose.
  • Karla’s husband is ??? in a full body cast. Probably just a prop.
  • Archibald Tully is James Gandolfini. A dumpy retired gangster.
  • Johnny the Icepick is Danny Trejo. In a Maitre’D outfit, of course.
  • Marcy Wei is Ellen Wong. Got the passion and anger for it.
  • Vivi Wei is Chloe Moretz.
  • Hollister Avenue is Neal Patrick Harris. PERFECT voice and attitude, a bit old for it now, but in his prime.
  • Jon Polk is Max Casella. Cheesy!
  • Britney Geneva is Miley Cyrus. The reality TV annoyance from //002.
  • Cass is Brie Larsen. I could see her having the right coolness for it.
  • Kelsey Jones is Felicia Day. Manic pixie dream girl gone nuts, anyone?
  • Miranda Walker is Gina Torres. Has the right snark and seriousness.
  • Carl Matthews is Joel McHale.
  • DJ Picasso is Sonny Moore. …yep.
  • Gus Zero is Zac Efron.
  • Gustav is Bruce Willis. Cold and cruel old gangster, it works.
  • Annabell Jorgensen is Helena Bonham Carter. Plays a burnout well.
  • Grandma Scarlett is Sigourney Weaver. Muwahaha.
  • Jack Hayes is John Hamm. Plays a burnout VERY well.
  • Ellie is Wynona Ryder. Kind of on the nose, but…
  • Carlos Alvarez is John Leguziamo. Has good manic energy for //013.
  • Seth Dougal is Avery Brooks. He’s also Nyarlathotep in anachronauts, so…
  • Detective Cartwright is Michael C. Hall.
  • Jayden is Donald Glover. The other trainee in //002.
  • Milly Frisk is Dakota Fanning. Has the right sensitivity for the role.
  • Lucas Flynn is Elijah Wood. A younger Elijah, good wide-eyed enthusiasm.
  • Fi is Franka Potente.
  • Reggie is Aldus Hodge. Age of the geek, baby.

Whaddya think? Agree, disagree, other suggestions? Post in the comments!

two down, one up

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And with this final update, vol//002 of the City of Angles trilogy is now complete. Read the big finale and the aftermath of //016 right here, then come on back and let’s talk about it…

This was a pretty crazy ride. The first volume was, by and large, planned out extensively; I had a couple of specific story ideas, a specific start and a specific finish, and everything happened SORT OF how I planned. There were a few wrinkles along the way, of course. The stories became an ongoing saga rather than a series of standalone one-shots, with characters I had no further plans for returning later on. Kelsey was an eleventh hour addition, unexpected, and nearly threw my ending plans out of whack. But by and large, it went according to plan.

The second volume was… wow. Gonzo. I was improvising every week, changing my mind about what story I would write next, how they would resolve, how they’d link into the finale. I completely tossed completely written scenes and subplots. In the end I think it came together and became the story it had to be… but the ride was bumpy, indeed.

When the published ebook and print book version of vol//002 comes out (soon!) I hope you’ll consider buying it. Not only will it include the bonus stories “Dogs of War” and “Rain of Terror,” but it’ll also include deleted scenes from Inside Man and What Goes Around. You’ll see ideas I toyed with and then dumped, alongside writer’s commentary about the entire process. I hope you find it enlightening.

I’d love to hear your overall thoughts on vol//002, as I move into preproduction on vol//003. Any characters you eagerly want to see return? Any you feel could be left by the wayside? Subplots you’re waiting with baited breath to see development on? Any predictions on how things will go down? My writing improves through feedback; any you can offer, any at all, would be helpful.

We’ll be on hiatus for a few weeks while I plan out vol//003. You may notice that there are some temporary tiles for those chapters up on the City of Angles page… VERY temporary, plans shift, especially as I hear your words. Now’s the time to make your voice be heard. Each week I’ll come back to the blog to chat with y’all, new story content or not, so let’s open the floor. Because once it hits the fan in the next volume… it might be hard to hear anything over the screaming.

before and aftermath

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Getting exciting, now. We’re approaching the end of //016, the end of vol//002 in general. These scenes lead right into the finale, which posts next week. I am a horrible person for ending it where I did, I’ll warn you. The Echo Chamber is opening…

So, what happens next? That’s a good question.

We’ve drawn a hell of a lot of new readers thanks to the linkage discussed previously. I’d hate to lose that momentum by pausing the writing, but I AM finishing up a whole volume here; that means a lot of administrivia and preproduction work to deal with, to wrap up this book and get it published, to plan out the next book. The next one’s gonna be a bit of a doozy, and you’ll understand exactly why when the HOLY CRAP moment hits next week.

That means I’ll likely take a week, two weeks, possibly a month off so I can get vol//003 planned. Now, that may actually work to my advantage, as it means new readers get plenty of time to catch up and read two complete volumes worth of stuff. I might even start up my advertising campaign (Kickstarter funded!) in that time. We’ll see.

Even if I’m going dark, I’ll try to have some blog material up each week to keep you up to date on my progress, and discuss the series in general. I’m always up for discussion; either on my blog, or on the story pages themselves, or through social media. I am reachable. Reach me if you have any questions or musings you want to relate, and I welcome all feedback on the writing.

Here we go, folks. A big finale, and the start of something bigger. Closer and closer…

on rationality and such

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Bonus blog post! Because why not. May as well strike while the iron’s hot.

After I got a surprising amount of traffic from rationalists on Reddit and HPMoR, pointing out that my story is quite rationalist, I looked into it a bit. I’ve never really dug into any major -isms, but I have coincidentally landed in a few -ism camps over the years. And… yeah. I can see that, with this one.

“But Stefan,” you say, after breaking into my house and holding me at gunpoint, “There’s so much unexplainable magic in your story, with all the reality warping going on and the mysterious origin of how the City got started in the first place. There’s no deduction going on to determine the nature of things. How is this rational?”

“I think the important distinction is that while there’s a lot we don’t know yet about the City of Angles, it is somewhere in there to know and be known,” I reply, escaping from my bonds and wrestling for the gun with you in a dramatic action sequence. “There is an explanation for everything in the series. Whether or not the characters learn it, I know it, and I’m trying to keep true to the mechanics of how these things work.”

Will there ultimately be a vast and unknowable mystery at the end? Very likely. I like to believe that once you dig past a layer of secrets, you find… another layer of secrets. It’s turtles all the way down, and you may never reach the core. Humanity may never reach the core in its lifetime, before burning out as a species.

But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t dig, because each layer you break through improves you and improves humanity as a whole. Even if you never reach the core, the deeper one goes in understanding the universe, the better. What’s at the core? Is it a mathematical equation? Is it God? Is it nothing? We may find out, we may never find out, but that doesn’t negate the quest itself. Learn everything. Understand everything.

I think this holds true in all of my stories. There’s a reason for everything, and the journey of discovery is a path for discovery of one’s self as well as discovery of the world around you. Hopefully my writing spurs on your own thinking. And if not, hey, there’s some wacky jokes and puns to enjoy along the way.

the boy who linked

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So, crazy thing happened recently. A fan linked to City of Angles on the Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality subreddit. I’m a fan of rational thinking, even if CoA isn’t 100% rational, so I thought “Hey, cool” and appreciated that it sent quite a few folks my way.

Then the AUTHOR of that story started reading City of Angles. And, in a casual one-sentence mention on his blog, also linked to my story. Cue 1722 visitors in the last four days. Normally I average about 20 people visiting a day, so… yeah. Wow.

Folks, word of mouth WORKS. Every time a dedicated fan links to me in a post on their community forums, every time I get dropped into Reddit, every time someone social media’s (is that a verb?) I get traffic. New people looking at the stories. Moreso than web ads or any promotional giveaways, word of mouth is how web novels grow. So, thank you so much to the readers. You’re helping make this entire crazy endeavor worthwhile.

Now then, to today’s business. We’ve got new scenes for the draft of //016, in which things don’t go as planned and new plans are made. I’m looking forward to dropping the ending of this chapter on y’all for sheer OMG value… as well as the post-ending scene, which should have sheer WTF value. I might make next week’s update a bit short so I can put all the climax stuff in a single posting. We’ll see.

Keep circulating the tapes. And thanks for supporting the City of Angles.