8FOLD/FAQ: Your Guide to the Eightfold Universe, August 2006

[Tom Russell]

Martin Phipps wrote:
> Tom Russell wrote:
>
> >    BUT WHAT IF I'M NOT GOOD ENOUGH?
> >
> >    Oh, don't say that!
>
> WHAT IF YOU AND JAMIE DON'T LIKE A STORY IN WHICH A HERO BEATS HIS
> SIDEKICK?
>
> Oh, well, then you're @#$% out of luck.
>
> OKAY.  :)

Well, since you're taking this into the public forum... I'll respond to
the public forum.

Jamie is extremely busy with work, writing, and life.  As far as I
know, he doesn't have home internet access and his work email doesn't
allow for large emails.  And so, the only time he'd have to read your
story is when he's visiting with his parents and able to check his
other email address.  (And, yes, I did forward the story to the other
email address when I remembered this problem.)

That was two weeks ago.

Two.  You sent the story to me on August 5, which means that we've been
sitting on it for twenty whole days.

Personally?  I like your story fine.  I don't agree with its premise,
but, you know what?  That's okay.  The whole point of Eightfold is to
embrace different points of view, different styles of writing, even
different genres.  The only reason why it's a "closed" universe is to
keep out the kind of infantile writing I did in my early years, and to
make sure we don't have another Chris Ireland mucking about with other
people's characters.  Really, it's just to maintain quality-- and I
think your writing is quality.

But since we've never had a new recruit post a new story yet (hi
Saxon!), I wanted to run it by Jamie.  Like I said, Jamie's busy.  It
takes time to sit down and read a story.  And it's not because it's
*your* story, Martin; Jamie's still slogging through the stuff I've
written for Eightfold.

When he gets a chance, he'll read it, and the three of us will go from
there.  Why you felt the need to include the rest of the group in this
process is beyond me.

But I can take this moment to say that, yes, while I disagree with some
of the points Martin raises in his story, I can still see that it's a
good story and it has value.  Here at Eightfold we welcome good writers
of any stripe with any point of view-- even ones we strongly disagree
with.  Granted, it might take some time for both Jamie and I to look at
it, and to reach a consensus.  But unless there's some extraordinary
reason why your story has to be posted within a week, I don't see that
being a problem for most people.

Patience, grasshopper.

<<in-depth discussion of pornography snipped>>

> CAN I WRITE AN 8FOLD SERIES ABOUT A GROUP OF SUPERPOWERED PEOPLE IN THE
> PORNO BUSINESS?
>
> No.

Well, it worked for "Omega Nights". :-)

One would have to be careful, however, to be respectful of the RACC
charter.  Granted, almost every one of my Eightfold series has had at
least one sex scene, but I think there's a difference between a sex
scene and pornography.  I don't think I've crossed the line yet, and I
think someone will let me know if I do.

If you were to do a series about Creamy Spatial and friends, we might
have to give it a more scrutinous once-over before you post it.  As a
general tip, if you write it with only one hand on the keyboard, you've
probably crossed the line. ;-)

> Martin

Tom

> PS: Too much information?

And you wonder why Deja Dude was put on trial. :-P