8FOLD/META: Declaration of Retcon

[Tom Russell]

I don't do this very often.  While I often revisit and revise my work
and smooth out imperfections and mistakes, I don't make it a habit of
throwing something out wholesale to make room for something else.

At the end of SPEAK!, Dingham was captured by Dr. Metronome and taken
into police custody to await trial.  That being a major and memorable
event in the series, it definitely still stands.

What you might not remember is that, as of July '06 (Journey Into... #
3), Dingham was still awaiting trial, and that sometime after that, a
judge ruled a mistrial after Dingham told the jury that they would not
find him guilty.  I don't even know where and when that was, but I
also don't feel like re-reading my way through every Eightfold story
written since July '06 to try and find out.  And the fact that I have
no idea where that was mentioned kinda proves my point-- I doubt
anyone remembers these one-or-two line references to Gregory's fate,
or much cares about their retconning.

All I know is, I've got a story I want to tell-- actually, just a
scene I want to write within that story-- and this timeline of events
thwarts it at every turn.  And so, viola!, it's gone.  I'm not going
to explain it, not going to have some kind of big event to paper it
over, just, viola!, it's a retcon.  Whatever I said happened, whatever
the characters said when talking about Dingham, chuck it out of there,
and replace it with...

... well, you'll have to read the forthcoming JOURNEY INTO # 15, my
entry in the current High Concept Challenge, to find out. ;-D

==Tom