There’s probably not enough traffic on this site yet to make for a valid poll, so consider this just a train-of-thought that I’m pursuing. Please, please, PLEASE comment on it if you have an opinion, as my own mind hasn’t quite been made up.
First let me clarify something I’ve said before:
The “December/Dragons-Inn” stories will probably never be published in their entirety. Most likely they won’t be published at all. The reasons are logistics and legality. Everything I wrote as part of the dragons-inn newsgroup was part of a shared world. As a result, I do not own the settings of Iffrean (the planet) or Montfort (the town). I don’t consider this an impediment to publication, because I think they are in the public domain. But…
There’s also the issue of other authors that contributed to stories. Most of the shorter stories and some of the core December novels contain characters and sections of narrative written by other authors. They were collaborative efforts, after all. In theory, I could chase those people down and work out some sort of contractual agreement with them. I could also re-write the stories to remove parts written by other people. I don’t like either of those options. I’m not saying I’ll never do them, but I’d much rather write new stories or focus on stories that I have 100% control of… which is what I’ve been doing.
However…
There are certain dragons-inn stories that are 100% mine (or close enough to make the editing trivial) and don’t contain strong connections to other tales. “The Expedition” is the first one that comes to mind. It is my favorite story and was very well received by fans. With only minor editing, I can remove the setting of Montfort entirely (if that’s even necessary), and I’m already in contact with the other author who collaborated with me on creating a couple of the characters. Sure, it needs a lot of proofreading, but that’s true of all my old stuff.
“Expedition” isn’t unique, but it is the best story that can be published with a minimum of changes. Other stories might require fewer changes, but aren’t as good (in my opinion). Still other tales may be better, but have tight connections to either other authors or other stories that would have to be published first or edited out (I’m looking at you, “Frozen Hearts”). It is also a seriously kick-ass story. Seriously.
So… should I do it? If so, should I do it AHEAD of the Crusade or Magekiller or horror anthologies or any of the other stuff I have planned for 2016?
I don’t know. I honestly don’t.
I really need to hear your thoughts.
As a long time fan, I’d have to say no. (and bear in mind, my hard drive that had my entire archive of your stuff since I first came across your site has crashed, and I’m not sure if I have any backups on CD or not).
As much as I’d love to see some of the open threads from the December (and related) stories continue, I do not think it is worth your time and effort to edit them as much as it appears would be needed. If there were some way to continue using the setting, I’d be more interested in reading new material. A continuation of the one-off CSI Montfort for instance. Tower Guard vs. Eric Hood. More on Blaymore, Kultra, etc. Heck, track down Rapina and complete that open story. (Just kidding, I gave up on that years ago).
Crusade and Magekiller are both settings that would probably be easier for you to work with, and as I recall Crusade was left hanging in the middle of a story-arc that I for one would like to see completed. I don’t believe Magekiller ever really got going, but it has a LOT of potential.
Mr. Hope. I can’t remember if he was in the story Bags, but that was always a favorite of mine.
I’m sure you’ve got dozens of other ideas that haven’t been seen, but I’d be interested in seeing them.
I agree that December stories should be left behind. I Love them but too difficult to publish.
But expedition can be published as a stand alone, already finished tale.
I believe that it will attract readers.
As the other guy who contributed a fraction of a percent (if that) of Expedition’s content, my initial response was gonna be “go for it!”. But after reading Nate’s post, he makes some very good points. Also I think Crusade really, really needs to get out there, the characters and backstory and stories themselves are all great and already 100% yours, so only standard editing would be needed. If you’re looking to publish some awesome stuff that’s already written and just needs a little spit-shine, Crusade gets my vote.
As far as December and all those awesome satellite characters are concerned (ie. ALL the characters you created for that world), I’d hope you wouldn’t too quick to write them off. I’m not saying go through and rewrite what’s already been written to extricate Iffrean and Montfort and all other-author stuff, that would largely be a waste of your time I think. But perhaps, if you really want those characters out there again (I sure as hell do!), a sort of soft reboot would probably be needed, a new story that relaunches those characters in a Town With A Different Name, and more importantly introduces them to a much broader (and hopefully paying!) audience. Not right now of course, but I hope you’ll keep this idea in mind going forward.
Personally I think Expedition makes more sense (and is more engaging) as part of the December-And-Co. world rather than stand-alone. So, just my two copper here:
1. Get Crusade’s content out there, in episodic format. While that ball is rolling…
2. Work on a DecemberFriends relaunch. Doesn’t hafta be BigGiantEpicSaga, just a medium-length novel that introduces the characters and tells a cool story. Could even be loosely based on one of the existing December stories, if that’d help the process go faster/easier.
3. By the time that December story is published, you might be running toward the end of your existing Crusade content to publish (or not, since there’s a metric shit-ton of it). Either way, maybe a month or so after the December relaunch is published, put out the slightly tweaked Expedition to suit the new-but-familiar setting.
Eh, that was longer-winded than I intended. Hope I’ve at least given you something to think about; whatever you decide on, we’ll be there to enjoy it.