On The Importance of Being Timely …..

Reading over old works, it strikes me how “timely” an author must be if he chooses to incorporate aspects and settings of the existing world into his narratives. In the four years of hiatus from directly working on the project I tentatively title ¡Slademaru!, some fairly significant changes took place in the area and city where the story is set, effectively cancelling out some of my more evocative passages. The “piss-scented spleen” that was the A13 subway has effectively been struck-through by the new pedestrian-friendly island crossing system. Also, with the smoking ban, there’s no more room for “clouds of smoke congregating” in the staff rooms of NewVic.

It almost seems as if time’s telling me to get a move on or forget the whole thing – which makes sense, as I conceived this future mythology of mine some ten or eleven years ago as a piece set in the mid-to-late years of the next decade (Current time setting: 2018). If I sit on it any longer, by the time I finish – if that – the fantasy will probably have caught up with reality in that aspect!

A disquieting thought to be sure….

(On the plus side, my character dialogue ain’t too shabby at all, though I got a few lines down that need better integration with the characters speaking them, lest I fall into the Randian trap of turning the characters into mere polemical mouthpieces – I doubt it’d be as bad as the sore thumb situation that was Roark’s speech at the end of The Fountainhead, but the danger remains regardless….)

~MRDA~