When last we saw our Gen 2 teens, they were loaded into a large airport hotel shuttle bus burning rubber on its exit from the JFK Airport in NYC just in time to avoid a sudden arrival of SWAT, MCO, and an entire bowl full of alphabet soup agency quick reaction units. The kids are on their way into Midtown, to a Comfort Inn within walking distance of Hell's Kitchen, the Theatre District / Broadway, and... Central Park. Knowing that something has the locals acting like the anthill has been kicked over, the smart thing for a bunch of mutant kids to do would be to pile into the cozy hotel rooms the Academy has arranged for them, power up the entertainment systems, and order some room service in teen sized (or Energizer sized) portions.

But this is a Whateley Academy story... and put mutants + New York City + holiday into the same pages... you don't have to be a probability warper to guess that this isn't going to go anywhere near that smoothly.

Content -> 2nd Gen Canon :  Astrodragon and the team "The Big Apple Comes With Calimari (Part 2)"

Ok... last week was all about Gen 2 and the new team kicking off the second time line. This week, being the first week of a New Year, is an entirely appropriate time to begin our discussion of the future of the Whateley Academy. And its past. Or, more specifically... now that we have a second group of authors working on stories, what are we planning to do about keeping the new from overshadowing the old... and for further expanding on the world of the Whateley Academy.

Well, first of all; I want people to know that while we haven't hung up a real physical sign saying 'help wanted' ... we are obviously aware that the author roster for the original timeline is a little spare. And we intend to do some things to resolve that issue. But before we get to aggressive with that, we're looking at doing some organizing of our backlog... the plans, the plot lines, the foreshadowing, and all the rest of the things that make it incredibly difficult for us to recruit an author and actually work them into the existing timeline. You only have to look at the student list on the wiki to know that even if someone did come in as a new author, it's not as simple as just saying "Oh yes, I'm writing PoV of this character from the Masterminds who hasn't ever shown up on camera" ... because, we all know who all the members of the Masterminds are.

Obviously, we want good authors. The best way to make sure that we know you can pen a story is to be visibly doing so. Fan Fiction is one way. I'm also open to giving people 'project stories' as trial runs. What this will mean is we'll give you a pre-developed character, someone who if you've been reading Whateley, you will recognize... and a set of conflicts, plot points, and scenes... and have you write the story. Handled well, you'll have a published canon story under your belt even without being officially a canon author. Handled poorly... well, we'll see where the problems are and let you know what areas you need to work on before we would consider you as a canon author. 

As we find authors (and we get the original timeline key plotline data reined in), we'll add a couple more authors to the original timeline writing. Some of the Gen 2 authors might also step into working on Gen 1 characters in the same way that Gen 1 authors may have a Gen 2 character they are working on. This will, of course, depend on how they're meeting their Gen 2 story commitments and so on. And then, other authors not specifically detailed to Gen 1 or 2 may begin working on the 'Gen 3' concept... which atm is sounding more like a non-timeline than a timeline specific group. One focused on telling stories from before the 1990s or after 2025... or otherwise 'outside' the bounds of what we'd worry about causing continuity issues for the original timeline or Gen 2.

So if you have an interest in being a Whateley writer and missed the chance to join the Gen 2 project, stay tuned in the next few months. There are also some potential openings for an editor or two... which would mean, yes, having access to canon backstory details and seeing stories long before they release... of course, we all know that the editors would more than earn that access. Opportunities may soon appear. 

Something else that is going to appear... today... is the third and final part of Elrod's "Charging Buffalo, Hidden Dragon." You'll find that under Content -> Canon Stories

No matter what your religious, spiritual, or family traditions might be; I'd like to take this moment to offer my well wishes to all of you. From authors who I speak with nearly every day to readers who never register or actively participate in the community in any way; I hope all of you and your family have a wonderful holiday season. 

For those of you who do not actively follow the forums discussions, I'd like to share something that came up this week. Most people may not be aware but E.E. injured his neck during the summer and has been having more and more trouble as the year progressed. One of the side effects of this alignment problem is that he has been experiencing increased problems with his hands... which greatly impacts both his regular employment and his writing. He has seen a doctor and they believe they can restore things with a series of treatments. Most of this is covered by insurance, but there are still some co-pay and other issues that he will need money to cover. To support this, E.E. has set up a gofundme project. This has already met its base goal due to the extreme generosity of a fan; however, I hope people will still consider tossing something in the hat to help out if you can manage it. I'm sure we all know that when dealing with medical stuff, there are always extra costs... even if its just a tank of gas to drive to the appointments. 

As for this week's offering? 

Let's go with Part 2 of Elrod's "Charging Buffalo, Hidden Dragon". You can find it over in the Canon Content section of the site.

Also, congratualations go out to Dom for being the first of the Fan Fiction Authors to navigate the publishing path for inclusion in the site Fan Fiction section. Part 1 of his story "Fate Sucks" can now be found in the Content->Fan Fiction section.

For the next three weeks, my life mostly revolves around providing a wonderful holiday experience for families in the Sacramento region. This season we're doing a pseudo-Panto / musical version of Cinderella, which means our seating is filled with tiny girls with long braids and tiaras who still think being a Princess is their number one goal in life. My job, amidst the chaos, is to wrangle the noise. Or, more 'officially', I'm the live mix engineer... in a one person sound department.

I have twelve of twenty some cast members in body mics (8 Sennheiser XSW 12, 4 Audio Technica System 10) and use some area pickup to support the ensemble/chorus numbers (3 Crown PCC-160's). Additionally, there's a four person / five instrument (Keyboard, percussion, violin, electric bass / trumpet - yeah, he plays both bass and trumpet, unusual combination, isn't it?)... and while the space isn't really large enough to NEED the band reinforced, they are mic'd or direct lined so I have some control over their volume (and just to have them in the mix so the band and voices sound 'together'). All that is run through our old fully manual Allen and Heath GL3300. Because 'most' of the mix isn't stable until we start doing tech/dress runs (and we only have 1 before we start having audience present), I never have an opportunity to create a prompt script (my hands are busy on the controls at the times I would need to be writing down level changes), So the full mix is done, from memory and based on the live quality in the room on a fully manual board.

So if I happen to sound a little brain dead at any point in the month of December... you know why.

Fortunately, you don't need me to do much more than introduce the next couple week's content releases. And now that that is mostly automated, I should be able to do that even in the midst of my live mix stupor. :)

For this week, we have a bit of holiday fun from Bek: please enjoy "Silver Ghost, Golden Angel"

Today, we see a few more chapters of Sleethr's Whisper - Chapters 36-39... leaving just one more block (of about 90 pages) for the final release of that story in canon format.

And, if you look in the Generation 2 section of our Content menu, you'll see a little article about the Gen 2 Project, introducing the authors and the characters along with some other important information. I'm looking forward to seeing the forums discussions on the new characters and what Whateley will be like in 2016. I know I'm not alone.