DargonZine
Volume 18, Number 2 |
Distributed: 2/20/2005
Circulation: 673 |
 |
DargonZine is the publication vehicle of The
Dargon Project, Inc., a collaborative group of aspiring fantasy writers on the
Internet. We welcome new readers and writers interested in joining the
project. Please address all correspondence to
<dargon@dargonzine.org>
or visit us on the World Wide Web at http://www.dargonzine.org/, or our FTP site at
ftp://users.primushost.com/members/d/a/dargon/.
Issues and public discussion are posted to newsgroup
rec.mag.dargon.
DargonZine 18-2, ISSN 1080-9910, (C) Copyright February, 2005
by The Dargon Project, Inc. Editor: Ornoth D.A. Liscomb
<ornoth@rcn.com>,
Assistant Editor: Liam Donahue
<bdonahue@fuse.net>.
DargonZine is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs-NonCommercial
License. This license allows you to make and distribute
unaltered copies of DargonZine, complete with the original attributions
of authorship, so long as it is not used for commercial purposes.
Reproduction of issues or any portions thereof for profit is forbidden.
To view a detailed copy of this license, please visit
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Creative Commons, 559 Nathan Abbott Way, Stanford CA, 94305 USA.
|
Editorial
s you know, the Black Idol story arc which began in our last issue
has been nearly two years in the making. Everyone involved in the arc
has put forth a tremendous effort to make it happen, and this month I'd
like to tell you the story of one of the arc writers who appears in this
issue.
Rich Durbin joined the Dargon Project in January 2003, just three
months before the Black Idol story was outlined at our Austin writers'
gathering. Rich actually didn't attend that meeting, and thus didn't
think that he would be involved with the Black Idol at all.
However, by December, the arc was facing a major crisis. Two
authors had left the project: the ones who were responsible for the
arc's first two stories, which related the history of the Black Idol.
Rich's project mentor had picked up the broken pieces and begun drafting
an ambitious replacement, but hadn't gotten anywhere with it. Rich began
working with her, but it soon became apparent that she wasn't going to
be able to complete the stories. She too left the project shortly
thereafter, leaving Rich -- a new writer -- to write both the idol's
early history, and the story of the abandoned settlement that brought
the storyline up to Dargon's present-day.
So eight months after we'd begun the arc, it had lost three of its
original writers, and the entire first portion of the arc was in
shambles. Worse yet, all the people who were writing events that took
place later in the timeline were angry because they had been forced to
change their downstream stories every time the authorship of the first
two stories changed hands.
With everyone's emotions running high, Rich agreed to write the
introductory stories himself. He set aside the story he'd begun with his
mentor, and agreed to write a new story that produced the outcomes that
were dictated by other stories which had already been written. It was
like working backwards, trying to create a jigsaw puzzle piece that
matched the ones around it. He had to produce his story under incredible
pressure and within a very short time, despite having never printed a
Dargonzine story before!
Three months later, he gave us the first drafts of "End of the
Line", which concludes in this issue. Rich responded to the pressure and
produced not just a fine first story from a new writer, but also put the
entire Black Idol effort back on track. Although there's been many
heroic efforts in the creation of the Black Idol, his is one that stands
out as the most critical to the arc's success, and we all owe him a
great deal of thanks for his contribution to this massive collaboration.
Without his effort, we would not be printing Black Idol stories today.
Rich isn't our typical new writer, however. In a sense, he's not
new at all, having written one story for FSFnet during a brief stint
with us way back in 1987. However, very few of our readers will remember
back eighteen years ago, so I think a bit of an introduction is
warranted.
In 1987, when university mainframes were the only computers
attached to large networks, Rich was attending Miami University (of
Ohio). His roommate, who worked in the computer center, set up an
account for him, and Rich began reading several of the electronic
magazines that originated at the University of Maine, such as the
"Nutworks" humor zine, and DargonZine's predecessor, FSFnet.
Glenn Sixbury's "Destiny of Tara n'ha Sansela" storyline
particularly intrigued Rich, and when Glenn left the project, he joined
the Dargon Project to try and continue it. The one story he published,
"Two Journeys", appeared in FSFnet 7-5. Looking back on it, Rich writes,
"For such a short story, I am amazed at the relatively large impact it
had on Dargon. The main character, Tara, was featured in a number of
stories. Captain Koren was mentioned first by someone else, but I was
the one who decided he was captain of the town guard rather than a
ship's captain."
When Rich graduated, he lost network access. After a few years, he
opted to serve in the US Navy on a guided missile frigate, where he
began a career in computer work that continued into his civilian life
back in Ohio.
Here's how Rich says he rediscovered DargonZine:
In the fall of 2000, while unpacking some old boxes, I ran across
my old notes from '87. I had started to build a Dargon database on
greenbar paper, much like what became the Online Glossary. Out of
idle curiosity I googled "Dargon", and was quite surprised that it
still existed. I read most of the "About Dargon" and "About
Dargonzine" pages that night, and poked around the rest of the
site. I decided then that I wanted to get involved again. In
reading the Writers' FAQ I was struck by this line: "Ideally, you
should read all the back issues, but we realize that's expecting a
little much". I felt that if I were serious about this, then
reading the archive wasn't "too much". So I read the archive, but
didn't contact the magazine until I had completed my reading. I
think that took me about eighteen months.
Rich finally rejoined DargonZine in January 2003, but things are
very different today from the old days of FSFnet.
Back when I first wrote for FSFnet, the process was pretty
informal: write a story, send it to the editor. It would get a
cursory proofreading, then it would be published. It wasn't
"anything goes", but it was close. You can tell the FSFnet writers
were not paying too much attention to the rules of milieu.
Today it's very structured, with submitting stories to the writers'
list and multiple rounds of critiques. Presently the stories are
much more technically sound. Stories are grammatically correct,
structured well, and logic holes are closed.
And how difficult was it picking up the Black Idol story arc and
writing "End of the Line"?
The hardest part about writing "End of the Line" was developing the
premise, particularly in that I had to end it essentially as
described in the subsequent stories: a mountain hamlet in ruins
with a dead body in a cottage, and a nearby statue. I was pondering
this when I finally arrived at the idea of a wizard kidnapping a
villager. Once I had the motivations worked out, I was ready to go.
Now, with his first stories in print and his Black Idol committment
behind him, Rich has begun work on subsequent pieces. One is called "Out
With a Bang", a story about an alchemist whose knowledge exceeds his
wisdom. He is also in the process of outlining a series of stories about
a former Dargon town guard and a sailor, with a working title of "Coin
of the Realm".
We're delighted to have Rich back with the project, and indebted to
him for coming through with the first two stories of the ongoing Black
Idol story arc. We hope that you enjoy his work.
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