Friday, May 31, 2019

Rerelease of The Maze

Following a football game in September 2017, a member of the Pride of Broken Arrow marching band jumped to his death from the top of the football stands. It was one of the rare times when a band rehearsal was canceled the following day to allow time for discussion and healing over the loss of a friend. While I did not know him personally, the incident caused me to look hard at the series I had created where people who committed suicide were picked up by a machine called The Maze as an act of redemption. My books have not historically had a large readership, so I could take some solace in knowing this child had not read my stories and taken any leads from them. This did not chance the fact that book one opened with a detailed representation of a woman standing on the roof of a building before letting herself fall to her death. Yes, she was saved in the story, but at the end of the prologue, you didn't know that.

I never liked the suicide aspect of The Maze. Ever. It was one of the base fundamental roots of the story, but I always hated it. Through the years, I always wanted there to be a better way, and my mind never left that idea. Book 1 had been continuously available since 2013 while books 2 through 6 had only been up since late 2017, but in June 2018, I pulled them all down. I had an idea, but it needed development. The people in the Maze were no longer going to be suicide victims.

I knew the change would be hard since the idea permeated not only the characters' backstories, but every idea I had moving forward for future characters. It was mentioned in conversation popping up now and then throughout the story especially when doubts of one's place were expressed. The prologue and first couple chapters of book 1 required a complete overhaul since it dealt exclusively with what happened and what led the character to commit the act.

Once those chapters were redone, I had to reread everything to catch every single reference to suicide made everywhere along with modifying methods taken, reasons given, etc. Three main characters meant three backstories needed heavy modification to still lead them to the Maze in a dramatic way, but revised so that the backstory still worked in context and had a satisfying conclusion without its original ending.

At the time of this post, I have completely reread book 1, and I've done multiple searches for key words in book 2 to locate discussions of suicide and backstories.

The bottom line here is that suicide isn't a joke. It isn't some method an author should use to track characters into a story when there are better ways of doing it. It's ok to talk about it. It's ok to build a story that deals with it. But my stories didn't do that. Instead, I used it flippantly as a method to get things rollings before forgetting all about it and moving on. when it happens, people don't just forget about it. It affects everyone in a wide circle like those ripples in the water.

The victim in 2017 was part of a musical group. They spent a lot of time together. His section was hit the hardest because they knew him the best. My youngest wasn't in the marching band at that point, but she plays the same instrument, so when she heard what he played, she was impacted even though she didn't know him. Musicians stick together. When I meet another trombone player, it's akin to fraternity brothers from different chapters meeting. Instant bond. So not knowing him, she felt like she lost a member of her section family. This rippled out through the band who lost one of their own, and a band as a whole is a family. They spend a lot of time together and know each other across the sections. As a parent and an alumnus of the band, I was dumbfounded as well. I know how close everyone gets, and even with his band family so close and having music be a part of his life, he still did what he did.

I had to make a change. I could not have that element be an integral part of entering my story. I could not risk this series be any kind of success and let people know that the way to get in is to try to kill yourself and hope for the best. That's something I could not live with. People are very impressionable. They wait for their letter from Hogwarts. They try to use the Force. They watch the skies for Superman. They wonder if their car is really a car or changes into a robot at night. They drive on deserted roads hoping to be abducted by aliens. They wait for the Doctor and the Tardis. I couldn't be the guy whose entry on that list was: and they throw themselves from bridges hoping to get picked up by the Maze. No. That would not be my legacy.

So now, if you've read the first book of the Maze, you'll find a new prologue. It doesn't start on a rooftop but inside an apartment. Michelle is still depressed, but instead of jumping to her death, she is making do with drinking away her troubles and watching the ceiling fan spin. Instead of a mysterious "matter transporter" to snap her away, the elevator we know and love opens up in her living room, its light blasting through the gloom to invite her to enter it. It is no spoiler to say she does though it's fair to say that with as much as she had to drink, she thought she was hallucinating until she woke up in a new place with new people and a new adventure ahead of her.

If you've read my books before, thank you so much for your support, and if you haven't, welcome to my worlds. The Maze will be re-released over the next couple of months culminating in the long awaited seventh book in the series, originally slated for November 2017 before life imploded. Thanks and enjoy.

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