Masks XV: It's War!

[stickmaker]

The expanded and revised version of this story has been posted at:

http://www.dcr.net/~stickmak/Stories/MasksXV.html

Enjoy! (That's an order, soldier!)

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Excellent. Much like the heroes in your story, you carried the day.

I hope it won't be too much of a spoiler when I say that I was surprised by how affected I was by the loss of a character who turned out to be one of my favorites, though I never realized that until the moment she died defending her friends and home.

Thanks for all your hard work in bringing us the Masks.

Gary L.

[stickmaker.livejournal.com]

I planned on several deaths from the beginning. Before I started writing I had some folks who were on the list. Interestingly, in two cases I vacillated between two people, before settling on the specific victim.

If this were a commercial novel there would have been more viewpoints, from more characters, showing more of the war. There would have also been more deaths, with a much higher percentage on-page rather than described by others.

I left myself room to maneuver in a couple of the deaths, but if I bring someone back I'll play fair. There will be a good, rational explanation. However, the next segment will also reveal more of those who died. Including many who have either been previously mentioned only in passing, or not at all. The next Masks story will largely deal with the aftermath of the war.