Lattice Issue 3: Kidnapped!
So.
Lattice is accomplishing three things. First and most importantly, it’s proven to make me write. It creates a deadline and a goal and the structure is that I feel I can crank it out in the time allotted. This issue is around 11,000 words. The last two were 15,000 and 12,000 respectively, which means since beginning this project three months ago I’ve written roughly 38,000 words. This is more than I wrote in all of 2011 and 2012. Yes, I’m proud of the work, but most importantly I’m proud that there is work.
The second thing Lattice has accomplished is a delivery method. I’ve spoken to the developers of the iOS newsstand app and they tell me it is coming very soon. Hopefully by next issue you’ll be able to read this in Newstand, and new issues will appear automatically. But even without Newstand, Lattice looks great on iOS inside iBooks and other epub reading apps. It looks great on Kobo and Sony readers as well. And even though I’m not a Kindle owner myself, their automatic delivery to all Kindle subscribers is the kind of feature writers could only dream of having just a few years ago.
Lastly, Lattice is an ongoing project that will get better over time. Subscribers who have been here from the beginning will continue to get rewarded by new stuff, and fresh subscribers will have a huge amount of content, and this will continue to grow every month. Having made three issues, I’m comfortable with my ability to continue and I’m excited to hear from readers about the new work.
Now, onto issue 3. I called it ‘Kidnapped!’ because I don’t write that many kidnappings (it’s my first, actually), and I didn’t want to bury the lead. I’ve heard from people that The Moonbow Easy is their least favourite part of Lattice. I had a feeling this might happen, because it’s a strange story and Odette is a curious main character. Structurally, not much has happened in the first three chapters, because I wanted to set the scene and show how I might explore a dispirited character. I wanted to have her be stuck in a bad situation based partially on poor decisions made against people who would take advantage of her naivety. Then, I wanted something really bad to happen. This is the beginning of that. I want to stress that this is a story about strength against deception. Have faith (or don’t.)
It’s not at all evident from the first two chapters of Skypunch, but it is going to be an ensemble cast of about five. Here, in S1E3 (that’s season one, episode three), we meet two of the main characters, Sabin and Rose. I focus on mostly on Sabin, a young single father who has taken a position that’s kind of nuts (and only partially explained). Also, welcome to Skypunch. Finally.
I’ve been promising this from the beginning, but the Heart is Raw finally deviates from pro wrestling this month. I wrote an essay about The Killing, my favourite procedural show. I also talked about Total Divas, the new reality show about female wrestlers that is oddly decent. For the other two articles, I discussed Summerslam 1991 and 2013, two very, very different shows (hint, the one with the wedding makes less sense). For the more recent show, I cribbed a little Vonnegut. I think you’ll like it.
For people who follow me on Twitter, you may have noticed that halfway through the month I actually gave up on a draft for Skypunch. I wrote chapter 3 from Aubry’s perspective at first, but decided it was too linear and the pace too slow. I have it written, and thought about putting it in the issue as a freebie. Would people be interested in rough work like that? I’d be curious to know.
Remember, two coincidences are never enough.