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Administration and Moderation => BattleTech News => BattleCorps Fiction => Topic started by: roosterboy on 20 October 2013, 04:05:11

Title: 2013-10-20 A Keystone Arch [Philip A. Lee]
Post by: roosterboy on 20 October 2013, 04:05:11

"Kneel and face those whom you have betrayed."

On the eve of Operation REVIVAL, the Clans battle for the right to invade the Inner Sphere. Can Clan Fire Mandrill, the most divided Clan, unite long enough to stray from the path of self-destruction? Story by Philip A. Lee.

[era]CI[/era]

Title: Re: 2013-10-20 A Keystone Arch [Philip A. Lee]
Post by: Sharpnel on 20 October 2013, 04:23:12

finished reading it just moments ago. You just have to love those silly Fire Mandrills

Title: Re: 2013-10-20 A Keystone Arch [Philip A. Lee]
Post by: joechummer on 20 October 2013, 13:22:07

Glad you liked it. That story arose from a personal challenge I gave myself awhile back, which was to write one BattleCorps story from  the perspective of each Clan, even the Home Clans. Not counting BC stories I've already got in the can or stories from forthcoming products, so far I've had stories with point-of-view characters from eight different Clans published. All told, the Mandrills have been the most challenging to portray because they're so disparate, and I didn't want to turn them into a caricature.

Title: Re: 2013-10-20 A Keystone Arch [Philip A. Lee]
Post by: wantec on 21 October 2013, 11:49:36

Just finished reading it, very well done. I think it gave a good perspective on how the separate Kindraa could function together and what it took for them to work together on important items.

Title: Re: 2013-10-20 A Keystone Arch [Philip A. Lee]
Post by: Daishi411 on 22 October 2013, 14:17:46

I really liked how your were able to portray the loremaster as being terribly self-conscious of how his clan acts and appears. It's a burden that has not come out as prevalently in other clan characters, many of whom belong to clans that should make them stop and think twice (which isn't the clan way necessarily, but I like how it goes away from the homogenous posturing clanner who believes as long as he/she is doing it in the name of clan and kerensky they couldn't possibly in the wrong...ever) 

Title: Re: 2013-10-20 A Keystone Arch [Philip A. Lee]
Post by: joechummer on 22 October 2013, 16:54:56

One of the difficulties in writing this story was finding the right protagonist. Super early drafts had the focus on a completely different character altogether, but that ended up not working out really well, and the Loremaster was little more than set dressing. Once I rewrote the story from the perspective of the Loremaster, everything fell into place.

Title: Re: 2013-10-20 A Keystone Arch [Philip A. Lee]
Post by: Demos on 25 October 2013, 03:53:21

Great story, great read!

Title: Re: 2013-10-20 A Keystone Arch [Philip A. Lee]
Post by: CungrVanck on 16 December 2013, 16:09:57

This was an excellent story and I really enjoyed it.  Thank you!