Do What?

5-8-2000

Well, Lady M is still off gallivanting around with all those mysterious people, eating mysterious food and loving every minute of it. So this is Don, the Web Guy, filling in the gaps for her until she returns.

Lady M decided she wanted to a web site several years ago. She wasn't sure just what to put on it since the industry hadn't really matured an the business model for e-publishing hadn't matured into anything recognizable.

The business still hasn't matured, but people are getting a handle on what it takes to sell on the web versus the old fashioned paper method. One of the things we've noticed is that there are a couple of things that haven't changed. One is the importance of story. It's the story that takes the mystery, the human conflict, the characters, and turns them into something called verisimilitude. In web terms you might say verisimilitude is the number of pixels it takes to make a virtual reality. The story is the virtual reality writers create. If it has enough of the right ingredients, it steals the reader from one reality, one place and time, and drops them off in another. Whether an oral recitation of Greek poetry or the most recent Nintendo video game, the story is the place we are going to, the place we are trying to get to by reading or plying thumb pressure to the game controller.

The second thing we noticed that hasn't changed is the importance of craft. Perhaps its the writing in a mystery novel, the graphics in a video game, modern entertainment still depends on a the quality of the craft, a minimum level of skill of execution, to be successful. Craft is the vehicle by which we are transported to the story. It is the road we travel, the plane we fly, the CD we insert, to get to the mysterious place we want to be.

Mystery International will continue to hone our craft, even though we aren't always sure just what that craft is, and we will always be dedicated to helping other writers hone their craft, to tune up their vehicle for taking others on flight of fantasy, to virtual realities, created, as always, in the minds of creative people.

We value your input. If you have ideas on how we can facilitate your craft or story, or improve in any way what you see on these pages, please let us know. You are are customers and we want you to tell us what to do. We want you to reach that destination of the promised elsewhere and we want you to help us help you get there.

Send comments suggestion, question, and critiques to ladym@mysteryinternational.com.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Don Bush

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