By The Book - The Legacy

And just like that, the opportunity to write two more books seems to have upped and disappeared like a fart in the wind. Apparently everyone wasn’t happy, as I was led to believe, which meant it wasn’t exactly smiles all round.

The legalities sorted, someone in LA now has a say in the matter and, having had a run in with the Designated Author in the past, isn’t happy having her ‘working’ on the project. The publisher’s hands are tied. The trilogy of books is going ahead, but without her. Which means I get dumped along with her.

The lesson here is always play nice, because the past will come back to take a big, wet bite out of your ass the first chance it gets. It’s something I try to follow, and fail more often than not. That’s only because I’ve got an incredibly low bullshit threshold. And which is one of the reasons why I don’t work in animation anymore.

The thing is, I’ve crossed paths with the LA man. A friend over in the Valley has worked with him in the past. So there is an in. And I had to deal with the publisher directly when it came to checking over the edit as well, because the matter was deigned too trivial by the Designated Author.

The great mastermind that she is, the Designated Author didn’t bother transferring the manuscript into a document of her own before sending it to the publisher. Which meant, as soon as Word’s Reviewing toolbar came into use, my name flashed up on every page. So there is enough evidence already that the book isn’t hers.

If I desperately wanted to write the books, I could theoretically leapfrog over the Designated Author, while she lies in the bed she made for herself, and contact the two other players directly. It could work. Or it could blow up in my face.

Decisions, decisions. In the meantime, I’ve just racked up a massive body-count on Perfect Dark. No doubt there will be a few more games before I decide what to do.