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On September 19, 2016 (International Talk Like A Pirate Day) I was watching the local evening news when they broadcast a story about Krispy Kreme Donuts offering a free doughnut if you came in and talked like a pirate. I found the story so appealing, that it inspired me to write my second BCTS serial and post the chapters as part of the then current BCTS writing challenge.
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In my first serial (Mary Celeste) and my second serial (Dress Like A Girl Pirate Day) I tried an experiment - including a YouTube link in each chapter. The inspiration for this experiment came from an infamous movie director named Ed Wood.
Ed Wood is famous for producing and directing the movie PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE a cult classic which has been called "the worst movie ever made". He also wrote and directed the movie GLEN OR GLENDA. Tim Burton made a movie about Ed Wood (called ED WOOD) starring Johnny Depp.
In some of his B movies, Ed Wood would include film clips from other movies (usually outtakes) in his movies. Sometimes these movie clips had no relation to the plot of the movie. GLEN OR GLENDA (a movie about transvestism) included a video of charging Indians [???].
In my chapters, I looked for YouTube videos that were relevant to the plot. In Mary Celeste I used characters from some of the YouTube videos as characters in my serial.
I used links to YouTube videos in my serial chapter because I didn't know how to imbed the videos into the chapters. Since I was using an iPhone 4 to input my stories, most likely I didn't even have the capability to imbed video into a chapter.
Using YouTube links was just an experiment, that apparently was a dismal failure. Although I noticed a (very) few BCTS authors started to occasionally use a YouTube link, the idea didn't catch on. I got a few comments on the videos, but most were regarding difficulty in getting the links to work. From the few comments received regarding the video links, it appears that most readers ignored the links. Pity - I tried to include videos that were relevant to the plot or provided useful info.
My vision was a future where BCTS stories become multi-media presentations including pictures, music, and video that automatically run at the appropriate moment. I saw an improved system where there are easy to use tools to imbed multi-media into the text and libraries of videos, music, and pictures that can be used to improve the stories.
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In Dress Like A Girl Pirate, I used the names of the two (2) sisters in Mary Celeste for Marty/ Marti's sisters.
I used the names of two (2) songleaders (similar to a cheerleader but WAY better uniforms) from my high school (1968-1971) for two of the cheerleaders (Judy and Steffanie).
The main character, Marty or Marti was based upon Marty McFly (from BACK TO THE FUTURE). I'm suprised none of the readers figured that out.
Marty was not transgender or a transvestite. He was just easily manipulated by his sister (who enjoyed having her personal Barbie doll). If you watched the BACK TO THE FUTURE movies, Marty McFly was easy to manipulate and it frequently got him in trouble (sound familiar?).
The actor who played Marty McFly was small in stature and with makeup and padding could have played a female or transgender role.
In the next chapter (author notes #2), I will disclose Marty's future (after the first year story would have been finished).
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One of the major characters was transgender. I was suprised that no one figured out and posted the name of the actual transgender character. One public poster came close to identifying the transgender character.
I will identify this person in the next chapter.
There is a second character that I included as a backup transgender character. This character would have appeared again in season 2 (the following year) if I had continued the story for a second year.
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The first YouTube link in the first chapter is what I envisioned Marti would have looked like in costume.
The second YouTube link was a cute cat video. The video shows how creative people can be and how well a cat can act.
In the second chapter, the first public comment included a YouTube link of a pickup truck running over a PALS breast form. Apparently after a nuclear attack, three (3) things will survive rats, cockroaches (both survived the Bikini Nuclear Bomb Tests), and PALS breasts forms!
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After I wrote the fourth chapter, I received several comments (some public comments to chapter 4 and some PMs) regarding the "MARK sub-plot". In addition, I had received several PMs regarding the Mary Celeste "CHARLIE CHAN sub-plot". All were highly critical of including the sub-plots.
If there had been only one comment regarding the addition of a sub-plot I would have thought about it, but continued to post the story. Because there were so many with the same complaint (and most of the writers had posted a large number of BCTS stories), I stopped writing to take the time to study the issue. It took me over three months to come to a conclusion. In the meantime, a personal crisis happened that lingered for more that a year. This crisis put my life on hold.
When the crisis concluded and I had time to resume writing, I decided to wait until the following Halloween before continuing Mary Celeste and Dress Like A Girl Pirate Day.
I subsequently started a third BCTS serial (that I actually completed) called The Blue Whale. I thought that The Blue Whale was significantly better than my prior two (2) uncompleted serials. Unfortunately, the reader reception of The Blue Whale was so bad that I lost interest in continuing Mary Celeste and Dress Like A Girl Pirate Day. Eventually, I stopped posting public comments although I continue to occasionally post PMs.
Periodically I receive PMs requesting that I continue my unfinished stories. I feel guilty about leaving the readers hanging especially since I would dearly like to read more chapters from unfinished BCTS serials:
SUPER SOLDIER
JULINA OF BLACKSTONE
DOOM VALLEY PREP SCHOOL
FELICIA'S SECOND LIFE
PROJECT PHOENIX
BIAN
and others
So, I am going to post the entire plot for my two (2) unfinished serials starting with the next chapter of Dress Like A Girl Pirate Day (author notes #2). If you would rather not see any spoilers, then ignore any following chapters of Mary Celeste or Dress Like A Girl Pirate Day.
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Comments
Back to the future 2
In Back to the future 2_Michael J Fox, the actor who played Marty also played his sister in the alternative 1985. She is only on screen for a second, so it's a blink and you will miss it moment.
Woah.
I did not know that. Thank you.
in the Future
he also played his own daughter at his future home
I Think...
...that's what Kirit was referring to. At least, I don't remember any extra sibling in the alternate 1985 when I saw it on television, and the news stories I read at the time that referenced the movie mentioned the daughter but not a sister.
Interesting move, btw: Marlene McFly is meeting her visiting grandparents at the door of the family house, and naturally kisses his grandmother's cheek as she comes in. But to avoid the expectation of her kissing her grandfather with the audience knowing there's a male playing Marlene, they have grandpa George enter standing upside down in a futuristic traction unit, resulting from an offstage pre-story accident (IIRC) which is otherwise irrelevant to the plot.
(Nothing to do with Marlene, but if you freeze-frame the newspaper in alternate-1985, you can see that that Richard Nixon is entering his fifth term as president and still promising an imminent end to the Vietnam war.)
Eric
Thanks for the heads-up
Naturally I will read what you post next. I have enjoyed all your efforts. But I do understand about negative feedback. I produce a local club newsletter and put in what I think is relevant and interesting. But some complain despite it being a volunteer effort. Oh well, be true to yourself.
>>> Kay