At the risk of cursing myself-- with the exception of some proof-reading, some editing, a change or two here and there, I am proud to say that
Low Level Bureaucrats 3: The Rise of the Collective is done!
Working nearly every available day, getting frustrated with dead ends and a story that has gone through multiple re-workings, now I have a (mostly) finished story, which concludes the Low Level Bureaucrats Trilogy--at least as far as the print version goes. I have decided that any future adventures in Beatown will live on-line.
I started Low Level Bureaucrats way back in 2004. It was an idea I had to write a story about a guy who runs for mayor on a platform of eliminating meter maids. That story took me about 8 months to write, and ultimately it played a role in returning Davey G and the Keyboard to the stage at the 2005 Davezine 11 release after a 3 year hiatus.
In 2006, I wrote Low Level Bureaucrats 2: (Karl) Love Story , which turned out to be one of my easiest writing experiences ever, with none of the usual hesitation and re-working that had gone into previous stories. I had the idea, I worked on it steadily for 3 months, and it just came out.
Part 3 was not so easy. As some readers may know, I had worked on Part 3 for months and months and struggled along to get 12 pages of a story that I just didn’t like. Not that it was bad, but it appeared that I’d been watching the Simpsons too much, and had maybe unconsciously copped a plot-line that, while not bad, just wasn’t one that I was happy ending the trilogy with.
Then I came across the article about how a drug for Restless Leg Syndrome leads to the side effect of gambling. This inspired me to re-imagine Karl Love’s gambling addiction of LLB 2 into a side effect from a drug used to treat his Freudian Slip. And then I thought about things in my adopted home town of Baltimore that really irritate the hell out of me, and it morphed into a story that I feel effectively wraps up the trilogy, and serves as catharsis for…those things that irritate the hell out of me in Baltimore. (see: the Parochialist).
And even that story hit a snag. I blasted something out in two months, then had to go back and rework at least half of it. (The lesson here: plan your stories before you write them, you will thank yourself for it later.)
But very soon, Davezine Number 13, featuring Low Level Bureaucrats 3: the Rise of the Collective will come out for all to read.
Look for my new Davezine at the end of March! I will announce it here, on my blog, on my site, on myspace, mailing list--wherever you are reading this!
For back issues, (Davezine 1-12) here’s the link to my catalog!
http://davecookson.tripod.com/testcatalog.html
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