“From one perspective, you gave me this sacrifice. It was through your deceptions, your theft, the imbalance you brought this world, that I was given the gift of burden, the treasure of pain. I want you to see the life you gave me turned into something beautiful.”
-Chapter 68: The Queen’s Past
Overview
In 2012 I was commissioned to write and illustrate a chapter a week of a young adult fantasy series for Barnes & Noble’s literary teen blog, Sparklife. I was given a free rein to write what I pleased, with one stipulation: at the end of every chapter, the readers voted on what happened next. It was successful enough that it ran for 103 chapters, concluding a full story in 2015.
The map of Moebia
Image from chapter 90
The Story
Alby is about a fifteen-year-old girl summoned to the fantasy kingdom that forever altered her mother's childhood. When she arrives, she learns that her mother's adventures as a kid left a permanent mark on the land of Moebia—the Walkman she left behind sparked an industrial revolution, the prince she loved was exiled and supposedly killed, and the magic lineage of the royal family is withering. The Queen —her mother's childhood rival—demands that she answer for her mother's deeds, and to guarantee her obedience, places a curse on her that will consume her life within thirty days. Alby must journey into the wilderness, harness her curse, aid a rebellion, and discover what really happened to the exiled prince.
Though it's called Alby, as weeks went on, the readers were curious to see the story from other points of view and explore more of the world. The cast expanded considerably, with storytelling duties shared by Alby's mother Clara, her teenage guide from the rebellion Levon, her talking pet turtle Jared, and even her nemesis the Queen.
Image from chapter 95
“As a turtle, you are born with an everlasting pool of patience. The turtle moves slowly, but only because its home is on its back. Therefore, there are few places to which it is worth rushing.”
Reader choices
An example of the reader choice at the end of each chapter, from chapter 9
Incorporating reader choices seemed at first like it would be difficult, even a chore. As the readership grew more invested in the story, it was far from a problem—it was an unexpected benefit. Readers developed theories uniting aspects of the plot I had never considered, remembered details I had misplaced over the years of writing, and made predictions I could hint at, use as red herrings, or occasionally reward. With the readers providing live input, the story became a product of the group, more realized than if any one person authored it alone.
sample pages
The first page of the series, in chapter 1
Excerpt from chapter 42, from Alby’s persepctive
Excerpt from chapter 74, from Clara’s perspective
Excerpt from chapter 76, from Levon’s perspective
Excerpt from chapter 77, told by Jared the Turtle
Image from chapter 82
