What Came Before May be What Comes Next

Spouse is happy. My Archive boxes were taking up about a quarter of the shelf space in the utility room. Had an accident down there, too. I moved a small box containing delivery receipts (from when I delivered pizza for my keep) which was resting on top of an Archive box. I put it on something else on a different shelf. The whole thing, box and receipts, weighed less than five pounds. In the morning, the shelf had collapsed from too much weight. Talk about the straw!

But The Archives have been opened and rudimentally examined. This means I have found things to get rid of. That makes Spouse happy. Spouse loves to throw things away. Especially if they are mine or Son's.

Just a couple of minutes ago Spouse hailed me from another room, "Doesn't it make you feel happy to be going through all of that stuff and finding things you forgot about?" Yes, it does. Very happy, in fact. I'm so glad I kept it all. I can see where I was ten, twenty, thirty, and even forty (not quite) years ago. I can see I am not the same person I was. My writing has improved dramatically. I see momentos from the plays I was in. Notes, awards, trophies. All kinds of stuff. But since this blog is supposedly about writing - fantasy writing - I will try to stick close to that.

I think I may have found the Original Swords of Fire. Wrote about it on SOF - The People. See The Roots are Still Intact. These handwritten pieces are nearly forty years old. A lot of things have changed. The original story, The White King of Ladondo, is a far cry from Traitor. And as things stand now, there is no way to reconcile the two stories. Pity. I like the title, White King of Ladondo. Sounds cool.

Looking at a legal-sized legal pad with two versions of The Monsters in it. Neither finished. Both were attempts to re-write the original Monsters play, which no longer exists. The first is a story version. It's only four pages. The second is a play version of nine pages. I wish I could recapture the spirit I had when I wrote the original. I remember it was when I was attending Bethel College in Arden Hills. I would go to the student lounge and write instead of attending class. It went quickly, and I believe I finished it within a couple of weeks.

The Monsters is a comedy play. A melodrama, I suppose. The premise is simple.

Three young college students are out driving the New England countryside one warm afternoon. Their car breaks down and they walk to a nearby mansion to seek help. (By now it is dark. It's always dark.) The students (STEVEN, SUSAN, and SCULLY) are met at the door by WANETTA. In the background, we see a shadowy figure we can't quite make out. (This is BLAGDEN.)

WANETTA explains there is no telephone, but the three are welcome to spend the night to avoid the coming storm. (There's always a storm.)

While sitting in the parlor speaking, SUSAN and SCULLY begin seeing the "monsters". STEVEN is too engaged speaking with WANETTA to notice. The first monster is MUMMY, who walks across a balcony. DRACULA appears next, coming down the stairs and exiting before STEVEN can see. He is followed by WOLF MAN. At this point, SCULLY and SUSAN run in terror. They return to the door and open it, only to find FRANKENSTEIN's MONSTER barring their path.

After a series of comedic encounters, in which all of the monsters show up to bar SCULLY and SUSAN's escape, FRANKENSTEIN MONSTER speaks. (British accent) "I say! Have you ever seen the like?" DRACULA (Swedish accent) "Most strange indeed." WOLF MAN (Texas drawl) "Rightly scared the whiskers off my face. - to STEVEN - Mind explaining all of this, son?"

Turns out the house is a retirement home for the 1930s film monsters. Only SCULLY and SUSAN can't quite accept that. WANETTA runs the house now that her father has died. But there is a problem: the mortgage is overdue and they are to be evicted. If only her father had told her where the fortune was he had hid.

The villain of this plot is a greedy woman who's name I forget. (Haven't found those notes yet.) She has the inevitable toadie. A timid young woman.

The play had a lot of fun and energy. It was deliberately cliche, but that's kind of how I view melodrama anyway. Just put it "over the top" so everyone can tell you meant for it to be stupid and it becomes acceptable.

I really need to rewrite this thing.