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    Mark Arbour
  • Mark Arbour
  • Author
  • 02/26/2014
  • 971 Words
  • 8,081 Views
  • 38 Comments
Stories posted in this category are works of fiction. Names, places, characters, events, and incidents are created by the authors' imaginations or are used fictitiously. Any resemblances to actual persons (living or dead), organizations, companies, events, or locales are entirely coincidental.
Note: While authors are asked to place warnings on their stories for some moderated content, everyone has different thresholds, and it is your responsibility as a reader to avoid stories or stop reading if something bothers you. 

9.11 - 79. Author's Comments

When the final chapter of 9.11 is posted (excluding this note), it will encompass some five months in CAP time (June, 2001 to November, 2001). I started publishing 9.11 on April 14, 2013, and completed posting it in February, 2014, some ten months later. Pretty ironic that it took us twice as long to write, edit, beta, and publish the story than the time that elapsed in the novel.

The book will consist of slightly more than 500,000 words. To put that into perspective, War and Peace (Tolstoy) weighs in at around 570,000 words, and Les Miserables contains about 530,000. This has been a massive undertaking, and I owe an enormous debt to my team for their hard work, their candid feedback, and their unwavering support. And while it is not my longest novel (that honor goes to Paternity, with almost 645,000 words), it has certainly been the hardest.

Of all the CAP stories, this one has required the most research. The terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 represent a pivotal moment in world history, one that has had long-reaching and disastrous consequences for the United States and the rest of the world. It is recent enough that it impacted most of us personally, and many have very vivid and painful memories of that fateful day. I felt that to screw up the attacks by blatantly flawed representations would be an insult to my readers and their memories. I’ve read at least three books on the attacks, along with countless articles and webpages. Wikipedia was the best resource, and I found it to be an accurate source, but of course, I can only say that after I read all the others.

Developing the plot to fit the attacks was a challenge, but one that ended up flowing with the research. Who should be in which tower? How were the buildings structured, and how were the elevators built? The World Trade Center Towers used segmented elevators, with sky lobbies; so you’d take an express elevator to a sky lobby, then board another for the trip to your floor between the sky lobbies. There were very few elevators that went the entire height of the building. What happened to the elevators when the towers were struck? The biggest plot aid was discovering the story of Stairwell A, and how it was possible to descend it. Then there were the other details to research and work in, like the unavailability of cell phone service after the towers were hit, and the sealing off of Manhattan after the attacks.

Spending all of that time with a topic that was so macabre was depressing, and not a little damaging to my psyche. The encouragement from my team, and the enthusiastic and overwhelming response from my readers after the chapters were posted, did much to ameliorate that.

Then there was the issue of characters who did not make it, and almost worse than that was dealing with the emotional pain of the survivors after that. I sometimes roll my eyes when readers try to tell me what these characters are thinking or feeling, or that I have them acting out of character. Not that it hasn’t happened, but those occasions are relatively rare. These people live in my mind. They are part of me. To give them up, or kill them off, is pretty painful. I have a really hard time going back and re-reading many of the earlier stories because when I encounter Robbie, I feel guilty, and sad. He was one of my favorite characters. He was so flawed and stubborn, but he had a heart of gold when it came to his family. He’s been a part of CAP for years now, since Be Rad, which I wrote in 2008. Saying goodbye to him was tough for all of us, but I still maintain that it was necessary.

The book is divided up into three sections. The first part, which took place before the attacks, was largely designed to show how people could get so riled up over stupid conflicts, so as to see how, in the greater scheme of things, some of those issues just weren't all that important. The second part constituted the attacks and their immediate aftermath. And the final part was designed to show how these characters dealt with the fallout from the attacks, and from their losses. I thought that the part about the attacks would be the toughest to write, but the last part has been worse. Seeing these characters in pain, feeling their anguish, watching them deal with the traumas in ways that ripped their lives and relationships apart, has been a huge challenge.

The casualty count in this story was high: we lost Robbie, Jeanine, Hank, Jeff Danfield, and even Aaron Hayes. The relationships that were sacrificed were almost as bad. There is the rift between Will and Matt, and Will and Tony, to contend with, but that pales in comparison to the disintegration of Wade and Matt’s relationship. They had been through so much, from Matt’s illness and Wade’s molestation (Bloodlines) to freeing Nana from captivity in her nursing home. But traumas like 9.11 take their toll on relationships, and it seems reasonable that those two would suffer from this, especially when you tack on the stress of finishing their undergraduate years, and the need to take those next life steps.

And of course, a big part of the challenge was in putting first my team through these emotional upheavals, and then inflicting them upon my readers. I am glad that it is done, and over. I hope that, after you read this, you feel that I did justice to the event, and to the characters.

 

Mark Arbour

February 25, 2014

Copyright © 2014 Mark Arbour; All Rights Reserved.
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Stories posted in this category are works of fiction. Names, places, characters, events, and incidents are created by the authors' imaginations or are used fictitiously. Any resemblances to actual persons (living or dead), organizations, companies, events, or locales are entirely coincidental.
Note: While authors are asked to place warnings on their stories for some moderated content, everyone has different thresholds, and it is your responsibility as a reader to avoid stories or stop reading if something bothers you. 

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Chapter Comments



Mark Arbour
On 02/26/2014 04:56 PM, prklux said:
Thank you Mark

and also to your deadercated Team

I do not know when I first stumbled across your work's and some where after that you requested me to be a friend and I acceped

What a poor friend I have been just been eagerly sitting and waiting for your next posting and enjoying that without giving you any feedback or encouragement

I was at a birthday party in a remote part of Australia (where I live) and watch live on TV the destruction of the two Towers

My thoughts at the time were "Shit we are going to have Veitnam on a globel scale"

I did not think of the trauma desolation or heatache the surviours reataitves or friends of this drama went through

This book 911 gave me that perspective

Thank you Mark and your team

Bob

Thanks Bob. 9-11 was a global tragedy, but it hit us pretty hard here in the US. I'm glad I helped illustrate that.

 

I love Australia! Been years since I've been there, but someday I'm going back. I am convinced there are more hot men per capita there than in any other country. ;-)

  • Like 3
Mark Arbour
On 02/26/2014 05:03 PM, Ozymandias said:
Simply put, your two series are the best work on this or any other story website. Your writing is virtually flawless (Dormitat et Homerus). Your ability to maintain a compelling plot week after week is nothing short of amazing. And it appears that you do it all just for the pleasure of your readers. I can only say that I am deeply appreciative and sincerely grateful. -Oz
Thank you! You are certainly correct in that there is no remuneration for this labor of love. It's nice that way. As for the (mostly) flawless aspect, that I owe totally to my team. They make me look good.
  • Like 3
Mark Arbour
On 02/26/2014 07:19 PM, martinlln said:
Thank you so much to you, Mark, and to your team for this brilliant book in the CAP saga. It was the one that spoke to me the most, particularly as far as the grief process was concerned. I think it helped me to put at rest some painful issues I've been through in my young age.

Needless to say that I very much hope that there'll be a new book to CAP so that I can see the lives of these endearing characters take on a happy path. But I know that's maybe a bit selfish.

Kind regards

Christian

I'm so glad we could help you out! Thanks for sharing that!

 

March 1.

  • Like 3
dtothesecond

It just gets better with every book. It is easy to see, just by having read this book in its entirety, that 9.11 took a lot of blood, sweat and tears to put together. That was such a turbulent time in everyone's lives, mine included. I've stayed quiet for a long time (I think I last posted when "Paternity" was still new...dang time flies) but I just want to say once again just how much I appreciate your amazing talent for writing and the fact you share it with us, your devoted fans, here on GA.

I look forward to seeing what awaits that Crampton/Schluter/Hobart/Danfield/Carrswold/etc clans in the coming book. It's my (and many other readers, from what I've seen) hope that Matt finally figures things out in the next book. I guess only you know if he and Wade will eventually work their ways back to each other and I eagerly await the twists and turns that are sure to come in the next book.

Do you plan to post 9.11 and Odyssey in ePub format on your Yahoo group as you have with your other works?

Congratulations again on a phenomenal book and keep 'em coming!

  • Like 3
Mark Arbour
On 02/26/2014 08:49 PM, said:
Here is something to consider-as much as anything else, these last few decades can be seen as the clash between entrenched ideologies and people looking for a different way to see the world. What makes this iteration of that age old conflict unique is the degree to which both sides make use of a global information infrastructure for which there is no real historical analogue. Given that this new world is driven by information, it should be no surprise that so many of the events which have shaped it, and continue to shape it, are planned and executed with the greatest amount of secrecy their organizers can manage.

 

As long as you are going to divide people up (and if there is any basic idea upon which the information age is based, it is the idea that you can divide people up according to your purpose-e.g. marketing, managing elections, pharmaceutical research, etc… are all based on this fundamental idea), then there is no category of people with more at stake than us, gay people (and those who care about us.) There are not many old line ideologies where we are welcome as full and equal members of society. In that context, it is amazing how much we have accomplished, how deeply tied we are to this current period of time.

 

All of this I bring up to get to this point-we have very little infrastructure, as a community. There is no Gay Church. There is no Gay political party. There is no Gay newspaper. There is no Gay university. There is no Department of Gay in the government. There is no Gay aristocracy. It is not that those things don’t exist on a small scale, or that there are not people in larger institutions who are not friends and allies. My point is that there is no Official Gay, no one who reaches all, or even most, of us. No one who speaks for all, or even most of us. Thus, when future generations look back, they will not have the traditional arrangement which accompanies most communities and movements-someone who produces the “mainstream” view, and then others who challenge that view. Given that, everyone who contributes, every historian and journalist, every academic, and, yes, every artist, is making a vital contribution to the vibrant mosaic which is going to be the record of this critical period in our history. At some point people will look back and ask, not only what happened, but what were people reading, what were they saying to each other about what was happening. In that regard what you are doing is so much more than just entertainment.

 

All of that may be a long-winded way to say thank you for all that you have done, so I will say that as well: Thank You, Mark, for all that you have done. I personally can't wait to see what the future holds for CAP.

 

All the Best,

Jason

Thanks Jason. Ironically enough, your poignant and sincere review reminded me of Margaret Cho's comedy routine, where she talks about "The Gay." It's one of those evenings. ;-)

 

I wonder if the lack of Gay infrastructure is not a reflection of the fact that gay men and lesbians have always been part of society, and are acknowledged as such at some level.

  • Like 3
jack.unders

To Mark and associates:

OMG!!! What more can I say that has not already been said so eloquently by all my fellow fans and readers of CAP and other sagas that have been borne from the imagination of such a fertile mind as that of our beloved auithor, Mark. To all of his assoicates that have contributed to the publication of what has been up to now an amazing journey through the lives of JP's family, my heartfelt thanks.

I am so looking forward to the next book in the CAP series. If it were not for my journey along side of Lord Granger in Bridgemont, I would be at a complete loss, not knowing where to turn to next.

Mark, I have almost finished book six in the Bridgemont series (about 60% complete) so I beg of you to not wait too long before you regale us with our next adventure.

I remain one of your most loyal fans. Jack

  • Like 3
bundu_st

I've been reading the CAP series over the last two weeks and this is my first comment. I'm ashamed, but I'll leave it at that. Previous chapters have been heartbreaking but I'll admit that it took a lot of self restraint not to lash out at Robbie's passing. But the emotion and knowledge you put into this is deserving of respect. I was watching big brother sa with my mom in Africa when they flashed news on the first plane with a directive to switch to Cnn. We switched in time to see the second plane hit and were frozen as those buildings fell. I love word and writing but could never ever find the courage to place characters I'd built up in that scenario. Reading this was eviscerating but has given me respect for you as an author. And it has also helped me think of my life and evaluate situations better, despite the fact that I am faced with situations that are not flattering when I face myself in the mirror. You're my JP. Thanks Grand

  • Like 3
Gandalf

Thanks. This holds up and is as painful but human on this re reading as the first time around.
I hope I am wrong that this Inauguration Day does not join your title Day or November 23 1963 in our collective memory.
I am hoping to move through the next books and read the chapters you have added while I've been rereading. My family and friends will be glad not to constantly see me crying or chortling or trying to explain what is going on in these books I'm reading. Thanks to you and your team for all your work. Pax. Steve

  • Like 3
Colostomo

Bravo Mark! I lived in Washington DC in 2001 and I vividly remember driving past the Pentagon after having been released early from my job at NASA trying to get home. I remember that the traffic was lurching down the beltway at breakneck speeds. People were spooked. My partner was attending a conference in Arlington VA just a half mile from the Pentagon when the plane struck the building. Cell phone service was out and we could not connect, so she walked about 10 miles from Arlington to our home in northwest DC. Several civilian employees  with whom I had worked were killed at the Pentagon that day.  Several weeks later I learned that the hijackers of the plane that hit the Pentagon were frequent customers at an Italian restaurant near my workplace. We had noticed them several times at lunch. They were a bit noisy and rather arrogant, and apparently lived around the corner from the restaurant. Five weeks later we went up to New York to hear a concert performance of Tristan Und Isolde at Carnegie Hall with Barenboim and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. We had purchased the tickets the previous summer. In NYC we took the Circle Line boat tour which took us around the island. The wreckage of the WTC was still on fire and smoking up the city.  We took a long walk down one of the avenues where we saw dozens of fire stations decked with memorials and fotos of dead firemen and first responders. We got within a few blocks of the wreckage but the acrid air forced us to flee north to our hotel. The details in your story brought all of this back to us along with echoes of the emotional upset that went with it.  I think you captured the effect of the event on your characters beautifully.  Their reactions are not the least far-fetched. Rereading this called up all the emotions of that time. Brilliant. Thanks for your perseverance. C

  • Like 3
Mark Arbour
On 7/24/2020 at 8:53 AM, Colostomo said:

Bravo Mark! I lived in Washington DC in 2001 and I vividly remember driving past the Pentagon after having been released early from my job at NASA trying to get home. I remember that the traffic was lurching down the beltway at breakneck speeds. People were spooked. My partner was attending a conference in Arlington VA just a half mile from the Pentagon when the plane struck the building. Cell phone service was out and we could not connect, so she walked about 10 miles from Arlington to our home in northwest DC. Several civilian employees  with whom I had worked were killed at the Pentagon that day.  Several weeks later I learned that the hijackers of the plane that hit the Pentagon were frequent customers at an Italian restaurant near my workplace. We had noticed them several times at lunch. They were a bit noisy and rather arrogant, and apparently lived around the corner from the restaurant. Five weeks later we went up to New York to hear a concert performance of Tristan Und Isolde at Carnegie Hall with Barenboim and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. We had purchased the tickets the previous summer. In NYC we took the Circle Line boat tour which took us around the island. The wreckage of the WTC was still on fire and smoking up the city.  We took a long walk down one of the avenues where we saw dozens of fire stations decked with memorials and fotos of dead firemen and first responders. We got within a few blocks of the wreckage but the acrid air forced us to flee north to our hotel. The details in your story brought all of this back to us along with echoes of the emotional upset that went with it.  I think you captured the effect of the event on your characters beautifully.  Their reactions are not the least far-fetched. Rereading this called up all the emotions of that time. Brilliant. Thanks for your perseverance. C

Thank you so much!  I did more research on this story than any other CAP book, primarily because I knew that this was such a pivotal event in many people's lives and I didn't want to get it wrong. 

  • Like 2
Tim Hobson

Mark, I am binge reading nine years after your stories were first published, so I didn't comment or react as I made my way through them. However, this feels (a word that I strike out of everything I write -- "show, don't tell") like the time when I need to say something.

In one sense, I'm glad I didn't see your works before I started writing my own because I would probably not have taken the plunge, knowing I could never write as prolifically or as well as you. Having the benefit of reading them now (and looking forward to continuing through all the others) is the equivalent for me of taking a Master Class from you.

Thank you for inspiring me and showing me so much about good writing. I hope my readers can tell how much I have learned "at the feet of the master!"

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