Finally, then, I bring myself round to actually starting this serial. Instead of procrastinating the whole time, I mean, predominantly by thinking the whole thing needs to be rewritten. Well, we’ll see about that. If one thinks that way, one would be here till Domesday. Which, on the other paw, may not be that far away at all. Which would be all the more reason to just take the proverbial plunge and get on with it.
I shall, you’ll be pleased to know, attempt to refrain from an overlong ramble as an intro. It doesn’t really need one and I am loathe to do spoilers.
The way this story came about is that for the last, I don’t know, 10-12 years perhaps I wrote something like a 250k word detailed outline for Katrina’s life story. Writing that serialised biography would itself probably take a lifetime. The point of that story was to meditate on the world that could have been, namely, a utopia, and more importantly, how it became a utopia simply by virtue of a relatively small group of determined people making the right political choices (starting around 1989). Specifically, there has always been a massive open goal available on the political compass (I’m talking Britain here) for a ‘liberal socialist’ political party (and what the entire manifesto should look like), because that’s what normal human beings are. You’ll get to read all about that in Katrina’s Liberal Socialism section (it starts here).
Her story is, of course, a lot more than that, but I wanted to show people in particular how realistic that alternate recent history is. It’s not a fantasy, in other words. Whether it is too late for it to happen as things are now is, of course, another question (one which will arise during the course of this story). I often find myself utterly bewildered by the fact that no one seems to have realised this, let alone actually determinedly acted on it. Yes, of course the mainstream political parties are all ‘controlled opposition’, but you would at least have expected some decent people to realise that as well, and form this new uncontrolled opposition, and stick to the manifesto and make their own narrative. I can’t be the only genius in the world who understands these things, surely?
Well, now I’m not the only one, because there’s Katrina. So, I more recently got to thinking the basic question, what would happen if she really did just suddenly show up in this world? How would she react, and how would people react to her, and, even more so, in what way, if at all, would she change this world? Would she even be allowed to? How would the cabal in particular deal with her?
So, the first version ended up as D-Zero Meson Oscillation, which was admittedly just frivolous. But then I meditated on it a lot more with a view to making it as realistic as possible, and as recognisably ‘this world’ as possible.
And therein lies the drama underpinning the entire narrative.
For those of you who are familiar with version 1, D-Zero Meson Oscillation (my intro for that is here, and part 1 is here), you will very quickly notice how it diverges. If you have already read that story you will enjoy this one differently, with some familiarity with the characters (it will certainly play with your expectations a little). Then again, if you haven’t read it, you will equally enjoy this one differently (and, indeed, version 1 – which you may wish to read at some point). I think what I mean is don’t worry in the slightest if you already know quite a bit about what’s going on (from Katrina’s Journal too, I mean – she only makes oblique references to her time in Paris, though, rather than indulges in details – her Journal starts here, by the way – so obviously you’ve got your first spoiler which is that she doesn’t die in Episode I).
Version 1 was a lot of fun to write and that was, really, the intention behind it. After I wrote it, though, it was very clear that in real life things wouldn’t turn out that way. It’s not psychologically realistic, that is. Thus, I decided to go back to the beginning and meditate on how people really would react if Katrina walked into the British Embassy in Paris and claimed she was from a parallel world. It’s kind of predictable, given all the spooks that hang around Embassies. First, and this is really not giving away any spoilers here (because it’s predictable), they obviously wouldn’t believe her. Instead, they would assume either 1/ she’s just got a serious psychological condition, and/or 2/ there is some kind of nefarious conspiracy afoot (presumably involving some hostile intelligence agency). From that point of view, eliminating option 2 would become a matter of urgency. If they can eliminate option 2 then they can simply hand her over to the psychiatrists and wash their hands of the affair.
Part of the drama, of course, comes from the fact that Katrina is more than intelligent enough to work that one out herself.
Anyhow, the other aspect I wanted to change was to make it demonstrably this world, rather than some fictional version of it. In version 1, most notably, there is no so-called pandemic going on (the narrative starts in November 2021). I did think about including it in version 1 but given all the Covid restrictions it would’ve completely interfered with the plot. Masks in particular. For this final version, then, I wanted to include it and, likewise, explore realistically how Katrina herself would react, given the parallel world difference (you’ll have to read the story to find out what happened in her world, although she has sort of mentioned it in her Journal I think). And equally so, how the people in the Embassy who have to deal with her react to her opinions on the issue. For this (and you’ll have seen this if you’ve read the first bits of her Journal), I did want to mention it in this intro because I certainly don’t want people to feel turned off by Katrina’s somewhat conspiracy theory-esque attitude towards it (and other issues, for that matter). This is her from a parallel world, remember, so she’s absolutely not a ‘this world’ conspiracy theorist. Her views, in other words, are not informed by any kind of (justified) dystopian paranoia, but by fundamentally different experiences and social history. Having said that, there is a little twist in that regard, which will emerge I think about halfway through this Act I. Similarly, you have to understand that all these Covid restrictions were, effectively, the very first thing she encounters about this world. Once that aspect is out of the way, the story’s focus can change.
So that’s my justification for all that. I wanted to try and make it realistic, in the psychological sense. Some readers may feel a little dubious on that score, so it behooves me to remind you that we’re talking furtive Embassy spies here. Chief Residents especially. And such characters always have their own agenda going on, so they simply wouldn’t act in the way a ‘normal civilian’ would. Obviously I’m talking about Peter here (you’ll get what I mean fairly early on).
A short note about some of the real-world characters is in order. There are, as you’ll see, real-world people mentioned in the story, some of whom may well end up playing at least a peripheral role. In that sense, there are questions around how a writer is able to present real people without fear of getting into any trouble. Controversial opinions likewise (although if we start censoring characters’ opinions then we may as well abandon literature altogether and go all Fahrenheit 451 on the very concept of a library). I think the general idea is that if someone is a public figure then they’re fair game. The British Prime Minister at the time the story starts, after all, is Boris Johnson, and there is no end of criticism about him to be found in public discourse. So I am allowing my characters to say what the hell they like there. For some other, less well-known real-world people, however, I decided it’s a grey area. So the tactic I’m taking for the ones who would realistically play a prominent role with regards to Katrina’s misadventures is to change their names and give them whatever personalities I deem appropriate, thus allowing me the classic disclaimer about purely coincidental similarities. On the other paw, in order to make the story as this-world realistic as possible I am going to include some less well-known public figures, but I am going to limit them to very peripheral roles, most of which would be non-speaking parts. If they do speak, then whatever they say should come out as fairly predictable dialogue from a common-sense point of view. I am talking here about how they would react to Katrina, of course.
A similar disclaimer is due for all the assorted spies, subversives, dissidents, criminals and conspirators in the story. Their real-world cousins will hopefully at least recognise the character type, and possibly relate those types to people they know, but I’m standing by my disclaimer. Likewise, with regards to any cryptonyms and intelligence officer- and section-designations, I’m just going to make them up (aside from a few antique designations, like MI6’s Section P6 (cold war Germany section), which intelligence officers should find amusing). The ultimate disclaimer, however, is that any derogatory opinions directed against those assorted conspirators and intelligent officers will, of course, be the opinions of the characters in the story. Whether I share their opinions or not, well, I’m taking the standard NCND option. Neither confirm nor deny, that is.
Part of the serious point about this story, however, is precisely to make such comments, criticisms, and observations on the world and the people who run it. I do agree completely with Katrina’s opinion about this world being a dystopian horrorshow, and I also share her understanding of why it is such, and who is responsible. Given Katrina’s parallel world history, she has a kind of pathological drive to do something about it, because sitting back and doing nothing is a sin-unto-oneself, and the Goddess too for that matter. Also to one’s own species, let alone one’s own country. It’s simply not an option. Naturally, that’s one of the major sources of the dramatic narrative. How the bad guys decide to deal with her is a moot point. Some people might say ‘well, wouldn’t they just kill her’? Well, sure, and I did have to think long and hard about that obvious flaw! So, without inserting some kind of ‘ghost in the machine’ protecting her the whole time (the Goddess, that is), I had to think of another way to get around that niggling little problem. If I told you what that was, though, it would be the mother of all spoilers. Meaning that my meditations about it ended up almost directing the entire narrative.
Well, if that little cryptic note doesn’t entice you into staying for the duration, then, well, I don’t know.
So this story, then, is in part a speculative fiction story, given the parallel world thing, in another part it’s a mystery and an espionage story, and on the other, it’s just the classic ‘outsider casting judgement on society as she finds it’. On that latter note, not every reader at all will like Katrina (this goes for a lot of the other characters too, by the way). But I am hoping you won’t need to in order to enjoy it, and get something out of the whole thing. There will, for sure, be a lot of twists and turns along the way. Given there’s a lot of spy stuff in it, that’s kind of to be expected.
The intention is to show you what a better world really looks like, and how it works and how it could happen. And at the same time show you why and how your world is a dystopia, to expose those responsible, and the evil that they are, and the evil that they do. Human beings see and understand the world through stories, after all. But in this case, it’s more than just a story.
A few final short notes. As I mentioned in my intro to version 1, this is effectively version 3. Version 2, which is tentatively titled ‘What to do about Catriona’, is a sort of mid-way between versions 1 and 3, but takes a purely psychological look (although there is a twist at the end). In particular it focusses mainly on Katrina and one of the other principal characters you’ll meet along the way, namely Sarah Bishop (she only had an off-screen part in version 1 – she’s more prominent in this version). I have not written version 2 yet, however, as I just moved straight on to version 3. I do, however, have a very detailed outline so I might get round to it sometime.
This story is designed to be serialised. Given the timeframe of the whole thing, I would say it’ll end being at least a dozen novel length episodes. In that regard, I had decided it would be a little churlish of me to deny my faithful readers a nice long free episode of it. So, rather that just let people read, say, the first 10k or so words for free before doing the paid-only thing, I decided to do the whole of Act I of Episode I, which is something like 75-80k words (at the moment – I do have to add a few bits towards the end). What happens after that may naturally depend on feedback. If there isn’t enough interest from people liking it enough to go paid, then I will have to reconsider. We’ll see. But if you do like it, and you can afford it, you would make me exceedingly happy by going paid and allowing me to do this writing stuff for a living.
So, each episode will be the equivalent of a book. Most of these episodes will take on a kind of standard three-act structure, which will be quite clear (and extremely cinematic too, for that matter). Meaning a turning point between each act, and another one in the middle of act two. As such, I’ll be titling each post accordingly (like ‘episode I, Act I, scene 2’ or something). And naturally I’ll add a previous and next (and pin this intro to the section). Also, because I’ll want to avoid leaving off mid-scene, some of the posts will be longer than others. For the most part I’ll try and stick to around the 2k word mark, but there are some scenes that are much longer, and I think it’s better to have the entire scene in one post than split them up.
Although this first bit is coming out on a Sunday, subsequent instalments will come out during the week. This is mainly because I want to leave Sundays open to other regular features, especially the fairytales. Then during the week there’ll probably be one other thing as well.
Anyway, I think that’s about all I needed to say for the intro. I really hope you enjoy the story (obviously), and please do leave feedback if you feel like it.
Hopefully, I’ve got the psychological continuity sorted out now, which is essentially the reason why I can finally take this plunge.
Whether people like Katrina or not, at the very least, I hope people will be able to sympathise with her situation and, perhaps, admire her conviction, her determination, and her honesty. Being unceremoniously plucked from what she sees as a utopia only to be rudely thrust into a dystopia is, I’m sure you can understand, a somewhat traumatic experience…