Anyone else having a lot of nightmares lately? Or is it just me?

On a more serious note, the second installment of Crossroads of Courage league fiction is out. I wanted to talk about the process of creating fiction and writing a character that is affected by the player reports you create.

Obviously, we can’t replicate ideas from people’s reports exactly—that’d be stealing. Instead, we take inspiration from your submissions to help us set the overall tone of the fiction. The harsher the stories, the worse things become for Holden, for example. Similarly, we wanted to have overt and direct references to some of the fantastic stories and reports that you’ve shared with us. This season we used dreams as a vehicle to tip our caps to several of you.

Among my favorites, which I feel tapped into the essence of Holden’s plight to this point, is a tale known to me only as “Part 1: The Voices.” Not only was it an atmospheric story dripping with the kinds of moments I feel are a perfect fit for Holden’s path so far, but the way the author handled the poor main character was spot on. I was so enamored with this particular submission I adapted it for the final scene of this installment and chose that scene to drop some of the bigger hints as to what’s yet to come.

If you recognize some of your concepts in Holden’s dreams, you have my thanks! You certainly helped to make Holden’s life a little more interesting. There were many other ideas that were considered and included in the earlier drafts, but we had to trim them during revision due to length or tone. One day, I swear we’ll figure out how to include the Flux Monkey in the league. Until then, however, we hope you enjoy the second season of Crossroads of Courage and “Here Dead We Lie.”

Keep up the submissions! We’re excited see where Holden’s story goes next. Make sure to submit your stories to [email protected]