More than I can chew

As I embark a novel-writing journey of a thousand steps (or eating a elephant with a KFC spork...see yesterday's comments section for more details), I get smacked upside my right brain by one hell of an embryonic idea.

And it's an idea I need some help with.

A year ago, I heard a yummy rumor about the original Star Wars trilogy. Apparently, one of the early drafts of "Return of the Jedi" had an ending where Vader lives, taken by Luke from the exploding Death Star. Rumor had it that Lucas was going to aim the next trilogy to take place after "ROTJ" with Vader alive, Han Solo dead and Leia trying to piece together a fractured galaxy. I did my best to Google the rumor to life, but met with failure.

I did unearth this, though. It's an "alternate universe" approach to the classic trilogy (you know, the good one), starting with Luke botching the destruction of the first Death Star and things going drastically downhill for the Rebellion right after that.

I have mixed feeling about "alternate universe" projects. I enjoy the imagination involved in embracing a popular icon and putting a refreshing spin on it (not to mention how risky it is to tamper with a pop culture canon). And sometimes it works smashingly. Look at the results of Frank Miller's "The Dark Knight Returns" project or Harry Turtledove's line of fiction that recasts world history through major timetwists.

But before you bite that juicy, tempting apple, be sure you are doing it for the right reason. I'm sure everyone at one time reading a comic book or seeing a movie wrinkled a brow and smugly said they could do so much better with the material, or this is where the story derailed (and how I alone, the great undiscovered scribe, would make it all right). I have to balance why I think I want to tinker around with someone else's vision. Is it some kind of artistic showboating or what exactly? Carrying on the tradition of generational oral storytelling using established mythological characters, maybe?

Plus, how would I feel if I create a set of characters that make their way into the public sphere, only to see some author in the shadows create scenarios and dialogue that I would never dream of making, seeing my creations go out to play in different fields and left with as little control as parent watching their kids grow up and go off in the world? Maybe they'll call once in a while. Maybe they’ll come home for Christmas.

But I suppose, short of a flagrant disregard for copyright laws or some intense intellectual property lawsuits, there's little one can really do to protect fictional characters once they arrive for public consumption. Look at the proliferation of "slash" stories and other variant strains of fan fiction based on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," soap opera stars or even the stoic Master Chief from the videogame "Halo." The only major hurdle appears when you try to make some cash with your vulture work, catapulting yourself into fame on the unauthorized back of someone else's work. Remember, it's always fun until the lawyers show up.

Anyway, if anyone can find the "Vader lives" rumor on the Web, please forward it to me.

Back at work

Today was my first day back at work and, pleasantly, I was missed greatly and my temporary replacements never want me to leave again. It's good to know that I'll have my job for as long as I want, even though it drives me mad on occasion.

I never have been away from work for more than a week. When I came into the office today, I felt a subtle shift in the soap-operatic fault lines that's my work...the day-to-day dramaquakes you just absorb, but coming back in three weeks and it's the exchanges, the curious vacancies, the new alliances that throw you. Be aware...here lie little feuds you missed out on and now a new, mysterious wake must be navigated.

All this and subsidized parking, too.