Second Look: Order! Ten Stories, Ten Very Different Meetings

tyunglebower ♦ May 22, 2024 ♦ Leave a comment

From my top selling murder mystery title last week, to my little thought of short story collection. This week’s second look focuses on Order! Ten Stories, Ten Very Different Meetings.

I smile when I think of this short volume. Not merely because it was a [particular delight to write, though that is of course part of the reason.

More to the point, there was no intentional nod towards my Autism in it, and I may have published it before my official diagnosis. The dates in this case are a bit fuzzy. I only bring it up here because the theme is quite ASD of me, even if the action was not.

The title just screams, almost literally, about a concept beloved of almost every person on the Spectrum: order.

In this case, specifically Robert’s Rules of Parliamentary Procedure–the long time, though occasionally updated blueprint by which most proper deliberative bodies conduct their meetings to this day.

I was gifted a copy of Robert’s Rules–an antique nearly 80 years old, because of my known interest in parliamentary order as both a concept in real life and as a light-special focus. Reading through it on a regular basis inspired an idea.

No, I don’t have the entirety of it memorized. I would however commit it all to memory if it meant I would never again be required to attend a chaotic, unfocused meeting of any kind. I felt then, and still do, that a lot more in the world would get done if more events were conducted according to at least some of Robert’s Rules.

That of course is a dream. Even places that are supposed to use Robert’s Rules often end up ignoring them.

But what if there were a group of stories where the procedure was properly followed, better or worse, by everyone involved? Could short fiction sustain such a theme as parliamentary procedure?

To answer that question, and to give form to my preoccupation with different aspects of Robert’s Rules that don’t often come up, I set out to write such stories. I determined if I could not sustain ten stories or various genres, I’d give up the idea.

A few months and many careful flippings through the pages of my old copy or Robert’s Rules later, and I had myself a collection.

It is only available in e-book, as I thought the brevity of the piece probably did not warrant all of the fuss and bother, (and in some cases the money) to create a paperback of same. And as you can probably tell, I did not hire a cover artist. That etching of 18th century men arguing was too much to resist. It hit the entire mood of the collection on the head. (With a gavel.) As soon as I saw it was a public domain image, I knew it would be the cover, despite some advice from others.

The appalled dude looking back from the front bench was worth the price of admission for me.

As with Thank You For Ten, I endeavored to cover several genres. There is sci-fi. Comedy. Mystery(ish.) I even managed to throw a Western in there for good measure, my only such fiction to date. (Though I am sure it does not literally qualify as a Western.)

It’s not merely a bunch of people having a meeting, though. That would be even more boring to read about than to sit through in person. My goal was to home in on (mostly) obscure possibilities or tactics that one could use, (albeit not always in good faith) to make something, or stop something from happening. The goal of the characters is always the focus.

In some ways, the theme of parliamentary meetings aided the plot, if you can believe that. The whole purpose of such rules is for any given person to put forth a very specific motion, and provide reasons for its acceptance, while others may provide reasons for its rejection. I simplify both the stories and the nature of Robert’s Rules when I say that, but in the broadest sense its true. The best stories, like the most disciplined meetings, are about people striving to get something, while someone or something else may strive to prevent it.

Put it another way, in a meeting, everyone is the protagonist. That might have made an interesting tagline for this collection now that I think of it.

Order! is currently free to download, and will probably always remain so. It was a fun jaunt over a year or so while I worked toward the release of the next novel. I had a great deal of fun writing these, and I hope you will give it a chance and have some fun as well.

Do I hear any objections?