Page 186.
Machine Man (serial)
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
If you just read this whole serial one freaking page at a time, thank you. There were a lot of reasons this might not have worked, and the big one was: you wouldn’t want to come with me. And I wouldn’t have blamed you. This story was straight from my fingers to your brain, with no time for reflection or rewriting in between, something that is a kind of crime for a writer, or should be. When I re-read this thing, I’ll no doubt wince at the bumps and jolts I inflicted on you along the way: thank you for making it here despite them.
The most strange and wonderful part of this project for me was the feedback loop: comments from readers kept me in touch with what you thought, threw up ideas, and became a kind of meta-work (The Annotated Machine Man). Thank you to everyone who contributed one! And special thanks to those who contributed many, many comments, the most prolific of whom were: Pev (still interesting), gStein, CrystalR, Toby O, Electrichead, David, Ben, fredzfrog, Stygian Emperor, Mapuche, coolpillows, Chemical Rascal (puns and haiku on demand), Alex, Ian Manka, Felix, C Leffelman, SilverKnight, Yannick, dabbeljuh, Abgrund, Alan Westbrook, SexCpotatoes, regtiangha, Neville, Adam Speicher (a.k.a. meta-Adam), tim, Katie Ellert (“Where’s Lola? WHERE’S LOLA?”), Ajna, Isaac, Joe M., Justin, towr, Morlok8k, Ballotonia, Sander, Ted, and Robert Bissonnette. Many times I clicked through to the previous day’s comments with dread, sure that everybody had hated it, but found instead cheers, jokes, and crazy spin-off ideas that buoyed me forward. Before I began, I was tempted to put a warning on the comments page, something like: “Just so you know, being too critical of this thing while I’m still writing it will almost certainly cause me to lock up completely.” I didn’t do that and didn’t have to. You were far nicer to me than I deserved.
Thank you to everyone who tossed me an idea: those were much appreciated, and even the ones I didn’t use helped me clarify the boundaries of my story’s world. The idea I liked most was from Meredith Course, who educated me about brain plasticity and free-roaming neurons: that one propelled many pages.
I also want to mention Michael Ian Minter again. Now, I don’t want to encourage people to go around goading authors. Particularly when that author is me. But Minter’s kick in the pants essentially decided me on doing this, and since I would have sheeted home the blame to him had it gone spectacularly wrong, it’s only fair I thank him now.
Thank you to Jen for her patience with me on those days I struggled with my daily deadline (“I’m not happy with my page. I have to redo my paaaaage”), and for telling me it sounded like a pretty good idea to begin with. Ditto to my agent, Luke Janklow, who also made sure this fun experiment in real-time fiction didn’t break me financially, by finding enthusiastic fans in Zachary Wagman of Vintage Books, Aviva Tuffield of Scribe, and, with Brian Siberrel, Cathy Schulman of Mandalay Pictures.
I’ve always held a sneaking affection for the first draft. They are loose and indulgent, scattered and silly, but also raw and passionate and roguishly lovable. Mine usually amuse no-one but me, and then I have to dismember them and re-arrange their parts for improved flow. I am glad this one gets to live: that while it may soon have a bigger, better-looking brother (one less prone to unexpected mood shifts and thoughtlessness, less likely to knock things over or step on your dog), this one got to leave the house, and spend some time in your brain.
Max Barry
Melbourne, Australia
December 2, 2009