Jay

Over a dozen incredible writers and artists have come together to bring us Auteur: the Final Word, a new anthology from Arcbeatle Press which follows the titular bastard skeleton alien as he causes chaos through time, space, and the thin walls of the reality he believes to be his personal play-mat.

While Auteur is featured elsewhere in the worlds of Doctor Who, this anthology can serve as a standalone read for those open to embracing so many strange and complex tales with little prior knowledge. Auteur is a wonderfully tasty character whose powers to shape reality are misused to suit his personal agenda. He wreaks havoc on the poor protagonists of each story, all of whom will capture your heart and mind and hold you close as you witness their journeys and attempts to outwit Auteur.

This is Auteur’s story, and everyone else is just living in it. At the very least , it’s our role to witness it.

In 2018, @rassilon-imprimatur's story in The Book of the Enemy introduced Faction Paradox readers to Auteur, a skeletal Archon with the uncanny power to literally rewrite reality — and metafictional delusions of grandeur to match. Ever since then, the Mad God of Writing's popped up hither and thither at Arcbeatle Press, but never quite as the headline feature.

Now, at long last, the official newcomer-friendly Volume One of his very own series is ready to invade your shelves, complete with fourteen exclusive interior illustrations, a crossword, and more surprises than you can count! Whether you're a long-time FP-head or coming fresh to the Auteurverse, I genuinely can't wait for more people to discover this thing…

Out now, in both digital and physical formats!

Auteur is a visionary, a genius, a god. The Author of All Creation. So he has claimed for centuries, and many believe him — who else could rewrite reality with one flick of a quill?

But the Cosmos has changed since he’s been away, and it keeps on changing. Old rules are broken, and new powers rise. What wonders and horrors might Auteur create, in his quixotic quest to get the final word? And what will he destroy?

I wish it good tidings, as I ponder on it and its spiritual sibling. Not to mention the poem that teased it. Or the other poem related to it where I pondered on the feeling of zhurm that overcame me once. (That’s in a poetry book I finished last year, but is out soon.) And, where do things go next? Well, there’s the Longest Short Story You Will Ever Read coming soon. (Wrote that before this novelette was birthed into the public world, and it’s at last coming - as less than fifty words in a 600+ page book, and yet, it took someone three months to read.)

Bridgerton, Strictly, and James Bond all mentioned, adding onto Davina McCall, Star Trek

“Cushy”, “okay”, “TV” all interesting words to Emily, adding onto foundled, spoor, smelt, chapping

The vitamin string quartet-ass covers of pop songs really fucking with whether we’re supposed to understand the music as diegetic or not, especially when we’ve been told there’s a tenuous distinction in The Devil’s Chord

direct references to an earlier character intro (Rogue paralleling Jack) just like I’m Space Babies (Ruby paralleling Rose)

aliens that are lured in by plot twists

also flashbacks to reveal previously unknowable information

it’s bringing up The Distancing Effect for me, being forcibly pulled out of the spectacle of something through uncanny elements and asked to reevaluate it. What happens when the characters in a tv show get dissociated from their show and have to reevaluate their existences? Who the fuck is Susan twist

Esquivalience??

GUYS

ANDDDDD the song in it came about because of a conversation with my producer on [REDACTED DWU AUDIO PROJECT] during a script-editing meeting about how they really wished they could put “The Lost” in there as a song that goes through the ages. But, of course, you can’t. So, instead, that project is likely to use The Twist At The End. (Certainly, it will recur…)