Credits
It’s funny now, as I’m writing these months after I actually finished the book, but I really do believe that it’s something that needs to be done. To my credit, I have competed my first novel at the age of 16, but to the credit of many others, I owe them much thanks. William Faulkner said that all authors borrow from each other, and I am certainly no exception. The list of people that have been an inspiration to me is countless, and they really need to receive their deserved recognition. They are as responsible for the creation of this book as I am (well, not as responsible, but I owe them credit, at any rate). That, and some people may kill me if I don’t finally point out that I borrowed some of their ideas.
Looking back on the book, I can honestly say that it is one of my most important accomplishments up until this point in my life. That’s a problem, however, as there’s still much to fix as far as the correctness in spelling goes. Yes, I pay my daily (read: bi-minutely) sacrifices to the God of Typos, most noticeably in the early chapters. Granted, I am going to fix all of this, and a Corrected Text version will slowly be released over time, but at the moment, my attention has been affixed on other things.
I’m saying this as a general thanks to everyone who put up with the at times horrendous spelling and grammar. I was just barely a sophomore when I started it, and I got better over time, but that still doesn’t change the fact that if you got this far in reading my work, you stuck through all of the problems. Typically, one can judge how good an author is from his opening paragraph, but in my case, I’m not so sure. I really don’t know how you, who has read this far, has bypassed my mistakes and looked deeper to the parts of the book which were better.
With all of that in mind, the first person I want to thank is you. Yes, I want to thank you, the reader. An author is nothing unless people read what he writes, and you who have read this have made me something. In light of all the people who I owe thanks, I owe the most to each and every individual who took the time to read what took me so long to compile. So, from the bottom of my heart, I thank you all.
There are, of course, many individuals who deserved to be singled out.
Nanaki. All of you know who he is. If you don’t, then I’m not exactly sure where you read The Planeswalkers. The deity that is Nanaki truly is a God among men on Icy Brian’s RPG Page, and a God among fanfiction writers for anyone who has read his work. You can easily see his influence and the ideas that he created through my work. From the day I read Origin/Aftermath of Mount Woe, this guy has been my hero, and on top of all that, he’s probably more humble than people who have done half of what he has in and for the fanfiction world.
You can imagine my surprise when he e-mailed me in November of 1999 to tell me that I was a good author. I can honestly say that it was the second most flattering thing I’ve ever been told.
He’s basically been my motivation ever since. I had to do better because I had to live up to expectations. I had to write and I had to create. It was so uplifting for an upstart author like myself to be complimented by someone whom I had revered as some sort of holy figure.
It wasn’t until he told me what he thought of the end of Planeswalkers that he was responsible for the most flattering thing I’ve ever been told. I managed to somehow influence him and his writing. It somehow made me more complete that the man who had such an impact on my writing could possibly be given ideas by me. Lord knows, Nanaki, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for all that you’ve given to me and to my stories.
Nightsong. Here’s a guy who you may not know as well as you know Nanaki. (Note from Nightsong, who's posting this stuff up: HA HA HA HA HA!!!) We met in the Icy forums in a thread commenting on how people thought I was older than I am. He made a comment about my writing and invited me to the now defunct CTIS. I never did get there, but what I did get to was his new forum, the Fantasy Finale Arts forum. That’s been a part of my life ever since.
Night is probably one of perhaps five people that I can call “best friends.” That, and he’s a good author as well. Granted, the only thing you’ve probably read of his is Split Infinity, and he himself wishes he never wrote it, but he’s really turned into a talented writer. You may have noticed reference to the Sol Dominion and to creatures called Eternals. These are creations of Night. The political structure that he named the Sol Dominion has been adopted into my stories. The Planeswalker Chronicles therefore take place around the time when this massive planetary empire was being formed.
Cain. Basically Cain was one of the other people that served as inspiration to get me writing. He was the one who explained that travelers of the time stream are immune to the changes in it, and as you may have noticed, my entire book wouldn’t make sense without that explanation. Also, I’m partially putting him third because he put me third, and so maybe I’d get him back for it (Cain, you’re third!). If you haven’t read Chrono Comtinuum, you’re missing something special. Again, another guy who’s pretty damned modest considering what he’s given to the fanfiction universe.
The World of Imagination, which is basically a culmination of ideas that worked like this: Nanaki had some ideas, I borrowed some ideas, I made up more ideas, Nightsong took some ideas from both of us, then Cain took some ideas from us as well. This is a group I managed to coalesce because I was the only one who knew all three of the other authors at first. Granted, I take some credit for it now, but that doesn’t alter what the World of Imagination is really about. The goal of this collection of writers and ideas was so that we could write in the same Continuum and compliment our works with each others ideas. It’s already pretty cool, and will only be cooler as more authors end up involved.
Icy Brian. To the man who’s site got me into writing fanfiction and was first to post my work, Icy I owe you thanks, too. Respect this guy, ladies and gents. Unless you’ve tried to manage a website, you really have no idea how hard this guy works to keep this thing running.
George Lucas. For letting me steal your light sabers and the Force, you are the man. I know I never received written consent, but I don’t think you’ll ever know about this, so it’s okay.
Frank Herbert. For being the God of science fiction that you are, I thank you. A generally amazing author, this guy’s influence is in my work, too. Also, you’ll see even more Herbert-esque stuff in Twins of Destiny, so I hope he doesn’t mind.
J.R.R. Tolkien. I’m not sure what the J.R.R. stands for, but I know that Tolkien is synonymous with Fantasy. I never really did like your battle scenes much, but for creating such a vivid world and inspiring me to action, you rock. You may have noticed I borrowed some names from you. I hope you don’t mind.
To Dr. Restaino, for permanently impacting my writing. This needs a little explanation. Back in freshman year, we had to write these autobiographies, and one of the pieces of advice he gave was, “Try to use dialogue to forward your plot.” Well, Doc, you have probably had the most profound impact on my writing style, as I started to advance my plot with dialogue and I’ve never looked back. For all of you who noticed that most of this book is dialogue, you can thank Dr. Restaino too. Have a great Retirement, Doc, and I’ll miss you.
Magic the Gathering. I don’t play anymore, but that’s been the source of a lot of things, most notably my pen name and the title of my first novel! The Mox Jet, if you didn’t know, is a Magic card, probably worth upwards of $250 at this point. I never did get to own one, but its essence lives in my name. That, and Magic is the first place where I heard the word Planeswalker. Granted, I think the game’s been going downhill for awhile and it’s way to expensive, but the Magic connections in my pen name and my story title scored me some readers when I was getting started, so I thank you for that.
Games Workshop, for creating Warhammer Fantasy Battles and Warhammer 40,000. If you played either of these games then you’ve seen the influence, but if not, I’m not going to make a list as that would take to long. For the inspiration behind things such as the Winds of Magic, travel through (and the name for) Chaos, lots of weaponry that I have copied (or will copy), and for teaching me how to explain large scale battles, thank you Games Workshop.
Square Soft, for making such kick ass games. Obviously, I owe a lot of my success to Chrono Trigger, as that set the stage for my fiction, but you can see (or will see) that I owe something to many games. From Final Fantasy 7, to Xenogears, back to Final Fantasy 6 and the forward again to Chrono Trigger, you guys are a huge inspiration.
The Slayers, for obviously teaching me the magic spells that I use in my fiction, and for just being inherently cool. Dragon Slave!!
Chrono Triggara, for always knowing what to say at the right time.
The Matrix, for kicking so much ass.
Nanaki again, for explaining what happened to Schala.
To Smoke Jag, with whom I’m not only forming a revised copy of Planeswalkers, without (hopefully) the typos, but for being my designated proofreader for Twins of Destiny.
Dr. Schlick, for teaching me how to fence, and therefore teaching me how to write sword fight scenes.
Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, for showing me that Force Tech must exist in real life.
Fencing in general, again, for teaching me how to write fight scenes.
My Dad, for teaching me all sorts of cool martial arts moves, also helping me to write fight scenes.
Mr. Jordan, for teaching me how to play the trombone. I know that’s unrelated to the story, but I feel it’s worth mentioning.
Krazy Sam, for being cool when she’s not turning the IRC meetings into something less pleasant…and for making me that Tifa Cake.
To NeoKefka, for being a nice guy and a good writer who’s entrance to the World of Imagination made it official that we were going places..
To Gasper, for always being around in the IRC meetings to chat about personal stuff and to let me pimp my RPG-whores to. I hope you’re still enjoying them!
To Mike Collins, for complimenting me enough to actually get me to visit the Fantasy Finale Arts Forum and the CTIS and therefore letting me meet some more very cool people.
To Max Zheng, for instructing me in some of the more interesting techniques in writing and for having whatever it took to write the sofa bed scene.
My Super Nintendo, for all the good times you gave me.
My Playstation, for all the good times you gave me after my Super Nintendo got tired of giving me said good times.
My computer, for being there when I wanted to write.
IRC, for letting my meet some pretty cool people.
Nightsong again, for being the first person to want to use my ideas in their own writing, which is the biggest compliment a writer can get.
Anyone who picked on me in elementary school. Your actions probably drove me to the introverted personality that was required to write this. Thank you, and fuck you.
To my brother, for allowing me to test out some of the techniques I wanted to use in a fight scene but wasn’t sure if they were physically possible.
For my lack of social life that was also required to write this.
For my existence of a social life now, which is much more fun than writing sometimes was.
To God, for giving me such an overactive imagination.
To God again, for letting me have a social life now.
To Tenchi Muyo, for inspiring the Black Wings through his own Light Hawk Wings, and for generally teaching me how not to pimp it.
To Gundam Wing, for just kicking ass.
To DBZ, for teaching me how to draw anime, and therefore how to draw Jack’s hair.
To Chrono Trigger, for giving me a story to write.
To Super Mario RPG, for being my first Role Playing Game.
To Final Fantasy 7, to first inspiring me into fanfiction. Granted, Final Conflict will probably never be finished, nor do I wish you to read it. I do, however, use some of the ideas that originated there in the sequel to Planeswalkers.
To Xenogears for inspiring oh so much in Twins of Destiny.
To Emily, for inspiring (but hardly dictating the personality for) Sarah.
To Robert, for inspiring Keith.
To Robert again, for being an example of a “Tristan.”
To Lina Inverse, for being the badass, totally cool, take charge, don’t take no shit, Mox-wants-to-be-with-you-badly, awesome character that you are.
To Aragorn, Son of Arathorn, who had no inspiration towards Aragorn Lestrides, but for being cool anyway.
To Michael M., for printing out a copy of my story. Damn, was it long.
To all of the screwed up kids in high school that inspired Tristan.
To Mrs. Goddesfeld, for finally teaching me how to use a goddamned comma.
To Mr. Kweller, for teaching me that the colors emitted by atoms is based on the energy they contain. This was why the colors of Force Tech changed about ten chapters into the book. Don’t worry, I’m going to fix these.
To Mr. Schmidt, for teaching me physics and letting me realize that Force Tech wouldn’t actually work with the e=mc squared formula. Oops.
To Nanaki, again, for making up the word Lavoid.
Finally, to everyone else who was a part of this whom I have not mentioned. If I’ve left you out for any reason whatsoever, please let me know. The idea here is that everyone who’s had an impact on me gets mentioned.
As one last thing, I just wanted to mention something. While normally a dedication goes at the front, before the title page, this is something written on the Internet, and so there really isn’t a title page. However, I would like to dedicate this book to Shannon, for opening my eyes as to how enjoyable life really is, for always being there for me, and for really teaching me that there is a ‘Sarah’ for me. I’d go on, but it would take me forever to list the things that I owe to you, so I’m going to stop now. Just know that this dedication is worth it.
Keep close, ladies and gentlemen, as Twins of Destiny is already in progress, and it’s going to kick ass. Until later, may you read swiftly and may your computer never crash.
Peace Always,
Mox
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