The Source Materials
Well, it seems I must make my position clear on the so-called "source materials" as the genesis of both Twelve Dark Rooms and The Door That Wasn't There Before. Since relaunching this site under a new game title, I have already been accosted by two disgruntled door-lore enthusiasts and propositioned by, arguably, the most famous door-lore devotee of them all, R.E. Oberghast.
The gripes concern authenticity and fair use while the proposal is far more interesting—especially as Oberghast has, in the past, written mostly scathing commentary concerning my involvement in the door-lore community. I will write more on Oberghast's proposal, whether I accept it or not, in an upcoming post. For now, I confine myself to addressing the main criticisms leveled against me.
Concerning Authenticity. The primary source of my "door-lore" is my undocumented, eight-year conversation with two siblings (brother and sister) claiming to be part of a small publishing collective calling themselves the Bryce Hill Progeny or BHP. During these eight years we met only eleven times. They brought with them a large, black photo album—old and worn—stuffed to overflowing with yellowing newsprint, handwritten letters, official forms, typed testimonials and hundreds of journal entries accumulated over three generations of interviews and observations by members of The Watch—begun by the BHP’s grandparents.
On a few occasions, the siblings allowed me to handle some of the materials from the photo album, which they referred to as the Black Book. I was never allowed to keep the materials, remove them from the meeting place or study them at length. I was not allowed to take photos of the materials or to take notes during our meetings—some of which lasted for several hours while others were terminated by the siblings after only a few brief minutes. On rare occasions, I received heavily redacted copies of news clippings and personal letters with which to “verify” a particular door-sighting’s authenticity. Aside from these scraps, I have only my faulty recollections and illegible memoranda, which I hastily scrawled following each meeting.
Our lengthy conversation was about a publishing deal. As their publisher, I assumed I would, at some point, receive all the original materials or, at least, photocopies of them. But, after eight long years, I could see that this was never going to happen. While the siblings claim their change of heart followed my sudden declaration that I no longer "believed in the veracity" of their many documented sightings of an “unwanted door,” I maintain that, after the first meeting, each subsequent meeting was intended to persuade me to edit and publish their journal notes as factual and authentic without firsthand investigation and written corroboration.
Thus far, I have neither.
I cannot find the several mentioned sighting locations. I have not spoken to anyone who has given testimonial on the appearance of an unwanted door. I have, however, received unexpected and unsolicited phone calls in the wee hours from disguised voices claiming to confirm details of a specific case—none of which agreed to leave a call-back number or set a face-to-face meeting. Of the calls traced, all lead back to assorted roadside motel phones.
Therefore, I claim no authenticity as there is none. In my humble opinion, the source materials are an elaborate hoax. I have no intention of publishing them as factual events.
I do, however, find the tales fascinating and have located corollaries in much earlier works of horror and fantasy by Blackwood, Collins, Danielewski, Dickens, James, Le Fanu, Lovecraft, Poe, Stevenson, Wells and others. Thus, I feel my recollections of the source material are sufficient to build my own horror fantasy and I therefore reject continuing squabbles over supposed “factual details” found in unauthenticated and unverified sources.
Concerning Fair-Use. I claim that Twelve Dark Rooms and The Door That Wasn’t There Before are tabletop game-parodies of fictional contrivances collected collaboratively by a community of con-artists intending to pass them off as factual events. Please, prove me wrong.
The BHP need only produce a single, credible witness with a verifiable address, social security number, documented life before and after the tragic incident involving an “unwanted door” and I will cease and desist my "disrespectful," game-parody publications.
Alternatively, the BHP (and/or others) can admit their works are pure fiction and I will gladly share profits, pay licensing fees, or cease publication as per some future agreement. I have issued this challenge in private to the BHP and each door-lore fanatic that has contacted me since 2010. The BHP and the door-lore community have not responded to my challenge in any credible way and so, I continue to publish my silly, little, horror games.
To learn a bit about fair use and determine for yourself if I have a case, see: http://www.teachingcopyright.org/handout/fair-use-faq
