Q and A with M

Date	Asker	Question	M's Response
December 4, 2012	sensiblestupidity	Why are you doing this?	I’m doing this because I have a story to tell. A long one with many characters. Some of them are real, and some are imagined. As is the case with most stories, the real meaning is not immediately clear. I would love to skip to the end and present you with nothing but the meaning, but I fear that would be much like kidnapping a person and pulling the bag from his or her head in a strange and perhaps hostile setting. Some things are best done slowly, to avoid what I think would be the psychological equivalent of the bends. Thank you for your question.
December 4, 2012	tinybetsy	I have a nagging worry that I've missed something important. Is it too late for me? Is there a way to catch up?	Think of what has happened up to this point as the beginning of a song. Like notes softly played on a piano. There is information there, to be sure, but it is only the beginning, and only the piano. Soon other instruments will join, then others will join after those. Then the beat will drop, as the kids like to say. But to miss the first few notes surely doesn’t mean you’ve missed the song. The notes will repeat, as will anything worth repeating. We all meet people well after their stories have begun, and we still befriend those people, or hate them, or fear them, or fall in love with them. This story began well before I began telling it, and I haven’t even started. Thank you for your question.
December 6, 2012	dearthanh	This is so creepy and eerie to me sometimes, and props to the people who actually figured out what the clues meant because I sure wasn't paying that much attention, but underneath that I feel excited, like something big is coming and that all of the people following this story will leave feeling connected and a part of something memorable. In the end, this strange journey in itself would be a story to tell.	As you say.
December 12, 2012	popculturesicon	so how will we know when the part is up for us to solve something, not just the story continuing?	This would be a lot like asking where space ends and time begins. What I mean to say is this: you’ll know. Just as you know not to measure time in miles or meters. But that’s not to say you or anyone else will be able to explain how you know. Because we all come to knowledge through different doors.
December 13, 2012	froghat	Can anybody participate and solve your clues, or do you have a set line up of cast members that will help move along your story? I'm hoping to tag along regardless, your tale seems like one worth sticking around for. xx	This is a very good question. Anybody can participate. The Blue Key went to the first person to answer the question in the Prologue. Other things will go to other people for many different reasons. But nobody has been chosen to help me tell this story. As it is in life, everyone has a chance to participate, spectate, or turn away. Thank you for your question.
December 15, 2012	molmarben	I'm unsure if you will answer these, because I believe we are suppose to wonder these things, but I will still ask them. Who is the boy the shopkeeper referred to? And what went wrong with the map? also of what age are these characters, or does it not matter? Thanks,	You live your life with ear to door listening to the world you put behind it. The starlight, child, will get you home but first you’ll have to find it.
December 16, 2012	Anonymous	I feel like I missed it! Am I too late?	Chapter One hasn’t even properly started. But even in Chapter Five, there will be time to catch up and miss nothing else. Most books were written long before you were born. And you’re not too late to take from them what they would give you. There is time. Start at the beginning and move forward to now. Good luck.
December 16, 2012	Anonymous	Okay, so how do I get one of the boxes? I just found this and am trying to catch up.	The first few boxes are going to people for reasons only they will remember, because of something they did many months ago. That is only important between them and me. The remaining boxes will find new homes in all kinds of other ways. Some boxes will be left in public places. Some will be handed to strangers. Some will be handed to friends. Some will be sold. Some will be thrown into the ocean. Some will be awarded. Some will be buried. Some will be lost forever. And some boxes will not be boxes. So they are a lot like experiences, or perhaps memories of those experiences. Which is to say you get one when the path of your life intersects with that of its existence. Thank you for finding this. Thank you for catching up. And I hope your path does just that. I will certainly let you know when you have the opportunity to steer it accordingly. And everyone will have many such opportunities.
December 16, 2012	Anonymous	Are we able to participate in this if we live outside the US? I live in Australia	If you can be found, you can participate.
December 17, 2012	puffypie	Hai, long time tumblr first time follower. Can you explain #findthestarlight to me like I'm a two year old? I've read some of your stories (or is that story) but am still a bit befuddled. So far I get that you are committing random acts of kindness. Thanks from down under where the starlight is beautiful, Kate xxx	Hello. Explain it to you like you are a two year old? I can do that. We are looking for something special. Like ice cream. But it’s a surprise exactly what kind of ice cream we are looking for. Do you have to go to the bathroom before we start looking? No? Ok. So. We’re going to get this special ice cream. But you have to eat your dinner first. I know. I can’t even promise you’ll like dinner. Parts of it are really not going to taste very good. But think about the ice cream. Did I mention it’s magic ice cream? Because it’s magic ice cream. Let’s make a deal: For every part of dinner you finish, I’ll give you a bite of ice cream. Please take your fingers out of your mouth; you were just in the garden. So. We are going to have a very long dinner. But you get ice cream during dinner. And every bite of the ice cream you get during dinner will give you magic powers that will help you find the magic ice cream at the end. Okay? Okay. Now. Let’s play with fire. I know you’ve heard it’s dangerous, and that’s true. But it’s dark out, kitten. And dinner is coming.
December 19, 2012	Anonymous	How long do you expect this story to go on?	The Prologue took months. We are in Chapter One, which just started. And there are many chapters. And these chapters get more… complicated. Some chapters are told through images. Some are told through books. Oh yes, there will be books. Books are, after all, such useful storytelling devices. And there will be many different devices. Things to hear, things to feel, things to be. But each chapter will have its own resolution, and move the story at different speeds. As I have said: Best get comfortable.
December 19, 2012	solemn-writ	Professor Mercury is you isn't it? That's what the M stands for. Alchemists believed that mercury was the base for all metals. And with the kit, you intend for us to create what was sought after by many alchemists. The method of fabricating "gold."The kits are given to those who have piqued your interest in some fashion, or have solved a riddle, like the one awarded the Blue Key.I'm glad I stumbled upon this page, and look forward to your stories. You are a marvelous raconteur.	I would never waste my time on something so useless as gold. -M (And thank you.)
December 20, 2012	Anonymous	Are you someone, or, is this a project to- be afraid of?	Fear is such a fickle and subjective thing. For the mythophobic, yes, this will be extremely uncomfortable. Same goes for the anthropophobic. The phronemophobic will certainly want to seek a comfortable sofa and some other distraction, and leave this story far behind them. The sophophobic may wish to join them. The xenophobic will likely have run in terror from this story and from me by now… and the verbophobic, if they have made it this far into my answer, should be commended for their anguished determination. It is the hodophobic, the optophobic, and the bathophobic I hope to keep and rehabilitate. And I fear there is a bit of each in all of humankind.
December 20, 2012	hilawray	M, You are beautiful. Finding you and following you down the "rabbit hole" in search of the keys to the universe has been a synchronistic blessing.	Thank you, my dear. So few blessings are.