History of the Gang

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A Beginning...of sorts

In mid-November of 2005, in the middle of freezing cold South Dakota, five particular Mormon teens went to seminary together. What made this group special was that they were the loyal ones; no matter how much ice and snow was out in the roads, they always made it to their seminary class.

This year they were studying Book of Mormon; a subject that was quite captivating. Ancient civilizations, very bloody wars, and countless doctrines. These five students, Jon Tree Top, McKenzi Olson, Kaitlin Strang, Brian Donahue, and Richard Daw (see About the Authors) enjoyed this class, and loved to hang out before, during, and after each lesson. Over the next month they slowly became good friends.

During this time, Richard coined the term Seminary Gang for their little group.

Role-Play

Kenzi was the one who invented the idea of the Door. Originally it was a portal that took new members on journey through a series of vivid 3D movies that gave them the discussions of the church. Once you came out, you automatically wanted to become a Mormon. The concept would be modified somewhat in times to come, but this is how it started.

Then, during the first week of December, the catalyst came into being. It was a trip back from Bismarck, North Dakota, and Richard had a palm pilot on him. Jon and him wrote a goofy little role-play story in the Word Document feature, and although the story has long since been forgotten, the concept was enough to trigger the next set of events.

That next week Richard brought his palm pilot to seminary, in the hopes of starting another role-play story. McKenzi and Brian joined the number, but Kaitlin remained uninvolved (for unknown reasons). The story was, not surprisingly, about themselves.

Things got interesting when the Door was thrown into the mix, and the unlucky characters were thrown back into the world these seminary students were studying. Initially, this little story was supposed to be about modern day teens wandering around ancient Meso-America.

But it grew.

The Saga Begins

Over the course of the next two months, the story evolved into an adventure through time. Most of it was random, but amidst the chaos a plot had taken shape. As February of '06 neared an end, the story had picked up considerable speed. It was being in episode format, their small group getting an episode finished at an average of once a week.

Everyone was excited, even though the end was nearing. After all, with Season 1 of this little series doing so well, there might just be a Season 2...

Maybe.

Radical New Ideas

Sadly, however, as March rolled in, interest began to die, and the story just barely made it to the end of Season 1 with a cliff hanger. It was at this time that the real Seminary Gang was beginning to fall apart.

With the weather not as treacherous as before, the other students were beginning to show up again. Their small group lost it's special magic, and everyone stopped hanging out as much.

Richard and Jon were still very interested in continuing the story, though. Season 2 was actually planned to have the Gang thrown into the Halo universe, during the campaign of Halo: Combat Evolved. But there was very little actual work done.

However, interest in reviving the old story begin to set in, and the two had a brilliant idea.

They were going to turn it into a novel.

Jump Start

With the story being outlined in episodes, they could easily be changed to chapters, with the original titles retained for the headings (all except for Chapter 19* followed this format).

Jon and Richard begin typing up Chapter 1 into a more serious story (the original episodes being complete ludicrous). Jon took the chapters with him to school to have more time to edit with, and soon Kenzi found out what the two were up to.

Along with minor help with Brian, the four were now back together again. Richard and Jon began churning out the main product, while Kenzi and Brian did after edits.

They made it to about Chapter 10.


*Episode 19 was originally titled S.A.L.T. ...Jon, a Mormon terminology of sorts that was being used to insult Jon. In order to appeal to the non-member readers also, the acronym was dropped to its litteral meaning; Stand A Little Taller.

The New Seminary Gang

During the summer of '06, Jon Tree Top temporarily moved away from South Dakota. This caused a major blow to the creation of the novel, as he was one of the main authors. Kenzi and Brian weren't as interested as before, and Richard could only do so much alone.

Eventually what work had been done was put on cold storage for the time being. But if its luck held out as it had so far, then it was soon to make a come back.


It did just that in early August, when Jon announced his soon-to-be return to Pierre, South Dakota. Richard resumed work on the chapters, starting at the very beginning. Originally they were planning on releasing it to a few select friends in Pierre; now they were going to publish it online.

On August 26th, the first chapter of The Seminary Gang was published at Richard's Fiction Press account (http://www.fictionpress.com/~bobevans). In the first week it received seven reviews, three of which were from two of the writers who were excited to actually see it published. Low numbers were expected, of course. It was still virtually unheard of.

One thing it did, however, was get the rest of the authors interested. It was now public; things were exciting again. Kenzi immediately set to her work of editing, and Jon and Richard transformed the original episodes into chapters for the story.

Initially the chapters were posted at random, sometimes more than two weeks apart. Often the drafts got lost in the editor's lockers. But by October the story was picking up speed, and a few reviews were beginning to pour in.

By November, however, a new author had stumbled upon Kenzi's cluttered mess of edits; Jade Neeman. Being Kenzi's best friend, she helped contribute to the editing process, but stayed ellusive, so how much of her work went into the first book is unknown.

One Epic Ends...Another Begins

Prior to the events of October and November, however, a less conspicous idea came into play. Richard and Jon had always wanted to do a sequal, but now they were toying with a new idea.

One in which Kenzi took over the world.

The concept was introduced to Kenzi in mid-September, and already a few plans began taking shape.

But mostly it stayed quiet.

Meanwhile, as November drew to an end, so did the story. Most of the editing had been done earlier that month, so chapters were being posted nearly three times a week. Reviews were pouring in at gracious numbers, and the story really seemed to have hit it off. Now a little over a year since the Gang first came together, the fruits of their labors was complete.

But Jon and Richard were still working in the shadows. Richard had managed to write up a first draft on The Seminary Gang 2 plot-line, which was then distributed amongst the other writers mid-December.

It wasn't this new story, though, that was causing all the activity. Since the authors new secretly that it would end with a cliff hanger (eventually spawning to the third book), there was a lot excitement as to the battles to come then. For while in Book 2 Kenzi would conquer the world, in Book 3 there would be a real war; Seminary Gang vs. Kenzi's empire.

During this brief period of excitement, a lot of planning went into Kenzi's empire and world take-over. To this day, most of what they created during those few ultra-active days has been used in the plot lines of the series.

Can't Stop The World

Cue on center stage 2007.

Everyone at this point was busy with something or other. Meanwhile, Richard worked quietly in the background on Draft #2 of TSG2. Soon after completetion, Jon became super excited, and the two spent every waking moment getting the story put together.

By February they were starting to write chapters, even if work was going slow.

However, as March rolled in, Richard and his family move down to Texas. If this wasn't enough, Jon soon followed suite, and moved to Wisconsin. Now the Gang really was split up across the world. To make matters worse, Jade temporarily considered leaving the story altogether, feeling she wasn't actually contributing.

April came, but the whole thing didn't blow up in their faces. Utilizing the power of the Internet and instantaneous global communication, the four of them resumed work. On the 27th the world was introduced to the first chapter of The Seminary Gang 2.

*Crowd cheers*

Although separated by hundreds of miles, and in Jon's case, limited communication oppurtunities, the story was being written and published. Only time would tell how it did in comparison to the first book.

So...what's the overall point again?

Even now, the story has begun evolving into something more. What was once a goofy little role-play story became a novel. What was once a novel became a book and a sequal. What was once a book and a sequal became a series. And what is now a series is sure to become a saga.

The Seminary Gang is a saga.


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