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1. Something Old, Something
New
Before I jumped
right in and started writing naughty stuff, I wanted to wet my
feet a little and see if I could do this at
all. I chose Hudson and Maria Chavez, mostly because
they were relatively minor characters and I hoped no one would mind too
much if I botched it.
But I worried
myself sick over tiny details, not yet realizing something that
should have been clear to me from gaming. I
was the GM, I had the power. I didn't need to
get myself all tied up in knots over whether Chavez' daughter, seen only
for a fraction of a scene in "Future
Tense," had already been given a name by some other writer.
Title: something
old had to do with the peeks into Hudson's and Chavez' past,
how they both lost their first loves and threw
themselves into their work to get over it; something
new was the beginning of their new friendship that could possibly develop
into romance.
Memorable
line: "Are ye going to go flitting off with her then, like Oberon's
pixies among the thistles? Or are ye going
to stay and be a real gargoyle?"
2. Passions
Feeling a little
more confident (nobody, far as I knew, had read SOSN except
myself and Tim, but I felt it was adequate),
I decided to take the big jump. Goliath and Elisa.
Here we go.
I'd been inspired
by a dream I'd had, though the only image that was taken exactly
from the dream was the confrontation between Elisa and Vito Draconi on
the rooftop. In which she/I (for
I was Elisa in the dream) raised her/my hands in mock surrender,
only to be hoisted to safety by Goliath.
The rest of the
dream actually involved making out in a park only to be interrupted
by a gun-toting Demona and from there it turned into a chase and shootout,
darn it all. I always thought it was intriguing
-- my subconscious placed me into Elisa, because
not even in my dreams would I pair myself with Goliath. Or anybody
else, for that matter. I adore him,
but part of what makes him so wonderful is them as a
couple.
Goliath and Elisa.
Here we go.
And then I chickened
out.
I couldn't go
into detail. Not in that story.
So I turned to
Demona instead, and got her started on the path of depravity
that she and I have walked so often together.
It stood to reason to me, mostly because it's
just the sort of malicious thing I would do to a player character in one
of my games, that the spell which
shared pain between Demona and MacBeth would share pleasure,
too. What had really happened in Paris,
the City of Love?
To my surprise
and delight, this story was remarkably well-received by the
then-rather-small fandom. I'd posted it to
the sex-stories board, but when I joined a Gargoyles
mailing list, imagine my shock to find my story the subject of discussion!
It
seemed that at the time there had not been
much in the way of Gargoyles erotica done, and
the stuff that had been bore a suspicious resemblance to Penthouse letters
with the names changed for those
of the characters (pet peeve of mine).
Title: I wanted
something simple that gave a good hint where I was going, but
there were other passions beyond the sensual
in here. Vito's passion for poker and his passion
for larceny were what led him into his association with Dominique (initially
appearing as Mona Winger; what was I thinking
to come up with that ghastly pun of a
name?).
Memorable line:
"Holy shit! Mars needs women!"
3. Ever After
When I first posted
this story, I forgot to put the date on there. It takes place in
2031.
The idea was that
after more long years of villainy and general psycho-bitchiness, Demona
would for some unspecified reason have a change of heart and
realize that rather than being each others'
doom, she and MacBeth could be each others' solace
during the long immortal years ahead of them. Plus, the fact that they
would never have it better than
they had it with each other had something to do with it, I'll
admit ; )
And then, because
I really was coming to view this series of stories as my own
internal role-playing game, I threw in the
Weird Sisters and complicated things with an unexpected
conception. Anyone who's played in one of my games would know that I
really get a kick out of doing mean things
like that to characters.
I agonized over
the dialogue in this one. To get it just right, I had to be able to
actually hear MacBeth in my head. Him,
Goliath, and Xanatos have consistently proven
to be the hardest ones to capture in that way.
Since it was set
in Maine, I couldn't help throwing in a few references to Stephen
King country. Subsequently, I've found that I enjoy sneaking homages to
my favorite authors into my stories.
Title: As in "Happily
ever after," which stikes me funny because I wrote it well
before I knew they were making a movie of the same title with Drew Barrymore
as Cinderella. And in the case of
Demona and MacBeth, "ever after" was a long, long time indeed.
Memorable line:
"I am tired of fighting. Tired of hating. I want a chance to love
again."
4. Where You Need to Be
All I can say
in my defense is that while nearly all of us hooked Lexington up
with a girl over the Internet, I was one of
the first ; )
This was the first
of the Aiden stories. But it wasn't enough for me to have him
meet a girl. I wanted to do something different,
something a little more. And then it hit
me -- make her a sorceress. Because, usually, technology and magic don't
mix, so what would happen if tech-loving
Lex met a spellchucker?
But to do that,
I needed a mechanism, a reasonable if not necessarily realistic
explanation for how an ordinary teenager would
have magical powers. I spent days mulling
that over in the back of my mind. I didn't want to make her half-fey; I
wanted to
leave Fox fairly unique in that regard.
Which left human sorcery.
One idea that
I came up with and rejected never did quite leave my mind, though
it took me another 47 stories to get around to using it.
Eventually, though,
I wondered in a mental aside what had ever happened to Mary
and Finella. And, ka-pow, the rest of it all fell into place.
Title: Because
that's where Avalon had sent them, or, more specifically, when.
And because it was where Aiden needed to be. And Lex, too.
Memorable lines:
"But it's Must See TV Thursday!"
"Xanatos, to rhyme with scum."
5. Family Reunion
No more chickening
out. The time had come to write what had happened after the
"fade-to-black" in Elisa's apartment. How to do it? Hmm, what about a nice
sisterly chat?
So I sent Elisa
to Las Vegas and discovered the Taylor family. Including Aunt
Agnes. If Vito Draconi's Nana was the prototype,
in Aunt Agnes, I really hit a nerve. There
is, as Zazu told Mufasa, one in every family.
In an odd coincidence,
Leva Mevis independently came up with the name Nikki
Taylor as Elisa's cousin. When we realized this, it made perfect sense
to have Nikki be Agnes' granddaughter,
and the two have visited back and forth between our universes
ever since.
Why Vegas?
Well ... I wanted
to play with a different setting, and had visited Vegas the
year before. We stayed at the Luxor (neat place,
though disorienting).
Title: Not only
did it revolve around a family reunion, the Taylor celebration,
but I wanted to bring Talon and Delilah into
it for a reunion of another sort. Delilah was finally
accepted by Elisa as being a part of her family by ties of blood.
Memorable line:
"Bible Tag!"
6. Sins of the Father
This was one occasion
where I was actually writing two stories at the same time,
this one and Family Reunion. Talon and Delilah stopped off in Vegas on
their way to the Pacific Northwest.
The whole reason I had Maggie get preggers was so Talon
would have to bring Delilah instead. The whole reason I wanted Delilah
along was so I could introduce Samson.
Because it seemed to me that there had to be a Samson.
Who should he
be? That was the thing. I have been very reluctant to introduce
new clans of gargoyles; it took many more stories
before I created a clan of my own instead
of using Avalon or London's folk.
Samson had to
be big, he had to be strong, he had to have hair. Lots of hair.
Now, I'm the first to say that I hardly know
a thing about matters Biblical (though I'm sure
Thomas would be the second to say it <g>), but I knew that much at least.
He had to have hair, even if it
wasn't the source of his strength. (I have to confess, with great
shame, that what I know I got partly from reading
the appropriate sections of the actual Bible
and partly from a typically-trashy VC Andrews novel in which there is a
production of a ballet based on that myth.)
Living in the
Pacific Northwest, I have heard many stories about big strong
creatures with lots of hair. So I made Samson
a Sasquatch mutate. Who better to make a
mutate than good old Dr. Sevarius? The subject's name had to be Sam ...
aha! From there, it was easy.
One of the things
I have consistently enjoyed is expanding upon bit players. Such
as Judge Halverson, who made his debut here. I also took this opportunity
to suggest my own explanation for
how Sevarius "faked" his death and came back looking young
and healthy.
Title: there's
a proverb or saying or something about how the sins of the fathers
shall be visited on the sons, even unto the third and fourth generations.
Sevarius is a father figure to Samson,
the mutates, Thailog ... even Delilah. Oddly, I am told there
is a video game with that title in which one of the voices is Tim Curry
...
Memorable line:
With his lifegiving hands, he grabbed his frail son by the shoulders
and slammed him up and down on the bed.
Other: Disneyland
is one of my favorite places in all the world. We used to go there
every year when I was a kid, so I feel I know
it well -- or at least the Disneyland of back then;
it's changed a lot and though I rationally know Star Tours replaced
it at least ten
years ago, my heart still tells
me that what I used to call "the shrinky ride" is still in that
spot. So I sent Samuel there, and his favorite ride is mine, too (but then,
I have a thing for pirates <g>)
7. Confession
Watching a rerun
of "Temptation" one day, I said to myself, "She is putting some
serious moves on him."
That was all it
took. Brooklyn's hatred for Demona seemed pretty extreme, as
if there had been more to it than what we saw.
Of all my stories, this one reminds me most
of my Lion King one, because it fills in so much that was left unseen and
makes so much sense to so many people.
Of course, thanks
to me, now nobody who's read it can ever watch that episode
the same way again ...
Title: I have
a fondness for one-word "ion" titles. Passions, Confession,
Attraction ...
Memorable line:
"Ohh, you are grown up."
8. The Tempest
Of all my stories,
this one, I think, would make the best episode. And I imagine
that, of all of them, it is the one that Greg would get the biggest kick
out of because he's a Shakespeare
nut.
I was amazed how
well this story worked, how well the cast fit into the appropriate
roles. I'd been wondering how Fox and Xanatos met, how Renard lost the
use of his legs, what it was like when Owen
worked for Renard.
I wrote this one
with an open copy of the play at my side, and chose names for
the minor characters based on it (Steve Trink
for Trinculo, for instance). Another thing I
had fun with was setting it in the 1970's, so of course the high-tech equipment
had to look like it does in dated
movies of that time. Humungous computers with reels of spinning
tape, etc.
Sometimes, I will
write a whole story just to have an excuse to use one single
scene or line. I also love recycling bits of
dialogue from the actual show as a sort of in-joke thing. This one was
a set-up for Attraction.
Title: fairly
obvious
Memorable line:
"This is no longer a lark."
9. The Heist
As many of you
know, I married Matt Bluestone.
Well, not exactly.
But my husband Tim is a conspiracy freak and knows more about
the Illuminati than I think it's safe to know. The game company with which
we most frequently associate, Steve
Jackson Games, is also very into such "all-seeing" matters.
So, naturally,
when Matt Bluestone first appeared and uttered the words, "They're
called the Illuminati ..." I howled with glee. And it was inevitable that
I should eventually include them
in my fanfic. Especially because there seems to be such a perception
of them as "bad" guys. I hoped to present them in what Tim agreed was a
more likely vein.
Sometimes, characters
are just so right that it's impossible to do it any other way.
There was never a question that the Grandmaster would not be a deliberate
depiction of Patrick Stewart. This of course
was only made stronger by that "Stonecutters"
episode of The Simpsons ...
I was really getting
to like Vito Draconi. I handled his death badly. I hate killing
off characters, in games and in stories, and usually do a rushed and poor
job of it.
On the other hand,
I loved writing Matt Bluestone. His interactions with his fellow
Illuminati, his disgusted realization that he and Xanatos made a good team
(I think one of my favorite moments
ever was when the two of them came into Elisa's apartment
after she and Goliath had passionately trashed the bedroom), and his weird
combination of belief and skepticism make him
a fun character to explore.
If you look real
close, you'll find Vinnie ...
Title: I wanted
something that had a vaguely gritty 1940's feel. How often do
you hear the word "heist" used nowadays? ;
)
Memorable line:
"Bite me."
10. Attraction
They tell us to
"write what you know." Now, while I don't know anything about
being a millionaire, a stage magician, or a dirty-dancing babe, I did draw
upon some of my own personal experiences
in this story. Very minor ones, I assure you. I set
it in Seattle, my current home, and Fox
and Xanatos not only go to dinner at one of Tim and
my favorite restaurants; they have the exact same meal that we always have.
When I was planning
this story, I'm afraid I made many a member of the mailing
list shriek in outraged laughter. All it took was a message titled "David
Xanatos -- Boxers or Briefs?" I
couldn't decide and wanted to see what the fans as a whole thought
of the matter. The results were overwhelming. Boxers. Silk ones.
And of course,
the discussion branched out from there ... Owen is a pristine
white Jockey shorts man, for example ... I'm
sure you can imagine the rest ; )
One thing about this
story that I was very proud of was the safe sex. I was worried
about it; one always reads complaints about how it "breaks the mood," yet
it seemed a very appropriate thing
for Xanatos and Fox to do. I am pleased that I managed
in what I still feel was a rather sexy, funny, and non-mood-breaking way.
I have never eaten
lutefisk and don't know (or even want to know) what it is. I
have known one cat as big as Mr. Wulfstan's,
and he really could put your legs to sleep when
he sat on your lap.
Title: "ion" again
; )
Memorable lines:
"Know her? I named her!"
"Mr. Xanatos, I'm afraid we have a problem," he said evenly, and
pitched face-first onto the floor.
11. Sterling Silver
I didn't want
Aiden to come across as a Mary Sue, so she couldn't be good at
everything she did. In fact, it helped to have
her be downright inept at some things. Inept,
lost, and insecure, that's my Aiden.
This was the first
story I wrote after The Goliath Chronicles began. As far as
I'm concerned, the best things that came of
that were the establishing of MacBeth as a professor,
giving Margot a job and a last name, and the Quarrymen (because I think
it's such a cool name with its double
meaning).
The Owenite Nuns
warned me that I was probably going to get in trouble for daring
to pair off their darling with anybody. I felt I was up to the challenge,
though, and thought they might be
more inclined to forgive me if matters were totally out of his
control.
I love
Birdie. She is the closest thing I have to a Mary Sue, an extension of
my own smartass self into the stories. I have
never dressed like that, though, and will probably
never have the piercings or tattoos.
Many of the moments
in this story will always be near and dear to my heart. Owen
singing "On the Street Where You Live." Birdie playing Tchaikovsky when
Owen and Cordelia strike their dramatic pose.
MacBeth walking in on the class while they're
discussing the play by the same name.
Title: In a short-lived
game in which all the PCs were supernaturally-gifted children,
I had them attend a place called the "Sterling Academy" to be trained in
their various powers. It was only
natural to use the same name (though the headmistress
changed quite a bit). The "Silver" half
of the title came partly because it went so darn well
with "Sterling" and partly because Aiden's magic tends to manifest in silvery
light.
Memorable line:
"She looks like a douche commercial."
12. Kittens
This is probably
in the top five best things I've ever written. I used to say it
was #1, but I think The Pure and the Profane
gives it a run for its money.
I wanted to get
brutal. I wanted to get violent. I wanted something on a big
scale, intense, suspenseful.
I got what I wanted.
This was one of
those rare and precious occasions when I blazed. The story
seemed to come through me; it was springing
full-blown into my head faster than I could
type. I thought about it almost constantly, couldn't wait to get to work
so I could write. It was just one
giant "Wow!" from beginning to end, and I probably made those
around me sick because I kept marvelling aloud
how damn good I was.
The scene with
Goliath and Elisa turning to stone still chokes me up. Even
now, thinking of him pleading with her, "Stay
with me," and I go all gooey and teary-eyed.
Title: for Maggie
and Talon's twins (with thanks to Anne, because I've never seen
"Cats" and she provided the names).
Memorable lines:
"Lemme 'lone, Mom, it's Saturday."
FROM THE BRAIN OF ANTON SEVARIUS.
At which point, Talon went purely bugshit.
13. Night Moves
After something
as powerful as Kittens, I needed to relax and write something
spicy and fun. This one wasn't a story that
included sex but a sex vignette that just happened
to advance a couple of plot points (Matt's absence, Goliath's proposal).
For the record,
I own that dress, but even when I could wear it, I never looked
a fraction as good as Elisa. I love Brooklyn
and Broadway seeing her on the battlements,
and Brooklyn's pulse-pounding thoughts on the subject of whether being
"queer for humans" was a good or bad thing.
I'm told that
this story was responsible for a lot of cold showers and more than
a few morning-after smiles on the faces of
many a couple ; )
Title: I'm not
sure where that came from. It just was. That was the title, like
it or not, there wasn't anything I could do
about it. Luckily, I like it.
Memorable line:
"It's the Wonderbra, isn't it?"
14. Double Date
Thailog was too
good a character to be dead, but I wanted to bring him back in
some utterly bizarre and unexpected way, yet
make it work. I enjoy setting myself these kind
of challenges. Can I do (whatever) and make it make sense?
So I made him
the bass player of a rock band. And it turned out better than I
ever could have hoped. Ebon (as he was now
known) and the rest of Scarlet Angel seemed
to strike a chord (sorry!) with many readers.
I love connecting
characters to other characters. In this story, we have Nick
Diamond, aka Nicholas Diamant, whose sister
Tina is one of Aiden's classmates and whose
grandfather Tybalt is one of the Illuminati Fifth Circle.
This originally
was intended to be just a funny story, but the more I got into it,
the darker it became, with Nick being such
a prick and Julianna's suicide attempts. But that
gave me the opportunity to trigger Ebon's Goliath-instinct, saving the
falling
brunette and eventually coming to love
her.
Title: I was trying
to be clever here -- Aiden and Birdie went on a double date,
but this was also a Thailog story, and his
debut was in "Double Jeopardy," so the title had a
double meaning <g>.
Memorable line:
"That would be my line, if you'd ever seen Goliath getting out of
the shower."
15. The Eurydice Project
I love Greek mythology,
and I love doing these sorts of weirdo-alternate character
transferences. It's amazing how well they work out sometimes.
People ask me
how far I have things planned out. Eurydice, after all, made her
first ghostly appearance in The Heist, several
stories ago. But what I really do is this -- every
so often, I just write things in, and then go back later to figure out
what story goes
around it.
These little hooks
help me keep going, even if I have no idea at the time what
will become of it. I'll read back through,
spot something, and say to myself, "Oh, that's right,
you were going to do something with that." And, hey-presto! another story!
That's where I
get my ideas. They sort of spawn themselves. Like much of my
technique, this owes a lot to gaming (wow,
it's sounding like I'm touting the hobby bigtime
here <g>), because if you want to have more than a one-shot game, you
have to leave plenty of things upon
which to build.
'Fess up, Christine
-- okay. Sometimes, things happen that I can tie back to a story
that I wrote way back when, and everybody is impressed with how well I
plan, when really all I'm doing
is making a connection in such a way that it looks like it's
what I had in mind all along.
Now I'm rambling
within my ramblings. Enough.
The Eurydice Project
mostly happened because of all the Greek myths, this one
was the one I liked best. The chance to put hard-headed Matt into such
a freaky-mystic situation was one I couldn't pass up.
Title: like Night
Moves, there was never any speculation as to another title for
this one. It came with its own.
Memorable line:
"I'm sorry I called your wife a bimbo, if that makes any difference."
16. A Gargoyles Christmas
Special
This one was written
in December of 1996 when I found myself thinking that Hudson
would make a pretty cute Santa. That, combined with the antlers-for-dogs
they sell around that time of year,
was what got me started.
The cloved orange
kissing game played at the end of the story is something I picked
up from my occasional forays into the SCA, where it was a popular thing
to do at revels.
Title: The whole
story just had to be called that, and then I thought it would be
fun to give each of the sections a line from
an appropriate carol.
Memorable line: "She's
shooting to miss!"
17. Angela's Awakening
Angela has a reputation
of being a real goody-goody. I asked myself if I could keep
most of that, while still making her sexy. And since I'd just established
that the Avalon Clan was having
a breeding season (mentioned in Part III of the Xmas Special),
I had to also ask myself how they figured
it out with no older gargoyles around to give them
"the talk."
This story has
created some controversy and bad feelings; some people do not
at all agree with the idea of "frolicsome matings"
and don't think that the gargoyles would
be so open, exploratory, and carefree about sex. Me, I disagree and think
they
would be even more so than humans, because
unless they want to, they don't risk pregnancy.
Here we have the
first appearance of Jericho. He was a character that I didn't
so much create as discover; it's
like he was out there all along and I just happened to
be the first to find him. He was so right in his role as Angela's
brother, her flip side. His name
was chosen because I wanted something with vaguely ominous and
destructive connotations (at the time, I suspected
he would become a bad guy but more in
a challenging-Gabriel sort of way; I had no idea I would wind up with the
Jericho we all know and love today).
Title: "Awakenings,"
of course, was the title of the first few epsodes. But I also
used it in the romance novel / Victorian smut sense of a young girl's awakening
to her sensuality.
Memorable line:
"They must be sick. See how they moan and roll about?"
18. A Noble Indiscretion
Realizing that
I eventually wanted to tackle the storyline of children for
Goliath and Elisa, I decided I had better establish
a case precedent. Had there ever been humans
and gargoyles getting together? How was I going to handle it?
I seized upon
one of those "hooks" from Angela's Awakening. Elektra. The Magus'
pupil, who had developed slightly faster than her sisters (side note: her
name was chosen because the Elektra
Complex is the female variation of the Oedipus one; I had
it in mind that she would have very undaughterly feelings toward her father-figure,
the Magus; as it turned out, that fell by the
wayside because of the overpowering Oedipal
thing that developed between Jericho and Demona).
Assuming Elektra
was half-human, I just had to figure out who her parents were,
how it had happened, and how anyone else would find out. And then I had
one of those mean thoughts -- wouldn't
Katherine just have a fit if her own father had boinked
a she-garg?
Writing journal-style
is always a challgence because getting the "voice" right is
even harder than getting dialogue right. So far, I've done it three times
in my universe -- this one, the
Innsbrook story, and Aiden's diary. I feel pretty good about how they all
turned out.
The White Gargoyle
turned out to be a fascinating character; I'm sure we'll see
her again sometime. I also enjoyed the Malcolm's-eye-view
of Goliath, Demona, and the rest
of the clan.
Title: another
instance in which the title just came to me.
Memorable line:
Our discussion was cut short by the arrival of his mate, who with
one artful turn of a well-formed leg not only
rendered Goliath unfit to speak further but entranced
several of my guardsmen as well.
19. Future Imperfect
Once a plotline
is well-established, it is fun to mess with people's heads. That's
why "Future Tense" was so upsetting. Even after
we realized it wasn't real, we were still shaken,
still fiercely denying those things that could be.
So I had this notion of doing a "vision or a prophecy" of my own, and got
much more than I bargained for. Before it was
done, I was hating this story. I was
convinced that it stank, it sucked, it
reeked. It came tough, not at all easy to write. I didn't
know where it was going but it didn't seem to be going there on its own.
I was scribbling timelines, trying
to figure out who was born and who dies when (there are
some inconsistencies still, I think).
When it was finally
done -- and I spent many nights stomping around the office
cussing because I was sure that I'd lost it, used myself up -- I just posted
it and said to hell with it. I was
deeply astonished at the positive responses. When I went back
and read it, I saw that it was much better
than I'd thought, and it was only my frustration at
having to work so hard to get it written that had colored my perceptions
of it.
Now that I had
that dark future in place, I got to have some real fun by letting
things lead up to it. Demona and MacBeth would
have a baby; this we knew from Ever
After. Same for Owen and Cordelia, and the betrothal to Alex was already
in place. And with one line, that
bit about a rogue gargoyle from the Avalon Clan, I knew right
then that Jericho was going to be much more of a handful than I'd anticipated.
Title: deliberate
takeoff on "Future Tense," still a grammatical term, but an
imperfect and undesired future.
Memorable line:
"Sex! The old hide-the-carrot!"
Weirdness: I wrote
this before the Furby craze; makes you wonder about Aiden's
stuffed Gizmo toy ...
20. Black Roses
My husband Tim
got hooked on Millennium. We'd watch it every week, Fridays just before
I'd go to work (which, of course, is where I get most of my writing done).
That is why the opening scene of this one positively smacks of that eerie
moody dark paranormal mystery show stuff.
This story happened
mostly because I got wanting to do something kinda wicked. I had an "encounter"
in mind for Fox Xanatos and Matt Bluestone, but there was no way I could
have it "really" happen without disrupting a whole lotta things. Hence
the dream sequence. But why? While it is fun writing such things, putting
them in for no good reason is just cheap sensationalism (as opposed to
the high literary standards characterizing the rest of my stories ...)
So I needed a
reason for a dream. A naughty dream. And that's how I came up with the
incubus idea. Which led to one of the most striking and (I'm told) unnerving
bits in any of my work -- that brief bit with Aiden and MacBeth.
I liked this one
so well that I am currently in the process of adapting it into a full-length
horror novel. Of course, this means beaucoup stuff needs to be changed
-- all the gargoyles have to go, etc. But the basic premise, that of the
incubus, is still the same (and my protagonist, Theresa Zane, not only
has a name that is vaguely reminiscent of Elisa Maza but also looks like
her; if they ever make a movie of it, Salli Richardson would be perfect!)
One of the things I liked best about
this one was Nikki. Nikki's a hoot, as I may have said before, and I am
indebted to Leva for creating her ; )
It was interesting
to take a look at Elisa's past. In Passions, Goliath finds an old postcard
to Beth from Elisa, about a vacation-gone-bad with her ex-boyfriend Mark.
In Passions also, Elisa makes some joke about not wanting to turn Goliath
loose on her old boyfriends because he'd tear them apart. Which was exactly
what Matt first thinks when the incubus' battered victims are found.
(Side note --
is Raptor not the coolest name for a dog?!? <g>)
Title: for the
longest time, this one was untitled, because I just couldn't come up with
something I liked. I didn't want the title to be a giveaway. I wanted it
to be something a little sexy, a little spooky. Then I was reading Hideaway
by Dean Koontz, and one of the characters was doing a painting, a central
image of which was a haunting black rose. I liked it, I used it, and had
to go back and add in all of the rose references.
Memorable line:
"Wild monkey sex in the back of his limo!"
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