The Summer Camp Story, part 1: "Location, location, location"

When I first started my early drafts of the story about 6 ½ years ago, I originally wanted to set it in the campground where I went to a Girl Scouts trip in September of 2002. I realized that even with the photos I took at that camp, I didn’t really remember enough about the camp itself to set my story there. In the end, I set the story at the camp my Girl Scout troop went to in the fall of 2005.

Bloodlust Sacrifice, part 1: "It's not too bad, is it?"

I based this story… Script Frenzy entry… screenplay thing on a dream I had just after my first year in college, a couple months into summer vacation. In it, I was the main character, Marina, and Darren Criss was the vampire boy. When I wrote the opening, I changed a few details about it, but it was mostly the same, taking place in my college dorm room with a fight between werewolves and vampires. Probably not the smartest way to come up with and start an anti-Twilight-satire-slash-horror-movie. Maybe a script-style page length into Scene Six, I noticed it was turning into one of those really bad SyFy Channel movies with fake-looking creature effects and cheesy scares, and a lot of blood. Who knows, maybe once it’s done, I’ll take the Fiction Press version down and submitting the script to SyFy Channel. I mean, the worst they can do is say it’s too crappy even for them and reject it.

Carols of Christmas: A Dickensian Tale, part 5: "Writing style"

I wanted to start each chapter with song quotes to foreshadow the chapter, and, possibly with the exception of chapter 10, I’ve tried to save the most dramatic parts of the chapters until the end. I tried not to use quotes, inspired by Meg Rosoff’s How I Live Now, but that didn’t really work out, starting with chapter 9.

Behind the Curtains, Part 1: "Writing prompt"

This was one of the essays in a college English class. We had to write about something that was a home away from home. If we wrote about a job or volunteer experience like I did, we had to include the family portion of why it felt like home.

Fairvale, Part 16: "Performance before the performance"

Even before I threw in the element of Psycho, back when there were only supposed to be a mix of my friends and Sweeney Todd characters, I knew I wanted there to be some sort of a stage performance. Except, I envisioned it more taking place near the end of the story, not referenced throughout the first half or so. I was originally inspired to have Anthony Hope perform Styx’ “Come Sail Away” after hearing it in the planning phases of Fairvale. After adding Psycho and killing off Anthony, the song got pushed back to the bonus feature.

Carols of Christmas: A Dickensian Tale, part 4: "Random trivia facts"

The Ghost of Christmas Past was born on April 11^th. He is 2 years younger than Jeanie and almost a year and a half older than his friend Bennett. Jeanie’s birthday is March 26^th; Bennett’s is September 19^th. Bennett’s full name is Bennett Donald Mallard – and he would eventually become Ducky from NCIS. Jeanie is Jeanie Chance; The Ghost of Christmas Past is Gwydion Robert Orrin Charles Kilroy. Both of their names were inspired by Styx’s album Kilroy Was Here. The name Jeanie came from a character in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Gwydion, while on Earth, would eventually become a hero from Lloyd Alexander’s The Chronicles of Prydain.

Almost, part 1: "One way or the other"

At the end of the story, I decided to make Norman and Connie’s child be a girl. In pretty much all of the post-Psycho IV FanFics I’ve read, Norman has a son. I decided to spice it up and give him a daughter.