Happy Halloween!
October 20, 2019
The weather here in St. Louis is finally cooling off. The holidays are fast approaching. It’s time to take a quick break and fall in love on Halloween, don’t you think?
What would you like to share about A Halloween Story?
A Halloween Story was fun to write. Several years ago, I came up with an idea about a guy who wants to get to a Halloween party but several events delay him. So Noah Tanner starts off the day stuck in an elevator. But he isn’t alone in the elevator. Nursing student Amy Madden is with him.
And if you’re wondering how these characters relate to other stories within the “Gagengirl Universe,” I can easily answer that question. Amy Madden is the daughter of one of my first main characters. But only some of my high school friends (and maybe a few others) have read the stories her parents were in. I wrote the story in my senior year creative writing class.
And the party that Noah Tanner wants to attend is hosted by Ariel Gibson, who made a brief appearance in Just a Kiss.
It sounds like you spend a lot of time keeping track of your characters?
You have no idea. I revisit older characters all the time, just to see what they are up to. And while I was supposed to be working on next year’s release, I started a new project to make certain missing information was added to my master spreadsheets. I realized the project was necessary while prepping Be My Valentine. I created new information for an existing character because I didn’t think it existed.
Does that mean next year’s release will be delayed?
Not necessarily. I’m putting that project on hold until after I’ve hit the next necessary milestone for Crazy Dreams. It seems like a good project to resume after I’ve decorated for Christmas.
Can we expect to see the music that inspired this short story?
Yes. Around Thanksgiving, I plan to put together pages for A Halloween Story and Be My Valentine. The music that inspired Solvang probably won’t be available until around Christmas. I made the mistake of creating theme songs for each character I created, even ones who don’t actually appear within the story. I ended up with 3 inspiration playlists.