“Come to My Window”, End notes
[ Endnotes posted 14 Nov 2012 ]
Where did the idea for the story come from?
I couldn’t really say. The earliest memory I have was simply the thought, What would happen if a vampire, without any particular intention of virtue, decided for purely pragmatic reasons not to act like a typical vampire? Everything else sprang from that.
Is there any particular significance to the title?
That derived entirely from how much I love the Melissa Etheridge song of that name. This story was originally called “I Love the Night Life” (another song-title title), but somehow or other “Come to My Window” kept insisting on being heard, and eventually won out. The Sheila/Tana dynamic contributed to this, but mostly it was just the song.
What is the thing I like most about this story? the thing I like least, or about which I feel most doubtful?
This was only my second Buffyfic, and it already marked something that would continue for a long time (and, arguably, is still in operation): it differed strongly from “Point of Focus”, my first story, taking an entirely different tone and approach. One issue on which I was determined was that I wouldn’t just keep telling the same story within a different framework.
What I like most is the energy and personality of the narrator, followed by the comedic touches that keep appearing. (It also tickles me that I used the idea of humans being turned on by vampire-bite before the series tackled it, first with Riley’s quasi-addiction and later with the Orpheus angle in Angel.) What I like least … well, there really isn’t anything. In general, the story did what I set out to do, and entertained me in the process.
(Also, I never suspected that Sheila would keep appearing: starring roles in two subsequent stories so far, and significant guest appearances in two more. And she may not be quite done yet …)
As for what I like least: reading the story now, I sometimes get the feeling it might be a bit choppy. In later efforts, I put more attention into detail and atmosphere; “Come to My Window” was - comparatively - direct and stripped-down.
Is there anything I think I could have done better, or might do differently if I had it to do over?
For all that I was well pleased with it, this is still one of my earlier efforts: not necessarily inferior in that regard, but I know that if I were setting out to tell the same story for the first time today, it would come out differently. Some of the language or narrative flow was perhaps, in comparative terms, a bit unsophisticated. Or perhaps not.
Do I have any plans to follow up on this story, or to use the character(s) or situation in a subsequent fic?
Why, now that you mention it …
As I noted already, Sheila (who truly was originally intended as a one-shot character) has already reappeared in “ Shadow and Substance” and “ … Than Meets the Eye”, and featured substantially in “ Queen’s Gambit” (dream appearance, so maybe that doesn’t count) and “ Echoes from the Battleground”. And I’ve had another idea in the back of my mind for some time, not yet fully developed, and it requires me to do at least one other story first. But someday … someday …
Any observations to add at the end?
The depiction of Sheila was the first time I’d done a first-person narrative from the perspective of someone who was neither me nor some reduced/adapted version of me. I enjoyed the experience, and have done my best to go on from there. If the story itself was also a success, that was just another bonus.
And, yes, the mention of the three guys at the morgue and their reference to “sculling in Boulder”? those were the Lone Gunmen, from the X-Files. Just thrown in for fun.