“In the Misty Moonlight”, End notes
[ Endnotes posted 30 Jun 2024 ]
Where did the idea for the story come from?
It actually started clear back in the Seventies, from memories of riding with my family at night in our brand-new Pontiac Catalina station wagon, listening to Dean Martin on our brand-new 8-track player. The two songs cited in the story are the ones that stuck with me (along with, from another tape, Frank Sinatra singing “Downtown”, but that one had no place in the story). That was the frame; putting Buffy and Giles into it, and building a story within it, didn’t take a lot of extra work.
Is there any particular significance to the title?
It just seemed to suit the story. Plus, though I only ever heard the Jim Reeves version, Dean Martin did release one of his own.
What is the thing I like most about this story? the thing I like least, or about which I feel most doubtful?
What I liked most was the easiness and comfort of the relationship between Buffy and Giles. These are two people who have weathered storms and feel secure with each other: absolutely a love relationship, even if not a romantic one.
There was nothing I disliked about the story, but I was aware that this was a fic where very little happened. (Lessened by Giles’s thwarting of the truck-stop vampgirl.) This was a ‘feeling’ story, not one with any big shifts of action. It worked, in my opinion, but that could have served as a weakness.
Is there anything I think I could have done better, or might do differently if I had it to do over?
Better, no, I hit the notes I was aiming for. I’m not saying it couldn’t have been done better - I’ve seen authors do things I know I could never equal - only that I don’t see any way I could have.
Was there a different direction I might have wanted to take the story, and what would have been some of the advantages of the not-taken path?
I could certainly have made a different story (from Buffy’s POV, for instance, or starting with earlier events and/or following things out to later ones. This was the story I felt, though, so this was the one I told.
Any observations to add at the end?
The only thing I was really concerned about was whether, despite the way it was explicitly framed, the Giles/Buffy relationship might have come across as something other than father/daughter. sroni reassured me that it had not, and nobody else has argued otherwise. I will count myself satisfied.