Remnants - Notes and Acknowledgements
Notes and Acknowledgements
This year's Big Bang is brought to you by the letter E for escapism and the letter W for weheartit.com.
First off, I'd like to say that had I known about the storms that have recently ripped through the southern U.S., I would have never written a story about tornados. That being said, I'm not mother nature and alas, here we are.
This story came--as most of my stories do--from equal parts visual inspiration and a written prompt. Visually this year, the pictures that kept popping up on weheartit caused me to daydream about driving across the U.S. in a beat up old car, barefoot and smoking clove cigarettes (which actually taste disgusting, if you must know). The image greatly helped shape the landscape of the piece and reminded me of what certain places should look and feel like in the story. I'll include a link to the pictures I saved down below so you can peruse them while you read.
The written prompt was a simple, solitary word:
Lost
As many of you will notice upon reading the fic, the journal is not the only thing that's lost. Jared turns into something of a temporary nomad after losing his family and until he reaches NYC and starts his new life, he too is lost. One could even argue that Jensen took the trip to find himself. It takes a series of different experiences, new faces, and ever-changing hotel rooms for Jared to heal and grow out of the tragedy that occurs at the beginning of the story, finding a new path in life and with it, a new love.
I myself have never made this trip, so to any of you who live in the cities mentioned, I apologize if my descriptions are innacurate. I hope I haven't portrayed any place in a bad light, and if I have, it was merely for the sake of comedy and not because I truly hate your town/city/state.
As for the tone of the fic, I will readily admit to having been immersed in my second read-through of Warren Ellis', Crooked Little Vein, which is a book far more hilarious and demented than I ever came close to in this fic. If you've got some cajones, have a read. It's worth it! I tried to make everything a little less formal than last year's story, language-wise, more snark and cussing than in Zzyzx. Mindy, Wendall, and even Jensen all had a hand in this, bringing different voices to the fic and making it more of a fun read than last year's, in my opinion.
The secondary characters may not be familiar to everyone, so for the sake of visual aid, here is who I had in mind for the following characters:
Zooey Deschanel as Mindy
Sharon Gless as Donna
Christian Kane as Chris
Wendall is every redneck with dirty clothes and a yellowing beard you've ever seen at Walmart. Just sayin'.
The other obvious inspiration for this fic was the movie, Elizabethtown, which follows a similar path, though the reason for the trip in the movie is based more on professional failure and natural death, than mother nature pulling the carpet out from under your feet. The idea of a scrapbook guide of sorts really appealed to all the other visual stimuli that I was immersed in when I first started writing, and it also fit hand in hand with my need to create a soundtrack for (almost) every story I write. If you haven't seen the movie, I highly reccomend it!
As my beta wants me to point out, this fic was originally supposed to be MUCH longer than what you have as a final product. Real life got in the way, with my focus shifting from writing to getting fit. A new fandom (Hawaii Five-0) didn't help matters, and the muse ran away with any inspiration I had for longer than I care to admit in public. She came back at the very last minute though, and that's what matters. There are some 'missing' scenes that I may or may not write out in the future. All depends on what happens next month when all the shows start up again. ;)
Huge thank yous go to my wonderful and ever-patient beta, kimberlyfdr. I threw her for a loop this year, and as always, she gave me sound, unbiased advice. Her critiques, and sharp eye is why this fic looks as polished as it is. My art this year was done by the awesome melissos who put a lot of hard work into the gorgeous visuals that accompany the fic. Without both of you, this would be just another average J2 fic, so thank you both for making it incredible!
If you guys have any questions about the fic, please don't hesitate to ask, either here or in the comments of the fic itself! Thanks for reading!
Remnants @ weheartit
This year's Big Bang is brought to you by the letter E for escapism and the letter W for weheartit.com.
First off, I'd like to say that had I known about the storms that have recently ripped through the southern U.S., I would have never written a story about tornados. That being said, I'm not mother nature and alas, here we are.
This story came--as most of my stories do--from equal parts visual inspiration and a written prompt. Visually this year, the pictures that kept popping up on weheartit caused me to daydream about driving across the U.S. in a beat up old car, barefoot and smoking clove cigarettes (which actually taste disgusting, if you must know). The image greatly helped shape the landscape of the piece and reminded me of what certain places should look and feel like in the story. I'll include a link to the pictures I saved down below so you can peruse them while you read.
The written prompt was a simple, solitary word:
Lost
As many of you will notice upon reading the fic, the journal is not the only thing that's lost. Jared turns into something of a temporary nomad after losing his family and until he reaches NYC and starts his new life, he too is lost. One could even argue that Jensen took the trip to find himself. It takes a series of different experiences, new faces, and ever-changing hotel rooms for Jared to heal and grow out of the tragedy that occurs at the beginning of the story, finding a new path in life and with it, a new love.
I myself have never made this trip, so to any of you who live in the cities mentioned, I apologize if my descriptions are innacurate. I hope I haven't portrayed any place in a bad light, and if I have, it was merely for the sake of comedy and not because I truly hate your town/city/state.
As for the tone of the fic, I will readily admit to having been immersed in my second read-through of Warren Ellis', Crooked Little Vein, which is a book far more hilarious and demented than I ever came close to in this fic. If you've got some cajones, have a read. It's worth it! I tried to make everything a little less formal than last year's story, language-wise, more snark and cussing than in Zzyzx. Mindy, Wendall, and even Jensen all had a hand in this, bringing different voices to the fic and making it more of a fun read than last year's, in my opinion.
The secondary characters may not be familiar to everyone, so for the sake of visual aid, here is who I had in mind for the following characters:
Zooey Deschanel as Mindy
Sharon Gless as Donna
Christian Kane as Chris
Wendall is every redneck with dirty clothes and a yellowing beard you've ever seen at Walmart. Just sayin'.
The other obvious inspiration for this fic was the movie, Elizabethtown, which follows a similar path, though the reason for the trip in the movie is based more on professional failure and natural death, than mother nature pulling the carpet out from under your feet. The idea of a scrapbook guide of sorts really appealed to all the other visual stimuli that I was immersed in when I first started writing, and it also fit hand in hand with my need to create a soundtrack for (almost) every story I write. If you haven't seen the movie, I highly reccomend it!
As my beta wants me to point out, this fic was originally supposed to be MUCH longer than what you have as a final product. Real life got in the way, with my focus shifting from writing to getting fit. A new fandom (Hawaii Five-0) didn't help matters, and the muse ran away with any inspiration I had for longer than I care to admit in public. She came back at the very last minute though, and that's what matters. There are some 'missing' scenes that I may or may not write out in the future. All depends on what happens next month when all the shows start up again. ;)
Huge thank yous go to my wonderful and ever-patient beta, kimberlyfdr. I threw her for a loop this year, and as always, she gave me sound, unbiased advice. Her critiques, and sharp eye is why this fic looks as polished as it is. My art this year was done by the awesome melissos who put a lot of hard work into the gorgeous visuals that accompany the fic. Without both of you, this would be just another average J2 fic, so thank you both for making it incredible!
If you guys have any questions about the fic, please don't hesitate to ask, either here or in the comments of the fic itself! Thanks for reading!
Remnants @ weheartit