Wayward Dreams; an extended author's note
This story is essentially an AU based on the film Cemetery Junction. It is set in the town of Reading, UK, as the film is, during the mid 1970s. As a result, I had a bit of a challenge to write this! As someone who lives in the area myself, I had my own knowledge of the area to go off, and therefore all places mentioned are real. The Fabray Life Insurance company is my take on Vigilant from the film, which is itself based on the real-life Prudential company. However, as someone who was born during the mid 1990s, my knowledge of the time period was very lacking, and to go off a film made in 2010 presented me with some anachronisms that I tried my best to not go from. Therefore, writing this fic has been a journey into my local history, as well as unearthing some interesting family stories from my mother!
As with all AUs based on other works of fiction, liberties have been taken with the canon of both universes. I’d recommend you do watch the film if you enjoy the fic, because while Your Mileage May Vary on how good it is, I personally enjoyed it and there are a lot of dimensions to it that I’ve had to change or cut entirely in the writing process, either for length/ease of writing, characterisation or just the fact that they didn’t translate well in the written word.
There were a number of things about himaryan's picture which lead me towards this idea in the first place, and she was kind enough to talk me through them. First, the colour of the picture - the fact that it was sepia-toned - implied a different time period. Quinn’s dress in particular also made me think of the same, although it does comply with her style in the show as well. There were also a number of different ways I thought about the atmosphere of the scene. It’s certainly not a positive one, but why? Are Quinn and Blaine angry at each other, or something else? Or is one angry on behalf of the other? This lead me to think about a scene between Freddie and Julie in the film, one where they are both dissatisfied with their lives and contemplate the idea of going away together despite everything tying them down at home. Finally, there is one major parallel between Cemetery Junction and Glee: being bigger than a small town. And I do hope that this story gives the message that we all can be.