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[hansbekhart]

So, uh, hello! I’m Hans, a.k.a. hansbekhart, and oxoniensis invited me to be this month’s Ask The Author. After a whole lot of stammering and blushing and trying not to be embarrassing about it, I said I’d love to

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[hansbekhart]

Man, that's awesome, thank you for that! Heh, actually, one of the most awesome comments I've ever gotten on BBP is that it's gen in the way that canon is gen - as in, really subtexty, I suppose :D.

The name - oh lord. I have a terrible time titling stories, absolutely terrible. That's how I end up with a lot of weirdass titles, or I bug my sister to think of one for me. Originally, the title of Beach Blanket Poltergeist was going to be In the Heart, after the book that inspired me on a lot of the mythology of the story, Santa Cruz Is In the Heart. That was the first time that I'd heard about that crazy priest, and just loved it. It also fit because originally, BBP was intended as a Wincest story, that during the course of revisiting an area close to Stanford and dealing with something so horrible, there would be some first time romancing in there somewhere. That's why I think it comes off as pretty subtexty - a lot of that survived the second draft, like the part where Dean walks out in nothing but a towel and Sam sort of covertly checks him out.

But the girl who edited BBP, fatale, was the best editor that I could have possibly had (she cut over 8,000 words of the story, actually), and made me realize that I couldn't pack it so full of plot and still cram in the Wincest, so I dropped that plotline and realized how incredibly lame In The Heart was for a title. (A lot of my early files are still titled In the Heart and I cringe every time I see them)

I talked a lot to RL people about BBP while I was writing it, because I knew it was gen and took place where I'm living, so I was talking to the guy who was at that point my fiancee, and we were talking titles, and I said I'd love something really fun, something to do with some of those old teeny bopper surf movies of the 50s, something like that. And he sneeringly suggested Beach Blanket Poltergeist, and I LOVED IT. And nothing he could say about it being a terrible title would talk me out of it. I've seen reviews, actually, that say, "Ignore the title, it's really a good story!" Which is a little O.o;;. But I love it :D.

That is probably a way longer answer than you were expecting!