“the Other Night I Dreamt of Knives”, End notes
[ Endnotes posted 31 Oct 2018 ]
Where did the idea for the story come from?
Honestly? it came from the title. The phrase struck me as evocative and memorable, and pretty much the entire story coalesced around the concept generated by that single phrase.
Is there any particular significance to the title?
Aside from the fact that it practically dictated the story to me? it comes from R.E.M.’s song “It’s the End of the World as We Know it (and I Feel Fine)”, already nearly thirty years old when I wrote the story and past that mark now. (And I’ve enjoyed myself ripping through it in karaoke. My brother, a karaoke pro, said that was a bad one to sing because the projected lyrics never synched with the music; to which I replied, “No prob if you memorized ’em!”)
What is the thing I like most about this story? the thing I like least, or about which I feel most doubtful?
Liked most? Emily’s transformation, and the careful character-building to set the stage for it. Petrified at the thought of battle before it appeared, her focus snapped to getting the job done the moment the fight began, and then turned into … something else … when her friend was struck down in front of her. Loved it, and it was exactly what I was aiming for.
Feel most doubtful? Whether or not that same characterization was as effective to everyone else reading it as it was to me.
Favorite line? And then she set to work in earnest.
Is there anything I think I could have done better, or might do differently if I had it to do over?
I can’t think of a single darn thing I could have done better. By the time I actually wrote this story, it had been coming together and coming clear in my back- (and then fore-) brain for, literally, years. I wrote it, and it was precisely what I had intended. Maybe it isn’t as good as I ‘feel’ it to be, but regardless of that I hit the exact mark I meant to hit.
Do I have any plans to follow up on this story, or to use the character(s) or situation in a subsequent fic?
There were links already, as I’ve done more and more as my Backstage series has progressed. Jutta had already been mentioned in “ Precious Cargo”; KiłtonRǚq demons were referenced in “ All Ye Who Enter” and “ Zero-Sum Game”; kraken wraiths had been cited in “ Morning’s Echo” and “ Hungry Like the Wolf”; and Kruciak the Merciless, so comprehensively described here (though never actually seen) was predicted by Madame Tiphaine in “ An Eye to the Future”.
Will we ever see Emily and/or Jutta again, though? Come on, get real. They just made a one-way trip into a world filled with nothing but dedicated enemies. No way they could come back from something like that.
… Right?
Any observations to add at the end?
This wasn’t exactly the easiest story I’ve ever written, but it was a long way from being the hardest. I worked out a few things as I went, but that was mostly illustrative and supporting detail; the story itself was essentially all there for me before I ever began it. Wish they could all be like that.