“Dusk Over Pompeii”, End notes
[ Endnotes posted 10 Jan 2017 ]
Where did the idea for the story come from?
I don’t know, sorry. It was written too long ago (2005, and I’m doing these notes in January 2017). Sometimes I can remember these things, sometimes not.
Is there any particular significance to the title?
Just a general sense of people living and acting within the active zone of a disaster. I actually wanted to title it “On the Slopes of Vesuvius”, but it turns out Robert A. Heinlein kind of used it first.
What is the thing I like most about this story? the thing I like least, or about which I feel most doubtful?
Liked most? No question, the emotional currents between Buffy and Xander (which includes the two of them at the end). Liked least? well, darn it, I didn’t exactly enjoy taking away their happiness
Is there anything I think I could have done better, or might do differently if I had it to do over?
This was a relatively short fic, and thus had less room for things to go wrong. As it stands, I can’t say that much I could do with it would make much difference.
Do I have any plans to follow up on this story, or to use the character(s) or situation in a subsequent fic?
Since the entire point of the story was that this time/situation vanished with the ending resolution, there’s really nothing left to work with. I’ve tackled Buffy/Xander in other stories, but nothing here really calls for - or allows - use elsewhere.
Any observations to add at the end?
As art of my overall Backstage Series, this story naturally needed to have some internal links. Since the reality presented here ceased to exist, only mentions of other stuff was really possible. This had to do with g’Nath demons (also appearing in “ the Human Touch” and Groeltisch (which featured in “ Queen’s Gambit”). Oh, and this was the first story of mine that velvetwhip ever read, and years later she would remix it as “Déjà Without a View” in the Circle of Friends Remix (cof_remix).