Author Note: Wherein Kat Has Even More To Say
Source Material
For those that don't know - The Thin Man movies were made in the 30s and 40s with William Powell and Myrna Loy - the first was based on a book by Dashiell Hammitt - who also created Sam Spade (the Humphrey Bogart character in The Maltese Falcon). He's a big name in the hard boiled detective genre. "Noir" was originally a sub-genre (although these days its usually considered the other way around).
The narration and Jared's inner voice owes more than a little to Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe Mysteries. It is its own separate beast. If you haven't seen the Timothy Hutton A&E Nero Wolfe series, you really should.
Universe Building - (Things that didn't make it into the fic)
Though it's not stated in the fic. Jensen is 34 (born 1900) and Jared is 30 (born 1904). This is the layout for their hotel suite. This is the table seating chart for the Ackles Dinner Party in Chapter 7.
World War I service and the Flapper Culture: For purposes of my fic, same sex marriage was legalized at the same time women got the right to vote and the movements were side-by-side and closely linked to one another. The movements would have started in the mid to late 1800s and the bill to give them rights was delayed by the US entering WWI.
Now in their thirties in the fic, Jared and Jensen grew up in the roaring 20s and both were very young veterans of World War I.
Jensen enlisted with his brother in 1918. His brother was killed in action during his first week in combat. Jensen's mother made the HUGE mistake of not listening to the Army and opening the casket. She had a nervous breakdown and his father has a fatal stroke that same month. Jensen was discharged without seeing any action to go home to care for her. He also found himself the head of a large family fortune which survives the Crash by way of excellent accountants and not a large presence on the stock market. The family is kinda nuts and appears in sequels. Jensen was by no means a stay at home smothered sensitive type - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3svvCj4yhYc -
Jared was in the Army Medical Corps and saw the fighting in the trenches. He came back after only 8 months of combat when the war ended. Suffering slightly from shell shock, he dropped plans to be a doctor and instead stumbled into a career as a detective. (To the disappointment of his father). He lived the playboy life as a private detective throughout the roaring 20s.
Speaking of the the Roarin' 20s - The Woman's Sufferage (Right to Vote) and the Marriage Reform Act both passed through Congress immediately following the war. So the generation Jensen and Jared belong to have had the right to wed for about 15 years at the time of the fic. It's accepted widely, if still a little uncomfortably by the older generation and extreme christian right. Jared meets Jensen in early 1929 on a case and they are married in early 1930. Jared is done with the private dectective's life and is learning the business from Jensen. Jensen was born rich and knows how to play it to his advantage. Jared has more street savvy which makes him a good partner.
The Dancing: The Charleston. The sideways flat step is what I imagine Jared doing as he shakes the martini in the opener.
The Continental (You Kiss While You're Dancing). J2's wedding dance song that I am totally making come out earlier than it did. And yes, they picked it just because you kiss every verse as part of the dance. It also helps that it's from a movie titled The Gay Divorcee.
More Charleston - when they are drunk (read: nightly), Jensen will convince Jared to attempt to dance like this. At the end of the first year, the estimated damage total was $14,000. Jared decided that marrying Jensen would at least consolidate the bill. But seriously, can't you picture them dancing like this?
The Title
For the longest time, this was simply "the j2 thin man fic". Then it was dubbed "Never Enough Words" - a joke about my exponentially increasing word count and a quote from their wedding vows. sophie_448 pointed out that no one was going to want to read a story that implied there were too many words in it. I realized she was right and finally settled on Murder and Martinis as it seemed everything I wrote was either someone dying or drinking. THANKS sophie_448!
The Thank Yous and the Finger Pointing
So Mom and I watched AMC's Thin Man Marathon on New Years. Years ago, at EyeCon 1, I had the random thought that Jared and Sandy would make a perfect Nick and Nora Charles. But never felt the urge to write it. And every thing was FINE and happy in my world until New Year's when somehow a J2 AU version started to work its way into my brain. I started a google doc and opened a chat with Clex and Sara.
There were long incomprehensible conversations about the difference between "noir" and the "hard boiled detective" genres. (Noir is bleaker and less overt humor. There's also a better than average chance that the main character dies.) I copy/pasted huge sections of wikipedia at them and got on some crazy rant about Flappers and Shell Shock (some of which still exists above - more of which somehow inspired this fic by waterofthemoon). And they STILL encouraged me.
Then poor Sara tried to help and we discovered that there is no such thing as "succinct" in this style. No matter what I did, the word count kept growing. I don't remember how I convinced Charlee to do the art, but I did and it's so fucking fantastic, I don't even know. And I suddenly realized why the long fic authors have these pages. Because there's a story behind the story, and in many ways, it's crazier than anything you ever put in the fic itself.
THANK YOU clex_monkie89 and THANK YOU waterofthemoon. Thank you for dutifully clicking all the links, for loving that it's Icarus, for reassuring me that you knew what the hell just happened, for saying that it was like Brick (!), for supporting me when plot suddenly decided it wanted in on the fun, for reminding me that summary is for the story summary and not its own wikipedia entry, and for just plain liking this insanity and encouraging me to keep going.
Thank you, clex_monkie89 for my art. My wonderful fabulous art. Thank you for always saying "sure" when I asked for yet another thing - BLINKING! IT BLINKS! You went from a title card to a couple of banners to ten things - and I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!
Beta Credits
waterofthemoon beta'd most of this. And again, any remaining errors are most likely my stubborn nature rather than her skill. She was willing even knowing my love of italics and comma abuser history.
For a while, it didn't look like her own upcoming deadlines were going to let her finish. At the 11th hour, kaethe stepped in to beta, and was beyond gracious when it turned out Sara was going to finish. If you can tell that the story is in Jared's pov from the start, thank Katie!
Charlee and Sara were in the trenches with me for so long, none of us could think objectively about it anymore. So I sent an SOS out to rynnalynn for another set of eyes and she answered the call tremendously. In sickness and in health, babe. THANK YOU TOO, RYN!!!!
Then I found out hezio2 KNOWS THE MOVIE! Your last minute cheerleading helped me through a dark spot there. Thank you!
I love all my betas and cheerleaders more than the fic. (Well, at least as much as the nose kisses.)
THANK YOU ALL.
For those that don't know - The Thin Man movies were made in the 30s and 40s with William Powell and Myrna Loy - the first was based on a book by Dashiell Hammitt - who also created Sam Spade (the Humphrey Bogart character in The Maltese Falcon). He's a big name in the hard boiled detective genre. "Noir" was originally a sub-genre (although these days its usually considered the other way around).
The narration and Jared's inner voice owes more than a little to Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe Mysteries. It is its own separate beast. If you haven't seen the Timothy Hutton A&E Nero Wolfe series, you really should.
Universe Building - (Things that didn't make it into the fic)
Though it's not stated in the fic. Jensen is 34 (born 1900) and Jared is 30 (born 1904). This is the layout for their hotel suite. This is the table seating chart for the Ackles Dinner Party in Chapter 7.
World War I service and the Flapper Culture: For purposes of my fic, same sex marriage was legalized at the same time women got the right to vote and the movements were side-by-side and closely linked to one another. The movements would have started in the mid to late 1800s and the bill to give them rights was delayed by the US entering WWI.
Now in their thirties in the fic, Jared and Jensen grew up in the roaring 20s and both were very young veterans of World War I.
Jensen enlisted with his brother in 1918. His brother was killed in action during his first week in combat. Jensen's mother made the HUGE mistake of not listening to the Army and opening the casket. She had a nervous breakdown and his father has a fatal stroke that same month. Jensen was discharged without seeing any action to go home to care for her. He also found himself the head of a large family fortune which survives the Crash by way of excellent accountants and not a large presence on the stock market. The family is kinda nuts and appears in sequels. Jensen was by no means a stay at home smothered sensitive type - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3svvCj4yhYc -
Jared was in the Army Medical Corps and saw the fighting in the trenches. He came back after only 8 months of combat when the war ended. Suffering slightly from shell shock, he dropped plans to be a doctor and instead stumbled into a career as a detective. (To the disappointment of his father). He lived the playboy life as a private detective throughout the roaring 20s.
Speaking of the the Roarin' 20s - The Woman's Sufferage (Right to Vote) and the Marriage Reform Act both passed through Congress immediately following the war. So the generation Jensen and Jared belong to have had the right to wed for about 15 years at the time of the fic. It's accepted widely, if still a little uncomfortably by the older generation and extreme christian right. Jared meets Jensen in early 1929 on a case and they are married in early 1930. Jared is done with the private dectective's life and is learning the business from Jensen. Jensen was born rich and knows how to play it to his advantage. Jared has more street savvy which makes him a good partner.
The Dancing: The Charleston. The sideways flat step is what I imagine Jared doing as he shakes the martini in the opener.
The Continental (You Kiss While You're Dancing). J2's wedding dance song that I am totally making come out earlier than it did. And yes, they picked it just because you kiss every verse as part of the dance. It also helps that it's from a movie titled The Gay Divorcee.
More Charleston - when they are drunk (read: nightly), Jensen will convince Jared to attempt to dance like this. At the end of the first year, the estimated damage total was $14,000. Jared decided that marrying Jensen would at least consolidate the bill. But seriously, can't you picture them dancing like this?
The Title
For the longest time, this was simply "the j2 thin man fic". Then it was dubbed "Never Enough Words" - a joke about my exponentially increasing word count and a quote from their wedding vows. sophie_448 pointed out that no one was going to want to read a story that implied there were too many words in it. I realized she was right and finally settled on Murder and Martinis as it seemed everything I wrote was either someone dying or drinking. THANKS sophie_448!
The Thank Yous and the Finger Pointing
So Mom and I watched AMC's Thin Man Marathon on New Years. Years ago, at EyeCon 1, I had the random thought that Jared and Sandy would make a perfect Nick and Nora Charles. But never felt the urge to write it. And every thing was FINE and happy in my world until New Year's when somehow a J2 AU version started to work its way into my brain. I started a google doc and opened a chat with Clex and Sara.
There were long incomprehensible conversations about the difference between "noir" and the "hard boiled detective" genres. (Noir is bleaker and less overt humor. There's also a better than average chance that the main character dies.) I copy/pasted huge sections of wikipedia at them and got on some crazy rant about Flappers and Shell Shock (some of which still exists above - more of which somehow inspired this fic by waterofthemoon). And they STILL encouraged me.
Then poor Sara tried to help and we discovered that there is no such thing as "succinct" in this style. No matter what I did, the word count kept growing. I don't remember how I convinced Charlee to do the art, but I did and it's so fucking fantastic, I don't even know. And I suddenly realized why the long fic authors have these pages. Because there's a story behind the story, and in many ways, it's crazier than anything you ever put in the fic itself.
THANK YOU clex_monkie89 and THANK YOU waterofthemoon. Thank you for dutifully clicking all the links, for loving that it's Icarus, for reassuring me that you knew what the hell just happened, for saying that it was like Brick (!), for supporting me when plot suddenly decided it wanted in on the fun, for reminding me that summary is for the story summary and not its own wikipedia entry, and for just plain liking this insanity and encouraging me to keep going.
Thank you, clex_monkie89 for my art. My wonderful fabulous art. Thank you for always saying "sure" when I asked for yet another thing - BLINKING! IT BLINKS! You went from a title card to a couple of banners to ten things - and I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!
Beta Credits
waterofthemoon beta'd most of this. And again, any remaining errors are most likely my stubborn nature rather than her skill. She was willing even knowing my love of italics and comma abuser history.
For a while, it didn't look like her own upcoming deadlines were going to let her finish. At the 11th hour, kaethe stepped in to beta, and was beyond gracious when it turned out Sara was going to finish. If you can tell that the story is in Jared's pov from the start, thank Katie!
Charlee and Sara were in the trenches with me for so long, none of us could think objectively about it anymore. So I sent an SOS out to rynnalynn for another set of eyes and she answered the call tremendously. In sickness and in health, babe. THANK YOU TOO, RYN!!!!
Then I found out hezio2 KNOWS THE MOVIE! Your last minute cheerleading helped me through a dark spot there. Thank you!
I love all my betas and cheerleaders more than the fic. (Well, at least as much as the nose kisses.)
THANK YOU ALL.