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This story is littered with references to other authors, of both erotic and non-erotic fiction, who have played an influential role in the evolution of my writing. If you want to try and hunt for them, go ahead; drop me a line if you think you've seen one, and I'll confirm or disprove it. Extra points if you think it's you being referenced. One reference does need to be given away at the start. It's not a coincidence that Arie's and Brandon's high school (Mount Hill) follows in the footsteps of Westport High: Mr. Downey's were the first NiS stories I ever read, and they awakened my interest in this genre. At the same time, though, I was startled at how formulaic NiS stories have become--with Mr. Downey, again, as something of an exemplar. Romance, mushy, blah blah blah. Thus I wrote both in homage and in response to him; he provides the context against which it was written. Even crazier, I was lucky enough to have his editing and advice in getting it wrapped up. In short, this story is dedicated, with thanks, great admiration, and just a bit of an elbow in the ribs, to Frank Downey. Because I bet everyone's getting it wrong: 'Arie' is not the astrological sign without an S, it's the mermaid name missing an L: "AH-ree." 'Sajel' is pronounced "SAY-gel" if you're having problems with that too. And no, there have not been various and multi-confusing name changes surrounding the character of Zachary Crane. Not. None. Totally not. Completely no. Not. Okay. The two characters featured in Wednesday's episode, George and Penny, were created with Frank's permission. Which I did need. Westport High is his realm and his alone; even the most minor incursions must be cleared through him. Please do not attempt to insert characters into the background of his stories without asking him first. In another matter: all references to and quotations of the Program's Pamphlet refer to Gary Jordan's interpretation, found here. Gary's (now tenyari's) index is, as of this writing, the single most complete nexus of Naked In School stories on the Web. If you like the genre and want to see else is out there, it's the best place to start. The saying Derek's heard--"No means no, maybe means no, etc"--is from a friend of mine, who says it's from some major-league sports coach. Unfortunately, he didn't say which coach, and I can't remember which sport. Praise and laurels to sharp-eyed readers, who between them spotted: broken capitals in the name "Palestrina;" a number of misspellings and broken HTML tags in Thursday and Friday; missing words and some grammar gaffes in Monday; and, most notably, an important factual fix: one told me that Brandon's overdose should have been far more lethal than I made it out to be; and the other suggested an alternative drug that would have left him alive. And, finally, a hundred bulls sacrificed in the Grecian tradition to Erik Thread, who provided an impressive number of grammar fixes and overlooked spelling gaffes; to Rick in Eureka MO, for fixes from Wednesday onward; and to Roger Yaeger, who took the time to comb this story and list every single typo or questionable grammar gaffe he found. The story, copy-pasted straight from browser, is 261 pages long. Words cannot express the depths of my gratitude. Do you guys accept oral sex instead? Candlelight Vigil is not a real website. --Well, that's not true. There are undoubtedly websites named "Candlelight Vigil," but I am not a member of any of them, I am not writing about them, and (so far as I know) none of them serve the depressed-teen / cutting-teen demographic. Even if such a site did exist, I would have changed its name. Candlelight is based on two sites that did exist and which I participated in, Kip's Garage and This I Pray, but both are long gone--at least, the Garage is; if you can manage to find TIP through Google, you're a braver person than I. However, one of my correspondents, a fellow named David, sent along a link to a site that seems to serve the same demographic: an MSN.com group called Silent Struggles. However, I'm not personally involved in this group, and cannot attest to the quality and temperament of its member base. There are also Yahoo and Google directories on the subject. On June 7th, 2005, the official Version 2.0 of this story was uploaded, consisting mostly of fixes to Sajel's dialogue, as her character has changed drastically since the writing of this story. On August 16 2008, the official Version 3.0 of this story was uploaded, consisting mostly of a change to Mr. Crane's name, continuing revisions of his and Sajel's characterization, and the introduction of Christa Sternbacher, so that all eight main characters have appeared by the end of Monday's narration. |