Behind the Scenes of "Jo & Hilary's First Date" by Kelly Adams The story you've just read, "Jo & Hilary's First Date" (JHFD), was important to me in many ways. First, it was very well received by those who read it. I received many gushing compliments upon its publication, and Katie practically begged me to write this afterward for the romance festival. Second, and more importantly, it signaled a change in direction for me as an author. I began my career (such as it is) becoming quite well known for my 'Bedtime Stories' series, a fun but mostly lightweight set of stroke stories. Post JHFD I seem to be gathering a reputation as a writer of FF romance, which has seen my readership diminish in quantity but I have found to be much more fulfilling personally. I wish I could say that "JHFD" was inspired by actual events or somesuch. But in fact it bears little resemblance to any first date I ever had. At a deeper level though it resembles nearly every first date I or anyone else has ever had. While the details are always different, somewhere in the thoughts and feelings of the two characters I think that everyone can find something to relate to in their own lives. ------------- JHFD exists as part of a series of stories known as the Walnut Grove Chronicles, Walnut Grove (WG) being the town in which the stories mostly take place. (No relation to the town from "Little House on the Prairie," the name being an unfortunate example of the unconscious mind at work.) WG is something of a lesbian utopia, in that it seems to be a combination of small town virtues with a liberal view of homosexuality. A reader once asked if there were any heterosexual people in WG at all, to which I replied that there undoubtedly were, but that I don't find them interesting enough to write about :) The WG series was created accidentally, as friend Bill and I started sending bits of scenes back and forth via email, and realized eventually that we were writing a story. The story we wrote involved the two of us, plus Gretchen and a slutty redheaded librarian, Charity, rutting around in a library after-hours. That story will probably never see the light of day, as it was written piecemeal in two different second person POVs and would be ungainly to try to convert into a proper story. After we finished up that little exercise, Bill began writing a story on his own: "Bowling." This story featured Gretchen and myself, plus two new girls he invented: Andi & Jo. In what would become standard procedure for our WG stories, we wrote in chunks, sending me bits of the story every few days. When Bill finished "Bowling," I took up the reins and wrote "Andi & Jo Meet Charity," which united the protagonists of Bill's story with Charity from our first unpublished adventure. In what would become a pattern for later stories, in "AJMC" I planted the seeds for a future story, as the women briefly encountered Hilary, a teenage girl working in an ice cream shop they visited (before going to Charity's place to fuck their brains out...) Hilary was pretty much a cipher at this point, but I began to develop Jo's character a bit further, painting her as somewhat shy but very curious about the new world lesbian sex she had been recently introduced to. -------------- Which brings us to our focus story, "Jo & Hilary's First Date." (Not the most exciting title, I know--One glaring deficiency in my career as a writer of smut is my complete lack of imagination when it comes to titles!) In "AJMC," Charity decided to play cupid and got Hilary's phone number for Jo. Now it was time to see where that led. I couldn't have asked for two better characters to work with. The girls were on either side of college, with Jo having just graduated and Hilary a soon-to-be freshman. Hilary was younger but more comfortable being with other girls, though it is hinted that her actual sexual experience is somewhat limited. This contrasts with Jo's lesbian experience, which has been short but intense. I mentioned early on in this essay that "JHFD" was not based on real life, but that's a bit misleading, as Jo's relationship with her roommate Andi is very similar to my relationship with my own college roommate, with whom I shared a deep friendship and sexual relationship while at the same time we both carried on relationships with other people. (It should be noted that Jo & Andi's relationship was Bill's creation, not mine.) For me, the best part of the story to write was the middle section, where Jo & Hilary have their titular date. It was here that the girls started to reveal themselves to me as they shared their history with each other. And I still get all fluttery when I reread their first, brief kiss--there is, to my mind, nothing sexier than a first kiss. When I started the story, I had fully intended for Jo & Hilary to end up back at Jo's apartment for some fantastic sex. Imagine my surprise then when that didn't happen! In an experience that I'm sure other writers have encountered, my characters took on a life of their own and decided that they weren't yet ready to have sex! Instead, they spent some time making out with some light-to-medium petting, then Jo took Hilary home. Anticlimactic? Possibly. But also more realistic and, in a strange way, romantic. It leaves us with a sense of anticipation as to where things might lead next for our girls. ---------------- Speaking of next, several people have written to ask when I'll write the next chapter in the story of Jo & Hilary's courtship. to be honest, I'm not really sure. WG is a continuing series of loosely-connected stories, and as such there are plans for the girls to show up as supporting characters in future tales, but no concrete plans to feature them in an upcoming story. In two stories that I'm working on now, we'll get to meet Hilary's current best friend, Maggie (who was introduced briefly in another WG story, "Ginny Comes to Town"), as well as meet Hilary's former girlfriend from high school. I also have tentative plans to use Jo & Hilary in another story I've just started, but haven't yet decided how involved they will be. I also want to explore how Jo's relationship with Hilary affects her relationship with the other important woman in her life, Andi. There's also the matter of a difference of opinion between Bill and myself as to how Jo & Andi's relationship should play out--after all, he created the characters, so he should have some say in their fate, right? Bill thinks that Jo & Andi are soulmates and are destined to end up together, while I feel otherwise, if only for the selfish reason that I don't want to see "JHFD" 'marred' by having to have the girls break up. The good news is that there's great potential for a romantic triangle--or perhaps something of a more multi-sided polygon--and that makes for tension, which makes for good storytelling potential. ----------------- A few concluding noted before I end this exercise in naval-gazing: Bill wrote a companion piece to "JHFD," "Charity & Andi," which takes place at the same time, telling what Andi was up to after she sent Jo off on her date. Besides the above-mentioned stories, I'm also getting ready to write the concluding chapter of the "Ginny Trilogy" (which started with "Ginny Comes to Town" and continued in "Ginny's Good Day"). Bill is also part-way through a new story, and with a bit more prodding and guilt I might get him to finish soon! Thanks for taking the time to read my story as well as this long-winded behind-the-scenes look at its creation. If you'd like to read more Walnut Grove stories, including those mentioned above, just point your Webbrowser to /~Kelly/ and read away. And if you like what you read, be a doll and drop me a brief note of encouragement.