by ais | Sep 30, 2013 | behind the scenes, boyd, crossposted, editing, evenfall, icos, jokes, outtakes, what might have been
We’ve been working on the edits of the Evenfall rewrites this weekend. We broke the book into quadrants so we’ve been working on different chapters. I’m editing a scene in Evenfall chapter 22, and I cannot tell you how much I want to write something in dialogue I really just can’t do. But if I can’t stick it in story, at least I can blog about it. Behind a cut for spoilers in Evenfall chapter 22. This is the scene as it’s currently edited: — “What the hell is this?” “If you read it, you’ll see it gives me clearance—” “To release Vega to his apartment, yeah, I went to kindergarten, too,” the guard said snidely. He waved the paper in the air and glowered at Boyd. “I mean, this makes no fucking sense. This isn’t protocol. We get orders through chain of command, not through agents prancing around with special clearance straight from the Marshal.” — What I really really omg you guys don’t understand! want to have the guard say in that last line is: — “We get orders through chain of command, not through agents prancing around with their special snowflake paperwork.” — He can be the internet-friendly guard, all hip to the lingo from nearly a decade prior in an alternate timeline, right? I mean, that’s pretty normal,...
by ais | Sep 30, 2013 | behind the scenes, boyd, crossposted, extras, icos, jokes, not so very important conversations, outtakes
Two separate conversations, yesterday and today. 9/28/2013 Ais: good idea to use scrivener Santino: i know im so smart dont you wish you were this smart Ais: every moment of my life Santino: too bad Ais: i know i should probably just kill myself and let you do all the editing yourself Santino: you are emo Ais: lol i thought you were going to say “Okay, Boyd” Santino: LOL 9/29/2013 Ais: it wouldnt bother you if i did that? sweet im totally doing that Santino: why would i care Ais: idk Santino: i care about barely anything im basically boyd Ais: lol Santino: but ghetto — Poor Boyd. He gets no respect....
by ais | Sep 25, 2013 | behind the scenes, crossposted, extras, icos, jokes, not so very important conversations, outtakes
(Not So Very) Important Conversations, or NSVIC, are excerpts from joking conversations Sonny and I had during the process of writing, editing, or otherwise working on ICoS. This one is a joke about Fade’s epilogue, and even though I don’t think it contains spoilers past mid-Afterimage I’m still putting it behind a cut just in case. How April Fool’s Epilogue didn’t become a thing. convo on 1/23/2013 ais: aww i just got really sad that we’re not finishing the series anywhere around April sonny: why ais: we couldve totally punked everyone with a fake epilogue set 10 years later with sin marrying some random lady for april fool’s sonny: thats a terrible joke ais: it would be awesome for April Fool’s XD imagine how much that would mess with everyone Sent at 9:49 PM on Wednesday ais: wtf internet sonny: ?? ais: it signed me out of chat randomly anyway im just saying, it would be hilarious ann could come back suddenly and be like “oh btw sin i got pregnant back then and never told anyone, and so here is your kid and he really needs a father in his life” and sin would be like “oh ok well forget boyd then” and ann/sin ride off into the sunset and boyd commits suicide THE END WHY DOES IT KEEP SIGNING ME OUT sonny: because youre talking crazy ais: google hates my idea so much it kicks me off the internet FINE. as it turns out, after 6 years of watching us write this story, google has developed a love for boyd and sin and will not abide talk...
by ais | Sep 17, 2013 | behind the scenes, crossposted, icos, inspiration, keelin, owen, photos, pics, real people, what might have been
Over the years of writing In the Company of Shadows, we learned to be very fluid with our plot. There were some things we planned to do but when it came to that time in the story it just didn’t work anymore. Other times, we pushed a scene forward or back, or had to remove it altogether. Some plots were nixed, some were expanded. Some characters were supposed to reappear but the story was too compact to fit them. And more than once, I wrote multiple versions of the same scene well in advance of something I knew was coming, and by the time it appeared that scene changed dramatically. Any post labeled What Might Have Been or WMHB is a sneak peek into what was planned but didn’t end up happening. For the first post: Caoilfhionn O’Connell, aka, Keelin My favorite model inspiration for her so far is Anna Lutoskin from storm models. Keelin is Owen’s younger sister. She shows up in his side story -somnia, but that wasn’t supposed to be her only appearance. Keelin was going to end up working at the Agency. Most likely, she was going to become a civilian. There was also talk of her first appearing in the main series by meeting Hsin on a bus, probably in Afterimage. One of the things that would have been interesting about her was how it would have not only shown a civilian’s adjustment to the Agency, but also how it would have affected Owen to have his little sister so close. And how she would have dealt with the same secrecy and lies already...
by ais | Sep 17, 2013 | background info, behind the scenes, boyd, crossposted, icos, inspiration, pics, real people, yesteryears
This is the character Henry from the TV show Criminal Minds. Henry is played by Mekhai Andersen. From the moment I first saw him, he made me think of what Boyd would have looked like as a kid (except Boyd’s eyes are lighter). The way he acts in some of his scenes also seems Boyd-like to me. More than once I thought, “Aww, it’s okay baby Boyd!” This kid is seriously too cute for words, so have some animated gifs instead: Rock on, baby...
by ais | Sep 17, 2013 | behind the scenes, crossposted, evenfall, icos, locations, research, screenshots, trying for accuracy
Google streetview made the editing of the Monterrey arc of Evenfall about a thousand times easier and more accurate. This entry contains minor spoilers for around Evenfall chapter 37 so I’ve put it behind a cut. After researching the city to determine the neighborhood where Los Perdidos live and Lo Más Chingon hangs out, it also became easier to determine which areas Boyd would have identified for safe houses. Below is an example of the screenshots I took in the editing of that arc, to remember a feel for the setting of the area and to use as inspiration when describing the houses and streets. I figured out Boyd’s whole route and popped in along it on streetview to see the different areas and determine whether I needed to make a record of it. I also left myself notes on the screenshots so I could recall aspects of why that screenshot was taken. These are only three of several screenshots taken at that time:...
by ais | Sep 16, 2013 | background info, behind the scenes, crossposted, hsin, icos, languages, Q&A, research, trying for accuracy
Q: How do you write Hsin’s name/what is the Chinese character used for Hsin? A: This question has been asked by various people over the years. Below is a post taken from when this was first answered, on September 10, 2011, at our forum. Read the original post if you’d like. Original post: A few people have asked this question recently on AFFN reviews and possibly elsewhere. I can’t recall whether we ever answered this somewhere else on the forum, so for the moment I’m doing the answer here. Hsin is Xin in Mandarin. The specific character is this: or this if it’s drawn a little less pretty: It’s pronounced roughly like ‘shin’ in English, although kind of between shin and sheen. There are several meanings to it and I’m sure even the ones I list will be debated by native speakers. But the ones I saw were: letter / true / to believe / sign / evidence That’s in Mandarin, which is his native language. A side note from my Japanese kanji dictionary: that same character is used in Japanese, where it means trust, believe. It consists of word (second part) and person (first). “A person’s word is something which can be believed and trusted” is the way to remember it. For those of you who have read Fade chapter 7, that (信) is the pertinent character. What seems to be Hsin’s middle name is technically his last name in China. That’s Liu, which is this: So if you were to write his name out directly the way it’s said in English it would be this: Hsin Liu Vega 信 刘...
by ais | Sep 16, 2013 | behind the scenes, crossposted, evenfall, icos, Q&A, R&D, research, technology, trying for accuracy
On October 13, 2008 , in the course of an email chain with a reader B.L. (name redacted for privacy) we received the following question. This post is placed behind a cut for minor spoilers through about Evenfall chapter 17. Note: the conversation we had back and forth following the initial question/answer might be interesting for people to read so I included the reader’s question and my answer, and then after that included our back and forth. It’s labeled B.L. for the reader and Ais for me (if that last part wouldn’t have been, you know, self-evident or anything ^_~). Since this conversation happened years ago I didn’t get express permission from the reader to repost this. I am hoping that it is acceptable to share this since there are no identifying details, but if you are the reader and wish for me to remove the conversation please let me know and I will do so immediately. Thank you! Q: How did Jeffrey break the OTP encryption on the second half of Thierry’s disk? A: Good question. Actually, if Thierry hadn’t subtly helped them out, it would have basically been impossible. Jeffrey didn’t mention it but what ended up happening was that as he dug further on the disc, he’d located some small, hidden,encrypted files that at first he’d thought to be throw away, nonsense files. They were each encrypted with a different, long key in a Vigenère square and they’d seemed to just be inconsequential, incomprehensible information to distract from the two larger, more heavily encrypted files. But when he deciphered all those he eventually figured out that mixed in with the mess was the private...
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