2. Passions  
     Feeling a little more confident (nobody, far as I knew, had read SOSN except myself and Tim, but I felt it was adequate), I decided to take the big jump. Goliath and Elisa. Here we go. 
     I'd been inspired by a dream I'd had, though the only image that was taken exactly from the dream was the confrontation between Elisa and Vito Draconi on the rooftop. In which she/I (for I was Elisa in the dream) raised her/my hands in mock surrender, only to be hoisted to safety by Goliath. 
     The rest of the dream actually involved making out in a park only to be interrupted by a gun-toting Demona and from there it turned into a chase and shootout, darn it all. I always thought it was intriguing -- my subconscious placed me into Elisa, because not even in my dreams would I pair myself with Goliath. Or anybody else, for that matter. I adore him, but part of what makes him so wonderful is them as a couple. 
     Goliath and Elisa. Here we go. 
     And then I chickened out. 
     I couldn't go into detail. Not in that story. 
     So I turned to Demona instead, and got her started on the path of depravity that she and I have walked so often together. It stood to reason to me, mostly because it's just the sort of malicious thing I would do to a player character in one of my games, that the spell which shared pain between Demona and MacBeth would share pleasure, too. What had really happened in Paris, the City of Love? 
     To my surprise and delight, this story was remarkably well-received by the then-rather-small fandom. I'd posted it to the sex-stories board, but when I joined a Gargoyles mailing list, imagine my shock to find my story the subject of discussion! It 
seemed that at the time there had not been much in the way of Gargoyles erotica done, and the stuff that had been bore a suspicious resemblance to Penthouse letters with the names changed for those of the characters (pet peeve of mine). 
     Title: I wanted something simple that gave a good hint where I was going, but there were other passions beyond the sensual in here. Vito's passion for poker and his passion for larceny were what led him into his association with Dominique (initially appearing as Mona Winger; what was I thinking to come up with that ghastly pun of a name?). 
     Memorable line: "Holy shit! Mars needs women!" 
 

3. Ever After  
     When I first posted this story, I forgot to put the date on there. It takes place in 2031. 
     The idea was that after more long years of villainy and general psycho-bitchiness, Demona would for some unspecified reason have a change of heart and realize that rather than being each others' doom, she and MacBeth could be each others' solace during the long immortal years ahead of them. Plus, the fact that they would never have it better than they had it with each other had something to do with it, I'll admit ; ) 
     And then, because I really was coming to view this series of stories as my own internal role-playing game, I threw in the Weird Sisters and complicated things with an unexpected conception. Anyone who's played in one of my games would know that I really get a kick out of doing mean things like that to characters. 
     I agonized over the dialogue in this one. To get it just right, I had to be able to actually hear MacBeth in my head. Him, Goliath, and Xanatos have consistently proven to be the hardest ones to capture in that way. 
     Since it was set in Maine, I couldn't help throwing in a few references to Stephen King country. Subsequently, I've found that I enjoy sneaking homages to my favorite authors into my stories. 
     Title: As in "Happily ever after," which stikes me funny because I wrote it well before I knew they were making a movie of the same title with Drew Barrymore as Cinderella. And in the case of Demona and MacBeth, "ever after" was a long, long time indeed. 
     Memorable line: "I am tired of fighting. Tired of hating. I want a chance to love again." 
 

4. Where You Need to Be  
     All I can say in my defense is that while nearly all of us hooked Lexington up with a girl over the Internet, I was one of the first ; ) 
     This was the first of the Aiden stories. But it wasn't enough for me to have him meet a girl. I wanted to do something different, something a little more. And then it hit me -- make her a sorceress. Because, usually, technology and magic don't mix, so what would happen if tech-loving Lex met a spellchucker? 
     But to do that, I needed a mechanism, a reasonable if not necessarily realistic explanation for how an ordinary teenager would have magical powers. I spent days mulling that over in the back of my mind. I didn't want to make her half-fey; I wanted to 
leave Fox fairly unique in that regard. Which left human sorcery. 
     One idea that I came up with and rejected never did quite leave my mind, though it took me another 47 stories to get around to using it. 
     Eventually, though, I wondered in a mental aside what had ever happened to Mary and Finella. And, ka-pow, the rest of it all fell into place. 
     Title: Because that's where Avalon had sent them, or, more specifically, when. And because it was where Aiden needed to be. And Lex, too. 
     Memorable lines: 
          "But it's Must See TV Thursday!" 
          "Xanatos, to rhyme with scum." 
 

5. Family Reunion  
     No more chickening out. The time had come to write what had happened after the "fade-to-black" in Elisa's apartment. How to do it? Hmm, what about a nice sisterly chat? 
     So I sent Elisa to Las Vegas and discovered the Taylor family. Including Aunt Agnes. If Vito Draconi's Nana was the prototype, in Aunt Agnes, I really hit a nerve. There is, as Zazu told Mufasa, one in every family. 
     In an odd coincidence, Leva Mevis independently came up with the name Nikki Taylor as Elisa's cousin. When we realized this, it made perfect sense to have Nikki be Agnes' granddaughter, and the two have visited back and forth between our universes ever since. 
     Why Vegas? 
     Well ... I wanted to play with a different setting, and had visited Vegas the year before. We stayed at the Luxor (neat place, though disorienting). 
     Title: Not only did it revolve around a family reunion, the Taylor celebration, but I wanted to bring Talon and Delilah into it for a reunion of another sort. Delilah was finally accepted by Elisa as being a part of her family by ties of blood. 
     Memorable line: "Bible Tag!" 
 

6. Sins of the Father  
     This was one occasion where I was actually writing two stories at the same time, this one and Family Reunion. Talon and Delilah stopped off in Vegas on their way to the Pacific Northwest. The whole reason I had Maggie get preggers was so Talon would have to bring Delilah instead. The whole reason I wanted Delilah along was so I could introduce Samson. Because it seemed to me that there had to be a Samson. 
     Who should he be? That was the thing. I have been very reluctant to introduce new clans of gargoyles; it took many more stories before I created a clan of my own instead of using Avalon or London's folk. 
     Samson had to be big, he had to be strong, he had to have hair. Lots of hair. Now, I'm the first to say that I hardly know a thing about matters Biblical (though I'm sure Thomas would be the second to say it <g>), but I knew that much at least. He had to have hair, even if it wasn't the source of his strength. (I have to confess, with great shame, that what I know I got partly from reading the appropriate sections of the actual Bible and partly from a typically-trashy VC Andrews novel in which there is a production of a ballet based on that myth.) 
     Living in the Pacific Northwest, I have heard many stories about big strong creatures with lots of hair. So I made Samson a Sasquatch mutate. Who better to make a mutate than good old Dr. Sevarius? The subject's name had to be Sam ... aha! From there, it was easy. 
     One of the things I have consistently enjoyed is expanding upon bit players. Such as Judge Halverson, who made his debut here. I also took this opportunity to suggest my own explanation for how Sevarius "faked" his death and came back looking young and healthy. 
     Title: there's a proverb or saying or something about how the sins of the fathers shall be visited on the sons, even unto the third and fourth generations. Sevarius is a father figure to Samson, the mutates, Thailog ... even Delilah. Oddly, I am told there is a video game with that title in which one of the voices is Tim Curry ... 
     Memorable line: With his lifegiving hands, he grabbed his frail son by the shoulders and slammed him up and down on the bed. 
     Other: Disneyland is one of my favorite places in all the world. We used to go there every year when I was a kid, so I feel I know it well -- or at least the Disneyland of back then; it's changed a lot and though I rationally know Star Tours replaced it at least ten 
years ago, my heart still tells me that what I used to call "the shrinky ride" is still in that spot. So I sent Samuel there, and his favorite ride is mine, too (but then, I have a thing for pirates <g>) 
 

7. Confession  
     Watching a rerun of "Temptation" one day, I said to myself, "She is putting some serious moves on him." 
     That was all it took. Brooklyn's hatred for Demona seemed pretty extreme, as if there had been more to it than what we saw. Of all my stories, this one reminds me most of my Lion King one, because it fills in so much that was left unseen and makes so much sense to so many people. 
     Of course, thanks to me, now nobody who's read it can ever watch that episode the same way again ... 
     Title: I have a fondness for one-word "ion" titles. Passions, Confession, Attraction ... 
     Memorable line: "Ohh, you are grown up." 
 

8. The Tempest  
     Of all my stories, this one, I think, would make the best episode. And I imagine that, of all of them, it is the one that Greg would get the biggest kick out of because he's a Shakespeare nut. 
     I was amazed how well this story worked, how well the cast fit into the appropriate roles. I'd been wondering how Fox and Xanatos met, how Renard lost the use of his legs, what it was like when Owen worked for Renard. 
     I wrote this one with an open copy of the play at my side, and chose names for the minor characters based on it (Steve Trink for Trinculo, for instance). Another thing I had fun with was setting it in the 1970's, so of course the high-tech equipment had to look like it does in dated movies of that time. Humungous computers with reels of spinning tape, etc. 
     Sometimes, I will write a whole story just to have an excuse to use one single scene or line. I also love recycling bits of dialogue from the actual show as a sort of in-joke thing. This one was a set-up for Attraction. 
     Title: fairly obvious 
     Memorable line: "This is no longer a lark." 
 

9. The Heist  
     As many of you know, I married Matt Bluestone. 
     Well, not exactly. But my husband Tim is a conspiracy freak and knows more about the Illuminati than I think it's safe to know. The game company with which we most frequently associate, Steve Jackson Games, is also very into such "all-seeing" matters. 
     So, naturally, when Matt Bluestone first appeared and uttered the words, "They're called the Illuminati ..." I howled with glee. And it was inevitable that I should eventually include them in my fanfic. Especially because there seems to be such a perception of them as "bad" guys. I hoped to present them in what Tim agreed was a more likely vein. 
     Sometimes, characters are just so right that it's impossible to do it any other way. There was never a question that the Grandmaster would not be a deliberate depiction of Patrick Stewart. This of course was only made stronger by that "Stonecutters" episode of The Simpsons ... 
     I was really getting to like Vito Draconi. I handled his death badly. I hate killing off characters, in games and in stories, and usually do a rushed and poor job of it. 
     On the other hand, I loved writing Matt Bluestone. His interactions with his fellow Illuminati, his disgusted realization that he and Xanatos made a good team (I think one of my favorite moments ever was when the two of them came into Elisa's apartment after she and Goliath had passionately trashed the bedroom), and his weird combination of belief and skepticism make him a fun character to explore. 
     If you look real close, you'll find Vinnie ... 
     Title: I wanted something that had a vaguely gritty 1940's feel. How often do you hear the word "heist" used nowadays? ; ) 
     Memorable line: "Bite me." 
 

10. Attraction  
     They tell us to "write what you know." Now, while I don't know anything about being a millionaire, a stage magician, or a dirty-dancing babe, I did draw upon some of my own personal experiences in this story. Very minor ones, I assure you. I set 
it in Seattle, my current home, and Fox and Xanatos not only go to dinner at one of Tim and my favorite restaurants; they have the exact same meal that we always have. 
     When I was planning this story, I'm afraid I made many a member of the mailing list shriek in outraged laughter. All it took was a message titled "David Xanatos -- Boxers or Briefs?" I couldn't decide and wanted to see what the fans as a whole thought of the matter. The results were overwhelming. Boxers. Silk ones. 
     And of course, the discussion branched out from there ... Owen is a pristine white Jockey shorts man, for example ... I'm sure you can imagine the rest ; ) 
    One thing about this story that I was very proud of was the safe sex. I was worried about it; one always reads complaints about how it "breaks the mood," yet it seemed a very appropriate thing for Xanatos and Fox to do. I am pleased that I managed in what I still feel was a rather sexy, funny, and non-mood-breaking way. 
     I have never eaten lutefisk and don't know (or even want to know) what it is. I have known one cat as big as Mr. Wulfstan's, and he really could put your legs to sleep when he sat on your lap. 
     Title: "ion" again ; ) 
     Memorable lines: 
          "Know her? I named her!" 
          "Mr. Xanatos, I'm afraid we have a problem," he said evenly, and pitched face-first onto the floor. 
 

11. Sterling Silver  
     I didn't want Aiden to come across as a Mary Sue, so she couldn't be good at everything she did. In fact, it helped to have her be downright inept at some things. Inept, lost, and insecure, that's my Aiden. 
     This was the first story I wrote after The Goliath Chronicles began. As far as I'm concerned, the best things that came of that were the establishing of MacBeth as a professor, giving Margot a job and a last name, and the Quarrymen (because I think it's such a cool name with its double meaning). 
     The Owenite Nuns warned me that I was probably going to get in trouble for daring to pair off their darling with anybody. I felt I was up to the challenge, though, and thought they might be more inclined to forgive me if matters were totally out of his control. 
     I love Birdie. She is the closest thing I have to a Mary Sue, an extension of my own smartass self into the stories. I have never dressed like that, though, and will probably never have the piercings or tattoos. 
     Many of the moments in this story will always be near and dear to my heart. Owen singing "On the Street Where You Live." Birdie playing Tchaikovsky when Owen and Cordelia strike their dramatic pose. MacBeth walking in on the class while they're discussing the play by the same name. 
     Title: In a short-lived game in which all the PCs were supernaturally-gifted children, I had them attend a place called the "Sterling Academy" to be trained in their various powers. It was only natural to use the same name (though the headmistress 
changed quite a bit). The "Silver" half of the title came partly because it went so darn well with "Sterling" and partly because Aiden's magic tends to manifest in silvery light. 
     Memorable line: "She looks like a douche commercial." 
 

12. Kittens  
     This is probably in the top five best things I've ever written. I used to say it was #1, but I think The Pure and the Profane gives it a run for its money. 
     I wanted to get brutal. I wanted to get violent. I wanted something on a big scale, intense, suspenseful. 
     I got what I wanted. 
     This was one of those rare and precious occasions when I blazed. The story seemed to come through me; it was springing full-blown into my head faster than I could type. I thought about it almost constantly, couldn't wait to get to work so I could write. It was just one giant "Wow!" from beginning to end, and I probably made those around me sick because I kept marvelling aloud how damn good I was. 
     The scene with Goliath and Elisa turning to stone still chokes me up. Even now, thinking of him pleading with her, "Stay with me," and I go all gooey and teary-eyed. 
     Title: for Maggie and Talon's twins (with thanks to Anne, because I've never seen "Cats" and she provided the names). 
     Memorable lines: 
          "Lemme 'lone, Mom, it's Saturday." 
          FROM THE BRAIN OF ANTON SEVARIUS. 
          At which point, Talon went purely bugshit. 
 

13. Night Moves  
     After something as powerful as Kittens, I needed to relax and write something spicy and fun. This one wasn't a story that included sex but a sex vignette that just happened to advance a couple of plot points (Matt's absence, Goliath's proposal). 
     For the record, I own that dress, but even when I could wear it, I never looked a fraction as good as Elisa. I love Brooklyn and Broadway seeing her on the battlements, and Brooklyn's pulse-pounding thoughts on the subject of whether being "queer for humans" was a good or bad thing. 
     I'm told that this story was responsible for a lot of cold showers and more than a few morning-after smiles on the faces of many a couple ; ) 
     Title: I'm not sure where that came from. It just was. That was the title, like it or not, there wasn't anything I could do about it. Luckily, I like it. 
     Memorable line: "It's the Wonderbra, isn't it?" 
 

14. Double Date  
     Thailog was too good a character to be dead, but I wanted to bring him back in some utterly bizarre and unexpected way, yet make it work. I enjoy setting myself these kind of challenges. Can I do (whatever) and make it make sense? 
     So I made him the bass player of a rock band. And it turned out better than I ever could have hoped. Ebon (as he was now known) and the rest of Scarlet Angel seemed to strike a chord (sorry!) with many readers. 
     I love connecting characters to other characters. In this story, we have Nick Diamond, aka Nicholas Diamant, whose sister Tina is one of Aiden's classmates and whose grandfather Tybalt is one of the Illuminati Fifth Circle. 
     This originally was intended to be just a funny story, but the more I got into it, the darker it became, with Nick being such a prick and Julianna's suicide attempts. But that gave me the opportunity to trigger Ebon's Goliath-instinct, saving the falling 
brunette and eventually coming to love her. 
     Title: I was trying to be clever here -- Aiden and Birdie went on a double date, but this was also a Thailog story, and his debut was in "Double Jeopardy," so the title had a double meaning <g>. 
     Memorable line: "That would be my line, if you'd ever seen Goliath getting out of the shower." 
 

15. The Eurydice Project  
     I love Greek mythology, and I love doing these sorts of weirdo-alternate character transferences. It's amazing how well they work out sometimes. 
     People ask me how far I have things planned out. Eurydice, after all, made her first ghostly appearance in The Heist, several stories ago. But what I really do is this -- every so often, I just write things in, and then go back later to figure out what story goes 
around it. 
     These little hooks help me keep going, even if I have no idea at the time what will become of it. I'll read back through, spot something, and say to myself, "Oh, that's right, you were going to do something with that." And, hey-presto! another story! 
     That's where I get my ideas. They sort of spawn themselves. Like much of my technique, this owes a lot to gaming (wow, it's sounding like I'm touting the hobby bigtime here <g>), because if you want to have more than a one-shot game, you have to leave plenty of things upon which to build. 
     'Fess up, Christine -- okay. Sometimes, things happen that I can tie back to a story that I wrote way back when, and everybody is impressed with how well I plan, when really all I'm doing is making a connection in such a way that it looks like it's what I had in mind all along. 
     Now I'm rambling within my ramblings. Enough. 
     The Eurydice Project mostly happened because of all the Greek myths, this one was the one I liked best. The chance to put hard-headed Matt into such a freaky-mystic situation was one I couldn't pass up. 
     Title: like Night Moves, there was never any speculation as to another title for this one. It came with its own. 
     Memorable line: "I'm sorry I called your wife a bimbo, if that makes any difference." 
 

16. A Gargoyles Christmas Special  
     This one was written in December of 1996 when I found myself thinking that Hudson would make a pretty cute Santa. That, combined with the antlers-for-dogs they sell around that time of year, was what got me started. 
     The cloved orange kissing game played at the end of the story is something I picked up from my occasional forays into the SCA, where it was a popular thing to do at revels. 
     Title: The whole story just had to be called that, and then I thought it would be fun to give each of the sections a line from an appropriate carol. 
    Memorable line: "She's shooting to miss!" 
 

17. Angela's Awakening  
     Angela has a reputation of being a real goody-goody. I asked myself if I could keep most of that, while still making her sexy. And since I'd just established that the Avalon Clan was having a breeding season (mentioned in Part III of the Xmas Special), 
I had to also ask myself how they figured it out with no older gargoyles around to give them "the talk." 
     This story has created some controversy and bad feelings; some people do not at all agree with the idea of "frolicsome matings" and don't think that the gargoyles would be so open, exploratory, and carefree about sex. Me, I disagree and think they 
would be even more so than humans, because unless they want to, they don't risk pregnancy. 
     Here we have the first appearance of Jericho. He was a character that I didn't so much create as discover; it's like he was out there all along and I just happened to be the first to find him. He was so right in his role as Angela's brother, her flip side. His name was chosen because I wanted something with vaguely ominous and destructive connotations (at the time, I suspected he would become a bad guy but more in a challenging-Gabriel sort of way; I had no idea I would wind up with the Jericho we all know and love today). 
     Title: "Awakenings," of course, was the title of the first few epsodes. But I also used it in the romance novel / Victorian smut sense of a young girl's awakening to her sensuality. 
     Memorable line: "They must be sick. See how they moan and roll about?" 
 

18. A Noble Indiscretion  
     Realizing that I eventually wanted to tackle the storyline of children for Goliath and Elisa, I decided I had better establish a case precedent. Had there ever been humans and gargoyles getting together? How was I going to handle it? 
     I seized upon one of those "hooks" from Angela's Awakening. Elektra. The Magus' pupil, who had developed slightly faster than her sisters (side note: her name was chosen because the Elektra Complex is the female variation of the Oedipus one; I had it in mind that she would have very undaughterly feelings toward her father-figure, the Magus; as it turned out, that fell by the wayside because of the overpowering Oedipal thing that developed between Jericho and Demona). 
     Assuming Elektra was half-human, I just had to figure out who her parents were, how it had happened, and how anyone else would find out. And then I had one of those mean thoughts -- wouldn't Katherine just have a fit if her own father had boinked 
a she-garg? 
     Writing journal-style is always a challgence because getting the "voice" right is even harder than getting dialogue right. So far, I've done it three times in my universe -- this one, the Innsbrook story, and Aiden's diary. I feel pretty good about how they all turned out. 
     The White Gargoyle turned out to be a fascinating character; I'm sure we'll see her again sometime. I also enjoyed the Malcolm's-eye-view of Goliath, Demona, and the rest of the clan. 
     Title: another instance in which the title just came to me. 
     Memorable line: Our discussion was cut short by the arrival of his mate, who with one artful turn of a well-formed leg not only rendered Goliath unfit to speak further but entranced several of my guardsmen as well. 
 

19. Future Imperfect  
     Once a plotline is well-established, it is fun to mess with people's heads. That's why "Future Tense" was so upsetting. Even after we realized it wasn't real, we were still shaken, still fiercely denying those things that could be.  So I had this notion of doing a "vision or a prophecy" of my own, and got much more than I bargained for. Before it was done, I was hating this story. I was 
convinced that it stank, it sucked, it reeked. It came tough, not at all easy to write. I didn't know where it was going but it didn't seem to be going there on its own. I was scribbling timelines, trying to figure out who was born and who dies when (there are 
some inconsistencies still, I think). 
     When it was finally done -- and I spent many nights stomping around the office cussing because I was sure that I'd lost it, used myself up -- I just posted it and said to hell with it. I was deeply astonished at the positive responses. When I went back and read it, I saw that it was much better than I'd thought, and it was only my frustration at having to work so hard to get it written that had colored my perceptions of it. 
     Now that I had that dark future in place, I got to have some real fun by letting things lead up to it. Demona and MacBeth would have a baby; this we knew from Ever After. Same for Owen and Cordelia, and the betrothal to Alex was already in place. And with one line, that bit about a rogue gargoyle from the Avalon Clan, I knew right then that Jericho was going to be much more of a handful than I'd anticipated. 
     Title: deliberate takeoff on "Future Tense," still a grammatical term, but an imperfect and undesired future. 
     Memorable line: "Sex! The old hide-the-carrot!" 
     Weirdness: I wrote this before the Furby craze; makes you wonder about Aiden's stuffed Gizmo toy ... 
 

20. Black Roses 
     My husband Tim got hooked on Millennium. We'd watch it every week, Fridays just before I'd go to work (which, of course, is where I get most of my writing done). That is why the opening scene of this one positively smacks of that eerie moody dark paranormal mystery show stuff. 
    This story happened mostly because I got wanting to do something kinda wicked. I had an "encounter" in mind for Fox Xanatos and Matt Bluestone, but there was no way I could have it "really" happen without disrupting a whole lotta things. Hence the dream sequence. But why? While it is fun writing such things, putting them in for no good reason is just cheap sensationalism (as opposed to the high literary standards characterizing the rest of my stories ...) 
     So I needed a reason for a dream. A naughty dream. And that's how I came up with the incubus idea. Which led to one of the most striking and (I'm told) unnerving bits in any of my work -- that brief bit with Aiden and MacBeth. 
     I liked this one so well that I am currently in the process of adapting it into a full-length horror novel. Of course, this means beaucoup stuff needs to be changed -- all the gargoyles have to go, etc. But the basic premise, that of the incubus, is still the same (and my protagonist, Theresa Zane, not only has a name that is vaguely reminiscent of Elisa Maza but also looks like her; if they ever make a movie of it, Salli Richardson would be perfect!) 
 One of the things I liked best about this one was Nikki. Nikki's a hoot, as I may have said before, and I am indebted to Leva for creating her ; ) 
     It was interesting to take a look at Elisa's past. In Passions, Goliath finds an old postcard to Beth from Elisa, about a vacation-gone-bad with her ex-boyfriend Mark. In Passions also, Elisa makes some joke about not wanting to turn Goliath loose on her old boyfriends because he'd tear them apart. Which was exactly what Matt first thinks when the incubus' battered victims are found. 
     (Side note -- is Raptor not the coolest name for a dog?!? <g>) 
     Title: for the longest time, this one was untitled, because I just couldn't come up with something I liked. I didn't want the title to be a giveaway. I wanted it to be something a little sexy, a little spooky. Then I was reading Hideaway by Dean Koontz, and one of the characters was doing a painting, a central image of which was a haunting black rose. I liked it, I used it, and had to go back and add in all of the rose references. 
     Memorable line: "Wild monkey sex in the back of his limo!"