Playing with Fire

In Caffrey Conversation we've written several stories that include the celebration of holidays. For the Crossed Lines series, the pagan calendar—the Wheel of the Year—provides a rich playground. This cycle, which is linked to the solar solstices and equinoxes, is based on ancient festivals. Since Electra and her sisters are taking advantage of Wicca for their own purposes, I assumed pagan celebrations would hold a special significance for them. The initial concept for Fireflies at Midnight was to write a story revolving around the summer solstice. That the summer solstice is close to Father's Day was a moment of serendipity. The Wiccan term for the summer solstice celebration is Litha. When I discovered Litha is also known as the Fire Festival, I knew I had my theme.

Warning for minor spoilers for the Crossed Lines series

The title for the story is a nod to the song "Fires at Midnight" by Blackmore's Night. I became familiar with the piece when I was picking numbers for Fiona's Celtic fusion band to play at Thanksgiving in The Queen's Jewels. The setting for the song is a pagan festival. The lyrics, which describe a young witch wishing to the stars of the Pleiades—aka the Seven Sisters—for guidance with her magic, helped inspire the characters of Electra, Maia, and Chloe.

"Fires at Midnight" isn't the only song that provides sparks for this story. The Doors' classic hit "Light My Fire" is used to symbolize the romantic fireworks between Dean and Chloe. Sam and Maia's relationship begins to smolder as well. As for Neal and Electra, he's not feeling any heat, but Electra has some ideas on how to kindle the flames.

"Play with Fire" by the Rolling Stones references some of the other dangerous fires found in the story. The shooting stars that were seen in the night sky didn't cause any blazes, but did they incite something deadlier? Mozzie wonders about the fireflies in the meadow. Are they a harbinger of extraterrestrial vampires or perhaps space aliens themselves? As our heroes question just what sort of fire they're dealing with, forces are at work to provide them with yet another omen of a fire.

We've played with fire before in our stories. Travis described Sara as a firecracker in Caffrey Disclosure. During that same story, romantic fireworks sparked briefly and then fizzled for her and Neal. Penna has written about Fireworks and Romantic Sparks in Caffrey Conversation for our blog.

Background to the lyrics of "Fires of Midnight"
Holidays with the Caffrey Conversation crew

Fireflies at Midnight on Archive of Our Own
Fireflies at Midnight on FanFiction