Several of the ideas in the first chapter of Italian Masquerade were born during a writing retreat in 2018. Penna and I traveled to Las Vegas that year. She remembered the city with fondness from previous trips. She'd been inspired by her experiences to have Neal and Henry work in Las Vegas during their time on the road. The account is found in Caffrey Disclosure.
Previous to the retreat, I'd decided to reference Neal and Henry's time at the Venetian Resort in Las Vegas by wrapping up the Clueless con in Venice. Henry didn't have a chance to sing in a gondola earlier. He'll now have that chance. But a major hurdle to overcome was how to trick Henry into going to Venice. Penna came up with the idea of a restaurant drawing during a strategy session after dinner at Canaletto's at the Venetian Resort.
Some of the ideas from that retreat have been included in stories I've already posted. Penna and I enjoyed scheming about Michael proposing to Angela when they were dressed as Prince Charming and Snow White in Columbia Ghost Story. We also shopped online for commitment rings for Richard and Travis. The account of the commitment ceremony and their rings is in Night Music. Henry paid careful notice to the plot bunnies we tossed around about Richard and Travis and made several suggestions for himself and Eric.
Still on the drawing board are future stories about Neal's parents, James and Meredith. They wandered into the conversation during our 2019 retreat to see how much headway we'd made, and were disconcerted to discover that Peter had become more assertive about his role in future stories. Perhaps he's been hanging around Henry too much?
Italian Masquerade on Archive of Our Own
Italian Masquerade on FanFiction
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