A Tale of Two Dragons

In the last week I've faced two dragons in my writing journey. They are Cocoa the AO3 Chocolate Box dragon, and Sparkle the Twitter snow dragon. I'm still attempting to befriend both of them.

Venice and the Supernatural

Venice is a natural fit for Crossed Lines. It combines a wealth of Renaissance and Baroque Italian artists for Neal plus a rich history with the supernatural for Dean and Sam. I've been including references to Venice since The Mirror when I introduced Raquel Laroque to the Caffrey Conversation AU. I mentioned Raquel's jewelry boutique was in Venice because I knew someday I wanted to write a story about Venice. I didn't originally plan to make it a supernatural-oriented story, but the characters had other ideas.

First dragon of the year

Having declared 2020 the year of facing our writing dragons, I'm ready to describe my recent encounter with a dragon. This dragon actually arrived at the end of last year, and I'm calling her Bertrice.

Welcome to the Writing Year of the Dragon

Last year, Silbrith and I had an inside joke that 2019 was the year of the penguin in our writing journey. We've decided to designate this next year of writing as the year of the dragon. **

Why dragons?

Destination: A Witch in Venice

A Witch in Venice story begins immediately after the conclusion of Italian Masquerade. It's New Year's Day 2006 in Venice. Neal and Sara, after dating secretly for months, are longer hiding their relationship. But their status still may not be obvious. Sara works in London and their opportunities to meet will be severely restricted.

The Dante Connection

Despite Mozzie's alias of Dante Haversham, in canon he wasn't linked to the fourteenth-century Italian poet. The alias appeared to be a spur-of-the-moment decision when he was surprised by Peter's unexpected presence in Neal's loft. I much prefer Penna's account. In Caffrey Conversation, Peter dubs Mozzie with the nickname because he worries Neal's unknown comrade will lead him astray. Mozzie approved of the nickname, pointing out that Dante could lead Neal to paradise, and adopted it as one of his aliases.

Ideas from Writing Retreat 2018

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.