Caffrey Conversation: Scotch on the Rocks

One of my favorite fanfic writing prompts is to fill in a blank left by a canon episode. In the case of White Collar, the writers gifted us with a number of tantalizing questions. I've already written about some of them. The origin of Neal's interest in origami and the backstory for his fencing ability were both in An Evening with Genji. I explored Peter's interest in astronomy in The Woman in Blue. In my latest Caffrey Conversation story, Scotch on the Rocks, I picked another canon element—the McNally Solitaire.

Writing Retreat 2023: Beam Us Up!

Penna and I are just resurfacing after our annual writing retreat. Like last year, this was a virtual retreat. We both use Teams at work, and we decided to take advantage of its interactive features for this year's event. One of the many highlights was Penna's use of virtual backgrounds to set the mood. She saved the best for last—a view of the transporter room on the USS Enterprise. I loved the analogy that we were beaming ourselves into the worlds of our stories.

Six-Crossed Knot: Virtue's Cloak

For this latest installment in my Six-Crossed Knot series, the principal launching points are two canon incidents. The first one is in The Book of Life, when Matthew discovers that Philippe gave Jack Matthew's cello. In the novel, Matthew doesn't discuss it with Jack. All we know is that it disappeared around the time when Napoleon was emperor. When I first read those lines, I demanded answers. What were the circumstances? How did Philippe find out about Jack? I answered the second question earlier in Masque. In Virtue's Cloak, I imagined what could have led Philippe to give Jack the cello.

Crowley: A Blended Soul

I based the name of my Crossed Lines series on the intersections of the lives of Neal Caffrey and Peter Burke with Sam and Dean Winchester. But another character already had crossed the lines between White Collar and Supernatural, and that's Crowley. Mark Sheppard portrayed both the crossroads demon Crowley in Supernatural and art forger Curtis Hagen in White Collar. From the beginning, Crowley has campaigned for a larger role. In my latest story, Bad Omens, his moment has finally come.

Arkham Files: Chaos Conundrum

Something strange is going on in Arkham. If you've already visited the New England college town, you're not surprised. After all, this is a place where an extraterrestrial is the head librarian, traveling via wormholes is routine, and a talking armillary sphere guides the team. But hang on, even Neal and his friends are perplexed. That can't be good.

Winner Takes All

Olivia is one frustrated vampire. The mystery witch who has been plaguing her and her friends with magical creatures issued a "Winner takes all" challenge months ago. Why hasn't she struck? Olivia, the grad student with an attitude, has a theory. Only half in jest, she laments the witch will spring something to wreck her finals. She doesn't realize how close she is.

Jagged Shoals

Jagged Shoals is the 17th work in the Six-Crossed Knot series. I was inspired to write the story by two canon references in Time's Convert, the fourth All Souls novel. Much of that work is devoted to the early history of Marcus Whitmore. Marcus was a young medic during the American Revolution. Matthew Clairmont met him while serving as an aide to the Marquis de Lafayette. Matthew was impressed by his skill. After observing Marcus heal the marquis, Matthew often sought Marcus out to treat injured soldiers. Toward the end of the war, Marcus caught a fever in Yorktown. Matthew happened upon him when he lay dying in a makeshift ward. Matthew explained he was a vampire and offered to make Marcus one. When he said he'd send Marcus to a university to be trained as a doctor, Marcus agreed.