Lists of Things

I thought, for my twenty year celebration, that I might make some lists of interesting things.

On this page:

• Trivia - Statistics, random thoughts and snippets of information about my writing. (Added 2 March 2023)
• Favourites - A list of random favourite things. (Added 23 March 2023)
• Trixie Books - An approximation of my personal top twenty Trixie books. (Added 16 June 2023)

Writing Trivia

1. At the beginning of 2023, my first universe The Long Way Home made up 23% of my posted stories at just under 340,000 words across thirty-six stories.
2. The Long Way Home has a timeline which stretches back to 1889, into the “present” of 1998 and forward to at least 2009. There are more undated events past that point. Some events were set down twenty years ago, while others have been revised along the way.
3. I’ve gotten stuck writing The Long Way Home several times over the years. The current sticking-point is yet another wedding (I don’t like writing weddings and generally avoid them). But there are more interesting things on the other side, so I press on.
4. At the beginning of 2023, my second universe A Time and A Season made up 9% of my posted stories at roughly 134,000 words across twenty episodes.
5. There was supposed to be an immediate short sequel to A Time and A Season, consisting of six episodes. It remains in a state of being nearly finished, roughly fifteen years after it was started, and qualifies for the last six of the first cycle of CWPs that I haven’t done. (Those were writing projects where you had to incorporate a whole lot of extremely awkward and difficult elements in your story. Like maxi-pad torches and Lum’s Hee-Haw Overalls. I don’t think anyone cares any more.)
6. At the beginning of 2023, my third universe Summer Secrets made up 16% of my posted stories at just under 230,000 words across ten stories. While it was completed some years ago, I have since written one snippet and also revisited it in universe number 5.
7. I didn’t make very good notes during the early part of Summer Secrets, so its early stories probably contain some ghost plots. (A ghost plot is something that a writer was going to include in a story and later changed their mind, but the hints for it are still there.) I tied up as much as I could at the end, but kind of wished I could have done some things differently.
8. At the beginning of 2023, my fourth universe Dark Places made up 8% of my posted stories at just over 120,000 words across five stories.
9. The original idea for Dark Places was that there would never be any romance. And in the main universe I’ve stuck to that, mostly. But in the background, it soon became clear to me that there were certain tensions. Those will one day be addressed in a sub-universe called Dark Pathways of which the first story is already written.
10. At the beginning of 2023, my fifth universe Reality Displaced made up 4% of my posted stories at just over 55,000 words across five stories.
11. Reality Displaced wasn’t ever supposed to be a universe, so it has no real plans. I’ve got a half-written story in it featuring Ben Riker, but I have absolutely no idea how to solve the difficulty they’re facing.
12. At the beginning of 2023, my sixth and newest universe Winds of Change made up less than 1% of my posted stories at just over 7,000 words in just one story.
13. The name Winds of Change is not all that original, but I don’t care because it plays on the name Win, whose failure to die on schedule changed so many things and forms the basis of this mini-universe.
14. At the beginning of 2023, non-universe stories made up the largest section, with 38% of my posted stories at just under 560,000 words in over sixty stories, plus an additional 2%, or just over 28,000 words of group stories.
15. I think the reason I’ve got so many non-universe stories is because it’s easier, and thus more fun. You don’t have to worry about continuity, or what effects you’re having on the future. And you can try all sorts of different scenarios, couples, futures, pasts. Which is good because I can’t decide which I like best.
16. At least four times over the last twenty years, I have come to the conclusion that the inspiration for Trixie fic has dried up and that I’m done. Every time, something has changed my mind.
17. I often have several full drafts of stories waiting to be posted. Sometimes, there’s a reason why they have to wait – like because there are four stories before that and the one I’ve written containers spoilers. Sometimes I’m not happy with them and am waiting for inspiration on how to fix them. And sometimes there’s no reason; I just haven’t done the work of checking them over and sending them out for editing.
18. Since very close to the time when I first started writing, I’ve always had several, or later, many stories in progress at a time. It’s a regular chore to sift through them all and archive the ones that I know I won’t ever finish.
19. My highest word-count year for posting stories was 2007, with 161,484. The second-highest, 2011, had 122,661 words posted. The lowest year to date was 2016, with only 30,286 and the second-lowest 2006, with 35,558. It’s not a coincidence that the highest ever came directly after the second-lowest ever.
20. I am always on the lookout for something new to write. My new thing for 2023 is a cross-over, which strangely I have never attempted before.

Favourites

1. Fluffy the rabbit (or Fang, as Jim renames her) in Christmas in the Menagerie. Because evil rabbits amuse me.
2. The flip cards that feature on some of the hidden pages. They also amuse me. There’s one hidden page that has a dozen of them, just because I find it so satisfying to mouse over them and make them flip.
3. Regan and Isabella’s love story in The Long Way Home. I didn’t expect it, but it warms my heart.
4. Diana’s kitten in Living Arrangements. That kitten knew what was going on long before Trixie.
5. The hidden intrigue of James Frayne senior’s past in The Long Way Home. The deeper I delve into his back-story, the more interesting it gets.
6. The double meanings in A Time and A Season. Some of them (like the episode title “Baby, Baby”) can be seen in hindsight. Some (like the Lucy books being printed by Drongo Pubblishing) have an obvious meaning plus a more subtle one (the spelling error, plus drongo meaning idiot).
7. The non-scary vampire in Moonlight and Roses. I know it’s a cheesy and unoriginal story, but it was just so much fun.
8. Dan’s outrageous, but totally platonic, flirting with Liv in Summer Secrets.
9. The story Blackthorn and Celandine. I know it’s not a lot of people’s cup of tea, what with its very unusual pairing, but I have always had an affection for it.
10. All those secret passages in Dark Places. I really don’t want to explore them in real life, but it’s so much fun to imagine the Bob-Whites doing it for me.
11. The title of The Inaugural Bob-White Ill-Considered Logistical Cherry Pop Challenge. The story is fun, too.
12. Jim’s misbehaving eyebrow in Reality Displaced. Just because.
13. The hidden envelopes At the Bottom of the Lake. It took me a while to figure out how to code them, but I think they were worth it.
14. The fact that Ten Acres didn’t burn in Winds of Change.
15. Ellie in The New Groom. I want to write more about her some day.
16. The Jixanny game from 2020, Book Plots Described Badly. I didn’t write all of them, but I did do quite a few.
17. Regan taking a turn at investigation and only solving the parts of the problem he considers important in Spooked.
18. Honey’s unusual heritage in my conclusion to Volcanic Eruptions. This is another one I’d like to revisit one day.
19. Stories that combine elements from more than one challenge. The oldest of these is The Curse of Hundred House, from way back in 2005.
20. Page designs like the one for Mistletoe Musings. Making the kaleidoscope panels is fun, but it takes time, so I don’t do it often.

Top Twenty Trixies

1. The Mystery of the Emeralds
2. The Mystery on Cobbett’s Island
3. The Secret of the Mansion
4. The Red Trailer Mystery
5. The Mystery of the Blinking Eye
6. The Mystery on Mead’s Mountain
7. The Mystery of the Castaway Children
8. The Mystery of the Headless Horseman
9. The Mystery of the Midnight Marauder
10. The Mystery at Saratoga
11. The Mystery off Old Telegraph Road
12. The Mystery of the Whispering Witch
13. The Gatehouse Mystery
14. The Mystery on the Mississippi
15. The Mystery Off Glen Road
16. The Mysterious Visitor
17. The Mystery in Arizona
18. The Sasquatch Mystery
19. The Mystery of the Missing Heiress
20. The Secret of the Unseen Treasure

 

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