A few notes on Illumination

Random notes on various elements that made their way into Illumination:

-My daughter drives a blue Volkswagen (a Rabbit). It is a super nice little car-- it handles well and has a peppy little engine. My dad gave it to us when he could no longer drive, and I wanted the VW for myself. Alas, because I have four kids I kept the minivan and the kid got the VW. Life is not always fair.

-I love Mountain Dew. They call me the Mountain Dew Lady at the local Arby's, because that's what I always order.

-I lived in Charlotte right out of college (Hurricane Hugo came through a month or so after I moved down there). At the time, Charlotte had a beautiful downtown, but it was mostly a finance center, which meant it was bustling on weekdays, but absolutely dead on weekends. There were no apartments to speak of downtown. Just as in Norfolk, though, downtown seems to have become a prestigious address lately. Here's a site showing some Charlotte penthouses. Spectacular, aren't they?

-The big chrome X is an actual piece of public art in Charlotte, though it's out on the street rather than in a building lobby. You can see it here. I always liked this one a lot, though like Gabriel, I'm not sure what its meaning is.

-I lived in Charlotte for years and never went to Carowinds ("the thrill capital of the Southeast"). No idea why, except that my husband and I were still young and childless then, and almost every long weekend or vacation we had, we trekked up to Virginia Beach to see our families. We made that six-hour drive up I-85 and US 58 (and got caught in traffic around Durham) more times than I can count!

-I love roller coasters. I don't ride them as much as I used to, because they mess with my middle-aged balance now, but I used to ride just about every one I came across. I never rode one till I was an adult, though. My husband introduced me to the Loch Ness Monster when I was twenty-one, and from there on I was a coaster addict.

-A couple of weeks ago, not long after I'd written the scene mentioning the two songs, "Carolina in My Mind" and "Ramblin' Man" popped up on my iTunes, one right after the other. I have around 800 songs on that particular playlist, so this was a rather startling coincidence. They're both really good songs. I used to listen to "Carolina in My Mind" a lot after I left Charlotte!

-Dom and I share a lot of musical tastes, from Schnittke to classic rock. I never played the violin; I played the cello. I was able to play some of the Bach unaccompanied suites fairly well, so I was decent, but never close to professional standard. I haven't played in a long time, sadly.

-I broke the rule about having only two dramatic personae in this one. Another character besides the boys uttered dialogue in Illumination-- the first time that's happened in the whole Dominance series. It bothered me, but I couldn't figure out a way to work around it.

-My family was originally from Smithfield. I never lived there myself, but the Victorian house my great-great-grandfather built still stands in the town. Smithfield is on the banks of the Pagan River, but the name doesn't appear to refer to religion, but rather to the Algonquin word for pecan.

-Dominance wound up around 85,000 words. Add the three Innocence stories, one of which isn't written yet, and the whole tale of Dom and Gabe will wind up around 100,000 words. That's the longest story I've written in quite a while, and I thank you guys for following me through it all!