Q: So if Knox is Hamlet, who do Giselle and Sebastian represent?
A: Giselle and Sebastian together function as Horatio.
Q: What was the deal with the dirty money?
A: Let’s call it the play-within-a-play, ’kay?
Q: Half the characters in Hamlet are missing.
A: Of course they are! It was complicated enough, don’t you think?
Q: Fen’s name. Explain that.
A: Shakespeare based Claudius on a Jute chieftain named Feng. Drop the “g” and there you go. His name is actually James Fenimore Hilliard.
Q: You guys aren’t anything like what I thought Mormons were like.
A: That wasn’t a question. But no, we aren’t. Neither are any other Mormons. We all struggle with the same things everybody else struggles with.
Q: What is the deal with Giselle’s pink drink?
A: It’s a sugar-free electrolyte booster. People on low-carb diets who do not consume processed foods need to supplement salt and potassium, but Gatorade and its equivalents have sugar, so no go. This is the homemade version:
1 liter water
1/4 tsp Lite salt (half sodium, half potassium) to taste
1/2 tsp Kool-Aid powder (Giselle uses pink lemonade)
Artificial sweetener equivalent to 5 Tb sugar
Q: So, um, you guys do realize that Sebastian and Eilis are first cousins, right?
A: Yeah. So what? Go see the PLoS Biology Journal and The Straight Dope on that topic. Now, we’ll admit it took us all awhile for this to dawn on us, but by that time Eilis was pregnant so oh well. Think what you like.
Q: Okay, but you can’t get married in Missouri if you’re first cousins, can you?
A: There are plenty of other places to choose from. Eilis and Sebastian got legally married in Giverny, France, in Claude Monet’s garden.
Q: What’s the picture on the back of the original cover?
A: The Neptune Fountain (otherwise known as the JC Nichols Memorial Fountain), on the Country Club Plaza in Kansas City, Missouri, circa 1960. It’s the same image used on the back cover of the print book.
Q: Where did Knox get his name?
A: Dead Poets Society, Knox Overstreet, the incurable, unrepentant romantic who wouldn’t take no for an answer and got the girl.
Q: Dang, you people breed like rabbits. Where’s your family tree so I can see who’s who?
A: Here you go!
Q: Yeah, do you have a list of all the books you people read?
A: Not all of the books we read, but the ones The Puppet Mistress referenced someway somehow, sure. Here you go.
Q: Where did you get the name Vachel?
A: The Wolf & the Dove by Kathleen Woodiwiss (use the “look inside feature” to go to chapter 1, 5th paragraph down). Vachel de Comte was one of the villain’s henchmen and I remember, as the story went along, learning he was a bit of a victim and feeling sorry for him. Bryce is also named from a character in that book.
Q: Is Giselle really wearing a collar (in the vignettes and outtakes) or does she just like chokers?
A: She just likes chokers. Playing is one thing, going full-on Beauty is another. Knox makes that assumption in Stay, but Eric corrects him.
Q: In Stay, the Big Bad Senator refers to Vanessa as Ford’s mistress. Is the secret out by then?
A: Rumors had started to swirl that Sebastian was Ford by the time The Goddess and Her Lover got wide press. That, Wild, Wild West and Rape of a Virgin all feature women who are quite visibly in Sebastian’s close circle. One’s a coincidence. Two is a pattern. Three is a fact.
Q: I want the original (first edition) The Proviso, but it’s out of print and all the used copies are a gazillion dollars. Can I order one from Moriah?
A: Yes. Email her. Expect to wait a while, though. Because it’s out of print, they have to be specially ordered.