Charnotes: Book 1

It's only fair that I share one of my first bits of PK art. 'Sy, Gerald, and Lyric, December 2008. Goodness, things have changed. I do like how proto-Diyn seems to be stabbing Gerald in the head.

So yeah, the Charnotes posts are gonna contain spoilers for the books. If you're into avoiding things like that, you might want to skip these until you finish 'em, eh?

• The original title for Book 1 was "In the Court of the Peacock King". Book 2 was "The Peacock King in Court", but the titles didn't stick since we couldn't figure out a decent wordplay for Book 3. That, and Irk just wanted to rename them, I think.
• The original Google Docs version is split into two parts. Part 1 is 78,724 words, and Part 2 is 37,154.
• It's a little sad a lot of this is getting tossed in the rewrite. I personally think Gerald's durptitude is hilarious, but it does make for choppy narrative. Alas.
  
  OK, maybe not. Gerald's prose is a lot like labor pains. They make you scream bloody murder, but after it's passed the retrograde amnesia kicks in and it doesn't seem so bad. Much like Gerald himself.
• The dream sequence where Lyric mistakes Gerald for 'Sy was my favorite for a long, long time. I laughed hard enough that I started cramping the first time I read it.
• Chapter 29 started the "In Which There Are..." trend. It was skipped in Book 2 thanks to the chapter format we used, but made it's return in Book 3 and hopefully will continue in future books.
• Cade is a nod to Stephen King's Flagg character. Stephen King had a major influence on me and Irk. I am terrified of clowns and drains, and Irk is evil.
• Five songs found their way into the chapter titles in Book 1:
  • Chapter 8 - Spybreak! = Spybreak! - The Propellerheads
  • Chapter 25 - In Your Room = In My Room - some guy I used to know (ETA: Irk swears she named this chapter, and named it after the Depeche Mode song "In Your Room", which she listened to while writing that chapter. I'm inclined to agree with her. Guess I just kept remembering "In My Room" every time I looked at the chapter title...)
  • Chapter 35 - Pigs on the Wing = Pigs on the Wing 1 & 2 - Pink Floyd
  • Chapter 36 - In Flagrante Delicto = First of May - Jonathan Coultain
  • Chapter 38 - High Hopes = High Hopes - Pink Floyd
• The chapter illustration for Chapter 22 - The Harbinger is still one of my favorite character drawings. Poor Jax.
• The drawing of Lyric in Peek's tub (Chapter 26) took for-freakin'-ever to ink! I think I tossed my inks TWICE before just giving up and going with whatever I managed to put down over the sketch.
• Camden is based in part off of a photo of my dad circa 1980, and a nod to Shoujo Kakumei Utena's Mikage, a favorite character of mine and Irk's. Not that we have a bias towards likable, relatable villians *coughXellosscoughcoughtheShitennoucough*.
• I may have audibly squeed when Irk started writing the Judge's arrival. It may or may not have shattered glass.
• Speaking of, it's fairly obvious the Judge is far and away my favorite character. I wonder if anyone can guess who my second favorite is, and what their associated OTP is?
• By the end of Book 1, Radian had a full alphabet (with two documented ways of writing, no less: Poetic and Common). I not only have the font, I have it installed on my computer... and can read what I write in it. I = big dork.
• I also came up with the system of titles. They were in the old wiki, which is long gone and the reason I have learned to constantly back up my damn database tables. Guess who is currently reworking them?
• Also going back up: the geneology tables that our dear Kashi-hime did. Second favorite Book 1 moment: "YOUR WIFE." Still LOLing, two years later.

I also want to encourage everyone to comment with specific questions they might have had or ideas or memories or whatever. Who knows... you might even jog my memories on more things, and it would be neat to see what it was like from your end! ♥