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Journal of an Agent: An Afterword Note: This is a brief afterword on my erotic, celeb based story series "Hollywood After Dark". It is meant as a sort of companion to the series itself, offering my thoughts on some of the history behind it, what celebs I used, why I think some things worked and others didn't and what I think makes it a pretty enduring and meaningful series in the world of erotica. I hope I don't come off as self-serving or egotistical in this, but that's up to you to decide. I just wanted to share some thoughts about the series that I couldn't work into the story itself. - Carnage Jackson Originally conceived whilst out on a walk (seriously), this series was unique in that I wrote it basically with the ending already in mind. As any of my fellow authors know, it can be quite hard to do this, as you have to fill in the story for everything else as it goes along, hoping to keep it right. After the overwhelming success of Journal of an Agent, I set my sights on doing something more with the genre. I tried, with Hollywood After Dark, to create not just celebrity fiction but an engaging story in and of itself. I wanted more than anything else, to make a short series that did what JOA couldn't: go places. The problem with JOA was its success. The series became hampered by the one trick storyline. Sure, I mixed thingsu p plot wise and all, and some of the best stuff I have ever written is in it, but by relying so much on the limits of the character's job, I couldn't go where I wanted. With Hollywood After Dark, I could. The series was my homage to all of the mystery andn oir films/books out there, with a touch of conspiracy theory thrown in. I wanted to see if it would be possible to write a story based on characters who weren't always likable, but always behaved differently. I wanted to try and give them each their own voice, to make each segment unique. I think I handled that pretty well. Alex, like Dean Simonds, is an every man. He gets involved in things that are far bigger than he is, and yet some how manages at the end of it all, to come out on top. I have always been drawn to anti-heroes like that, and HAD did a good job, I think, of putting that all in place. There were a few stretches of credibility, I'll admit, but for the most part he stayed the person he was at the start. From the beginning, I had his and Petty's paths all planned out, as well as the ending of the story itself. Everything else just filled itself in as I went along. There were times when I felt myself losing control of the story, of where it was going - a writer can get lost in his own grandiose visions if he is not careful, but the extra feedback I always receieved, as well as the freedom to be edgy and be dark, let me keep it on track. I wanted something more than setup-sex-setup. I wanted to turn the genre itself on its head by using sex as power, and power as absolute power. The idea of something like the Rose Petals existing, truthfully, isn't that far off from how Hollywood seems to work. The public is consumed with who is fucking who, and that makes the series itself all the more credible by playing off of that. I think I did a decent job of this in the work, but its really up to the readers to decide. A few words on the other characters though: Petty was my favorite character to write. She was spunky and upbeat, but also arched more than anyone else. She was originally conceived as a martyr of sorts, a representation of the way things would be if someone went through the whole Hollywood process. It broke my heart to send her down the path I did - I remember feeling actual sadness at the way she fell so far in the series, but at the same time I think that she became a favorite of readers as well, someone who had the most unique voice in the series. As far as the celebs go, Katherine Heigl was picked because she was a celeb I wanted to use badly in JOA, but could never come up with a reason to do so. When I started the series, I was looking for a celeb that could work through out. Someone less well known and yet someone who could be stretched and changed without it being too much of a leap of character. Katherine worked for this, though I had others I was considering. Overall, the celebs in the series were a motley crue. I used some that I hadn't really focused on before, nor had the rest of the community (Alicia Witt, Monica Belluci, etc) and I think gave them a good spotlight to grow through the series. That's one thing I discovered with JOA: people tended to write and want more of the bigger celebs, because most of their stories were well written. With HAD, I sought to do the same for celebs I felt equally beautiful and talented but who were underrepresented. The early chapters of the series really brought that out. My favorite part of the whole series however, used two of my favorites: Natalie Portman and Kirsten Dunst. I had never hooked the two up in a story, and wanted to do so, but again in a sort of different way than people would expect. It was tremendous fun writing Natalie as a seductress, and her first introduction into lesbianism really won over readers. I won't always use Natalie in my stories, but she IS a damn good subject. The ending of the series was conceived on that same walk when I started the series originally, with the idea of a second in command taking the reigns behind the scenes actually coming from many different sources. The idea wasn't new, but I felt it would be a good twist for the end of the series, just to keep people guessing. Dropping hints to set this up though, was a LOT harder than you would think. I had to establish this all through out the series, and I think that if you go back and look, you will see that Willits never REALLY called the shots, not without Gordon's approval at least. I also hate endings that are wrapped up in a neat little bow, and this was certainly not. By leaving something to the imagination of the reader, you get them to come back and read more, always looking for that twist at the end. Speaking of the end, the last chapter was the most difficult thing I have ever written. It wasn't that the writing itself was that tough, it was just finding the time to actually do it. The 11 month gap between chapters 9 and 10 was brutal. I always wanted to sit down and write, but I never found the time, and as the months drug on, it became even worse. I had to reacquaint myself with the series in general when I wrapped it up, for it had been so long since it had been touched. To ALL the readers who asked about it, clamored for it and wanted to get the ending sooner than I delivered it, I apologize greatly. Life sometimes pulls you in other directions, and for me that certainly happened. I just hope that the readers out there will forgive me and not find the ending to be too much of a let down, too anticlimatic after all the waiting. I'm not trying to be George Lucas after all :P Finally, I'd like to acknowledge and thank a whole bunch of people for their help with this seris: Rich Wilson, for the highly undeserved praise after every story and the convincing he did to get me to finish it myself, rather than having someone else do it. KMB, for being a great test reader and an excellent cheerleader as well, always giving me ideas and being straight forward with me about what he thought. Victoria for hosting the story itself and giving us such an awesome community to be a part of. And to everyone else who wrote and begged and offered ideas and all, ESPECIALLY the readers who stuck with the series throughout, a big big big thank you. I won't be attempting another series anytime soon I don't think, or at least not one of the scale of HAD. It was something I had to do, and did pretty well (I think), but projects such as this only come along once in a great while, and I don't have the writing discipline to stick with something like that all over again. So am I retiring? Na. I'll be back, in some form or other, the spark still smoldering in me, even after four years of this. Thanks again for reading, and I hope you enjoyed my humble little series. And of course, a bit of trivia to get you all to re-read the series for the clues: - HAD and JOA exist in the same universe. Dean and Alex's paths cross just once, and it's only for a moment, but it is there. You'll have to find it, but I'll give you a hint: try chapter 1 :) - JOA is also referenced in a couple, more obvious places. Natalie mentions Dean late in the series, and there are some other hints in place as well. If you can't find them then you just aren't really reading...shame on you! ;) - Rose Petals was named in honor of KMB, who complained that I never wrote his sweetie, Rose McGowan, into the story. (I of course DID write her in, but not till later) - There are also references to movies and music throughout the series, aside from the lyrics at the start of each chapter. Find them. - Speaking of lyrics, each song at the start of each chapter has a meaning to the theme of that chapter. They were all carefully picked for their words, simply because musicians are our modern day poets and wordsmiths. Us hack writers could learn a lot from them. Thanks again for reading the series, not to mention this lonnnggg afterword, and remember to stay tuned - same porn time, same porn channel. Carnage Jackson |
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