“Precious Cargo”, End notes

[aadler]

[ Endnotes posted 22 Mar 2017 ]

Where did the idea for the story come from?

I don’t fully remember, but I do remember that originally it was a story I suggested to sroni; she eventually sent me a draft, but it wasn’t quite what I’d had in mind, so I went on and did the story myself. In fairness, some of the dissonance was from a misunderstanding, though it’s impossible now to tell where it came from; she tried to write the story as a series of drabbles, which I may have actually suggested in the first place (though neither of us can say for sure by now), and that approach didn’t allow for the kind of depth I thought the story needed. I wound up using some of her material, but decidedly followed my own direction on the final version.

Is there any particular significance to the title?

Only as described in the story. I think I had the title in mind for longer than the story itself was really solid to me, but I can’t swear to that part of it. It’s not a fantastic title, but it works.

What is the thing I like most about this story? the thing I like least, or about which I feel most doubtful?

I’ll go ahead and say up-front that there’s nothing I like least. I may not have done this story as well as it could have been done, but I definitely wrote the story I had in mind. If more needed to be done, then I lacked the imagination (and still do) to see it.

As for what I liked best … from the very beginning, even when it was a suggestion to sroni and before I decided to do the story myself, I knew what two of the items would be: Buffy’s choice of the photo of the three Summers women (canonical!), and the mug Spike stole and saved in memory of Joyce. That last was, I think, an enormously effective touch … but, honestly, most of the story worked pretty well. The structure of the narrative allowed us to see inside these people, many of whom were little more than names in canon, characters with only a few lines or even mentioned in passing without ever getting to speak for themselves. I liked giving them a voice, and was and remain happy with the result.

Is there anything I think I could have done better, or might do differently if I had it to do over?

Not on this one. As I said, if it needed better, it would be a better that outstrips not only my ability but my vision.

Do I have any plans to follow up on this story, or to use the character(s) or situation in a subsequent fic?

A number of connections to other stories, yes.

The very first story I ever did, “Point of Focus”, noted ‘The Frost-Haired Devil’ as one of Spike’s aliases, and Chao-Ahn’s letter connected to that. Kinue, profiled in this story, would later be mentioned in both “Zero-Sum Game” and “Hungry Like the Wolf”, and the Mahou no Kage-shi, in which she mentioned relatives, would be referenced in “Unbidden the Day”. Finally, Jutta would, nine years later, be one of the two main characters in “the Other Night I Dreamt of Knives”.

[ Additionally, in 2023 Farideh was mentioned in “Zulu Time”. ]

Any observations to add at the end?

For a small story that was done more or less in passing, this got rather more of a response than I was expecting. I never really know when a fic is going to catch on, and I’ve been surprised more than once. The things people liked about it, however, were the things I liked enough to say (and still like on re-reading), so I’ll take what validation I can get.