Once again, it's time to celebrate my Birthday, the 8th anniversary of Raspberry, and the new anniversary of 4X+Y!
This anniversary is special, considering I have finished Lonely Oak. While I continue to plan out the next story in the background, and writing other things, I think it would be fun to reveal some trivia and behind-the-scenes stuff on Raspberry, and then open up for Q&A (skip to the end if that's mostly what interests you).
I like to think I have written a nice and dense story with all kinds of details for people to find as they read, and re-read, and re-re-re-re-re-re-re-... But, I also don't want to leave readers out, so I'll share a few tidbits that might help you get into the mindset of looking for the nuances.
Of course, many of these will contain spoilers for the story, so either come to terms with that or maybe give it a read. It's long, but... I hear it's pretty good ;)
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The Vanishing Second Story
I've said this one so many times, but I feel like I always get new readers that can appreciate hearing this for the first time.
When I originally wrote the first chapter of Raspberry Line, Emeral had to go up a flight of stairs to get to her bedroom and retrieve a clean shirt.
However, the next time her hous made an appearance, it was single-story.
It wouldn't be until maybe I completed Raspberry Line and revised it for the first time that I realized I'd made this mistake. It was eventually corrected, but I like to always remember it.
Sometimes I think how different the story would be if Emeral had a second story to her house, as I tended to use Ket's two-story home to give them separation from his mom so they didn't feel like they had to hide their displays of affection all the time.
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How Many Raspberries?
The word "Raspberry" appears several times throughout the story, beyond just the humble street-name of which the first story is titled. A flavor, a smell, a gesture; maybe even in another language.
Why? I won't say that, exactly, it's up to interpretation. But, some are obvious, and some are very sneaky (although one sneaky one has been spotted by one person).
How many can you find?
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A Faded Allusion
Anyone who's read the story will know that Lyza had, and presumably still has, a large collection of stuffed aniamls. From her teddy-bear Bumbles, to her birthday-bear Rupert, she's had all kinds of plush to snuggle.
However, one such animal-stuffed crossed worlds, like a ghost crosses through walls, silent as a mouse.
If you look back to the psat and adapt your way of thinking, you might be able to spot it.
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Raspberry Flubs
Aside from the first tidbit about Emeral's two-story home, there were a few other flubs, mostly typos, that I thought were hilarious, but have since been corrected. Some of these were spotted by others, some spotted by myself during revising and polishing.
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Silly Emmy, Ket Is Not Ice Cream
This is a pretty funny one from Lonely Oak Chapter 064 (no fun title, yet).
What is currently:
"C'mon," she said softly. "Don't sound so gloomy about it. I'm sorry I made you think you were upsetting me--you really weren't." She smiled again, hoping that would help ease him. "Oh no, Ket your ice cream!"
Was once:
"C'mon," she said softly. "Don't sound so gloomy about it. I'm sorry I made you think you were upsetting me--you really weren't." She smiled again, hoping that would help ease him. "Oh no, Ket you're ice cream!"
Womp Womp. Still have a missing comma in there, too. Oh well, that'll get cleaned up when I polish the chapter more.
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Quite The Overreaction There, Tiger
In the very next chapter with the two, Lonely Oak Chapter 066, they go to a carnival. The carnival is meant to parallel the previous new year's fair they went to in Lonely Oak Part 1, where Lyza gets Tutty for Ket.
Fortunately, I managed to catch this typo before it made it to the post, but it caught me so off guard when I was rivsing it that I remember laughing like an idiot at it.
This is when Ket and Emeral are riding a merry-go-round, which the middle of has a reflective, miorror surface. Ket isn't really too fond of it, but he rides with Emmy, anyway.
The current version is:
Ket yawned, and then quickly shut his mouth when he saw Emeral glancing at him in the mirror. He could tell she giggled by her reflection, and then her right hand went to spank the pony as if to order it to go faster.
However, originally Ket had a very interesting reaction to spotting Emmy in the mirror, which she seemed to react to pretty mildly, all things considered:
Ket yawned, and then quickly shit his mouth when he saw Emeral glancing at him in the mirror. He could tell she giggled by her reflection, and then her right hand went to spank the pony as if to order it to go faster.
Needless to say, that's probably the worst super-power ever.
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That's Impurrssible!
There are a few scenes in the series where Ket or Emmy will purr, especially during very intimate moments where they are cuddling.
Fun fact: apparently felines can either purr, or roar; not both. Tigers fall in the roaring camp, so technically those scenes are inaccurate with respect to tigers' physiology. Bit of a flub, considering I did research to see what a tiger's fever was for the end of the funnel-cake scene in Lonely Oak Part 2.
But... The scenes won't be changed. Dunno what to file this under, but anachronism is a literary device and this is of ilk.
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The Fishy Fist That Ruined The Moment
In Lonely Oak Chapter 019 (A Clockwork Baby-Blue), Kval is talking to Lyza about A Clockwork Orange. This is after Lyza hurt her knee, so Kval asks her if she wants something to "kill the pain." This causes a tense moment, as it takes her back to the moment in Lonely Oak Chapter 001 (The Very Bad Bunny), where a younger Kval, just turning from Big Bad Brother to Big Good Brother, is explaining to Lyza about liquid hydrocodone (Vicodin), and how it is an addictive pain-killer.
This memory makes her react to her brother a bit more dramatically, and after a moment of tension is the following excerpt:
"Guess...I can't do anything for you, then," he said against the lump in his throat. His sister snuggled against him, hugging his arm and holding his hand which he had balled into a fist.
One thing to understand is that this is one of the first instances where Lyza does not allow her brother to help her. Up until now, as revealed in the chapters that cover their past, after Kval becomes her Big Good Brother, he actively looks for ways to help her, even down to the littlest worry and woe.
But from here and to the end of the story, she begins to decline his attempts to solve her problems, and either lets her problems fester, or tries to solve them on her own. Kval's perspective on this distancing is later referenced in his talk with Jimmy in Lonely Oak Chapter 083 (Grave Anniversary).
So, as you can imagine, that excerpt is meant to be a soft, but very powerful, point in the story, where Kval is having to very quickly and suddenly come to terms that there are times where he will not be able to help his sister with all of her problems.
Which is why this moment was completely undone when I did not realize what had been posted was this, until someone only recently pointed it out to me:
"Guess...I can't do anything for you, then," he said against the lump in his throat. His sister snuggled against him, hugging his arm and holding his hand which he had balled into a fish.
And in my focus to fix the typo, I am only now realizing I still haven't fixed the missing punctuation in the sentence. That's two I've spotted just while writing this.
C'est la vie...
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Boy Scouts In Raspberry
The BSA makes several appearances in the story.
In Lonely Oak Part 2, during the archery tournament, the prominent hecklers of Lyza are a tiger, a bobcat, a wolf, and a bear, in that order in age. These are the ranks of Cub Scouts. Not necessarily a secret or incredible reference, but some readers familiar with the organization got a nod.
The House Of Open Minds was an Eagle Scout project. Not a real one, but Life Scouts working toward Eagle can and tned to do some pretty significant projects for their schools. Building a small house might seem like a ridiculous project, but there have been some pretty nifty ones.
The BSA is a national organization divided into Troops. Each Troop is designated a number. None of the Troop numbers in this story are meant to identify a specific Troop or state, so any relation to actual Troops is coincidental. I tried to avoid legitimate Troop numbers, but in the future they might become legitimate.
Ket's whittling knife is from the BSA. That's not really so important, but it is just another reference. Although, it's very interesting that Ket readily took to it and began whittling and carving, almost like someone he greatly admired did something similar; maybe that Senet board is a clue.
Panda is shown to be in the BSA in Lonely Oak Chapter 098 (Oak & Firefly), hosting an activity for the school's festival. Given that he is a fifth-grader, and that he presumably recently joined, he is a 2nd-year Webalos Rank.
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Parallelization
Many times throughout the story I use a technique which I coin "parallellization."
This means that I put the characters in similar situations so that you as the reader can see how the characters have grown (or regress, as the case may be).
The most notable situations come from Lyza's Birthday Party, the New Year's Fair, and the Carnival in Lonely Oak Part 2.
At Lyza's birthdy party, Ket plays games to try and maximize his tickets, which he then later gives to Lyza so she can acquire Rupert (the large stuffed bear).
At the New Year's fair, Ket has no strong objective to work towards, so he seems disinterested in the games, until it comes to the one where he has a chance to win Tutty, the stuffed Sphinx. But, he fails this game of skill, giving Lyza the opportunity to return the favor from her Birthday Party.
At the Carnival, aside from the friction between the tigers, Ket begins to once again take interest in the games, this time trying to win something for Emeral. However, despite his efforts, he fails to get what he wants once again, except this time it's truly a loss (to him).
These three situations show primarily how Ket grows, but the other characters as well.
At the Birthday Party, he keeps to himself and dominates the games in a calculated way, and is able to use those reuslts to help out a new friend.
At the New Year's Fair, he's with friends and encounters more failure, especially at something that he really wants. But, Lyza is able to return the favor, and so closes a loop of reconciliation.
However, at the Carnival, he is with Emmy but not very social, and when he is once again motivated he is once again met with failure... But this time, it's not reconciled, or at least not right away, and not in a way that is really satisfying to either of them.
There are many other instances of this, some major and some minor.
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Clumsy And Abusive
Many years ago, when I was just starting to expand Raspberry Line into Lonely Oak, I began looking to fill things about the world in that I had not considered, yet.
One of those things was the last name of Lyza and Kval.
This is when I decided I wanted them to be Russian (their names were originally meant to sound Russian, but they are just gibberish names). So, I searched for a Russian surname for them, and it didn't take me long at all to find one that I liked.
According to the site I found it on, "Alatyrtsev" was a surname (which may or may not be fully Russian, or even modern) that meant "clumsy and abusive" in its origin.
This fit both Lyza and Kval so perfectly, as Lyza was clumsy and Kval was... Well, he was abusive.
So, Lyza and Kval Alatyrtsev it was.
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Also Emeral
The only other last name of significance is Brillian, Emeral's last name. I went over this in an Amateurish Guide, but the names of the Brillian family (Emeral, Garne, Bery) are all the names of Gemstones, just with the last letter cut off (Emerald, Garnet, Beryl (short for Beryllium)). Thus Brillian is just the word "brilliant" without the t.
The theme carries to Emeral's middle name, Gemston, which is Gemstone. If you put the name in the typical order in a registry or directory, it would come out as "Brilliant Emerald Gemstone" (Brillian, Emeral Gemston)
Though how Garne's name matches the theme when she had the name Garne from birth and would have only acquired the name Brillian by marrying Bery (or maybe the other way around, if Bery took her name) is a quasi-plothole that is best left swept under the rug.
Along with that wolf in Indian regalia that drummed along while Lyza played Colors Of The Wind at Camp Connalake.
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Cut From The Vine
Just like with any work of production, there were things that I cut from the story. Some people find this kind of stuff interesting, others might just feel like they lost out on something...
Regardless, if it interests you, here are a couple of the most notable cuts from the story.
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No Happy Easter
When planning out Lonely Oak Part 3, I originally had an Easter Dinner planned at the Brillian home, where Ket, Lyza, Kval, Micah, and the Brillians would all be cooking.
There would be funny moments like Ket, Kval and Bery (Emmy's father) causing too much commotion in the kitchen so all the ladies kick them out.
Plus Ket and Emmy trying to hide their reomance amidst all of their friends and families being there.
But... I cut it for a couple reasons. First, I didn't want that to be the introduction of Bery, because really he wouldn't be seen again in the story. (See my journal on Vader, for that).
Second, I feel like Thanksgiving would have been more fitting for this kind of scene, as that's more archetypical and more known to non-US persons, of which I actually have several readers.
I'm still considering putting something akin to this in Raspberry Line, as I had mostly skipped out on Thanksgiving, but it probably will not be added anytime soon, if at all.
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To Zoo Or Not To Zoo
Believe it or not, the Zoo was also cut content. But, when re-re-re-revising the pacing of Lonely Oak Part 3, I saw a gap of time that I wanted to fill, and decided to bring it back.
However, my original plan didn't fit with the story. I was going to parallelize the mole from the festival during New Year's, that tried to sell drugs to the Raspberry Kids, and that Kval smacked with a flashlight.
The original idea was to have the same character attempt to do so again, this time at the zoo. Lyza would recognize it, and use her knowledge of drugs she learned from her brother's stint, as well as her new-found audacity, to get the dealer to give her a "sample,", which she would then take as evidence to a park worker.
In this version of the story, Rini's camera played a much bigger role, as the idea was Rini was going to use it to take pictures of the dealer, so that there was evidence of the exchange.
Obviously, this is way not how the zoo field trip played out. I cut this version in favor of what I actually wrote because this was completely off-the-rails to the tone and direction of the story.
Lyza was too audacious and courageous in this version, and it was too contrived. There were also implications to it, as in the real world this would be a newsworthy story. I just felt this version was a little surreal. There were also some problems / questions to solve / answer:
Why was the guy in the park trying to give drugs to kids?
How would Lyza have seen him and identified he was a drug dealer?
Maybe he wasn't giving drugs to kids, but that was a meeting-place for an exchange; how would that play out, then?
How would this affect the rest of the story?
...So, in the end, I wrote what I wrote. It was more practical, and better aligned with the tone, themes, and direction of the story. I like what it is now better, anyway.
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Well, I hope you enjoyed that. Certainly not everything. This would be a novel itself if I went through everything. Lonely Oak Chapter 076 (The Woods) alone would be an entire essay.
One that... I actually might do, some day, especially if people are interested.
But, I've missed something you want to know about. The story is done, but there is a burning question you have about something. It might be a detail that you need a little help on, maybe just a curiosity or a waht-if. Maybe it's a question for a specific character, although I don't think I respond to those in-character very well (but I'll try!).
Maybe it'll point out a plothole that completely undermines the story and I'll shit my mouth, too >.<;
In any case, if you have a question, please feel free to ask it. I will try to answer as straightforwardly as I can, but bear in mind the series as a whole is yet to be finished, so the answer to your question may be waiting in the wings, in which case you may get a more cryptic response.
Or, if you want to tell me something about it (good or bad), feel free. I love feedback, it helps me improve.
As always, thank you for reading, and who knows... Maybe by the 10th anniversary, the story will be complete. Of course, I will let you know about the next story when I have more solid details.
Until then, Happy Raspberry Birthday!
-- Lemnisc8
P.S. Sorry, 4X+Y didn't have much progress, so... Not much to update on that front >.<;
