Cameos in Captain of Industry and more Q&A

So much mail, so many posts, tons of comments. I’m thrilled at the reception that Captain of Industry is getting! There have been some questions that I didn’t foresee, so I’m going to answer them in a quick post.

Q: You included a number of characters from your other books in the opening chapters. Is this a farewell to all of them? Are you putting down your pen?

I’ll stop writing when they pry the keyboard out of my three-day dead hands. So there’s that.

Captain was inspired by another book so at a minimum there was going to be character crossover from there. I had planned all along for one particular character from another book to show up to give a big political speech. Then I realized that with thirty books to draw on, I could populate the entire party just from the characters who live in California alone. So of course the wine was from my favorite Napa Valley vineyard and so forth. I tried to fit them all in, but the scene changed from moving the plot along to a lot of name dropping and back story sketches. So there are just a few.

And yes, if you think there’s a wee Easter egg to another author’s books, you’re right.

Q: I loathed Jennifer Lamont in Stepping Stone. She was a horrible person. Why would you want to make me understand her? I even empathized with her. Why did you pick her of all people?

Everybody’s got their something. Why would a strong, talented, driven woman use such deplorable tactics? She’s a royal bitch. My brain went ping: Even bitches have backstories. Why would she think those tactics will get her what she wants? Because they’ve worked before, maybe? “I messed up” with a pretty mea culpa speech seems a constant for all sorts of stars. That her usual tactics don’t succeed in Stepping Stone (at least not entirely) is a setback for Jennifer, and a chance for self-examination. So Captain of Industry explores what made Jennifer and then what changed her.

Plus I explored the other theme that interested me: when two people or the world aren’t ready for love, not even a successful Internet millionaire who seemingly has the world at her feet. Money can’t buy peoples’ hearts.

Q: I can’t find Jennifer in the scene you described that seemed to be from Space Jam.

She’s not there. Fiction. Stop looking.

fic·tion ˈfikSH(ə)n/
noun: fiction
literature in the form of prose, especially short stories and novels, that describes imaginary events and people

It’s what I do.

Q: Is Napa Valley really that beautiful? I feel like I should visit it as you’ve written more than once about it.

Yes. The photo above is a still from the movie Bottle Shock. I put the trailer for the movie below. Because Alan Rickman. And it’s a fun movie. But mostly Alan Rickman.

I chose it as a place where Jennifer and Suzanne weekend together because it’s exactly where a money-no-object-but-can’t-be-far San Francisco dweller would go. And Bottle Shock is exactly the kind of movie Selena Ryan would make.

Q: Aren’t you the teensiest bit sorry you kept me up all night?

You’re going to need an electron microscope to locate how sorry I am.

Q: When is your next book coming out?

I have to write it first. I have a great idea, which is a relief. I’ll be attaching seat to chair after Golden Crown. And I get my website upgraded from unresponsive HTML. It’s not even HTML5. Very sad state of affairs. But it will be next year, she said confidently.

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And now the trailer for Bottle Shock. Because it’s simply divine to hear Alan Rickman say, “You think I’m an asshole. But I’m not really. I’m just British and…you’re not.”