Frigg: “Is this… one of them those UNPUNCHABLE problems? I’ve heard about that shit in myths, but I never thought…”

Kidding aside, I respect the hell out of what Phil brought to this. Since we weren’t going to have Byron break free and need to be subdued (too easy and too tangential to the main drama), it took some solid thinking to so engage all the characters’ powers and personalities in a scene that could have been written as straightforwardly and undramatically as a pinata party. Gravedust’s spoken-word poetry remains choice.

One reason I haven’t been in a hurry to do another fiction series after GA is that I get conflicting messages about how the audience responds to certain topics like suicide these days. I was doing stories that showcased suicidal impulses in Penny and Aggie, too, and sometimes got reader feedback that it was irresponsible to run those without trigger/content warnings. Those still seem to be a thing, but I’m also aware that today’s young folk are sharing memes with punchlines like “Bold of you to assume I want to live,” so I’m not sure in which direction I should modify my instincts.