Ist gut, ja?

As Jason said when he introduced the world to his GPS, our characters are not based on real people. Or if they are, we don't know them.

Rather, we create characters when the plot demands it... or, more often than not, one of our friends has a silly personality quirk and we feel a need to immortalize it. (Or even more often ... one of the two of us has a personality quirk that we want to exploit. See the post about Aunt Olga to understand what I mean.)

Klaus, the owner of the rival magic shop, was created solely because my friend Doug can do an awesome German accent - and sustain it well for a long period of time. I know this because Doug and I have a long-standing Sunday morning tradition. We meet at a coffee shop in our neighborhood, have fantastic coffee, and do the New York Times crossword together. (My love of Reuben sandwiches is only surpassed by my love of puzzles.) Inevitably, we get a little silly while doing the puzzle together... and often end up doing the last half while speaking in a number of ridiculous accents.

No, really... we think it's fun.

Once, Doug tried out his noticeably fake French accent for a while. About 10 minutes later, we both realized that the three women at the end of the long table where we were sitting were all actually speaking French. I don't think they noticed, and we weren't deliberately trying to mock them. But what are the odds??

Anyhow, I digress.

Klaus was originally more of a side character, and while critical to the storyline, not all that involved with the larger story. Then, he started to become a bit more insistent, and demanded to play a more pivotal role. I'll admit that he started out a bit campy, but now he is becoming a really intriguing figure, and I have much more respect for the man. I'm kind of anxious to see where he ends up.

Klaus is also an opportunity for us to fold in a bit more of the esoteric and magical aspects of the story and the mythology behind it. I'm not sure why, but we'd been shying away from it a little - even though the entire plot has a rather magical premise. I don't think it was intentional - I just think we needed some time to figure out how this alternate world works. Klaus is helping us understand it. He's got a background in ceremonial magic - although his magic shop is of the card trick and rabbit-from-a-hat variety, just like the shop owned by Alex's family. But Klaus has a wealth of knowledge and experience that is quite different - and he's opened the door for that kind of mystery to come through.

I think I'd like to add that Klaus is extraordinarily good at crossword puzzles, but that might be pushing it. I can only get in so many quirks, after all.

By the by... in addition to being able to do silly accents, Doug is also an amazing collage artist based here in Chicago, whose work is getting quite a bit of well-deserved buzz these days. Check out his online gallery.

Reader Question Wednesday! - #1

Hello and welcome to our first installment of Reader Question Wednesday! Thanks to everyone who contributed. If you missed out on asking a question, no worries. While we can't guarantee that every Wednesday will be Reader Question Wednesday, this is certainly a tradition that we wish to continue.

Without further ado ...

First, questions answered by me:

We'll start with the all-important Reuben-related questions first. Priorities, and all that.

So, at what age did you actually encounter your first reuben sandwich? Was it love at first bite?

Honestly, I can't remember the first Reuben (and yes, it is capitalized) - but I do remember that I didn't like it. It's an acquired taste. Yes, I am from a large Czech family who eats sauerkraut at every meal, but I didn't enjoy any of the ingredients until I did my study-abroad in the Czech Republic back in college (lo, these many years ago...) I learned to like rye bread and sauerkraut over there (and beer, incidentally) and it just seemed right and proper that I should fall in love with Reubens. My grandfather would be proud.

I cannot believe I just answered a question about the evolution of my love for a sandwich.

If a sandwich consists of turkey, sauerkraut, Swiss cheese and brown mustard can it still legitimately be called a reuben? If not, how narrow is the definition of a reuben? Is it the thousand island dressing? The corned beef? The Rye?

No! Impostor! Infidel!

*ahem* I mean, no. A reuben is corned beef, swiss cheese, sauerkraut, and a touch of thousand island dressing between two lightly-grilled pieces of rye (ideally marble) bread. We will accept no imitations. While I still haven't found the perfect "10" - the best one is at Irv's Deli in Fremont, Nebraska. I found my #9 there about 12 years ago. Although Irv calls it "special dressing," not thousand island - so maybe that's the key.

And now, the questions that are not Reuben-related:

So, are you actually creating a backstory "Bible," to flesh out and keep track of the details you know but haven't used yet (i.e., Alex's 2nd grade teacher's name)? Or is this backstory just theoretical?

We don't really have a "Bible," per se -- but we do have copious amounts of shared Google docs with lots of story trivia that are ridiculously disorganized. Occasionally I have to refer to older summaries to remember things like, "How old is Alex again?" and "Did Jason really think that idea would work?" I'm actually quite impressed that we're able to recall quite a few obscure details at will. I think it's a hallmark of the geek brain. "What episode did we discover the identity of the 5th Cylon?" is about the same kind of question as "When did Alex move to Omaha?"

Is this tacit permission to shout out if the backstory's too unwieldy? :)

Sure. Did you actually want us to do anything with that information, though? :)

Did Jason ever bring his two good ideas last week?

He brought one pretty spectacular idea, so I let him off the hook for two. One word: Carnies.


And now, Jason's contributions to Reader Question Wednesday:

Jason, weren't you supposed to finish those tweaks to Episode 2 last month?

Actually, given the recent additions we've made to the story, many of the tweaks I was supposed to make to Episode 2 are now moot. So it's actually a good thing that I didn't do them then, because it would have been wasted effort. Ah, I love the smell of a rationalization in the morning. It's the smell of victory.

So, are you two writing in coffee shops? (I'm at least assuming you're not recording there, though that could be HILARIOUS, frankly.) Or over reubens?

Great question. Our first podcast meeting was at a sandwich joint, and I think we've been back there two or three other times. We've also met at...another sandwich place, and two (I think) coffee shops. The majority of our recent meetings have been at one of our homes, though. We prefer to have the following easily to hand when we're writing together:

• Free outlets for our laptops
• Caffeine
  
• Potato chips (most recently the Lays kettle chips which are oh my god good)
  
• Wi-fi so we can a)Look up interesting things like a hacker name generator, and b)Easily share our updates via Google Docs in realtime.
• Enough space to actually spread out a bit.
  

These limitations aren't huge, but they do narrow the field quite a bit, location-wise. One of the coffee shops we met at was fantastic in every way *except* the last one - we were so crowded there that it just didn't work. Though we did get some funny looks that afternoon when we did our first off-the-cuff dialogue for Episode 1, Scene 1.

Thus far, there have been no reubens in the creative process.

Is there going to be some kind of casting call for your loyal followers to participate in the podcast when it gets around to recording time?

Well, I keep telling River that she can do *all* the voices, but she refuses. So...yes, we will be soliciting voice talent when we get to the recording phase. No word yet on how the casting process will work, but my guess is that bribes will be both accepted and encouraged.

Who is the better lover, Batman or Superman?

Batman.

Why?

I really think Larry Niven covered this ground fairly well in 1971.


Thanks again! We'll announce the next Reader Question Wednesday soon. Meantime, comment or e-mail us to ask a question. It will most likely appear in a future installment.