Chapter 8: Overage Joe

1. Eighty-six pages into this novel, and we finally meet the mysterious “main protagonist” of this novel. Clive was sort of a decoy protagonist, and then there were all these other characters introduced and re-introduced who’d become major players in this story. Even the young people on this bus could be seen as a misdirect. But if asked who the main character of this book is, it’s this character here, introduced as Joe.

Interlude: Trish

1. Here in this flashback to the 1990s, there’s more context for Trish. And readers will find that it’s a bit different from what they may have expected based on what she relays to Jade. This is part of a steady rollout of realizations that some of the things in this book that were not the full picture. There are multiple perspectives and sides to certain things.
2. Between Trish taking out the trash and Billy taking out the trash, we see that the act of taking out the trash may start out as an attempt at escapism, but it turns out to be very brief, sometimes preceding some moments of dread even when it seems that enough cleaning has been done. It’s never completely clean.
3. I think it would’ve been too easy to say that this neighbor cheats. It felt more absurd but still sad to have the explanation really be that he prefers to hang out with friends at a barbecue place than be at home with his partner. And again, even though he brushes his teeth, nothing is completely clean. He is a stubborn person.
4. I didn’t want to nail down where Trish used to live. It’s fun to have mystery. So, it’s not meant to be any real place you can find on any of our maps. But for a time, I lived alone in Oildale, and the weather and nature noises it caused where I lived fueled me with paranoia. There is more story to tell inspired by this complicated time, even if it may not involve Trish.
5. I used to mentally play music albums in my head starting from the beginning to help me fall asleep. Not so much in the 2020s.

Chapter 9: Peanut Stutter

1. Immersing Lake being surrounded by palm trees is a reference to one of my favorite bands, Emerson, Lake & Palmer.
2.  I used to go to the San Diego County Fair. In-universe, this is a different location, but the county fair feel is there. For a while, I thought I had this fair scene already written out. But when finalizing the manuscript, I realized it was nowhere to be found, so then wrote it in. Some scenes exist so vividly in the brain that they feel like they’ve already been put on the page.
3. Walking into this library on campus, Billy is almost experiencing the life he could have had if things had not taken a sharp turn.
4. It’s very important that Louis sees a star-nosed mole.
5. The mention of the long gun is probably meant to echo the interlude titled “The Long Gum.”
6. During the process of writing this story, a scene of things almost going completely wrong for the brothers as they break into the home of someone as prepared as Vilmer came to mind and was too irresistible not to include. I think the interactions between the brothers justify its inclusion.

Chapter 10: Pickles and Puzzles

1. Re-reading this, I think it was probably a coincidence that the letters in Ali’s name are also in Liam’s name.
2. This story about the wolf puzzle is based on a true story involving my own paternal grandmother Elaine Shinder doing the same.
3. I’m not really sure if Mel saying “’You used to be so partial to park’” is a typo, or if it means something else. So, I’m gonna decide here that Mel is saying Riccardo used to prefer having these dinner get-togethers at the park, and has since found it more convenient and less time consuming to just do all this in the backyard.
4. Janet and Marty’s names came to mind thanks to a couple fictional starfish.
5. For the hamburger-shaped ship, I had this image in mind of the Millennium Falcon in model kit form. But then I realized it’d be funnier if it’s just literally a random hamburger-shaped ship. So it’s not the Millennium Falcon. I think what I went with adds a bit more to this world.
6. Nessie’s Sleeplessness Listening Podcast was inspired by multiple podcasts I listened to especially during college that sounded paranormal and had some horror but were fictional. I do have an idea for a novel that involves a podcast, but I’m not certain it would include this particular podcast.
7. There was a time I was honestly annoyed about someone skipping from probably the second or third track on this Coldplay album to “Viva la Vida.” The whole album is great.
8. Getting back to Star Wars, the idea for Ali’s fake name here that sounds like “all alone” stemmed from this idea of a Han Solo archetype wannabe. (Han wannabe = Hannabee = Honeybee) There’s not a lot about her that’s Han Solo-esque, but her character kinda branched off that wannabe aspect and became a bit more, I like to think. How she got her scar is inspired by something George Lucas said about Anakin Skywalker.
9. I’m quite proud of the final sentence of this chapter. It has a lot of punch and hopefully keeps readers hooked, but again, context is everything. While Jade is a familiar character, readers did not really get to be in her head in the first book. So there’s enough room here for reader’s to speculate about the type of person she is before more information comes to light. The final sentence of this chapter might make readers look back at passages involving Jade in a new light, wondering what and whom they can trust.

Chapter 11: Sibling RV Lore-y

1. I believe this is when the first explanation of Miunis Grund would have been had I not moved it earlier. A good place to re-iterate, though.
2. Even when I did not yet have a name for their kind, I had the idea of the Snee Kin in mind as far back as perhaps 2013/2014, when writing another novel that I previously thought would be the first of this series. It’ll come out eventually. Back then, they were called the See Kin because of what their eyes could do. But I eventually decided on a sneakier connotation.
3. The mention of all roads leading to Phoenix was inspired by the marketing of 2019 X-Men film Dark Phoenix. I will say I do actually love the music of that film. Makes for great writing music.
4. Both Ali and Louis say “Dear brother,” but the dynamics are different.

Chapter 12: Little Shop Explorers

1. Thought it’d be funny making it seem like the shop could teleport, and then actually it’s stationary and just there. Klo is just not as good at finding it.
2. Beware the Purple Peanut Butter is the first Give Yourself Goosebumps book I ever read. And the first Goosebumps book I ever read, The Headless Ghost, was what got me into reading chapter books in third grade.
3. The dialogue about the spelling of “Soul Stealer” is an allusion to something I have yet to put in a story.
4. I’ve always liked the idea of Snee Kin as villains who don’t do their evil deeds quite as directly but create the tools and use them to tempt others to commit evil deeds on a massive scale. Very sneaky indeed.
5. The idea of Snee Kin pockets was a fun one I came up with while writing this book.
6. This interaction between Cliff and Klo is inspired by a silly video I was shown in the 2010s of clips from various shows and films where people say, “You just don’t get it, do you?”
7. I think I left a corndog in the microwave for a while at some point. Not as long as the duration here, but it gave me the idea of this Corndog Hedgefrog, which I thought would be funny to throw in and just not mention again at all for the rest of the book.
8. For a while, I thought the word “shape shifter” was kind of strange, sounding like it could mean something else. Like moving shapes. So I incorporated a bit of that in this conversation.
9. Ibby Daga is a character I may have thought of c.2014-2015. I thought of including him in one of these other stories I’d thought of prior to working on these first two books.
10. This Area 51 reference pokes fun at a real life 2019 event that was essentially a meme. The mention of an Area 52 sounding looney is a reference to comics I’d read that were a crossover between DC and Looney Tunes.
11. There’s also a little Seinfeld reference in the dialogue. Not the last time in this book.

Chapter 14: Greatest Common Vactor

1. Like Part One, Part Two has its second chapter go back in time. In this instance, it’s to recontextualize what was just read, and it’s only hours instead of weeks.
2. This bit about Charlie’s clothing came from a moment when I realized how much of what I was wearing in a particular outfit had been given to me. And the saying from Charlie’s grandma came from my aforementioned Grandma Elaine. I hope I was able to paint a nice picture of the idea of family.
3. As you learn here, either pronunciation of Miunis Grund (“My Eunice” vs “Me Eunice”) is valid. I like to think people use them interchangeably without even thinking about it.
4. Here, we get to learn who Joe and Louis really are. And it feels like the perfect place for the book title to appear, in a display of Louis’ hidden powers, which might make re-reading the book more rewarding when people look at those moments when the Vactors had the upper hand. The giant letters were actually inspired by this very distracting method in Captain America: Civil War, where each location title was displayed in giant letters.
5. From what I remember, the names Rowzox Ahnter and Kerlop Eytak came to me during Easter Vigil 2019. Not too different from how I decided during mass in 2017 to make Lemons Loom Like Rain less grounded and more fantastical. Actually, the Ahnter name at least I’d had in mind for a while, derived from the word “saunter.”
6. I’d long been aware of the idea of reincarnation, and at some point, asked myself, what if when someone died, they then inhabited the vessel of a new person after they had already been living life? The rules set here are that the souls of the Soul Stealers end up as those age five and then regain their memories at age ten. Whatever happens after that point can be unpredictable.
7. It would have been easy to say that Billy was always being controlled. But as tragic as his trajectory is, I did not want to remove responsibility for some of these terrible actions from him.
8. I wrote out this idea of the characters being spun in the air thinking I’d already written out the scene of the Vactors at the fair, a scene to which this is meant to call back. And speaking of callbacks, “That’s carnival!” as a substitute for, “That’s fair,” is a callback to its use in Lemons Loom Like Rain. It’s just a common saying in this world.
9. This dynamic where people on Miunis Grund were so trusting of the Snee Kin is partially inspired by the Skeksis from The Dark Crystal franchise. I’ve spoken before about how the Kin Conflicts were this background event mentioned and then explored later, akin to the Clone Wars in Star Wars, the Time War in Doctor Who, the Earth-Minbari War in Babylon 5. The method of showing flashbacks to this huge war to shed light on the context of things when relevant was very much inspired by Babylon 5.
10. Now, the readers know the truth of what was meant by the words, “’I was killed by my sister.’” Now one would feel more confident in how to perceive Jade.
11. I wanted to get these characters to Connecticut fast, making it uncomfortable to endure, and I came to realize that I needed to set rules for this. Hence the inclusion of Bedupea’s hidden syringe, and ripping of Rowzox’s skin.

Interlude: Red Acted

1. I had this idea of writing an interlude about agents whose names would be redacted from the text because it was kind of funny to me. I think the title was even going to be “[Redacted].” But then the podcast Doctor Who: Redacted came along, and I wanted to change the title slightly. A little bit of the text here explains the new title.
2. Sometimes, major things happen in the world within these stories, and I’m kind of curious how people would deal with the aftermath. Some of that is left to the imagination, but I wanted to explore a little bit of what the immediate reaction would be here.
3. Some of this probably came about after a drink tomato juice at some point. A lot of my ideas come to me when I’m having a meal.
4. I have a really short story written out that I’ve been thinking of repurposing as the explanation of where the skull went.  Maybe it’ll be included in something else down the line. I ended up deciding it would feel like a bit much to include here. Gotta leave some loose ends and not solve every little thing right away.

Chapter 15: Raised by a Wolf

1. I just noticed that it kinda looks like “Joker” when Charlie says both Joe and Kerlop. Not intentional.
2. For all the efforts of trying to make names not look too similar, it’s noticeable that Klo and Kerlop have letters in common. Thankfully, they don’t share many scenes together.
3. The emphasis on Ibby having eggshell white eyes is a way of saying this is totally different from Mathias having milky white eyes in Lemons Loom Like Rain. There’s also a significance to the use of the word “eggshell” that may become clear in a different book.
4. Ibby Daga’s origins came from my idea that one might think a shape shifter is a type of being capable of moving any matter telekinetically, including the matter of an animal’s face to make it more like how we imagine people.

Chapter 16: Keep in Mind

1. The triangular design described here is inspired by how Joker is illustrated in Batman: The Long Halloween and Batman: Dark Victory. Kerlop’s act of punching it came from this thought I’ve had where, when watching the Twin Peaks season 2 finale, I thought to myself, “Why didn’t Cooper simply punch his doppelganger instead of running away from it?”

2. The cover art might look like the inner part of Cliff’s face, but here we get a description of a pancake covered in grape jelly that looks like a face, along with other familiar faces Kerlop has encountered. The process of making the cover art was similar to how it was for the first book. I made a simple sketch of what I wanted then handed it off to the artist with a description of the colors I wanted. Irpan Alfian did a good job matching the aesthetic with what was established in my collaboration with Obani Obodo on Lemons Loom Like Rain.

Chapter 17: Facelift

1. Ali’s speculation about time travel given the changing position of the planet is something I’d thought about many times and really needed to insert somewhere.
2. I debated back and forth about whether the Teal parents should also end up on the ship. If they stayed behind, at home, what would they have been doing? Just waiting around, worrying? Ultimately, I decided to include them, thinking about what could be done with them.
3. “I…am…your sister” echoes the cadence of the Double Bill dialogue.
4. Once I had Kerlop’s name nailed down, it was only inevitable that I’d use wordplay eventually, suggesting the idea of him getting lopped off a family tree.
5. Going to college while some peers didn’t, then finishing college, and then seeing what others were up to, I got the sense that college experience doesn’t automatically get one more ahead in life than another. Some of us were conditioned to believe this myth, and it simply wasn’t true. And in any case, each person is on a different path, so there’s no being ahead of or behind anyone, in my opinion. I thought it was really important to give Ali and Jade this exchange as a grounding moment between the intense situations, to show that people with different experiences can still relate with one another.
6. In Lemons Loom Like Rain, the character August Wilhelm is fascinated by birds. But I didn’t really do much with that characteristic of his. So, mentioning that particular interest here feels like a way to reinforce that it has indeed been part of his personality.
7. Kerlop feeling more guilt ended up being a pretty good reason to allow the Teal parents to be on this ship.
8. I’m sure there are many questions one could have about the years Kerlop roamed around as Joe. I didn’t want to spend too much time showing that, though, because it would have halted the momentum. I feel like you get just enough in this passage where he explains a bit.
9. At this point, you learn Ibby Daga’s true nature. You didn’t get all the context before, but now you do. His name stemmed from the use of letters in “big bad.” And he’s a wolf, so there.
10. Ibby saying “As you know” is a tongue-in-cheek reference to the universally agreed upon idea that the use of that phrase is bad writing.
11. Growing up, one of the stories I heard when it came to faith was this idea that people doing bad things they think are good but hurt them inside is like a wolf licking a knife with blood on it, thinking there’s no harm. I kind of took that idea and added some fantastical elements to it.
12. Ibby wearing clothing made of family is a sharp contrast to Charlie wearing clothing given to him by family.
13. It’s kind of funny that the two Tele Kin characters have been shown to feel like they each owe someone something. That was a coincidence. I wasn’t trying to say it’s a defining characteristic of Tele Kin people.
14. The pig analogy stemmed from this idea of the chair having a bit of wear and tear, making a spring pop out the back comparable to a pig’s tail. You might find it hard to believe that Ibby does not know what a pig is, but I like to think he’s heard it said in other languages. But there’s also this idea here that he learns, and then he discards some info from his mind that doesn’t interest him so much. He’d perhaps want to get away from reminders that he is in fact a wolf. A lot could happen in the many years he’s been around.

Chapter 18: Seal and Stomp

1. Ibby is alluding to a character in the aforementioned book I’ve had tucked away for a while.
2. I remember before Revenge of the Sith came out, I was somehow under the impression that buzz droids would be like these robots with humanoid bodies and chainsaw heads. I guess that image stuck with me.
3. Ibby’s dialogue about a seasoned witch is an allusion to the song “Close to the Edge” by my favorite band Yes.
4. Ibby’s motives and actions might seem a bit inconsistent, so I wanted the hypocrisy to be pointed out in-universe.
5. “Escape pod” is such an overused term that I thought it’d be fun to come up with “escape peel” instead.
6. Had the Teal parents been left at home, their last interaction with their son’s vessel would’ve been with their actual son. As things are here, they are present during the vessel’s demise, but I had their eyes closed so it wouldn’t be as much. Still a tragic loss for them, being that they cannot talk to their son anymore. I felt it was important to show afterward that, despite all this, Donnie is able to help the next kid whose place Kerlop takes.

Interlude: Wagon Wheels

1. This is a short story I wrote in Writing 91, a writing workshop class I took back in college. The submission is dated January 26, 2016. I reworked it a little for this, namely by changing a character’s name from Nate to Carrum and then giving him the surname Turnip. The name felt too similar to Natalie, and I ended up becoming friends with a Nate. When coming up with character names, I feel like I don’t want to give them names of people in my circle. It’s probably silly of me to change the name, knowing all sorts of different people have the same name. But it is what it is. I somehow found the name Carrum, which means “wheeled vehicle,” therefore falling in line with the chapter title.
2. So you might be wondering, “Why end Part Two with this particular interlude?” To be honest, it was kind of tough figuring out where I wanted to place each interlude. It’s just a feeling. The narrative has a rhythm, and with Part Two ending on a down note, I guess this interlude fits there nicely before moving onto Part Three.

Chapter 20: Food for Rot

1. During the beta reading process, I was told by one of my readers that they weren’t sure if purple was the name of the fruit or meant to be an adjective for something I forgot to include. Hence the sentence in parentheses for clarity.
2. Maskil sticking with family is not too dissimilar from Billy and Louis sticking together, even if Louis wasn’t whom he said he was.
3. The wording “the potato incident” is an allusion to “The Tomato Incident” from Hey Arnold!: The Movie.
4. Maskil eating from the top of the garbage is another Seinfeld reference.
5. I had to figure out what this world’s equivalent of the Internet would be called. I came up with VentiVirt, which I thought looked and sounded cool. I probably had coffee cup sizes in mind at the time.

Chapter 21: Blend Me a Hand

1. “Robot” is such an overused word, so I decided to use “automaton” instead.

2. With the burning factor that came with Snee Kin eyes in the process of stealing identities, I felt like there had to be some sort of consequence to messing with their eyes. Slow burn, indeed.

Chapter 22: Rental Period

1. I had fun creating this lore for what people believe about the moons of Paw and the origin of the Krowkivors. Even people on our own world have all sorts of different beliefs.

Chapter 23: Maskil’s Monologue

1. They say not to infodump, but I hope the lore here is interesting enough to justify it. Plus, Maskil is the type of character who would memorize something like this very well, though the wording might get jumbled momentarily due to how nervous he is, as can be seen in the bit about souls ending up in people age five. I didn’t notice that before, but that’s the story I’m sticking to, dang it!
2. In a lot of media dealing with changelings, it seems like they might be able to replicate absolutely everything about one’s physical appearance, their entire body. The idea can be uncomfortable. I decided to be different, making it so that Snee Kin can only change their faces and limbs. It’s funny how their ability only goes to that extent. I didn’t deal with that much here, but this isn’t the last story in which the Snee Kin will appear. (Wow. That rhymed.)
3. Aster played a pivotal role in Lemons Loom Like Rain. And she had a presence on Miunis Grund, so it felt natural to mention her here.
4. I’d known for a while that the Kin Conflicts were made up of multiple conflicts, hence the plural form. I had the different types of Kin Conflicts nailed down even while writing Lemons Loom Like Rain.
5. Kind of like how “Thirty-six, no more” has a different meaning from “Thirty-six no more,” the words “a hand in her demise” had multiple meanings. When thinking of this idea, I thought of having one Snee Kin reveal they had one hand preserved, and then another Snee Kin reveal he had the other hand decayed. In the end, I had the order of these reveals reversed.
6. I played Dungeons & Dragons in the early-mid 2010s. While there was some fun, I also wasn’t as focused on it as others were. So I knew when to walk away.

Chapter 24: Capital Idea

1. With all this mention of “the long game,” maybe it was a good idea to include “The Long Gum” after all.

Chapter 25: Char Actor

1. I sort of addressed language being kind of the same on this other world, but I didn’t want to get too deep in the weeds with it.
2. Kerlop and Rowzox sure have a history of these dramatic moments in deserts. Also, Rowzox choosing spite is a Seinfeld reference.
3. I recall Grynzura Zekray’s name went through different iterations before I settled on it. In the draft I sent to beta readers, her name was Tryngra Zekray. But that first name sounded too similar to Yuhlorr Trinku’s surname, so I changed things around.
4. I definitely have plans for what happens with the Tedfam Hiss after this.
5. By the end of this chapter, the pun in the title is explained clearly. I’m just noticing how it has the same first and last letter as the chapter titles that begin with “Cliff’s.”

Interlude: Within the Walls

1. This idea of not naming these characters may very well have been partially inspired by the Elaine and Susie situation in Seinfeld. The absence of names also fits thematically with the earlier interlude, “Red Acted.” In this book, some people are given no names, and some people have multiple names.
2. I seem to recall one of my beta readers may have been confused about when this interlude takes place in relation to other fires in the story. This is meant to overlap with the interlude featuring Trish. Thematically, it felt right placing it after what happened to Grynzura Zekray.

Chapter 27: The Gates of Dithlee-rium

1. The title of this chapter is an homage to the Yes song “The Gates of Delirium.”
2. This talk about capitalization is me going back and forth about which creature, species, race, etc. names need to be capitalized. They can look weird grouped together, with some lowercase and some capitalized. So I go with what looks good.
3. The way I wrote Dithlee is he’s basically in a kid show. Hence this idea that he sees the objects as living things.
4. I thought about calling the chancellor the director, initially. A different sort of leadership title. But for a reason that’ll be clear in a later book, I decided to go with chancellor.
5. Just how much people really know about Miunis Grund varies. That’s a point I was trying to make.
6. The idea of amphibious beings like the Krowkivors came from a short story I wrote in college, which I’m repurposing for a different book.
7. “Maw and Paw” is meant to sound like “Ma and Pa.”
8. I do indeed have plans for what happens with Dithlee and Maskil after this point. Maybe moreso with Maskil, to be honest.
9. I thought it would be kind of difficult to believe Kerlop could pilot this ship right away. So I came up with this method that makes it really easy to use. It flies based on the goodness of one’s heart.

Chapter 28: Split Second

1. I thought it would be more interesting to have Yuhlorr involved in the breaking of Ibby Daga, and making that sequence of events a bit more complicated.

Chapter 29: Oni Ion Ring

1. Chulso Thleego’s name was originally Chulso Deego in the earlier draft.
2. With food giving a lot of literary inspiration, it was only a matter of time before I made a chapter like this. It could kind of be a short story unto itself. I’m definitely not finished using this Oni Ion Ring setting.
3. I’m sure people can guess which classic animated movie I’m giving an homage to with the Dungrr’s Lair stuff.
4. When I read an early version of this chapter to a friend, he said it had a Hithhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy feel to it. I’ve never read it and have only seen the 2005 film. I think being an Invader Zim fan definitely shaped some of my humor. And there’s, of course, some Seinfeld-inspired humor here.
5. The idea of what’s basically a giant minnow just seemed really funny to me. The Minnowsaur’s mention of the place being a maze is a reference to the Minotaur’s Labyrinth in Greek mythology.
6. Vez Kaymas is basically a bizarro version of a certain Seinfeld villain. And his surname is not too dissimilar to “quemar,” which is Spanish for “burn.” And “caldo” is Spanish for “broth,” so I came up with coldo for this. In the earlier draft, his name was written as Mez Kayvas.
7. Chulso calls this Rivobah character Phixyag, but the narration calls her Phixyaq. I’m just gonna say Chulso is not so good with her name. Subtle difference, but he got it wrong.
8. This giant tick is meant to make readers wonder what happened with the ticks on the Wolf Trapezoid.

Interlude: Groaning Tusmyr

1. Some might not pick up on this, but Groaning Tusmyr is meant to be Gretchen Todd-Smear, the annoying customer from earlier in the book. She died on the way from Tucson to Myrtle Beach. And yes, her name and that latter destination were references to a certain fictional ghost.
2. One of my beta readers wondered if the goblin here would be one of the goblins from “The Long Gum.” Not the case. Just wanted to show more of them.
3. In any conventional story, Tusmyr would’ve learned her lesson. But she just remains bad to the end.

Chapter 30: Lab Scientist Elaborations

1. I thought it would be more interesting to have Yuhlorr involved in the breaking of Ibby Daga, and making that sequence of events a bit more complicated.
2. The Fairy Dragon is an idea I’ve had since 2012-2013. More on that in a later book.
3. This passage of a decade takes up so little time in the chapter, but I didn’t want to pad things out too much.
4. There might be stories to be told about these mentioned teams looking for Soul Stealers in this era. Just not sure how much.
5. This idea of a Soul Stealer accidentally occupying the life of her daughter is an idea I had for quite a long time. I think this emotional scene does a lot of legwork.

Chapter 32: Sawed with a Kiss

1. The line “’I’m hucking fungry’” is something I suggested for use in a very short story I worked on with a writing partner in Creative Writers Guild at UCI. It didn’t get use at that time, but it found life here.
2. This mention of Rowzox’s parents comes late in the narrative, but it adds another layer to him killing Billy and Louis’ parents. I didn’t have Rowzox kill his own parents, though. That would have been too easy and predictable.
3. Does Yuhlorr tale pity on Bedupea and mercy kill him? Does she want to end him to keep Ibby Daga in the dark? Maybe both.

Interlude: From Bottle to Dance Bottle

1. In what may be a surprise, we get a continuation from the “Wagon Wheels” interlude. I had an idea of this dance battle being what happens next. In the draft I sent out to beta readers, I ended “Wagon Wheels” with the following note (from when Carrum’s name was Nate): “[Insert another interlude involving Waylon confronting Nate at a bar and challenging him to a drunken dance-off that results in one of them puking and Nate agreeing to be helped.]”
2. I decided pretty late in the process for Carrum and Waylon to be in Tucson. The Arizona Saloon Shin was a little reference to The Airzone Solution, a strange production from 1993 that had a few actors who’d portrayed The Doctor in Doctor Who. I know very few friends who’d get this inside joke.
3. The people turning around and looking at Carrum was inspired by a time I went into this breakfast place that looked kinda like a saloon, and everyone looked at me. I guess they felt they had to look whenever anyone new entered. It was really weird.
4. In all honesty, I don’t know how to justify this mess of a sentence: “Together, they joined the crowd her were dancing around.” I’m open to suggestions.
5. I believe the Snow Cone is a dance move I made up for this. And I kind of remember the Macaroni might be a real thing.
6. The tomato juice with onion indicates that there’s some sort of connection between Waylon and the agents from “Red Acted.” Maybe there will be an explanation elsewhere if I feel like including one.
7. Let’s see if anyone notices another Seinfeld reference here.
8. Truthfully, this originally was going to be just a dance battle ending with a happy resolution. But that ending seemed boring, so I went ahead and came up with this ending. The PunKin is a character I’d thought up a while earlier in the process, having written the nursery rhyme November 28, 2020, apparently. At some point, I think I tried some pumpkin-based dessert that was kind of runny. I do intend to use this character again at some point.

Chapter 33: For the Dessert Comes a Stranger

1. This chapter title is a homage to The Book of Boba Fett episode “From the Desert Comes a Stranger.”
2. I grappled a bit with whether Kerlop should eat the purple goo. It ultimately ended up being simpler to have him not.
3. Eating at fast food places will give one inspiration for a ship like this one.
4. Coalition Curse is a name I picked because of how it sounds like “collision course.” And The Assistance I chose because it doesn’t have as much punch as the word “resistance.” And also because it feeds into a punchline later on.
5. The mention of jambalaya was definitely Seinfeld-inspired.
6. For Sytem’s name, I flipped back and forth on whether his name should begin with a “C” instead of an “S.” The earlier draft used both Cytem and Cytim.
7. The idea of spaceships going into a ghost phase came from me trying to wrap my head around how ships in various franchises don’t crash into each other when in hyperspace or whatever. I have an idea of how it came about in-universe, which I will explore in a later book.
8. If you’re not onboard with the supposed physics of how everything works this late in the story and still have questions about how some of the tech works, Cytem has the perfect response here.

Chapter 34: Cliff Hangar

1. At some point, I considered making “Cliff Hangar” the title of the final chapter, or the penultimate chapter with “Stinger” as the final one. But as this section of the story got fleshed out, it was evident that it had to be earlier.
2. Chooser’s Canyon is a homage to Beggar’s Canyon from Star Wars. I also show myself to be a Jimmy Neutron fan in this chapter.
3. I have an idea of where the Machzcot went.
4. Rock bands come from rebellion, so I thought it’d be funny for one to be the origin of a huge resistance movement.
5. Sytem is supposed to say, “I stopped at the library along the way.” Guess he mixed up his words while talking.
6. The Power Creep is named after a trope.
7. I’d been wanting to use the word “simulacrum” to refer to some sort of group in my fiction since the early 2010s. Soul Steelers is another bit of wordplay I’d been wanting to use for a while.
8. By this point, you may have figured out that some of the alien appearances came out of me doing online searches of unusual animals. In the earlier draft, I didn’t have the names and appearances nailed down, so made note each time to add them later. Frillboon was Vilstia’s name in the earlier draft, and then I made it what her people are once I figured out what she looked like.
9. Rowzox has lived more lives prior to this. So much time has passed that it did not seem outside the realm of possibility that he’d be able to shape his own appearance. I have somewhat of an idea of what happened with him between dying on the Wolf Trapezoid and popping up here.
10. This might sound silly, but I kind of worried that the wording would make people think that Shard Risa and Rowzox Ahnter were in some sort of relationship. This is not the case. They are both leaders within the Coalition Curse who have been at odds about strategies. Also, the word “rocky” is key.
11. The “Now…KISS!” bit is a callback to the way Rowzox died. Out of universe, it is a reference to a meme that shippers in fandoms use.
12. Independent Gorge is another Seinfeld reference, by the way.
13. Tergosiq the Zeewhal was originally Dergosiq the Weekzale. I always knew he has seal-like qualities. I don’t remember why I changed his name. Maybe it sounded too much like Chulso Deego’s last name, but I ended up changing that, too, anyway.

Chapter 35: Cliff’s Hunger

1. There’s a reference to a certain song by They Might Be Giants here. And it’s not the only reference to that band in this book.
2. Ali’s cartwheel early on in this book was originally just for the sake of a joke. But I figured I’d bring it back here.
3. What kind of sucks about stories set in the 21^st century is you kind of have to always take cell phones into account. I had to figure out how being in space would impact them. I decided to remove them from the equation, and then have them come back in a way that’s dangerous.
4. I long had it pictured in my head that this sunburn line would be what Klo says before killing Cliff Ace.

Chapter 36: Decay Might Be Giants

1. And here’s the other they Might Be Giants reference.
2. When I first came up with the Sinjeesyan people, it was with a slightly different spelling (same pronunciation), and I had their physical traits nailed down. They and their idea of bodies just being objects once dead were to make their debut in a novel I’ve alluded to that I for a time thought would be the first one and the start of all this. I was so intrigued by the idea of these people that I just had to include them here.
3. This plan is so stupid. I love it.
4. I decided to do my own take on how a low signal would make someone on a call look. Sock puppets and marionettes add a bit of levity.
5. Edifice is another character I’ve had in mind for a really long time. Maybe even as far back as 2009. You’ll learn more in a later book.
6. I briefly considered making Barco Dusore a Pursnaw, but I decided I wanted more variety in terms of cat people. I couldn’t come up with a different name right away, so I decided to play it off as Rowzox not caring. I think by this point I was kind of tired of coming up with new names for types of people. I’ve since come up with one for Barco’s people, but that’ll be in a different book.

Chapter 38: Phone’s Blowing Up

1. I feel kind of stupid saying this, but I’m really impressed with how many twists I was able to pack into this. Yuhlorr begins questioning everything here.
2. People who know Jade and her story well will know what she’s about to say before getting cut off. It’s also a callback to Randy being cut off in Lemons Loom Like Rain.
3. “Toy Story 3 situation” is part of a running joke that started in Lemons Loom Like Rain. I don’t think I’ll continue it further. This feels like the furthest I can take it because of the surprise and cathartic nature of this instance.

Chapter 39: The Plan in the Flaw

1. Switch the nouns in the chapter title, and it’s easy to see where the inspiration for the chapter title came from.
2. I didn’t want to give away here what the fates of Earth and Paw are by this time period. That’s for other content to reveal.
3. I can’t remember if I intended this, but the mention of Rowzox and Kerlop’s constant struggle not being a dance kind of connects thematically to the interlude in which Carrum and Waylon dance to decide whether or not Carrum can be helped. We all know what happened when Carrum didn’t want to be helped, and now Rowzox doesn’t want to repent, no matter how much Kerlop pleas.
4. The video message from Vilstia is live, but her wording sounds like what someone who pre-recorded it would say. She’s just letting some of the words come to her on the fly. Something in the flash drive allowed the Assistance to hack and broadcast onto the Power Creep The message getting cut off after the first syllable of Assistance when out of range is the joke I was heading toward by picking this name.
5. The Dark Orifice is an idea I had in mind for years. A black hole in which what goes in comes out of the mouth of a Crunch Kin. When incorporating it for this story, I added the soul-trapping aspect. And I knew I needed to seed it once before this moment, but subtly.
6. You get to finally hear the real Louis Vactor. What’s really sad is he truly was innocent, while the man who possessed him corrupted his brother Billy.
7. The brain was originally named Phil, but then one of my beta readers thought it was meant to be Phil Harmon from earlier in the book. So, I changed his name to Jeffrey. And I gave him three eyeballs, implying that he’s not human.
8. I have an idea of who Shard Risa is, and I’m really excited to at some point show people more of Barco Dusore’s story at some point. The conflict in these portions of the book take place basically at the end of the Standalones and Stepping Stones timeline. Trespassing Through the Visages showcases the breadth and scope of this series and where it can go.

Chapter 40: Falling into the Trap

1. The chapter title might get some people worried. But it ends up making sense.
2. I wanted a safe landing, and I even considered making it so that the escape peel had a built in giant floatie that activates once it touches water. Felt too neat and tidy, though.
3. People who know Jade… You know.
4. The thread involving moon rocks replacing cheese is not something I forgot. Once I introduced it, I intended to just have it resolved at the end without explanation, because it seemed funny to me.
5. I considered having Ali’s RV completely broken over the course of her journey, but since it’s also her home, I decided to give her a break.
6. With Klo, it was always the plan to wait until she got closure to finally reveal her full name is Klo Schur. No reveal of Charlie and Ali’s surnames, though.

Chapter 41: Ticking Boxes

1. Ibby was just too interesting of a villain to me. I couldn’t kill him off here. I have plans for him.

Chapter 42: Favor Fulfilled

1. Ibby Daga was ultimately wrong.
2. When Kerlop thanked Rowzox for fulfilling the favor, this is what he meant. On Miunis Grund, he’d asked Rowzox to take him to Xafaynee. By unwittingly steering the Soul Steelers to the Dark Orifice, Rowzox unintentionally brought Kerlop to Xafaynee, in a way, fulfilling the favor. There’s just something heartfelt about the closure Kerlop gets here even if he’s not hugging the real Xafaynee. He finally forgives himself, and he’s the man Xafaynee would call her brother again.
3. For a long time, I knew the title would be the end of the main story. What’s funny is with Lemons Loom Like Rain, I felt pretty certain about how it would end, but wasn’t sure how it would begin, right away. For Trespassing Through the Visages, I had a beginning pretty much written out already, but wasn’t sure right away how it would end. I eventually came up with this ending, and it makes me happy.

Chapter 43: Stinger

1. This is kind of a homage to The Incredible Hulk (2008), and pokes fun at stingers, credit scenes, and post-credit scenes. Seli Cutler’s first name is actually kind of inspired by Tony.