AFTERWORD

(The final words about "Senses")

A fellow writer and friend of mine, Max P. Belin, once told me he gets the names for his characters by opening a phone book and picking names out at random, with different first and last names picked for each selection. It's a valid method and the only exceptions I ever heard him make was for a cat named Benny and a character named Jones so that he could pull off one stinker of a pun.

For the most part, I don't do that. Most of my characters are based upon real people, or at least aspects or exaggerations of them. An accounting regarding this novel follows:

Jim Christopher is a real person. I met him in a bar in Hermosa Beach. He really is a musician signed to the Antinomy Music label (which helped in the copyright of this book) and he wrote all the songs credited to either him or his brother with the exception of "Ghosts" and I'll explain that in a bit. With the exception of "Piece of My Soul" they were all written in the 1980's (and even two from the 70's, when Jim was in his mid-teens!) and Jim isn't 100% pleased with the lyrics (I say let them stand as they are, so they will - besides, the real Jim is an alternative rocker and something of a poet, the fictional one is a pop star - at least that was the intention). The description, as it stands, is fairly accurate, although he curses a bit less. He really does drink that much - I've seen him do it and my jaw dropped. The Lyrics are reprinted with permission.

A.J. Christopher is based in part on my brother, who isn't quite that tall. Alex is in reality a cameraman for "The Simpsons" as of this writing.

Larry Christopher is based upon a younger version of me, or at least what I thought I was. I was wrong, but you learn as you grow.

Karen Price is fictional, although the name was picked with a great deal of care. Most people think she's based on my wife Cathy. Truth is, I started writing this five years before I even met her. Besides, when we met, Cathy was a blonde and didn't wear glasses. She changed her look before she even read this work, and not at my suggestion. Go figure.

Carrie Fallon is based on a guitarist I met at a session once.

Paul Cynic is based very loosely on my friend Max. At first they were nothing alike but Max has grown into the role. Max's nickname is "The Cynic". He earned it.

A side note: the story about Paul being the manager who first bought a round of drinks for an entire audience is a true story, and Max was that manager. The incident in question happened at a club called FM Station, and the band was called Mercy Beat. No, it was not a band I was in during my own music days, although I have appropriated the incident for the purposes of this novel.

If you're the first person to figure out where 'drink Davis' name comes from, I'll give you fifty bucks. Cash.

Matthias Gibraltar comes from two sources. Max again, from the period he was my roommate - this character has more of his personality. The first name comes from a mispronunciation of his name from an ex-girlfriend of mine. Gibraltar comes from being solid as a rock. Or so he started. The name may also have something to do with the fact that my favorite character ever created by Jack Chalker is named Matson (a thought that only just occurred to me as I am now reading the Soul Rider saga again). If so, it was my subconscious playing around again. That's how this whole project started!

Debbie Davis was created out of thin air. I played a trick with the last name so that I could introduce Paul, but the first name is because I had more girlfriends named Debbie than any other name before my second (and final) marriage. I'm willing to dig at myself.

Scott David is loosely based upon a friend of mine named Dave, a long-time friend and a computer wiz. If he's this good at hacking I don't want to know. (Although, mind you, empirical evidence suggests he is. Not to say anything, mind you, but I did show him one part of the novel and Dave immediately said "that's do-able" and proceeded to prove it. Legally.)

Jeff Soszynski was my only phone book pick in the novel (and not actually from a phone book either).

Morgana is fictional, although her physical appearance is very similar to the way Edie Brickell first looked when The New Bohemians first appeared on the music scene. The name, as you may have guessed, comes from the Authurian legends. (By the way, if movie of this crap ever gets made, I'd like Amanda Pays of Max Headroom fame to play her. I've always imagined Morgana's voice to sound like that).

Rand and Constance were real people. They were nothing like these characters and I've altered their names to unrecognizability, mostly to protect me from a part of my life I never want to hear from again. As for my long gone friends, may they finally rest.

Detective Dylan is a joke - and an obvious one at that.

Blue Shift was a real band featuring myself, Ed Lee (Lee Emanuel), Kevin Donville (Jason Edwards), who wrote the lyrics to "Ghosts" from the "R & R Project" while I wrote the music myself, and more drummers than Spinal Tap including a Yamaha RX-7 drum machine (Rex Yamaha). The names are in-jokes with my friends, but the personalities were invented for the purposes of narration.

Mike the bartender started out as a joke and he became a good friend. He may return in another work.

Nicki Davis is based in part on a real person of a very different name, but I'm not going to say whom. I slept with her a few times and consider myself to have been fortunate. (Considering my record, I'm lucky to be alive. Wear a fucking condom when fucking!)

Dr. Douglas Hopkins - this may take some explaining. This started out as a random pick from one of my CDs, but I'd like to tell you about the source.

The real Douglas Hopkins was not a doctor and I never met him. I just used the name for the convenience of my story, and I want it made clear that my fictional Douglas Hopkins and the real one share names and absolutely nothing else intentional in common. This is a work of fiction and my Dr. Hopkins is a psychopath, entirely invented within the parameters of my skull.

As it turns out, the real Doug Hopkins was a complicated character in real life, a resident of Tempe, Arizona. Look at the liner notes to The Gin Blossoms' "New Miserable Experience" and you'll find him there. He wrote the big hits and played guitar on the album, but he didn't stay with the band (I heard he was kicked out, but I don't really know for sure - so don't sue me. Besides, this is meant as a tribute to a fellow musician).

After his departure from the band he formed The Chimeras. I'm one of the few people not living in Arizona who got to see that band while he was a member. In the early 90's the local "Alternative Rock" radio station in Phoenix hosted a series of dynamite concerts, and at one of these shows The Chimeras, along with Robyn Hitchcock, X (who were damned good but had the misfortune of some technical problems during their set), Rage Against The Machine (they rocked!), Porno for Pyros (they sucked!), and a few other bands played the 1993 show, which coincidentally was about the time I needed a name for my villain. It was The Chimeras' last gig with Douglas Hopkins.

Douglas Hopkins is dead now, and it's our loss. Please, don't think of my villain as what the real Douglas Hopkins was like. Just buy The Gin Blossoms' album like I did so that his estate (if any - I don't really know) may benefit.

Angie Ramirez is based on a woman I had a crush on shortly after my first marriage fell apart. She was kind, witty, and sexy. Although we never did anything, she has a place in my heart. I hope she's well - I lost contact with her a long time ago.

Jace Wright is me; foibles, faults and all, when I was that age. I got the nickname the same way my character did. Most of my friends still won't play poker with me, even though I lost that deck of cards when I moved in with Cathy.

Piece of my Soul, the pivotal song in this book, is based upon a true incident, and Jim Christopher wrote it independent of this project. That's all the information I have as that's all Jim would tell me.

Janis and Greenthing are fictional. Too bad.

The various Tomlinsons are cannon (catapult?) fodder.

The various musicians from the R & R Project tour are names pulled from my CD and album collection. If you are the first person to find them all (the names were mixed and matched) I'll give you another fifty bucks.

There are other minor characters that show up throughout the book. Their names are pulled from whimsy and were fit into the various situations. The names of the President and a few other public people are examples of this.

Various real public figures are also mentioned in this work by name. You'll notice that not a single word is uttered by any of these characters in the book, and for the most part, their roles are off camera. I wish to stress that my "real" people are in no way based upon the actual "real" people in question. Any coincidences in character are just that; coincidental. Please don't sue me for defamation when I have taken pains to point out that the people in my book are all fictional!

This total work took twelve years of my life to complete, going back to WICCA, the first story written and only half-finished when I was in college. Believe it or not, Larry Christopher started out as an only child. During that time I had four different jobs (the ones I'll admit to), got my college degree in music (UCLA '87 - go Bruins!), met, married and divorced my first wife, met and married my last wife and we now have a son. I was homeless for a period during these eleven years, I once had a job making over $40,000. I wrote an opera, put out an Indie album, played in dozens of bands and did a lot of session work. I even became an insurance agent and spent some time in real estate!

I worked on the novel part-time, as you may have guessed from the activity in the last paragraph's admissions, often taking a month or two off when my regular life allowed me no time to write. I've never had any formal training as a writer so any grammatical errors you spot you'll simply have to live with. So there.

Some of the songs in this novel appear on Jim Christopher's CD/Cassette "My World - Welcome To It" (Antinomy JC92301), including "Razor's Edge", "Cross-examination", and Blue Shift's "Run To Me" (actually first performed by a band called ASK) recorded in a different style than Blue Shift (or ASK) did it. If you would like a copy send $12.00 per CD or $7.00 per cassette to:

Antinomy Music

187 Parker Avenue

San Francisco, CA 94118

California residents add 8.25% sales tax. Check or money order only, please, payable to Antinomy Music. Allow 4 to 6 weeks for delivery.

And an album featuring the song "Piece Of My Soul" is available from J-Bird Records. This album also features antother 63 minutes of music not covered here, and was released in September of 1997.

Thanks for reading all 220,051 words of this. Take care.

-Chris Reed (reed-san@animeraiders.com)

San Francisco, 1998.