I was playing around with the completely fun and fascinating DALL-E website, trying to create a true Trixie image (the trouble was her hair) when I hit upon the idea of adding various years/dates to the descriptions. As I moved through the decades, the 80’s gave me the result I used for the “cover” of this story. As soon as I saw it, the idea popped in my head of re-writing a Trixie book, setting it in the 1980s. Yes, I do know the last few books in the series were actually written during that time period, but I was aiming for something that really drove home the era.
There’s an old cliché that you should “write what you know.” Most of the time, I scoff at that because it doesn’t seem to leave room for much of anything beyond basic fiction. Pretty sure J. R. R. Tolkien never met an elf in real life. But in this case, I recognized the wisdom of writing what I knew in the sense that while I can’t describe exactly what it was like to be a teenager in New York in 1985, I most definitely know what that was like in Texas.
Originally, I was thinking I’d re-do The Secret of the Mansion, but it didn’t quite lend itself to my general idea. Black Jacket was much more in line with what I wanted, so I jumped back to DALL-E and played around until I got the Dan image and something that sorta looked like it could be a high school. Photoshop and pho.to did the rest.
I have taken enormous liberties with Trixie Belden canon. I’ve done so pretty much with everything I write, but this is the first time that I’ve made changes to the characters themselves in terms of things like making Trixie and Mart twins instead of “almost twins.” (True story: There were 7 sets of twins in my graduating class.) And Brian. Poor Brian.
If you made it all the way through, I hope you enjoyed this twist on our favorite girl detective.
There’s an old cliché that you should “write what you know.” Most of the time, I scoff at that because it doesn’t seem to leave room for much of anything beyond basic fiction. Pretty sure J. R. R. Tolkien never met an elf in real life. But in this case, I recognized the wisdom of writing what I knew in the sense that while I can’t describe exactly what it was like to be a teenager in New York in 1985, I most definitely know what that was like in Texas.
Originally, I was thinking I’d re-do The Secret of the Mansion, but it didn’t quite lend itself to my general idea. Black Jacket was much more in line with what I wanted, so I jumped back to DALL-E and played around until I got the Dan image and something that sorta looked like it could be a high school. Photoshop and pho.to did the rest.
I have taken enormous liberties with Trixie Belden canon. I’ve done so pretty much with everything I write, but this is the first time that I’ve made changes to the characters themselves in terms of things like making Trixie and Mart twins instead of “almost twins.” (True story: There were 7 sets of twins in my graduating class.) And Brian. Poor Brian.
If you made it all the way through, I hope you enjoyed this twist on our favorite girl detective.
BTW: If you aren’t from Texas, you may not fully appreciate the glory that is a Homecoming mum. Some of them these days are absolutely bonkers, but to envision what Texas Trixie and her friends would’ve worn, they would’ve looked something like this.