The Fallout of Jack Hamilton Behind The Scenes!
Here's some easter eggs and little things I thought you guys may find interesting.
1. The layout of Holmepoint High School, as well as teacher I mentioned, (and her nickname Skeletor) how the lunch room is laid out with the serving area in the back, the location of the goth table, the girl 'Athena' that Bryce almost runs into is all modeled around my REAL high school (Matawan Regional High School) and it's people. Theo is me, literally in terms of personality. My middle name is Theo and I am gothic. Theo is basically exactly who I was in High School, a few years back. Sadly, I kinda still am exactly the same lol)
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2 . Names such as Devin, Andrew, Tyler, Joey were all ex boyfriends of mine. They do NOT reflect the characters themselves. The characters THEMSELVES and their personalities ARE based on real people I went to High School with though, and did indeed have our goth table, etc, with Theo, including his snarky personality, being me. ("FUCK YEA" is one of my sayings even still, "Laaaamme" I used to say, and a lot of the debates about Cradle of Filth, and even some convos in the story are directly taken from real life) I really was told by my best friend Ian ("Devin" in the story) that I smelled like I just fucked a Christmas tree, due to the fact I always wore Balsam oil to school. Tyler is a special case...As I said, the NAME is an ex bf, but the character is not exactly based on anyone I know or knew. Think of him as an angel of vengeance. lol. His personality is every asshole I ever met.
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3. The idea of a pizza, wine, and horror movie party was taken DIRECTLY from my life as me, "Devin" (real name is Ian and was bi-sexual), "Andrew/Drewcifer" (real name is Christopher with his nickname being Stopher, and he was gay, the youngest and did have a foot fetish and lived with his older brother), "Ethan" (real name is Ryan..I don't wanna spoil his personality because we have not met him yet), and "Taryn" (real name is Sam, and is indeed obsessed wtih Rocky Horror). Anyway, we would have these little house parties all the time, and once did actually do a Hellraiser movie marathon in which the dialog, from what I remember, was pretty damn similar! (Except, we didn't have a Jack there lol.) The only thing I cut out from the story was a Dungeons and Dragons game, which I was going to include but that chapter was already running long, and I really couldn't do much with, story-wise. I replaced that with Jack and Andrew's foot-sex scene, which of course is totally made up!
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4. The opening paragraph in Chapter 6.
Twin Oaks Park was old. Dating back to the late 19th century, it was
located in the Waterfront region of Cliffwood Beach. While the park was
somewhat smaller and more modest than it's neighboring counterpart,
Rosewater Park, in Holmepoint Heights, it's location just off a major
interstate solidified it's popularity and ensured it's place on the
map. During the 1950's, the then-mayor of Cliffwood Beach, Jon Culpa, saw
to it that a tennis court was added, an exercise area, as well as a
designated picnic spot, complete with BBQ pits, water spigots, tables and
benches...the works. All in all, Twin Oaks Park kept up with the times
fairly well. The 'S&H Parks and Recreation Zoning Commission' - some
mysterious and close knit conglomerate of cronies originally from New
England - oversaw the maintenance, upkeep, and progress of Twin Oaks for
decades. At some point in the late 1980's, the township added marble
fountains of the Greek goddesses.
If that sounded to you like a completely different tone, I wrote it that way on purpose! It's actually the tone I used for the first story I ever wrote, called 'HOMETOWN', which was a Silent Hill fanfiction story. I was a much newer writer back then, not as polished, and used a lot of silly exposition and Stephen King-like detail. This paragraph was an homage to my first attempt at writing. In fact, there are hidden Silent Hill references ALL over this story!
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5. Also, in CH 6: The Greek Goddess Poena was the goddess of punishment and divine retribution. Bryce is driving towards that statue/fountain. Fun little foreshadowing and plot-related symbolism for mythology nerds.
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6. Cliffwood Beach is the town I live in, in real life.
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7. The last paragraph in CH 8 is filled with little references:
*****This is WLTB Light FM! Serving Cliffwood Beach, Matawan, Holmepoint Heights, Quiet Knoll, and Smithsville. Your home for easy listening...all the time!*****
Cliffwood Beach: My town as I mentioned.
Matawan: My township. Cliffwood Beach is a section of Matawan. And the name of my High School. (You MIGHT have heard of Matawan during Shark Week on Animal Planet. We're famous for the Matawan Shark Attacks of 1916. It was the inspiration for Jaws. I'll attach some info.)
Holmepoint Heights: well, duh. Just the name of Jack's town. Which I actually picture as real-life Matawan. It's the location of the high school, cemetery, and it's got a huge sprawling park, a little shopping area with a coffee shop, etc)
Quiet Knoll: Silent Hill.
Smithsville: A nod to Matt Smith, my collaborator in this story, and of course the solo author of the original 'Jack Hamilton'
