Goodies General Notes and Table of Contents (read this first!)


Chapter Twenty One

I mention Ben Olsen in this chapter, as a bully who used to beat up Eric when they were kids. Ben Olsen was my brother’s roommate through most of their years at BYU, and I’ve mentioned him in all three of my books.

In On Second Thought, the main character’s college roommate (who steals the main character’s fiancée away from him) was named Ben. In Wake Me When It’s Over, the character of Baxter was originally fashioned after Ben (although Baxter evolved into a more nerdy, introverted person than Ben), and all the computer ideas for the internet-based attack were Ben’s suggestions. Also, in the online marketing campaign, Ben played the character of Davis. So Ben’s all over.

Nicole (the black-haired girl who makes her first big appearance in this chapter) has changed mightily over the years. She’s had three different names (Alisa, Sarah, and Nicole) and she’s alternated between being a good guy and a bad guy several times. She’s always had a checkered past, but sometimes she overcomes it and sometimes she doesn’t. If I ever get around to posting Tangled Web on this site, you’ll see that she was not only a much more important player in the plot, but also was potential competition with Rebekah for Eric’s affections. Way back in Watermark, Nicole was a love interest for Baxter. (At that time, this was meant as a series of three books, and the second book ended with Baxter convincing Nicole to turn herself into the FBI, which she does. In the final scene, she and Baxter are on a high balcony and she gets shot by a sniper—Felix found out she’d turned against him.)

This is yet another scene set in an alley. Wake Me When It’s Over was full of alleys.

As with chapter seventeen, this is one place where it’d be good to have read Wake Me first. Isabella dies here, and that’d be a much bigger deal if you’d been following her character since the first book. In The Counterfeit, she doesn’t show up until halfway through, and only appears for four chapters before she dies—she doesn’t build up the same kind of emotional tie you had to her in Wake Me.

Even so, the way she dies works really well. It’s sudden and violent, with no final words. She’s basically come into their lives, told them that there’s big trouble, and died before really explaining what the trouble is.

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