Jessica the Witch GAN

It's fun to make GAN images of the characters I've created.

In the upcoming book, Piper plays Zoe Hardwick, new student at Saccharin Valley Middle School. (Side note, how many "new students" have there been in SVT? Actual ones, not ones I made up. At least ten*). She's of mixed race this time. (Because the last thing Saccharin Valley needs is more white characters).

(in the book I describe her as having "zillions of freckles," but I can't do freckles in GAN...maybe in GIMP. Also she has glasses but adding glasses in GAN often goes a little weird.)
 

She also plays an elderly shopkeeper (for the new magic/Wicca/metaphysical store in Saccharin Valley). Who is kind of a punk. She has pink hair. And silver eyes, which I just stuck in there for shits and giggles (usually Piper's eyes give away the ruse, they're glowing green most of the time) but then I got the GAN to look like that, by accident. Her name is Cerridwen O'Connell.

She will serve as the Wise Old Person one of the twins seeks out for help. (See: Corrina in Super Chiller #9, although she wasn't old... but that kind of trope). Piper plays more than one character (much like the last book, and the one before it) because she is more powerful than Tobias, so her magic can sustain both disguises. (No one really cares about these things, but I think about them because I like making up shit/character development/world building).

Tobias plays her husband, Harlan O'Connell (he uses that alias a lot in my books, because in my mind he's not as excited about being in disguise as Piper is, and if the twins don't remember him because it's a different book, then it doesn't matter). He kind of aging hippie. 

"That's so right on, man." He's kind of a sleaze here, I may have to tweak him more.

Neither of them have been "old" yet. I guess because when I needed an old witch and and an old evil sorcerer for Book 2, I used Piper's "real" (outside of Saccharin Valley stories) grandparents. Oh, Tobias was the Magistrate in old Salem in The Babysitter II. So, this guy is seemingly a little less stern and more friendly and laid back.** And Piper was kind of old, briefly, in Book 6, The Babysitter II. She was "Faith Green", essentially May Brown from SVT #54 but a WITCH (obvs). Faith Green was middle-aged. I made a GAN portrait for her too. I want to be able to include these in my paperback books... they would have to be desaturated (to publish in black and white. Kindle versions can be color?). Maybe as chapter headers instead of a Gallery in the back, which is what I'm trying to do in The Babysitter (like a special edition).

I sometimes wonder if people actually read my books, if they have a preference as to how the twins are "terrorized." Like just Piper & Tobias messing with the twins, or Demon Piper? Or along with the vampires I made up? (I just realized there are 4 vampires, that seems excessive now, LOL. Lydia, Fox, Lucia & Vesper***). At some point I was like, don't create any new characters; just Piper is fine. But then Tobias, her boyfriend gets sucked into it. Mostly because he likes watching Piper work, not because he particularly has a jones for fucking up the twins' (and occasionally their brother's) lives. He treats it like his girlfriend's amusing hobby, and he's just hangin' out.

And also, are you here for the imitation SVT, or the "DIE DIE DIE" situation? Or the humor, which I hope is funny. Sometimes I write things and LQTM.**** (And sometimes I write things that I think are funny, and then go back and read them and they seem forced/ cringeworthy.)

I probably won't use all of these for the cover, I may just have Zoe and the twins (Elizabeth looking scared/ concerned as seen below, Jessica looking witchy if I can swing it.)

*Nora, who everyone made fun of, Brooke, who everyone thought was a snob, Arthur, who turned out to be a prince, Maria, who was a child actor in Hollywood before SV, Brian Boyd, who brought white supremacy to SVMS (or he was just a prick)... now I want to go look at all my SVT books and add more. Kala the Native American, but that was a Super Chiller.

**He's still a STRANGE MAN but as we've seen in SVT books, the twins encounter strange men quite often and are somehow never in any danger.

***BTW, Lucia and Vesper are lesbian lovers but that sort of thing isn't mentioned in Saccharin Valley

****"Laugh Quietly to Myself" a la Demetri Martin

Psychic Sisters/ Jessica the Witch

 

Well, it happened again. I started writing another Evil Story. This one is based on something from SVT #70, Psychic Sisters. I actually had the idea for this story when I was 12, but I hadn't invented Piper the witch yet so it went a little weird. (I started writing The Babysitter when I was about 16... pushing forty now).

 

Here's a blog entry on that book that I just found. Basically, the twins become convinced that they're psychic and decide to perform in the talent show, after amazing their friends with many feats of apparent mind reading. (Also Jessica carelessly makes psychic predictions for several people, that very handily turn out to be correct). I always thought it was weird that they weren't really psychic. Like, the twist was they overheard their mom talking on the phone while they were sleeping in the den watching a movie marathon, and their unconscious minds soaked up all the information she was giving. I guess it was supposed to be a "twist" even though several books already established that the twins had a kind of psychic connection (as twins tend to do, having shared a womb)--one could tell what the other one was feeling and would feel it if her twin was in any kind of danger and that sort of thing. So, to say they aren't really psychic is kind of stupid. 

 

First of all, let's deal with the cover here. Maria is a legless torso, how unfortunate (I assume it's Maria because she's the only Black sixth grader ever mentioned). Also the twins' faces look a little different that usual, maybe because they've been drawn in profile. (See also: the cover of Super Chiller #4, The Ghost in the Bell Tower.) Finally, Who's that guy? I decided it was Todd when I was younger. Also I appreciate the inclusion of a crystal ball even though in the book they never did that, but they did sit under a pyramid of a broom, a mop, and a yardstick. 

Anyway, at the end, there's this (excuse my defaced-SVT comments... this was my second copy of this book, because the original had been written in and drawn in too much to be able to continue re-reading, so I'm starting over):

 

    Janet patted Jessica on the back. “You did it, Jessica. You put Sweet Valley Middle School on the map, you made the Unicorns look great, you generated publicity for the hospital, and…” she darted a look around to make sure Ellen wasn’t listening, “you put a spell on Ellen that kept her from singing. Why didn’t you tell us you were a…” Janet lowered her voice to a whisper, “…witch?” She shook her head. “You really do have amazing powers, Jessica.”
    Tamara Chase nodded solemnly. “Just think of all the really great stuff you can do.”                

    Jessica's mind was racing. If her friends thought she was a witch, she would really have it made.

Janet, the president of the Unicorn Club, is convinced that Jessica is a witch because she supposedly hexed Ellen Riteman into blowing her vocal chords the night of the talent show (so she couldn't go on and embarrass everyone with her terrible singing.) Um, ok. Jessica gets really excited about her friends thinking she's a witch, but then she sees her sister's angry face glaring at her (Elizabeth is her conscience) and makes a hasty excuse as to why it wouldn't be a good idea to keep using her "psychic powers." ("We're retiring them unless the police or the FBI need us," LOL).

As a 12-year-old, I was like, Boo, you're no fun anymore. What if the Unicorns went on thinking Jessica was a witch? She'd have to prove it, and teach them some spells like she promised. Then the spells wouldn't work, and she'd be humiliated, right? But this is where my character Piper comes in. She casts a spell on Elizabeth at that party and makes her think Jessica pretending to be a witch is all a joke on the Unicorns. So, Elizabeth lets Jessica go on and make up shit. Then, clearly Jessica does end up with some kind of magical powers (courtesy of Piper, bwahahahaha), and maybe they get out of control or they start to scare her (maybe she summons a certain demon we haven't seen since Book 1? Haven't decided yet).  So then she has to find someone to help her. Luckily, there's a new magic shop (or, there's a magic shop, if there never was one in the first place) in town, and the proprietors are Piper and Tobias in disguise, with completely new aliases. I feel like most readers would know by now that if I describe any new character, no matter the age, it's very likely to be Piper or Tobias in disguise, or one of their friends (like the vampires in Books 4 & 5).  I always love inventing new aliases for them (at one point Piper lists them all and it's absurd how many different disguises she's used to try to fool the twins. Piper = the Count Olaf of Saccharin Valley Twits).

The "witchcraft" will be a mishmash of my encyclopedic knowledge of Wicca (I've read a shit ton but I don't practice) and some SVT-friendly supernatural powers/fictional witch bullshit. (I always want readers to know, that I know that real witches are not evil and don't go around becoming demons and terrorizing twins with their supernatural powers. Haha.)

There's also a new girl at school, because there always is. And she's mixed race, for once (like Piper is in "real life"--she's white-washed for SVT). Everyone was always so white. I started looking at how Black people could have the MC1R gene and be gingers. I always thought gingers were beautiful as a child, and I always wanted red hair (I have boring brown hair but I do have green eyes like Piper). But I didn't realize it comes with getting sunburned super easily. And mad freckles.

I have about 35 pages so far. This one will be a Super Hideous Edition like the last one, so it needs to be around 180 pages. Or at least 150. I was working on it a lot this past weekend, stayed up too late like back in the day.

Tentatively titled Jessica the Witch (super boring/ suitably ambiguous like all my books are). I might still have the story I wrote when I was 12, maybe I could post it here. It was handwritten. 

Publishing New Book

OK so I just uploaded the paperback and Kindle versions of Steven's Evil Twin to KDP. I had to tweak my "series" a little so the numbers would line up. Because Book 7 of Saccharin Valley Twits (The Twins and Their Rock Star Witch Babysitter) was Super Hideous Edition #1. So, it said on the Amazon listing that it was Book 7 but on the spine it says 1. Amazon KDP didn't seem to have a problem with that, but when I tried to make Steven's Evil Twin Book 8 but also Super Hideous Edition #2, it said you need to fix this before we can publish. So instead of calling it "supplemental content" (where it wouldn't be numbered), I made a New Series called Saccharin Valley Twits: Super Hideous Editions. That's the way they're listed on the inside page with all the book in the series in order.

Long Story Short, Steven's Evil Twin should be available soon. And then I may just continue writing these... I got a direct (positive) comment on these on Facebook, so that makes me happy that I have a real fan. But I also want to finish a book in my series that involves Piper and Tobias (my characters in Saccharin Valley Twits) but in their own world.

Steven:

 

Steven's Evil Twin (bwahahaha):