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PostPosted: May 3rd, 2017, 10:28 am 
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Episode 10: April - Girls' Night Out, by me.

Kylie persuades Beth to accompany her on a night out with the girls during Kevin's sleepover. This arrangement leads to some female bonding both inside the Riveras' house, and on the streets of Manhattan.

Next month:
Episode 11: May - Love and Understanding, also by me.


You scoundrel, you threw in something just for me!

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'Yes, well,' said Janine, 'if you must know, your stereotyping and leaping to conclusions just happens to be correct this time. I am pregnant.'


:lol:

I can't find a whole lot to say other than the usual "Great job" and "Just packed with great characterization". I admit, I love the thought of Beth filling in during Janine's maternity leave. I kinda want to retcon that into GBOT/Ectozone continuity now.

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PostPosted: May 4th, 2017, 7:15 am 
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I am extremely pleased with the strong sense of continuity that has been running through The Riveras, both in terms of characterisation and sequence of events, and that certainly continues in this episode, as (taking just one example of many) we find Carl trying very hard to be a better dad (after his conversations with Kevin, Eduardo and Beth at the end of the previous episode) and perhaps going a bit too far in his attempts to make Kevin happy. We can only hope that this rather mismatched father/son relationship will eventually be able to find a healthy balance and end up in a good place.

What particularly excites me about this episode is that Kevin, Lucy, Jandro, Michael and Ella have now hung out as a gang and enjoyed the experience. Even though they ended up in that situation thanks to parental interference in a plan that was initially less complicated, we may well find that they will all come together again in the future entirely of their own volition, which is certainly something I am looking forward to seeing more of.

It feels quite right to have a female orientated episode at this point in the series, as I have been drawing on so many of my own male orientated experiences (most of which are from a sleepover I attended in November 1995 with three other extremely hyperactive and extremely horny eleven- and twelve-year-old boys) and it is good to see the flipside of the coin, so to speak. Like any good spin-off, this one takes the opportunity to make some nice links back to its parent show, chiefly involving Janine on this occasion.

Lucy and Ella's sleepover adds a wonderful new dimension to the series. It is great to catch up with Ella's perspective on some of the established facts and events from previous episodes, as we have not yet explored her much as a character. I particularly like the way that Ella tries at first to maintain an air of mystery about the exact details of her private life, despite the fact that she brazenly engages Lucy in a very intimate discussion, but then when Ella finds herself in desperate need of female help and Lucy steps up for her, Ella completely opens up and the girls develop a meaningful (and hopefully enduring) friendship.

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PostPosted: May 5th, 2017, 6:58 am 
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Fritz wrote:
You scoundrel, you threw in something just for me!


Hey, it was the next logical step. :P

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I can't find a whole lot to say other than the usual "Great job" and "Just packed with great characterization". I admit, I love the thought of Beth filling in during Janine's maternity leave. I kinda want to retcon that into GBOT/Ectozone continuity now.


I would never have thought of it off the top of my head; it's just an intersection of ideas that came whilst writing this story. I'm sure no one would mind if you did retcon the idea.

A lot of what happens in this episode was influenced by Jake's characterisation of Kevin and the gang. We both wanted to develop Carl (you kind of have to in a spin-off about his family), but it was the previous episode that made him do just exactly what he did in this one. In fact, the idea started out as just Kylie taking Beth to a nightclub, and very little notion of what they would actually do there.

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PostPosted: May 31st, 2017, 7:09 am 
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Episode 11: May - Love and Understanding, by me.

Tensions are running high between Eduardo and Carl, while Beth's attempts to make a decision about her future are hampered by a supernatural presence. When she calls in the Ghostbusters to help her, more problems are created than solved.

Next month, the finale:
Episode 12: June - Milestones, by Jake and me.

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PostPosted: June 3rd, 2017, 12:31 pm 
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I must admit, I had forgotten there was a ghost in this one.

Clearly Carl is really trying now to be a better husband, brother, father and all-round person, and the intervention of the ghost (or ghosts, as it turned out) was an unfortunate setback, but it seems to me that he has nonetheless made definite progress. Clearly Carl will always be the kind of person who, just by being himself, can easily cause someone to accidentally hurl themselves from a height, but it should be obvious from this episode that he's far from beyond hope, and (as Kevin said a couple of months ago) at least he's aware of the problem and wants to do something about it.

Life is stranger than fiction, which is why at least one of the amusing diversions in this episode made me look back on a memory of my own and smile. Of course Rosey has also drawn on some of her own memories that are doubtless not so amusing and rather traumatic to her, which just goes to show that all kinds of real-life experiences can be seamlessly slipped in to these stories and, in my opinion, always add something special to them.

There are actually quite a few teasers for the finale in this episode, but perhaps that's not obvious to someone who isn't already familiar with that particular piece of work. However, I feel that the next episode is poised to follow on very nicely from this one, adding to the strong sense of continuity that the series has ended up with.

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Last edited by KevinsMensPyjamas on June 12th, 2017, 11:27 am, edited 1 time in total.

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PostPosted: June 4th, 2017, 5:39 pm 
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I apologize for the delay--some Real Life stuff (doctor visits, errands, etc) intervened the last few days.

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I must admit, I had forgotten there was a ghost in this one.


I was glad to see it--this has been a very character-oriented story, but since two of the characters do catch ghosts for a living, not a bad idea to have one (or two) pop up every once in a while.

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It says here that her history has been traced back to a woman who lived and died in Indianapolis in the mid-Nineteenth Century.'


Aw...now you threw something in for me in this one. I guess with all the namedropping of Hertfordshire and a guy named "Collins" in "Love Songs", I should have expected it. :lol:

A bit spoilery, but these tags don't always seem to work right.

I think the confrontation between Kylie and Carlos was a big turning point here: the two have kind of been waging a bit of a proxy battle with Eduardo and Beth in the middle, and I'm not sure how much "pushing" the ghost had to go to get them to come to blows. To both their credits, they realized what was happening and backed off. They seemed to have come to a sort of understanding. For now.

And off of that, I'm mostly relieved that there wasn't some "Oh my God did Kylie and Carlos just have sex on the elevator?!" hijinks. Misunderstanding comedy isn't really my thing--I guess I just find it annoying because it mostly depends on characters jumping to conclusions and not talking to each other just long enough to have something disastrous happen because of it. Though I could have easily seen Garrett making some dumb jokes about it.

Looking forward to the next chapter, though with a bit of bittersweetness since it's going to be the end of what's been a fascinating story cycle.

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PostPosted: June 5th, 2017, 8:14 am 
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Fritz wrote:
I apologize for the delay--some Real Life stuff (doctor visits, errands, etc) intervened the last few days.


Real Life, as we all know, has a habit of distracting one from far more important things such as fanfiction. But I was chuffed to get such detailed comments from you, Fritz. Once again, thank you for them.

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I was glad to see it--this has been a very character-oriented story, but since two of the characters do catch ghosts for a living, not a bad idea to have one (or two) pop up every once in a while.


As a child, I rather liked how some shows could be as realistic or as supernatural as the episode required (Alvin and the Chipmunks springs to mind, along with some shows our American friends might not have heard of: Mike and Angelo, Count Duckula etc.), and I had that kind of thing very much in mind when conceiving the idea of a spin-off (not unlike my ad hoc fanfics in that sense, I know). I think a quarter of the episodes featuring ghosts (or similar) is about reasonable.

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Aw...now you threw something in for me in this one. I guess with all the namedropping of Hertfordshire and a guy named "Collins" in "Love Songs", I should have expected it. :lol:


Well, it's certainly a valid tactic when you need a place name in a hurry. :D

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I think the confrontation between Kylie and Carlos was a big turning point here: the two have kind of been waging a bit of a proxy battle with Eduardo and Beth in the middle, and I'm not sure how much "pushing" the ghost had to go to get them to come to blows. To both their credits, they realized what was happening and backed off. They seemed to have come to a sort of understanding. For now.


Well, you got the main point of the story. :P There certainly comes a stage where things between those two wouldn't have gone down exactly as they did if not for the supernatural element, but hey, it probably did them a favour. If you're trapped in a lift with someone for a while, you'll almost inevitably work out some kind of tension.

Quote:
And off of that, I'm mostly relieved that there wasn't some "Oh my God did Kylie and Carlos just have sex on the elevator?!" hijinks.


Yeah... not that kind of tension. At least, not in this case. :?

Jake, of course, has all kinds of inside knowledge as to where ideas have come from and where they're going. I never bothered going into my experiences with central retinal vein occlusion (which are still ongoing) on this board. If anyone does happen to be interested, I have a written account of the whole thing at DeviantArt here, but that's for people who have a vested interest in me as a person rather than in all things Ghostbusters.

Jake also refers to the time I toppled off a banister-less staircase and landed on a table (I was too small to break it), and one or two things coming up in the final story of the series. Or maybe just one.

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Looking forward to the next chapter, though with a bit of bittersweetness since it's going to be the end of what's been a fascinating story cycle.


That's such a lovely thing to read. Certainly it's the end of the main bit i.e. the highly significant twelve-month period, which is about to reach its conclusion, but in fact there is a little more to come. It won't be straightaway, but nor will it be too long a wait to kill you. Hopefully. ;)

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PostPosted: June 30th, 2017, 5:30 am 
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Episode 12: June - Milestones, by Jake and me.

Changes are afoot as graduation day approaches, but Eduardo is not keen to discuss plans for the future. Meanwhile, Kevin's thirteenth birthday takes an unexpected turn.

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PostPosted: July 1st, 2017, 11:10 am 
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A great ending, and a sort of potential new beginning (which the best ending seem to be)

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'Yes you do – you have your favourite uncle skills! With the three of us gone, Egon'll have to recruit a new team of Ghostbusters, and you'll have to take care of them and show them the ropes. Remember when we first started, how I always used to be like, “Egon will know what to do”?'

Eduardo smiled wryly. 'How could I forget?'

'Well, with the next generation it'll be, “Eduardo will know what to do”!'

'You really think so?'

'I know so,' said Kylie. 'In fact I have the same thought myself a lot of the time, even if you don't.'


All of a sudden I could see this timeline leading into a version of Rosey's pre-GBOT concept team. I guess everyone else may have forgotten about Jenny Gilford, Jason Wilde, and Gaby Lamos with Eduardo as team leader, but obviously I didn't (though I had to go look up their names I admit :? )

And I hope all the Egon/Janine fans at least check out the diaper training scene :lol:

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PostPosted: July 1st, 2017, 5:06 pm 
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Fritz wrote:
A great ending, and a sort of potential new beginning (which the best ending seem to be)


That's possibly my favourite kind. Thank you, Fritz. :)

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All of a sudden I could see this timeline leading into a version of Rosey's pre-GBOT concept team.


Yeah... if there were any ghostbusting ideas left for them. :?

Quote:
I guess everyone else may have forgotten about Jenny Gilford, Jason Wilde, and Gaby Lamos with Eduardo as team leader, but obviously I didn't (though I had to go look up their names I admit :? )


:lol: I regard those very early efforts as a little practice to see what sucked in my writing and what didn't. I did think a new team of Ghosbusters led by Eduardo made a lot of sense, and obviously I still do, but the idea doesn't really have legs.

I don't think I would have remembered all three first names and surnames myself! I can't think why I chose the name of a sister of a girl in my class a long, long time ago (and not even one of my bosom pals) and the guy Jake and I now vaguely remember as Paramedic Dad i.e. the boyfriend of a mother of some local kid we knew. So weird! :? But Jenny Gilford? No idea where that one even came from.

Quote:
And I hope all the Egon/Janine fans at least check out the diaper training scene :lol:


That was inspired by a thing that went on in my weekly college class some days earlier. Truth, as they say, is stranger than fiction. I'm glad you enjoyed it, Fritz. :)

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PostPosted: July 2nd, 2017, 5:55 pm 
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Fritz wrote:
A great ending, and a sort of potential new beginning (which the best ending seem to be)

I had to smile wryly to myself, because I had the exact same thought about this story being an excellent springboard for what comes next, except that my enthusiasm lies with Kevin and his contemporaries instead of the new setup for the Ghostbusters. I think my main stumbling block as a Ghostbusters fanfic writer (and, indeed, reader) is that I've never been all that keen on Ghostbusters. Indeed, I'm ashamed to admit that when I used to turn on Children's ITV and find that an episode of The Real Ghostbusters was being shown, my reaction was usually something along the lines of "Aw, I thought it was gonna be He-Man!", although my greater appreciation of the two movies and Extreme Ghostbsuters has been noted elsewhere.

What you can actually expect from further adventures in the new Collinsverse is a great deal of concentration on Kevin, Oscar, Lucy, Jandro, Michael and Ella, which I'm aware has very little to do with Ghostbusters, and a solid amount of concentration on Kevin's relationship with his family, especially Carl and Eduardo, which I think has a bit more to do with Ghostbusters. Kylie and Eduardo's relationship will still be important, and we'll get some insights into what they're both up to professionally as well as personally, which has quite a lot to do with Ghostbusters. And while we're on the subject, specific details about the next entry in this saga will be posted quite soon.

Looking back at the latest episode in more detail now, I considered and rejected several ideas for a subplot with Kevin and his friends to take place on his thirteenth birthday, and I eventually decided that the most interesting thing to do would be to make some links between the bereaved, impatient and slightly snarky Jandro who we met way back in the Extreme Ghostbusters virtual season, and the friendly, cheerful, seemingly carefree Jandro who has been making his presence felt in The Riveras. I feel that my attempt to show how the two Jandros are actually the same person is not entirely unsuccessful, and I was very pleased when Rosey pointed out to me that I had included a couple of specific phrases from Jandro's first appearance (how he was being a bit of a jerk because he was "missing his grandma" and how he seems to have a tendency to describe things he disagrees with as "a crock") and thus strengthened the link back to his first appearance.

I think it's worth saying that I don't necessarily agree with all the views expressed by Jandro in the story, particularly the ones about nursing homes, although I do completely sympathise with his stance on the shortcomings of some fathers, particularly in the wake of a tragedy such as the death of a beloved grandmother during the World Cup.

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PostPosted: September 8th, 2017, 5:17 am 
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As promised, here are the details of what's coming from the Collinsverse over the next few months.

November & December 2017: The Riveras Christmas Special (or perhaps more accurately, a special episode released and set in the run-up to Christmas but not actually having very much to do with Christmas itself) entitled 'Being Kevin'.

We drop in on the Riveras three and a half years after the conclusion of the main series to see my take on what 'being Kevin' really means, in the past, present and future. As you may suppose, the story features a heck of a lot of Kevin, but we'll be checking in with all the other main cast members too, in no small way.

This episode comes in three distinct but symbiotic instalments. Part 1 will be released on Sunday November 26th, Part 2 will be released on Sunday December 10th, and Part 3 will be released on Sunday December 24th. The third part features an additional scene by Rosey, who (unlike me) knows what two women might say to each other over coffee.

January to June 2018: 'Kevin and the Gang: In-Between.' In this collection of eight short stories (four from each of us), we attempt to fill in some of the gaps between the main series and the Christmas special.

As the title indicates, Kevin and his interactions with Oscar and the rest of the gang will be prevalent here, but there will still be plenty of insight into what the adults in their lives are getting up to, both personally and professionally.

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Last edited by KevinsMensPyjamas on March 22nd, 2020, 8:27 am, edited 1 time in total.

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PostPosted: November 26th, 2017, 8:32 am 
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Christmas Special: Being Kevin - Part 1, by me.

As they struggle to see life from each other's point of view, Carl entrusts Kevin with a special mission. Meanwhile, Oscar finds himself facing questions about the exact nature of his relationship with Kevin.

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PostPosted: November 27th, 2017, 6:23 pm 
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KevinsMensPyjamas wrote:
Christmas Special: Being Kevin - Part 1, by me.

As they struggle to see life from each other's point of view, Carl entrusts Kevin with a special mission. Meanwhile, Oscar finds himself facing questions about the exact nature of his relationship with Kevin.


Another enjoyable read, and looking forward to the continuation. I can't think of much more to say about it right now, sadly.

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PostPosted: November 30th, 2017, 8:04 am 
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One of the striking things about this story, dropping in on the Riveras three and a half years later, is to see how some relationships have improved and some have not. Carl and Beth have obviously stayed in the good place they reached at the end of the main series; Carl and Eduardo are obviously able to exchange a few civil words (Carl still seems to want to avoid calling him Eduardo, but at least he's respecting him enough to stay away from 'Eddie'); Carl and Kevin, however, don't seem to have progressed very far. And no other pair ever really had a problem in the first place, did they? :P

Wesley was inspired by a certain person and, once you've seen him, you can appreciate Carl's attitude towards him so much more. I don't suppose many people are going to see this person and read this story, but I guess it doesn't matter as it doesn't affect the plot. Talking of which, there was some discussion as to whether there should be a break between parts before Kevin found out what Wesley was really up to, but we soon reached the conclusion that the pivotal thing is not what he's doing but what Carl will do about it. Tune in next time to find out... 8-)

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