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Description

TALES OF AUTUMN SPRING (ToAS)

by Richard Mandel

based on characters and situations

copyright (C) 2019-2023, all rights reserved

Episode 1 - "Prelude"

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COMMENTS

I once saw a cat ... - True story, so don't tell me it can't happen. Cats have off-ed themselves in all sorts of unusual ways down through the years, usually by being too curious about something and not realizing the danger it involves. Hence the proverb, "Curiosity killed the cat."

I can't stand stupid - Another one of Mama Nelson's frequent sayings, usually when she's fussing at someone. Brandy's daughter Nancy remembered hearing it multiple times when she was growing up, Mama was babysitting her, and Nancy would do something bad or wrong and then refuse to admit it (Autumn Spring Season 3, "Love Eternal;" see also the final chapter of the third Autumn Spring published novel "Wedded Bliss"). The phrase actually came from Patrica Tillman, a former co-worker of mine who retired a couple of years ago and was known for being a straight shooter and not taking any guff off of anybody even at her advanced age. Whenever we heard her say "I can't stand stupid" then we knew she was about to go on a roll. I once saw "Miss Pat" give our boss the tongue-lashing of his life for doing things on the work room floor he knew he had no business doing but was doing it anyway just because he was the boss. You know? He couldn't say anything either because it's a union shop, she was right and he knew it, and she made sure her language stopped just short of being offensive although it was still quite strong. After she got through with him, he didn't do anything like that again until after she retired. BTW Miss Pat was the white lady of the trio of real life women (the other two were black) on whom I based the character of Mama Nelson. I also got permission from her before she retired to let Mama Nelson use her trademark saying in the Autumn Spring series. I miss her.

Larry has a habit of scratching the back of his neck whenever he's nervous, trying to think hard, or both. I first developed this character trait for John Kendo, the eldest of the Kendo brothers, in Resident Evil: Exodus - The Tale of Elza Walker, and the CG model I use for Larry Watts was customized for me by KitMartin originally for use as John Kendo in depicting Exodus storyboards as part of the old RE1.5 REvisited project. Once all that was wrapped up (years ago) and I decided to use the model for playing other characters in my other works, I carried over the neck scratching trait for Larry Watts in Autumn Spring. It had its origins with a kind of slow "big guy" who was a seasonal temp at the place where I work in real life during the time I was writing Exodus. Every time he got involved in any kind of major discussion with his co-workers and they would ask his opinion on something, up that hand would go and he'd scratch a few times before giving his response. I thought it was a neat character trait, so that's how first John and then Larry wound up with it. You should always be looking for things like this to help define you characters when creating your own original stories and chacters, and they can come from anywhere.

Description

TALES OF AUTUMN SPRING (ToAS)

by Richard Mandel

based on characters and situations

copyright (C) 2019-2023, all rights reserved

Episode 1 - "Prelude"

PREV --> FIRST --> NEXT -->

--------------------

COMMENTS

I once saw a cat ... - True story, so don't tell me it can't happen. Cats have off-ed themselves in all sorts of unusual ways down through the years, usually by being too curious about something and not realizing the danger it involves. Hence the proverb, "Curiosity killed the cat."

I can't stand stupid - Another one of Mama Nelson's frequent sayings, usually when she's fussing at someone. Brandy's daughter Nancy remembered hearing it multiple times when she was growing up, Mama was babysitting her, and Nancy would do something bad or wrong and then refuse to admit it (Autumn Spring Season 3, "Love Eternal;" see also the final chapter of the third Autumn Spring published novel "Wedded Bliss"). The phrase actually came from Patrica Tillman, a former co-worker of mine who retired a couple of years ago and was known for being a straight shooter and not taking any guff off of anybody even at her advanced age. Whenever we heard her say "I can't stand stupid" then we knew she was about to go on a roll. I once saw "Miss Pat" give our boss the tongue-lashing of his life for doing things on the work room floor he knew he had no business doing but was doing it anyway just because he was the boss. You know? He couldn't say anything either because it's a union shop, she was right and he knew it, and she made sure her language stopped just short of being offensive although it was still quite strong. After she got through with him, he didn't do anything like that again until after she retired. BTW Miss Pat was the white lady of the trio of real life women (the other two were black) on whom I based the character of Mama Nelson. I also got permission from her before she retired to let Mama Nelson use her trademark saying in the Autumn Spring series. I miss her.

Larry has a habit of scratching the back of his neck whenever he's nervous, trying to think hard, or both. I first developed this character trait for John Kendo, the eldest of the Kendo brothers, in Resident Evil: Exodus - The Tale of Elza Walker, and the CG model I use for Larry Watts was customized for me by KitMartin originally for use as John Kendo in depicting Exodus storyboards as part of the old RE1.5 REvisited project. Once all that was wrapped up (years ago) and I decided to use the model for playing other characters in my other works, I carried over the neck scratching trait for Larry Watts in Autumn Spring. It had its origins with a kind of slow "big guy" who was a seasonal temp at the place where I work in real life during the time I was writing Exodus. Every time he got involved in any kind of major discussion with his co-workers and they would ask his opinion on something, up that hand would go and he'd scratch a few times before giving his response. I thought it was a neat character trait, so that's how first John and then Larry wound up with it. You should always be looking for things like this to help define you characters when creating your own original stories and chacters, and they can come from anywhere.