Strelnikov
4th Level Red Feather
- Joined
- May 7, 2001
- Messages
- 1,820
- Points
- 0
I inherited Ashley Curtis from tummyticklish01 when I took over the Tickle Street series. Ashley was just a caricature then, a blonde beauty queen with a room-temperature IQ.
I was still feeling my way along as an author when I started "Ashley's Initiation". I had three young hellions who were eager to trick and tickle her. But who would care? Ashley really wasn't very interesting.
So I made her an innocent – that often looks the same at first glance. But then... I should have made Candice a Catholic – when it comes to guilt, Jews ain’t got nothing on us! Candice realized that she had kicked a puppy, had a guilt attack, and created the Vellatrices to make it right. The story was about Candice, not Ashley.
Ashley got tickled again in "If you can't lick 'em..." and "History Project", but those stories were about Joanna and Morgan. She had minor parts in others, but I still didn't really know her.
Ashley was the ticklee in the first draft of "Spring Cleaning". Oops! Same plot as "Initiation", but in their own minds, the twins are as infallible as the Pope. No story there. So I substituted Meghan, who outsmarted herself and got tickle-tortured for her trouble, just like in "Gotcha!" That started Vicky and Veronica’s Reign of Terror, and provided material for some of the stories that followed.
It finally came down to Ashley or Candice's turn. Candice would have volunteered – no story there – and in any case, I wanted to pair her off with Anne. Ashley then, but I had the same problem as before. After a few false starts, I ended up with "Fool me once..." about the loss of innocence and gaining self-awareness in return. That was Ashley's story, and I think one of my better efforts. But Ashley was lost to the Vellatrices – I had outsmarted myself too.
I had been playing with "Galley Slave" for a while when I finished "Fool me once..." In the draft, the star was Alicia Jemison from "Dani Deaver", kidnapped with the three Haviland sisters during a Spring Break road trip. But the chemistry between the characters was wrong somehow. Two chapters in, it still hadn't come together.
So I substituted sweet Ashley Curtis for Alicia and her fellow young models for the sisters. Ashley grew up in "Galley Slave", and judging from the number of views, the story turned out pretty well. But Ashley was still on the outs with the Vellatrices.
The twins deserved a good tickling. That story turned into "The Adventure of the Red-Headed League". "Galley Slave" gave me two more redheads to play with – I wanted to combine them with strawberry-blonde Meghan, who arguably qualifies, and with Emily as the star. But the only person who could tie them all together was Ashley, so "League" became her story too.
Ashley matured into a competent and self-assured adult woman, albeit a young one. She didn’t turn out quite the way I once expected, but I like her anyway. She's one of my favorites – you'll see her again.
Strelnikov
I was still feeling my way along as an author when I started "Ashley's Initiation". I had three young hellions who were eager to trick and tickle her. But who would care? Ashley really wasn't very interesting.
So I made her an innocent – that often looks the same at first glance. But then... I should have made Candice a Catholic – when it comes to guilt, Jews ain’t got nothing on us! Candice realized that she had kicked a puppy, had a guilt attack, and created the Vellatrices to make it right. The story was about Candice, not Ashley.
Ashley got tickled again in "If you can't lick 'em..." and "History Project", but those stories were about Joanna and Morgan. She had minor parts in others, but I still didn't really know her.
Ashley was the ticklee in the first draft of "Spring Cleaning". Oops! Same plot as "Initiation", but in their own minds, the twins are as infallible as the Pope. No story there. So I substituted Meghan, who outsmarted herself and got tickle-tortured for her trouble, just like in "Gotcha!" That started Vicky and Veronica’s Reign of Terror, and provided material for some of the stories that followed.
It finally came down to Ashley or Candice's turn. Candice would have volunteered – no story there – and in any case, I wanted to pair her off with Anne. Ashley then, but I had the same problem as before. After a few false starts, I ended up with "Fool me once..." about the loss of innocence and gaining self-awareness in return. That was Ashley's story, and I think one of my better efforts. But Ashley was lost to the Vellatrices – I had outsmarted myself too.
I had been playing with "Galley Slave" for a while when I finished "Fool me once..." In the draft, the star was Alicia Jemison from "Dani Deaver", kidnapped with the three Haviland sisters during a Spring Break road trip. But the chemistry between the characters was wrong somehow. Two chapters in, it still hadn't come together.
So I substituted sweet Ashley Curtis for Alicia and her fellow young models for the sisters. Ashley grew up in "Galley Slave", and judging from the number of views, the story turned out pretty well. But Ashley was still on the outs with the Vellatrices.
The twins deserved a good tickling. That story turned into "The Adventure of the Red-Headed League". "Galley Slave" gave me two more redheads to play with – I wanted to combine them with strawberry-blonde Meghan, who arguably qualifies, and with Emily as the star. But the only person who could tie them all together was Ashley, so "League" became her story too.
Ashley matured into a competent and self-assured adult woman, albeit a young one. She didn’t turn out quite the way I once expected, but I like her anyway. She's one of my favorites – you'll see her again.
Strelnikov
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