The Portrait

I got inspired for this story when I watched the movie As Good As It Gets. When the character Simon talked about a moment when everything about someone is revealed in that one second. And that he had to capture that when he saw it, even when Carol at first protests about doing something revealing. The idea of this Spock and Saavik portrait popped in my head with the whole Hybrids angle to it.

It stayed in my head until I was going through one of those terrible writer's block periods. This idea was asking to be written so I thought it'd help get me through the block.

A couple asked if the painter is based on me. Even Marla thinks Andra sounds like me, but actually, I based her on Ngaio Marsh's Agatha Troy in her Alleyn Mysteries. I love that character! And I thought it'd be great to have this outsider's view of my little family, but even though she's an outsider, being a gifted painter, she'd be able to see things about them. So she was a good foil for describing them.

I think it was the first time I really wrote the kid characters: Setik, T'Kel, and T'Pren. So I had a good time fleshing them out. I liked that they are still Vulcan and still kids - sibling spats and all.