May 12th, 2003. Author's Comments:

I've been meaning to write some comments for ages on 69 Degrees.

So bare with my haphazard recall of when I first wrote this story.

It was 1999, I was working in a 12th floor office for a corporation,

and it was a quiet day at work.

Of the all the stories I've written (which aren't many really), 69

was the first and only story I attempted in creating a title first,

and writing the story to fit the title. All other stories I've

written have been of the format of writing a few chapters, and then

coming up with a title.

Therefore, before I even considered plot, a start or characters, it

was just the title.

I was stuck with numbers in my head for some reason, and well, 69

got stuck in my head. There was no sexually related reason, nothing

specific. It's more of the symmetry and misunderstanding of the

number 69.

After searching for several words that I could associate with it,

the only one that worked was degrees. At first, I wasn't sure if it

was any good as a title, but I figured, as titles go, it doesn't

matter too much, as long as the story is good.

Thus, I began the story, with a simple premise. A guy wakes up,

confused. And he starts to relate his story about travelling to see

the world.

I had no plot, no characters made up. Nothing. Just a person, who

was out travelling. I didn't even have a name for yet.

That when I returned to the title. '69 degrees' What does such a

title mean? That's what this was about, the strange nature of twists

and turns, and the unexpected.

So I did the unexpected. I introduced the alien phenomenon. Okay,

I suppose I had being watching X-Files a little too much, but I

wasn't aiming for some G-man style bug hunt.

I was after exploration, not guns, gore, green slime, or bad humour

in barely understandable Russian.

Thus the second segment of the story began, and I felt it was time

to introduce a new character.

I'm not sexually biased. In fact, I'd labour to came myself gender

balanced. I like to see equal opportunity for both genders in my

stories. Since I already had a man as the main, it was best to

create a female for the lead-supporting role.

And it was time to name my poor main.

There are two things I hate in stories.

1. Authors who use names that are common words.

2. Authors who use names that is hard to pronounce or remember.

Names shouldn't be common by any means, but they should never

distract from a story, and they should reflect the character.

Perhaps a common name in an uncommon spelling.

Joseph and Celine.

It's then that my characters started to develop, and I gave them

free reign.

Eh, well almost. The direction of the story was to say, a

little...um, very sexual.

This wasn't done intentionally, but it helped push the story in

directions I wanted.

Exploration, Understanding, Emphasising, Relationships.

Until I twisted the cruel knife of the author's will, and followed

the original intention of the title again.

It was right at this stage that the plot came to me. You see, I

never developed a plot before hand, it was all nail biting, edge of

the seat, take it as you see it.

It was right then and there, a plot was realized, and I started to

delineate the segments that made up the four main parts, yet one can

readily interpret the first as an introduction.

The final of my two main characters were given life, as their

portions of the story were given life.

The hardest part of course was wrapping this all up in one neat

believable package that didn't reek of Star Trek or Twilight zone.

Theories on Time travel have been abound for many years, but we

really don't need to time travel now do we, to enjoy life?

Chris Holz.