I've had more than one person ask for random facts about the characters I'm posting about. So, today I'm going to take that notion and spin it into something a little different. Each book has a copious amount of real world references, whether it's about movies or television, video games or sports. Some time before, I told you all that these books take place in real time. If you bought them and read each book as it was released, you were reading them in the current year that things take place. Tossing in references to pop culture here and there helped remind the reader of this, but I'll remind you of some today.
I mentioned once or twice in Ninety Degrees that the gang used to spend a lot of their time at the skate park when they were younger. Mostly, it was Charleigh and Logan taking part - Logan on the board and Charleigh on the blades. Silas also hung out there, but a lot of his time was taken up by sports. Tucker, Silas, and Dakota all play baseball in the novel. Baseball is one of my favorite sports to watch, so I knew I wanted to use it for some of my characters eventually. Ninety Degrees was the perfect opportunity. In Small Circles, I didn't want to tie the characters down to extracurriculars. It took away from everything else that was going on. I threw in some sports here and there, having both Larson and Paxton be part of the dive team at one point or another. And Owen's role in playing lacrosse was obviously a big part of the storyline. But there are plenty of teenage boys whose world revolves around sports, so I knew I needed to tack that onto someone's character. I was able to do that in Ninety Degrees.
Other than sports, there are several sources of entertainment for all of the characters in the books. The boys from Small Circles spend most of their time playing video games and watching movies. Foster and Allan is a boarding school, so once curfew strikes, the students are stuck in their dorm building until morning. I managed to throw in several references to some of my favorite movies and series throughout all the books. This was important to me because I am a massive fan of film and television.
A well-noted reference that most people tend to remember is the film Rubber. Yes, this is a real movie featuring a tire named Robert that goes on a killing spree, slaughtering everyone that crosses him with his psychic powers. My friends and I came across this gem while skimming through Netflix one night. We had no clue what it was, but we had to at least try it. I imagined my characters doing the same. When you're bored, Netflix is a great go-to.
Another one of my favorites references is a quote that Larson mentions from the cult classic Airplane: "I take [my coffee] black, like my men."
There are a few other lines from movies dropped in Three Sixty, Ninety Degrees, and Infinite Limits. See if you can catch them!
Really, there's only one other thing I wanted to touch on. Once, I had a friend ask me why I never mentioned any pets in Small Circles. At first, I was like, CRAP! But then I realized I had subconsciously left them out on purpose. For most of the book, the characters are at boarding school. Then, they're at college. Their home life isn't a big part of the story until the other books, so it made sense that pets wouldn't be part of it. I also, for some reason, didn't picture them with any pets. In Three Sixty, however, Silas having a dog named Molly made perfect sense. So, if anyone was wondering why there's only one dog mentioned in all of the books... that's why.
I won't be able to post anything tomorrow, but hopefully you learned enough about Logan to sustain! Until next week! Sunday I'll be posting about Carter Walbridge: the boy we all love to hate!
-Megan.
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