Schemes and Dreams

Nancy shares some characteristics with Judith. A god complex for one. You see it with Nancy when she interacts with Malcolm. When he doesn't the slightest thing wrong in her eyes she immediately insults and belittles him. She has this arrogant belief that she is the smartest person in any room. Like Judith she's so dysfunctional she has no idea that her behavior is so out of line with the rest of society. Nancy really does believe that line about being a good person and a good mother.

The other point I missed was the Orchid Club. You really summed it up really well. It's going to be a key meeting place for characters from all the various storylines. I was trying to think of a similar pop culture reference, maybe Monk's Café from Seinfeld or Central Perk from Friends. Those are the two that spring to mind instantly.

Having this happen in public was an accident, kind of. I had all these one-liners and putdowns from Mimi in my head and I visualized them in the club where they would get laughs at Nancy's expense. They did have more impact that way, but in hindsight I could have done this in private at Mimi's penthouse. I came to that realization after the previous chapter was done and posted. So rather than doing the rewrite I pushed on.

I'm a member of the LGBTQIA community and it is difficult for me to keep track of everything. The pride flags that line the walls of the Orchid are a good example. I have a pack of pride flags I got from MTS and over half of them were ones that I had never heard of. But that's the beauty of the rainbow of humanity. Life is so much more than the narrow black and white that too many people want everybody to stay inside of.

I was really hoping that people would be pleasantly surprised when Kendall and Donnell showed up as the bouncers. I resisted the urge to really go wild with their appearance. I figured two very large muscular gay men wearing light makeup and some overtly feminine earrings would make for the perfect surprise for someone like Malcolm in particular. Not so much Nancy because her default isn't towards violence like it is for Malcom. His comments all along had been dismissive of gay men as being weak and someone he could easily intimidate or even beat up. Having them use the names Daisy and Priscilla made it all the funnier when he came face to face with them.