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See, he knows the original better than I do. I haven't looked at that piece of shit in 6 years. :)

The story with Alicia was that I actually got a chance to meet her at the Thailand finale. I had met a lot of Survivors throughout the years prior to that, but she was always the #1 on my list since she had been the winner of Hawaii. I wanted to tell her all about the story and offer to send her a copy. By the way, I know that sounds sort of silly (a fanfic writer pimping his story to a Survivor), but you have to understand, the culture was a lot different back then. Nearly all the players used to read my stories. I must have sent out 15 free copies to various players from Marquesas, Africa, etc. Rob C even used Hawaii and Alaska as preparations for when he went out to play All-Stars. So when I say I wanted to meet Alicia and tell her about my story, I wasn't just having delusions of self-grandeur. Every Survivor I had met prior to that had been a big fan of them.

So anyway, I ran into Alicia at the Thailand finale. I was there with Murtz from Survivor-Central, and we ran into Alicia and Varner outside at the end of the taping. I walked over to Alicia and I introduced myself as an online Survivor columnist. She said she didn't read the internet much (most of the Survivors didn't back then) but she knew who I was because Varner had just vouched for me (he was friends with Murtz). So I said, hey, I have been meaning to talk to you. I told her all about Hawaii, and how she was the winner, and how it had been a big deal the summer before. I told her it probably had about 100,000 readers at its peak. She said she had never read it, but she had heard about it, and was interested in reading it. So I gave her my contact info, and she seemed excited about it.

And that was it. Six years later, I still have yet to hear back from her.

I know it seems silly, but in four years of being a Survivor writer, she is the only player who ever blew me off. I was always bothered by that. Here people like Rob C and Rafe and Gabriel were dying to have me write them in a story, and the winner of my very first story is the one person who had no interest in it whatsoever. Bleh.

In related news, my winners of Alaska and Greece (who I had no contact with before writing the stories), I still keep in touch with.

Yeah that was what surprised me more than anything. I was expecting to get blown off right at the start. I mean, come on, it's Alicia. You know what you are going to get. The fact that she actually feigned interest just seemed out of character for her. Meh. Like I said, that was a long time ago. It was a whole different Survivor culture back then. Nowadays I bet Survivors get fanfics shoved in their faces every five minutes. No wonder they are probably sick of them. I mean, I write them, and I'm sick of them.

You know, I love Keko too. They were an awesome tribe made up of awesome characters. So even though they didn't win, the fact that the readers seemed to like them (and even got mad when they didn't win) is good enough for me. It never even occurred to me that an Ahi could win this story until about day 30. I think it was pretty clear that Keko was my favorite tribe as well.

However... that being said... Vecepia was (and is) one of my favorite characters to write of all time. I would put her in every single story if I could. And I made a specific concerted effort to make John real and interesting (and smart) in this version of Hawaii. Out of all the characters at the start of the game, he was the one I most wanted to improve from the original. So I of course am as pleased as punch that they ended up as the final 2. I couldn't have had that work out better if I had tried. They were two of the characters I wanted to be around at the end. Lucky for me.

And yeah the Sue and Richard episodes I think were real standouts this time around. Both were sort of lacklusters ho hum episodes last time (at least in my eyes) and I worked really hard to make those into episodes that people would remember. In particular, I'm thrilled that people no longer remember Sue as "the person who had that stupid machete fight with Lex". This time, both she and Lex had storylines that were more worthy of their characters.

Sorry about the 400 page story. That's the price you pay for extra character development. :)

We'll see about the new story. I sure would like to include Chris, Ian, Ami, Sandra, and Rupert... Hmm. That would be interesting.

Okay here is the working copy of day 39. Not much yet, but I tend to be picky about my day 39s. I want to make sure all the leadup to TC is perfect. I just have to add John's final interview, and then some last minute packing up stuff, and then their final walk to TC. And then the fun begins.

http://www.averdata.net/~...aseb/hawaii/day_39_wc.htm

It's okay. I need it sometimes.