Notes

I was only able to find one picture of Alvin on the Web but I did find a library with a number of pictures of David Dovinchy in thumbnail format, perfect size for inclusion in these stories. I gleaned through them and pulled out those where DD's eyes could not be clearly seen and/or he looked as I imagined an Alvin that dealt with Gary on a daily basis would look. The picture to the right is, in my opinion, the best of the lot. Even an AI would have to have a good sense of humor to deal with Gary on a daily basis

As for a picture of Gary, that was much harder. I went through dozens of pictures of James Morrison before finding the picture to the left. It is the only one close to what I imagined Gary to look like.

As for McQueen. . .well, I've found a few dozen usable pictures of him and will be putting them in my stories as we go along, plus the occasional picture of Ross and/or members of the 58th. Some of my original characters are based on actors so don't be too surprised if pictures of them appeared as well.

The picture to the right is a stylized drawing of a rathorn, a creature that will be appearing in future stories. This drawing was done by P.C. Hodgell, the author of a series of books known as the Kencyrath Chronicles where the original version of the rathorn appears. For more information on P.C.'s wonderful tales, check out the Kencyr Pages or the small press that publishes her books.

This story came from wondering how McQueen would react to having someone, more or less, totally innocent and fairly helpless dependent on him. And then I got to wondering what would happen if an AI was involved......and then it really got complicated.

Christmas Time on the Bacchus started out as a 3-4 page fluff piece, all sappy and rather silly, and turned into a rather intense 10+ page story

Twonky is based loosely on actor Mike Preston, best known for his portrayal of the oil-settlement's leader in Mad Max: Road Warrior.