Author's Notes

P.S.I.--An "Emergency!" Story

Author's Notes

As P.S.I. began to unfold here, I thankfully started remembering the circumstances leading to its birth back in the late 1970s-early 1980s.

I mentioned on the homepage something about a high school buddy who was a fellow E! nut. She would come over every day after school to watch E! ONE with me, and that's when I began to notice "movement" within my writing soul--the stirrings of a new plot.

E! had been taken off the prime time air, which in and of itself was depressing. Then my thoroughbred trainer friend lost her barn, and moved to a remote area of the county. We weren't able to keep up with my lessons, and therefore such was ended. With two recreational outlets cut off, the creativity had to go somewhere.

I had spent most of my E! life either a Johnny or Roy fan (I believe I started with Roy). I also had in my possession a newspaper magazine with Roy on the front, and the writer stated in the article that they had caught up with Kevin Tighe at the Kentucky Derby that year. E! and the Derby became inseparable in my mind.

While watching E! ONE, I had something rather unusual happen--my attention suddenly became fixated on the engineer. As far as I had been concerned, he was how the engine got to the fire, and that was it. The plot stirrings were becoming stronger, and I felt my pent up frustration at losing my race riding lessons merge with this new fixation on Stoker. I was also having "double exposure" pictures appearing over the actual E! ONE programs on the TV screen.

I then saw the story on black background with white letters. The only way this could be achieved at the time was by either expensive four-color separation printing, or White-Out/white paint on black construction paper. Neither was an option.

However, a story was being born. I realized that this new force within was prompting me to introduce something that E!'s writers seemed to not want to do--have one of 51's crew get married. At first, I thought perhaps Gage would get a break, and this female character who was forming would actually become his wife. "NO," said the Inner Voice, "She's for Stoker." When I mentioned Gage possibly marrying to my mom, she said it would ruin the series.

I told my buddy about the inspirations, and we set about scheming. I decided I would leave the "Johnny and Roy Camp" and go over to the "Stanley and Stoker Camp." Those two character names started putting themselves together.

So the Muse wanted marriage introduced to the show--other than Cap and Roy, that is. We started writing on that theme. Gage would seemingly prove himself totally insane by buying a racehorse, then do something almost unheard of at that time--put a female rider on the horse. At this point in the story's history, the horse was a chestnut colt.

The Bee Gees' song "Tragedy" had been out for a couple of years, but at this time I started having writer's visions whenever the song came on the radio. These visions broke so strongly on the mind's eye that I actually backed up and said, "WHOA!" This was the first of what I've dubbed the "Stoker Videos." There were three such "videos;" the other two came from another Bee Gees' album, "Main Course"--"Country Lanes" and "Baby As You Turn Away."

Whenever I heard "Tragedy," I'd see our engineer almost going out of his mind with grief. I couldn't figure it out at first--until I heard the gunshots toward the end of the song. Ah, now we're getting somewhere. More of the plot was revealing itself--Gage buys a racehorse and hires a girl jockey to ride it. They also win the Triple Crown. The girl was Cap's neice from KY. She meets Stoker and they marry. After three years of wedded bliss, she's shot off her horse in a race. Who's the culprit? A half-crazed guy jock who hires a hitman.

I wasn't able to interpret the inspirations directly into English, but they were, essentially: "cut them and make them bleed." "Why Stoker?" I asked. "Why NOT Stoker?" came the reply. I shut up and got back to work. The Inner Voice began to speak again--Johnny and Roy were trite (overused); Stoker, Chet, and Marco needed more exposure. Cap and Roy both had families which could be introduced. We already knew about JoAnn DeSoto.

Universal Studios hadn't given me a whole lot to work with where Stoker was concerned. (I can't work in these conditions)! So, I figured that if I was going to pull this off, my Higher Power whom I call God would have to 'fill in the blanks,' so to say. "Observation," said the Inner Voice. "A lot can be learned about a person by the way they carry themselves. Just keep an eye on him."

I also started asking other E! fans if they were in Stoker's camp, and come to find out, my buddy's little brother and my mom both were. As my dad snoozed in his chair, mom said, "Oh, I like Stoker. He's the cutest--and he's real." My dad startled out of his nap.

At about this time, the Louisville TV station which carried E! ONE canceled the same. I took up the cudgels--and a petition--and visited the powers-that-be at the station. They said that if more people had my attitude toward the show, they wouldn't have to bump it. They did promise, however, that if the new show (something called "Every Day") didn't make it, they'd put E! ONE back on. My friends at school and their friends and families supported my boycott of the new show; it bombed; and E! ONE returned--but not for very long.

Then my buddy's father died. She was disconsolate and quit school. Some of the darker parts of the story came from this time. Then I shelved it until my junior year of college, when a new "soul sister" and I started work on it again. When I changed majors from nursing to English, I pulled the story out and tried working with it. The story refused to work with me, and therefore was shelved a few more years.

I could tell that trying to keep the story in its present form was not going to work much longer. More scenes started coming in fragments, and most of the characters had changed names, including that of the girl jockey's firefighter husband. However, it wasn't until 1997 or thereabouts that I received the title Murder by the 405 for what was becoming a murder mystery.

We were living in a certain apartment complex here in the Piedmont Triad of North Carolina at the time. I remember very distinctly awakening at 4:05am one morning, to find a shadowy entity standing next to the bed. This entity identified itself as a male named Bob. With the eyes of the soul, I could see he wore glasses and 1970s apparel. Within, I could sense that he wanted me to make note of the time (stated above), and that I was to call this metamorphosis of the E! story Murder by the 405. Such made sense, due to L.A. County Fire Station 127 being located by the 405 Freeway, and the racetrack is down the street from the station. The setting for 405 would be the actual station used in E!

The victim--the fire captain's wife--would be a true ghost in 405. Due to a "sin of omission," as we call it, which actually cost her her life, she is made to haunt the station. In P.S.I., Brin is a saint. Mike considers her an angel for obvious reasons.

My apologies if I've confused the reader. My point in mentioning 405 is that I had to get most of the novel plotted out to be able to write P.S.I. May not make a lot of sense, but for this writer, that's just the way it happened. P.S.I. was still in skeleton form when I started writing it this year, and 405's information helped put the muscle, etc., on the body.

How did the horse get changed to a black filly? I received a signed jockey card from retired rider Mary Russ, and she was shown on "Humbugaboo" in the winner's circle. Okay, if the horse's owners could come up with such a name, so could I. "Nellie Belle" and "Belle Starr" came to mind--hence "Nellie Belle Starr." She simply sounded like a coal black filly with no speck of white anywhere on her.

I also didn't have the title for P.S.I. until the late 1990s. I got the idea after reading another story with a similar title, but different occupation. In 2004, I found the Stoker Yahoo fan list, and here I am now, December 2005, finishing P.S.I.

Below, I have included some pertinent notes on the story which I think may add some color to the individual chapters.

1 Mike's reaction was based on an extremely vivid dream I

had. Although the "Wail Heard 'Round the World"

started with the engineer, he aged into the captain--

based on this photo from the '98 Convention

combined with this clip from The Godfather III

Scroll down--it's the last one. I saw this scene

from The Godfather III while hubby and I were

visiting a fire captain friend at his station in

Tennessee. As this P.S.I. scene unfolded,

a perfect rendition of What Becomes of the

Brokenhearted was playing as background music.

When I say the dream was vivid, I mean just that.

I woke up the next morning feeling as if an

elephant had stepped on my chest. I would've

posted this to the Stoker Yahoo fan list, but I

was in too much pain.

2 I had no idea that Mike would sink so low. With my

being a fan, it was heartrending to watch.

Cassie Lou is the name my mom wanted me to use

for the girl jockey. However, writer's intuition told me

to hang on to the name. Came in handy here.

3 I was writing P.S.I. during the 2005 hurricane season,

hence the reason for the Posse members' names.

There really is a healer priest in the Oakland area.

However, he belongs to a religious order, and is not

a diocesan priest, as our character is.

4 Our "FloJo with a badge" here is named for Peaches

Shorts, a little black girl from Birmingham, Alabama,

who never saw her 16th birthday--she was kidnapped

and murdered. Her perp was never brought to justice.

5 "George Welles" was a real criminal who perpetrated

a murder in broad daylight at my collegiate alma mater.

He shot fellow senior Opal Sturgill three times in the

chest in front of Lincoln Hall, the administration

building. For whatever reason, he managed to escape

The Stanley residence does exist, but belongs to the

family of a high school classmate. If visiting

Bardstown, and wanting to see the house, please

respect this family's privacy. Thanks.

The funeral home referenced here is Mann-Greenwell

on South Third Street. My buddy's father was buried

"Joe's Place" was actually Hurst's Restaurant, which

my family frequented on a regular basis. The

restaurant has since moved to KY Hwy 49, and is

located next to the Sportsman's Club and down

the road from Heaven Hill Distillery. The former

restaurant is now a shop called "The Pink Canary."

The tone "heard" here actually is the monitor tone for

the Bardstown Volunteer Fire Department. I not only

knew dispatchers personally, but we also had a scanner

which I received for my birthday in 1978. (The night

dispatcher once commented, "I have more listeners

than WBRT.") I also met my first volunteer firefighter

boyfriend around the same time. (He's the usher/EMT

who tends to Welles).

WBRT is our local radio station.

A bit of explanation is required for "cathedral." The

church is presently known as "The Basilica of St.

Joseph Proto-Cathedral." However, we locals always

called it either "St. Joe" or "the cathedral." The church

has not been used as the latter since the late 1800s,

when the bishop's office was moved to Louisville

--hence the reference to the Archbishop of

Louisville. In high-profile cases such as Brin's, the

archbishop would certainly attend and be the main

celebrant of the Mass of the Resurrection.

Welles' reaction came to me when hubby brought up

the live version of "Gasoline." I felt Welles' speeding

heartbeat on the drummer's lead-in. (See link

below at Chapter 13).

The first time I heard "Without You" was at my sister

and brother-in-law's apartment a few miles from

Churchill Downs. This was around 1972, when the

song first came out. What scared me the most about

listening to it were the pictures that kept popping

up on my mind's eye when the song was playing--I

kept seeing a dead female jockey. Scary, to say the

least, especially for a nine year-old. I had forgotten

about the song through the years, but was reminded of

"Without You" while writing this chapter; we were

driving by our local fire station 11 when the song came

7 The video presented itself while I was listening to the

song in question. The ad evolved from research we

did for one son's presentation.

The interview scene was supplemented by one from

what I've come to call "Promoted P.S.I."--where

Stoker is a captain. I was having a lot of problems

with him being presented as one or the other while

writing P.S.I. I was looking through the E! Fest

photos when I saw him wringing the daylights out of

some kind of cloth in this particular photo. Mike was a

bundle of nerves, and sheriff's deputy Vince had been

promoted to detective. I heard him say, "We'll find who

did it, Mike. This is personal."

8 One of the original chapters of the story. Brin's

corvette is deep jade green metalflake. Mike's classic

"Can we elope?" came from a scene from Little House

on the Prairie. Mr. Olsen was about to go on a trip,

and his annoying wife asked if he would miss her. He

mumbles under his breath, "Like a crutch." She asks

what he said, and he says, "Very much." This

particular scene kept repeating itself until I caught the

clue that I was to change it around for P.S.I.

9 Another original chapter.

Brin probably hasn't had enough time to recover fully

from her injuries. At least that's the impression I

I knew that Dixie hadn't died at this point in time in

the real series. However, the story inserted her dying

here, so I had to work with it. Johnny also needed a

lesson in equine psychology. He was his filly's

favorite human, therefore, his emotions were going

to take a toll on Nellie.

10 Yet another original chapter.

Some of what Brin tells Mike is based on my own

experiences with grief--drawn mainly from when hubby

was deployed to Iraq for Gulf War I. We wives were

"mourning the living dead," so to say.

I, also, was blessed with the visitation of a deceased

friend. Whenever she visits, she always comes in light

and brings consolation. When she visited while I was

writing this chapter, she said, "He wouldn't be having

such a hard time if he'd just pray."

I have to apologize to the reader for rewriting world

history. I honestly thought I had seen November 18

as the date of the Jonestown Mass Suicide in Guyana.

I "wrote myself into a corner." Again, my apologies.

11 Joel Maher didn't exist until I heard the Bee Gees' song

"Massachusetts." The name "Maher" came from a

t-shirt worn by hubby's best friend who had worked a

geological job with a firm by the same name.

The idea of exchanging notes through a textbook came

from personal experience. I communicated with my

first volunteer firefighter boyfriend that way in the

early days of the relationship.

12 Welles' reaction to the skeleton was developed during

my college years with my "soul sister." The idea of the

spider "infestation" was from one of my sons' doctors'

offices around the same time the chapter was written

The chase scene was inspired by Enter the Haggis'

"Gasoline." If the reader wishes, they may go to the

Click the second (play) button on the grey box on the

Casualties of Retail picture. The sequence was as

2:42 George runs. . .gets horse

2:49 jumps fence . . .Posse pursues

2:58 Cassie Lou pulls rope out

The chapter was titled "Waterloo" for the ABBA song.

The song's lyrics were most appropriate.

13 Chapter title derived from "Casualties of Retail,"

"Gasoline" always seemed to express the story's plot.

The melancholic melody of ABBA's "The Winner Takes

It All" is particularly fitting for the chapter's closing

14 Mike's dream of the Tavern fire is accurate.

Another of the "Stoker Videos" is included in this

chapter. From the time he leaves the farm to the

mare's "hug" came from the Bee Gee's "Country Lanes."

The monitor tone "heard" in this chapter belongs to

the Springfield Volunteer Fire Dept. in Washington

County. As far as I know, there is no "Sedgwick

15 Has to be one of my favorite chapters. From Dixie's

message to Mike's flashback of meeting Brin, there's a

lot of information revealed.

16 Welles' and Ramsey's deaths came to me on the waves

of Enter the Haggis' "Twirling Toward Freedom," which

is the fourth song on their website's sampler.

"But my program's on!" actually happened, and

somewhat modified for our purposes here. I was

visiting a firefighter/dispatcher friend at work when the

17 The third "Stoker Video" is in this chapter. Sid and

Suzie didn't exist until this writing. "Main Course" was

one of the Bee Gees' best-selling albums.

Epilogue Picking up where "The Greatest Rescues of Emergency!"

left off. Please reference the "Vision" page on this site.


				*P.S.I.--An "Emergency!" Story* *Author's Notes*



	Home \| Cast of Characters \| Soundtrack \| Chapter 1--"I Wanna Be With Her" \| Chapter 2--As Mike Lay Dying \| Chapter 3--The Three Clues \| Chapter 4--A Bullet With Her Name On It \| Chapter 5--"Beauty Doesn't Belong in the Ground!" \| Chapter 6--Cassie Lou Remembers \| Chapter 7--The Video, The Ad, and The Interview \| Chapter 8 --The Perfect Wife for a Firefighter \| Chapter 9--"Win It For Dixie!" \| Chapter 10--Angel in Topboots \| Chapter 11--"Don't Have a Stroke, Mike!" \| Chapter 12--Waterloo \| Chapter 13--Retail Murder \| Chapter 14--The Mares \| Chapter 15--Notes \| Chapter 16--A Homecoming--Sort Of \| Chapter 17--PSI Means What Again? \| Epilogue \| Author's Notes \| Gemma's E! Vision in the Monastery \| Guestbook