Note: This entry shows my technique of asking myself questions to stimulate my thinking about a plot or character point. It's a brainstorming technique, and thus a lot of this didn't end up in the final book.
Before beginning, another piece of backstory I'm still lacking is how Hap met Don in college. I have the feeling this is too important not to figure out in advance, because it will color Hap's whole attitude about attending the week at Don's cabin.
Q: What kind of person was Don in college?
A: He was a dual business and computer science major. As a computer science major he was a geek who preferred to stay in the data center (don't forget this was in the 1980s before there was a computer on everyone's desk). But as a business major he developed a feel for contacts and politics and did a certain amount of schmoozing at fraternity parties. I might make some of his sex stories about the sorority girls and so on.
Q: Maybe it would be better to ask what kind of person Hap was in college. All I have at the moment is that he was on the Creative Writing magazine and that he knew Seth and Denny; Don is the only other character he knew. And all I have about that is:
Don wasn't very aware of Hap until he wanted something from Hap. Then he cynically tried to flatter and manipulate his way, and the extent to which he succeeded makes Hap ashamed even today, though Don doesn't even remember it.
A: Okay.
Q: So what does that imply?
A: That Don was aware of Hap for some reason, and thought Hap could be useful to him, and tried to manipulate him, etc.
Q: What is Hap doing during college?
A: Working on the magazine, and also perforce the student newspaper. So perhaps Don wants him to write about something.
Q: What about Shaun on the radio station? Does Don approach him too?
A: I'm thinking he approaches someone on the radio station but not Shaun, because there are others better known and more effective there.
Q: OK, back to Hap. Don wants Hap to publicize something. What is it?
A: Let's see... Don is involved in CS and a little bit in Business Administration, which simply means he's in a fraternity... I'm trying to cast my mind back to the early 1980s to remember what people were even focusing on then... It can't be an internet thing because there was hardly any such thing; at least, no one outside university science departments used it, and no one owned a computer except scientists and hobbyists. Maybe it's something as simple as an event or series of events that Don puts on as sort of a project.... I'm thinking a film series. Something that would fit with his self image as a technocrat but also with being a frat boy of sorts... Didn't the movie Red Dawn, about a Soviet invasion of Colorado, come out right about then? And Reagan had just been elected. So maybe a patriotic film series of sorts. Not that Don cares anything about film or even about politics -- The film series is just an excuse for him to be important and to boss people around.
Q: That's all really good, but it's missing a CS component.
A: Maybe it doesn't have to be that monumental for Don as long as it's something Hap remembers. Suppose Don is doing this thing, and tries to get Hap to publicize it in the student paper. He flatters and manipulates Hap until he gets the article, then when Hap wants to talk to him about something later, is aloof and unavailable.
Q: What is that other thing?
A: Let's say there's been an unfortunate incident of some kind at the frat house, a rape case or something. And because of this contact around the film series (which Don didn't even go to beyond the first one, once he'd gotten everything he could out of it), Hap thinks of Don as a contact and tries to use him as a source.
Q: Is Hap also reporting news?
A: Yes, because he's a journalism major.
Q: OK, so Don manipulates Hap into publicizing the film series -- which isn't much of a stretch, because that's part of Hap's job on the paper anyway, but Young Don thinks it's a masterful stroke of political media manipulation -- and afterward Hap comes to him for a return of the favor. What does he want?
A: There has been some kind of scandal at the frat house involving a wild party and an alleged rape -- of course rape happens all the time at the frat parties more or less, only this time it was the daughter of a Congressman and all kinds of shit is hitting the fan. Hap goes to Don for some information, he even proposes it as a way for the fraternity to tell its own story. At first Don seems to agree and invites Hap down to the frat house so he can meet the kindly members and learn what swell fellows they are. But when Hap shows up, Don is nowhere to be seen and Hap is brought roughly through the door and used as a scapegoat for all the press which is hounding them; the more he explains why he's there, the angrier they get, becoming more and more threatening, until they take away his notebook and tear it up in front of him, and take away his wallet and write down his address, and then for good measure they haul him out to a car and like little gangsters take him to his house and inform them they now know where he lives and if he wants to survive the semester he had better shut up about the whole thing. Intimidated, Hap can only weakly raise the issue with Don the next (and last) time he sees him, and Don doesn't even listen, pretends nothing happened, and in general gives Hap short shrift, so that Hap has to simply swallow the whole experience and go on as if nothing really had happened.
Before beginning, another piece of backstory I'm still lacking is how Hap met Don in college. I have the feeling this is too important not to figure out in advance, because it will color Hap's whole attitude about attending the week at Don's cabin.
Q: What kind of person was Don in college?
A: He was a dual business and computer science major. As a computer science major he was a geek who preferred to stay in the data center (don't forget this was in the 1980s before there was a computer on everyone's desk). But as a business major he developed a feel for contacts and politics and did a certain amount of schmoozing at fraternity parties. I might make some of his sex stories about the sorority girls and so on.
Q: Maybe it would be better to ask what kind of person Hap was in college. All I have at the moment is that he was on the Creative Writing magazine and that he knew Seth and Denny; Don is the only other character he knew. And all I have about that is:
Don wasn't very aware of Hap until he wanted something from Hap. Then he cynically tried to flatter and manipulate his way, and the extent to which he succeeded makes Hap ashamed even today, though Don doesn't even remember it.
A: Okay.
Q: So what does that imply?
A: That Don was aware of Hap for some reason, and thought Hap could be useful to him, and tried to manipulate him, etc.
Q: What is Hap doing during college?
A: Working on the magazine, and also perforce the student newspaper. So perhaps Don wants him to write about something.
Q: What about Shaun on the radio station? Does Don approach him too?
A: I'm thinking he approaches someone on the radio station but not Shaun, because there are others better known and more effective there.
Q: OK, back to Hap. Don wants Hap to publicize something. What is it?
A: Let's see... Don is involved in CS and a little bit in Business Administration, which simply means he's in a fraternity... I'm trying to cast my mind back to the early 1980s to remember what people were even focusing on then... It can't be an internet thing because there was hardly any such thing; at least, no one outside university science departments used it, and no one owned a computer except scientists and hobbyists. Maybe it's something as simple as an event or series of events that Don puts on as sort of a project.... I'm thinking a film series. Something that would fit with his self image as a technocrat but also with being a frat boy of sorts... Didn't the movie Red Dawn, about a Soviet invasion of Colorado, come out right about then? And Reagan had just been elected. So maybe a patriotic film series of sorts. Not that Don cares anything about film or even about politics -- The film series is just an excuse for him to be important and to boss people around.
Q: That's all really good, but it's missing a CS component.
A: Maybe it doesn't have to be that monumental for Don as long as it's something Hap remembers. Suppose Don is doing this thing, and tries to get Hap to publicize it in the student paper. He flatters and manipulates Hap until he gets the article, then when Hap wants to talk to him about something later, is aloof and unavailable.
Q: What is that other thing?
A: Let's say there's been an unfortunate incident of some kind at the frat house, a rape case or something. And because of this contact around the film series (which Don didn't even go to beyond the first one, once he'd gotten everything he could out of it), Hap thinks of Don as a contact and tries to use him as a source.
Q: Is Hap also reporting news?
A: Yes, because he's a journalism major.
Q: OK, so Don manipulates Hap into publicizing the film series -- which isn't much of a stretch, because that's part of Hap's job on the paper anyway, but Young Don thinks it's a masterful stroke of political media manipulation -- and afterward Hap comes to him for a return of the favor. What does he want?
A: There has been some kind of scandal at the frat house involving a wild party and an alleged rape -- of course rape happens all the time at the frat parties more or less, only this time it was the daughter of a Congressman and all kinds of shit is hitting the fan. Hap goes to Don for some information, he even proposes it as a way for the fraternity to tell its own story. At first Don seems to agree and invites Hap down to the frat house so he can meet the kindly members and learn what swell fellows they are. But when Hap shows up, Don is nowhere to be seen and Hap is brought roughly through the door and used as a scapegoat for all the press which is hounding them; the more he explains why he's there, the angrier they get, becoming more and more threatening, until they take away his notebook and tear it up in front of him, and take away his wallet and write down his address, and then for good measure they haul him out to a car and like little gangsters take him to his house and inform them they now know where he lives and if he wants to survive the semester he had better shut up about the whole thing. Intimidated, Hap can only weakly raise the issue with Don the next (and last) time he sees him, and Don doesn't even listen, pretends nothing happened, and in general gives Hap short shrift, so that Hap has to simply swallow the whole experience and go on as if nothing really had happened.