Into the Blue Beam

Author's Note

Hello, friends! If you've been with me since Fandom, you may have seen a list of prospective fanfictions I want to write in the future. And if you remember that, then based off of this title, I'm sure you can make a pretty good guess as to what this fanfiction is.

For everyone else, though... this is "Into the Blue Beam," a *sorta* continuation of my first ever fanfiction, "Behind the Green Door."

Yes, I know I said I wouldn't be continuing "Behind the Green Door." However, what I meant by that was, I'm not continuing Ivy's story. "Into the Blue Beam" follows Keefe after the events of "Behind the Green Door."

Does this mean you have to read BTGD before this story? Well... no. However, some things in this fanfiction may be confusing to you without having read BTGD. Regardless of how you want to go about it, I would recommend reading BOTH stories, even if you read this one first. Thataway you'll understand the full implications of certain events!

Also, because I'm such a nerd, I want to talk about the titles for a second. You guys probably don't know this (unless I've told you and forgotten about it), but I'm reeeeeeally bad at naming my stories. "Behind the Green Door" was easy—it just came to me randomly, and besides, it was a perfect metaphor for Ivy and Keefe finding out Gisela's master plan by "opening the green door."

But when it came to this one... I was at a loss. I wanted to stick with the "find out a mystery" metaphor by using either the word "through" or "into." But what color would I use?

Well, I scanned Unlocked for any brainstorming ideas, and landed on the moment when Keefe pulls out a cobalt blue crystal. So... "blue" could be a metaphor for the Forbidden Cities, which is the setting for Keefe's next adventure.

Except, what is blue? At first I wanted to continue using the house metaphor ("door" is a part of a house, so what comes after a house? A hall? A window? A room?). But "Through the Blue Hall" sounded way too literal for what I was going for, and it would most likely only confuse readers more. I asked my family for help, and my dad was like, "Well, what is blue?"

So I said, "A crystal. Well, light—that's what's being reflected."

Then came Thesaurus.com (it's truly my most useful tool as a writer, guys, other than my notebook).

"Through the Blue Light."

"Nah, it's too vague."

"Through the Blue Hue."

"That is way too rhyme-y."

"Into the Blue Ray."

"Blue-ray? Seriously?"

"How about 'Into the Blue Gleam'?"

"Okay, yeah!"

Yet something about this title didn't sit right, either. "Gleam" rhymes too much with "beam," and "beam" makes much more sense, since the Keeper characters light-leap on "beams of light." At first I didn't like "beam," because it felt too specific to me, and I thought it would be too literal.

But then I thought of the first fanfiction's title—"Behind the Green Door." The green DOOR is a LITERAL green door. So... why can't a blue beam be a literal blue beam? It's still metaphorical for new beginnings and even a little bit of mystery.

So... I hope you like it. If not, it's understandable—titles can sound super cheesy sometimes, and I, as the author, don't even realize it until months later.

I hope I didn't ruin the title for you by that whole spiel LOL.

And I should really get going on the story.

Okay, guys, THIS IS THE END OF THE AUTHOR'S NOTE.

Happy reading!

~TheEssayElf