quinn222

Just some background, some details and a few thank yous that I wanted to get into my lj.





I conceived the idea after I had done my Bulletin board project. It seemed like a natural flow from that. I asked around for postmarks from my flist but I didn’t tell anyone what I was doing. On the 21st of July I wrote the first postcard and I put it up the next day. At the time I thought that I would have them write about twice a month for a total of maybe 15 posts. I also intended to use only postcards and, in fact, Correspondence to this day resides in a folder called ‘postcards’ in my projects folder. It was very warmly received. Not that many people read my LJ then and it seemed like all of them had something kind to say about Justin’s little postcard to Brian!

All posts were created in Adobe Photoshop. I used a combination of stock photos, my own photos, scans and original art. Very early on I began keeping calendars for both Justin and Brian, so I could keep track of where they were and where they were going to be and when they had last written. I didn’t plan the story out in advance. I had a general idea of some things that were going to happen though. I knew that Brian would go to Europe, that Justin would go to Mexico, that they would meet up at least once during the time Justin was away. Other things flowed from the story itself or from the postmarks that I was sent.

Burnitbackwards sent me a postcard from Yellowstone. That led directly to Brian and Ted going out west together. I had a postcard from the Baltimore Aquarium. I really wanted Brian to go there but I couldn’t think of any reason why he would (other than making them a client, but I had already done that with the MSI.) That is why Gus went to Baltimore, so that I could get Brian to the Aquarium.

Speaking of the MSI, I intended to send Brian to see the trains. But I lucked out and they were having that Toy exhibit. That led to one of the most popular Correspondence entries ever, in which Brian sent Justin a plastic top.

I’m happy that I was able to keep to my goal of having them correspond throughout Justin’s time in California, I kept the tone mostly light, there was very little angst, and it has over all been a happy fic. I’ve enjoyed reading the angst filled S4 fics a lot but I’m glad I was able to offer something a little lighter while still (I hope!) keeping the boys true to character.

I’ve made so many wonderful friends through this project. Many people helped by sending me things and I thank them so much, I truly could not have done it without them. I’d also like to mention my three secret betas (you know who you are!) I didn’t send them posts anywhere near often enough but when I did they helped immeasurably. In closing I’d like to thank everyone who read Correspondence so faithfully for so long. Your kindness and support is the only thing that made it possible for me to create this huge project. Thank you. Thank you for reading, for giving me feedback, for reccing it to your friends, for putting up with my many typos. Thank you.

Details-

The first Correspondence was posted 22 July, 2004. I continued to post new Correspondence daily almost every day after that. Some days I posted twice. I was hit with three hurricanes during that time.

Justin left Pittsburgh on the 18th of August, 2004 and returned for good on the 30th of April, 2005.

Brian’s handwriting – Stylograph
Justin’s handwriting – Sawyer’s Hand

Brian indents, Justin doesn’t. Usually.

There were 155 numbered images, 4 extra Christmas images and one bonus image, for a total of 160 images. 22 July to 25 December is 157 days.

Images took from 30 minutes to 4 hours each to make, not including research and photography.

The working folder for Correspondence is 1.08gig, the completed folder containing just the finished images is 26.5mb.

Anywhere that Justin or Brian went is a real place. The hotels, the flights, the shops, the restaurants are all real places.