I’ve have a fascination with Rube Goldberg machines ever since I was a kid. I often tried to make my own, though they didn’t really do anything other than have a Superball drop through a series of toilet paper cardboard tubes I’d taped to the wall. Maybe my invention of the Globe-O-Matic is the fruition of a childhood ambition.
Structurally, I think of the Spellcraft stories themselves as Rube Goldberg machines. A candle burns a string that swings a boot that kicks over a chair that flips a pancake…you get the picture!
Trouble in Taco Town mashes together a bunch of unrelated inspirations. The pivotal pig’s blood scene from the movie Carrie. The time I had to pull over, get out of my car and chase a tailpipe down a hill. And Oprah Winfrey…who showed up as Genevieve for no particular reason, other than the fact that I think she’s the epitome of moxy.
Building a Rube Goldberg machine out of words is a lot easier than those toilet paper cores. I have a lot more space to let the story unfurl into something weird and wonderful.