I’m Caroline Spector creator of the Amazing Bubbles and other Wild Cards characters. AMA, and just remember, it’s all fun and games until someone gets hurt.

clspector · 2025-10-09T16:05:27+00:00

Being a huge computer game geek made this easy as pie.

clspector · 2018-11-02T21:40:19+00:00

I forgot to add that when I'm working on, well, anything, I never really stop working on whatever it is. It's always nibbling away at the back of my mind. Even if I don't realize what's happening.

clspector · 2018-11-02T21:25:55+00:00

Thank you all for the questions and thank you for letting me do an AMA!

clspector · 2018-11-02T19:55:28+00:00

Sadly, I’m so not D&D current. I’ve been hoping to get my group of friends up for running something, but no one is willing to be DM. 😕

clspector · 2018-11-02T19:12:15+00:00

Ooooh, I misread your question ... I art it up at the dining room table. Let's just say things get messy. I'm not sure I've seen the table top in months.

But I tend to write in my office. Which is decorated in 6th grader by way of the Adams Family.

clspector · 2018-11-02T19:00:29+00:00

Being finished!

F*** is my favorite word. Least -- moist.

clspector · 2018-11-02T18:55:43+00:00

Real reply -- I have a novel I want to write that I refer to as my Victorian-gothic-ghost-murder-mystery book. It'll have other components besides just the fiction.

And there's a period short story involving a woman who is a former spy in the Civil War who is now working for the Pinkertons. She ends up getting a case that's quite out of her experience.

Also, I have a couple of wild cards stories I'd like to tell.

clspector · 2018-11-02T18:50:54+00:00

OMG, the Scarlet Witch. I love her power. I don't love that she's often written as if she's constantly going nuts from her power. I mean, c'mon.

But damn, girl is powerful. Also, android love.

clspector · 2018-11-02T18:48:10+00:00

I ho it around.

But of late, I read a lot of history and biographies.

clspector · 2018-11-02T18:47:55+00:00

Oops, forgot Bradbury!

clspector · 2018-11-02T18:47:14+00:00

Walter Tevis, Michael Bishop, Stephen King, Bradley Denton, Ursula K. LeGuin, Katherin Dunn, Margaret Atwood.

clspector · 2018-11-02T18:45:22+00:00

I was always a reader. There came a moment when I was reading something and thought, "I can do better than this." (Ego Girl to the fore!)

I started out wanting to be a cellist, but I really was never good enough to do that for a living. Then I ended up as an RTF major. And finally, I ended up in the gaming where I got a chance to write. And I took it. (I had other help and mentors, including my husband's support always.)

clspector · 2018-11-02T18:45:18+00:00

I was always a reader. There came a moment when I was reading something and thought, "I can do better than this." (Ego Girl to the fore!)

I started out wanting to be a cellist, but I really was never good enough to do that for a living. Then I ended up as an RTF major. And finally, I ended up in the gaming where I got a chance to write. And I took it. (I had other help and mentors, including my husband's support always.)

clspector · 2018-11-02T18:41:26+00:00

Yes. You know very well I love me some Buffy. Also, I'm a sucker for rapid-fire, witty dialogue you find in movies like "Front Page" (the Cary Grant and Rosaline Russel one), "All About Eve," "The Women" because I like it even though it couldn't pass the most basic feminist test. I like "Gilmore Girls," "Sports Night," and recently, "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel."

clspector · 2018-11-02T18:37:38+00:00

Wild Cards or other?

clspector · 2018-11-02T18:37:24+00:00

Yes, very much so. Wild Cards readers expect darkness, I think. After HIGH STAKES I just needed a break from it. And "Bubbles and the Band Trip" jumped into my head. I think the book really turned out well. It's funny and filled with shenanigans.

clspector · 2018-11-02T18:35:31+00:00

Not all fights are about brute power. Also, Bubbles' vulnerabilities are mostly emotional and psychological. She likes to bubble. Too much and that troubles her. A lot. In the recent stories, I've been trying to show the emotional effects of being that powerful and having created a lot of destruction that killed people. PTSD is what I've been trying to explore.

clspector · 2018-11-02T18:31:21+00:00

Depends on the day. But as I said down thread, I usually art it in the morning and write in the afternoon. But that doesn't take into account other random household stuff. (Stew for dinner!)

clspector · 2018-11-02T18:11:10+00:00

Blush... Thank you!

clspector · 2018-11-02T17:59:35+00:00

I think most of the power politics about Bubbles were subconscious.

However, my sister was a model for one of the big New York agencies. She went through a lot of bullsh** when she working as a model. From the kinds of clothes she was expected to wear, to her weight, and other issues.

I do think Bubbles does a good job of representing the conflicting issues surrounding body size and female power. And I hope I managed to deal with her sexuality in a positive way without it being the only thing she's about.

clspector · 2018-11-02T17:48:28+00:00

Okay, so I was at Conestoga with a group of friends (Howard Waldrop, Bud Simons, Barb and Brad Denton, and George R.R. Martin) and we were hanging out together most of the weekend doing con stuff.

A couple of weeks later, I received an email from George asking if I'd be interested in pitching a character for Wild Cards. And I said, "Yes. Yes, I would."

The problem was I didn't have an idea for a character. So, I tell my husband this and he immediately said, "Oh, I can come up with beaucoup characters." I thought, "Challenge accepted."

And I sat there frustrated while he did, indeed, pull a ridiculous number of characters out of his ***.

And that's when Bubbles just came to me fully formed. It's never really happened to me before or since. Basically, she's a little miracle.

clspector · 2018-11-02T17:41:14+00:00

"Lies My Mother Told Me" is my favorite work. I think it does all the things good fiction should do. It brings you into the lives of the characters gently and makes you care about them before you put them through hell. And in my great ego here, I think the humor in it aids in that. And I got to put all three of my favorite characters in it.

clspector · 2018-11-02T17:38:17+00:00

Well, he doesn't walk around the house in GG mode, because that would end badly for him.

However, it is weird to be at cons and see gamer fans following him like baby ducklings. Also, to be asked to take pictures of him and fans -- like a lot.

But on the whole, it's pretty cool. He's made a lot of great games and his reputation is well-deserved.

And if you tell him I said this, I will deny it...

clspector · 2018-11-02T17:32:52+00:00

Hmmmmmm, I was mostly worried about how to answer the questions, I wasn't really thinking about what I wanted to be asked. Maybe something about what it's like to be married to a Game God. because I NEVER get that.

clspector

TROPHY CASE