I could backtrack a long ways to get to "the" origin of SAVAGE ANGELS, but let's set our marker down here:
SERENITY started life as a monthly magazine concept; each issue would have a 45-page Serenity story, a couple of short stand alone stories, and an ongoing serial.
HITS & MISSES was supposed to be the first of those serials, Savage Angels was to be a follow-up.
Well, things changed. Magazine publishing plunged into the toilet just as I started looking for partners so, finding no takers for a monthly mag, I went the original gn route.
...but that's another story for another time.
Savage Angels came about during a long idea generating period where I was trying to come up with as many ideas as I could for the tween-to-teen / YA market (Angels is just the tip of the iceberg; wait till you see what we have on deck!).
I've always enjoyed shipwrecked-on-a-desert-island stories. As a child, my grandmother and aunt gave me a wonderful slipcover edition of Swiss Family Robinson; I still have that book even though I almost read it to shreds while growing up.
And of course there's the great-granddaddy of them all, Robinson Crusoe.
And Island Of The Blue Dolphins.
And even Gilligan's Island.
And, probably most importantly re the origin of Savage Angels, Lord Of The Flies.
William Golding's book is a harrowing tale of young boys stranded on an island descending into naked feral savagery. It's a kill-or-be-killed tale, and it does not offer a comforting view of humanity.
So I wondered, would the story have been any different if it was a group of girls, not boys?
...and the gears started turning.
(to be continued)