Hello, everybody! This is ToonsGirl. Welcome to my little studio in my little house in the USA. This is a series of things that happened behind the scenes of my Coco x Encanto crossover, fanfic, The Shoemaker, and the Gangster. Welcome!

A boy about twelve years old walked into my studio and sat down next to me on my desk.

"I have some questions I like to ask you, ToonsGirl," he frowned.

"Sure, what is it, Miguel?" I asked.

"Well, for starters," he listed. "Why did you give me a girlfriend? I don't like romance yet! It's bad enough that people were shipping me with Hiro! Just because I don't like girls yet doesn't mean I won't like them ever!"

"Don't worry, it's only for this fanfic," I assured him. "And you're not paired up with Hiro."

"Thank God," he breathed a sigh of relief. "Who am I paired up with?"

"Mirabel Madrigal from Encanto," I answered.

"Por que?" He was surprised because not too many people shipped him with the girl from Columbia. "Isn't she a bit old for me?"

"Yes, but she is the only one that I thought you would be compatible with."

"Que?"

"You know, someone who is a good fit for you," I clarified. " I made both of you 12 years old so the age difference wouldn't be a problem. You and Mirabel have some common interests-"

"Does she like music?" Miguel interrupts me. He was excited and hoped I would say 'Yes'.

"Of course," I said. "She plays the accordion-"

"Yes!" Miguel said, pumping his fist up.

"And after all, she was in a musical, unlike you."

"Oye, I was in a musical!" the boy said, annoyed.

"Yes, but you were in a music story type whereas Mirabel was in a traditional break-out-into-a-song musical," I explained.

"So, this story is about me and Mirabel?"

"No, this story is about your Papa Hector and Mama Imelda," I answered. "You and Mirabel are their co-stars and so is Mirabel's uncle, Bruno."

"Um, Ernesto De La Cruz isn't in this story, is he?" Miguel asked, nervously.

"No."

The boy sighed in relief.

"It's his female counterpart, Ernestina De La Cruz."

"WHAT!?"

"Hey, I read a Coco fanfic in which Ernesto was replaced by a woman, Ernestina De La Cruz and nobody batted an eye!"

"Yeah, but that story was a retelling of my movie only with Papa Hector and Mama Imelda in switched roles. What's your excuse?"

"First of all, the Shoemaker and the Gangster is loosely based on Strange Magic. Second of all, I needed a love rival who tries to steal Hector from Imelda and Ernestina De La Cruz is the best fit. And I was inspired by that particular fanfic as well!"

"I hate to ask but do Mirabel and I have a love rival?"

"Yes, it's Lacienga Boulvedarz."

"That mean girl from the Proud Family?" Miguel shuddered. "I heard she's a toxic friend to Penny Proud."

"Yes, me too," I nodded, remembering how I couldn't bear to watch the show and the reboot. "Anyway, let's get talk about fun facts behind this fanfic!"

"All right, what is it?"

"Well for one, it was just going to be just a Coco fanfic," I said. "I was hesitant to put Mirabel and her family in it because I read online that Columbians didn't emigrate to America until the 1950s. I found a loophole with an explanation that Pedro and Alma Madrigal grew up in Columbia but moved to Mexico and eventually fled to the USA."

"But then Mirabel's grandfather died in the Mexican Revolution so her grandmother and her kids ended up going there alone."

"That's correct, Miguel," I said.

"What made you decide to set our story in California, USA instead of Mexico or Columbia?"

"It was going to be in Mexico in modern times," I explained. "But my old friend suggested that it would make more sense to set the story in the early part of the 20th century. If it were in modern times, people wouldn't care much about Hector's heartbreak nor be angry at Ernestina for cheating on him. But in the 1920s, the stigma against cheating women is much stronger than in modern times. Your country didn't experience the typical Roaring Twenties that America, parts of Europe, and either China or Japan did."

"Yes," Miguel nodded. "That is true, we were still going through the Mexican Revolution."

"Also, I made Imelda a gangster which goes well with the 1920s setting."

"Is Mama Imelda still a good guy?" the boy asked, gulping. "I once read a story in which Hector and Imelda killed Ernesto and then killed me by trapping me in the Land of the Dead and I was still scared from that story."

"Don't worry, Imelda is one of those gray characters."

"Gray characters?"

"You know, people who are a mixed bag of good and bad. She's not completely good but she's not completely bad, either. It's safe to say that she's misunderstood."

"Like that green witch from Wicked?" Miguel asked. "Or that ice girl from Frozen?"

"Yes," I answered, shrugging. "Something like that. And she's a redemptive villain type."

"Whew, that's a relief!" Miguel sighed, brushing the brow on his forehead. Then he stood very still. "Is this one of those romances in which the good guy gets together with the villain?"

"Huh, what?" I asked, confused. "Who writes stories like that?"

"Oh, yo no sé," Miguel shrugged. "Tia Gloria reads those kinds of romance novels and so does Tia Victoria. Kind of weird, if you ask me."

"Well…I don't know," I said, uncomfortably. "I've never read those types of books either. All I know is that my story is loosely based on Strange Magic. Imelda and Hector's romance is based on Mariane and the Bog King's love story, so I'm going with that idea."

"Are they fairies and goblins?"

"No, they're regular humans in the 1920s setting. I can't imagine your grandfather as a handsome fairy or your grandmother as an ugly goblin, can you?"

"Nah, no way!" Miguel shook his head, laughing with a scrunched-up face.

"Yeah, I didn't think so," I smirked. "Let's move on...,"