Elizabeth Black writes in a wide variety of genres including erotica, erotic romance, horror, and dark fiction. She lives on the Massachusetts coast with her husband, son, her tuxedo cat, Lucky, and the two new feline additions Chloe and Breena. Visit her web site, her Facebook page, and her Amazon Author Page.
I admit it. I have written fan fiction. Stop laughing!
The first fan fiction I wrote was when I was in college. I used to write Star Trek fan fiction with my cousin, who was five years younger than me. She lived in Iowa and I lived in Maryland, and we scorched the pages of letters to each other with this crap. My favorite characters were Spock and Scotty. Her favorites were McCoy and Kirk. We wrote long-winded and dreadful letters where we were the stars of our own fantasies and the Trek characters actions revolved around us.
Yes, we wrote Mary Sues. You're laughing again!
We were perfect in every way. We were beautiful, genius-level intelligent, vivacious, talented, knowledgeable in our fields (whatever the hell they were), and the entire Enterprise crew was in love with us. Of course, the bridge crew couldn't get enough of us. Typical Mary Sue. I had no idea the concept of the Mary Sue even existed, let alone we were splendid at it. We kept these letters going for over a year, and both of us were hooked on classic Trek.
I had a blast writing those letters. Sadly, I never saved them. I wish I had. I could laugh and cringe over them while downing a bottle of bubbly. I went another ten years before I wrote fan fiction again. In 1993, I became hooked on The X Files. I wished I could have worked on that show. I was in an AOL fan chat that show writer Glen Morgan used to stop in, and he gave me the contact information to send my resume. That was very nice of him. At the time I was working local crew in Maryland doing lighting, scenic art, and makeup (including prosthetics) for movies, TV, stage, and concerts. I worked on Die Hard With A Vengeance, Homicide: Life On The Street, and the movie 12 Monkeys. I loved my work. I had enough of a background to qualify for union work in Vancouver, British Columbia where the show was filmed at the time, and I was willing to move not only across the continent but to another country. I thought I could live in Vancouver, Washington in the U. S. and commute to British Columbia but that wasn't allowed. I'd have to move there and become a citizen. It was a long shot, but I wrote. Never heard back. But I tried. I loved that line of work and being in that fan chat.
Anyway, a couple of years later I attended a science fiction convention as a guest panelist and I met a guy who was helping to put together some anthologies. One was gay, one was lesbian, and one was TV fan fiction. None of the books were ever published to my knowledge. It was a good thing, too, because I didn't know at the time I could have been sued for publishing and getting paid for a short story based on The X Files without first getting the show's permission. I did start the story but didn't finish it. However, I saved my file. I also wrote a lesbian story for that other book and I saved that file as well.
Count about a decade into the future. I rewrote the lesbian story and submitted it to Torquere Press for their Vamps anthology, and it was accepted! This was back around 2008. I was delighted. I had worked on the X File for another half dozen years or so. I changed Mulder and Scully to two gay men working on an outbreak at a camp around a lake. I finally finished it a few weeks ago, and I submitted it to submission call for Men At Work. The story was accepted! I called it Roughing It, and it's due to come out at the end of April.
Although Jake and Lance are two scientists, you can hear Mulder and Scully in their conversations. The story is a cross between The X Files and The Andromeda Strain with a little sex thrown in. The sex works, too. It doesn't seem out of place. I like this story very much, and it's special to me since I have worked on it very hard for nearly 20 years. The story in the Vamps anthology is called Neighbors, and I took the two characters in it – Charlotte and Lina, who could pass for identical twins – and placed them in my work-in-progress Full Moon Fever. That one is a m/m bisexual werewolf erotic romance set in the world of greasepaint - the theater. Considering my past work in that field, it's no surprise I'd base a book in that world.
Although Jake and Lance are two scientists, you can hear Mulder and Scully in their conversations. The story is a cross between The X Files and The Andromeda Strain with a little sex thrown in. The sex works, too. It doesn't seem out of place. I like this story very much, and it's special to me since I have worked on it very hard for nearly 20 years. The story in the Vamps anthology is called Neighbors, and I took the two characters in it – Charlotte and Lina, who could pass for identical twins – and placed them in my work-in-progress Full Moon Fever. That one is a m/m bisexual werewolf erotic romance set in the world of greasepaint - the theater. Considering my past work in that field, it's no surprise I'd base a book in that world.
I find it amusing I've written a story that originated as fan fiction, and the final result is getting published. Hey, if it worked for E. L. James, maybe it will work for me. Everyone knows those 50 Shades of Grey books started out as Twilight fan fiction. I can only dream of selling as well as she has.
I've also written Once Upon A Time fan fiction, but that's another post. At least I stuck to Belle and Rumpelstiltskin. No Mary Sue in those stories. I won't give links. I'm too embarrassed. LOL Look for Roughing It in April.
