You've really got a hold of me (Or: When the muse strikes)

I love writing.  I have since I can remember.  I first wrote fan fiction (although I didn't know it had a name then) back in seventh grade, I believe.  Just a short story about a young woman who wipes out skiing and comes to on the Enterprise.  Goofy, but I did take second place in a writing contest with it.

But the first show that heavily influenced my writing was Donald P. Bellisario's "Quantum Leap."  I knew the entire history of both main characters, and by the time I graduated from high school I had written 24 individual "Leaps," which were chapters in a book I called "Leap Year."  (Yeah, real original, I know.  The idea was that all the Leaps took place during one year for Al.)  I had an additional 16 chapters in a second book, and then had various computer issues and stopped writing QL.

Promo shot from the episode "Piano Man."  Aren't they just dapper?

I by no means fell out of the love with the show; Sam & Al were always kicking around in the back of my head.  But I moved on to other shows, writing fic for "The X-Files" (Two were actually cross-overs with QL, with Sam Leaping into Mulder) and "Nash Bridges" before discovering "Buffy: the Vampire Slayer."  With each show I had to get to know the characters and be comfortable with their voices before I started writing.  And some shows, like "Firefly," I haven't tried writing yet.

Some people ask me "Why don't you write your own characters?"  I do.  I have several stories of my own creations, ranging from just simple fiction ("Obsessions Anonymous," "Fallen Idol") to pure fantasy ("Seasons Change," "Choices We Make").  But every once in a while, those old familiar characters insist I tell a new story about them.

And who am I to argue?

Sometimes it's just a "Hey, what if Buffy encountered..?" and I start playing around with the idea.  For instance, I love Irish mythology, and felt it would make for an interesting story if Buffy ran into a clurichaun (Related to the leprechaun, the clurichaun attaches itself to a location and drains all the alcohol in the vicinity).  From there the story "Rayne of Terror" evolved, bringing back an old enemy of Giles' and loosing several Irish daoine sidhe, or fairy-folk, on Sunnydale.  

The dullahan, one of the daoine sidhe that Buffy & Giles encountered

 In another story, I have the Scooby Gang sitting around the fire while Giles tells them various English and Irish folktales, including about the Black Dog: "They were commonly described as being entirely black, about the size of a calf, shaggy, with large, saucer-like eyes.  Very often they were spotted at crossroads or on ancient lanes, which were believed to be areas where the veil between worlds was thin.  They had the ability to mentally harm a person, possibly driving them insane, which led to an eventual physical decline and death.  They could also be an instrument of divine justice – they would stalk a guilty person until justice was served, in one form or another.” 

But sometimes a story smacks me full-force and I have to sit down and start writing it.  Such is the case with "Day Tripper," the first new QL I've written in...oh, at least a decade. 

It started with a dream snippet just as I was waking up from a nap, and then the entire plot came to me that night as I was going to sleep.  I located the five hand-written pages of a story I'd started a few years ago (a revision of one of my old QL stories), typed them up...and now I'm up to 10 pages in a story I started on Tuesday.  Apparently this one really wants to be told!

I'm not going to give away the plot, because I think I might actually post it here, but it's set in 2004 - Sam's been gone for 10 years, and the government has finally shut down Project: Quantum Leap.  Al alone has remained at the Project, even though he can no longer go back to whichever year Sam has ended up in.

My muse is having trouble focusing right now, so I better get her to settle down so I can get back to the story.  That's one reason I could never be a published writer - deadlines make my muse take a vacation.