Welcome to my perfumed garden

This is tricky! Not because I've so many amazing fics to pimp, but because I've written so few ::blush:: I'm not a prolific writer, it has to be said. I write for a living, so when I'm working, I'm usually all writered-out and unable to produce much fic. So... with only 15 completed fics in 2 fandoms, choosing 5 shouldn't be that hard.::G::

I wrote my first fanfic when I first got back from Cuba and was unemployed with time on my hands. The show that inspired me to start was Alias Smith and Jones - my first fandom (from the age of 11) - that I re-discovered in re-runs about 5 years ago. Though a lot of great fics had been written in the 90's, during a repeat run in the US, there was nothing new coming out at all. Having got addicted to fanfic and having read everything there was out there, I realised the only way to get new stuff was to have a crack at writing my own. I got together with

suemc and as Chickwalker, we produced 11 stories in a Lennon-McCartney way.

 

My other fandom is The Sentinel; my one and only since 2002 (my Jim/Blair love shows no sign of wear or fade. I really think this is it, for life). To date, I've only written 4 completed stories in this fandom ( 2 in progress) but I think this is my best stuff; 3 of my faves are TS stories.

(the ASJ links only go to the website - follow  the 'fanfiction' link on the left side-bar, then 'Chickwalker')
Jumping Frog. I have enormous love for this short little story. Heyes waits for the Kid in a dreary mining town; Curry is 3 days late returning from a job. Heyes is in the saloon, dulling his fear with whiskey; he gets out his old silver watch and starts to reminisce. This was the first story I wrote that took place in the boy's history, with a teenage Heyes and Curry running into trouble in Wichita. I was going through a bad RL time when I wrote this and it totally took me out of myself. I always enjoy researching my fics, but I don't think I've ever done as much as I did for this one. I spent days pouring over maps from the late 1860's, looking at archive accounts, contemporary newspaper reports, checking out original photos - everything in this story is as historically accurate as I could make it. On top of all that, I still think it stands up as a good little fanfic; an angsty tale with a happy ending and a healthy helping of smarm (and there's nothing wrong with that).

The Gift. This was the last ASJ story I wrote. It's my longest in that fandom and, I think, probably my best. There'd been a lot of discussion in the fandom at the time, about how to make all the dodgy time-lines of the show fit within canon. I worked long and hard, determined to work it all out - and I did - determining that the boys would have had to have been separated for 3 years at some time to make the events of their lives fit and this story was the result of all that. I was already moving away into TS when I wrote this one, but I still hold fond memories of the weeks I spent, typing on my bedroom floor, with my clapped out old Mac propped up against the linen chest (the hinge was gone), writing this epic tale of the young Heyes and Curry finding each other again after 3 years apart.

The Sentinel Affair. I'd been reading TS for almost 3 years before tackling this, my first TS fic. I was nervous about writing in this fandom; there were so many wonderful writers and so many stories, it was hard to find a new angle on anything, which is why I offered an 'AU of your choice' for Moonridge 2005. The winner threw me for a loop asking for something in a 'Man from UNCLE' universe - a show I couldn't remember ever watching. I bought a video from Ebay for the princely sum of 50p, did a little online research and decided, in the end, to go with the spirit of that tongue-in-cheek, mid-60's world, complete with a megalomaniac, wannabe ruler of the world, and let the story write itself - which it did, to my surprise. I ignored this story for a long time; it was so removed from my usual output - but on re-reading it recently, I was pleasantly surprised. I think it holds some of the best writing I've ever done.

Alpha and Omega. An AU, set in 145BC at the time of the Roman Republic, just after the fall of Carthage - a collaboration with alibongo, my very good friend, and, conveniently, a professional archaeologist and Romanist. ::G::  It was one of the hardest things I've ever written, in terms of getting the history right, and the writing itself; very angsty, and my first slash story. Not an easy ride at all, but I had such a wonderful time writing it.

Chasing Rainbows. I was supposed to be writing an auction story for suemc when I got plagued by a plot bunny that just wouldn’t let go of me. This story haunted my days and dreams and just had to be written. When I finally gave in to the inevitable and sat down to write it, it would go off on unexpected tangents till the story stretched to novel length and took many months to write. It's my most popular story to date judging by the terrific feedback it's still generating, and of everything I've written, still the story I feel most fondness for.