Writing news !
My hazy mix of profic and fanfic takes another twist. Like not a few writers, I started with fan fiction, writing Blakes 7 stories back in about 1980. No one else ever saw those, and for a good reason. Still, we all have to start somewhere.
After watching 'Young Guns', I wondered what the three surviving characters did next, and so wrote their story. My first grown-up full-length novel was effectively fanfic. I knew it couldn't be published as so obviously Young Guns inpsired, so I made some changes (filed off the serial numbers, in fan terms) and submitted it to Robert Hale. It was too long, but they were encouraging, so I kept the central characters and wrote a new story which became my first published book, 'Rocking W'.
I wrote some proper B7 fanfic, which was published in zines, and kept writing the westerns. As Paul Darrow, who played Avon in Blakes 7, said he'd always wanted to be in a western, I took Avon and Vila from the show, filed off the serial numbers, gave them the actor's surnames, and put them into my westerns. Later on, I began writing Star Wars fanfic, and subsequently put my favourite X-wing pilots into a western.
So having written fanfic and genre profic, and crossed characters from one to the other, my actual fanfic is becoming profic. A Blakes 7 novella has been accepted by Big Finish productions, and will appear in a B7 anthology next year. Big Finish produce audiodramas and print books licenced from a variety of sources - classic Dr Who, 2000AD, Highlander, Sapphire and Steel, Stargate SG1 and Atlantis, and Balkes 7. They have produced one full-length original novel already, with another out next month, and one written by Paul Darrow out next year.
They announced a Writer's Opportunity earlier this year, which I found out about barely five days before the deadline (no one had much notice) I put together a one-page outline and wrote the first 1,000 words and submitted it,. There was over 150 submissions and mine was one of the three chosen for the anthology. My first reaction was 'heck, now I've got to actually write the thing !" That detail aside...it's actually quite awesome ! I write a story about these TV characters I really like, it gets published in a proper book and I even get paid something for it - win, win !
After watching 'Young Guns', I wondered what the three surviving characters did next, and so wrote their story. My first grown-up full-length novel was effectively fanfic. I knew it couldn't be published as so obviously Young Guns inpsired, so I made some changes (filed off the serial numbers, in fan terms) and submitted it to Robert Hale. It was too long, but they were encouraging, so I kept the central characters and wrote a new story which became my first published book, 'Rocking W'.
I wrote some proper B7 fanfic, which was published in zines, and kept writing the westerns. As Paul Darrow, who played Avon in Blakes 7, said he'd always wanted to be in a western, I took Avon and Vila from the show, filed off the serial numbers, gave them the actor's surnames, and put them into my westerns. Later on, I began writing Star Wars fanfic, and subsequently put my favourite X-wing pilots into a western.
So having written fanfic and genre profic, and crossed characters from one to the other, my actual fanfic is becoming profic. A Blakes 7 novella has been accepted by Big Finish productions, and will appear in a B7 anthology next year. Big Finish produce audiodramas and print books licenced from a variety of sources - classic Dr Who, 2000AD, Highlander, Sapphire and Steel, Stargate SG1 and Atlantis, and Balkes 7. They have produced one full-length original novel already, with another out next month, and one written by Paul Darrow out next year.
They announced a Writer's Opportunity earlier this year, which I found out about barely five days before the deadline (no one had much notice) I put together a one-page outline and wrote the first 1,000 words and submitted it,. There was over 150 submissions and mine was one of the three chosen for the anthology. My first reaction was 'heck, now I've got to actually write the thing !" That detail aside...it's actually quite awesome ! I write a story about these TV characters I really like, it gets published in a proper book and I even get paid something for it - win, win !