In June 2009 I re-discovered UFO and started reading what little fanfiction there was out there. Then I started writing it as well. A lot has happened since then, both in terms of my development as a writer and in my personal life. I remember the thrill of reading that there was going to be a new UFO film, and the grim realisation after two years of waiting that, like a lot of things we are promised, it was probably never going to appear. Perhaps it is for the best.
And today marks another end, a change of direction in my life. It's not something I would normally write about, but after five years of working alone and coping with a difficult and stressful job, I am moving on. Time for a change, time to have a more positive outlook after too long seeing the darker side of life. It will be good to work in a team once more and not to have to deal. alone, with some of the sadness and hopelessness and utter despair that I encounter nearly every day. I am continuing to write UFO stories, exploring the characters, putting them in difficult situations in an attempt to find out how they will react, and then hiding before they realise what I have planned for them! But on a serious note, perhaps the following explains why I am still here. When you believe in a character, however long ago they existed or however forgotten by the rest of the world, and you believe in them with all your heart and soul and you allow that character to live in your writing and to be themselves, they will never die. They live on, for as long as your stories live on. As someone once said. 'The older you get, the more precious life becomes.' From NaNo… A work in progress:
There were times when he regretted the decision in Henderson’s room, that moment when he accepted the job. If he had known then what this life would be like, would he have made a different choice? He would still have had John and Mary. But you don’t. You made the choice. The price we pay. Henderson was wrong though, working sixteen hours a day for the next ten years? It’s been longer than that. You had the chance to turn him down. Someone else could have taken over. Was it pride? Or sheer bloodymindedness. It was too late now. He looked at this watch; far too late. The car accelerated between the stages, an angry roar that echoed in the night. He was coming back to the main studio complex, when he spotted lights on in the office block. An intruder? No one had authorisation to be there, especially with the strike underway, however unofficial. The thought flashed through his mind that it was one of the strikers, bent on some random act of vandalism. Chapter 9 of Needs of the Many now posted and I have started on Chapter 17. Please remember that this is a WIP, and adjustments etc will no doubt be made later! At this stage (chapter 17) the story is entering into the ‘canon’ section of the episodes, starting of course with a wedding. Although this is most definitely an AU story, I am attempting to stick as close as possible to what we saw on screen – dialogue, events etc, even as I try to put a ‘Vulcan’ slant on the story. Straker himself is not that difficult to write here, he was as quiet and reserved as Spock for example and we rarely saw any outward signs of emotions once he was at work; a few touches here and there, but he was always a very ‘contained’ person and kept his feelings well hidden. Comments, suggestions etc, welcome.
More of a personal comment here, as opposed to a UFO connection. Moving house is somewhat of a new experience for me - having done it only once since 1977! So the last few weeks have been fairly hectic and the next few days promise to be both exhausting and exhilarating. So...... UFO takes a back seat for a while, at least until my desk is back in action and I can find all those important items that I have packed away - UFO dvds, art equipment and of course my notebooks with pages full of proto-stories! Needs of the Many Chapter 7 will be posted soon, before the end of May, and then I will have to crack on and do some more of it! (Chapter 16 has been completed, so there is still plenty more to post!) And, despite my best efforts, plot bunnies continue to bound into existence, burrowing up from the darkness that is the festering confusion of my innermost thoughts to annoy me with their insistence that I drop everything else and write them NOW! Tough luck bunnykins. You will have to take your turn. I have more important things to do first. (grinning here - I have a painting that simply aches to be done! )
I think I have it. Finally. After months (and I mean MONTHS) of scrawling ideas in notebooks and WriteItNow, and on sheets of A2 paper, only to have every single one fail at the first hurdle, I might just have got over the 'hump' and have a viable and more importantly a 'do-able' plot line.
It has been an uphill struggle for longer than I care to remember to get to this point, and even now I am cautious. The whole idea could so easily fall apart, but somehow I think it will work. It will be, if I manage to make it work, something I have wanted to do ever since I realised that Shepherd was going to be far, far bigger than I could ever have imagined. Only time will tell, but - I will be starting serious planning (something that I really dislike doing!) on Monday. Tomorrow is Sunday and I will spend the day letting that initial idea percolate. Who knows what other ideas might come to mind! All I do know is that it is going to be a hell of a lot of fun. And about bloody time. I even have the title. What makes a true UFO fan? Is it the fact that someone has thousands of items in their collection? Every model of the ‘hardware’ produced, and most of the items still in their original wrapping? Is it that someone can recite the entire script to the episodes, or knows exactly where every single shot was filmed, has autographs from every cast member and production staff? Perhaps its the fact that someone is an expert in their particular field and uses that knowledge to explain some of the facets of UFO, - wigs, make-up, special effects etc. Is THAT what is needed to be considered a TRUE UFO fan? I hope not.
I don’t have a huge collection or merchandise. I don’t have any particular expertise in some aspect of UFO, or hundreds of autographs etc. What I do have is something far more important. I care about the reputation of the series and the characters involved in the programme. I care that we, as fans, do nothing to denigrate those people, I care that, as responsible fans, true fans, we avoid using UFO as an excuse to show, in public sites seen by children, inappropriate photographs. And I care that we should show respect to people who have asked us, politely, not to continue posting those images. I have been accused of not being a true fan, simply because I do not see any valid reason for posting photos of nearly naked women (not even photos from an episode of UFO) on a FB site. Sometimes I feel like crying. No wonder UFO fans are dwindling. If that is what a true fan is.. then I don’t want to be one. I will simply stick at what I am. An honest fan. On a desperate trawl through half a dozen flash drives yesterday while searching for several stories that had somehow escaped their shackles, I came across four or five ‘snippets’ written in 2011. Some are unpublishable for various reasons but it was great fun re-reading them. It seems a shame to just leave them unread though, mouldering away unseen. Here are some extracts.The first is from ‘Adverbs’ in which Straker visits LtCdr.
‘I wonder what you’d have done Ed?’ she mused, ‘there was a time when I would have had you going out there all macho and action man, but I don’t somehow think Ed Bishop wanted you played like that did he?’ She tapped at the keyboard again, lethargically. Adverbs.’ The voice startled her and she made yet another typo. ‘Still not learned to type without looking at the keyboard I see,’ the dryly amused voice said. ‘And another adverb. Hmm. Perhaps you should stop for a while and talk to me.’ This next one is from ‘Oh YES!’ which was a short ‘gender-swap'story I started (and really should finish!) – and it IS meant to be rude! Oh. Well, that was different. Very different. She reached down, exploring. Fingers finding things that most certainly were not there last night. She lifted the duvet. Looked down. Even in the shadowy darkness it was ……. outstanding. Larger than she had anticipated. And all hers. She even tugged it to make sure it was firmly attached OOOO! NICE! This third extract is from a much longer story (80k) that needs a complete re-write. Whether I will ever do that is another matter altogether! He watched as the interceptors were pulled away from his space, into the wormhole, to disappear spinning like Catherine wheels as they were sucked into the darkness and in desperation, knowing what was surely to come, he tried to contact HQ, to warn Alec, and ….. to say goodbye. But there was no response. The wormhole’s immense gravitational forces had pulled the fragile satellites apart. The communication links to Earth were destroyed, gone. He was alone, isolated. And then the UFO, huge, self-assured and poised, moving like a thoroughbred horse with delicate precision, swept down on his shabby, scuffed, carthorse of a shuttle and enveloped it in a blaze of white light that blinded him to everything around him. So. There you have it. Some of the random ideas/ramblings/thoughts that clutter up my computer. Perhaps one day I will finally have the courage to post the full versions. Started a new story last week, something very different, and not UFO for once.
I thought it was time I gave Ed Straker a decent break for a while. – time to recover as it were, although ‘The Needs of the Many’ is not that angst-ridden and some stories are light-hearted. There are enough UFO stories waiting to be published that I can ease off and take a rest for a few weeks. ‘Needs’ will take at least three months to publish in its present length and possibly longer, depending on where I go with it – currently 37K and nowhere near finished yet! And although it is not canon, (grinning here) I am endeavouring to make it ‘true to character’ as far as possible. That, to me, is the whole point of writing fanfiction. My new story, an original, is a chance to experiment with writing beyond UFO, and hopefully use some of the skills I have learned over the past two years in a different setting. ‘That bloody story’ (aka Combined Operations) is simmering in the background, waiting to be completed by demand, as are several others, such as ‘The Lift’, ‘Hardwired’ and of course, ‘Matter of Degree’, (which may never see the light of day unless I rewrite huge chunks of it). Oh. and there is another 80K more or less of a trilogy to be edited! Chapter 2 posted. I was doing a scene yesterday and realised that it wasn't working, simply because I have had so much fun writing Alec Freeman and Jackson in this story that I had drifted away from the 'Vulcan' aspect of Straker. So it needed re-writing. It is rather difficult doing a Vulcan who is gradually becoming human! Just occasionally he reverts to his 'origins' and stands there, puzzled at the sometimes incomprehensible actions of these primitive people. I hope it comes over okay though! And this is the picture that set the whole story in motion. I don't need to say which episode, do I!
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