And in my early teens, I wrote several installments of a YA adventure series that started out as Dukes of Hazzard fanfic … I don’t admit THAT to too many people!

My first true fan fic love is the Hardy Boys. Yes, as in the children’s books. Frank and Joe. In fact, I’m Second Vice-President For Life of the Frank-ettes at the Hardy Detective Agency. I’ve posted *pulls up HDA to count* 6 stories to HDA: 2 short “filler” type vignettes that filled in parts I thought were missing from 2 of the books, one short story and 3 “full-length” stories. This past August, I had even read 98% of the library and there are so many wonderfully talented authors over there.

I’ve also dabbled in Thoroughbred, created by Joanna Campbell, completing 1 full length story and 3-4 short stories. It was in that community that I first started posting any of my original stuff. As long as it involves horses, TB fans will read anything!

I’m a firm believer in the power of fan fiction. I have learned so much in my dabbling and reading. It’s so very relaxing to play around in a world that’s already created and you can focus entirely on the fun stuff. I’ve learned a lot about crafting good dialogue and had the most fun dreaming up villains that are crafty enough to stay ahead of Frank and Joe, but still at just the right moment are stupid enough to get themselves caught. They have no extended family info either, except for one spinste aunt who’s their father’s older sister, so we authors are free to dabble in their background and see what we can come up with.

When I decided to get serious about writing, I had to exit that group. There’s only so much time in a day.

Benefits: You get to write however you want. You get to work with established characters, so you focus on plot. It’s a pretty safe place to land for a new writer. You get to commune with other fooks who like what you like.