Way on back when I was just a young teen, I was pretty much friendless. We moved a lot and every time I made a friend, we'd move again. So I made up friends that could move with me. When I was twelve, I made up stories about the entertainers that I enjoyed. I didn’t know it then but the practice would, a quarter of a century later, become known as Fan Fiction. I wrote a lot of it, and burned a lot of it. I didn't think anyone would be interested in my scribbled musings.

Along the way, I indulged in the study of behind the scenes action in the entertainment industry as my father worked for MGM and Paramount on locations. I didn’t know that this would come in handy down the road. I've since learned that there is no such thing as wasted information or knowledge.

Let's jump ahead to around 2002. I was a stay at home mom with a new computer and an introduction to the Internet, a creature I felt certain I'd never have in my home: the Internet, not the computer. It had too many evil connections and I sure didn't what that kind of influence in my home. (blush) Okay, so I got online and found a whole new world. Still friendless in my hometown, I found a wealth of friends all over the world in my living room daily.

I joined several groups that were fans of my childhood loves. First was the Guy Williams Friends Group, celebrating the man famous for bringing to life Walt Disney's Zorro (before I was born) and later on, John Robinson of Lost in Space. He was my first love when I was but four years old, when I saw him in "Captain Sinbad". When I was nine, Zorro came out in syndication and I fell in love all over again. If you are wondering how this led to ShadowsForge, hang on. We'll get to that. As my hubby puts it, I have "pretzel logic". It makes a few turns and bends but eventually comes together. =)

On the GWFG, we worked as a group to get several awards, posthumously, for our beloved Guy, honors he should have enjoyed before his untimely death. One was a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, which we did achieve. The other was "Legend" status at Disney. A lot of the building of Disneyland was financed by the monies made from the Zorro series, and live shows that were performed by Guy and arch-enemy Britt Lomond at Disneyland after it opened. Thus we felt that Guy deserved the honor of "Legend".

To let Disney know how much Guy had influenced us all and still did, we put together two huge books of artwork and fan fiction that were inspired by Guy and Zorro. I wrote a short story for each book we sent. I was surprised by the rave reviews I received from the group on my stories, but it gave me the edification to write more.

We worked with Guy Williams Jr. on these endeavors. I built and maintained the web pages for the group until I had to go back to work and no longer had time.

I joined another group that celebrated my childhood music man, David Cassidy. Please don't laugh. In my house, beyond the music from the 50s I was only allowed to listen to the Osmond Brothers. David was pretty risky stuff! LOL I was curious when I found a group dedicated to him so I joined. They wrote fan fiction about him, too. I remember commenting though that every time someone wrote about his adventures as "Keith Partridge", he was either shot, drugged, beat up, or injured in other ways. I asked if they were really the "Let's kill David Cassidy one piece at a time" group. That got a laugh.

The DC group had a lot of good writers on it. They held small competitions, like posting a picture for everyone to write a short piece or poem about. I tried one of the challenges and wrote a poem, which again surprised me by being well received. With more confidence, I took on the next challenge. I wrote a short piece that was based on an old Partridge Family song, Echo Valley 26809. I posted it. I walked away.

The next day, I could not believe the emails I received. It took my breath away. A whole new group of people that confirmed the fact I could write well? I thought it a fluke when the GW group liked my writing but here was a new group, new people, and a new subject that responded, not only with kudos for what I'd done but asking me to hurry up and post what happened next. Whoa!

With begging and pleading emails on the days that I missed posting chapters, over the next three weeks, I completed my first twelve-chapter story, Echo Valley. 15,428 words and eighty-three pages of pure fan fiction. The longest work I'd ever written and it was cheered by a group of people that were not related to me (not that my family read any of my work in the first place).

I was introduced to FanFic.com and posted Echo Valley there. I received many positive comments there, too. All right, now it's time to get serious about writing something to share with the world. But Fan Fiction won't pay the bills or justify to my husband the time I take to write. I needed to write something that I might be able to sell, even if it were only to my on-line friends, and maybe family. But to make money, it had to be my own characters, my own plot lines, my own fantasy come to life. Since most of my experience and knowledge was about the entertainment industry, I needed a band of my own.

To be continued…

Link to part 2