It’s crazy how much things can change in just one week! I didn’t even mention COVID-19/Coronavirus in previous blogs because, even as of last Wednesday, it was still just a story in the news, not something that had personally affected my life in any way. That all changed Friday afternoon when I found out all the schools in my state were closing for the rest of this month. As if that wasn’t enough to make things hit home, the first case of the virus in my area was announced on Saturday, and it happened to be a man who attended the church my family went to when I was a kid. Thankfully, none of us go there anymore, but wow… things have gotten real!
I’m working from home for the next two weeks at least, possibly a lot longer. In theory, this should give me much more time to write, but so far, that has not been the case, as my time has been spent helping my students, their parents, and my colleagues navigate “remote learning,” which is new to all of us, and using TV to distract myself from worrying about what I can’t control. That being said, my goal is to wrap up the rest of these Wayback Wednesday blogs leading up to the site’s twentieth anniversary in April, finish The Year Without a Pandaskunk, and eventually start a new novel. I’m sure you guys could use some new reading material to keep you entertained while you’re quarantined, and I could use some new writing material!
I hope all of you are staying safe, staying home as much as you can, and taking precautions to prevent contracting or spreading the virus. Nick Plague has taught us BSB fans the importance of washing our hands; I believe my own immune system has been strengthened by repeated exposure to that particular virus through close encounters with Nick Carter, but I am still washing my hands more often and thoroughly than usual (while singing the chorus of “I Want It That Way,” of course!). It sounds like Lauren is encouraging Nick to do the same. Yay, Lauren! I’m happy that the Boys made it through the rest of their South American tour, only cancelling one show, and relieved that they’re now home safe. I pray the extreme measures taken to stop this pandemic work to the point that the current restrictions will be lifted by the next legs of the tour in Australia and North America.
In the meantime, it’s business as usual here at Dreamer’s Sanctuary. For this week’s Wayback Wednesday, we’re going back to 2013. 2013 was a big year for Dreamer’s Sanctuary! It’s the year I finally bit the bullet and figured out how to recreate the entire site on WordPress instead of using Microsoft Word, which had served me well for twelve years, but was very outdated. After many weeks of work, the new Dreamer’s Sanctuary officially debuted on January 1, 2013. Later that same year, I also moved the site from its original host, Yahoo! Geocities, to a new host, Bluehost, which I’ve been using ever since. I took a huge risk in making these big changes. Being mostly self-taught in web design, my knowledge of HTML is basic at best, and I was terrified I was going to screw up the whole site beyond repair. I made plenty of mistakes along the way, but I learned from them and managed to fix what I messed up. The risk paid off, and the reward has been a site that is much more user-friendly and a lot easier to update. No regrets!
In terms of fanfic, 2013 was kind of a weird year for me. I had finished my long-term side project Secrets of the Heart the year before and started what was to take its place as my new side project, a crossover story called Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Backstreet Boy. My two big collaborations, 00Carter and Song for the Undead, were both still in progress, and I was trying to get back into Guilty Roads, which I did manage to update a few times that year. But what I mostly wrote that year were short stories. I’ve never been much of a short story writer, preferring novels with characters and storylines that I can really flesh out and develop over time. But perhaps because I was struggling to stay inspired with my novels, I wrote twelve short stories in 2013! First there was Behind the Curtain, a companion piece to Curtain Call that I wrote for my April Fool’s prank that year. Then there was “Blood Diamond” and the “Kitt Fit Kill” trilogy for Revenge of the Slaughtered, as well as “Windows,” “Bygones,” and “Yellow Roses” for Footprints, and “This is Nuts!” for 1000 Ways to Kill Nick Carter. That summer, I wrote Unsuspecting Sunday, which led to a novel, Sick as My Secrets – much more on that one in a few weeks. I also wrote two stories for a challenge on Absolute Chaos, Shorty and the Deceased and Beauty and the Backstreet Boy.
Of all of those, Shorty and the Deceased is my favorite, so that’s the one I’ve chosen to blog about this week.
Title: Shorty and the Deceased
Written: August 2013
Straightforward synopsis: In this Beauty and the Beast parody, a simple girl named Shorty falls in love with Nick in the midst of a zombie apocalypse.
The story behind the story:
Over on the Absolute Chaos discussion boards, people used to post writing challenges. There would be a monthly challenge issued by the moderators, as well as whatever challenges other people posted. Personally, I have never been much of a challenge writer. I know they can be good for getting the creative juices flowing in some writers, but I would rather come up with my own idea and write something I really care about than respond to a prompt. I also hate the rules and limitations that are often assigned to them. That’s not to say I haven’t done the odd challenge here and there and enjoyed those experiences, but I rarely participated in or issued them myself.
Then, in the summer of 2013, I was reading through old threads on AC and came across an idea one of the moderators, Mare, had mentioned but never formally turned into a writing challenge. It was for everyone to take a fairy tale and anonymously write their own versions of it; then we would read each other’s stories and try to guess who wrote what based on their writing style and what they did with the characters. Being an elementary school teacher, I love fractured fairy tales, so I was actually into this idea and suggested doing it as a fanfic challenge. The response was outstanding, and the result was so much fun! You can read the challenge thread here to see how it all went down and find links to all the entries.
Through a vote, it was decided that each participant would write their own Backstreet-ized version of Beauty and the Beast in a way that fit their style and niche as a writer. Of course, I was thinking “Nick cancer story,” as that is what I’d become known for, thanks to Broken, By My Side, and Curtain Call. My original idea was to put Nick in the Beast role by giving him penile cancer, which would lead to the amputation of his penis, leaving him feeling cursed to be alone forever, for who could ever love a man without a dick? I don’t think I even made it through the prologue before I decided this idea was too disturbing even for me and nixed it. I guess there are still some lines I won’t cross, and, even in a joke story, this is apparently is one of them. (Now that I’ve said that, I probably will end up crossing that line someday and linking back to this blog in which I said I wouldn’t, because that’s just how I roll. Better watch out, Nick!)
After abandoning the penis cancer/choppage idea, I asked myself, “What else am I known for as a writer?” And then the answer came to me… zombies! I’d been writing about zombies for the past five years in Song for the Undead, so maybe I could write a horror-comedy instead of a medical dramedy. I still needed a way to make my Backstreet Beast feel unworthy of love, so I decided to go the Broken Nick/amputee route and have Nick lose an arm in the prologue after being bitten by a zombie.
For the beauty, I came up with the character of Shorty, based on one of my least favorite BSB songs, “She’s a Dream.” I had fun mocking that song throughout the story by making Shorty a sheltered, naive, ignorant imbecile. After all, “Shorty ain’t got cable. She ain’t even got a radio.” Of course I wanted to base my story on the Disney version of Beauty and the Beast, as it’s my favorite Disney movie and much more fun than the original fairy tale, so I had Shorty cluelessly wander through town singing like Belle, completely oblivious to the zombie apocalypse unfolding around her. Of course, she eventually realizes she’s in danger and runs to the safety of a nearby mansion occupied by none other than Nick and the other Backstreet Boys.
The rest progressed as a pretty straightforward spoof of Beauty and the Beast, complete with song parodies. It was more similar to the writing I’ve done for 00Carter and my pandaskunk stories than any of my medical dramas, but the lack of cancer made it a bit more challenging for readers to guess who wrote it. (Okay, so most of them knew it had to be either me or Rose because of the zombies… but at least that gave them two possibilities instead of only one!)
That’s about all I have to say about this short story. If you’re still reading, stay healthy, and thanks for sticking with me as we ride out this pandemic together (but at least six feet apart). I’ll be back next Wednesday, if not before!