New story alert!

Well, we’ve made it through another month since my last post, and we’re almost halfway through this horrible year.  I wonder what horrors the second half of 2020 has in store for us!

It seems frivolous to talk about fanfic at a time when there are so many more important things happening in the real world, but if you’re like me, you just need to take a break from reality sometimes.  Writing is my way of escaping for a while, which I’ve been doing a lot of lately.  I started a new novel a few weeks ago that I’m hoping will be ready to start posting at some point later this year, but I have a different story to debut today!

*cue dramatic music*

As I’ve mentioned before, I have been working on a BSB/ER crossover!  ER has been my favorite TV show since I was ten, at least two years before the Backstreet Boys entered my life, so it only made sense for me to write a fanfic that combines two of my greatest pop culture loves – with lots of medical drama, of course!  It’s like the perfect recipe for a Julie story, right?  I’m surprised it took me as long as it did to bring it to fruition.  I’ve actually been writing this story off and on since 2012.  It has always been a side project, something I’ve played around with whenever I’m between stories, and so it’s taken me forever to get far enough into it to feel comfortable posting it.  I didn’t want to make the same mistake I did with my last crossover, which I posted too soon and then promptly abandoned.  But since I’m less than three chapters away from finishing this one and have been super productive lately, I feel like I should be safe to start posting it.  In case you couldn’t tell, I’m excited to finally be able to share with you!

First, a couple of notes:

1.  Please don’t let the word “crossover” scare you away from giving this one a try.  It’s okay if you’ve never seen an episode of ER.  Although the story features characters from the TV show, it’s very BSB-centered.  You won’t need to know anything about the show to be able to follow the plot, but of course, it’ll be more fun if you do!  (For those who have never watched ER, it’s streaming on Hulu.  I highly recommend you give it a chance, not because of this story, but because it’s hands down the best TV medical drama of all time!)

2.  This is going to be a novella, not a full novel.  I’ve planned for ten chapters plus an epilogue, and so far I’ve finished eight of them.  My goal was to make the story read like an episode of ER, so it takes place over a short period of time compared to most of my medical dramas.  But trust me, I’ve packed a ton of intense medical drama into those ten chapters!  I was ready for a break from writing medical stuff after finishing A Heart That Isn’t Mine, but I’m back in the saddle again.  (Sorry, Boys.)

The story is called Heroic Measures, and I’m posting the first chapter promptly at 10/9c on a Thursday night… which my fellow longtime ER fans from America will know as ER’s sacred time slot.  For fifteen years, I plopped down in front of my TV at this time on Thursday night and turned on NBC for a new episode of ER, and in honor of that nostalgic memory, my plan is post a new chapter every Thursday at this time until the story is finished.  I hope you enjoy it!

Synopsis:
In the fall of 1995, the Backstreet Boys’ future is looking bright. Fresh off the release of their very first single, the five young men from Florida have embarked on a promotional tour, feeling like their dreams of stardom are about to come true. Instead, they come to a crashing halt on a rain-soaked bridge in Chicago, where a horrible accident puts their career plans on hold and leaves their lives in the hands of the dedicated doctors and nurses at County General Hospital.