Dreamer's Sanctuary

I hope everyone has enjoyed the holidays!  As the year and decade comes to an end, I feel obliged to reflect a little.  What an amazing year it’s been for the BSB fandom!  A #1 album, a Grammy nomination, the end of a successful Vegas residency, and the start of a spectacular world tour that included many sold-out arena shows.  This ’90s nostalgia/Backstreet Renaissance era we’re in has sure been fun!  In fact, I think the 2010s have been my favorite decade in this fandom so far.  The past ten years have given us so much:  Kevin’s return, two BSB albums, four tours, six cruises, the NKOTBSB collaboration, the documentary, the Las Vegas residency, the best Christmas song ever, six solo albums, three TV shows, a zombie boyband movie, countless conventions, six more Backstreet babies, and shirtless Brian!  I could probably write a “12 Days of Christmas” parody about this (“10 Years of Backstreet?”) if I were so inclined.  We have been blessed!

On a personal level, it’s been a momentous decade for me, too.  In the past ten years, I became an aunt, bought my first house and my first brand new car, earned a master’s degree, and traveled to many places I’d never been before, including the Bahamas, Miami, Atlanta, Vegas, and L.A.  I even made two pilgrimages to Lexington, Kentucky and took the unofficial Brian and Kevin driving tour, something I’d been wanting to do for almost as long as I’ve been a fan.  I have the Backstreet Boys to thank for a lot of those trips, as many of them were either to see the Boys (concerts, cruises, conventions) or with friends I’ve made because of the Boys.  At the start of the decade, I had only met the Boys once (which did not include Kevin) and had only met three of my online friends.  As the decade ends, my walls are filled with photos I’ve taken with the Boys from various concert VIPs, cruises, and conventions, as well as the many online friends I’ve met along the way.  In fact, it feels weird to even keep calling some of them “online friends” because we’ve gotten to hang out in real life so many times in the past decade.  It’s easy to complain about “adulting,” but there are definite perks to being old enough to have your own transportation, a disposable income, and no one to tell you “no” (well, except for maybe your credit card – but, hey, no regrets!).

In terms of fan fiction, our fandom has definitely slowed down this past decade.  We’re all getting older, and some of us have grown out of this hobby or simply gotten away from it due to the responsibilities our families, careers, and adult lives require.  It’s been sad to see many of the websites I used to read stories on disappear or die a slow death, but that only makes me more determined to keep Dreamer’s Sanctuary alive.  In the last ten years, I’ve finished five novels and written numerous short stories, and I have no plans to stop writing in the Roaring ’20s.  I went through a rough patch while I was busy with my master’s program, and it took me a while to get back into my groove, but this past year has proven to me (and hopefully also to you, my readers) that I still have a passion for writing fanfic and the drive and determination needed to post regularly and finish projects.  I plan to continue doing all of that in the next decade.

First I’m going to finish my third pandaskunk story, The Year Without a Pandaskunk.  Part II has been posted!  I hope to continue updating with at least one part a week until it’s done.  After that, I plan to work on a new novel.  Right now, unless I get a different idea, I’m thinking that novel will be My Brother’s Keeper, which I posted a sneak peek of two years ago and then promptly stopped working on when life got in the way.  I would love to tell you I’ll also continue working on some of my old, unfinished projects that are posted, but I don’t want to make any promises I may not be able to keep.

Whether you’re new to Dreamer’s Sanctuary or a long-time reader, I want to thank you all for visiting my site, reading my stories, and supporting me after all these years.  Your involvement is a big part of what makes fanfic fun for me.  I hope you know how much I appreciate you.  I wish you all a happy new year and hope this next decade brings nothing but blessings your way!

Merry Christmas Eve!

As promised, I have been working on a third story in The Pandaskunk Saga, which I started back in 2012 with a short story called The Gift of the Pandaskunk.  I was inspired by the strange acid trip that is the “It’s Christmas Time Again” music video.  I have adored the song since day one, but the video has always made me wonder, WTF???  So one day, when I was home sick with the flu and doped up on drugs, I decided to write a story that would attempt to explain certain seemingly random aspects of the video, such as the flying panda with the fluffy skunk tail, the rocket ship, etc.  It started as a simple parody of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, my favorite of the Rankin-Bass stop-frame animation Christmas specials, and became so much more.  To this day, I’m not sure how I managed to churn the whole thing out in two days while I was sick enough to miss work, which I rarely do, but I think the combination of medication and a high fever must have worked to my advantage because it’s actually one of my favorite things I’ve ever written.  I don’t write comedy very often, so it’s always fun when I can venture outside of my sadness cave and be creative in a different way.

In 2014, I got the idea for a sequel, which I started before Christmas and didn’t finish until February.  Return of the Pandaskunk is significantly longer than its predecessor, in terms of word count, and even more random.  It parodies so many different books, movies, and more, yet somehow it all works together in a weird way that sort of makes sense if you can accept the inherent silliness of it all.

I’ve always wanted to turn this pair of stories into a trilogy, but I knew I needed to wait for the right idea to come along so the third story could live up to the other two.  Finally, a few weeks ago, inspiration struck!  The first two stories were inspired by what was happening in the fandom at the time, as well as current events and pop culture, and this one was the same way.  Shoutout to Aaron Carter and Melissa Schuman, whose recent shenanigans gave me the spark of an idea I needed to come up with a storyline.  Without spoiling anything, I can tell you that they will both play a part in this latest piece of satire I’ve started writing.  Though some may find it inappropriate for me to make light of the serious issues Aaron is currently struggling with, I wish him no ill will and hope he gets the help he so desperately needs, not just for his own sake, but for the sake of his family as well.

With all that being said, my Christmas gift to you is the Prologue and Part I of my new story, The Year Without a Pandaskunk.  I’m far from finishing it, and, like the last one, it’s likely I’ll be writing it into February because I have a lot more planned for it.  But I wanted to at least get the beginning posted before Christmas.  Hopefully I’ll be able to keep updating it at least weekly, but it’s too soon to make any promises.

I hope everyone has a happy holiday!

There are few things in life I get more pleasure out of than changing the status of a story from “incomplete” to “complete,” and today I got to do it for A Heart That Isn’t Mine.  Chapter 50 is up, and with that, the story is officially finished!

Today is Thanksgiving here in the U.S., and though I know many of you reading this are from other countries, I want to let you know how thankful I am for every one of you.  Writing fanfic has been my favorite hobby for almost twenty years, yet few people in my real life know that about me.  While I prefer it that way, it’s nice to be able to share my stories with a group of people who understand and appreciate them.  Thank you to everyone who has visited my site, read my stories, and taken time to give feedback.  Your support and encouragement is a big part of why I enjoy writing and will always come back to it, even when life gets in the way.

Last year, 2018, was the hardest year of my life.  I lost two beloved members of my family, and I didn’t do much writing at all until I finally got going on A Heart That Isn’t Mine about a year ago.  Strange as it may seem, this dark, depressing, delightfully twisted little story became a beacon of light, leading me out of the darkness and helping me through my grief.  I’m always happiest when I’m writing, and this year has been much better, in part because of it.  I was more nervous to post this story than any other one I’ve written, but the positive reactions and kind words I’ve gotten from readers have reaffirmed that there are other people out there who like to read the kind of stories I like to write and enjoy reading myself.  Thank you for that!  There will be more stories where this one came from.