Happy New Year! It’s officially 2025, which means Dreamer’s Sanctuary will celebrate its twenty-fifth anniversary in April! To commemorate this milestone, I’m writing a series of twenty-five retrospective blogs about my favorite characters and moments from my fics. And, in honor of the birthday boy, my first blog is all about AJ!
While I’ve written a handful of AJ fics over the years, AJ usually plays more of a supporting role than a starring role in my stories. He often serves as the comic relief, cracking jokes to lighten the mood during otherwise dark, dramatic moments. I love writing the relationship he has with each of his Backstreet brothers and exploring the good person behind his “bad boy” persona. With that being said, here are my top five favorite portrayals of AJ!
5. The Backstreet Boy Who Lived
AJ plays one of the title characters in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Backstreet Boy, my unfinished BSB/Harry Potter crossover fic. I’ve been a big fan of Harry Potter for almost as long as I’ve been writing fanfiction, although, for whatever reason, I never really got into reading or writing Harry Potter fanfic. But writing a BSB/HP crossover sounded like a fun way to dabble in it, so I gave it a shot back in 2012. Rather than enrolling the Backstreet Boys in Hogwarts or having Harry and Ron join a boyband, I chose to stick as closely to canon as possible, with the exception of making AJ a wizard who’s been hiding his magical abilities from his Muggle bandmates. While I admittedly ran out of steam with this story, I did enjoy writing AJ with secret powers. I had a lot more planned for him, too, so hopefully I’ll go back and finish it someday!
4. Agent Jay
In the alternate universe of 00Carter, AJ goes by the alias Agent Jay, a secret agent who is second in command to Kevin’s Agent K within the fictional agency Himitsu Takana. Just like canon AJ, Jay is a colorful character with a lot of layers. He’s a boss with a rebellious streak, a wisecracking smartass with a serious side, a tough guy who’s in touch with his feelings, and a master of disguise. My favorite Jay moments in 00Carter include him dressing up like Captain Jack Sparrow Daniels in Episode 7: “Here Ye Be Pirates,” geeking out over Harry Potter in Episode 10: “Catch Her If You Can,” and channeling his inner Ms. Frizzle in Episode 12: “Mr. Body Beautiful.”
3. If You Want It To Be Good, Girl, Get Yourself a Bad Boy AJ
At the start of my AU Secrets of the Heart, AJ is just an average guy – a former tattoo artist turned record store owner who’s just trying to make ends meet to support his pregnant girlfriend, Jori, and their baby on the way. Spoiler alert: By the end of the story, both Jori and the baby are dead, and AJ is in prison for murder. But how he got there is only half the story. (The other half involves Brian, which I’ll write more about in my Brian blog in February.) I love this portrayal of AJ because it captures both his light and dark sides and makes the reader question whether he’s really a good guy or a bad guy.
2. AJ the Zombie Slayer
AJ’s character in Song for the Undead is also a complex blend of light and dark, only he goes the opposite way of his counterpart in Secrets of the Heart. I didn’t actually write many of the AJ chapters in Undead, which was a collaboration between me and my friend Rose. Still, I love the journey his character takes over the course of this very long story, evolving from a drug-addicted, clinically-depressed artist into an adept survivor who has finally found his place and purpose in the post-apocalyptic world. Of all the characters Rose and I developed for this story, AJ is probably the closest to Daryl from The Walking Dead, the kind of guy who just seems to fit into a world in which the dead rise to feast on the living better than he fit into the world before. One of my favorite AJ chapters is Chapter 62, in which he acts as zombie bait in a plan that goes horribly wrong. I’m also partial to Chapter 82, one of the few AJ chapters I did write, in which he talks a grieving young Gabby off the ledge in an unconventional way that is fitting for his character.
1. Tough Love AJ
Tough Love AJ makes an appearance in the aforementioned Chapter 82 of Song for the Undead, as well as Chapter 9 of Heroic Measures, but my favorite version of him is from My Brother’s Keeper. He may not be the main character in this Kevin and Nick novel, but AJ is the glue that holds the whole premise together. After a horrific accident leaves Kevin widowed and disabled, AJ is the one who originally offers to move in with him and help take care of Kevin and baby Mason. I really wanted Nick to take on the caregiver role, but it seemed more realistic for AJ to volunteer for it first because he has a heart of gold and a close relationship with Kevin, whom he credits with saving his life by staging the intervention that sent him to rehab the first time. In the story, AJ feels he owes Kevin and sees this as a way of returning the favor. He then guilt-trips Hot Mess Nick into joining him, hoping it will help to straighten him out. AJ is hard on Nick in this novel because, in this version of history, he is sober while Nick is still struggling with his addictions – and ruining his health in the process. Rather than stand by and watch his little brother drink himself to death, AJ regularly calls Nick out on his bullshit and tries to give him a reality check, albeit in a somewhat unconventional manner. This is a departure from my previous portrayals of AJ as the comic relief in my angsty Nick stories, although he does have some funny, light-hearted moments in this story, too. As it turns out, I really enjoy this version of him!
What are your favorite AJ characters or moments? Leave a comment and let me know! I’ll be back with the next blog in a couple of weeks, just in time for the next Backstreet Boy’s birthday!