WENN is Where the Heart Is and There's No Place Like WENN - These two stories are my first WENN fanfics. They were both written during the six month interim between the third and the fourth season. That cliffhanger drove me crazy, and I figured that the only way I'd get it off my mind was to write about it. Looking back at these stories, I realize how terribly melodramatic I can be. (And how into Star Wars I was at the time - note Betty's dream sequence in WENN is Where the Heart Is.)
Robin Sherwood of Pittsburgh - My third fanfic and my first spoof. Dana Sherman gave me the idea of doing a Scott story when she pointed out on the WENNlist how abusive I was to him in my first two fics. I wrote this story long before I finally saw Betty's reference to Scott as Robin Hood in "The First Mrs. Bloom". A favorite device of mine - gender role reversal - pops up here in the form of Scott's "Merry Women".
Little Girl Lost - A quickie story written on a boring Sunday at Stockton as a response to a WENNlist fanfic challenge to write a fic about a clumsy intern. Yes, I did base Emily Jackman at least somewhat on myself.
Fish Out of Water - One of two stories I wrote over the summer of 1998. Though it's been pointed out that Victor taking Maple to Washington is unlikely (which is why I now list this as an alternate universe fic), I still think this is one of my better fanfics. I love Maple and Victor as a couple and think they would work well together, if given the chance.
Miss Roberts in Wennland - My interest in fairy tales and the delightful fourth season episode "And If I Die Before I Sleep" inspired my second WENN spoof, the other story I wrote during the summer of '98. See how many famous fairy tales you can spot in this story! Incidently, this is currently my only spoof where Rollie Pruitt isn't the head villian.
The American Patient - Though I didn't see or read The English Patient until long after I wrote this story, I thought the title sounded romantic...and perfect for Gertie's newest radio play and my third WENN spoof. After all, Gertie isn't the only person who wants to see Scott and Betty together... ; 0 )
On the Edge of the Precipice Series - This was originally an assignment from my Writing for the Media class to write a cliffhanger...and just grew from there into an epic tale of WENN's involvement in World War II. For about a year, I felt like I couldn't look around without seeing an idea for a Precipice story. Don't Fence Me In was inspired by the deaths (within weeks of each other) of real-life screen cowboys Gene Autry and Hopalong Cassidy and is respectfuly dedicated to both. Stormy Weather came about after wondering what kind of role Whoopi Goldberg would have played if she ever did appear on WENN. If you've been elsewhere on my site, you know where All's Fair in Love and WENN came from, right down to the insensitive "Mr. Jurrington" and his "Hampton Studios". My well for Precipice story ideas finally ran dry in early 2000, and didn't start flowing again until my visit to New York City for the WENN convention a year later. Broadway's superhit "The Producers" started me wondering what it would be like if a famous Broadway producer (and one a tad bit more legit than Bialystock and Bloom) visited WENN...with his tartish wife, inspired by a giant billboard of "Sex in the City" that I saw on my way out of New York, which would eventually result in Paper Doll. The Avaitrix and the Author came from a conversation about aviatrixes that I overheard at work. I'd intended to start it on September 11th, 2001, to get my mind off of the horrible news that day, but Maple's story and my worried mind took over and resulted in Everything's Fine.
The Great Big Slumber - I'm a big fan of film noir and the shadowy world of the mystery and suspense films of the 1940s and 50s. I actually began this story as a script in 1997, but that first version veered into World War II melodrama after the third season cliffhanger "Happy Homecomings".
Nebraska Maple Laments and the Jungle Tower of Death - Yet another one of my interests, "Indiana Jones"-type adventure stories, is mixed with gender role reversal and references to real 40s serials (like "Nyoka of the Tigermen") to create one of the wildest of my spoofs. This was the hardest of my spoofs to write, took me the longest to write, and is probably my current favorite of my spoofs. Once again, I wanted to show that Victor and Maple could work well as a couple, and I think they came out well here. BTW, The Fudge Kitchen in Cape May still uses that buy fudge-get free taffy deal, and has since I was a little kid...
Just Good Friends - This story came out of speculation of the nature of Maple and Scott's relationship on the WENNlist. The title is pretty much my opinion on that subject. : 0 ) The songs that appear at the end of each segment are all from musicals of the 20s and 30s: "Look For the Silver Lining" from "Sally" (yes, it was a real blockbuster musical in the early 20s, and Marilyn Miller was a real Broadway star of that era), "Singin' in the Rain" from the early talkie "The Hollywood Revue of 1929" (Charles King was also a real singer of the late 20s), "I Got Rhythm" from "Girl Crazy", and "Friendship" from "DuBarry Was a Lady". The movie Maple/Annie/Holly was going to audition for, "The March of Time", was also real, and MGM really did cancel its release when movie musicals went out of style in mid 1930. The completed film never did see the light of day, but some musical numbers still exist and have been released in shorts and used in other movies.
The Pizzaria - My little brother Keefe gave me the idea for this short story. "And How" is his favorite episode - he loves watching the gang eat pizza! While we watched the show one day, he asked me if the pizzaria Eugenia mentioned was anything like the ones in North Cape May. His question got me to thinking about how Eugenia came across the pizza in the first place. Figaro's Pizza still exists in Cape May and looks pretty much the same, although it's now called (interestingly) Mario's Pizza.
The WENN Nutcracker Suite - A visit to the Nutcracker Ballet at Stockton inspired this story. I'm not fond of the original version of this story, "The Hard Nut", so I decided to use bits and pieces of other Nutcracker stories and create something new, based around "Christmas in the Airwaves".
Once Upon a Time in Your Wildest Dreams - My first attempt at a supernatural WENN fanfiction became controversial on the WENNlist when I was accused of copying several writers' ideas. I never intended to do that. I grew up around ghost stories and wanted to try something different. I got so into writing the parts where Kathleen encounters Scott for the first time, I scared myself!
The Wild WENN West - I began this story almost a year before it appeared on the WENNlist. I couldn't figure out how to continue initially, but I saw it on a disk in the spring of 1999 and I finally decided to give it another chance. My stepfather is a big fan of westers, particuarly John Wayne's 50s and 60s vehicles, and much of this story derives from there, with a touch of the Lone Ranger in the "Masked Man" subplot.
Cinderella of the Airwaves - This is one of several story ideas that I batted around in my head for years before I finally wrote it down. I debated doing it as another fairy tale spoof, but I changed my mind and did it straight.
If These Walls Could Talk - I got this idea walking to work at the grocery store one day during the summer of 2001. We've heard almost all the WENN characers' stories in one fanfic or another, but what about radio station WENN itself? The building is really the only witness to ALL of the crazy things that went on at WENN. It must have some wild stories to tell. Having grown up in a town that wouldn't exist in its present form if it wasn't for building preservation, keeping our architectural heritige alive is a major interest of mine. The subject of building preservation also turns up in Come Dancing: A Sherwood Family Story, and the hotel in Fish Out of Water was based after a gigantic Cape May hotel that was demolished in 1995.
Hard Decisions - A quick story written during the summer of 2001 on Betty's feelings after "All Noisy on the Pittsburgh Front". Though most people know who my choice for Betty's sweetheart is, I left the ending ambivient on purpose. Sometimes, it's better to draw your own conclusions.
Come Dancing: A Sherwood Family Story - The Kinks' nostalgic song "Come Dancing" was the inspiration for my first out-and-out songfic. Aggie's problems with her parents are based after my sisters' troubles with friends after they got into their teens, and Scott and Betty's reactions to Aggie's behavior do derive from my own parents.
Thankful For You - A Thanksgiving story that I had to write down or I knew I'd forget about it all together. My parents have held big parties on Thanksgiving for the past few years, and while it's nice that they want to share their home with others, I sometimes wish we'd go back to smaller feasts. The menu that Betty's mother makes is the same one we have every year. Several characters from the Precipice series are mentioned here, including Scott's mother and Betty's family.
The Adventures of the Crimson Blade - This is my long-delayed WENN swashbuckler spoof. The general idea dates back to at least the late 90's, but I never came up with any real plot for it until I started watching WENN again in early April 2015. Then the ideas just kept coming. I never meant for this to turn into an epic. It just...grew. Most of the episodes having been posted on YouTube in 2014 helped. I wrote this to see if I could handle a novel-length story, return to an idea after abandoning it, and just to have fun with the characters. And I did have fun. I haven't had this much fun writing a story on my own in at least a decade.
Last Updated on November 12th, 2001.
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