I've had the storyline for "Apocrypha" knocking around my head for about 2-3 years now, much as I hate to admit it, and I've reached the point where I've decided I might as well write it down and put it up on the web where I can get a little feedback.
Until I started reading it, I had a fairly low opinion of fanfic, and some of the stuff out there is pretty bad. Some of it is very good; you can find quite a bit of good material on the web ring, but it all seems kind of pointless. After all, it's not like we're making any money from this...it's just us excercising our personal interests. And I've always wanted to write fiction. I confess, I've wanted to write "literature." I've got a big epic-Leslie-Marmon-Silko-crossed-with-Louise-Erdrich-crossed-with-Gabriel-Garcia-Marquez-etc.-does-Vermont kinda thing that's also knocking around my head and is probably suffering greatly because all I think about is Turtles. So I hoped to write "Apocrypha", get it out of my system, and in some ways use it as a warm-up. Unfortunately, all it did was inspire more turtle stories to start knocking around my head...at this point, anyway.
So please take "Apocrypha" and all the other stories with a grain of salt, and don't get too hung up on "How DARE you do this/that/the other" with your favorite character. If you think an action/personality trait/whatever doesn't ring true, please e-mail me and tell me why, but please no death threats. This is the way I'm looking at it-- and really all fanfic: we're kids playing with action figures. Sure, that's not what you'd do with your Donatello, but it is what I'm doing with mine. I started reading the black-and-white when Eastman & Laird were caught up with the TV show/movie/multimedia phenomenon and had guest artist after guest artist after guest artist taking over the book. It was really liberating to me, believe it or not, to see how the same characters were re-read, whole worlds invented, only to drop the same action figures in a different setting next week, and have the characters survive without much visible damage. That's where these stories comes from.
Book One of "Apocrypha" takes up a few years after "City at War." Anything that has happened in the comics after that has not necessarily happened in the world of "Apocrypha." I had to start somewhere, and C@W seemed a good choice for a variety of reasons. Some will become apparent as the story progresses, and some I prefer to keep to myself.
"Empathy" also takes place in pretty much the same post "City at War" environment, and "Invisible Sun" and "Tamer" mix and match TMNT mythology to suit my purposes.
There is 'adult content' in these stories, lots of offensive language, sex and violence; none of it is particularly explicit (IMO) and I put warnings in front of each story. More importantly, these are 'adult' stories in a larger context, dealing with burdens like kids and lovers in a way the black and white never did (and probably never should). You gain a lot and lose a lot when you let characters age, as readers of these odd genres comics, fanfic and scifi/fantasy know, and "Apocrypha," for example, spans at least 20-30 years.
I hope you enjoy your visit in Phishworld, and I hope you want to return. Please, feel free to sign the guestbook or email me...I love feedback, positive or negative.
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