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Ever since I learned how to put pencil to paper so that I could express my imagination in words (albeit crudely and with bad spelling at first), I've loved to write. Some of my fondest memories, and earliest, are sitting at my desk in school and writing down a story about what I did for one holiday or another, writing what my favorite something-or-other was, or concepting a comic (my other fave part was drawing the pictures to go with the stories and comics). My first stab at fanfic was with Star Trek: TNG, but none of those ever really worked out. Still it was good practice, good exercise for my writing muscles, and though I didn't know it at the time I was, at a very young age, stepping into the colorful and creative world of fan-authored fiction. I found my voice with few Xena stories. The bulk of what I've done in realtion to the Warrior Princess actually takes place after the finale, probably because I had such strong feelings about how the show ended and I felt compelled to explore one possibility of what might have happened to Gabrielle in the aftermath. Though I had a lot of fun with those stories (I consider the 'Heart of a Warrior' trilogy to be some of my finest work, my masterpiece if you will) I came upon the same thing that brought me to a halt writing Star Trek - it is a world to far removed from my own for me to come up with good stories. My love of the Xena characters is what made HOAW possible, but after that...well I was tapped. Enter Mutant X. Once again, I was compelled to write Mutant X fic because a) I didn't like the way some things had happened, and b) because there was a way I wanted things to go and I was tired of waiting for the series writers to get it done. I took it upon myself to give the fans (that included me) what they wanted. And so my earliest Mutant X fic, and my first truly serious fanfiction, was born. My short 'Into the Night' set the stage for what has become a popular series of stories, mostly catering to the Bren/Shal craze. As I wrote out each one, I kept getting more and more ideas - I loved the concept, but the real reason for the success (and all the stories that have come out and continue to float in my head waiting to be put down on paper) is that I relate to that world. The old saying says 'write what you know', and Mutant X is staged in the contemporary world I live in. With the series over, I'm in uncharted territory, exploring what has happened to the team since the Dominion assault. I have to admit, too, the other passion that keeps my pen going, besides my love of Mutant X, is my love of writing Shalimar, the character played by my fave actress Vicky Pratt. I get a total kick out of writing a character that was hers, and I love getting down into that animal side that Vicky always brought so well out on screen, and getting into the heart that she gave the character. Writing Shal is easy - all I have to think is 'how would Vicky do it?' Other than that, its just a matter of writing down the episode I see playing on the TV in my head. It may not always be easy, but it is well worth it. For me, it is all about finding the heart of the characters. Sometimes that means torturing them down to their very souls and exploring the dark dramatic places not all of us like to go, but to me, a story without good characters, and with no heart, isn't worth reading. The road to heaven is paved in hell. The characters in my stories know that intimately, lol. Drama is my trademark - its the only way to find just what exactly a character is made of. And besides...puttin 'em through hell is FUN. At the end of the day, my stories are only about one thing, the one thing that matters the most in this world...Love. Ya gotta believe in love.

Enjoy the show!

-Slider