Hello,hello, just checking to see if anyone's alive and kicking out there. Saw the pictures on JGP of Randy and Kristen, it's so nice when people post stuff like that so those of us who can't go can still see.
Anyway, lets have some conversation! How about telling when you first realized there was E fan fiction and which kind you prefer?
I'll start;
I only found the E websites two years ago, and for ages ignored the sections that said fan fiction, thinking how good can it be to read stories when the show was so good? Only started reading them a year ago and was instantly hooked. Thinking I might try writing one. I definitely prefer Johnny owie, but not the kind where he is feeble and weak, and abused by people and not able to stand up for himself. I also prefer owies where he can recover and go back to his job. Some of the stories where he doesn't recover are brilliant but make me cry and then I just can't read them again.
I stumbled across E when TVLAND started up in my area about 4 years ago. So, I went to the computer and see if there was anything about E online. Boy was I surprised.. The first site I found was "SQUAD 51, Where are you! It was a great site. Well it was summer and I was off work so I read, and read. Some nights not getting to bed till the wee hours of the morning. Heck, STAR QUILT kept me up till like 4am. Like a good book you couldn't put down.
We got our first computer at home in the spring of 2001 and I started looking for pictures of Randy, found several really good picture sites and ignored the fan fic links there but one day my favorite picture sites were all down for the moment and I went to one that didn't have many pictures but lots of fan fic. I started reading, they were good. Later that day I went back to my favorite picture site at the time, (Tigger's) and clicked on the fan fiction there and started reading. I was addicted. Then I had to find all the fan fiction I could. There were many great sites, I looked forward to new stories being posted once I had read all I could find. I like the stories where if the names were left out you could still tell it was the station 51 guys being written about. I like stories that if they were still filming the series, the fan fic could just be filmed and nobody would say "What!!" I like the guys to be strong and competent fire fighters. I do enjoy a little romance and home life with lots of fire fighting stuff. I don't have to enjoy every word of a story for it to touch me. I don't care for excessivly sad or terrible endings. There are some types of stories that I don't read at all, some I read only once. My favorites,I read over and over. I soon started printing the ones I love the most, lots of them are no longer posted. I sometimes bug/encourage the authors to repost them, if they choose to. I'm happy that new authors are still deciding to write as well. I'm always looking for new stories. Thanks for this question.
In the spring of 2002 I was having a tough time. Work was overwhelming, my Dad has just died, and my mom had had a heart attack. And of course 9/11 had happened and the "crisis in the church" was everywhere you turned. I desperately needed a distraction. What I found was E Fan Fic.
I was a kid when E! was on in first run. My friend and I used to make up new endings when we didn't like how something had come out. Eventually we started making up stories that were not based on the shows that were aired. We thought we were the only humans on earth who did it and swore each other to secrecy. So you can imagine my surprise when I discovered that not only did other people do it, but they actually wrote it down and posted it for others to read.
I read lots and then started doing some writing.
My favorite types of stories are true to the characters, are well written, and make you either laugh or get you invested in the outcome of the story. I'm not big on romance stories and I'm not a big fan of the guys wearing their hearts on their sleeves with each other. But owies are definately good if they are well done. And I still don't know if I will ever get used to being a 45 year old woman who uses the word "owie" in public without a toddler anywhere in sight!
I loved Emergency as a kid and became enthralled with it again when it was on TVLand. I, too, went online to see if there was anything about the show on the web and was amazed at what I found. That was back in 98-99. I ignored the fanfiction sections for a while, not being sure what they were. Once I started reading I became hooked and met some wonderful people through feed back and other things connected to the show. E! saved my sanity when I was stuck at home with a bum knee after an on the job injury (thanks to Todd F and a few others!) and it's still good as a pick me up when the world weighs heavy.
Hey, I got one too. Bum knee--I mean. But it while I was home after thyroid surgery that a certain E fan threw a challenge at me to write a story a week. I took out alot of frustration out on the boys.
I had not seen Emergency in over 20 years but it was never far from my thoughts, I had the biggest crush on Johnny Gage and still do. Then 2 years ago I was sitting at my computer and suddenly thought of looking up Emergency on the internet to see what sites there were. I found all the E fanfiction sites and have never looked back. I had never read so much in my life. My eyes are not so good anymore and I am wondering if it is really from age or from the hours spent in front of my computer reading all the fantastic stories. My favourites are the Johnny owies. I used to worry about how I felt about Johnny Gage, I thought I was weird or something thinking about him even years after I had seen him in an episode, but on finding all the websites I found that I was definitely not alone. Thanks to this website I found Laurie Schuppe and was able to get to see Emergency again. I have to admit to downloading the stories onto floppy discs and taking them to work with me and when my boss wasn't there or I was having a very boring day I would pop them in and start reading, how the time would fly. I think I only got sprung once when my boss came out and I was reading one and I minimized it and she used my computer to look up something and my heart was racing worrying that I had been found out. Anyhow, she never did say anything. Also I would like to say how I would love to have seen a lot of the fanfiction come to life in the actual episodes, hope you know what I mean. I hope I haven't rambled on too much. Another site I was very thankful for was Tigger's. I was able to purchase one of her E music video cd's and that was my first taste of Emergency again after all those years. I loved all the fanfiction on her site.
I think I know what you mean about wishing we could see the fanfic on film. I would love to see the guys actually doing the scenes that some of the great writers wrote for them.
Thanks for the complement, Sue! I sure do miss the distraction of being in the midst of the cyber world of E!. Real life is sucking me dry these days. I really miss not working on a web site anymore. Work-family-church occupy the most of my time. By the time I get to wind down, I'm too tired to do anything except watch TV. I don't even read fanfic anymore, and only get here about once a week or so--
To this comment earlier: "a 45 year old woman who uses the word "owie"" I had to laugh out loud---thanks!!
I am glad to see the E!xcitement of E! and Randy still in force.