From the War Room

Recycling is big -- has been for a long time -- but there's a lot more to recycle than just plastic and metal and all that ecologically friendly -- or maybe it's unfriendly, so that's why need to recycle? -- stuff.

I'm talking recycling stories. Finding new uses for old tales told long ago. Especially in the days of learning to write, when it was fun to play in someone else's playground, because the characters and tools and vocabulary and a lot of the rules were already established. You didn't have to create anything new except the characters and problems that made it entirely YOUR story, even if you were playing with someone else's toys.

Case in point -- fan fiction. And case in point again -- using fan fiction as a testing ground or a test drive area for characters that will someday get their own universe or series or playground, whatever you want to call it.

I just posted another fan fiction story on Wattpad. This was part of the Phoenix fan fiction that I

wrote, some of the earliest stories I got published. Lots of fun. Some really hokey stuff out there. Some corny dialog and big goofs in grammar and POV and head-hopping like you wouldn't believe. But what's really surprising and a relief and a pleasure is to discover that -- dang! -- some of it's good.

The newest story is FLAME FROM ANOTHER FIRE, where my -- at that time in my writing -- newest creation, my favorite "Barbie doll" -- met up with Bennu and Dr. Frazier and mean old Agent Preminger.

Enjoy!