COLLINSPORT SHIPPING: The Magic Ensemble

By MARIE MAGINITY

One of DARK SHADOWS’ more whimsical fanfiction writers is Magical Irish Dolphin (I mean, that name says it all). Her stories are fun and imaginative. Picture a Collinwood occupied by not only Josette and Sarah, but dozens of ghosts from every storyline time period, all interacting with each other and their human counterparts.

Magical was good enough to talk with me about herself and her work. So I asked my usual first question.

Tell us a little about background.
I was born in the mid-1980s in Florida, but when I was four, my Mom packed my brothers and me to Colorado, where we still live today. Coming from Irish and Seminole descent, I spoke only Seminole until the relocation. We spent several years dealing with hardships and complications. My mother remarried when I was twelve, and we continue to be a close-knit family.

When did you begin to write?
As a kid, I had a wild imagination, daydreamed a lot to escape reality and was, well, pretty flaky. In second grade we were assigned to write a story with illustrations. Mine was a crossover about 101 DALMATIANS and Freddy Kruger from the NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET films. Not surprisingly, my first fanfiction was ill received by classmates and teacher alike. I was bummed but somehow survived.

I’m glad you were not deterred. When did you enter the big world of fandoms and fanfic?
Internet fanfiction was a discovery in my teen years, I wasn't really impressed with it at first, but there are some good authors out there. Through the years, I read fics from a variety of fandoms, ranging from BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER to NCIS, as well as from ‘80s cult films such as THE LOST BOYS and LABYRINTH.

Is that when you began to write your own stories?
At that time, I was completely disinterested in writing fanfiction myself—until I came across the British sci-fi series DOCTOR WHO about five years ago. I fell in love with the whimsical style of that show, and the character’s ability to travel through time and to other worlds. So, I picked up a pen and notebook and wrote some DOCTOR WHO stories. They were just for my personal entertainment and never posted; I felt they weren't good enough.

My brother and I worked on a DOCTOR WHO/FARSCAPE crossover fic. FARSCAPEis an American/Australian sci-fi series that I think aired from 1999-2004. The show featured puppets created by the Jim Henson Company, and had an exotic alien look. My brother loved it, but that project went on hold when I was suddenly bitten with the DARK SHADOWS bug.

When did you come over to the Dark side?
Sadly, unlike the countless number of lucky fans, I did not grow up watching DARK SHADOWS. But my Mother did, and she told me about her love for the show through the years. I saw bits of it in reruns on Sci-Fi Channel and, around the time of the Tim Burton remake, scored the Original Series DARK SHADOWS Collection I DVD set at Sam’s Club.

Later that day, my brother put the first disk into his X-Box, and we hunkered down to watch a punk named Willie Loomis break into a vampire’s coffin in search of jewels. By episode 215 I was hooked— when Willie came back with a haunted look in his eyes and blood on his sleeve. I honestly thought when Willie opened that coffin he was a goner; after all, he seemed to be a disposable villain. But now all of the sudden, he'd become a tortured Renfield-like character with sex appeal. I really loved that twist and John Karlen's powerhouse performance. So, it was Willie, and later his caring for Maggie in the kidnapping storyline that captured my interest.

As a classic movie lover, I enjoyed the gothic look of the show and was especially amazed by the presence of Joan Bennett, in addition to Jonathan Frid's elegant performance as Barnabas Collins.

But it is an ensemble piece, so there’s much more to enjoy, especially the Elizabeth/Jason story, and the interaction between David/Sarah. The early Barnabas stuff remains to be my favorite era of the show, as is his origin story in 1795. Then, of course, there’s Quentin and the fanciful world of 1897.

Above all, I highly feel the show had a tremendous imagination that's more up my ally—normal people surrounded by ghosts, vampires, witches, warlocks, Frankenstein monsters, zombies, involved in séances and time travel.

So the next logical step was to engage in some DS fanfic?
Becoming addicted to DARK SHADOWS rekindled my interest in fanfiction. Similar to my feelings for DOCTOR WHO, only more intense, so the next stories made it to the internet. I can do this, I told myself; I've written supernatural stories about ghosts, witches, spooky children, eccentric weirdoes and vampires before.

When I started searching for DARK SHADOWS fics online, the first thing I noticed is that they usually focus on a singular character, namely Barnabas, occasionally Quentin or Willie. I decided to focus on a variety of characters, after all the show is an ensemble piece, and the fans forget that at times.

Tell us about some of your stories. 
My first one-shots were mostly character studies, beginning with my favorite character, Willie, in A Precious Jewel. It's a typically angsty Willie Loomis fanfiction, in which he mourns the loss of Maggie after her kidnapping ordeal, and characteristically drools over Josette's emerald earrings.

Next was another Willie/Maggie one-shot, Broken Paradise. It takes place during the kidnapping story, with Jason and Elizabeth as the supporting cast. There I created a parallel between Elizabeth and Maggie over their separate situations with Jason and Barnabas, with biting dialogue and a bittersweet ending. Then I focused on other characters, such as Adam in Poetry in Motion, and Beth Chavez in The Trials of a Maidservant, in which Beth must deal with the sordid secrets of the Collins family, such as Jenny locked up in the tower room, and her attraction to Quentin.

In Secrets, David and the ghost of Sarah must endure Barnabas at the height of his vampire villainy, and the tragedies that came with it. Then there are the Barnabas stories: Sparks in Martinique tells the story of he and Angelique, from her POV, and in Truth and Denial, Barnabas must deal with his feelings when Julia is bitten by vampire Tom Jennings.

Some of these early works were problematic but I hope someday to rewrite and make corrections, since I would like to pursue a career in writing.

At this point I was ready to progress to multi-chapter fanfictions, so next came The Music Box. Once again it was about Willie/Maggie and the kidnapping story, which I had explored twice before, as have many other fanfic writers. So I introduced Josette’s ghost into the mix. She returns to the Old House to help Maggie and Willie and their relationship develops into romance.

The two shared a special connection at that time in the series, and John Karlen and Kathryn Leigh Scott had sweet, yet repressed, chemistry. Maybe they never got together on the show, but in my story, they survive Barnabas and the spooks, and end up as a couple.

This eventually spawned a sequel, Ode to the Witch, which brings in my other favorite couple, Quentin and Beth, as ghosts haunting the west wing which is under renovation by future newlyweds Vicki and Burke. But Roger arrives with his bride, Cassandra, which is bad news for Barnabas, who is being cured by Julia. Now that’s an ensemble piece. But wait, there’s more: The Collins’ family ghosts rally to support Barnabas, including Josette, Jenny, Carl (recruited to torment the witch), Sarah (still hanging out with David), Millicent (who is oddly attracted to Joe Haskell), and Bill Malloy, to distract Elizabeth as she deals with Vicki and her parentage. Sounds like a soap opera.

This story is still in progress. Because so much is happening, updating takes longer than usual, and real life does not help one bit.

Have you abandoned your other fandoms now?
I managed to post two one-shots for the NCIS: LOS ANGELES fandom last summer, and that was a great experience. One was a comedic little piece titled The Reminiscence of Youth, about Linda Hunt's character, Hetty Lange and the assistant director of NCIS. It's very dialogue driven and probably the closest to a crack fic I've ever written. The other, Mixed Partners, delved into the popular Kensi Blye/Marty Deeks pairing, which I love. I'm working on another one-shot on that show that will feature a shout out to DARK SHADOWS; two of the characters will go undercover as Jonathan and Lara Collins. I like to tackle other shows eventually, especially DOCTOR WHO because it's my favorite sci-fi series, but I still have big plans for DARK SHADOWS’ stories, and it will always hold a special place in my heart.

Magical Irish Dolphin can be found on Facebook posing under the name Erin Evans.

Marie Maginity is the author of the seven-part Willie Loomis World Series, and writes under the names Mad Margaret and Lizzie Bathory. She has a BA in Theatre and works as a professional actor, director and drama teacher. She has had many “straight” jobs, including bartender, gas station jockey, graphic artist, website designer, facepainter and film projectionist. Once, she bullshitted her way into a newspaper job as a reporter and, over the next eight years, became a copy editor, feature writer and assistant editor. She lives in the suburbs of Philadelphia with one husband, two daughters and two cats. 

COLLINSPORT SHIPPING: Don't Kill Bill

By MARIE MAGINITY,
author of the Willie Loomis World Series and other DS fanfiction

One of the most prolific of contemporary Dark Shadows fan fiction writers is Osheen Nevoy, whose works are crammed with fascinating historical details, and are consistently produced with care and precision.

No, I did not mean to imply that other authors are comparable to drunken monkeys on keyboards who have no concept of Spellcheck, Grammar Check, finishing a sentence, developing a plot or engaging the services of a Beta. Uh…I never said that. However, it is refreshing to find a writer whose work is so painstakingly crafted. Seriously, in 142,000+ words, I can’t find one typo.

Fan fiction readers and writers alike have their preferred subject matter, whether it’s the eternal love of Barnabas and Julia (or Vicki, or Josette, or Roxanne, whoever), the caddish escapades of Quentin — or even, ahem, Willie Loomis. Ms. Nevoy is no exception, except her main squeeze appeared in only 15 episodes before being unceremoniously thrown off a cliff.

I’m speaking of Bill Malloy, the man who should have married Elizabeth if she hadn’t been such a low-life magnet and distracted by all the wrong people. But Bill missed his opportunity and ends tragically, sporting a seaweed suit.

Fashions courtesy of Ohrbach's.

No, wait! This is fan fiction! Bill is saved, gives old Jason the boot, and finally weds the woman of his dreams, whereupon they live happily ever after — until Chapter 2, anyway. Well, it just wouldn’t be Dark Shadows without a séance, and this time Bill Malloy, clutching a family history book, is popped back in time right in the middle of Barnabas’ love-triangle drama.

This affords our author an opportunity to share some of her encyclopedic knowledge of the 18th century by employing this clever twist in the storyline. You’re probably wondering, how’d she get to be so smart? So, I asked her.

HOW’D YOU GET TO BE SO SMART?

I grew up in Bloomington, Indiana, born to Californian parents who relocated to attend graduate school at Indiana University.  When I was six years old, my mother became the founding director/curator of a fledgling local history museum and, as a result, I grew up surrounded by history.  I would hang out at the museum after school, making up names and characters for the display mannequins and creating stories about the unidentified people in vintage photographs.

A LOVE OF HISTORY IS EVIDENT IN YOUR WRITING. WHAT OTHER THINGS INFLUENCED YOU?

From the time I was eight, my parents and I acted together in community theater productions, most frequently Gilbert & Sullivan and Shakespeare.

Another influence that developed early in my life is a fascination with finding other sides of the story for those frequently seen as villains.  Even on my first viewing of STAR WARS (which premiered when I was six), my favorite character in the film was Darth Vader.

I vividly remember seeing the comedy film LOVE AT FIRST BITE with my mom, and already being completely in tune with the idea of Dracula as hero rather than villain.  At age eight or nine, I first read Fred Saberhagen's "The Dracula Tape," a novel which fully develops the concept that Dracula is a misunderstood hero rather than the monster depicted by Bram Stoker.  Sympathy and love for such fictional anti-heroes in turn led me to fascination with (and support for) a number of historical figures who have traditionally been portrayed as villains, including King Richard III, Captain Bligh, and Grigori Rasputin.

In keeping with this love for hero-villains, my academic work focused on the Vikings.  I earned a Ph.D. in medieval studies from the University of York in England.  Returning to the states, I followed my mother's footsteps and found my way into the museums profession.  I've worked in local history museums in Wyoming, Virginia, Massachusetts, and now the redwoods country of far northern California.

OKAY, THAT’S PRETTY SMART. HOW DID YOU STUMBLE ACROSS DARK SHADOWS?
I first encountered Dark Shadows in the form of the 1991 remake.  I was in my sophomore year at UCLA when the show aired, and I fell in love with it, particularly with the interactions of Ben Cross' Barnabas and Jim Fyfe's Willie.  As probably everyone who watched the revival’s original airing will remember, it was on during the Gulf War, and several episodes were pre-empted due to war coverage.  I don't want to admit to the pettiness of feeling that the war's biggest impact on my life was that it led me to miss Dark Shadows episodes, and I did attend several anti-war protest rallies at UCLA, but it's true that my sharpest memories of that conflict are of my outrage at the disruption to Dark Shadows.

Another protest I attended later that year was a "Save Our Dark Shadows" rally outside the studio when the revival series was cancelled.  I was thrilled when Lysette Anthony, the remake's Angelique, stopped to chat with me while I was waving a sign at that rally.  Despite continuing fondness for the remake DARK SHADOWS, I never watched much of the original show until after seeing the 2012 film.  At that point, I decided to watch the original so I could learn where the whole phenomenon originated.

Actually not Bill Malloy.

That summer I asked for selected original DS DVDs (the "introduction of Barnabas" storyline and the 1795 time travel sequence) as birthday presents.  My husband and I began watching a couple of episodes per night, and were immediately hooked.  We had assumed that we would be able to just delve into the show at will, watching a bit here and a bit there, but after a few episodes, were swiftly disabused of that notion.  We continued to buy the DVDs and eventually watched our way through the series. The rest, as they say, is history.

HOW DID YOUR LIFE THEN SPIRAL INTO FAN FICTION?

In a way, I suppose I’ve been writing or imagining fan fiction for most of my life.  As a very young child, the Robin Hood legend was my favorite story.  I remember playing Robin Hood scenario games with my mother (I was Robin to her Little John).  Among the relics of my childhood is a story-in-pictures I drew after seeing the original Star Wars, when I hadn’t yet learned to write.  The story shows Leia, recognizable by the Mickey-Mouse-ear-like protrusions which were her trademark hairdo, being revealed as Darth Vader’s daughter — years before George Lucas made that revelation.  In high school, my particular fandom was Star Trek, and I wrote a short story depicting each of the major characters’ thoughts after the death of Spock.

My first extended foray into fan fiction began in 1997, while in England studying for my Ph.D.  That year saw the release of the “special edition” version of the original Star Wars trilogy.  This inspired two fellow medievalists and me to begin Star Wars fan fiction projects which quickly took over our lives.  These included a novel starring Boba Fett, Darth Vader’s back story and a novella starring Admiral Piett. I wrote an AU novel titled "The Adventures of Darth Vader," in which Vader survives the events of Return of the Jedi and joins the Rebellion, where he faces the challenge of healing the emotional wounds that separate him from his children.  I originally intended to write only the first chapter.  Instead, the novel became a massive project that I completed four years and 20 chapters later.

The inspiration for my next project came from Peter Jackson’s first LORD OF THE RINGS film.  Sean Bean’s Boromir was my favorite character in The Fellowship of the Ring, and I just wasn’t willing to let him stay dead.  I suppose the largest amount of fan fiction that I’ve read is connected to Lord of the Rings, but I didn’t find much of it that took Boromir where I wanted to see him go.  In January of 2002 I began writing "Boromir’s Return," exploring what the events of The Two Towers and Return of the King might be like had he been alive to take part in them.

This project lasted even longer than the previous one; chapters were posted at Fanfiction.net from February 2002 until its completion June 2011. Real life events such as work ups-and-downs and the birth of our twins led to a multi-year gap in writing and posting.  But once Boromir’s tale was told, I intended to focus on writing original fiction.  However, in fall 2013, while halfway through the draft of a novel, I was lured back into the realm of fan fiction when fate struck in the form of an honest, ill-fated Maine fisherman by the name of Bill Malloy.

TALK ABOUT YOUR LATEST STORY.

While watching the original series, Dark Shadows grew more and more ingrained our lives, but I suppressed the urge to write DS fan fiction.  I was tempted first by an idea involving Willie Loomis, then by one centering on the ghosts of Dr. Woodard and Burke Devlin. Another possibility focused on Quentin.  Still I resisted all temptation—until we backtracked to the beginning episodes and were introduced to Bill Malloy.

I was intrigued by Bill’s first appearance, in Episode 3.  By his second appearance, in Episode 9, I was hooked after Bill’s speech on why Liz Stoddard is “the greatest woman on the face of this earth.”  He tells her it is “Because you plant your feet firm on the deck when a gale blows.  Because you hold your head up high and damn the devil.  Because you don’t know how to run scared.”

Courtship rituals in Collinsport frequently involve words like "damn," devil" and "scared."

By the end of the credits, I knew I would be writing Bill Malloy fan fiction.  As we were soon to learn, Bill doesn’t run scared either, and that determined courage leads to his mysterious death around Episode 46.  I decided to restore Bill Malloy to his role as a pivotal DS character—more than just a murder victim and singing ghost.

When I first fell headlong into Bill Malloy fandom, I made several internet searches for fan fiction focusing on Bill and, to my surprise, found next to nothing.  Since championing the Bill Malloy fandom online, I’ve found that Bill does indeed have dedicated fans.  But, for whatever reason, I may be the first DS fan fiction writer to choose Bill Malloy as my hero. 
 
Each chapter of the story begins with “My name is Bill Malloy” instead of “My name is Victoria Winters.”  As the central character, Bill, not Vicki, time-travels to 1795.

In a series of flashbacks, we are given background on the marriage of Bill Malloy and Liz Stoddard and how our hero avoids being murdered by Mathew Morgan.  The majority of the novel focuses on Bill’s journey into 1795 and his adventures there as he seeks to solve the many Collins family mysteries—before it is too late for the Collinses both in 1795 and 1967.

I suppose I have two main purposes in writing Stand Fast and Damn the Devil.  The most obvious is to spotlight Bill Malloy, and to give him the romance that I feel should have happened.  Just as in my Darth Vader and Boromir novels, in Damn the Devil I take my favorite character, rescue him from death, and then have the fun of exploring what might happen next.

My other main purpose is to create a more accurate version of the 18th century than we see on the original show.  As a historian and a museum professional, the anachronisms and inaccuracies of DS’s 1795 drive me a bit up the wall.  They don’t stop me from enjoying the show, and I certainly know why they’re there.  As a soap opera on a limited budget—a show that no one expected would ever be watched again after its original air date—it stands to reason that the writers and production team never had the goal of creating a scrupulously accurate period piece.

But this story has become an intensely researched historical novel.  Online 18th century newspapers, ships’ manifests, a biography of an actual Maine ship-building family, books on Maine cemeteries and Maine slang, are combining with my work experience at a 17th-century historic house museum in Massachusetts to create what I hope is close to a realistic picture of what 1795 Collinsport might actually be like.  As Bill thinks sourly in one of my early chapters, “Anybody who talks about the romance of the past needs to give time travel a try.”

Of course that is impossible, but I suppose in each of my fan novels, I’ve been attempting the kind of time travel that Barnabas Collins specializes in—to fix something that has gone wrong, save Vicki Winters or repair the damage caused by Quentin or Gerard.  My fan novels, too, fix something I think has gone wrong: the deaths of my favorite characters.

In Dark Shadows Episode 43, Bill Malloy tells Joe Haskell, “It’d be simpler to sit on the sidelines and just watch life go by.  But you can’t.  Sometimes you have to become involved.”  I guess maybe that’s how fandom is for those of us who’ve been bitten by the fan fiction bug.  No matter how much we try to just stay on the sidelines and watch, sooner or later we have to get involved.  Like our favorite time-traveling vampire, we do what we can to change the past - the show itself - into the present and future that we want to see.

WHAT DO YOU LIKE TO READ?

As for reading fan fiction these days, I don’t have much time to squeeze that in around writing, work, kids, theater, and all the other stuff described as “real life.”  I’m a follower of Mad Margaret’s Willie Loomis World Series, Magical Irish Dolphin’s "Ode to the Witch" (which features a fabulous cast of characters in the form of the many, many ghosts of Collinwood), and Daryl Wor’s radio show and fan novels.  Other than that, what reading time I find is more often spent with a variety of research sources for "Stand Fast and Damn the Devil."

THANKS FOR MENTIONING MY FANFIC. YOU DIDN’T HAVE TO DO THAT. JUST KIDDING, YOU ABSOLUTELY DID HAVE TO DO THAT.

Osheen Nevoy can also be found on Facebook as Alex Service, and is curator of the online shrine to her protagonist, The Bill Malloy (Dark Shadows) Fan Club, where there is no shortage of ponderings and pictures of her favorite guy, young Elizabeth (his true love) or recipes from Maine utilized by his faithful housekeeper, Mrs. Johnson. Osheen/Alex also designs fun images of Liz and Bill, and once created Malloy’s business card for a venture he could pursue after retiring.

The Collinsport Cannery retirement plan involves a lot of whiskey.

Marie Maginity is the author of the six-part Willie Loomis World Series, and writes under the names Mad Margaret and Lizzie Bathory. She has a BA in Theatre and works as a professional actor, director and drama teacher. She has had many “straight” jobs, including bartender, gas station jockey, graphic artist, website designer, facepainter and film projectionist. Once, she bullshitted her way into a newspaper job as a reporter and, over the next eight years, became a copy editor, feature writer and assistant editor. She lives in the suburbs of Philadelphia with one husband, two daughters and two cats.

COLLINSPORT SHIPPING: Fanfiction For Dummies

By MARIE MAGINITY,
author of the Willie Loomis World Series and other DS fanfiction

"Fan fiction is what literature might look like if it were reinvented from scratch after a nuclear apocalypse by a band of brilliant pop-culture junkies trapped in a sealed bunker. They don't do it for money. That's not what it's about. The writers write it and put it up online just for the satisfaction. They're fans, but they're not silent, couch-bound consumers of media. The culture talks to them, and they talk back to the culture in its own language."

 — Lev Grossman, TIME, July 7, 2011

"Fan fiction can be seen as an unauthorized expansion of these media franchises into new directions which reflect the reader's desire to "fill in the gaps" they have discovered in the commercially produced material."

— Henry Jenkins, Transmedia Storytelling 101, March 22, 2007

"I reject your reality and substitute my own."

— THE DUNGEONMASTER,1984

Let’s get out the old I-Ching wands and travel back in time about 350,000 years to check out some pre-comic book drawings by a Neanderthal who calls himself cavedweller121. Neighbors quickly become engrossed in the adventures of his hunter/gatherer protagonists to the point where they will not allow the story to end. And so, the readers becomes the writers, and the saga continues to parts hitherto unforeseen by the original author.

Arthur Wellesley

So, where the term fanfiction is relatively new, the phenomenon is not. Long before copyrights, or even the printing press, stories were told and retold or acted out with little or no regard for the source material. The most famous early fanfiction writer who comes to mind is William Shakespeare, master of the redux. Although none of his works contain a disclaimer, the Bard almost exclusively stole borrowed plotlines and characters from history, mythology and other authors.

Chaucer wrote Troilus and Criseyde in the 1300s, Robert Henryson in the early 15th century imagined Troilus’ tragic fate in a continuation titled The Testament of Cresseid, and Shakespeare penned a dramatic alternate-universe version in 1602.

Fast forward a few hundred years to the young Bronte sisters, writing “real person” fanfiction about Sir Arthur Wellesley and his sons, Arthur and Charles, one of whom becomes the Duke of Zamorna, a superhero of sorts.

Napoleon/Tsar Alexander

And if you thought the first slash fiction dates to Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock, you are mistaken. Paintings and descriptions of romantic encounters surrounded Napoleon Bonaparte and Tsar Alexander I. They even appeared together in a thinly disguised passage in Tolstoy’s War and Peace.

In the 20th Century, Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland was subject to several unauthorized “parodies” and fans of Arthur Conan Doyle published the further adventures of Sherlock and Watson in early fanzine publications.

So, ain’t none of this new.

But modern fanfiction has undeniably advanced. We have a relatively new venue, namely the Internet, Fanfiction.net, Archive of Our Own, LiveJournal and Tumblr are all homes for fandom stories, and you can now read them anytime on your Android device, because there’s an app for that.

But you got to know the lingo, so here is handy dandy reference guide to Dark Shadows fanfiction:

ACTORFIC: A subdivision of Real Person Fic. A story centering around not a character, but the actor playing him. Within the realm of Dark Shadows, it is utilized most by preteen girls in fantasies involving Johnny Depp.

ANGST: A very popular genre of fanfic writing. Refers to a character who experiences fear, anxiety or is just plain depressed. He may whine or spend a lot of time feeling sorry for himself. There are a number of Canon characters who fit this description.

AU: Alternate Universe. This is the most commonly used genre in fanfiction. As opposed to a prequel or sequel, the author diverts from Canon and retells the story had the circumstances been different. Stand Fast and Damn the Devil by Osheen Nevoy is a tale of what might have happened had Bill Malloy not been murdered on Widow’s Hill that fateful night. In Eternally Bonded by The Creative Brewery, Barnabas and Josette are a cute vampire couple set loose in modern times.

AVATAR: aka Self Insertion. Often associated with a Mary Sue, the author inserts herself into the story, usually in order to become romantically involved with a Canon character.

BETA: An editor for fanfiction. A beta will proofread and review a story so the author may revise accordingly before posting for the general public. It is highly recommended to have one of these. Seriously.

CANON: The plot guidelines established in the OS (original series).

CHARACTER DEATH: A warning that, within the story, a Canon character will die. But they have to really die, not just die and come back in the next chapter as a vampire, like a certain author did in Interlude.

CON: A header warning which indicates there will be scenes of consensual sex between (presumably) two characters. Heterosexual mating is indicated with F/M. Related terms include dubious or DUB CON (coerced sex) and NON CON (nonconsensual, or rape). I like to include a warning for nonconsensual bloodsucking when appropriate. See Trigger Warnings.

CRACK FIC: A story that is entirely pointless and utterly ridiculous. Characters are most often OOC and the author was probably high/drunk/on a sugar rush when they wrote it. Usually intended to be humorous. Usually isn’t.

CROSSOVER: A story combining two or more fandoms. Sometimes abbreviated as Xover. My favorite is still Leap into the Shadows, by TrudiRose, which mixes up Quantum Leap and Dark Shadows. Other popular crossovers have combined DS with the Addams Family, Harry Potter, Star Trek and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

DISCLAIMER: You gotta put one at the beginning or end of every fanfic, saying something to the effect of I do not own Dark Shadows, which is a Dan Curtis Production, or any other copyrighted material contained herein.

DRABBLE: A self-contained fanfic of roughly 100 words. A half drabble is 50 words and a double drabble is 200 words. It can be used to describe any extremely short piece. Source of Evil by Yarol says it all in 100 words, and it is a must read.

FANON: Elements that are generally accepted by the fandom as being true but are neither confirmed nor denied by the official source material. Example: Barnabas is a terrible driver.

FEMSLASH: A lesbian pairing, which may be indicated in the header with F/F. For example, Josette dumps Barnabas for Angelique in Two Women in Love by Daryl Wor.

FLUFF: A work that is light-hearted or silly. Usually a one-shot. In Collinsport High, Vicki encountered some mean girls.

GEN or GENFIC: Fanfiction that would be rated G or PG. It contains no sexual situations or graphic violence and has little if any cursing.

HURT/COMFORT (h/c):  A term for stories in which a character is put through a traumatizing experience in order to be later comforted. In Deep Water by N.J. Nidiffer, Willie gets mugged by local thugs and (for a change) Barnabas puts on the Band Aids. The corresponding genre is HURT/NO COMFORT, in which no Band Aids are involved.

LEMON: Light the candles, pour some wine and get ready for some explicit sexual material. The Courage to Stand by mtinpa2005 fits that description and throws in lots of violence as well; aka ADULTFIC.

LIME: Some sexual material, but not quite as lemony.

MARY SUE: An original female character who is unrealistically perfect in every way, or otherwise badly conceived. It comes from a 1973 Star Trek zinefic titled A Trekkie’s Tale, starring Lt. Mary Sue, the youngest lieutenant in the fleet. It is sometimes associated with self insertion and carries negative connotations of wish fulfillment on the part of the author. The male counterpart is a GARY STU.

NOTP: No True Pairing. Your least favorite couple. The match made in hell.

OTP: One True Pairing. Your favorite couple. The match made in heaven.

ONE SHOT: A single chapter story. In Drastic Measures, by neverwithoutyou, Dr. Hoffman gets rid of her rival, that pesky Angelique, once and for all. Julia is pretty bad-ass to be able to do that in just one chapter.

OC: Original Character. A character not in the original story but created by the fanfic author, i.e., Willie’s wife, Abigail, in the trilogy by Mina225 or the dozens of new faces in the Collinsport Chronicles by Maryland Rose. Variations include OFC (original female character) and OMC (original male character).

OOC - Out Of Character: A term used when a character acts in a way that does not fit with the source material. Example: Vicki understands something, Roger turns down a drink, or Willie uses good judgment.

PLOT BUNNY: An idea that sticks in a writer’s head and will not go away until it is put to paper or screen.

PRE-SERIES: A prequel to the original storyline. Legacy of Shadows: Symphony of Terror by jeuxsansfrontieres takes place in 1927 with 12-year-old Elizabeth and four-year-old Roger Collins. Likewise, a CONTINUATION picks up after the series ended. For instance, Julia marries Barnabas, they produce a hoard of bloodsucking doctors who experiment on themselves, and live happily ever after. A need for closure is often the motivation here. 

POV: Point of View, like when Adam ponders his feelings for Carolyn in Poetry in Motion by Magical Irish Dolphin.

PWP: Porn Without Plot, or “Plot? What Plot?” Often a series of sexually oriented vignettes with no discernable storyline.

RL: Real Life. That thing you have to do between fanfictions.

ROUND ROBIN: A fanfiction written by more than one author; they take turns writing chapters. A kind of Who’s Line is it Anyway? improv game for writers, except that Drew Carey will not be there to buzz you out.

SHIPPING: Derived from the word “relationship,” the writer plays matchmaker for her favorite couple who may or may not have hooked up in the original story. Popular DS examples are Barnabas/Julia and Willie/Maggie. Phrases such as “set the ship to sail” and “watch the ship sink” are common.

SIDE FIC aka DIVERSION: Usually a one-shot which takes place during another story from someone else’s POV. It may also fill the gap between scenes in the original source material. In The Earrings Diversion by Sylvia Bond, Barnabas discovers the missing earrings were actually given to Maggie.

SLASH: A homosexual pairing. Fluffybeaumont has written several non-explicit fics, including Gone to Sea which teams Nathan Forbes and Rev. Trask. The Devil You Know by Kirasmommie is X-rated and well written, if you overlook the misspelling of Carolyn’s name.

SPOILER: Something which may appear in the synopsis or text which gives away the ending or plot twist. It is best to proceed these comments with the warning SPOILER ALERT.

SQUICK: Something you find upsetting, disturbing or totally grosses you out. Some people find adultfic, excessive violence or bad language squicky. Others might be repulsed by an unsightly pairing, such as the aged Barnabas and just about anyone.

TROLL: A person who sows discord on the Internet by posting inflammatory, rude, or off-topic comments called FLAMES. If you “feed the troll” by responding, it may result in a FLAME WAR. Readers who frequent a certain DS Facebook fanpage may have recently seen one on the topic of fanfiction.

TW: Trigger Warning. A heads-up to readers of potentially squicky elements, such as abuse, rape and other uncomfortable situations.

UST: Header warning for Unresolved Sexual Tension.

WAFF: Warm and Fuzzy Feeling. A “feel good” story. Try Easter at the Old House by KatieYoung1960. Spoiler alert: chocolate bunnies are involved.

ZINE: A soft cover bound collection of stories dedicated to a particular fandom. Fanzine popularity decreased significantly with the corresponding rise of fast and free fanfiction on the Internet. The nice thing about zines: They were more carefully edited than their modern counterparts.

***

So, if you have a plot bunny in your head, go churn out a waffy one-shot of lemon fluff with the OTP you ship most.

But, even if you are not inspired to make your own contribution, read and enjoy the many and varied offerings of fanfic writers around the world as they celebrate their favorite Gothic TV soap opera and help keep its spirit alive.

Don’t forget to tip your author, which means leave a comment or review when possible. Think of them as a bartender who isn’t charging you for drinks.


Marie Maginity is the author of the six-part Willie Loomis World Series, and writes under the names Mad Margaret and Lizzie Bathory. She has a BA in Theatre and works as a professional actor, director and drama teacher. She has had many “straight” jobs, including bartender, gas station jockey, graphic artist, website designer, facepainter and film projectionist. Once, she bullshitted her way into a newspaper job as a reporter and, over the next eight years, became a copy editor, feature writer and assistant editor. She lives in the suburbs of Philadelphia with one husband, two daughters and two cats.

COLLINSPORT SHIPPING: The Chronic Chronicles

By MARIE MAGINITY,
author of the Willie Loomis World Series and other DS fanfiction

The Collinsport Chronicles is a 51-part series with more meticulous, concurrent storylines than a soap opera, brought to screen and paper by the highly imaginative Adriana Pena under the pen name Maryland Rose. When I refer to it in my title as chronic, I don’t mean to imply it is disease ridden, but refer to the definition “pertaining to a long-lasting condition.” Then again, Urban Dictionary also defines the word as “very high-quality weed, generally with red hairs on it,” but, to the best of my knowledge, this does not apply.

She has published short stories in fanzines under her real name, using Maryland Rose only for the humor pieces. In one, Barnabas transforms Rosanne Rosannadanna into Josette. In another offering, Carl Collins haunts Barnabas and Quentin every April Fools’ Day, subjecting them to all sorts of practical jokes. She gives credit for the original idea to Geoffrey Hamell, a prominent DS fan and fiction writer in the 1980s.

Adriana Pena was born in Argentina. She lived and studied there until age 20, when her family fled after the overthrow of President Illia in 1966. Rebels took over the University of Buenos Aires, where her parents worked, as an excuse to cleanse it of “Communism.” They beat students and professors in what was called the “Night of the Long Sticks.” Although the Penas were not present at the atrocity, they made an understandably hasty exit at the first opportunity.

The experience left an indelible impression on the young woman and gave her an interesting slant on life.

“Even if you have nothing to do with politics, politics would have its way with you anyway. A lot of what I learned [during that time] ended up in my fiction, in one way or another. While, for many, DARK SHADOWS is an escape from reality, in fact, it is a way of talking about reality in metaphoric ways, so that it will be easier to handle.”

Adriana watched the series in its original run, though not from the very beginning, because she arrived in the US in 1968 and, for a while, her ABC affiliate would not transmit it. I wonder if the station manager was named Trask.

I asked Ms. Pena, as I do every author, how did she get hooked on DS and what inspired her to start writing about it?

“I was fascinated by it; it resonated in more ways than one. During its final year, though, I became an irregular viewer. I had strong views about what [the show] meant and how it should go, and it made me mad when the writers did not follow my wishes.”

This is a common theme among fan fiction writers — I call them the revisionists; they include the writers of alternate universe and single POV stories. Others are supplementalists (a word I just invented), who indulge in prequels and sequels. Third (and last) are the recyclers, who simply retell the original story, presumably for some cathartic purpose and to relive it vicariously through their keyboards. Some authors (such as I) fall into all three categories, so I shall reserve judgment.

“The 1840 sequence was a retread; they lost out on a lot of wonderful opportunities. Also, there were awful continuity problems with so much time travel. For instance, Quentin's staircase went through dimensions as well as time (there were a few bugs in the system), so that both the 1840 and the 1897 events do not clash — Grandma Edith is alive and Quentin I dies without issue, so that Gabriel's children inherit, and thus we have Gabriel's descendants instead of Quentin's in 1897.”

When the television series ended, Adriana resigned herself to move on and turned her attentions to reading fantasy and science fiction. After living in Pennsylvania, she moved to Texas for a spell. During that time she had the privilege of seeing Jonathan Frid perform as Lionel Barrymore in THE ROYAL FAMILY, and again visions of DARK SHADOWS danced in her head.

“I started obsessing over it, and began to wonder: It has been over ten years; what are they doing now in Collinsport? So the Chronicles began. I wrote a short story where I set out what I thought might happen.

“Barnabas was an irritating, undead Felix Unger. Angelique and Barnabas lived together, but she realized that Barnabas had collected so many scars and neuroses along the way, that he was no longer the man she fell in love with — that, in fact, he had become insufferable.

“Barnabas’ and Julia's relationship reached a rupture point when he took to reading her textbooks. During those long, boring nights alone, he read anything he can get his hands on — and started telling her how to run her practice. Later I explore what happens when Barnabas runs out of money and needs a job.

“Carolyn became a real bitch after Elizabeth went cougar and stole her fiancé.

“Maggie became a U.S. Representative. Later I realized that this allowed me to defuse the problem of Maggie remembering what Barnabas did to her. She remembers alright, but what concerns her most is that no one learns of her time in an insane asylum. That means no mention at all of what happened in 1967, or she will deep-six you.”

And that’s just the first story. It was basically a one-shot, she told herself, just for a bit of fun. Meanwhile, Adriana discovered fanzines and subscribed to The World of Dark Shadows (TWODS), and started on her first sequel.

“If Barnabas was a Felix Unger type, where was Oscar Madison? So an original character, Elmer Urrey/Derek Pearce, was born. I was inspired by an Odd Couple episode in which Felix gives money to Oscar to buy a burial plot, and Oscar puts the money on a horse that cannot lose, but does anyway.”

If it takes place at a racetrack, sounds to me like a role for John Karlen.

Perhaps the word chronic is appropriate because it is so often associated with long-lasting disease. That’s one way to describe why we addicts feel compelled to churn out sequel after sequel. This is the last one, I swear; I won’t write any more — after the one after this. Seriously, we need some sort of 12-Step Program. My one-shot prequel is now gestating #7, and I can picture myself at age 90-something, writing triple-digit stories about my equally ancient protagonist.

Thus, Adriana’s second story begat a third, which couldn’t be helped because #2 ended on a cliffhanger. A fourth followed, and the rest, as they say, is history. Ms. Pena went on to establish herself as one of the most prolific writers of DS fanfiction.

“I went into a routine, writing 30 lines a day by hand. When the rough draft was finished, I put it aside for a month while I continued with the next installment. Then I would revisit the original and make a coherent story out of it (and, knowing what would happen next, adjust as necessary). This would be followed by another month in storage, revision into a final ‘clean’ copy, and put it out for publishing.

“I attempted to copyright the works, but U.S. Copyright Office rejected them, saying they wanted the best edition. I told them those pages (with holes punched and construction paper covers assembled in my bedroom) were the best edition. I had to state that it was derivative work, and I used someone else's characters and plots, but added new stuff.

“Other stories were published in TWODS, and I know that a lot of people loved them. I became a member of the Kathy Resch stable of fanfic writers. Meanwhile, I was creating the Chronicles in my bedroom, “sold” them through ads in various fanzines, and delivering the goods via U.S. Postal Service. There was no profit; it was a labor of love.

“After a total of 51 Chronicles, I decided I wanted my life back. So I did the only thing that could allow that to happen, and killed off Barnabas. After that, my life got interesting, as I lost my job during the Bush I Recession, went into business for myself and ended up in bankruptcy court.”

I hope this was not Karma biting Ms. Pena in the ass for killing off Barnabas.

“I returned to Pennsylvania, moved back in with my parents and, after a couple of years of working as a programmer, they presented me with a proposition: I could stay with them, take care of them in their old age, and then I would keep the house — and that’s what happened. The master copies of the Chronicles came back with me, and stayed in their box for many years. I kept saying, One day I have to get them out and do something with them.

“In 2012, Jonathan Frid died, and once more, it all came back to me. I began to contact old friends on Facebook and decided it was time to put those Chronicles on the web. It took me a whole year, and I was surprised at some of the things I had written. Tweaks were necessary, some minor (having to do with pacing and redundancies); some major (Vicky had to be cured of the I am secretly a princess fantasy). But after so many years, I had been cured of some delusions too.

“I had quite a bit of feedback back in the eighties. People loved it, since the plots were getting weirder and weirder. Someone commented how great it was to see the Three Stooges in Collinsport. They referred to Quentin, Sebastian and Adam, who had tried to use the hand of Count Petofi to disguise themselves, and ended up looking like Curly Larry and Moe.”

The Chronicles saw the introduction of many original characters into the lives of the ones we all know.

•    Iris, (who dates Barnabas briefly), Violet (her disturbed sister) and Peter (her nephew)
•    Frank Torrance, a DC bureaucrat who gets Barnabas a government job and has a fling with Angelique.  
•    George Brant, the new sheriff in town
•    Elmer Urrey/Derek Pearce, the Oscar to Barney’s Felix — chased by the Mob, tries to fix horse races through vampirism
•    Old Munsungan, Harry Redwolf and the Indian tribe.
•    Kenneth Anderson (Julia's husband) and daughter, Gretchen.
•    Kira Petofi
•    Tammy Innes, who turns out to be Barnabas’ great-great-great-great-granddaughter; she calls him honky
•    Delia Harding, a hospital nurse with a taste for S&M.
•    Frances Jackson, another nurse. Barnabas saves her life after a suicide attempt
•    Louella Loomis (Willie's wife), Pearl (their daughter) and Robert Loomis (Willie's father)
•    Xavier Davenport
•    Alma Quarles (the innkeeper) and daughter Alma (the reincarnation of Sarah)
•    Jake, who works at Wyndecliffe.
•    Captain Todd, Sergeant Haskell, Doctor Blair and Victoria Collins (Chris Collins' wife)
•    Edmund, son of Quentin and Maggie
•    Sandy and Herbert Miller, a local couple, hostile to the supernatural community until…
•    Oriana Falchi, a reporter who has a fling with Barnabas.
•    Priscilla Collins, the ghost of Barnabas' first wife
•    Anselm Trask, the white sheep of the Trask family
•    Zeb and Jessica King, who run the local VD clinic. They hunt for Barnabas because Quentin has been using his name when picking up girls in bars.
•    Dr. Siegfried Verhoff (a friend of Freud, specializes in vampire children) and Cecily (a vampire child)
•    Richard Zimmerman, Julia’s cousin. A Holocaust survivor who became a vampire while running from the Nazis
•    Yolanda Overton, Sky Rumsen's niece
•    Urien Yost, a street urchin adopted by Barnabas and George
•    Zoya Zalisky, a gypsy who later becomes a phoenix

Now, everyone pull up a session of Notepad, because there’s going to be a pop quiz. In addition to keeping track of enough characters to populate a small town, Adriana goes to great lengths to develop every idea to its fullest potential.

“I am from the Three Stooges School, that is to say, no story is finished until the maximum amount of catastrophe can be extracted from it. Often the [original] writers did not realize what they had in their hands and were fumbling, which is what happens when you are churning out scripts daily; there is no chance to develop interesting sidelines. So I grabbed up all those tantalizing bits and pieces and tried to make sense of them.

“For instance, Quentin: the portrait keeps him young by preventing changes, but that includes mental changes too. In other words, Quentin has not learned one damn thing ever since his portrait was painted — perfectly logical when you think of it.

“I did not like to have the ‘normal’ characters sidelined. After all, Roger was supposed to be a chief troublemaker, but got demoted to saying witty things, brandy in hand. I restored both he and son David to their troublemaker status.  Had the writers kept to their original concept, when David discovers Barnabas’ coffin, he would not tell the adults, but rig an incendiary device to it. If I was to make a remake of DS myself, I would have Barnabas discover that he is the sane one of his family.

“I do not buy into that mindset that evil only comes in supernatural form, and that normal people are just innocent bystanders. Human capacity for mischief is unlimited, and a supernatural creature that forgets that may have a very rude awakening, which is why Elmer/Derek runs scared when the Mob is after him. The Mob might not know how to kill a vampire, but Elmer is not hanging around until they figure it out.

“I do not agree with the need to keep reality at a distance, though that was part of the original charm; you lose a lot of stories that way. There were Indian tribes in Maine, which made for a great storyline. The black descendant of Barnabas brings in the slave trade. Don’t forget the French Revolution. It always irritated me that they sent Josette to Paris to go shopping in 1794 when Robespierre was cutting off heads right and left. You ignore it and you lose great stories about tumbrels going to the guillotine, knitting ladies, and the Scarlet Pimpernel. If there is ever a DS remake, the 1795 storyline should be moved to 1785, when King Louis is still on his throne.

“As the 1960s were a cusp for a change of attitude, the goal should not be for Barnabas to be cured, but to learn to cope with his condition and become a fact of life that people can live with. After all, at this time, there were still some light-skinned blacks who wanted to pass as white.  There were also a lot of gays hiding in closets or submitting themselves to therapies that would make Dr. Lang seem sensible in comparison. So, given the change in attitudes, I decided that Barnabas should not adapt but demand acceptance. Of course, if he keeps feeding on different victims, soon there will be more people who know than people who don't, until someone says ‘Barnabas Collins is a vampire,’ and the answer is, ‘Oh, you noticed?’"

Give that man a picket sign that reads I’m dead, Blood’s red, Get over it.

The author chose to set her stories 10 years after the end of the series, in order to implement those changes. One excellent choice was the resurrection of Megan Todd as a strong, competent, yet gorgeous woman. When Barnabas employs his knack for making dippy decisions, she reminds him that vampirism is no excuse for stupidity.

For me, Adriana’s works are an amusement park fun-house ride. They fly this way and that, whip around corners and everywhere you look, some new, often totally outrageous (but not illogical) thing is popping up — sea monsters, mermaids, Sigmund Freud, a take-off on Casablanca, old-school sorcerers or Laura commanding an army of salamanders. Salamanders?

Why not? The possibilities are limited only by one’s imagination.


Marie Maginity is the author of the six-part Willie Loomis World Series, and writes under the names Mad Margaret and Lizzie Bathory. She has a BA in Theatre and works as a professional actor, director and drama teacher. She has had many “straight” jobs, including bartender, gas station jockey, graphic artist, website designer, facepainter and film projectionist. Once, she bullshitted her way into a newspaper job as a reporter and, over the next eight years, became a copy editor, feature writer and assistant editor. She lives in the suburbs of Philadelphia with one husband, two daughters and two cats.

COLLINSPORT SHIPPING: Magnificent Obsession

By MARIE MAGINITY
 
You may be wondering why every article I write is about Williefic and, I promise to expand my horizons soon, but in honor of my trip to interview John Karlen this week, here is the profile of another Willie writer, Mina225, the popular author of The Beginning, Restoration, and Return to Collinwood.

Just because I know almost nothing about fanfiction outside my little Willie Loomis World Series, doesn’t stop me from pretending that I do. Actually I have read other people’s Willie works, specifically the Sylvia Bond stories, Christina Pilz and Mary Overstreet. They were all well written but somewhat similar in tone, and inspired me to branch out and invent my own DS fiction personas just over a year ago.

After carefully plotting out stories 1, 2 and 3, I was doing research for #4, Changes, which was based on the brilliant notion of exploring what happened to Willie during the time he went missing. It is also the introduction of Barnabas, the big bad vampire.

Then reality reared its ugly head. Not only was my idea unoriginal, having been the subject of several other authors over the years, but another writer had recently beaten me to the punch. Some upstart named Mina225 was midway through a story at Fanfiction.net titled The Beginning, all about — you guessed it: The missing days.

My next mission was to plot the downfall of Mina225. Part of me did not want to read her fic under any circumstances, lest I be influenced by the piece and accidentally “borrow” her ideas. Another part of me could not resist seeing how another author handled the same subject matter. Perhaps, if our style and approach were different enough, there may be room for both of us on the Internet.

And so it was. Very different. Where I abuse alliteration and take a humorous approach, Mina leads her readers down dark passages of horrific imagery and page-turning suspense. Not page-turning — I meant to say down-scrolling.

I plowed through her first few chapters, trying to overlook her blatant disregard for commas. Finally, I sent the writer a personal message, explaining how much I enjoyed the story but that her lack of punctuation was driving me to Wyndcliffe.

Fortunately, she was not offended. From that point, Mina and I became friends and have enjoyed a long and mutually beneficial correspondence. We discuss our plot devices and offer assistance when one of us writes herself into a corner. She has taught me to go beyond character development and dialogue and actually tell a story, preferably one with a climax. I have taught her to use quotation marks, but she may be doing that just to humor me.

A short while ago, I asked Mina if she would consent to be interviewed for this column and threw a boatload of questions at her about her background and writing. I noticed that her answers have a lot more commas.

Tell me about yourself and what do you do when you’re not writing fanfiction?

I am 39 years old and grew up in a town right between Chicago and Milwaukee. I have been married for 15 years, have a daughter who is 11, and a year ago had no idea that fanfiction existed.

My educational background is pretty nerdy. I think I declared a different major every semester of my college career. Music, Art, Theater, Biology, Astronomy, Business, Nursing (that was a horrible disaster), but after five years of bouncing around, I needed to get out of school and start paying bills. I looked at what I had the most credits in and wound up a software engineer. I should have just started there. I took my first computer apart when I was 8 or 9 and the classes always came easy to me, so I used them as filler to keep my GPA up.

I’ve done a million different jobs related to that field, but today I am self employed as an independent consultant.  My job can be extremely demanding and stressful, and I spend my days traveling to different corporations.

I get bored pretty quickly, so consulting is perfect.  Different people and different places all the time, I like the change in atmosphere.  It also allows me to work from home a bit too, which is an added bonus, and one I am thankful to have.

Why do you write horror stories?

As a young girl, 6 or 7 maybe, I remember the other kids watching Saturday morning cartoons, and eating cereal in front of the TV, but not me. My dad would get up with me, and we watched old horror movies, the classics, and ate sardine crackers and cannibal sandwiches, and I LOVED it. 

I grew up with a great love of the Universal Studios monster movies and all kinds of pulp fiction. What really grabbed me was the artistry of the period, and as a pre-teen that love turned into art. While other kids were busy drawing pictures of rainbows and flowers, I was learning to play classical violin (including the theme to PSYCHO) and drawing monsters, werewolves, wizards, ghouls—trying to emulate the covers of the pulp magazines. My mother thought perhaps I was in need of therapy.

Now, almost 40, that passion has not gone away. Over the past decade my job has taken me all over the world as an IT consultant, and I have been blessed to have had the privilege to work with people, and within their cultures, as opposed to only seeing the world on a tour bus. It has also allowed me to watch many of my favorite classics in other languages, and watch some international stuff that is really spectacular in this genre. In Singapore, I was lucky enough to find a movie channel playing JU-ON: THE GRUDGE, which scared the pants off of me. The Belgium film DAUGHTERS OF DARKNESS was another great film. I watched it in a hotel in Brussels, while eating room service and drinking wine, little did I know that John Karlen would fuel a future obsession.

I can’t get into the thrasher SAW, HOSTEL movies. It’s just too easy to cut someone open and say, “look, it’s scary.” Instead I prefer FRANKENSTEIN and BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN — I probably own every old horror movie ever made, If we are at dinner with a paper table cloth and a crayon, an image will emerge that will have my friends questioning what goes on in my brain. I admit that I kept my sketch book hidden for a long time.

I discovered DARK SHADOWS after the Johnny Depp movie was announced. That was the first I had ever heard of the soap opera (I, too, wonder how on earth I never heard of it before) and I was immediately intrigued. I began watching Netflix constantly. About 10 episodes in, I became fascinated with Willie’s character. I found that I couldn’t stop watching, and felt that somehow I must break this obsession, so I Googled something silly like “how to break a soap opera obsession” and stumbled on an answer that said: “embrace your obsession…and write about it”. 

And that led you to begin writing fanfiction?

I started to fish around and soon realized there was an entire world of writers out there creating alternate lives for their favorite characters. I read a few Willie stories, none of them had me over the moon, and none of them attempted to fill the giant gap where he goes missing, so I figured I would give it a try. I had always wanted to write, illustrations weren’t enough, and I wrote my first story: The Beginning. A new obsession was born.

I went on to write a second story, Restoration, curious to see if I could develop something new. Would anyone read it if I introduce an original character? Turns out they did, and I am now into my third story. 

I have since grown to love some other Willie stories out there too, I went down a Willie fanfic rabbit hole on the Internet and I love the many different versions that people have for his character. After finishing my second story, I found the Sylvia Bond stories, and they are wonderful. Another favorite of mine are the Mad Margaret stories. I have read just about all of them that I can find, and I prefer the ones with original story line that lean less on slash or Willie and Barnabas as a pairing.

How has your writing developed over the course of three stories?

I am not the best writer in the world; I abuse commas and grammar more than Barnabas abuses Willie, but I’d like to think I am getting better. When this last story is all done, Return to Collinwood, I am going to leave the DS world as a writer for a while and attempt something completely original.
Are you a closet writer, as many fanfic authors are?

This fanfiction world was a dirty little secret of mine for a long time. I wasn’t embarrassed of my obsession with John Karlen, or Dark Shadows. Everyone who knows me knows of my love of the genre, and my best friend thinks it is hilarious that I am in love with the guy from Cagney and Lacey.

No, it was the fear of the people close to me reading something that I wrote and hating it, or finding it boring and talentless. When you write, you expose yourself in a way that you normally wouldn’t, and that was unnerving, still is. Most of my good friends know, but do not read (I don’t think), and if they do, they keep it to themselves. My co-workers do not know of this hobby.

My husband wants me to kill off all my DS characters and start writing my own stuff, but I somehow think that a sudden alien abduction of my characters, and their disappearance into space, would leave my readers sending me a lot of hate mail. The readers have been wonderful and loyal and I owe it to them to finish up my last story with a bang versus having my characters eating spaghetti in some crappy restaurant only to have the screen suddenly go black. (Yes, that was a Soprano’s reference, which I have never once watched, but am very aware of the letdown at the end.)

If you kill off Willie Loomis, you will get hate mail. Just sayin’.

When I started writing The Beginning, I never intended to take it this far. It was the means to end an obsessive relationship with Dark Shadows. I was watching the original series and I completely fell in love with Willie (and John Karlen). I love how John Karlen made him so vulnerable and I instantly wanted to see more of him. I think I have seen everything John has ever been in.

How is it we have never discussed this before?

When I was watching the series I found I was only truly interested in Willie’s story line. I would fish out what episodes he was in and then order them on Netflix. All the while I had hoped that something would develop with Willie and Maggie, but I actually wound up disliking her in the end and I wasn’t too thrilled with the storyline for Willie either. I wanted to see Willie as the focus and see him get some love, and the more I watched the show, the more irritated I became with Willie getting the shaft all the time, and Maggie just started to annoy me.

So I decided to write the second story to create an OC (original character) and Abigail was born. I wanted her to be a little imperfect and bull headed, and strong in ways that Willie wasn’t, most of all I wanted her to be believable. My other enjoyment with an OC is the freedom to completely do anything I want. I’m not boxed into a character that already existed. It was fun to create her and bring her to life.

When I finished Restoration, I didn’t want to say goodbye to the characters. I was, (and still am), deeply attached to them. So I added the epilogue and started on Return to Collinwood. I put an outline together and started writing. I publish each chapter as I write them, using the outline as a guide, and admittedly this has painted me into a corner at times. I think the overall story could have been better if I would have written it all out as a complete piece of work.

I am still amazed that you can post chapters to an incomplete story. That would scare the crap out of me. But then, it’s kind of like improvisational acting. The piece always seems like it was planned to end exactly as it does. 

There have been many occurrences where an idea pops into my head and I can’t use it because I have made it impossible based on something I wrote in a previous chapter.

About a quarter of the way through, I was drinking wine and chatting with a friend. He mentioned this crazy story about a mysterious “dog suicide” bridge in Scotland. The next thing I knew I was almost a bottle of wine down and my outline was thrown out the window. The new storyline took a left turn as the “Thin Bridge” was created. I have been flying by the seat of my pants ever since, and it has taken longer to get each chapter out. 

Where do you get your ideas?

Coming up with ideas for the story is done almost completely in my car, or on a plane, or based on some random conversation that I have. I get an idea and I run the story though my head and one out of every 100 ideas sticks and I write it down. Eventually I find some quiet time and piece all the fragments together into a new chapter. Many times I have an idea that, after thinking it through for my Willie stories, just won’t fit. But they are things I want to keep for a different story, so I have a laundry list of random ideas that will one day wind up in something that I write.

Research has definitely slowed down my writing. In Return, I have characters in the late 1700s, and I want make sure I do the time period justice. I do most of my research online and I am sure that there are aspects that aren’t quite right.

You have a large fan following. Do you enjoy getting reviews and comments?

I have quite a few regular readers from all over the world, or so the stats tell me, and my first and second stories pick up a few new readers every now and again. There is definitely a steady group of core readers who will leave comments. I get private messaged with everything from personal notes to constructive criticism, and I really enjoy the feedback. I absolutely love to get reviews. I check often and I get excited when my phone pings me for new email and I see the little FanFiction tag.

Reviews are really the only way, as a writer, I know if I’m still entertaining the readers, or if I have lost everyone completely. When it goes quiet I start to question the story. Because I am writing and publishing each chapter as I go, the readers’ feedback can play a lot into the next chapter, and they really have an influence on where I take the story. It is almost interactive in a way.

What are your plans after Return to Collinwood is finished?

Looking back at my first story, I cringe inside at some of my writing. I plan to go back and re-do The Beginning so that it is more consistent in style with the others. Because I originally did it as a one-shot it loses the continuity to the other stories. I also plan to go back into Restoration and rewrite portions of that. No major story line changes, just fix some of the awkwardness that is in there. I think my writing has gotten better throughout the series, and I attribute much of that to the readers who are brave enough to reach out and point out areas of improvement. I don’t get upset with criticism, although if it were something like “I hate your stories” or “your imagination blows,” that would sting a bit.

I have really gotten a lot out of writing these stories on a personal level. As a kid, I was always making up tall tales and drawing my characters on just about any surface that I could. My love of the old movies and stories hasn’t waned, but somewhere along the way that desire to be the creator of images and stories got lost.

Writing fanfic has helped me find that kid again and I have been lucky enough to rediscover this passion. It has influenced my daughter too! She has been writing her own stories now and illustrating them, and we often work on our stories together.

What started out as a way to overcome an obsession has actually turned into an entirely new one. I am still in love with Willie and John Karlen, and my obsession has turned into a passion that I will continue to do. I will keep writing after Return is complete. I enjoy it far too much to stop. I have started some original stuff, but I admit that I have another idea for Willie and Abigail, too. I guess I’ll need to wait and see how the current story ends first.

____________________________________________________________________________

Marie Maginity is the author of the six-part Willie Loomis World Series, and writes under the names Mad Margaret and Lizzie Bathory. She has a BA in Theatre and works as a professional actor, director and drama teacher. She has had many “straight” jobs, including bartender, gas station jockey, graphic artist, website designer, facepainter and film projectionist. Once, she bullshitted her way into a newspaper job as a reporter and, over the next eight years, became a copy editor, feature writer and assistant editor. She lives in the suburbs of Philadelphia with one husband, two daughters and two cats.

COLLINSPORT SHIPPING: Dark Shadows Vs. the World

Part II of Con-fusion, the art of crossover fanfiction, concerns the comedic possibilities of combining Dark Shadows with an unrelated work of fiction, drama, TV show.

A funny example is Collinsport High, a Mean Girls meme, by Sanpan. It’s short and cute.

South Collinsport.

I recently spoke to Feriku, whom I met on the Drawing Room Forum at Collinsport.net. She started a thread about crossover fanfics and a collection of ideas for zany spoofs. True, she is a writer who has yet to actually author a DS fanfic, but the young lady is a discriminating reader (and successful writer in other categories) and a big fan so I think she will go places once she get out of the starting gate.

Feriku is 22 years old with a Bachelor’s of Arts in English and minor in Creative Writing, and about to seriously hone her skills in an intense fiction-writing graduate program. She also does freelance work; one job is a long-term position as the creative writer for a fashion store called Wizards of the West. Instead of standard product descriptions, all of the store’s products are linked together as part of an overarching fantasy story involving powerful wizards, grumpy scientists and dark forces just beginning to show themselves.

She has had several works of original fiction published as Samantha Lienhard. Zombie fans may enjoy Sacreya’s Legacy, a horror serial, starring a zombie detective, which is available online for free! Her resume also includes the short Christmas romance, A Special Present, and a zombie comedy novella, The Accidental Zombie. The author is currently running a contest to give away a free copy of The Accidental Zombie. In addition, this summer should see the publication of The Book at Dernier, a Lovecraftian horror serial.

Well, that’s all very nice, but how about some Shadows fic?

*

I’m actually a pretty new [Dark Shadows] fan; it’s just over a year now that I’ve been watching it, but the story actually begins a bit before that. I can remember being a little girl listening to my mom tell me about a show that her mom had watched. It was a soap opera, but it had a character who was a vampire, and another who was a werewolf, and there was a witch, too! At the time, I tried to picture all that on a soap opera, and was completely bewildered. The idea didn’t make a lot of sense to me, but I thought it sounded like something I might watch.

The next time I heard about Dark Shadows was several years ago, after my family had discovered the miracle of iTunes.

“I have a surprise for you,” my mom said to my grandmother, handing her the iPod earbuds so that she could hear the new song she’d purchased. Almost immediately after my mom started the song, my grandmother let out an amazed gasp. “Quentin! That’s Quentin’s theme, from Dark Shadows!” 

And so, over the years, references to this strange show came up from time to time with no apparent chance of me ever getting to see it, until last May, when I decided to take a gamble and get the Dark Shadows Collection 1 as a Mother’s Day present.

I’m not sure how long it took me to become a fan. It might have happened the very moment that Willie’s insane grin turned to a look of utter horror as a hand emerged from the coffin he was hoping to rob. (Somewhere very early on, we went to see the 2012 movie—the less I say about that, the better, although some day I want to write a fanfic about the show’s characters watching it.) As we watched more episodes, I fell hopelessly in love with the show. We were getting close to the end of Collection 1 when I convinced my mom that we needed to buy the complete series, and we’ve been watching Dark Shadows ever since!

Due to the fact that I’m still not finished watching the show (at this writing, I’m somewhere in the 600s), the first thing that limits my choice of fanfiction to read is its potential for spoilers: is it before or after what I’ve already seen? The only exceptions I’ve made are an unfinished story titled “Monkeewood,” because a crossover between Dark Shadows and The Monkees sounded hilarious, and Ends, an after-the-end-of-the-show Barnabas/Julia story, because I couldn’t resist.

I can get a little picky about my choice of stories, after that. If I see an idea that sounds interesting, I’ll take a look at the first page. If it is overloaded with non-canon characters, I won’t read it. If they are acting very out-of-character and it’s not meant to be silly, I won’t read it—or I will seethe for days while resisting the urge to contact the writer and explain to them why their characterization makes me so angry. If the writing is bogged down with spelling errors, grammatical errors and huge walls of text, I won’t read it.

Fanfiction.net (my primary source for stories) does not let you search by character for Dark Shadows, which frustrates me to no end (has no one ever sent them a cast list?). After all, I want to read about my favorite characters: Barnabas, Sarah, Willie, Maggie, Julia… I’ll give odd-sounding plotlines a try; even if some leave me giggling over illogical scenarios and inexplicable plot twists, others keep me more interested than I expected and reading on to the end. Blood and Jasmines by SweetFaith06 is a good example of one that I looked at just out of bewildered curiosity of how a Barnabas/ Josette/Willie love triangle was even possible, and ended up finishing in the same sitting.

DARK SHADOWS meets THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS by Diane Tran.

Since I have yet to post a single Dark Shadows fanfic, it might sound absurd of me to say that I’m much more into writing fanfiction than reading it, but it’s true—it’s just my current position in the show that has kept me from producing the story ideas dancing around in my brain. Once I finish the show, then I’ll know enough to be able to choose the best setting in the timeline, know exactly what characters to include, know what possible plotlines are invalidated by canon, and be able to do research without fear of spoilers!

My fanfiction tends to come in two varieties: serious, developed stories, and utterly insane comedies. I especially like crossovers. It just fascinates me to think of two different worlds and casts of characters coming together, and trying to keep everyone in-character is even more fun when the setting is wildly different. My favorite idea so far for a Dark Shadows fanfic is a crossover with Green Acres. And it will most definitely be a comedy.

For anyone unfamiliar with Green Acres, it’s a sitcom from the ’60s about Oliver Douglas, a lawyer who moves from New York with his wife, Lisa, to buy a farm just outside a wacky town called Hooterville. It is utterly surreal, and as far as I’m concerned, that means I can use Hooterville logic to justify just about any crossover. My tentative title for this fanfic is “Who is Josette Collins and What Has She Got to Do With Baseball?” which should give you an idea of how strange it will be. So far, I’ve written one early scene and a handful of excerpts and notes.

When Eb, Oliver’s hired hand, wins a free vacation, Oliver objects to him leaving just before planting season. But Eb has already figured out who he can get to take his place for a while—Willie Loomis. He had met Willie several years previously, and, well, let me just show you where this is going with a short excerpt…

The streets of the city faded, and they were back in the kitchen. Eb looked at the two of them expectantly. 

“That’s it! So, can I go on vacation?”

“That’s it?” Oliver demanded. “What about the secret? What was it?”

“I can’t tell you that; I made a promise!”

“You vant him to break his promise?” Lisa demanded.

“I’m not hiring anyone with a mysterious and possibly dangerous secret!” Oliver folded his arms. “So, Eb, if you really want to go on that trip, you’re going to have to either tell me what Willie said to you, or find someone else to work for me while you’re gone.”

“Well…” Eb took a deep breath. “I guess it’s all right, since I’m just telling the two of you. Don’t go repeating it now, okay?”

“We won’t say a word,” Oliver said.

“All right… He told me that the guy he works for…” Eb paused dramatically before finishing. “…is an umpire.”

Oliver stared at him. “What kind of a secret is that?!”

“In the old country, ve had a custom,” Lisa said. “You alvays carry a bag of sand vis you, so that if you meet an umpire, you throw the sand on the ground, and he has to count it!”

“Yeah, baseball games in Hungary must be something else,” Oliver muttered, glancing sideways at her before returning his attention to Eb.

Eb’s eyes were bright with excitement. “The way I got it figured is that he must’ve been supposed to make a certain call in a game, but he didn’t, and so now he’s gotta keep a low profile, or the Mob will find him!”

“That makes sense!” Lisa said.

“No it doesn’t!” Oliver stared at Eb, wondering if his hired hand had finally gone completely crazy.

* 

That’s funny, and it captures the flavor of Green Acres perfectly. I would need to see the entrance of some DS characters by Chapter 2, though.

I hope that Feriku will break down and write a Dark Shadows piece soon and stop worrying so much about accuracy. Where I can understand she doesn’t want to contradict canon, most of our favorite fanfics are alternative universe stories that peacefully coexist alongside their original inspirations. The beauty part about fanfiction is to start with a piece of paper, blank except for two words: What if . . . ?
Gee whiz, if I worried about real storylines, the Willie Loomis World Series would be less than a paragraph.

This DARK SHADOWS/KOLCHAK crossover actually happened.

And she’s up the 600s? I’m on #75. True, this is not my first encounter, I watched the show in 1967 and again in 1977, in addition to the paltry offering from streaming Netflix, but today I wouldn’t know a Leviathan if he hit me on the head. So, I don’t write about them. Watching these early episodes is my first foray into pre-Barnabas plotline and, where I would be loath to make a disparaging remark, that vampire ain’t going to show up a minute too soon. No offence to Bill Malloy, bleeder valves and fountain pens everywhere.

Did I get distracted again? We were talking about parody crossovers. I have transcribed to paper (well, screen) the lyrics which swam in my head last night: a combination of DS and a song from an Off-Broadway musical based on the Peanuts comic strip. I hope that’s not too obscure, or no more than Sondheim and Shakespeare.

You’re a Good Man, Barnabas

Lights up. Julia is sitting behind a large box which serves as a desk. The sign overhead reads “Psychiatric Help.” Below is another sign: "THE DOCTOR IS IN." Barnabas enters.

Barnabas:Oh, Julia, I'm so depressed. I don't know what to do.

Julia:  I'm sorry to hear that, Barnabas. Maybe there's something I can do to help. I think that the best thing would be for you to come out and admit everything that's wrong with you.

Barnabas: Do you really think that will help?

Julia:  Certainly.

Barnabas:Very well, I'll try.
(sings)
Who cares if I'm handsome and clever and lucid?
So what if I like drinking plasma for dinner?
I've always been known for my paranoid mood swings, and kidnapping, choking and killing off extras.
I think that I'm splendid at parties and dances
But I stand like a stick, or flies land on my face.
Or I murder the hostess
or bite Nancy Barrett
Start swinging my cane
and I spill all the claret
Oh, how could there possibly be
one fine person so thoroughly, totally, utterly bad as me.

Julia: (speaks) Well, that's okay for a starter.

Barnabas: A starter?

Julia:  Certainly. You don't think that mentioning these few superficial failings is going to do you any good, do you? Why, Barnabas, you really have to delve.
(sings)
You're stubborn, self-centered and moody.

Barnabas:I'm moody.

Julia:  You're terribly dull to be with.

Barnabas:Yes, I am.
And nobody likes me, not Maggie or Roger or Vicky or David…

Julia:  Or Julia.

Barnabas: Or Julia.

Julia: Or Willie.

Barnabas:Or Wil—
(speaks) Wait a minute, now. Willie likes me.

Julia: He only pretends to like you because you beat him. That doesn't count.

Barnabas:(softly) Or Willie. (sings)
Oh, why was I born just to be
One fine person so thoroughly, totally, utterly—

Julia: Wait!
You're not such a very nice person.

Barnabas: That's certain.

Julia: And yet there is reason for hope.

Barnabas: There's hope?

Julia: For, although you are no good at drinking like Roger
Or pouting like David
Or mugging . . . like me
You have the distinction to be
No one else but the number one reason our ratings are tops.

Barnabas: It's me!

Julia: Oh yes
It's amazingly true
For whatever it's worth, Barnabas
It's you.

Barnabas: (speaks) Quite extraordinary. I'm beginning to feel better already. You're a true friend, Julia, a true friend.

Julia: That'll be five cents, please.

Blackout.

PS: I have been in contact with a friend of John Karlen’s son, Adam, who informed me that Johnny is in the hospital with complications from diabetes. Please keep him in your thoughts or prayers. Love you, JK.

______________________________________________________________________________

Marie Maginity is the author of the six-part Willie Loomis World Series, and writes under the names Mad Margaret and Lizzie Bathory. She has a BA in Theatre and works as a professional actor, director and drama teacher. She has had many “straight” jobs, including bartender, gas station jockey, graphic artist, website designer, facepainter and film projectionist. Once, she bullshitted her way into a newspaper job as a reporter and, over the next eight years, became a copy editor, feature writer and assistant editor. She lives in the suburbs of Philadelphia with one husband, two daughters and two cats.