Introduction

Perhaps the toughest challenge facing a fiction author is to create interesting characters, and the next toughest is designing an imaginary world in which those characters can play. Only after those difficult jobs are done well can the plot come to life.

Using pre-made characters in a pre-made setting has always seemed like cheating to me, which is why I've never been particularly interested in fan fiction ... at least until I had an interesting dream loosely based on the old Brady Bunch TV show.

This made me reconsider – if you use some elements from somebody else's fiction but re-imagine the characters so much that they become fundamentally different people, is it still "fan fiction"? I decided that it wasn't.

What follows is the result of that rationalization. If you like it, please drop a line and let me know. Thanks!