Preface: I don't know how this turned into a novel when all I really wanted to say was, "I don't remember." I guess that comes as no surprise to anyone who knows me and knows that short, straight and to the point has never been my style.
In the summer of 2001 I was working as a live-in nanny for three small children whose single mother often traveled for weeks on end. I had moved to the Durham-Chapel Hill area from DC to take the job and I knew no one in the area and was dying of boredom and lonliness. (I loved my kids, but a five year old and twin two year olds aren't exactly great company.) They went to nursery school for a couple hours every morning, and it just so happened that I usually got home from dropping them off a few minutes after 8 am, which happens to be when LnC is on here. I immediately got hooked on the show again. I'd loved it when it was originally aired, and had been hooked on the reruns once before already.
Anyway, I was always wandering around with these LnC stories in my head. I had all these plots and episode rewrites. But I'd never heard of fanfic and thought I was just crazy. I never told anyone about these stories in my head. One day I actually started writing one down, but then I felt REALLY crazy, so I put it aside and tried to forget about it.
Then one day I was trying out my new laptop and decided to google "Lois and Clark" - I was *shocked* by all the hits I got. I was amazed. I surfed around looking at episode summaries, pics, quotes, music videos (which thrilled me because I also had those running around in my head).
Finally, I stumbled across Annesplace. I was stunned. What was this? You mean other people have these stories in their heads and not only write them down but publish them? I was stunned -and thrilled. I started reading everying - in alphabetical order, if I remember correctly. I read and read and read and read. Anytime I had a free second, I was reading. But at that pace I exhaused all the stories on Annesplace pretty quickly. I was so sad because I thought that was all there was. Toward the end of the summer my nanny job ended and I was without computer access for a couple of weeks. But when I started school again and was hooked up the school network, you can guess what was the first thing I googled.
This time I found the Archive and was in heaven. Shortly thereafter, I found the mbs and started writing Anybody's Baby. And eventually I even went back and finished that first story I had started back before I knew about fanfic.
So, long story short, I don't remember the first story I ever read, but it was probably the first story under the first author on Annesplace.
Annie
