This is simply hilarious. I thought I was the only one who walked around with this "guilty secret."
For me it's that I'm devoted to Superman. And there is no nice way to say that. Absolutely no way to say that and sound cool. And harder still for a grown woman. I know for certain I am the only mom in the carpool line who kills the time by studying 'the Ultimate Guide to the Man of Steel.' And while it isn't in a plain brown wrapper- I am not holding it up for the world to see!
When I found L&C fanfic, and it hasn't been that long ago, I was reading it on the sly. Telling myself I was just curious, and that was all. Whenever my husband would walk through the room, I would close it all down, like it was porn, or something. He was the first one who knew, and he still didn't *know.*
After I wrote my first story and sent it in, I told *no one.* For months and months and months. Then one day my brother- who is also a journalist- asked would I help him with a something, wondered what I had been writing lately, and there was this long, long pause as I wrestled the dilemma, to tell or not to tell. He is completely trustworthy, so I fessed up. He went straight to the archive and found me easily and sent me extensive feedback. However, just a few weeks later my cousin, who lives on the other side of the country, sent me an email "cool Superman stories." My brother had blabbed far and wide, and I was out to all family members.
I write plays for our small town's little theatre. When they needed something that would draw the college crowd for this fall, and I was completely without inspiration, I just 'adapted' one of my L&C stories. It worked out nicely, even without super references and kryptonite cages, etc.. However, when the director asked me to stand and talk a bit about where my inspiration for the piece came from, she caught me entirely off guard. I stammered for a few minutes, wheels in head turning feverishly, and finally answered rather loftily, "Who really knows where ideas are born?"
Call me 1/2 out and 1/2 in.
CC (who looks perfectly normal on the outside)
