My friend, fellow author, and fellow Buffy fanย Dan Hale posted a picture today on Facebook of the show Jonny Quest. I remarked in a comment that it was my first fandom. ย
When I was a young kid (8 or 9?), the only cartoon I *had* to watch on Saturday mornings was Jonny Quest. To this day, I can still hum the theme & remember the opening title sequence. Little did I know then that Jonny, Hadji and Bandit would be my gateway drug to writing fiction, as frankly, most fandom would be.
Later on down the line, I graduated from Jonny and moved on to Star Trek: The Original Series and the fandom bug that had bit me as a child just kept biting. I created stories in my head about the characters; further adventures that were never to see the light of day. ST:ToS was the catalyst for my interest in how television shows were made and led to my getting a degree in Journalism, TV & Film.
One thing lead to another and before I knew it, I was writing, writing, writing – mostly for myself. Fan fiction (fanfic) stories set in established universes bled into my own attempts at original work. Jonny had sparked a fire that would (and will) never die.
Fandom, reading and writing fanfic and now years later, I’m a published writer. Who’d’a’thunk?