The Big Question

Q: Is this book fanfiction?

A: Short answer: No. The characters, the show, and the world are all my own original creations and they are not meant to particularly resemble anyone or anything, real or fictional.

Longer answer: No.

I have been writing since I could hold a pen. I have been writing fanfiction (stories based on other stories/characters/worlds) since I was a tween, and slash fanfiction (which features same-sex characters in a romantic and/or sexual relationship) since high school. I both read it and wrote it and believe that it can be incredibly high-quality and emotionally complex -- though it can also be very bad, just as any form of writing can be.

I am interested in the portrayal of gay characters on television, including the subtextual (intentional or not) portrayal of gay characters. I think television in particular has a wealth of subtext of all kinds, and I believe this probably has a lot to do with the communal nature of television production. So many hands and minds are involved in the process, sometimes something entirely new emerges -- sometimes on purpose and sometimes not.

I wanted to explore that, and I wanted to do so with characters and a world created to suit the purpose, so I built them, from the ground up.

I also wanted to be playful, though, knowing that much of my audience would be television fans and fanfiction writers/readers. The television show I created for the characters therefore intentionally mirrors aspects of many genre television shows and genre television tropes. If you think you see a bit of X-Files in there, you do. If you think you see some Buffy the Vampire Slayer, you do. Etc. Good for you, you got my in-joke, I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. :)

What you will not find is any character that maps directly onto a real or fictional person. Like any writer, I drew inspiration from my characters from various places, including friends and celebrities, but they are all original creations made from bits and pieces held together with pure imagination.

To sum up: I Just Play One on TV was written with love and fond exasperation for fanfiction, fandom, and genre television, but the book itself is most definitely not, in any way, fanfiction.