11 April 2012: A Rat's Life is now complete!  Happy reading!

8 April 2008: Missing moment fic: Waterfront for Patient X.

8 January 2008:  The first sections of 'A Rat's Life', Part 8, have been posted.

Stories--memorable stories, and the characters who live through them--often become the grid and structure behind us, the markers by which we measure our lives.  Many people have found The X-Files to be this kind of story, presenting a universe that opens the viewer, through its plots and its distinctly three-dimensional characters,  to the exploration of larger themes and issues (trust, loyalty, love, fate.)  More than merely entertaining us, the show often turned the light back on the audience, fulfilling one of director Martin Scorcese's guidelines for good film: "Maybe, maybe, maybe we learn a little something about ourselves."

An Invitation to Delve Deeper
Interested in burrowing below the surface of an X-Files character, theme or episode?   The Cave, the discussion forum that was the origin of this site, was known as "a hotbed of intelligent discussion" back in the show's heyday.  Check out the the thoughtful observations of our many astute participants preserved in our archives (the Commentary & Analysis section) linked at left.

One Story Leads to Another
When I first heard that people wrote stories about existing fictional universes (TV shows, book, movies) it seemed really strange to me.  Why, I wondered, would you want to write someone else's characters?  Wouldn't it be, well, invasive to say the very least?  Then a plot element that seemed to be the elephant in the middle of The X-Files' living room started to burrow under my skin.  When it was never addressed on the show, I did what writers naturally do: I began to explore the possibilities in story form.  Just for a few pages, I thought, until I worked these questions out of my head.  (insert wild laughter here.)  It didn't quite turn out that way. 

So, yes, I write fanfiction, or 'fanfic' as it's known.

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