Hi, I'm looking for notes, comments, edits, suggestions on pacing, style, anything you think would be helpful for an aspiring published author to know. This is a LONG piece, and would probably be the story arc of several episodes, if not half a season, so don't expect a two-pager. As a side note: I don't own any of the characters, I am simply the wicked puppet master of this show. I also have never written fanfic before, so I'm fucking up the chapter function on this site, and just reloading the entire entry each time. Sorry about that!
Chapter 1: After The Party, There's The After-Party
The air hostess, a skinny little blond in a cranberry red dress and sensible brown shoes, picked her way delicately down the aisle, which was impressive considering the large metal cart she pushed before her during moderate turbulence. It was a full flight, and Sarah Freeberg marveled at the way the woman managed to move the cart around errant limbs of sleeping passengers that were in her path. She craned her neck over the balding man in the seat in front of her. Non-alcoholic beverages. Pity. All the hostess seemed to have was soda, and apple juice from a box. Not worth the effort of stopping the woman and asking for a flimsy plastic cup. Sarah leaned back a bit and rested her elbow on the one side of the seat that was undeniably hers. She had managed to score herself an aisle seat so she could get up from her chair during the trip without worrying about climbing over other passengers. A total stroke of luck, considering how completely last minute her flight had been booked. She reclined her seat as far as humanly possible and checked the destination tracker on the tv monitor in front of her. From New York, it was approximately thirty-six hours to the Auckland airport, with two layovers. The plane was three hours into the flight, give or take; even Virgin Australia couldn't bend space and time to make it a shorter trip. Sarah heard the man behind her huff in protest as her seat invaded his personal space. "Tough," she thought to herself, "I don't even want to be here, but if I am, I'm at least going to be comfortable. Moderately comfortable. Less uncomfortable. Thirty-three more hours…" she thought to herself. But what then? She had no contacts to speak of, and only a couple of hastily exchanged emails with some people who may or may not show up to help her once she arrived. She let out a sigh and pulled out the band holding her short brown hair in a ponytail so she could lean her head back. She had always wanted to travel the world and leave behind the insular community in which she'd been brought up, but cashing in her entire savings account and grabbing the first ticket to Auckland while packing whatever clothes happened to be clean was not how she imagined her great adventures. She closed her eyes as the hostess maneuvered past her, bumping Sarah's elbow hard enough to leave a bruise. "Thirty-three more hours." Thirty-three hours to go to a new country, find a place to stay, make her contacts, and figure out what to do with the rest of her life when her work there was done.
Yup. Seemed reasonable.