Warp War: Chapter 9: Intermission

Hello there!

Author here!

Apologies for those of you tuning in expecting to find Chapter 9 of Warp War. Well, actually, I should qualify that. This IS Chapter 9 of Warp War !

I've seen (and used) many variations of Auhtor's Notes: forewords, afterwords, epilogues etc. But I've never seen Author's Notes shoehorned mid-way through a story!

Is it against the rules? I don't know. I only know that I like to confound expectations sometimes.

I've never written a story of this length before (I hesitate to use the word 'novel'), being more comfortable with short stories to which I think the fanfic medium is most suited.

But I got an urge to see if I could do it. At least twenty chapters, I thought, possibly a Space Opera along the lines of the TV story 'Frontier in Space'.

Those of you who have read any of my previous Kim Gideon stories (are there any such beings?) may have seen a link. In the story 'Where the Heart is ?' I returned Kim home after about 2 years of travelling with the twelfth Doctor and filled in an 'off-screen' back history of their adventures together. I had no intention then of fleshing these one-liners out into stories but that is all I seem to be doing.

When thinking about my opus in 20 Chapters one line from that story kept jumping out at me:

Even more fascinating were her journeys to her own world. From its young vibrant beginnings when they had walked with dinosaurs, to the far flung future of the Warpwars...

So I began writing Warp War.

However, with hindsight I would have used an alternative title: 'The Mutation of Time' – notwithstanding the fact that John Peel used it for part of his novelization of 'The Dalek's Masterplan'. (still, It's so good I will probably use it as a chapter title !).

As you can see, my original idea for a standard Space Opera has gone off on a tangent or two.

A note on the mechanics (I am very interested in the mechanics of how writers write. I don't know whether YOU are though...)

I decided that I would try to keep 5 chapters ahead of the game. At present I have just finished Chapter 14 (and posted Chapter 8 – excluding this). I have also written three other chapters out of chronological order to be slotted in later. This is something I have done on a small scale before. In this case I got stuck on Chapter 12 and left it halfway through to write these other Chapters that seemed more concrete. (I let Chapter 12 lie dormant into my head until it matured in its own good time). Interestingly (!) one of the chapters already in the can is the final one! This positively flowed out onto the keyboard – the easiest chapter to date!

A number of people have asked me if I have any visualization of the 12th Doctor and Kim (actually that number is zero, but I can dream).

The Doctor is based on TV comedian Alan Davies (of Jonathan Creek fame), with elements of F1 driver David Coulthard and TV chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall thrown in. His costume is very much 'Jonathan Creek', and his slightly nasal UK West Country accent is from Davies himself.

For a long time I had no idea about Kim Gideon except that she looked 'ordinary' (whatever that means). Then I saw a UK stand-up commediene called Sarah Millican on TV and she struck me as being how I imagined Kim to look (albeit slightly younger that the 39 years of age I imagined Kim to be when she joined the Doctor).

Anybody interested in a 'Kimography' ? Thought not.

Here it is:

'The Word'

'Paradigm'

'Where The Heart Is?'

'The Fixed Point'

'Kimbo Meets The Snots'

'Chatoyance'

'Sister and Brother'

'The Macra Invade NYC'

'The Wedding Present'

'Squaring the Circle '(sort of)

I have a theory about Fanfic. Although we love feedback and reviews I think that the vast majority of fanfic writers do so to fulfill a creative need within themselves, rather that writing for an audience. I put myself in that category.

With that in mind, whilst I apologise to anyone who is put out, or even outraged, by this 'Intermission', it is something I felt the need to do for myself, in my story.

To take a breather.

Right, to the Kimography list above I must, of course, add Warp War, of which this is Chapter 9.

Apologies for the self-indulgence.

Where were we?

Oh yes, Kim is stranded in 1973 wondering where her Doctor is.

Mmm...where indeed? Back to the story.

As someone once said; 'Alon-sy!' Or should that be, 'Geronimo!'

(End of Chapter 9)