I don't know why, but ever since I became interested in "due South" and started hanging out in alt.tv.due-south, my creative juices began flowing, and I wanted to write "due South" stories of my own. I started with "crossover" stories wherein the "due South" characters meet my Rainbow Bridge folks. Then I began writing more straightforward "due South" fanfic. I've been posting the results to alt.tv.due-south.creative, and why shouldn't I post them to my own wevsite as well? So, here's what I've written so far. And I've got a lot more story ideas percolating in my brain! Enjoy. |
MOUNTIE AT THE THRESHOLD MOUNTIE CROSSES THE THRESHOLD This is a sequel to my first DS fanfic, "Mountie at the Threshold". I knew sooner or later Constable Fraser would have to go back, not by his own choice. Okay, technically three major DS characters die in this story, but that actually happens before the story begins. Yes, there's a finality to this story, but I have every intention of writing more fanfic. Think of this as (with a nod to Terry Pratchett) a trip down another leg of the Trousers of Time. Click here to go to "Mountie Crosses The Threshold". GOOD GRIEF, BENTON FRASER! And I'll bet you thought that I only wrote tearjerkers with talking animals... On October 2nd, 1950, a simple little comic strip appeared in nine newspapers, showing two children sitting at the curb, talking about a third child as he walks by. The punchline wasn't much, and the children weren't memorable; neither was the puppy that first appeared in the strip two days later. The title for the strip was not the artist's first choice; he would have preferred "Lil' Folks". But the name chosen by the syndicate - "Peanuts" - stuck, and the comic strip... well, we know what happened with the comic strip. On February 12th, 2000, the night before the final original "Peanuts" comic strip was to appear in Sunday newspapers, Charles Schulz passed away. It still hurts. This story is nothing earth-shaking. It's just a convoluted tribute to Charles Schulz and to those wonderful characters that he gave us. I wanted Constable Fraser to interact with a certain baseball manager with more enthusiam than skill, and - if only across the decades - with a certain World War I flying ace and former Head Beagle. (Oh, yes, about that peculiar surname. There really was a footnote person in aviation history named William Christmas. He is notorious for designing and building the Christmas Bullet, a prime contender as the worst airplane ever to leave the ground - ask me about it and I'll tell you more. You can consider this an exercise in kicking a man when he is down.) Click here to go to "Good Grief, Benton Fraser!". LOST IN THIS MASQUERADE This is just a little slice-of-life thingie to celebrate Hallowe'en. Nothing spooktacular. This takes place after the television episode "Juliet is Bleeding", but I depart from events in one respect, i.e., Detective Louis Gardino isn't dead. In this leg of the Trousers of Time, Detective Gardino survived the explosion of Ray's car, but he was severely wounded, and Detective Thomas E. Dewey stepped in as Jack Huey's temporary partner. The sole purpose of this, of course, was a setup for the Duck Boys' Hallowe'en costumes. If I'm going to dedicate this story to anyone, because of the costumes, it may as well be Carl Barks, who passed away recently at the too-young age of 99. He was the best "duck" artist ever to work on the Disney comics, and he wrote some of the most exciting and intelligent adventures that the Duck family ever experienced. 2000 has been, alas, a year for saying goodbye to some good cartoonists. Click here to go to "Lost in This Masquerade". A DUE SOUTH CHRISTMAS CAROL This story doesn't fit the pattern of Dickens' original classic but it's my story and I can call it a Christmas Carol if I want to! (Note: Charles Dickens referred to his original story as "A Christmas Carol in Prose", and he built on this by referring to the chapters as "staves", an archaic term for the stanzas of a poem or song. I like the word and decided to use it myself. Who am I to argue with tradition?) With this story I introduce Stan's "business" of ferrets, the Kowalski Weasel Patrol. I also introduce Max, the "special needs" ferret that Stan sponsors through the local rescue shelter. Max is based on Big Bear, a real furkid that resided in the Friends of Fuzzies rescue shelter in Oregon. (Click here to go to the shelter's homepage.) Bear had hind-end paralysis, and he got around with the same type of gizmo that Max does - and he loved it. Bear was a very special little guy, and his story inspired one of my Rainbow Bridge tales, Tinker. When Big Bear made his own journey to the Rainbow Bridge in May of 2000, the world became that much poorer, and I felt that I'd lost a friend. Max was created in Bear's honor. I have plans for further stories involving Max - and the Kowalski Weasel Patrol. This story is dedicated to the wonderful people who run ferret rescue shelters across the United States and in other countries; they give their time, their homes, their hearts, their tears to make sure that these sweet little creatures will have someplace to call home. These folks are my heroes. I also dedicate it to Big Bear, of course, and especially to my own little Al, who recently decided it was time to leave. I hope he's playing and having a great time at the Rainbow Bridge. This story is my Christmas present to my friends at alt.tv.due-south. I hope everyone enjoys it. Click here to go to "A Due South Christmas Carol". RETURN TO THE BOUNTY I thoroughly enjoyed the episode entitled "Mountie on the Bounty", but I felt that, in a way, the story was incomplete. I'm skeptical about ghosts and the like, but I would have like to have seen the supernatural aspects of "MotB" properly addressed in the ending. This is my attempt to redress that. Consider it a sequel to "Mountie on the Bounty". If I get some details about the original episode and about shipboard practices wrong, it's my fault. Mea culpa, as the man says. I don't know if Houdini actually wrote the book I refer to, but it would be nice if he had. Click here to go to "Return to the Bounty". RUN FOREVER As any Dueser can tell you, one of the true delights of "due South" is the music. I don't normally go for soundtrack albums, especially for television shows, but I had to make an exception for "due South". Both albums are well worth it. One of my favorite songs from the show was an original, "Ride Forever", from an episode entitled "All the Queen's Horses" - an all-around excellent episode, in my opinion. "Ride Forever" is about a horseman, near the end of a long life, giving some backtalk to a world that wants to put him out to pasture. I thought about it and decided to write a song of my own, about a ferret, old, handicapped and still a youngster at heart, expressing the joy that has been his life and lamenting that other ferrets haven't been so fortunate. I think I did a pretty good job. Maybe it doesn't strictly belong here, but that's my decision, isn't it? Following the online community of ferret lovers can be heartbreaking at times. Two recent horror stories come to mind: |
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THE INTERROGATION A brief vignette that came to me one evening after work. It's a tribute of sorts to the unsung Canadian comedy troupe The Frantics. I came across their "Tae Kwan Leap" sketch in the Dr. Demento 20th Anniversary Collection, and they have two more sketches on the 30th Anniversary collection. Hilarious stuff. There is no official Frantics website that I know of (Well, there is, but it's for some rock band - I don't think they're related). I'll look around. Click here to go to "The Interrogation". BIG HEROES IN SMALL PACKAGES Constable Fraser and Detective Kowalski are helpless to stop the bad guys. The only one who can help them is a little ferret with hind-end paralysis. What can he do? Again, a tribute to the little shelter kid named Big Bear who looked like he had a lot of fun with his wheelchair. I like the character of Max and wanted him to participate in an adventure with Fraser and Stan Kowalski. All right, so maybe ferrets aren't quite this smart; I'm not so sure, though. I've heard stories... Once in awhile I ask myself: am I really writing "due South" fan fiction with ferrets, or am I writing cute ferret stories with "due South" characters thrown in as an excuse? I'll have to watch that in the future. Click here to go to "Big Heroes in Small Packages". DUE RIMWARD I'm a big fan of Terry Pratchett's fantasy work, especially his series of "Discworld" novels. Aside from the quality of his writing - which is excellent - my interest in Discworld was a factor in my getting hooked on "due South". Among other things, there is a remarkable similarity in the characters of Constable Benton Fraser of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and Captain Carrot Ironfoundersson of the Night Watch of the City of Ankh-Morpork. So - at least in my mind - there is a tenuous bond between Discworld and "due South". This piece of fiction explores that bond. [NOTE: There has been much debate about the similarities between Fraser and Carrot - at least I'm sure there has been somewhere. On the surface it would seem that one character influenced the creation of the other. I do not think that this is the case. Both characters were based on a much older archetype wossname - the innocent in the big city. I subscribe to the commonly held opinion that Benton Fraser and Carrot were created independently. Let this be an end to it.] I wouldn't be surprised if someone hasn't already written such a crossover story; I also wouldn't be surprised if nobody has. Terry Pratchett's are big shoes to fill. This is the first piece of fan fiction that I've written for which I feel compelled to give references. The following have proven most invaluable: |
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MEDALS AND MEMORIALS I didn't expect that a sequel to "Mountie Crosses The Threshold" was necessary, but I decided that there was still one more story to tell, and this is it. It is also a sequel to "Big Heroes in Small Packages". If there is anything else beyond this story, I'm not sure what it will be. There will be other stories relating the adventures of the Kowalski Weasel Patrol. Click here to go to "Medals and Memorials". CADETS Not much to say on this one, beyond pointing out that it contradicts events in "Mountie Crosses the Threshold" and "Medals and Memorials". Think of it as a peek into another leg of the Trousers of Time. This site was where I got the information for the RCMP cadet training regimen. If I got things wrong, mea culpa. Speech is excerpted from the speaking notes of the Honourable Herb Gray, Solicitor General of Canada, at the RCMP Academy Graduation Ceremony, April 18, 1994. The speaking notes can be viewed by going here. Click here to go to "Cadets". LEARNING AT THE FEET OF THE MASTER A direct sequel to "Cadets", and a thematic sequel to "The Interrogation". Always remember: it is wrong to tip the vessel of knowledge. Click here to go to "Learning at the Feet of the Master". |
These stories are for entertainment purposes only and are not intended to infringe on copyrights held by Alliance Communications Corp., CBS and CTV or any other copyright holders of "due South". |
| MORE STORIES TO BE ADDED LATER, so check back |
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