Day 2 in the 20 Days of Tabor Heights Countdown

As we near the end of the countdown, I want to thank Carrie, who has been so faithful in checking every day and reporting on every place the book covers and numbers were listed. Hope I didn't make it too hard!

THE TEDDY BEAR DANCER is a story near and dear to my heart.

Like many of my books, most of them SF or fantasy, this one started as a fan story. Well, actually TEDDY BEAR started as the outline for a script for the USA Network series, "Matrix," starting Nick Mancuso. I was just starting to put it into script format when I found out from fandom friends "in the know" that the series had been cancelled. (noooooooo!)

Okay, well, these same friends ran several fanzines, one of which featured Stingray, another character

in this talented actor's repertoire, and they decided yeah, they would published Matrix stories along with Stingray. So I wrote up the short story, "The Teddy Bear Dancer," and sent it to them. But I wanted the story to be a book someday.

Then when I was taking all the individual books that make up Tabor Heights and started revising the details to create the town, I decided Tabor Heights needed a gym. Then was born Gold Tone Gym (formerly Silver Flex) run by Vic Thomas (formerly Steven Matrix) and his partner, Rene Ackley (formerly Liz) .... and introduced Vic, Rene, Baxter and Gold Tone during one of the first Tabor novels, COMMON GROUNDS, because Rene starts out as Hannah Blake's roommate. Just like WHEELS, I waited a looooooong time for TEDDY BEAR to become an official Tabor Heights story. But it was a fun wait.

If you're interested in fan fiction -- and I plan to have the fan story, "The Teddy Bear Dancer," posted there by the time this posting is online -- check out Wattpad.com and look up my name. I have another Matrix fan story there -- a crossover with MEN IN BLACK, titled, "Scum of the Universe." I think you'll laugh.

Day 9 of the 20 Days of Tabor Heights scavenger hunt!

We're more than halfway through the scavenger hunt!

Yikes -- only 17 more shopping days. I'd better get to work....

*wave* to Carrie. Thanks for being so faithful and checking in every new day of the hunt.

Today's book is the last in Year One of Tabor Heights. The 12th book.

Background info: If you compared a map of Tabor Heights to a map of Berea, many of the streets and many of the major buildings, such as the university, the library, city hall, the river, the fire station, are the same. The Mission is an old elementary school, sold by the school district because population changes and demographics made it no longer necessary or useful. The actual physical building in Berea is also an old school building, also no longer used for school. The last time I looked, it was bought by the university. Here in the fictional town of Tabor Heights, it was bought by Tabor Christian Church. The old school, Loomis Elementary, is where I went to school for a few years when my family lived in Berea.