Writer's Notes:

"High Hopes" is a Quantum Leap fan-fiction novella, and therefore owes everything to the brilliant TV series which inspired it, to Don Bellisario who created it, and to Scott Bakula and Dean Stockwell who brought it to life with such skill and warmth and character.

It is respectfully dedicated to Jill Kinmont Boothe, the subject of the 'kiss with history' within the story, and the woman who has been my role model throughout my life.

I highly recommend the biography of her life "A Long Way Up" by E. G. Valens, and the two biopics where she is played by Marilyn Hassett, called in England "A Window to the Sky" and "The Other Side of the Mountain". I think the US releases had different names. Warning, they are three hanky weepie films!

This story is the sequel to my first work "Terror Firma

"High Hopes" has been over ten years in the writing, partly because -as the notes at the start of "Terror Firma" show - I was asked by the American publishers to put it on hold and work up my "British" story, and partly because it has taken me that long to research such things as the location for the train scene. City Place station wasn't even built when I started, so no wonder I couldn't find it!

The impetus to finish this story after so long was the knowledge that I would be meeting Dean Stockwell himself! On May 1st 2005 I presented him with a copy of "High Hopes" which I had signed for him, and got him to autograph a copy for me!

It is followed by "Run for their Lives" - finished but not yet published -and "Snake in the Grass" still in progress and concludes in a story so much in its infancy that it has little more than an outline and the provisional title "M.E. myself and Sam". Though each of these stories - all set before the final television episode "Mirror Image"- can be read as a stand-alone, there are threads that are carried across the whole group.

Trivia: There is a flashback scene near the end, which explains how Sam got the white streak in his hair, and also possibly a comment he made to Buddy Wright as Gloria.

Writing Quantum Leap fan-fiction is not only my hobby - it is my passion.

It is through my involvement with Al's place, and the associated site "The Virtual Seasons" that I have found my best friends, my confidence as a writer and as an individual, and most of the good things in my life.

Also, as you can read in the 'Guest-vision' slot, researching "Run for their Lives" led to the discovery of what ailed my father in law, and a renewal of my faith.

I have had 3 of my stories aired so far at the Virtual Seasons, (A wonderful site which has continued the Leaps of Dr Sam Beckett through ongoing 'virtual' seasons', as if the series had never been cancelled, and is currently airing its sixth season, making 11 in all with the 5 televised seasons.) and a fourth that was co-written with my best friend Sue aired recently on March 31st 2005.

"Where the Buck Stops"

"Leap to the Rescue" (in three parts)

"Skin Deep" (in two parts)

and:

"Hair of the Dog" (with Sue Johnson)

In addition, I take part in two Quantum Leap Role Play games online, one where I play Verbena Beeks, and the other where I have a number of diverse roles ranging from a character called Robert Cheney (who looks like George Clooney); his wife Emma (Roxann Dawson) and a torture master at the Evil Leaper project called Jacob York (Anthony Montgomery) to the enigmatic Bartender Al himself! (played jointly with a colleague).