Happy 30th Anniversary to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles The Movie (1990)

To the Reader: I have been struggling to jot down something for this profile, something to somehow 'explain' both myself and how it was that I managed to get into scribbling fan-fic for Ninja Turtles. I wondered sometimes what I was doing, and why it seemed to be a thing that I felt so very compelled to do at the time. It led me to countless hours of pleasant creative endeavor, and also introduced me to some of the most fabulous like-minded folks imaginable! (You know who you are...)

Like other authors I've since encountered, I came to the Turtles via my kids and a trip to the cinema to see the first TMNT Original Movie in 1990 - and because it is still valid, I will quote myself from the Foreword to my first completed fan-fic, True Forces:

They say that forewarned is forearmed, and I have to admit that when I first went movie-going with my children to see Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles The Movie I suppose I wasn't - the kids had a good time, but I walked away captivated, mesmerized, and just starving for more of the same...

Well, it turned out that more of the same was pretty hard to come by, back in those pre-internet days - and that was what got me and my Commodore 64 scribbling; my imagination had gone into high gear, itching for a sequel to the movie and the plot bunnies were many and fierce. At the time, fellow fans were scarce - my sole source of outreach to find some was the "pen-pals wanted" page at the back of the TMNT comic books. I reached out and the rest is history; a small network grew from those first contacts and I found other would-be authors to share the enthusiasm and our tales.

And now, here I am, almost 3 decades later - a lot of Life has had my attention diverted in the interim - and several versions of the Turtles have come and just seem to keep on coming - and with the internet and fan sites - well - such a trove of other fiction to explore out there these days!

Please feel free to enjoy those of my tales that are so far complete! I have follow-up stories that have been languishing for a long while - and with a bit more time in my life freeing up, I hope to get back at some scribbling again soon! (Though it seems that these tales may have to be done as 'period' pieces - some of the already-plotted story lines won't work smoothly in today's high-tech world anymore!)

Feel free to leave a review - good or bad - feedback is something I've somehow missed along the way, though I've been led to believe the tales have been well received online! PM's also welcome, in case anyone would like to know what was in my head at the time these things were taking shape...

Sue Sitler

January 2019