I see you are still reading,... even though I'm not writing very much. Thank you for your continued interest in the stories I have written and posted here. I do still have ideas for more and hope to put them up, I'm just battling a major case of writers block caused by the changes life brings all of us. I have managed the goal I had of creating a complete 'season' of stories. At the time the show aired a 'season' consited of 26 episodes so I have added an additional year of GG for you (It would have been easier if it was a contemporary program...they only put 13 in the can and most of them don't even last that long)!

I had a comment from a reader that made me realize that not all of you come to the fanfic writings with a knowledge of the program that inspired them. So for those few of you I thought a run down of the program and the characters might be helpful.

Garrison’s Gorillas ran originally in the late sixties and was loosely based on the premise used in the movie The Dirty Dozen but instead of military men taken from the stockade to accomplish a dangerous mission our four convicts are civilians who have been recruited from stateside prisons. The men are to work for the government in exchange for a parole and in the first episode it’s obvious they all thought it would just be the one job but the government plan was to have them work through the duration of the war ’and six months’ before they got their pay off. Each man brings specific talents to the group; Actor is a European confidence artist who speaks multiple languages, Goniff a pick pocket and cat burglar immigrant from England who‘s a bit of a kleptomaniac, Chief is at least part American Indian and is the group’s hot car and switch blade artist with Casino filling in the vital roll of safe cracker and explosives expert, he also has a sarcastic tongue and never misses a chance to question the Warden with it. First Lieutenant Craig Garrison has the job of wrangling this group through their missions and keeping track of them when they are ’home’ at their base somewhere close to London in England. There’s only one other recurring character in the series, an English Sergeant Major who drills the cons and helps Garrison keep track of them but he doesn’t get much air time in the show. There are also regular faces to be seen on the German side of things but they play different parts in each episode and, as far as I can find out, never even get mentioned in the credits.

Outside of knowing that Garrison went to West Point and was ’twice decorated in North Africa’, Goniff’s Mum runs a newsstand in New York and came to America after his father died and he has an Aunt Molly, Actor knows women almost everywhere they go and specialized in ’Dumb John’ cons, Casino had seven brothers and sisters, a grandfather who was a rum runner, and Chief once had a girl who he had plans to marry, you don’t really get much detail on the past lives of the characters. I suppose that’s why it’s fun to write for them and fill all of that in. If the program had gone on for several seasons doubtless the writers would have gone into their backgrounds but as it stands I get to do the job!

In my little series here Garrison has a German background and spent his early childhood growing up there. I’ve given Chief a tribal home out with the Navajo in the Four Corners area of the US. Actor gets an official birthplace in Italy, and you get introduced to almost all of Casino’s family back home. A couple of stories deal with Goniff’s troubled early childhood. To get all the details and learn more about them, though, you’ll need to read the stories!

As there are a number of stories now it might help you to read them according to their published date. It doesn't hold true with all of them but, and this was a surprise to me too, there are threads that run through them that may or may not lead to something down the road... I think each story will hold up on its own, of course that comment can't apply to the two parter now can it! A few are linked, the two parter of course, Bond of Blood builds on Old Man's Memory and fills in some of Chief's background and there is a link to Loss... Nightmare which expands on the mission that caused the Warden all those bad dreams. There is a carry on from Someone to Watch His Back,... More Than He Bargained For, with another one in the works... as well as the follow up to You Can Hide...You Can't Stay Here. Some day soon there may be a few stories based directly on various episodes. Now some of those stories and ideas come from comments or suggestions made by readers, just like the addition to this profile has so review! Who knows what kind of a plot bunny you may scare up.

Any of you who have been reading for a while may have figured out that I work in the medical field, so, sorry, most of the time someone's going to end up on the ground bleeding, I just can't seem to help myself. Another writer offered the opinion that we pound the character that is our favorite, soI yes I am a Garrison fan and he seems be on the receiving end of most of the trauma...but Casino seems to be developing into my storyteller so you might find yourself seeing things from his point of view more often than not.

And as I don't always remember to attach a disclaimer to the stories please accept it here. No infringement on the rightful owners of Garrison's Gorillas or the characters is intended and I derive no monetary gain from them... I just take them out occasionally and play with them. And just in case someone in charge is reading this... We are still waiting for professionally produced and released DVD's of the show! I, personally, have two bootlegged copies of the series and would happily pay whatever you would like to charge me for a re-mastered version...with interviews and behind the scenes information, of course!

My stories are originally written without chapter breaks, so that is something new for me. I think of the stories as TV episodes and so construct them with scene changes and commercial breaks instead of chapters. I also personally like to imagine the settings and characteristics of the people in stories that I read so you may find that you have to 'fill in the blanks' while you're reading... at least that way everyone can have characters they personally like to 'look' at.

For those of you who speak the languages that are sprinkled through the stories... Yes, sorry, it's from a translation site on the web (except the Navajo, that's from a dictionary that sits on my desk). You're right, it doesn't always flow! That's why I keep it to a minimum now. I hope you'll forgive any errors, and feel free to laugh at my mistakes, I certainly do when they are pointed out.

So, as others have already said. Read, enjoy, review... it's awfully nice to hear from you, the reviews keep me going, and it can only help me to improve.

dale