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UPDATED 4-04-11, now current to Chapter 13 of "Don't Give Out with Those Lips of Yours"!

In the writing of "Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree", "Don't Go Walkin' Down Lover's Lane" and "Don't Give Out with Those Lips of Yours" [what I am considering calling 'The Don't Series', I've received a few questions and information requests about songs that I've referenced in the text, so I thought I'd post that info here.

If you want to hear the songs in the ways that they've inspired me, for the most part you have to go back to the original war-time recordings. Because even though they're great songs, and Michael Buble or Harry Connick, Jr. sound great singing them, they don't evoke quite the same atmosphere and or cast quite the same spell as do the original recordings.

Unfortunately, it can be difficult to find them when they haven't been re-mastered and all the surface noise, etc., removed. Because, let's be honest: the Nightwatch is NOT digitally broadcast. It's grainy, it's full of interference and what we oldtimers used to call 'fuzz' or 'snow'.

This whole story cycle got started when I picked up a cassette tape (yes!) at a yard sale: "Reader's Digest - Great Romantic Memories of the War Years - Tape 1", that had un-cleaned-up copies of the songs (not re-mastered, that is), so they all sound very like they are being listened to on a record player, or over a slightly static-y radio, which is certainly (IMHO) the most-awesome and atmospheric way to listen to them. *actually, the cassette tape claims it has been 'digitally re-mastered', but only insofar as could be done, I'm thinking, at the time they were still making cassette tapes for sale.]

Since getting that tape, I discovered there were four in the series and bought all four on eBay (yes, still as cassette tapes, the collection is not available on CD).

1 - "Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree" - February 1942 - Glenn Miller Orchestra (singers: Marion Hutton/Tex Beneke & the Modernaires)
This song is probably most-famously done by the Andrews Sisters, and though I'm a fan of that version, this mellower, ballroom-ready version really spoke to me--almost like I was hearing the lyrics for the first time. And it has more lyrics than I recall the Andrews' version containing (although they have a different intro that shapes the song as a letter to their guy).

2 - "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square" - 1941 - Bing Crosby/John Scott Turner
The lyric, "There were angels dining at the Ritz"? Po-et-ry. And so Robin and Marion must go to the Ritz. And she must lose her pocketbook. 'Nuff said.

3 - "Moonlight Serenade" - 1939 - Glenn Miller Orchestra - Instrumental
Probably, for me, the ultimate ear candy that denotes and suggests this era to me. Also, probably, to me, one of the most romantic, swoony instrumentals of all time.

4 - "I'll Be Seeing You" - Hildegarde/Harry Sosnik
I'm not sure the specific date this was recorded. And it would appear that you cannot find it on the Internet anywhere. Which stunned me, as it would seem Hildegarde was a HUGE talent in her day.
But, lyrically an absolute thesis on longing.

5 - "Always True to You In My Fashion" - Jimmy Dorsey - written by Cole Porter
This, to me, is 100% Robin's song. Just change the gender of the singer, and re-imagine the verses a bit differently. About a lover who has trouble with fidelity, but is so charming you really do believe (or at least you do if it's Jonas in the role) that he's true to you, despite whatever he might actually get up to when you are not around.
[I doubt that her version is appropriate to the period (don't know), but Blossom Dearie really kills this.]

6 - "I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy" aka "Yankee Doodle Boy" - George M. Cohen
I know this from the Jimmy Cagney 1942 film musical. And of course the Kommandant would love himself a musical.

7 - "String of Pearls" - November 1941 - Glenn Miller Orchestra
Tish Lavely thought it was time Robert Oxley sprung for that 'string of pearls' (though probably, not 'a la Woolworth' as the song promises).
[Oh, Woolworth: known as a 'five and dime' store that would have sold drugs and sundries at the time, often with an accompanying soda fountain/lunch counter. They may have only existed in the US. Literally called a five and dime, or a dime store, as things could be bought for a nickel (5 cents) or a dime (10 cents). I believe it is a Woolworth where Holly Golightly and Fred steal the masks in the film Breakfast at Tiffany's. So a string of pearls a la Woolworth? Not exactly Van Kleef and Arpels, but certainly an attainable dream for any red-blooded American.]

8 - "You Made Me Love You" - Harry James
There was a 1913 version by Al Jolson (but try the Harry James).
Lyric: "You made me love you, I didn't want to do it. I didn't want to do it."
I highly recommend (and I think it's from the time period) a teenaged Judy Garland's version, sung as though to Clark Gable.
If this isn't the perfect song for Marion (re: Robin), a better one has yet to be written.

9 - "They All Laughed" - Ginger Rogers in the 1937 film "Shall We Dance" by the Gershwins. Clever lyrics, sharp as cut crystal. And I. Am a sucker for clever.

10 - "Please Don't Play that Old Song" - Sammy Kaye and His Orchestra. I cannot tell what specific year this is. It is from a CD called, "Collector's Series Original Live Radio Broadcasts Sammy Kaye and His Orchestra 22 Original Big Band Recordings (1941-1944)". Nor can I tell from the liner notes the man who is singing it. Worth finding to listen to.

11 - "Just the Way You Look Tonight" - Fred Astaire in the 1936 film "Swing Time", by Jerome Kern and Dorothy Fields.

12 - "Rockabye My Baby, There Ain't Gonna Be No War" - again, I don't know the singer. From a cassette tape, "Radio Goes to War/Volume II, Actual Network Broadcasts 1940-1945" This selection actually begins with a recording of FDR assuring the American People that no one has asked their sons to enlist or go to war, so they need to stop fretting about it. (Clearly a pre-Pearl Harbor speech meant to placate the overwhelmingly Isolationist American public.)

13 - "Comes Love" - (Stept-Brown-Tobias) - Helen Forrest, vocal; Hollywood, June 12,1939; From the CD "Artie Shaw and His Orchestra, A treasury of Artie Shaw". I used it as a song for Carter and Zara, because I hear them in it (it does have a line or two near the end that clearly make the song romantic--but I just ignore them). The notion that when love hits you (and so, for them a paternal love) you are helpless in its wake. You are overcome by it (as I hoped to show Carter becoming).

14 - "The One I Love Belongs to Somebody Else" - from "Great Romantic Memories of the War Years (Tape 1)"; Tommy Dorsey/Frank Sinatra and The Pied Pipers. Surprisingly, I had no idea this was Sinatra until I looked at the liner notes. He is very young, here, and his voice is good, but not yet his signature crooner's. 'It's tough to be alone on a shelf, and it's worse to fall in love by your self'. So true it could be found in a blues song.

15 - "(There'll Be Bluebirds Over) the White Cliffs of Dover" - my version is sung by Kate Smith/Jack Miller, on Tape 3 of "Great Romantic Memories of the War Years", although Vera Lynn was the originator of the song in Britain. Here is my confession: there is no way on earth Marion has a record of this song to play on the Nightwatch. It was written, recorded and released AFTER the June/July 1940 invasion/occupation of the Islands. Generally I try pretty hard to have her play only records that she would have been bale to buy and bring with her before the Germans arrived. For a long time I toyed with the idea that Allen had gotten his hands on a record of it (from before the gang got stranded) and he had given it to her--but what are the chances you could carry a phonograph record in your pack, living rough and it not get shattered? So, it doesn't really belong on the Nightwatch. It was a tremendous, monster hit of a record in WWII. I particularly like "Jimmy will go to sleep in his own little room again", which references people having to send their children far afield to remove them from the threat of German bombings--how terrible that must've been, to be separated from your children, to see their beds empty night after night, them growing up without you there. This song was both a hit and a propaganda tool, helping the British maintain their resolve.

One of the nice things about this era is that you can often cheaply find original recordings by the original artists of all these great songs grouped together on CDs in compilations (BestBuy has some--starting at $4.99). But, buyer beware, because I almost bought a CD set of the songs, but they were all new recordings by BBC Orchestra. (Which is nice, I suppose, but contemporary recordings of the pieces--even some re-mastered recordings--do seem to lose something 'in translation'.)

CURRENT WWII NEWS FROM THE CHANNEL ISLANDS

If you search BBC News' website, stories have been posted there as recently as March 2010 and November 2010 regarding the Occupation. "WWII Internment Items on Display" by Ben Chapple (3/2010) talks about an Occupation exhibit ('Occupied Behind Barbed Wire') opening at the Guernsey Museum and Art Gallery, and "WWII Prison Camp Archives Discovered in Guernsey" (11/2010), unattributed, details the discovery, in an old armoire, of 'the single most important resistance archive ever to emerge from the Channel Islands': over 200 pages of testimonies of Islanders deported to German prison camps in Europe.

Should you search and find others (here or elsewhere), do share them with me, as I would like to read what I can.

FILMS ABOUT THE OCCUPATION OF THE CHANNEL ISLANDS

There are some BBC-made dramas about the WWII Occupation of the British Channel Islands.

There are two series; the shorter one "Island at War" interestingly (to some) stars Joanne Froggart, Kate from RH series 3. This is only several episodes long and is heavily focused on the women of the islands. It is set on the fictional Channel Island of St. Gregory's and tries to tell the story of how the women left on the islands dealt with their Occupiers [factually, as a result of the Occupation, over 600 babies were born to Channel Island women registered as having Germans (therefore, occupying soldiers) for fathers at the time--and those are simply the ones registered as such]. I have seen this film (around the early part of my writing "Lover's Lane"). I do not know if any of it was filmed on location, but the farmhouse used in it and the (only lightly explained) idea of how The States (their parliament) works came from this.

I'm afraid, even for scenery (of which there is little) I cannot really recommend it, though I will say I like Ms. Froggart in it far better than in what I have seen of her in Season 3.

The other series is "Enemy at the Door" which has two seasons on DVD (26 episodes total), and is from the 1980s. I have not seen it (my library doesn't own it), but the Internet tells me that some of it was filmed on-site, including an entire episode filmed on Sark. Since I have not seen it I cannot comment on its quality or approach to its subject matter.

If you do a Wikipedia search on 'British Channel Islands', at the bottom of the entry it will list a much longer list, even single episodes of other shows into which the Channel Islands feature.

BOOKS ABOUT THE OCCUPATION OF THE CHANNEL ISLANDS

Though I have not read it (but would *very* much like to), I will mention Jersey Under the Jackboot. I think it must be out-of-print or simply quite rare based on what it is selling for when you can find it online.

Also, you will find, in searches for books, a handful of written memoirs by Islanders about their experiences during this time. Though, again, quite scarce and costly (no, I have not had the honor of reading any of these).

A tremendously popular (and therefore, wherever you are in the world you can likely find a translation of it) recent novel is 2008's The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows. Fiction, but certainly (what with lawyers and fact-checkers being what they are) well-researched fiction.

As mentioned in a prior chapter's author's note, I have read this at the urging of calmingbreez. It is said it will 'soon' be a major motion picture. Its current popularity is such that there are entire tours one might take of the Islands that revolve around the plot and characters of the book.

Here I will mention a television series that has nothing to do with WWII or the Channel Islands...Jeeves and Wooster. I thank you, Stephen Fry, and (pre-House) Hugh Laurie, for teaching me much of what I know of how idle upper class Britons lived before the war, how they dressed, how they spent their days, and what their country homes might have looked like. Certainly the pre-War life of Robin and his chums in these stories owes a debt to the set decoration, locations and wardrobe of this series as aired in America on PBS.

And let us thank PBS (and so, BBC) in general. After all, my entire notion of being British (in any era) certainly originates with them [myself I have never been to the UK, with only occasional sidetrips into the pages of the likes of Jane Austen or circa 1990s A&E.

All my life, a close family member has deeply immersed himself (and whoever may have been around him) in WWII, the war and the era. And though that particular gentleman will never come to this site, nor read these stories (he would find them shockingly lacking in battles and historical accuracy), certainly his influence on my psyche regarding this time in history cannot be overstated.

Notes specific to certain Sections of "Death Would Be Simpler to Deal With"
(not all sections have comments)

#52. Flight

A bit too talky, probably.

Also, characters in this story are probably crying too much. But I like to tell myself that, seen over 13 episodes and at least 13 weeks, it will not stand out so much.

Sorry, Tessa on Highlander. I am forever stealing that image of you stripping off the poisoned gown sent to you by Vanity.

It seemed something was needed to lighten things for a moment, so, an unexpected Will/D'Jaq scene, in which, they, in a bit of dramatic irony speculate (sarcastically) on exactly what is taking place in the King's doing, and among the Sherwood folk.

No, Salima was never going to hurt the baby. She knows that if she holds him she will submit to Gautier, much as Robin earlier knew that if he kissed Marian and told her of his plans he would never have the strength to leave for Crusade.

Ah, the culmination of the Fate v. Free Will debate. I am probably the only one who noticed.

You may recall Salima using one of the King's gold coins to pay the messenger in #29, "Into the (French) Woods".

After some research on the ruling family of Bavaria at the time, I have changed the Booby's last name. It may well be the uninterpretable word he says in the series. I don't know.

I am a wreck over the end coming up. Excited, and already nostalgic. I find myself sort of hoping (though it seems unlikely) that some readers might read beginning to end complete once I'm done, and see if it doesn't read better and more-clearly as a whole, rather than posted sporadically like a Dickens (or Hardy, perhaps this is more Hardy? No.) newspaper novel, in parts.

#51. Taking Back What Is Yours

This title is meant to slyly reflect what Salima will find she has the strength to do in the next few chapters.

Allan cannot see himself easily as heroic (he perhaps reads too much of what others think of him, so to speak), and he is still try, quite hard, to understand and qualify his own feelings, which are entirely unfamiliar to him.

As for the name Henry, Queens do as they like. I have not yet found a way to effectively subvert them. And christenings can't take too long, Marian was impractical to think she could put such an important religious occasion off in her child's life. With no other babies about, it has been easy for her to simply call the child, "baby".

Gautier is revealed here as a 'carver'. He's a knife aficionado, and he wants Salima to show up without being forced. He's not into that, and he truly believes that she does, in point of fact, belong to him. That makes him extra dangerous. (You know, if just being dangerous is not enough).

Tristan is largely a product of where he is growing up. But Sherwood has been injected into his veins. And in the end, that will out.

I would issue apologies for being too graphic (if I was), but I do feel that what happens here has to be bad (though I am no friend of serial-killer or rapist shows, Law and Order--you know who you are) in order to spark what is to come next.

#50. Arrivals and Departures

Clem had a miracle, to regain his range of movement, the ability of his legs to again bear weight. But he has pushed it too far. His injury is now permanent.

Allan and Aislinn are fun to me, they have a special insiderness to each other now, after their trip.

It is growing harder to keep the ball of Marian and her condition, etx, in the air. And I need it to be there as long as possible or, bang, story's over.

As for Robin deciding for the King: Freedom fighters (see also Nelson Mandela) don't get to have happy families and lives. It just doesn't happen, not when you're out saving the world and choosing for the greater good. This is why the Lone Ranger is just that: single. This is also why the stories that interest people most are the ones like the film Defiance, about Jews who fought and remained free in the woods during the Holocaust, not their post-war exploits where they end up running a chain of grocery stores in Florida, though perhaps that is the true triumph: the freedom won to personally reclaim a version of normalcy that they have fought for others to have.

Robin takes on Michel. I think it will quite possibly work out for the best. But he does have a long talk with Luke first.

In all drafts until about a week ago, Will and D'Jaq were entirely absent. Then I went to the door one day while I was writing and they were knocking to come in. Now how I could turn them away?

#49. Commence Episode 12

The challenge (to myself) was to try and make the characters, especially those not aware of it, go through the same sort of things one might at a birth, hence Much going to fetch a midwife, Allan feeling like an uncle, and Robin hearing a version of Marian's call for him.

In hindsight, I should have spent a little more time on Alice and Little Little John's visit to Sherwood.

I [heart] Thornton.

The inns mentioned are actual inns in Nottingham (to this very day) that brag to have existed at the time.

Allan does not realize that Marian has simply taught Little John's 'signature move' to Aislinn.

So we've got a split up set of matched daggers--Carter's w/o words on the blade, Allan's with. Both came from a Sherwood chest of booty (bad word choice). Salima almost puts it all together, but then, what good would it do her if her in-their-infancy suspicions were true? And, what if anything does she know about Robin's man, Allan-A-Dale? How much, truly, has Marian shared with her? Similarly, how much did she and Carter share in conversation? They were not conventional lovers, and he was fighting a war at the time, and I don't think in those days Salima was much for talking herself, so I think it very possible he never explictly spoke of Robin Hood, per se. (It would have meant little to her, anyhow.)

'The light blue of his eyes'. Salima is intimately knowledgeable of Gautier. The familiarity of him is startling to her, even after all this time. Their story: He had her under his thumb, when, as a camp nurse of Richard's she counseled for amputating his hand. It was not personal, she was truly saving his life (though, for how he had treated her it could be debated it was not worth saving). Sometime after that Sir Lauric challenged Gautier over Salima (but how could Gautier fight and win, having lost a hand?), and then, once he defeated him let him live, as it was not a fair fight. Gautier still smarts over this moment of pity on Lauric's side.

The meaning of Fa'ataar - I know nothing of Arabic, so I made this up. I like to pretend it's a bastardization of Salima's Saracen family name (her mother's surname) that Gautier has twisted in his understanding of Arabic into a very nasty word/phrase. When he says it it has the quality of him spitting.

Anta kalbee - this I got off the Internet. It is said to mean, 'you're my dog', which, apparently in the Middle East is a particularly offensive thing to say to someone.

48. A Matter of Life

I like to think Luke also suffers from 'the Scarlet hesitancy' that I see often at play in Will (especially early on).

I wanted Salima outfitted in something hyper-festive, something outwardly to really wow Allan and set him even a little more off-center where she was concerned, and also something to wake Tristan up from his provincial (and demeaned) view of her as repellent.

Salima is not yet to the place where she can understand Allan. He is so opposite every man she has ever known (for the most part, Saracen family members and battle-hardened Crusaders). And she also can't think of Carter too much, because I am firm that she did not love him. He loved her. She was not in a position with him where she could love him freely, without feeling obligated for all that he had done for her. She was not in a position to love anyone, really, or understand such a thing. And so she admired him, she had feelings for him, but they were not of a matured, unfettered romantic love in their nature. P.S. I love Carter. I really wish he had been around more. Really a lot. Jumped out of my seat and crowed when he showed up in "A Good Day to Die".

Sigh, I love the Robin/Marian dream sequence. It is always a challenge at this point to find a way to write Robin and Marian together, and yet, of the necessity of the story [yes, I know plenty of you reading disagree with this central tenent I am adhering to] to keep them apart. I have re-read this sequence so much my own printed pages of it are becoming worn. That probably says something very telling about me...

"England, where my heart lies," is courtesy of Messrs. Simon and Garfunkel (again).

I hope the stained glass section comes across even a third as awesome as it is in my own mind. But, of course, I fear it doesn't.

Tristan speaks like Little John, of course, because he has been hanging around Allan a whole lot.

47. A Matter of Death

I had to go back and clarify that though Gisborne thinks this Nightwatchman is some otherworldly Marian, it is really Sir Clem. There was a lack of clarity to begin with because I don't wish to tip my hand to readers too soon.

Sherwood chuckles because it knows that it will yet have a hand in saving Little John, not because it takes pleasure in his pain (although here that is deliberately made unclear).

Edward is working up to having his stroke. He was always referenced as 'ill' in the series, and until the final days in the dungeon I could not quite see it (I always thought Marian seemed too overlyprotective of him), so I think it is sensible to think that at his age he has suffered an illness that has set him back, such as a stroke. He does seem more frail in those first moments we see him in "Will You Tolerate This?"

Really, the story related of Marian at this time is epic enough to be its own story altogether.

The 'Faceless Lackey' is a condemned to death man the Sheriff pulled from the dungeons to serve him and help acquaint him with local people and politics. Because he owes his every breath to the Sheriff, he will not betray him (and has no chance to do so), and Sheriff will finish with him quickly enough and carry out the death sentence, as much to punish the man for whatever sent him to the dungeon as to safeguard his own rotten secrets.

46. Bad Scene at the Summit

Joe Lacey and his wife Ruth make an appearance courtesy, "Who Shot the Sheriff?"

I so enjoyed fleshing out the Council of Nobles. And, I was SO excited to finally write this confrontation.

Lady Glasson was the lady who took in Gisborne's baby mama and son in "Parent Hood".

I wouldn't usually do this, but this time period has songs for Marian and Robin.
Robin's is (as referenced prior) Hunter, by: Dido (slightly changed to accomodate Robin's gender)
[as though sung to his father]
With one light on /In one room
I know you're up /When I get home
With one small step /Upon the stair
I know your look /When I get there

If you were a king /Up there on your throne
Would you be wise enough to let me go /For this [thing] you think you own

Wants to be a hunter again /I want to see the world alone again
To take a chance on life again /So let me go...
For the crown you've placed upon my head /Feels too heavy now
And I don't know what to say to you /But I'll smile anyhow
And all the time I'm thinking /Thinking...

I want to be a hunter again /I want to see the world alone again
To take a chance on life again /So let me go

Marian's cover what Robin would sing to her at the time he returns in "Will You Tolerate This?" when he, later that day, thinks back to seeing her at the door of Knighton with her arrow nocked, which references this time in her life: Lost by Michael Buble.

Can't believe it's over/I watched the whole thing fall
And I never saw the writing that was on the wall/If I only knew
Days were slipping past/That the good things never last/That you were crying

Summer turned to winter/And the snow it turned to rain
And the rain turned into tears upon your face/I hardly recognized the girl you are today
And I hope it's not too late/It's not too late

'Cause you are not alone/I'm always there with you
And we'll get lost together/Till the light comes pouring through
'Cause when you feel like you're done/And the darkness has won
Babe, you're not lost/When your world's crashing down
And you can't bear to fall/I said, babe, you're not lost

Life can show no mercy/It can tear your soul apart
It can make you feel like you've gone crazy/But you're not
Things have seem to changed/There's one thing that's still the same
In my heart you have remained/And we can fly, fly, fly away

45. Her, He Could Not Live Without

For those of you counting the moments until we rejoin the present timeline and get past the birth of Marian's baby, there will be two additional commercial breaks before the credits to Episode 11 roll.

I think of Robin's choosing Crusade a little like 'geographical cures don't work', at least in part, and also in part a person trying to escape dysfunction, like one child leaving an alcoholic or abusive family/environment but being unable to take the other children with them (he is able to escape, but at the expense of Marian). And then, also, a large part Richard, who I think would be very compelling, and inspire people to follow him, to seek glory and fame and excitement. He did this to well-established adult men. I don't think un-traveled Robin at 20 had a chance against his charisma, charm and cult of personality.

I'm really grouchy about this section. And maybe some of that is because I am also trying to marry the series' timeline and the historical timeline so that I can actually fit in my own timeline, but I tell you, it's no good. I don't think Tiger Aspect ever cracked open a history book or fact-checked. So I'm grouchy and not satisfied at all with this section. It's too talky: speech speech speech. And there's nothing for it. I can take three weeks and try to tame it (and perhaps still be unsuccessful) or I can post it and move on. I've chosen to post it and move on, mostly because it's depressing me, and because I'm really looking forward to writing a scene in the next section, where Edward makes his first appearance. So I choose something I'm happy about and jettison something (this section) that I'm grouched over.

Thank you for the reviews! My main focus is trying to turn out updates right now, but I will try and respond individually to each of you soon. (I know I'm behind on that.) Cheers!

Again, I fear duplicating Much's speeches exactly (so insidiously they are planted in my brain). I am terrified the "Lot's wife" speech actually happened on the series and I am only repeating it here.

Gwyn: Sort of began from the seed of the only houseservant ever seen at Knighton (though of course there would be quite a few), in "Will You Tolerate This?" she is seen walking out after delivering drinks in the Hall. But that woman is not exactly my Gwyn.

I have represented (and will continue to represent) Edward unfairly. His behaviors recounted in this story are not totally emblematic of himself. I've chosen to show him at a very traumatic and dramatic time.

Gisborne and Little John on the bridge was meant as a call-back to legend, where it is Robin and Little John who meet and battle on a log bridge.

The sentence, 'one hand drawn across the flowering hay...' is my reference to Robin's return to Locksley in "Will You Tolerate This?" It is from what I think of as the Russell Crowe in "Gladiator" shot (as his character is shown in a shot framed similar and doing something similar in that film, his hand drawn significantly across wheat in a field). Sigh, if only Russell and Ridley could have taken a cue from this show before vomiting their Robin Hood onto the big screen and robbing me of valuable time and money (and yes, I walked out, before the half-way mark. And I am a person who NEVER walks out).

I am over-using the word 'chafed'.

It fascinates me, the notion that Marian never heard Robin say he loved her in the Season One finale.

Just as Robin, I cannot understand Marian and Gisborne, and just like Gisborne I have such trouble really nailing down Lucy as Marian's feelings for Gisborne. It's enough to inspire a complete thesis-length work on the subject.

And I am also obsessed with trying to de-mystify what Robin is thinking and planning that ep as he sits above Locksley. How much is he planning to throw away? What is the meaning behind his verbal attack on Much?

44. Bad Decisions

Salima doesn't get it (Allan wanting to see her). She's distracted.

I'm always trying to answer the question of "Why Marian?" [why is she the one for Robin, though we know it, we see it (especially in Lucy's performance)]. It can't just be her looks. It can't just be her mind.

The 'he kissed...' sequence here owes some debt to Lemony Snicket's "I love you" passage in The Beatrice Letters, though mine is not even in the same galaxy as good.

'Further up and further in!', is the call in The Last Battle, as everyone runs toward Narnian paradise.

In the 'kiss' sequence, I stopped just short of using Indigo Girls' lyric line, "kissed me like I was a soldier, headed for a war" (though it was certainly in my head), and I did appropriate Rhett Butler's speech to Scarlett about knowing she had been well and truly kissed (or something like that).

Also, thanks to Jane Austen for the phrase 'fine eyes'. (Or should the thanks just be paid directly to Mr. Darcy?)

In Saving Private Ryan, we see an old man's eyes (at the beginning) coalesce into Tom Hanks' eyes on D-Day. Only, by the end of the film we know the man to be Matt Damon, not Tom Hanks. This is a huge misstep in the storytelling. Matt Damon's character is not even on the beaches at Normandy, so why is he experiencing Tom Hank's memories?

When things get arduous in the writing (and trust me, they do), please know that even the briefest review is like gold to me. Thank you.

43. Father Knows Best?

Hunter Again, from Dido's No Angel. I know the series does not use contemporary music (and I approve, and thank them for it. Bless them for it, even), but this is the song (with a switch of gender) that I think of when I think of Robin's relationship to his father.

It's cliche if Robin and the Earl hate one another. I like the Earl, Robin gets a few things from him, I think. It is hard, though, to write something original in relationships, not too like Lady of the Forest, or other Hood fiction. It is a challenge.

It may not snow much in Nottinghamshire, I don't know. The internet only shows pictures of a dusting of white, w/o depth.

Not many hang under Edward's rule as Sheriff.

Technically, within the real timeline, Richard is not King yet. That's in 1188.

Marian's fantasy is meant to show that, over time, she did let herself be taken in by Robin, and let herself be silly at times. And be happy.

42. We Begin Episode 11

I wanted to see Marian and Robin pre-Crusade, even if none of you did. As we get the end, we discover the beginning.

In Saving Private Ryan, we see an old man's eyes (at the beginning) coalesce into Tom Hanks' eyes on D-Day. Only, by the end of the film we know the man to be Matt Damon, not Tom Hanks. This is a huge misstep in the storytelling. Matt Damon's character is not even on the beaches at Normandy, so why is he experiencing Tom Hank's memories?

I like to think that "Earl of Huntingdon" is one of the highest ranks in Nottinghamshire. No one else is particularly titled, are they? Lord is, after all, a general form of address for any nobility. ['Countess', I have learned, is the feminine form of Earl. I may use it to refer to Marian later on.]

Someone had to comment on the chasm of difference between Marian and Edward's accents and those of the rest of the populace.

The fortuneteller references the distant future (Robin going to the Holy Land to rescue Marian), he misunderstands, just as she speaks of the child he will have with his wife (known for a bastard). Seers are tricky that way.

41. The Prayers of Allan-A-Dale

BTW, Joe Armstrong is *killing* in this performance as Allan-A-Dale.

Allan has to experience a reversal, he has to show that something about him has changed post-betrayal (I don't think Season Two did the best job of providing that--sure, his ACTIONS changed, but did his MOTIVATIONS? It seemed a bit muddy to me).

I like the notion that at this time, people's relationship to religion and God would be far different than in our time.

I like that Allan is so mentally/emotionally stunted where love is concerned that he almost has no vocabulary for it. And that he is all but unaware of what to call what he feels for Salima, it is so unconnected to anything else he has known in his life. And so I think his body tries to help him along, by speaking to him physically, in a language of hunger and desire that he can understand.

You know, there are no real names for an upper-arm bracelet. I located the following: armlet, armilla, armill, and slave bangle. I didn't like any of them. Torque is nice, but it doesn't have to be on the arm. Someone should create a better word.

39. Keeping Secrets

Yes, the Sheriff's man is a McGuffin, to get Allan-A-Dale to Court. Allan was never a major character in the story in any of its early incarnations. And then, one day, he just started taking over.

I think his frozen reaction to what Sir Gautier is doing to Salima is a little left-over from his childhood, and the fears of a small boy seeing men be hostile toward his mother, and knowing himself to be defenseless against it. In this I believe Allan shares and understands a victim-mentality (that is, what it is like to be in that position). But, I do believe he's matured and dealt with those things for the most part so that he can function, and that he would not be submissive were someone to try and treat him that way. His memories overloaded his mind in the shock of that moment of seeing Salima as the knight's target, and he did not react as he later might. But also, he is adult enough to know that he cannot fight Salima's way out of the mess she is in (unlike other men in her life have tried to do--oops, but I say too much!)

38. Admirers All Around

I've used the lyrics to Gaelic Storm's Go Home, Girl. You would do well to go and immediately download it. The other song titles are tomfoolery I made up.

I wanted Allan to finally become the minstrel he is always portrayed as in the legends.

37. Not on those days

I don't know if nobility practiced confinement for pregnant women at this time, historically.

I could not actually bring myself to write "The Death of Marian". I do wonder how any truth of her death might have gotten out (there were so few who knew the facts of it), as to most she would have just disappeared one day with the Sheriff. Who would tell, or know the tale?

36. Quick Fingers and Penny Whistles

Now why would you say I've sampled Rollin' on the River? Why would you say that?

It *was* his foot that got broken, right?

Llanio is a nod to Llonio the Lucky, a character of Lloyd Alexander's whose death in Taran Wanderer I cried over. Even in my twenties. Without shame. In fact, in section 35, Robin speaks of the Bonchurch weaver, Old Tara, whose gender I switched but whose name echoes that of Alexander's hero Taran, as he also spent some time as a weaver.

The term is more accurately, 'castrato'.

Yes, I am aware I may have overdone it with my lingering description of Salima.

35. The Nature of Love and a Good Brisket

I am guessing at the name of Count Booby. Can't find his full name listed anywhere. Perhaps everyone found it hard to understand.

34. How's Your Norman French?

In my mind, Wad is a combination of John St. Ryan's Fergus on Roar and Florence, the awesomely mute warrior-nun, on Harsh Realm.

I don't know if there were ever such a fashion as a Holocaust cloak. I think perhaps Willam Goldman invented it for The Princess Bride. Fezzik wears one given to him by Miracle Max, which is how I know it is the perfect garment for any towering figger of a man.

33. The Best Place in the World to Be

Much is doing a good job on watch, only there are three of them and one of him. I think it's important to remember Much stayed alive in the Holy Land. And that in Crusade Robin certainly wasn't able to 'babysit' him. He fought alongside Richard and survived on his own merit.

Yes, Little John sort of echoes some of Han Solo's thoughts in Return of the Jedi.

Please be clear that the gang is not being sexist in asking what Aislinn can do. Only, they know Luke and his skill-set (now he can add weapons-making to it). Aislinn is an unknown quantity to them, and when you're going to live in the forest year-round as part of an outlaw band, you had better be able to do something useful to earn your keep. Man *or* woman. As Robin answered Marian in Get Carter!, "No, because I am hungry!"

The name Matilda, in folklore, is sometimes used for the Maid Marian character in the legends and songs.

Let's not get too into the timeline of Marian's pregnancy. Or the fact it took her almost five months to confirm it. It just is. It's a first baby, so it took time to show, and for her, missing her period was not unheard of in the wake of her injury. And, never forget, we are talking about a woman who survived being gutted on a spit--er, Guy's sword, who not only lived to see another day, but whose insides were still hospitable enough for new life to grow there. Miracle, indeed.

32. Dead Men Tell No Tales

There's still a lot about Salima Marian doesn't know.

31. The Curious Rescue of Little John

So the whole reason Clem took Little John was to get Robin's attention. Of course, he didn't know Robin was out of the country at the time.

Now we know the promise Marian referenced in flashback in #4 "You will change, Robin".

It is my, perhaps erroneous, assertion (for the purpose of the story) that a sea journey from Aquitaine to England might go more quickly than a round-trip foot journey between Nottingham and Scarborough (260mi. present-day round-trip). If Allan walks 4 mph, 6 hours a day (24 miles a day on average), the trip there and back takes about 11 days, he spends five or so days there, we're looking at about half a month. (Yes, maybe some of the time he was on horseback or hitching rides on carts.) We know the pigeon could have made the trip to the abbey in a very short period of time to find Robin and bring about his return.

Sorry for giving the timeline within the text. Here it is again, if you're curious: Present time -16years = Much 9, given to Robin 12 in service. Present time -14 = Clem, 21, goes for a soldier, Marian 12, Robin 14. Present time -13years = Clem, 22, dead, Marian 13. Present time -11years = betrothal, Marian 15, Robin 17. Present time -9years = Marian 17, Robin 19/20 to Crusade. Present time -4years = Robin's return (series begins). Present time = Clem 35, Marian 26, Robin 28/29. (P.S. I made this up. It's actually riddled with inaccuracies and holes.)

Based on "Parent Hood" (ep.3), in which Robin must have been home at least nine-plus months (because Marian is not stupid enough to think that infant--"is this baby yours?"--is his unless enough time has passed since his return to Nottingham for such a thing to be accomplished. Surely she knows he didn't return with an infant-in-arms).

So, one week's episode does not necessarily = one week of actual time (nor the week between episodes), as the undefined time gap (much discussed here) between "A Good Day to Die" and "We Are Robin Hood" illustrates. See also the swift regrowth of Marian's hair post-punishment cutting in "Parent Hood". Guy, in "Treasure of the Nation" claims to have sliced into the Nightwatchman 'a year ago', so we might assume that one season = an entire calendar year. However, it is notably never winter in Season One or Two Nottinghamshire.

Now, with the addition of Clem's 2 cents' worth, we have three views of how the world turns. Marian = everything is a choice, Salima = Kismet determines all, Clem = Chaos can screw with both those ideas. Clem's theory is quite understandable, looking at his life. After all, he was never supposed to inherit, until Edrick died, and (to his mind) he certainly wasn't supposed to end up paralyzed. Both happenings he could never have planned for, but neither does he believe he was fated to experience both.

30. Remember me to one who lives there

Titled after Simon & Mr. Garfunkel's "Are You Going to Scarborough Fair". (Obscure? Not exactly. Not pertinent to the entire posting? Guilty.)

This is Robin and Marian's Casablanca 'the problems of two people don't amount to a hill of beans' moment. (Not that it shares the same sentiment, but that one person's strength gets two people in love through a rough moment, and they choose in favor of something bigger than their relationship.)

I cannot seem to write their final farewell (for this section. Their final farewell *just for this section, let me reiterate). So I finally had to end on a shot before they are again ripped away from each other.

29. Into the (French) Woods

Freedom fighters don't really get a lot of time off.

In the film, Robin and Marian, the Sherrif says of Robin that, "he's a little bit in love with death." I don't know if that goes for our Robin, but there is something about that notion that I like. Perhaps it's that when you're a freedom fighter, death sometimes seems like the only rest you may ever 'live' to experience. And then, of course there's the daredevil aspect to it (the notion) as well. Which may well be quite true of our Robin.

28. That Woman: an undeserving enemy

Robin, as you will recall, remembers none of this encounter, at least not consciously. It does apparently haunt his nightmares. [Forgive me, in "Parent Hood", Robin's explanation of the wound that sent him home does not fit with this. When I wrote this I had not realized I was transgressing on series-established canon.]

To be fair, I don't know why I took this detour of 11 typed pages. Pretty sure any editor would edit it all right out, as none of it is essential to the overall plot, and I doubt that readers are quite as in love with Salima the character as I, her creator, seem to be.

For the record, here is Salima's most-recent list of 'protectors': Sir DeMoure, (?-to be revealed in #39 "Keeping Secrets"), Sir Lauric, Sir Xavier, and then Carter.

27. Trading Spaces

Could be a fic all its own.

I really wanted this for the actor Sam T (Much). He's so good, and I just think he would kill in a performance as the evil Sheriff. And I'd like to give Richard Armitage a brief break with gloom, where he could skylark and swashbuckle in the woods as the good guy.

26. Meanwhile Back at the Ranch

Gwyn was originally only ever to be a two sentence character back in #2 "If you can't stand the heat". But then she just popped up in that shack with Allan.

Don't ask me Lady Knighton's (Marian's mother's) name. I haven't thought about it, and I don't know it.

25. The Beast of Desire

As stated, no more material beyond a T rating outside of this section. [Oops! T+ showed up again in #41 "The Prayers of Allan-A-Dale".] (Apologies to those who think this section too purple, as well as to those who will think it not purple enough in its prose.)

I wanted to try to write the Robin/Much scene as much like "Who's on First" as possible. Then I caught myself repeatedly writing lines for Much he had been written several times in the series, verbatim. Oops! I tried to edit those down so they weren't quite so unintentionally plagiarized. Let's hope I succeeded.

Originally I wasn't going to write out the Robin/Much reunion scene, but Marjatta seemed to be looking forward to it, so I obliged.

24. Support Your Local Sheriff

So, Sir Clem is a haughty SOB.

For the record, Richard had battles and wars going on for many years prior to his Crusade and prior to his ascension to the English throne. It was this army Clem joined.

I have again changed the Rating. The "M" is too much (I discerned this after briefly perusing some M-rated content). I do think that the next chapter, though, will be headed with a disclaimer of "T+/M-", which would be a more accurate rating of things to come (and even then, only that single chapter).

I would not usually put out any sort of a plea for reviews, but --Thank you for the reviews!

23. Sunny Days, and the Clouds to Come

The cottage in question owes a lot to other cottages in fiction, notably the guesthouse/summer house in The Miracle Worker, Old Meg's cottage in Jane Yolen's Jackaroo (surely a fore-runner of the Nightwatchman), and the gardener's cottage (yes, in a convent) where for many years Valjean and Cosette find safety and happiness in Les Miserables.

I want to give Marian the chance to be bad off physically, since she used up all her super-strength healing powers in Season One in order to recover overnight from 'dying on the table' so that she could marry Gisborne.

Yes. The last paragraph is not fair, as it breaks tonally and POV-wise with the rest of the work...But I liked it!

22. The Look of Love

I have upped the rating. But don't expect porn, people. I am trying to err on the better side of caution and good taste, and in truth I want to be able to write what needs to be written without worrying that it isn't fitting right with a 13+ filter. I don't want to upset some 13-year-old out there trying to do the right thing and follow the rating system. (Because I respect that.) (Because I've at times had my own eyes burned out from reading things online that weren't properly labeled). And no, I have no plans to write anything that will burn anyone's eyes out.

I seem to overly enjoy listing people's complete titles from time to time. If I weren't enjoying it so much I'd probably delete one or two of these sentences (I think there are three in this section alone). But I'm having fun.

21. Enter the Sheriff

For me, this section works without much description. I think Keith eats up scripts as the Sheriff (yummy!), and without my writing out his motivations and inner thoughts, I think any good viewer can absolutely hear him saying these lines, and see him perfectly in their mind's eye (even without me detailing his newest black Versace ensemble) as he harasses Gisborne.

No, I don't think I can ever call him Vaysey/Vaisey. And as I haven't seen Season Three (don't try to tell me!), I don't know if he has another name, or if this is it, like Cher, or Bono. Or Rhianna. (Does me saying Rhianna make me sound younger, do you suppose?)

20. Reunited

The messed-up timeline continues! In A Good Day to Die, by Dom, Robin's birthday is October 14th. Ergo, 10 months later puts us in August of the next year, which might work, as my episode 3 or 4 talks about it being Spring in Sherwood. So it looks like during late Fall and Winter prior, the gang was going to and from the Holy Land. However, the timeline is going to get less dependable as we go along. Consider yourself warned. And consider this my last official reference to it.

19. England to France

Please note that just like a trip from England to the Holy Land in the late 1100s, I don't know how long it would take a messenger with a homing pigeon to get from an abbey near Aquitaine to Sherwood Forest. [Laden or unladen?] Nor do I know how long Robin's (and Much's) journey to Aquitaine might take.

18. Allan's Reckoning

Even I'm not totally satisfied with this one (that is, with my writing of this section). I think I let Allan off too easily. He made the choice to betray everyone. He got up every day and made the choice again. That's a hard thing to excuse. We know he directly brought about the death of at least one good man: Roger of Stoke. And look to what point he let things get to before he righted his course.

Robin's statements are meant to show how much of everything he takes on himself, how much responsibility for others his training and [previous] high station in life have left him feeling, and I do think that they serve as an explanation for Allan doing what he did. But certainly not an excuse (as stated in the section). I think Robin can only be so sanguine about it now because it is in the past, and he is so very weary at the moment, overloaded emotionally.

But let us never diminish the fact that Allan has done more than just a single terrible thing, for all that we understand the motivations behind the choices he made and forgive him for them now. [Methos smiles]

16. Still crusading

Who knew Robin could get so poetic in his head when he thinks about Marian?

Crusade, like any military venture, seems to me to be a lot about rank and power, and I imagine Robin would always have been addressed as Sir Robin, or by the name of his Earldom (once his father had died and he inherited), Huntingdon, whether he wished these formal addresses or not.

15. Crusader's Memory

I think of Robin always at Richard's side.

For some reason, despite all evidence to the contrary, I think of Marian as having black hair.

14. Simpler to deal with

I hadn't the time to plot out all the activities going on in Sherwood (what I would think of as each week's main action: fighting the Sheriff, feeding the poor, having adventures that conclude in 44 minutes). As I mentioned above, I like to think of this as the overall mythology of a possible Season Three. Someone else (one or many) would come in and use these bits here and craft the stand-alone episodes.

I wish I were better at explaining camera angles, shots and movements.

13. Carter's Woman

Carter and Salima are together longer than two months. It is only that they camp somewhere for two months consecutively, and he is not called away but is there every night to notice that she doesn't have a monthly period, much less two in that space of time.

As for someone who is (probably) a Knight Templar (he seems to indicate he is in Get Carter!) asking someone to marry him, and having a sexual relationship with a woman while on Crusade, see note on section 11 above.

12. The Further Tale of Salima

Yes, I know Templar Knights took a vow of celibacy and probably would not have been fighting over a woman. But the show has Robin seeming to wear their emblem, as well as Carter, and certainly Robin has never been presented as particularly celibate, nor devout. So I wink at this notion of history (no matter how accurate it may be) and look the other way.

10. The Tale of Salima

Salima exists chiefly because it has always upset me that Marian never has anybody but Robin (and no, I don't really count Edward) as a friend. And certainly she has no girl friends--not even a castle- or Knighton-based female servant (no, I don't count that brief glimpse of the girl whose clothes she switches with in early Season Two). Seriously, is she the only lady noble ever in Nottingham? And are women in such short supply that two soldiers must be ordered by the Sheriff to pack her trunk for the Holy Land?

8. A hasty fare thee well

So Robin doesn't know Salima. His wound had healed while in the Holy Land, but scurvy (just asked Mr. Shackleton) can breakdown scar tissue and cause old wounds to re-open, fester and kill you. So while she was not at Richard's camp when he was first injured, she had arrived by the time he took ill with scurvy and his wound threatened his life. He did not recognize her because it was a large camp, and he was out of his head when she treated him. Much, however, does know who she is, as we see in part 19.

Historically, Richard himself, and Philip II of France suffered on Crusade from scurvy.

7. Revised S2 finale

Why can't I find a decent site that will tell me how long it took to travel to the Holy Land from England (or even from France) in the latter 1100s? It certainly isn't from lack of looking. I don't know how long it took them to get to Acre in the finale, and how long they stayed and how long it took them to return. I daresay the show writers and Dom don't know either. Guy's pre-series faux contagion is said to have lasted several weeks. In which time he was able to get to the Holy Land and back to England. Sigh. I don't know. I figure it took a long time, even by ship. In up-coming section 20 it is meant to be 10 months since Robin's birthday, some of that consumed with travel there and back, some with the amount of time they were there, and the rest returned to Sherwood. Anyway, the reason I think we don't see Marian crying or in despair in the makeshift dungeon at the Sheriff's Acre hideout is that she's had perhaps as much as two months, or longer, to grieve Robin's death and come to terms with her situation.

So, it's a long trip, even if I can't say how long.

2. If You Can't Stand the Heat

'…get out of the kitchen.' This is the sort of scene you imagine when you've been listening to Loreena McKennitt's 'All Souls' Night' from The Visit too too much.

Marian's ripped gown and Jeremy the groom's trousers: perhaps the beginning of some of her more interesting fashion-forward choices for the Middle Ages?

1. The Season Begins

Originally this was posted as two sections, the second one being "Ideologically miles away", but I combined them. I fear the unconventional way I am writing this story has turned many readers off. And I don't know how to fix that: it is what it is. I cannot accomplish the telling of this tale any other way than as it is.

I have given Edward of Knighton two long-dead sons, as it seems likely to me that Marian learned to fight probably because she had brothers who were being taught. (I think her saying that her father wanted her taught so that she might have choices in life sounds like one of several "face-saving" statements she makes in the series regarding Edward. He certainly, when we encounter him, does not seem interested in Marian having choices, fighting, stepping out-of-bounds in their cultural structure, or being the Nightwatchman.)

General Notes:

So this whole current venture is really nothing short of a miracle for me. I certainly never thought I'd be back posting at fanfiction, much less finding both a show that would make me want to write and tiny shards of time in which I could write more than one scatterbrained paragraph at a time. (In fact, see anything from Mr. Sark Writes Love Poetry if you want to see the average length I've been able to eek out for the latter half of the decade.) In fact, this has been written and edited chiefly in notebooks with a blue Bic. Which I definitely never thought I'd do again post-1993.

So, yes, this should be more fleshed out, but it was written for myself. That is, written to put down the story so I could recall all its parts when I was telling it to myself, because it made me very happy to think about it, and it was becoming too complicated to live entirely in my head.

If you have (or will) read anything else I've posted here, you will note that this particular work is not written anything like the others. As it is an attempt to cover an entire season (so really 13 stories, and additionally as many beta plots), I find myself without the time to fully flesh it out. Hence the use of much summary interspersed with "SCENE"s only here and there. This is really due to the fact that the reason I haven't posted anything new since 2003, and that my last story "Possession" went unfinished is that in my current life I don't have any of the necessary TIME to pursue works of any length, much less get them edited and ready to be posted.

Begin Author's Profile: As anyone looking can see, I tend to want to write stories to correct TV shows that I love after they betray me and go horribly wrong. If you met me you would learn that I am always qualifying statements like, "I love Xena--*pre-Rift*" or, "Witchblade was phenomenal--until season two." And, "La Femme Nikita did not have a third season, what are you talking about?"

Currently I am doctoring Season Three of the BBC Robin Hood, which has come to be a show I love a WHOLE lot, after a lifetime of Robin Hood-ish fascination. And by loving it a lot, it seems only natural (in my life, anyway) that "they" ruined it utterly by killing Marian. Don't get me started. I mean, what's that about? Death Would Be Simpler to Deal With is not the world's greatest title, but before that it was called: Headline Season Three: Marian Lives! How's that for subtlety? It's not written in my typical style, as my limited time to write and the demands of covering an entire season are hanging over it. It's unconventionally structured, sort of how I imagined Dominic & Foz did it when they talked about structuring the first season (on the S1 DVD extras): as though you're explaining to someone how it would come together, and then you step in and flesh-out/write the scripts in total a bit later.

I do try to finish all my work, although a few stories posted here are incomplete, and though it does shame me, I do not know that they will ever be finished, save in my head. My apologies for that. In fact, to prevent that from ever happening again, I generally try not to start posting stories until at least a complete beginning-to-end framework already exists on paper.

I use a lot of commas and tend to write run-ons. So the grammar checker in Word is always telling me.

According to my "Traffic" reports here, my death of Buffy-fix Killing the Messenger still consistently gets hits and visitors, which stuns (and deeply pleases) me, seeing how long ago it was written. And I am curious to know how people find it still. And Mr. Sark's love poetry to Sidney Bristow gets a few visits here and there each month. Witchblade Occupation is the longest story I've ever written to date, here or anywhere else, and certainly one of which I am proudest.

(Some IMHOs) Right now, the best-written couple on television is Emma and Robert Timmins of "Lark Rise to Candleford" (I want to be married to them both), unseating prior best-written couple, Coach and Mrs. Taylor of "Friday Night Lights". I think the show that best rewards viewers (and consistently subverts my expectations with story choices--in a good way) is "Legend of the Seeker".

Two books that I love (since I'm always on the hunt for female-centric adventure fiction, which can often be found only in YA literature) are Robin McKinley's "The Blue Sword" (I wish she would publish more books!) and Gwen Bristow's "Celia Garth" (I REALLY want to see this made into an awesomely good movie someday).

On some recent story posts/submissions, you might find the author name "Nettlestone Nell" appearing. Here is a brief bio about her that I wrote for the new, online Robin Hood Fan Fiction Archive, where I post some stories under that name (as I do on LiveJournal). My intent is to have everything I've written posted HERE, at fanfiction.net. That day is coming...

Nettlestone Nell wrote her first fanfiction (unpublished) in 1992, which proved to be mostly a re-tread/rip-off of STNG's episode about Riker/Minuet on the Holodeck, but pleased her single reader nonetheless.

Although she has subsequently written across various fandoms (due South, Highlander the Series, Buffy, Xena, TNT's Witchblade), she discovered BBC Robin Hood in October 2009 on DVD from her local library, while doing a search for the available work of Toby Stephens (S3's Prince John).

She is probably best-known (if known at all) within the RH fandom for her two distinct series: The "Don't" Series, wherein characters and plots of BBC RH are transplanted into the WWII German occupation of the Channel Islands, and the 2011 INTERCOMM-spawned "We Are 2011" series (and subsequent universe), which finds BBC RH characters still afoot and still at the doing of all good things in present day.

[Strangely, at some point in this series it was revealed that Nettlestone Nell (yes, it's all very Fringe-y) was a character in this universe, and the very 'deus ex machina' that set the entire premise in motion.]

When creating OCs, she tends to write strong, capable female protagonists who are often inscrutable. Probably because in RL 'inscrutable' is the last adjective anyone would use in describing her.

Though she would like to announce that it is rare that she will contradict anything plot-wise within her own oeuvre, she has become dismayed to note that the "We Are 2011" series and universe is in direct opposition to her Season 2 finale-fix "Death Would Be Simpler to Deal With", with respect to both plot(s) and character(s).

It is rarer still that she will 'ship outside Robin/Marian (or, for the "Don't" series, Robin/Marion), though she has been known to write ?Marian/Guy? on rare occasions.

Her unconscious muse in RH fic has revealed itself to be found in the character of Allan-A-Dale (specifically as portrayed in the BBC series), from whom it would seem she cannot steer away for very long, no matter the story, universe or series.

That said, to date she has never yet brought herself to finish viewing Season Three, stalling out within the first three or so eps.

At present the bulk of her work is available through fanfiction.net, with stories there authored as 'Neftzer'.

Her most popular and enduring fanfic, the Willow Rosenberg-centric "Killing the Messenger" is located there, a "Buffy dies" WB-finale BTVS/AngelX-over, which still, miraculously, gets read a full decade after its initial posting.

If you can recall a world pre-Internet, pre-mobile phone, pre-EPCOT Center, filled with Bookmoblies and absent of malls, when five numbers dialed on a rotary phone would connect you to your party, when stereos played records or 8-track tapes and were wooden, and nearly the size of Smart cars, when most YA novels (but those in the fantasy genre in particular) seemed to all be about boyshaving amazing adventures, you may have some indication of her true age.

She writes while staring into an early-90s non-flat monitor with "Ian" crudely scrawled across its plastic frame in black Sharpie, always having Merriam Webster's tenth edition Collegiate Dictionarywithin easy reach, and un-ironically using a version of Microsoft Word 97.

Unlike many authors' claims on various book jackets, she does notlive in either the quaint American Northeast, nor the picturesque Southwest with twee pets of any kind.

Rather, she occupies an over-cluttered, oft-neglected brick home in need of multiple refurbishments, surrounded by the likes of Robin Hood, Maid Marian, Allan-A-Dale, Little John and the various books, posters and videos of their many incarnations. (Yes, sharing the home's single bathroom with the entire gang canget complicated.)

If you leave her a review you are almost certain to one-day receive a far longer reply that you had likely wished for.

In the Spring of 2011, following INTERCOMM's conclusion, she joined The Robin Hood Fan Community Forums at .

This next bit is old, from when I first joined FanFiction.net, and it doesn't entirely still apply, but it still makes me smile when I read it, so I keep it for old time's sake.
Written as though by Inga Fossa of Harsh Realm (an exercise in genius...Chris Carter you have my thanks)

Personal statement: Never take anything personally.
Interests: Hooked rugs, Major Waters, General Omar Santiago, Michael "Mike" Pinocchio, Thomas "Super-Terrific Saviour of Harsh Realm" Tom "Tom" Hobbes and his little love-slave Sophie (not necessarily in that order). Virtual Reality, acrylic nails, Cincinnati.
Favorite things: My Bairstow Peach lip gloss, paintings by Andrew Wyeth, the song stylings of Willie Nelson, and a good cognac on a chilly day.
What I like, fictionally speaking: Pre-rift Xena, Due South--both Rays, Highlander & Highlander the Raven, Roswell, Season One BeastMaster, La Femme Nikita, Harsh Realm, Witchblade, Angel pre-Connor, Buffy, pre-Glory, MI-5, Horatio Hornblower.