Oh lord - where do I start with this? Well, I'm 38, with two daughters and a husband. (who thankfully are at school and work, and so allow me the time to write!)

I've never felt the desire to write fanfic before (usually I lurk and read) but I found that I'd fallen in love with all the characters from Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes. (I should probably admit at this point that I would watch anything if it had Phil Glenister in it (even Demons) and I'm fairly much in love with Keeley as Alex, too ;-))

I adore Life on Mars - it is, as one of my friends said, " a piece of perfection" but I was never inspired to write LOM fanfic. Then Ashes appeared and Gene & Alex, with their incredible, irresistable chemistry got into my head and wouldn't go away, and so the story of Hearts & Flowers began to take shape.

H&F was my first attempt at fanfic. It started off as an idea that was only supposed to be a few chapters long and then the whole thing just snowballed. I wanted to explore what would happen when two very strong, stubborn, damaged and lonely people fell for each other, despite knowing that they probably shouldn't, and the way that their relationship slowly developed as their lives entwined. In H&F, Gene and Alex offer each other a chance of redemption, a chance to end the loneliness of their separate lives, and to change for the better as a result.

All in all it took me a year to complete and I think it's fair to say that I lived and breathed the characters for the whole of that time. It thrilled, frustrated and obsessed me in equal measure and when I'd finally finished it, I actually felt bereft - like I'd lost something important from my life.That sounds a little ridiculous, doesn't it - but it's the truth. Still, I suppose that's what writing does to you, it possesses and consumes you no matter how much you try to fight against it!

Hopelessly Devoted came to me fully-formed one cold, rainy afternoon in November - so no wonder it's so damn bleak.

I thought that I was all "fic'ed-out" after finishing H&F, but the beginnings of Dearly Beloved slowly formed in my mind as I was listening to The Jam one afternoon (the clue for the inspiration is in the title of the first chapter) and so here I am, deep in the middle of another fic. It's not going to be anywhere near as long as H&F though.

Strangely, the fic I'm most proud of, the one that I feel really achieves what I set out to write, is "My Own Cheating Heart". It's definitely not to everyone's taste ( I know that as it's the one that gets the least hits) - Gene isn't with Alex, it's incredibly dark, unremittingly bleak, and it deals with painfully emotive subject matter, but that said, I think it's the fic that's a true reflection of me and the way that I like to write. (I've realised long ago that I'm an angst junkie at heart.)

Thank you all for your reviews. The thing that I'm really pleased about from your feedback is that you seem to like the characters that I've created myself as well the whole "Gene/Alex dynamic". This is immensely inspiring, as it's one thing playing with characters that have been created by another writer, but it's much harder to introduce new ones, ones that never appear in the series, (although I really do wish Tom could ;-) ) and to fit them convincingly into the story alongside the existing team. I'm glad that I seem to have manged this. You're all very kind and you inspire me to keep writing.