Name: Margherita

Age: 46

Currently lives in: southern Sweden

Able to communicate with you in: English, Dutch, Swedish, Italian, German and French (though my understanding of French is far superior to my productive skills).

Writing history: I've been writing stories for nearly 40 years now - I started pretty much as soon as I learned how to read and write. Originally it was quite simple fiction, strongly reflecting my own life and the things I would like to do. As my taste in reading evolved, my writing followed: stories about girls at boarding school and about hidden treasures with bad guys eager to snatch them away (Enid Blyton!) were succeeded by fantasy and a mild form of SF under the influence of Harrie Geelen's musical TV-series of Hamelen and the novels by Tonke Dragt.

It was Hamelen that first got me into the writing of fanfiction, even though I didn't know that word at the time. This wonderful series simply begged for an extra season towards the end. So I wrote down a complete storyline and a few elaborated scenes for another six ep season, and even though the story never really got written, most of the songs to be included (mostly new lyrics to existing songs, like I nowadays write a lot for Hogan's Heroes) I still treasure today.

A few years later, Zorro got me started on a fanfic in which Victoria finally puts 2 and 2 together and then starts to taunt Diego to agony with her new-found knowledge. But I only wrote the beginning, and when I recovered it a few years ago, I didn't have a clue as to how I had wanted to continue. As a matter of fact, I still don't.

It wasn't until 2005 that I discovered the realm of fanfiction on the internet. Recently having joined a yahoogroup on one of my favourite TV-shows The Flying Doctors, I was happily astonished to read all the stories in the group. But that was something I could do, too!

And here is the result: spread out over different fandoms I've written and published well over 80 fanfic stories by now, most of which can be found here on ffnet. And I'm honoured (and proud, and delighted, and everything!) to relate that they are in general very well received by the readers, and many of my writings in the Hogan's Heroes section have been adjudged our prestigious Papa Bear Awards in the past years (most notably The Key to Berchtesgaden and many of my rewritten songs). And my thanks go out to all of you who take the time to review - you've definitely helped me become a better writer!

Reading Guide to "The Corporal Chronicles"

Since I have a habit of letting interesting character developments from one story trickle down into other stories, I think a little reading guide to some of my Hogan's Heroes stories might be in order by now.

The epic Chameleon Fever really is the basis for all of The Corporal Chronicles. However, even The Key to Berchtesgaden gives you the necessary insight in the situation to be able to thoroughly enjoy the other stories in the series.

Both Robin Hood's Christmas Party and No Silent Night however are very readable as stand alone stories, without any prior knowledge of the actual situation I created around Langenscheidt and Danzig. But of course they are more fun if you are aware of what's really going on.

The Mystery of the Love-Struck Corporal and The Pied Piper of Hamelburg are best read with the reader being aware of Langenscheidt's antics. The latter however I do not consider to be really part of the Chronicles anymore. It's more a TOW fanfic than a HH fanfic to begin with, and by now I've developed my own plans for how things will go towards the end of the war. The only part of The Pied Piper story that I still consider a more or less legitimate part of the Chronicles is the lengthy flashback of chapters 4-8.

Sigh. Originally, when I started Chameleon Fever, I had no intention of writing something like The Corporal Chronicles. But the plotbunnies just keep multiplying!

It's been a long while since I heard,
but I still want to keep this little memorial here:

Jon Seymour Cedar

aka Corporal Karl Langenscheidt

as well as Oskar Danzig, Stoffel, Mannheim,
and in fanfiction as Nimrod and Marya

1931 - 2011

He will live on forever in our stories.

May the man behind these minor but inspiring characters rest in peace.