Melissa Madden

Jan

2019

Review – Overtime

Overtime suffered – a lot – from my burnout. It took me years to finish it!

Review – Overtime

For the final wrap-up story in the Barnstorming series, I put it off and put it off forever. Frankly, I had forgotten about it. But then I started to run out of stuff to post on Fanfiction.net, and that meant I needed to finally finish the series already.

Background

Because Rick Daniels has not fully restored the timeline, he needs to run through and change everything – again. With the help of Mack and Marty, and the rest of the gang, the timeline is finally fully restored.

Plot

With incomplete timeline restoration, Rick Daniels has to work with the temporal natives in order to catch a thief/vandal in the act. While the perpetrator is not aware of how damaging her actions are, he cannot tell her the truth. Instead, he confides in Mack to help him catch the perpetrator right before she does her damage.

At the same time, Crita is fretting about getting married as Marty and Mack’s thoughts turn in that very same direction. But there’s only one possible way to marriage for them, and that’s to contest the unfair and ineffective Cousin Marriage Law.

In addition, untied loose ends included Wesley Crusher and his girlfriend, Lakeisha Warren; Future Guy (and Gal); and getting Mack some measure of justice. There was a lot to think about, and to plan.

Furthermore, it was important to me to shout out to various older series because I had (and still have) no idea if I will ever write any more Star Trek fan fiction.

Pressure, much?

Music

The story does not have any appreciable music or musical themes.

Story Postings

Overtime on Wattpad
Overtime on Fanfiction.net

Rating

The story has a K rating.

Upshot

Once I started to push myself to finish in 2018, the pieces started to fall into place. Some nagging plot points slowly resolved themselves. I will admit I spent a lot of time saying goodbye to characters, but that is completely understandable. I do not intend to write any more fan fiction but you never, ever say never, eh?

After all, These Are the Destinations and Paradox are still not finished….

In addition, do you like this page? Tweet it!

Finally, you can find me on Google+, which is going away in April of 2019. Easy come, easy go, eh?

Jun

2016

Portrait of a Character – Thomas Digiorno-Madden

Thomas Digiorno-Madden is a bridge character.

Origins

In order to get the open marriage/arrangement really going among Lili, Doug, Melissa, Norri, and Malcolm, and to really amp it up and certainly require that Melissa have a connection to the Beckett marriage, the best and easiest way of accomplishing that was for her to conceive Doug’s child during Together. There is no planning for Tommy at all (or for Kevin).

But the truth is, the arrangement cannot exist or at least begin without him. He is absolutely indispensable at the beginning of his life and, it turns out, at the end of it as well.

Portrayal

Portrait of a Character – Thomas Digiorno-Madden

Kiefer Sutherland as Thomas Digiorno-Madden (image is for educational purposes only)

Tommy is played by actor Kiefer Sutherland. I had originally thought of Tommy as being dark-haired. But I thought of Sutherland in 25, and could not get him out of my head.

I love this image of the actor, and I have used it, with a flame in place of the ’24’, as the cover of Seven Women.

Personality

Duty-driven and honor-bound, Tommy is the kind of person who Erika Hernandez utterly depends upon and, later, so does Captain Robau. If you don’t know who Robau is, Google him. I can wait.

Relationships

Cindy Morgan

Tommy mentions her in Seven Women, that it was sort of a secondary relationship versus Joss and Jia. They were essentially forced into a one-room schoolhouse on Lafa II, and there were few romantic prospects. But she wasn’t the one, and they both knew it.

Takara Sato Masterson Tucker

Takara, the Empress Hoshi Sato’s only daughter meets Tommy in a dream during Fortune. I had originally decided that that would be it, and they would not see each other again. Temper would remain an outlying temporal fluke. But then the idea of then being together in dreams was be a good one. So I wanted her to be his only semi-attainable love match. During Eight, in the Out of the Caves of Lafa II chapter, she reveals that she believes her son is really Tommy’s. I’m not so sure how I feel about that, as there are virtues to making Tommy the father or making Charlie Tucker IV the father.

But either way, Tommy and Takara are a bit like what would have happened to the overall storyline if the crossover in Reversal had failed, and Doug and Lili could not truly be together. It made sense for some of the endings to not be such happy ones.

Theme Music

During Temper, Tommy’s music is Green Day’s When I Come Around.

Mirror Universe

It is impossible for Tommy to have a Mirror Universe counterpart, as he is already a Prime Universe/Mirror Universe crossbreed.

Kiefer Sutherland as Tommy in the Mirror Universe (image is for educational purposes only)

In Temper, though, it is established that he and also Marie Patrice are having the easiest time adjusting, and Tommy is drawn more strongly to that side than any of that crossbred generation. It’s likely that the two things that draw him are the possibility of a much faster command and Takara herself.

Truth is, Tommy in the Mirror is meaner. But he probably would have been similar to what he became, a lifelong soldier. In many ways, Tommy is Doug without real love and a home in his life. The most significant thing he contributes to the timeline (assuming he isn’t Charlie Tucker IV’s father after all) is the sacrifice that ends his life.

Quote

“Here come the flames.”

Upshot

Tommy’s adult life is not well-documented. There is a lot more to tell. He will be back.

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Mar

2016

Review – Seven Women

Seven Women in memory, love, and loss.

Background

In Fortune, I established that Tommy Digiorno-Madden dies in the service of his captain. In Seven Women, I show exactly how that happens.

Plot

Seven Women

The story (which was written as a one a day ficlet challenge) opens with Tommy making it clear that there is a fireball coming, and it’s got his name on it.

The fire door is closed, he’s trapped, and there is no getting out of this one. Except he says this with no fear, no regrets, and no sorrow. It is just a simple fact. Since he sees his fate, he knows he is about to die.

In order to pass what little time he has left, he has visions. But he does not see his life pass before his eyes. Rather, he sees seven influential women from his life.

Melissa Madden

The first woman he remembers, naturally, is his mother, Melissa Madden. As he talks about her in the initial chapter, and he mentions her descent into Irumodic Syndrome dementia, he mentions Doug Beckett, too. While he recognizes that his half-brother, Joss, looks the most like Doug, it is he, Tommy, who is the most like their shared father. Because Tommy is a soldier.

Leonora Digiorno

The second woman he recalls is Norri, who he reveals he had a crush on. He remembers her teaching him to read and that, at her death, she said she saw a bridge and the doomed Kevin. And then he reveals that he’s seeing Kevin, too, and feels the brother who never had a chance is somehow there for him and is acting as a kind of spirit guide.

Cindy Morgan

His next memory is of Cindy Morgan, who he reveals (this was my own first inkling of this) was his first girlfriend. Unlike Joss and Jia, they did not work out.

Takara Masterson Sato

Fourth on his list is Takara Masterson Sato Tucker. In Fortune, I established that they made dream contact as children, but didn’t know if they had pursued it after that. However, the character spoke to me, and so dreaming with Takara became something that Tommy had done for his entire life.

Lili O’Day

Then his next revelation is about Lili O’Day, and he remembers her not only as Doug’s wife, but also her singing Arroz con Leche to him (a scene from Temper) and making empanadas, a detail that is also from Temper.

Erika Hernandez

The sixth woman is his old boss, Erika Hernandez. While Tommy is too young for Flight of the Bluebird, he is definitely there with Erika during later voyages, and is probably a part of patrolling the Neutral Zone.

The Last Woman

I won’t reveal the seventh woman. So you’ll just have to see for yourself.

Story Postings

Rating

The story is rated K.

Upshot

I really loved giving Tommy some dimension, as he really didn’t have much beforehand. Joss and Neil and Empy and Dec (and even Kevin) seemed to have had more screen time.

But it’s Tommy who ends up becoming the most important person, ever, to the new timeline. And no one but the reader knows.

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Feb

2016

Review – About Nine Months

About Nine Months captures a lost cause. From October of 2176 to June of 2177, the short life of Kevin Madden-Beckett.

Background

So after writing Fortune, I had wanted to expand on Kevin Madden-Beckett‘s story for a while, but the opportunity kept failing to present itself. It did scream out for some more detail, not only about his existence, but also about how the family felt about him. At the end of Fortune, the siblings make it clear they love him. And in Seven Women, Tommy sees Kevin as a kind of spiritual guide to the other side in his (Tommy’s) last living moments. As a result, Kevin matters a great deal, even though Q dismisses Kevin’s tragic and short existence as being somewhat like a mayfly’s short life (mayflies live for twenty-four hours). But the family sees more; I felt the need to honor and express that.

Plot

Later Days

It is later in everyone’s life. The kids are nearly all grown. Doug and Lili have settled into comfortable married life. Malcolm is busy fighting a cold war, but otherwise things have fallen into an established pattern. Norri is writing her book. Melissa gets some small piloting assignments, as their nest isn’t quite empty yet. Joss is already at Cornell.

Then comes Kevin.

Story Postings

Rating

The story is Rated K.

Upshot

Kevin is a child with no chance, but he has a place, as both Lili’s spirit guide in Fortune and Tommy’s in Seven Women. For someone with such a short time among the living, Kevin proved to have what I feel is a compelling story.

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Jul

2015

Review – Tumult

Tumult came easily.

Background

On May fifth of 2160, Lili and Doug arrive on Ceres for Tommy’s birth, on May sixth.

Plot

As a direct sequel to Together, I wanted to begin to show the Beckett-O’Day-Reed-Digiorno-Madden arrangement and how it would work.

Barking Up the Muse Tree | jespah | Janet Gershen-Siegel | IBD Arrangement | Tumult

In Between Days, the Arrangement

Hence much like with Equilibrium, this story would show some of the adjustments that would need to be made in order to get an open marriage to run smoothly.

Tommy is one of the pieces that holds the whole mad scheme together and got it kicked off in the first place. Because if Melissa had not been pregnant, Doug might not have bonded with her as well or as closely or as quickly. Furthermore, it is not likely that Norri would have been so forgiving of allowing Doug into their lives and sharing Melissa with him.

So the story opens with Lili and Doug on their way to Ceres. And they are taking Joss and Marie Patrice with them, as Tommy will be their half-brother. But Empy is just an infant. When they arrive, Norri comes to greet them and explains that Melissa went into labor earlier than expected. Hence the Digiornos and the Maddens have already arrived.

When Dino and Belinda Digiorno see Doug and Lili with their children, the introductions are made quickly (I never actually named the Maddens). Dino, as a call back to An Announcement, asks to hold Marie Patrice but also asks Lili who is related to whom. He cannot figure it out and it all seems too strange to him. The whole arrangement is hard for him to follow and piece together.

Story Postings

Rating

The story is rated K.

Upshot

I liked the frenetic pace of things, that nobody really knows what’s going on half the time. I also liked revisiting Dino’s doubts about all of it, and whether the arrangement would work.

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Jun

2015

Review – The Facts

The facts of life are complex in an open marriage.

Tommy Digiorno-Madden gets an eyeful when he’s sent home early from school one day.

Barking Up the Muse Tree | jespah | Janet Gershen-Siegel | IBD Arrangement | The Facts

In Between Days, the Arrangement

Takes place on September 11, 2166.

Background

In response to a Star Trek fan fiction prompt about facts, my mind immediately went to the idea of the facts of life. What can I say? My mind is in the gutter half the time, I suppose.

During Fortune, Q shows Lili the family at a later date, after her death. It is a conversation that she would not normally ever be able to witness. It is Marie Patrice, Joss, Tommy, Neil, and Declan talking a bit about sex. They discuss various ages when they figured out certain terminologies. Then Tommy gets to speak, and he reveals that he learned something rather intimate when he was very young.

Plot

The story opens with Tommy getting into trouble at school. Miss Elenyakiah, a Calafan teacher, is not too pleased at being referred to as Miss Elekai. She sends Tommy back to the Beckett house, where he is staying with Neil, Melissa, and Norri, as their apartment in Fep City is being renovated. Doug and Lili have a full house. Lili is at Reversal and Doug is drilling with his troops. The only people home are Leonora and Melissa, as the children are all at school. At least, that’s what they think.

Then Tommy barges in.

Melissa and Norri throw clothes at each other quickly and, in record time, they dress. To keep Tommy distracted, they ply him with tofflin juice.

Story Postings

Rating

The story is rated K.

Upshot

I like how this little story puts together a bit of embarrassment but also a contrast between Norri and Melissa suddenly having to clue Tommy in on where babies come from, versus the lies that Tommy tells earlier in the story in order to avoid trouble at school. I liked the scene so much that I have Tommy recall it in Seven Women and then the follow up happens in Linfep Linfep Linfep.

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May

2015

Review – Movie Night

Movie Night, of course, is canon. In November of 2159, Malcolm takes Melissa to Movie Night.

Barking Up the Muse Tree | jespah | Janet Gershen-Siegel | IBD Arrangement | Movie Night

In Between Days, the Arrangement

Background

In response to a Star Trek fan fiction prompt about fraternizing, I decided to go with a date that would not really be a date at all. Instead, it is a bit of a cover. Melissa is pregnant with Tommy, but has not yet been ordered off the Enterprise. But that time is drawing nearer. Melissa’s plan is to go home to Ceres and Norri and await Tommy’s birth there.

Plot

Robert Strauss (Animal/Stanislaus Kuzawa) in Stalag 17

The story opens with Malcolm carefully getting ready for the evening. But he then smacks his own forehead – he’s forgotten the flowers.

So he visits Shelby Pike in Botany and she makes him a colorful bouquet with the understanding that the flowers and the ribbon can be any color except for blue. Hence it should be obvious to sharp-eyed readers that this is a reference to Lili. I also spell out that the date is not with his true beloved.

While in the lift with Tripp, Tucker asks if he and Melissa are getting serious. Therefore, Malcolm confides that it is all for show, and he is taking care of her as a friend (and as a part of the Doug/Lili open marriage arrangement), but he does not have romantic feelings for Melissa.

However, he arrives to find the door to her quarters locked, but he can hear Melissa retching. He uses (rather, he oversteps, really) his authority and bypasses the lock. He holds back the flowers, unsure if they will set her off again. Then he also scolds her, and then realizes that that is not his place. Not his child, not his girl. A bit tentative, she insists on going out, and the story ends with them going to see Stalag 17 together.

Story Postings

Rating

The story is rated K.

Upshot

I liked the little touches in this one, as Malcolm seems like he is suiting up for a date, to Melissa’s complaining about being sick all the time, to the colors in the bouquet and then the film, which is also referenced in Day of the Dead.

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Apr

2014

Review – An Announcement

An announcement to the family – a big one.

Background

Norri (Red)

This was a Star Trek fanfiction prompt about family. Rather than have Leonora come out, I decided to instead have her announce that she had met someone special. That person is Melissa Madden. Leonora is, of course, happy.

Plot

Catherine Bell as Melissa Madden (image is for educational purposes only)

In Fortune, I had rather vaguely established how the two women had met (and then more detail is offered in Red, which was written much later), but not the aftermath.

This was a good chance to show that scene, particularly since I already had a bit of background of Norri’s father disapproving to some extent. While Dino isn’t necessarily homophobic (albeit some people read him that way), the way I see him is that he’s a bit huffy that his little girl is growing up perhaps a bit too fast. After all, her brothers, Alex and Phil, have not yet declared their love for anyone. So this statement of hers changes everything and upends his world a bit.

Hence I feel it is more that Dino is a bit blindsided by the declaration. Belinda, his wife, sets him straight, and the story ends with a promise to have Melissa over, and soon, so that she can meet the family. There is even a brief reference to her brother Phil’s violin playing, another shout out to Fortune.

Story Postings

Rating

The story is Rated K.

Upshot

In particular, to get Norri in front of more readers, I think the little story works pretty well. At some point, I’ll write their first dinner together, I imagine.

Apr

2014

Spotlight on Original Nonsentient Species – Perrazin

Spotlight on an Original Nonsentient Species – Perrazin

Perrazin were almost an afterthought originally.

Background

As I wrote the In Between Days series, it became necessary to create nonsentient food animals for the Calafans. Furthermore, I had already established that both Doug and Melissa enjoy hunting, partly for sport, but mainly for food. In Together, I briefly mention perrazin and described them as big, blond buffalo. By the time of Temper, I wanted to start that book with a hunting scene, so it was time to show perrazin.

Origins

Barking up the Muse Tree | jespah | Janet Gershen-Siegel | Highland cattle | Perrazin

Perrazin (these animals are actually Highland cattle)

When I first came up with the idea, this absolutely was what I was thinking of. These animals are actually Highland Cattle.

Imagine them with tusks and you’ve got perrazin (puh-RAH-zen).

Omnivorous and nasty, perrazin will graze and will eat olowa much of the time. But if the opportunity presents itself, they will also eat linfep. Prickly and unpredictable, they will charge at anything they find strange. And, as Doug says while hunting them with a phase bow, they find a lot of things to be strange.

They graze and hunt in packs, almost like a cross between cattle and wolves. During the hunt, it’s also revealed that they’re rather lazy hunters, preferring that a meal simply fall into their metaphoric laps. When presented with the opportunity, they can also be cannibals, a fact that shocks Melissa.

They also, according to Lili, taste like a cross between beef and pork. She jokes to Naurr, in Dear Naurr, Dear Lili, that she’s practically eating one all by herself during her pregnancy with Joss.

Upshot

Every culture and every society needs animals. Often, in canon, animals were overlooked when planets were explored. It seemed as if most places were animal-free! And that’s just not reality here, and I seriously doubt it would be the case on any planet where we find life.

I feel that there will always be diversity, and there will be animals that maybe don’t look like this, but they might fill similar niches. Viva perrazin!

Jan

2014

Review – Escape

Escape Background

Escape has irony on its side.

Hall of Mirrors

For a weekly prompt about escapes, I chose what would be, to some, the only way out of the mirror.

Suicide.

For Andrew Miller, who has become the Empress‘s toy, and has been so for years, life is too much of a burden, and he wants it all to end, and end soon.

And so he goes about figuring out how to end it all.

Plot

Sick of everything, and sick of the Empress, Andy sets about putting together the means and opportunity to kill himself. He obtains a tricoulamine capsule but the later investigation shows it’s from Crossman Pharmaceuticals and is of an older design, so it was possibly from the earlier doctor, Cyril Morgan.

It’s all because of the death of Melissa Madden, a fact disclosed in Fortune. After Andy and Melissa meet (during The Play at the Plate), a sexual relationship develops between them. When Melissa becomes pregnant, Andrew will have to get her off the ship without the Empress finding out, as Hoshi will kill both of them. Because he can never see his child, he at least wants to try to support the baby, who they have agreed to name Tommy.

Andrew asks his friend, Josh Rosen, to help set up a dummy fund to help support Tommy and Melissa. Josh agrees to launder the funds and make it appear as if it’s an account comprised of the payment of old gambling debts from Game Night. Melissa’s death, in a shuttle crash, moots all of that work.

Several years later, Andrew has the nerve, the means, and the privacy. He write a short note and takes the drug, thereby finally getting away from Hoshi.

Story Postings

Rating

The story is Rated K.

Upshot

I like this neat and tidy little story, and reprised it in The Point is Probably Moot, where I cover the aftermath.

Review – Overtime

Background

Plot

Music

Story Postings

Rating

Upshot

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Portrait of a Character – Thomas Digiorno-Madden

Origins

Portrayal

Personality

Relationships

Cindy Morgan

Takara Sato Masterson Tucker

Theme Music

Mirror Universe

Quote

Upshot

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Review – Seven Women

Background

Plot

Melissa Madden

Leonora Digiorno

Cindy Morgan

Takara Masterson Sato

Lili O’Day

Erika Hernandez

The Last Woman

Story Postings

Rating

Upshot

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Review – About Nine Months

Background

Plot

Story Postings

Rating

Upshot

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Review – Tumult

Background

Plot

Story Postings

Rating

Upshot

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Review – The Facts

Background

Plot

Story Postings

Rating

Upshot

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Review – Movie Night

Background

Plot

Story Postings

Rating

Upshot

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Review – An Announcement

Background

Plot

Story Postings

Rating

Upshot

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Spotlight on an Original Nonsentient Species – Perrazin

Background

Origins