Introduction
"Strangers when we meet" is 557 pages long, its file size 2.46MB in Word.
When I started this project in March 2002, all I had by way of a plot, was an idea. Soon after completing "And gather dreams that never fade away", I was still on a writing high, and I had been toying with the idea of Chakotay and Kathryn meeting in a pre-Delta Quadrant AU scenario. Just an idea of a blind date, and the events which followed...
How can I describe all that I felt during the writing of this epic tale? Wonderful? Laborious? Enervating? I can tell you perhaps it's all of those, and maybe none of those. Somewhere, from the very heavens maybe, I was inspired, and maybe inspiration surpasses all wonder, labour, enervation and becomes something that just answers to one need only: write, write, write. Perhaps, like Gabriel Fauré, I too, can say, "I did what I could...now...let God judge!"
Many times, like many artists, I suppose, I plunged into despair, or rose to the highest heights of creative energy. Some chapters were emotionally so draining that for days afterwards I would still feel the effects of it. It was being driven to mold, to breathe life into characters already existing and give life to new ones. At times I too, hated Sergei Karkoff, and little Winonah became the lost little girl I always imagined young children felt who were left parentless. Hannah? Why, every baby I looked at during the writing of "Strangers when we meet", every child who smiled, who cried, who nattered away in baby talk, became my baby Hannah. I was constantly looking at children of various ages, at the way my grand nephews and nieces or the babies of friends behaved. I never saw the TNG episode "Journey's End", but upon it I based Gul Evek's character, and gave Seska a backstory that even now, I wonder how these things just crept into my consciousness and knocked long and hard for release.
Those who have read some of my other works will know that I've always had a soft spot for a certain Starfleet admiral called Adam Ponsonby, and linked him romantically to Gretchen Janeway. And so this story was peopled by many different characters, some lovable, some adorable, some courageous, and others not so courageous.
Some things became a part of this story. There is the music which I always listen to whenever I write. There is my beloved poetry, and the poetry of other greats. Omar Khayyám's Rubáiyát - particularly the fifty first rubáiyát, became one of the major themes of the story, a life force for the character Chakotay. There is the drifting in an out of the story of the eagles in flight. I'd like to quote a dear friend who wrote me recently during our weekly discussions on fanfic, and after saying I write romantic J/C:
"...that the romance isn't the reason for your writing. Apart from the fact that you do many pairings, your themes take priority. They are your reason for telling a specific story..."
I wrote a good many stories during this time, letting SWWM as we've come to call it, rest for weeks while I dallied with "Wanted: a miracle", "Sins of the fathers" - A J/P tale, "Ties that bind", "Calamity Janeway and numerous shorter fics like "PWP", the "Twin Torment" series, "Coming Home" in the "Palimpsest" series, etc.
It's been a difficult year, but also a very rewarding year. I had so many good wishes from my readers and knowing that I was always going to complete "Strangers when we meet", warmed my heart that they could have been so loyal and patient.
And so, I cannot conclude this introduction without acknowledging the inspirational messages from my readers, and without declaring how their enquiries kept me going at times that I felt really despondent. Thank you for your support, your love, your loyalty.
As with all good things, I must take my leave of this epic tale and leave behind characters I've come to love passionately. I've cried tears many times writing certain chapters or certain scenes and even as I write this, I'm indescribably sad. This story has been a part of my waking and sleeping moments, for many nights I would dream, wake up and then write a scene.
My grateful thanks to all who shared this dream with me.
vanhunks
vanhunks
April 2003