Blackbird has done a fabulous job of embedding images into her fanfiction for The L Word. When L-word.com became LesFan.com, we moved to a very easy to use technical platform – WordPress – that allows writers to simply copy and paste images into their stories, and Blackbird has taken full advantage of that to enhance her stories with images. Enjoy this story and interview, and some of the images she has provided. It really is wonderful to see the characters of THE L WORD as we read the stories. We miss their faces!      

Touch Tones  is Blackbird’s L Word inspired version of Season 7! Each chapter is photo illustrated with images from the series making her stories beautiful to read as well as sexy and amusing.

This new book starts shortly after Blackbird’s WeHo: Behind the Scenes  series’ last chapter, “Malibu”, where Bette proposed to Tina at the beach. The first chapter of Touch Tones begins with a story titled, “After Midnight“. Tina, concerned with the Press’ attention toward her and Bette as the first day of shooting for Les Girls draws near, hires a PR consultant to announce their engagement. Interesting events begin immediately.

In the second story, “The Handler” Claire, the PR consultant, arrives and Alice, Shane and Helena all weigh in along with Bette and Tina on what the approach should be. The third installment, “The Ringer” the story begins in the hours before Jenny’s press conference. Bette and Tina share their thoughts and feelings about their upcoming wedding commitment. A few twists and surprises await them both as the clock ticks toward the showdown at Shaolin.

Blackbird promises many, many chapters in her Season 7 book.

“What inspired you to write Season 7 for L Word fans? Your new collection is titled, Touch Tones.
Blackbird: The short answer is that five years after the show went OFF air seemed to be an excellent time to add to everyone’s imagination of what The L Word cast of characters, specifically what Bette and Tina, did after Season 5. No one that I know of was satisfied with Season 6. I’m re-imagining everything after the end of Season 5, flying over much of 6’s upsetting tone and landing in a lovely place where Bette and Tina are together, engaged, and moving on with their friends around them.

In imagining the look and feel of my new collection I learned from what was a success in my,  WeHo: Behind the Scenes series. The storylines I wrote about that made many people happy were the imaginative and romantic behind the scenes stories I created for Bette and Tina. My readers loved the photo illustrations in my stories that showed images of the characters from the show, and pictures from the places they’d travel to during my tales.

“You mentioned photo illustrations in your stories, will your Season 7 story collection,  Touch Tones have photographs, too?”

Blackbird: Yes, absolutely! I have a trove of L Word images and have mastered the Google search for pictures that illustrate the place, mood, and tone of what my stories are about. I’m trying some very cool, new things in Touch Tones. It has four chapters now and I’m excited about the new things I’m doing by illustrating with images. Often I’ll be searching for something and come upon an image that I’ll write a whole scene around. To me, pictures add a dimensionality to my stories. I can’t imagine writing Bette and Tina without seeing them or where they are when the scene opens.

“Is it true you’d never heard of fan fiction five months ago when you first started posting here?”
Blackbird: Very true. I was thinking about the show one day when I heard the R&B tune, “Walk on By”. I realized I missed the Bette and Tina, who did such an incredible dance number to that song. I wondered, “Did anyone else miss them, too?” The show had such a huge audience. That’s how I found your site full of stories. I read a few and thought, “I can do that,” and wrote a short story – a one off, about their dance to “Walk on By”. Then I found some great pictures to illustrate the story and posted it. It’s called, “Broken in Two”. People loved it and wrote comments so I posted another story and the rest, thirty-eight short stories and counting later, is history.

“Any hints you can give us about what’s in store for readers in your Season 7?”
Blackbird: Yes, Season 7 is a whole new storyline where Bette and Tina suffer no more infidelities, are super-glued together, and give readers stories that amplify Bette and Tina in their evolved character arcs. WeHo took on the tortured subject of betrayal and unrequited love. It was brutal to write. Readers hated Jodie and Henry as did I! But they had to be in my behind the scenes stories for obvious reasons that they influenced the ON screen action I was writing just below.

In Season 7 I have a clean palette to spread my imagination. I’m using tones and textures in stories about them in love and taking Life on as a solid couple. It’s not something we got to see them do very much in the ON air series. But I have to tell you they are quite good at it in my Season 7. Imagine those two with their beauty and wiles taking on challenges and outsmarting folks left and right when they need to, or meeting and confronting Tina’s family and Bette’s mother, Maxine, who has made contact with Bette through the veils of WitSec.

We’ll go see Shane’s mother in Texas. That’s another storyline I’m interested in pursuing. So, Season 7 for me is very character driven and insightful in all the ways that character’s evolve and take on new challenges.  We’ll have plenty of tense moments and drama in my telling of Season 7 we just won’t have any more of that terribly tiresome cheating. It’s not in their characterology anymore.

“Any last words?”
Blackbird: Yes. Thank you Jacky for doing this site and giving the tens of thousands of fans a place to come and imagine sitting down with their favorite characters again and hearing what they’re thinking about and doing. It’s very clear there is a huge audience for what you and the writers you host here are creating. I hope everyone tells you that enough and I hope, too, that they support you financially by supporting for your endeavors.

Thank you for letting me come to your party and contributing to the stories told here night after night.

 Blackbird’s Author Page