Happy Endings for Everyone: The Joys of FanLit

So I logged on to the site and, of course, the first thing I do is go on the forum "Favorite Books and Authors" so that I can see how many people named me as their favorite author. With my heart in my throat I zipped through all 139 posts and found Six!! six mentions!!! Yessssss!!! Woo-hoo!!! Thank you to my six favorite readers!!

Now who are MY favorite authors? A lot of them are like yours. . . Stephen King, J. K. Rowling, J. R. R. Tolkien, Cecily von Ziegesar, Lisi Harrison, Leo Tolstoy, Jane Austen (Jane only got one vote—hey, I'm beating Jane! Woo-hoo!!), Dawn Powell, Evelyn Waugh, and P. G. Wodehouse. And when I say "favorite author," I mean authors whose books I have read and re-read to DEATH. As well as authors who I wish would write more books even though they are dead. You know?

Writing fanlit is great practice for any aspiring writer. When I was a teenager, I wrote Duran Duran meets Dynasty fanlit. The members of Duran Duran were part of a ridiculously rich and scheming family, with many affairs and scandals between them. It was an over-the-top soap opera, and part of me is a little bummed the "Gossip and Glamour" premise is pulling very few votes right now in the polls. C'mon people! Don't we want to read about catfights over Jimmy Choo bags?? I know I do!

And speaking of fanlit, I think part of the fun of writing it is being able to rewrite the endings to sad books. Like Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials Trilogy. In the end of the trilogy, Will and Lyra can't be together. But in cyberspace—in fanlit—many fans have given them very happy endings, which makes me very glad. What books would you rewrite to give them happy endings?

Melissa de la Cruz
Author of Fresh Off the Boat