fan fic

fan fiction is a term used to describe amateur writing set in the world of an existing fantasy. for example, star wars was created by george lucas, but there are plenty of amateur writers who create star wars novels. these are not part of the star wars cannon. they're just made up. they're fun little stories that people write in order to share with others who also love star wars.

there's all kinds of fan fic out there: batman, superman, ironman; lost, pirates of the carribean, star trek.

there's even gilmore girls fan fiction.

wow. do i even need to comment on that?

anyway - i've been reflecting a lot on all the writing i've done over the last several years. it's a lot. 37 teaching atlases, each at approximately 45,000 words. some are much longer, some a little shorter. all told, it's just under 1.7 million words in the dave mcdonald literary collection including short stories, parables, theology, reflection, commentary, arguments and rebuttals, exegesis, travelogue, confessionals, film scripts and poetry.

when i peruse this giant body of work, it occurs to me that the best label for all that i've done is fan fic. christ rules the cosmos, and i write about it. i love the world he's created. i love the characters. i love the rules. i love the plotlines.

i'm a fan.

and like any good fan, nothing seems sweeter to me than taking a little of my own time and talent and putting my own spin on his story.

i've got a big project about to be released this summer. it's the compendium of all my work on the liturgical calendar. i've spent about twenty hours compiling all my work and condensing it. i'm paring it down to about 800 pages. it's quite an accomplishment, and i've been really happy with how much my work has helped people, but at the end of the day it's not cannon.

it's just the work of jesus christ's #1 fan.