Intro
Shauna Coe read the latest email from Karen C. The woman had begun corresponding with her after reading some of Shauna’s fan fiction. Of course, online Shauna was known to her readers as Caprice. Her website Belletrist was fairly popular with older readers – or as Caprice put it, ‘more mature’ readers.
Shauna had begun the venture into fan fiction as a lark. She was a fan of the group *NSYNC – and more particularly the dark-haired, blue-eyed JC Chasez. She loved his voice and his lyrics. She’d started spinning yarns about him in her head. Ever the hopeful writer, she committed them to paper. She saw it as a way to sharpen her writing skills. Then one day, she came across a website of *NSYNC fan fiction – she hadn’t even knows such a thing existed! Under the guise of Caprice she posted a part of one of her stories and all of a sudden she had people wanting more. That lead to creating a meager free website of her own to put her stories. From there things started to snowball. She posted more complicated stories with varied themes and won awards from readers. Soon, her free site wasn’t enough. Readers emailed her and eventually coaxed her to use instant messaging. This JC Chasez had taken over a good deal of Shauna’s free time.
She had a devoted core group of readers she had befriended. They encouraged her to attend *NSYNC events. Of course, she never tried to meet JC Chasez. Wouldn’t that be awkward! She wrote about the man in a most intimate way. She had made him the perfect protagonist: a beautiful male she paired with different females in various scenarios. She wrote him as mostly sensitive and intelligent. She gave him understandable flaws and foibles – and made him a fantastic lover. She didn’t want to spoil the fantasy with a dose of reality!
While Belletrist thrived and had to move to its own domain, Shauna managed to sell some of her non-JC stories in the serial romance genre. The small sum she earned from those supported the website. Now her goal was to sell a manuscript that would earn her a place, if not on the best seller list, among serious romance writers. Maybe one day she could actually earn a living at what she loved doing. Fan fiction had allowed her to hone her skills while receiving steady feedback. Looking back at her older stories, she could see the stages of her improvement.
Karen C claimed to know some things about the writing business. She announced she saw unmined talent and potential in Shauna’s writing. The woman seemed to know what she was talking about. The suggestions she had given the writer had been right on target.
Now this Karen C wanted to meet Shauna face to face. Discovering they both lived in the Chicago area, she said it would be simple enough to meet some place public and fairly anonymous. This would protect both of them in case the other was a wacko. Karen C didn’t seem like a nut case, but one never could tell…
Shauna decided to take one more leap of faith. She agreed to meet Karen C.