Re-Introduction - WENN Fairy Tale Series and Hilary and the Beasts

Hi everyone! "Where the hell have you been?" Well...not writing. I've been trying to find a better job, and I got hit rather hard with a severe case of writer's block. I started a follow up to that original fairy tale I wrote back in 2023, then got stalled and couldn't figure out where to go with it. I started no less than five different Match Game fanfics and stalled on all of them. I considered a Monkees fanfic set in the 80's after re-watching the show last fall, then decided I wasn't that into the fandom anymore.

In early May, I finally got a second job as an assistant at an after-school program...and I loved it. I loved working with the pre-schoolers. It really re-energized me. And though I  ultimately didn't write fanfiction for it, I enjoyed seeing The Monkees again enough to re-watch another favorite sitcom of mine. 

It had been a decade since I last watched the 1996-1998 cult historical comedy-drama Remember WENN straight through. The ongoing saga of a small-time radio station in Pittsburgh in the years leading up to World War II has been my favorite show since 1997, and watching it again reminded me of how brilliant it was and is. It helps that it's now far more available than it was in 2015, too. AMC finally posted it in full on their streaming site AMC Plus in 2022. The first two seasons are free on Plex, and the first three seasons are currently on YouTube and the Internet Archive. 

Among the many fanfic ideas I came up with back in 2015 were a series of fairy tales revolving around a WENN staff member during or after an episode of the series. I got The Little MerBetty, Scott White and the Seven Actors, and the Christmas story Babes In WENNland done before my muse wandered to the Star Wars franchise. Had my muse stayed put, the next story in that series would have been Hilary and the Beasts. I've not only returned to that original idea, but have expanded it tenfold. 

Originally, the "Beasts" were Scott Sherwood and Jeff Singer...but given the 4th season setting, I had to sneak in Maple LaMarsh and Victor Comstock, whom I thought worked well together. Hilary Booth, Betty Roberts, and Maple LaMarsh are quite tired of their beastly men after their dates in "You've Met Your Match" all went off the rails. They wish their men weren't quite so difficult to deal with. Hilary's attempt to re-write the script for the Book at Bedtime version of "Beauty and the Beast" to spotlight her leads to the story of an actress and her two younger sisters who end up dealing with three real beasts of their own after their father steals a rose for the eldest. 

And if you enjoyed this (very long) story, there's a lot more WENN Tales coming! Next up, Maple takes center stage as she dreams of Victor Comstock rescuing her from a tower...and her rescuing him from Pavla Nemcova and his own fractured memory in Maplepunzel.