The Story Behind the Stories
So you’re wondering how this series of stories based around myself (Lauren) & Emma came about, right? No, this isn’t really a Mary Sue series. We’re portraying ourselves the way we really are & in the ways we’d react to the particular situations that we put "ourselves" through.
The initial idea behind this was, mainly, for Emma to get some practice in, especially, learning Mike & Davy’s accents. For myself, it’s to get some practice in writing these guys. I never really considered writing Monkees fanfic, despite having been a fan since 1986 (when I was six) & having had Internet access & a web site to call my own since 1999.
That’s how "Dream World" came about. We had so much fun writing & we were rather happy with the outcome that we decided to keep up our writing. Mind you, we’ve actually been writing these over IM, so we’ve picked our characters and, for the most part, stick with them and interject our characters when needed.
Emma writes for: Emma, Mike, Valerie, Sheila, and Peter.
I write for: Lauren, Micky, Davy, Daphne, Alex, and Belavarg.
When needed, we take over certain characters.
Also, the version of the guys we’re using are the TV show Monkees, NOT the real Monkees. The stories are set after the show went off the air, from March 1968 (Micky’s hair is curly; Mike eventually picks up wearing the sunglasses) onwards.
Everything that happened to the guys in the series has happened to these guys. However, "Head" has happened in the form of "Head Trip" & "33 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkees" turned up as someone's nightmare. ;-)
"Dream World," admittedly, has lots of pop culture references beyond 1967. We have been more careful with the rest of the stories to not blatantly reference something "in the future." There may, however, be a small sly "in joke" based, for example, on a special or any of the documentaries, like Micky’s "thinking face" from the "Heart & Soul" videography. These are not obvious & make no difference if they’re recognized or not.
Finally, a little note from me...please don’t take these stories too literally or in any other way besides as fiction. Thank you.
When Lauren and I began these stories in May 2004, we had no idea they'd take on such a life of their own. We started playing the guys as a little joke between the two of us in our daily e-mails, but we enjoyed the game so much, the goofing off grew out of the e-mails and we took it to Instant Messanger (IM). This is why the first role-play story, "Zero Hour," is quite different from the series. It's based around an Internet Monkees fanfic workshop/community we'd just joined at that point, the Long-Title Library. "Zero Hour" came out so well, we decided to just keep going and do a whole story, the first "main" story, "Dream World." We both became so intensely involved with writing "Dream World" that we decided to do another story set, once again a long story and a short story.
It wasn't until we started writing "Head Trip" in July that we realized how into our role-playing we were. What started as a cute goof between friends became a whole universe, based around a simple notion - how do the guys create props and costumes out of thin air on the show? There are many explanations of this online (some have even been mentioned in the role plays), but by "Origins of the MonkeeMen," we'd developed an explanation that was both fun and unique.
The original four story sets are the "Imagination" stories. They are set in one or more character's imaginations and can be described as a more PG-oriented version of the show. We've been able to go more fully into areas the show couldn't or wouldn't explore, from heavier violence to deeper relationships between all four guys and Lauren and myself. We incorporated the real Monkees' free-form film debut "Head" as "Head Trip," and made use of the attractions of our real-life homes in "Camping Calamity" and "Boardwalk Ballyhoo." We started brainstorming ideas in our e-mails between sets, and the stories gradually became more structured.
Around the time of the "Beach Blanket Monkees" set in early August, we realized it was time for some changes. No one can live in their minds forever, even us. The characters were settling down, and we decided the stories needed to as well. Besides, we wanted to do more in Calfornia, with a steadier group of characters (the secondary characters are different in every "Imagination" story) and more ordinary settings.
The "California" stories, written during the fall of 2004, have a firmer grounding in reality while retaining the fantasy underpinnings that will always be associated with "The Monkees." They revolve entirely around happenings in and around Malibu Beach, California, the fictional Los Angeles suburb where the original show was set and our characters still live. We've had a blast finding places for interesting characters on the show who only appeared once and creating new ones for the boys to interact with and creating darker plot lines than your typical Monkees episode, as seen in "The Devil and Michael Nesmith" and "Nightmare Revolutions." This continued into "The Devil Returns" arc, as we made one villain a permanent part of the series and brought back four others from the original 60s program to wreck havoc. Sheila has continued as our major villain ever since. The Monkees finally hit it big as of "Monkees to the Future" and are now dealing with the price of fame along with the usual villains, wild plots, and their own growing families.
Starting with "Demon Attack!", we've added another ongoing villain, the demon Belavarg. A fourth, Lillith Staffer, will tie into Mike's attempt to start a music-based company that will revive the Monkees' ailing careers.
We're hoping to continue this series for a long time to come. We've had fun doing it, and all of us (including the boys) hope you'll have just as much fun exploring the Power of the Imagination...our own "Dream World." :)