One of my earliest influences

"Plato's Stepchildren", the 12th episode in season 3 of the original Star Trek is best remembered for the kiss between Captain Kirk and Lieutenant Uhura. Widely touted as the first interracial kiss in American network television (though this wasn’t technically true), it was quite controversial when it first aired on November 22, 1968.

Those who remember the episode for anything else probably remember the silly antics of the crew, as Kirk and the gang are forced by telekinetic aliens to perform for their amusement. Kirk “playing horse” on the ground with a little person riding on his back is just peak Shatner silliness, making this terrible episode stand out in a “so bad it’s good” kind of way.

But for me, the standout moment of the episode will always be just before the opening credits. Kirk, Spock, and McCoy beam down to a mysterious planet to heal their injured ruler, and discover that the human-looking aliens have telekinesis, other than the dwarf, Alexander. When Alexander pleads with their queen, played by the beautiful Barbara Babcock, not to harm the visitors, she does this:

21st Century Magic: Gotcha! (Chapter 12: Out of the Closet, Into the Spotlight)

After hearing Valerie’s suggestion for avoiding trouble with Mr. Helverson, Lacey was just as excited to confront the old man as she was for her planned meeting with Vicky. Unfortunately for her, neither of them showed up for those anticipated meetings.

Vicky never answered the door to her house, despite Lacey knocking and ringing the bell for several minutes.

“I know she was home, ‘cause I could sense her inside. The perv was thinking about me and getting turned on –  again! But for some reason she never came to the door”, Lacey complained later, hanging out with her friends at Katie’s house. “And then I could sense her moving around, to the kitchen, and I almost lost track of her. It was really weird. I think she may have used some sort of magic to keep me from sensing her desire, though it didn’t entirely work.”

21st Century Magic - Gotcha! NEW Chapter 11

Chapter 11: Rule the School

“Did you hear there was an ambulance outside the school? I wonder what happened”, Ginny told Lacey and Val, as they met up on their way to science class.

“We know what happened. Lacey broke Mr. Helverson!” Valerie blurted out, and cracked up laughing.

“Would you be quiet!” Lacey shushed her.

“What do you mean ‘broke’?  You didn’t kill him, did you?” Ginny seemed genuinely concerned.

At this, both Valerie and Lacey erupted in even more laughter.

“What’s so funny?” Ginny asked. “Come on! You have to tell me what happened!” the blonde girl begged.

As they settled down and arrived in science class, Valerie whispered to Ginny, “Lacey put the whammy on the old lech, and he thought he was having a stroke!”

“We’ll fill you in on the details later,” Lacey promised.

“What’s a lech?” Ginny asked.

“I am a little worried that once word of my magic gets around, he’ll realize what actually happened, though”, Lacey told Valerie, ignoring Ginny’s dumb question, as usual. “I could get detention, or worse, once he finds out it was me.”

“I had an idea about that, actually”, Valerie responded, grinning mischievously. “We’ll talk later. In the mean time, I know another target I’d love to see you mess with.” She gave a nod and looked past Lacey, obviously indicating her chosen target.

21st Century Magic: Gotcha! (chapters 1-10)

While this one is, once again, a story that I entered into one of the writing workshops at www.superwomenmania.com, this time in 2009, this has a much weirder history.

I started writing this story and probably had 2 or 3 chapters written when they announced a workshop theme of “Villainess Month” or something like that. I think there was a list of stereotypical villain types, and each entrant had to pick one to use. I saw that the stereotypical high school mean girls were on the list (complete with a picture of the stars of the movie Mean Girls) and realized my characters here fit the theme. But without the usual superstrength/invulnerability that people expect at that site, I wasn’t sure if the power set here would be acceptable. I was told to enter it anyway.

I finished writing 8 chapters in time for that workshop deadline, but I already had plans for at least a dozen more. And the last chapter was rushed, so I didn’t like how it turned out. Plus, I was burned out from trying to write so much so quickly. So I actually stopped writing at that point, and didn’t get back to it until years later.

In 2015, I inserted a new early chapter, rewrote half of the last chapter, and added a new chapter. So it’s up to 10 chapters now, which I shared on the SWM site 5 years ago. I’ve actually finished writing chapter 11 since then, but I’ll wait to share that until I’m done posting all of my old stuff.

21st Century Magic - Celebrity SuperAgent (Preview Scene)

This is another one written for a story workshop at www.superwomenmania.com with a 1000 word limit in early 2006. The theme was “An ubergirl’s romantic evening”. I had the idea for the character already (see the 21^st Century Magic prologue and her guest appearance in The Fairie Visitor), and knew I wanted to write more about her, but this was never intended to be the first chapter of her story. More like a preview chapter that I wrote first so I could submit it to the workshop contest. I did start writing another chapter at one point, but didn’t get very far, so this is all there is to her story so far.

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Kate knocked on the door. She could have used the key he gave her. Or just teleported inside. But she wasn’t sure Jason wanted to see her.

The door opened.

“You know”, he began, “watching the president’s speech on TV last night, I wasn’t expecting some super-powered guy to attack him, or to hear him tell the world that magic is real, and I certainly wasn’t expecting my own girlfriend to be the one to save him.”

“I know.”

They stood there, looking at each other in the doorway. He wore jeans and a t-shirt, his short hair messed up, the way she found so cute. She flipped back her long, brown hair self-consciously. Maybe she should have changed into something more casual, or sexier, before coming here from work. At least this skirt suit with heels and pantyhose showed off her shapely legs to good affect.

“Can I come in?”