I've had many brainstorms in the shower. I guess it's because my mind just wanders, and I let it. Today for some reason I started thinking about a time when I attempted to submit a story for an anthology, and it was rejected. For some reason that got me thinking, again, about why I enjoy reading m/m fiction.

I'm a straight woman, and even though I've had people tell me that "Rowena" sounds like a man's name (it isn't, I know real life people named Rowena, and they're women) I've never tried to hide the fact that I am a straight woman, writing m/m fiction.

I've pondered many times why I write it, but it always comes back to the fact that I like to read it. Since I like to read it, I write it. So during this morning's shower, that's the path my wandering brain took. Why do I like to read it?

My "dirty little secret" is that I used to write fan fiction. I've read so many diatribes against fan fiction that I'm almost afraid to admit I wrote it. I started out back in 1998, writing het fanfic for the original La Femme Nikita TV series. The one with the hunky Roy Dupuis as Michael. I broke all the rules...I wrote Michael with a "Mary Sue" character. Oops.

I joined a mailing list, because they were all the rage back in the day. One of the rules of the list was no "slash" fiction. I had no idea what that meant....but then I found out.

One day, while trolling around the web for new fic to read, I stumbled across a story, and I can't remember the name unfortunately. The story featured Michael and Nikita...and a shape shifting character that was a man for Nikita, and a woman for Michael...until they all got in bed together. I was fascinated. I looked further and found a straight slash story called "Gemini"...alas all those original LFN fanfics were hosted at GeoCities, and I can't find any of these stories anymore.

So...there you have it. I was coaxed into reading m/m fiction by reading a story that melded the lines between het fic and slash fic.