Posted by Lorie Schultz on February 11, 1999 at 08:02:43:
In Reply to: Re: Writin' furiously...Need help! posted by Robin Gillespie on February 04, 1999 at 12:59:05:
Hi,
I wouldn't worry too much aboutkeeping things in line with the show since his background isn't clear. I wrote fan fic about Corky which got published when the show was still on. I dealt with him being fired from Pan Pacific for an accident which happened with one of the parts of the plane. They plan went down, people were killed. They looked for a scapegoat and naturally Corky was chosen. He was in a bar at the end, totally blitzed, extremely depressed and miserable and desperately needing work. Essentially he's (trying to)reading a paper with classified ads (from a paper he'd bought before walking into the bar) and wondering what he was going to do next. I imply that this is how he eventually links up with Jake.
I wrote this story "Seeking Solace" before ever seeing the Writer's bible. I still remember my friend saying to me that it was eerie to see how close I'd come to guessing what 'actually' happened to Corky at Pan Pacific. I even surprised myself when I saw the 'bible'later on...haha!
I also did a action/adventure TGM novel which went into this to some degree. I didn't stick to the 'writers' bible in that one (I have his sister living). But all iin all I don't think it matters. Just have fun writing the story! the only detail that got accepted amongst the group of fans we had then was that his last name was Dixon. I spotted it partially wiped out on his coveralls in a cast photo. Three of the five letters were clear so I assumed it was Dixon (YEARS later I found out that was the case). I called him Darryl Dixon which explained why he allowed himself to be called by the nickname of Corky (He hated Darryl... :-). So most of the other fans who wanted a full name for him used that one. But even there you can chose whatever you want. I'm just letting you know that Dixon was 'officially' supposed to have been his last name but it never made it into the writer's bible or the script.
I always assumed that Jake and Corky met in the states and the plots of rescuing Jake later on, or Jake rescuing him from the gutter, may have been attributed to their earlier rocky relationship. You know, Jake getting fed up with Corky's drinking and leaving him for a while to make it on his own. Or Corky leaving when the depression got the better of him (as he did in Cooked Goose). I imagined that Jake could easily have rescued him from a Shanghai gutter after they parted ways (temporarily) but Jake felt guilty enough to hunt him down in an attempt to give the partnership (and friendship) one more chance.
No matter what you do with your story...my big advice is HAVE FUN WITH IT!!! If you've done that then you've succeeded.
Lorie