Reverence of the Bat

Introduction

     My name is PJ, and I'm an enormous fan boy for all things Batman.

     I'm one of millions of people who feel the same way, and because I'm a writer I had no trouble expressing that fandom on paper. It doesn't matter if I'm watching Adam West or Ben Affleck, or if I'm reading the works of Miller or Moore, the Dark Knight has always been my favorite comic book hero and he always will be. I was never that much of a comic collector when I was younger, so my first big exposure to the caped crusader was Michael Keaton taking on jack Nicolson in Tim Burton's first Batman film. Combine that with the first (and best) animated series and that was it for me. From there I expanded to reading the comics and there was no hope left as I was hooked on the creation of Bob Kane.

     Many of years have passed since then, and now my own son is starting to enjoy watching the Dark Knight on screen. I recently took him to see Batman v. Superman and I could tell by the look in his eyes that he was really into it, just like I was watching Keaton jump around in that black outfit as his age.

     My turn as a writer of fan friction started just after the Dark Knight released, which was when I discovered a group of writers on Live Journal who were competing in weekly fan fiction contested. There were no prizes, just bragging rights and that was all some fans needed to write their own homage to their favorite comic book. Once I started writing with them and posting my own stories, I didn't stop for years as these characters were fun to write stories about. I even won some of the contests, but that really didn't matter. I enjoyed the competition because it inspired me to be a better writer and a more creative one as themes were picked for us for every contest. Every two weeks, we'd start a new contest and each had a different word count. Sometime the word count was less than five hundred words, while other times the word count was a minimum of a thousand and up. The only rule was each story had to be a one shop and now chapter breaks. This is why you'll see some stories last only three pages while other stretch much further.

     Despite the fact that the group I used to write with disbanded a while back, I still enjoy writing fan fiction despite the lack of inspiration from the contests. One thing I enjoyed most about fan fiction was that it was a great way for me to get over writer's block. Whenever I felt stuck and unable to push forward with my own works, I would often turn to fan fiction as a way to write myself out of that funk. It was a strategy that worked often and one I still use today whenever I get stuck.

     So my reason for posting this anthology is simple; I just wanted to so what I could to share m work with more fans of this great hero. Since I do not (and never have) owned these characters that I write about, there is no charge for this book. This is a gift to my fellow fans of Batman, in the hopes that they will have a good laugh or feeling of exhilaration when consuming them in their fragile little noodles. Each story is going to have a small intro to them as well, so you'll know why they were written and how I came to putting it together. If you love these stories, there are many more fan fiction works of Batman and other characters online at fan fiction dot net for you to consume to your heart's content. This collection is what I happen to believe are the best of the best with regards to my Batman stories.

     I hope you enjoy reading my Batman stories as much as I did writing them. If you do like them, please pass them on to friends who are also fans of Batman so that they can enjoy them as well.

     Thank you,

     PJ