Blog – Legends Lost

If you’ve visited this site in the past day or two, you might have noticed some occasional broken functionality and/or weird behavior.

You weren’t imagining things! I’ve spent most of this past weekend heavily redoing the site’s back-end architecture so that it would function better, and that meant I occasionally “broke” the site pretty badly. At one point, in fact, I ended up taking the front end completely down for a while.

The good news is that the front end is back up (and should be staying that way). The new back-end architecture means it’s also going to be leaps and bounds easier for me to keep things maintained and updated going forward.

The bad news is that the cleanup isn’t done.

Artificial Intelligence Statement

May 16, 2026

Site Related

Given the increasingly heated online chatter, including some outright witch-hunts, that have been happening about authors and their use of Large Language Models (LLMs, often imprecisely called “AI”), and given the fact that I am relatively open about my use of LLMs in some statements, I think it best if I go ahead and issue the below formal statement about my use of such models.

Philosophy

I am exquisitely aware of, and extremely concerned about, the ethical issues surrounding use of LLMs. They are many. Studies have shown that more and more written material generated solely using LLMs is being released into the marketplace. LLM usage has also been linked to loss of critical thinking and learning among students, is known to be error-prone and sycophantic, is often of poor quality, and, perhaps worst of all, often involves the use of models that were trained using improperly and even illegally obtained data.

Let me be clear: these are not minor issues, and I do not see them that way. However, I also feel that a significant part of today’s climate and attitudes about LLMs, particularly with respect to the online and literary communities, have gone to the opposite extreme.

Legends Lost in Forever

April 16, 2026

Author Musings

I’ve always loved how fan works span the gamut, from art to games to videos to filk (and more). My particular expression of fan appreciation and art is the writing of fan fiction, but I’ve never for a moment thought that was the only valid way to creatively express love for a particular series. It’s just the one that drew most heavily on my unique mix of talents and interest.

One thing I particularly enjoy doing is watching fan vids. One vidder, LoveSMK, has become well-known in the SMK fandom for her excellent work in this area, and sometimes in the evening I’ll simply turn on her channel as a playlist. Whenever she posts a new video, it’s something of a treat. Working my way back through her archives is another one.

The first time I saw her 2021 video set to Kelsea Ballerini’s song, “Legends,” my jaw hit the floor.

All That Mattered: Afterword

April 12, 2026

Author Musings

During the second half of 2023, I started working on a story that had been sparked by a fever dream featuring Rihanna’s song “Diamonds.” The story was my attempt to answer two questions: what could “break” Amanda King? And what would it take to bring Lee Stetson in from the field for good?

Biting Off Too Much?

March 26, 2026

Author Musings

Oh, boy. I’ve jumped in with both feet now.

Yesterday, when Keri announced that it’s official — Angelfire and Tripod are shutting their sites down permanently — I sent the following announcement to three of the SMK groups on Facebook. I also copied it to my own page:

Episode Dates

March 17, 2026

Author Musings

In order to keep myself consistent while writing Legends Lost, I wound up developing a formal timeline. Since I was developing my own time line, I decided to go ahead and correct some noticeable inconsistencies with the episode order.

I tried to stay as close to the air dates as I could, and I also considered shooting order and U.S. holidays. Here are the episode dates and order being used in this universe.

Jamie’s Birth Date

September 17, 2025

Author Musings

I’m starting to get the character profiles built out on the site now, and there’s one item that may seem like an inconsistency: Jamie’s birth date. In the Legends Lost universe, it’s set as November 10, 1974. Dedicated fans may note that this date seems inconsistent with a comment that Amanda makes in the third season episode, “The Wrong Way Home.”

To be clear: I’m aware of the inconsistency. Here are the reasons why I think the 1974 birth date better suits anyway.

Standing in the Dark: Afterword

March 28, 2025

Author Musings

Standing in the Dark began with a simple question: what would it take to “break” Amanda King? We viewers had seen Lee Stetson hit personal walls in episodes such as “We’re Off to See the Wizard” and “Unfinished Business,” but there were few, if any, equivalent moments for Amanda during the series.