This whole thing started back in 2010 as---believe it or not---a "side project", something to occupy my time when I got fed up with writing Doctor Who fanfics. Lo and behold, I've actually become more fond of writing this series than I have with the Doctor Who stuff...though I'm still a Whovian at heart (the weariness of Who-fic writing comes more from dealing with asshat forum members on another board that shall not be named).
To be quite honest, one of the other reasons I started this was to show everyone that FOX could've done so much better with the source material. They had an incredible concept on their hands---a robot girl living with a human family---and instead of turning it into something great, they shat on it and made it a sitcom where the aforementioned robot girl (the MAIN CHARACTER) is used as a walking plot device (a move that Smallville's writers would repeat---with far greater success, annoyingly---by introducing Tess Mercer into the series as Lex Luthor's replacement). From the get-go, there've been challenges, one of the biggest being Vicki's inability to refer to her "walking appliance days" by any other term.
Actually, I take that back---the biggest challenge was the whole July 9 computer-crashing thing.
For those who wondered why I chose to have Vicki killed off right as she emerged from the burning Rengold Cybernetics factory after her apparent victory against Faceless, it's a bit of symbolism---the time and date of her defeat is the same as the time and date of my PC going comatose. Of course, Vicki can be rebuilt, and she can come back ....thus farm it doesn't look like my PC has that option. In any case, July 11, 2011 nearly killed off The V.I.C.I. Diaries before it could even get off the ground.
Fortunately, my creativity was a lot like Vicki herself---very, VERY hard to break.
Some of the forum's best and brightest---Baron, Propman, Brytestar, Fection, Minkwheel, LongTimeLurker, KIshin, Spaz, TW, Gorgo,WilloWisp, Saya and last but DEFINITELY not least, our very own DollSpace---have contributed ideas, characters, companies and plot points to the series (Kishin, for instance, came up with the ideas that lead to the Family of Steel, the Spare Parts Society and the killer gynoid subplot in "Epsilon"). Some of them just sent one or two PMs with ideas that I implemented in the series; others gave me permission to borrow wholesale from their work.
For that, I thank them...just as I thank everyone who's read and commented on my work.
As for the future of The V.I.C.I. Diaries, I can tell you with all honesty (and without spoiling too much) that Vicki will, in fact, emerge from the ashes of defeat. Whether or not she's in the same mental state, or if she'll be the same gynoid she was before the attack....well, you'll have to wait until "Lawson's Eleven" (progress report: 6 pages out of 70 done) to find out.
But trust me...2013 is going to be one hell of a year for Vicki Lawson, and for the entire cast of The V.I.C.I. Diaries. You've seen the brunette gynoid face enemies out of my worst nightmares, battle overwhelming odds and work to better the future of humans and machines alike..
...and, as a great man once said, you ain't seen nothin' yet.
Buy the ticket, take the ride...and hold on to your butts.
The V.I.C.I. Diaries: "Lawson's Eleven"
Coming to Fembot Central this February
