I discovered the world that is online free-from role play back in 1994.  There was some sort of a banner advertising it as a chat on AOL.  I clicked through, and within minutes, was transported to the Red Dragon Inn.  Fascinated, I watched.  Continued this for a few days, and then finally felt brave enough to try it out.

Aside from childhood flights of fancy as a knight, a princess, a spaceman, a cowboy, and then a very brief stint playing a sorceress in little recess game of Dungeons and Dragons (I like to think of it as blacktop D&D) as a girl, I had never really role-played with others before.  This was exciting.  Fresh.  Improvisational.  And the players behind the characters were people that I could relate to, which was uncommon in my adolescent world.

Maia came to be after I watched people play a little, and thought, "Hmm, what do I not see anybody else doing, because I want to do something different."  Frankly, the idea of trying to play something true to a gaming system also intimidated me, so I didn't even entertain the idea of creating an elf, vampire, paladin or mage.  In these rooms, I saw many magic users and elves and warriors galore, but not one person with a ship and a yen for the waves.  I was studying a lot of greek mythology at the time, and had also just recently done a paper on sailing, which detailed the different sort of ships and uses for them.  Thus, my quirky little pirate with a very greek name came to be.  Had I known then what Jack Sparrow would do to the online landscape years later, I doubt I would have chosen a pirate, but I certainly hadn't seen anyone play that sort of a figure before me. 

At that point, she was a personality, a name, and a very small amount of backstory.  A big Nexus accident had left this plucky, wild, impulsive young woman with a ship and a skeleton crew, and no real way home.  I discovered the rest through play and writing, and the more I got to know her, the more I became attached to the idea of this fierce, loyal, stubborn, wild woman.  I'll admit that a lot of the choices I have made for her character were made specifically in the interest of being different from the others around me.  I have never wanted her to join the ranks of the many female characters who end up happily married with nine fat babies.  I wanted to see what would happen if instead, I married this woman to the sea and let the rest fall into place.

  I played for a few years with a group called the Elven Realms, with some players I greatly enjoyed.  That group was the one that fostered me into my adulthood as a player and as a writer.  She was the token human of her social group, accepted into the pack and given a sense of home.  We played some very fun quest-type storylines together, and a lot of human drama.  Some of my fondest memories of play are from irreverent nights in the Elven Realms Tavern.  She fell wildly in love with a man that was a mirror of her youthful, wild self.  After his death, she was changed forever, and she left that home to seek the solace of the unfamiliar.

After a time floating, I found her second family in the patrons of the Less Crowded Inn.  These characters, on the whole, were more deeply flawed and real to me than many of the others I had seen.  They made big mistakes, and paid for them dearly.  Alliances shifted back and forth with one fascinating constant:  everyone loved the hell out of Zonker.  While a lot of very engaging things happened in my play life there, things ended up getting pretty intense and dark for Maia.  She barely survived a very serious attack, and shortly thereafter, learned that her best friend was dead.  That state of being made her difficult to play, and I found that the challenges of my life offline was not making it worth the effort to interact and write anymore.

One of my favorite play partners of all time taught me the value of a good ending; we sent off his character in true epic form and it was a blast to play.  I followed suit, and organized a short story wherein Maia exacted a spectacular bit of vengeance on her attackers, and was subsequently recruited to become an instrument of the powers that be.  Warrior was the wrong term for it.  She became something of an avenging valkyrie against the things that go bump in the night.  She rode off into the sunset, and I was certain that I would never see her again.  A few of my other characters filled the gap, in the meanwhile, and despite the absence of my first and favorite character, I continued to play and write.

About two years later, I began to hear her voice again, and took her for a few test runs out on AOL.  She was, for the most part, ignored.  I found it very hard to break into the old rhythms of getting to know folks again, and the pickings were slim.  Zonker's player directed me to Dragon's Mark.  It was a very, very slow start, but eventually, I found some people that made me excited to make the effort with her again.  Her story since her return to Rhydin has been about redemption, and re-acclimating to a society that has completely changed.   Most of her friends from the Less Crowded Inn and the Elven Realms had died or disappeared.  Most of her hope had perished out in the dark with the demons and creatures she had slain.  It was a surprisingly fascinating space to work from.  It was a great challenge, and a fun one, to find the few bright spots in her very darkened view of the world.

Almost fourteen years later, the winding roads of RhyDin have led Maia nearly everywhere, and she has landed in a place I did not expect her to see again.  She has found her way back to the sea, and fallen for a man who is impossibly good for her.  Harry believes in her, and doesn't back away from the darkness that he knows is still there.  It seems that she is currently winning in her fight for her own kind of peace.  I am just hoping that the adventures ahead are as worthwhile as the ones behind her.

Much has changed about the woman, but on the whole, she is the same person she was when I began playing her:  tenacious, playful, challenging, stubborn, brave, loyal, calculating, sharp.  She holds grudges.  She refuses to admit that she is wrong, most of the time.  She can be cold-blooded, hot-tempered, docile as a housecat or wild as a lioness.  After all this time, I still discover new things about her, to my great delight.


I love to write, and my very favorite stories to play out have been those that have involved a lot of writing on the side.  The epic quest to rescue her friend the wizardspawn, the death of her great love, her revenge of that man, her descent into darkness, the recent zombie outbreak...all are storylines I have loved greatly.  It is hard for me to pick a favorite, because all of them have made them the character that she is today.

As for me, I am a very persnickety player; a self-aware curmudgeon.  I seek out originality and passion.  I expect competence, and have high standards, but I will give anyone a fair shot if they exhibit maturity and an honest willingness to improve. After all, that sort of patience was extended to me, long ago.  I can be very secretive, but I tend to be a very loyal play partner.  When I find a person with whom I really get along, I tend to really enjoy playing our characters together.  I am still not half the writer I would care to be, but I still work at it when life permits.

I am heavily inspired and gently influenced by books, television, film, and music.  I love the works of Shakespeare, Christopher Moore, Stephen King, William Goldman (not to be confused with William Golding!), J.R.R Tolkien...the list goes on and on.  I love Joss Whedon, Tim Burton, and the Coen Brothers.  All are dark, funny, and seem to live in their own imaginitive worlds.  My list of music is too long for anyone to care to read, but regarding play, I will say that I have to choose music that I will not sing along to.  For Maia in quieter moments, I like piano works of the impressionist era.  Love Debussy.  For louder, more action oriented things, Danny Elfman's movie scores work well, as does Stravinsky, Holst, Berlioz.