Yeah, I was surfing too, sometime around the end of 2001, and came across the original Aurora Universe site. It was still ion line in all its glory then, and hosted by the artist then known as Sharon Best.

It quicklly became a guilty pleasure for me. Sexy superheroines? I'd hardly ever read a Supergirl or a Wonder Woman comic in my life. Only these were superheroines who not only fought evil, but granted their favors to poor frails like myself.

It took me several months to get up the nerve to contact "Sharon Best." I didn't know at the time that "she" was actually a guy (The one now calling himself Shadar), and that was a stroke of good fortune for me. Most men can accept other men as mentors, but only woman as muses.

"Sharon" became my muse, got me to start writing AU fiction, and revealed the truth about "her" identity only after "she" had posted my first story, "The Defector." If there had never been a "Sharon," there would never been a "Brantley."

Of course, I write AU fuction my own way. I can be as stubborn as Ayn Rand about that. But I'm also part of a community that believes in the mutual aid principle. Others have aided me and I have aided others in terms of story ideas, editing and thoughtful criticism. It's been a wonderful experience, and one I'd never expected to have at my advanced age despite a long professional career as a non-fiction writer.

Perhaps some of you will come to share that wonderful experience.

Neo Olympus
Modern civilization, Neo Rome.
In secret corners, our minds,
The Neo Olympus grinds.
Fantastic powers, abilities,
Human…sensibilities.
In high tribute to its human authors
As seeped in wild debauchery as its ancestors.
Grand escapist joy: all of it.
To the last… disturbingly intimate.
-V.E.
The “AU” was “the firstest with the mostest” to press. Thus folks named this post pubescent super powered woman sci-fi genre after it. It’s just shorter.
I found it around ’90, a wandering sketch artist I. I came pre-corrupt. Until then, my mind already swirled with images of super powered girls, ladies, and women posing, flying…and not much else. Plots eluded me. Conflict with such as these ladies to me just seemed absurd.
I thought Shadar was a wizard when young me first nosed over his early works.
Many years of living later, I’ve just now the speck of wisdom to understand the beginnings of this genre. I started writing last July, after reading Yohashuan’s Serena.
I still see greatness in the AU. I anxiously await what flaming brilliance its future yet holds. I’m really quite the fan, one of the silent from the days of lore—now speaking.
Meanwhile, I write for my own purposely scant “x-drive” over on ubergirls.org. I’m the original gunwriter stylist. Our art is in the delivery.
I think if you’re reading this: you should write too. Of sketching, hacking photos, and writing, the three arts here: writing’s the worst chore--outside this genre. But here it’s a shootout thrill ride every time.

Try it.

Long live the AU-- and all its many orbiting galaxies!