I'd like to take a moment and talk about my Phoenix stories. Those who get bored easily might want to skip this one.

It all started with the story "Phoenix Rising", which introduced the world to John Grey, astronaut, who was about to die in a re-entry to earth, when the Phoenix arrived with the offer of saving his life in exchange for sharing it with the creature. Not surprisingly, he agreed, and was transformed into Jean. As stories go, its not one of my best, more of a teaser than a full treatment, but its not horrible.

Then, I made "Tears of the Phoenix" Using Jean as my voice, I dealt with my own anxieties over my transition, as well as the grief I had felt over the story "Out of the ashes." I think its a much stronger story than the first one because we got a bit of glimpse into Jean's heart.

Then, after an abortive attempt to do an Amanda Waller story, I returned to Jean, and decided to go deep into how traumatic her transformation actually was, and introduced Scott Summers, giving him a similar background to hers, except he had transformed from a woman into a boy. The actual plot of "The trial of the Phoenix", the mystery of who spiked the punch at the school dance was almost a side-bar to the development of the relationship between the two. Its the longest story I've ever written, and I think its one of my best.

Lastly, I collaborated with Maggie to create "The Verdict of the Phoenix", an interesting project that explored vengeance, justice, and growing up. It had Scott and Jean move into a sexual relationship while both faced the real horrors of a war with no quarter asked or given. I think I handled some tough subjects well, and even found a bit of hope at the end.

Well, that's the stories so far. What about the future? Well, a careful reader might have noticed a couple of plot threads not dealt with as of yet. In the first story, it ended with a woman in white phoning someone to say that the Phoenix had arrived. So who is she? What does she want with Jean? Plus, in the story "Tears of the Phoenix", I mentioned that the Phoenix had destroyed an alien space fleet who had challenged her. Could there be consequences to that?

Well, I dont know yet. Once I finish my "quest" story, I may take another look at Jean and Scott, and we'll all have to see together.