Ten years old and on the verge of a nervous breakdown, life was beginning to take its toll on me.  My family had
moved across America a dozen times.  I struggled to make friends in school.  And at home, my family was torn apart by my father's drinking.

The year was 1984. We had lived in Conroe, Texas for about a year when I got my first glimpse of "V".  It was in the midst of the "Cabbage Patch Craze."  I couldn't decide whether to be friends with little girls who liked to play
house with those cute dolls or to move onto more mature matters...  I first saw "V" when The Final Battle aired in
the spring of '84.  I was intrigued with the character of Juliet Parrish, and no one else.  I admired the way she had
taken charge of the resistance movement, at what seemed to me to be a young age.  I liked how older, more experienced  characters looked up to and respected her.  I could hardly wait for the new television series to begin...

In the fall of 1984, I had entered the fifth grade, carrying a denim purse with the face of a Cabbage Patch Doll
on it.  I knew that the other kids thought I was weird.  But one day I overheard some of them talking about the new 'V' series on television.  I had a new interest, and a new group of friends.  We formed our own 'V' club, and at recess would re-enact scenes from a prior episode.  I, of course, had the role of Julie.  My best friend Patrick had the roles of Diana and Donovan.  Of course we were teased to no end about the nature of Donovan and Julie's relationship.  And Patrick disliked being Donovan on the count of that.  There was no "Romeo And Juliet" thing going on between Patrick and I!

He liked portraying Diana in the scenes where Diana converted Julie --  Speaking of which, ever notice how when
Faye Grant screams in those scenes, she really sounds like a little girl? Never mind!  Back to the story...  I really
liked acting out the scenes when Julie was tough like when she told off Ham during The Final Battle.  "I led this group for a long time before Mr.Tyler showed up..." etc.  And I also liked the scene in The Overlord when Julie decked Nathan Bates...He had it coming!  Oh and my other favorite scene is when she walks in on Andy (The Wildcats) as he is revealing Donovan's flight plan to Lieutenant James over the C.B.  After confronting Andy for being a traitor, Julie sternly tells him..."Bad times don't make bad people, Andy.  They make tough people.  And they make cowards."  I cannot imagine any other actress doing this role.  Faye Grant was so brilliantly coy and at times tempermental as Julie.

I don't know why they would've killed Julie off in the proposed twentieth episode "The Attack."  I know I would've
put "V" out of my mind for good, had that happened. I really admire Faye Grant and find myself to be envious of
her a little for the role she had in Internal Affairs as Richard Gere's lover!  But Gere is no Marc Singer.  And
there's no comparison to that ultra romantic scene between Grant and Singer in The Final Battle when Julie
vaguely mumbles to him, "That's the first time I've ever seen you stumble."  My heart trembles with joy when I
see it.

During the airing of "War of Illusions" on March 8, 1985, there was a promo for an upcoming "V" convention in Houston. I begged, whined and basically threw a tantrum until my parents let me go (We were moving to San Antonio that weekend!)  But I went to that convention with my uncle and sister who were annoyed with me because "we could've used the money and went to the amusement park" Astroworld nearby instead.  At the convention Jeff Yagher (Kyle) was and spoke about the final episode of "V".  He said it would end in a cliffhanger.  And I took that literally!  My immature brain envisioned Kyle and Donovan hanging off of a cliff as the last scene of "V".  But two weeks later, I learned what the term "cliffhanger" meant and got really angry.

Life, to me wasn't fair.  I had just (again) lost all of my friends to another move, and the other thing that meant so much to me was gone forever too.  I had nothing.  No joy.  And nothing to look forward to.  But I decided that if the
producers of "V" didn't know how to end it, then I would write a script for them.  No, I didn't know how to write.
And by the time I learned, 3 years and 4 moves later, it was probably too late anyways.  I was known as Tammy Rankin back then and thought that I was gonna be famous one day for writing the conclusion for "V".  I changed the spelling of my name from Tammy to Tamie, because I thought it would be more recognizable as a "famous author!"  Ha.  Ha.  Ha.  (I've yet to become a famous author, and have done away with the ego!)

In the meantime, I read V: Death Tide and wondered why the V books were so different from the T.V. Show.  I thought it was an injustice how the show snubbed the relationship between Donovan and Julie with no explanation.  The last scene in "Death Tide" when Julie revealed to Donovan that she'd just had a miscarriage ripped my heart out.  I had never read anything so moving in my life.  I very much wanted to write a follow up to Death Tide and explore the depths of Donovan's love for Julie!  And that was the subject of many stories I wrote.  My writing
became a shelter for the pain of an unstable adolescence... a means of escape from a much too harsh reality.  But one year, I put my pen and paper down, ashamed at what I had become.  No one in my family liked "V" or could comprehend my obsession with it.  They often picked on me about it.  When my comic books failed to sell at a family Garage Sale, my cousins said some rude things about how stupid "V" was and that's why they didn't sell.  I threw them away, in shame!

As a newlywed, expecting my first child in 1993, I had put my past and writing behind me.  But unemployment and boredom had gotten the best of me.  I hadn't thought about V in a good 4 years or so, and wondered if I could still write it.  A month later, I had written 100 pages a, rough draft of my conclusion to Death Tide that I call "Romance And Hell."  Three drafts later, I had 327 typed pages, and a Literary Agent.  But I was indeed an amateur.  They did tell me that with the help of a professional editor I could re-submit.  I received a professional review of my book that was very encouraging.  But I let it go, realizing that it wasn't "God's will" for me to get the book published.
Besides, no one had ever given me a straight answer about how to get copyrights to the series.  I was totally ignorant in such matters.  So I moved onto writing my second novel... which isn't a "V" book.  But I proved to myself that I can create my own characters.  However I cannot seem to break away from using at least a dozen main characters in my stories... and I can't seem to get rid of the violent aspect of my stories.  Yes, other than God himself, "V" has been the single most inspiring thing in my life...

On my novel "Romance And Hell"... After watching V again, for the first time in 13 years, I saw so many
conflicting storylines in Romance And Hell that I was very, very glad that it didn't get published.  And this is the same reason why I'm not sharing it on the internet.  But I often write short "V" stories for fun and will be honored to share them with the fans of the show...  And maybe someday I'll be an author of a non-"V" book!

Fans may have been cheated by the way "V" ended.  But I don't regret it... Besides, if they were gonna kill Julie!
The cancellation of V: The Series is the reason why I became a writer.  I am now an editor of a small testimonial
magazine called "Circle Of Faith."  I believe that with a little faith, everything works out for good in the end!