The year listed above is the year in which the story takes place in my version of the BTTF mythos, about two years after the end of the last story finished thus far, Losing Time.  This, like many of my cross-universe stories was inspired by a dream I had after taking an unexpected nap one Sunday afternoon in the summer of 2001.  I had recently seen the Disney movie for the first time, and it appealed to me in ways none of Disney's other films ever had.  Possibly because I was pleased to see the "geek" save the day and get the girl -- something far too many other movies avoid, or handle badly.  The connection between the two seemed utterly implausible to me at first, until I sat down and took a look at the genealogy I had constructed for my versions of the BTTF characters (to help keep things straight when I had them travel into the past, whose relatives were where and when and that sort of thing).  The incredible coincidence of the name "Lillian" in a particular way in a specific generation sparked an idea, and the idea grew.

I did a fair amount of work on this while writing When Worlds Collide with Kristen Sheley, and the inertia continued for a few months after that project was completed -- then hit a brick wall in mid-November of 2001.  This could be for one of three reasons:  1). It was then that I began to seriously recognize that our cat of almost 18 years, Wu Han, was on his final slide toward death (he was put to sleep on January 29, 2002).  The stress of trying to cope with both his slowly deteriorating condition and the holidays was quite possibly too much for my Muse to handle.  2).  There is a particular issue in the story that I'm not quite sure really belongs, that of time travel (believe it or not).  I question whether or not it needs to be a part of this story, or if I'm just shoehorning it in in an ill-considered attempt to "balance" the two halves.  On sober reflection, it may not need it (Doc et al will have plenty to do and contribute on their own without it), and might actually be nothing but padding and a delay to the central plot.  3).  An almost complete lack of feedback from the readers of my more recent BTTF stories has made me question whether or not I wish to continue writing in a genre that has few enough readers, and even fewer who are polite enough to acknowledge what they are being given for free.  I write for my own edification, but sensing that I am being pressured by passive aggression to "dumb down" my stories, make them shorter and simpler to appease those who do not like long and complex stories is appalling to me.  Put all three of these together with a recent resurgence of interest in my most beloved book, and one has a recipe for a bad case of writer's block.