Faith Shines Equal

Fanfiction
Title:	Faith Shines Equal
Author(s):	Charlotte Frost
Date(s):	7 November 2002
Length:	470k, 152pgs
Genre(s):	slash
Fandom(s):	The Sentinel
Relationship(s):	Jim/Blair
External Links:	online here
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Faith Shines Equal is a Jim/Blair story by Charlotte Frost.

It has a sequel called Hope Creates.

Summary

In the peaceful woods of Sanctuary, Major Ellison is taking R&R, with little hope of resolving his "mental" condition. He meets up with university student Blair Sandburg, who has come to Sanctuary to die of an incurable illness. Little do they know the impact their meeting will have on their destinies....

Author's Comments

For a long time, I carried around the image of an AU environment where Blair and Jim meet in an open meadow. The idea of Blair dying was a part of the scenario early on. Once I started writing, I made it up as I went along (which I usually do). This novella was enormously refreshing to write; I had great fun with it. From a story structure standpoint, I thought it turned out pretty well (other than the bit about Jim’s father coming up rather abruptly. I wish I had done some foreshadowing with that).

One of the big pleasures with this story, beyond the writing, was that I had developed a friendship with another TS fan and, with her professional proofreading background, asked her to be one of my betas. She was very nervous about it, and so by the time this story was posted, I was more eager for the reaction for her sake, rather than my own. There was less feedback than on my prior stories (which, these days, would nevertheless be considered “a lot”), which is to be expected with an AU, but those who did like the story, really, really liked the story. One reader even specifically mentioned, “Say thanks to your betas for me.” I was very happy to pass that comment along to my four betas.

Since this story took place in an AU environment, I drew a map for myself and thought it would be neat to publish it along with the story. My new beta was also very eager for me to include a map (and she had made comments on the crude one I’d sent her). But a map meant doing “graphics” things with the computer, and that very word sent me running away screaming, because I have no aptitude whatsoever for anything concerning “pictures”. What’s more, TS was a much larger fandom than it is now, and with tons of stories to choose from, readers are eager to blow off stories for any reason at all, because there’s always something else to read instead. So, I got to thinking that the very mention of the word “map” would make many readers think the story was too complicated and they wouldn’t want to bother. (Plus, there’s that circulated idea that today’s youth, in America anyway, doesn’t know how to read maps.) So, I scrapped the idea. Wouldn’t you know it, one of the first readers commented, “This story should have had a map.” :->

This whole AU environment was in my head for a long, long time after the story was posted. For months, the image of Jim and Blair sitting around a campfire, mounting their horses, sleeping curled up together on a bedroll, etc., was in the back of my mind. Of course, there was eventually a sequel posted, “Hope Creates”, and I wrote quite a few pages on another sequel before losing interest. Sometimes, though, I think I’d still like to get back to it. I did, for a long time, want to do something based on the ending to the song “One Tin Soldier”. But now I think a sequel would center on meeting Commander Sahara again.