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[Bob Schroeck]

Say, what ever happened to Darien Steffler anyway?

I was doing some of my DB-level maintenance of the board (identifying and putting names to "Guest" posts) when I came across this question in a thread entitled "Seeking a fic" from almost ten years ago.  For our younger members, Darren Steffler was possibly better known as "Twister", and authored a highly influential self-insert fic series called Twisted Path back in the middle 1990s, and disappeared completely from the fanfic community around the turn of the century.  Drunkard's Walk was written because I read TP, as were more than a few other signficant works, like Bubblegum Zone, Oh! My Brother, Legion's Quest, and many many more.

Anyway I got curious and did a Google search, figuring that there might be a lot more information out there now than back then.  

There is.  Most of it has nothing to do with fanfiction, but there are more than a few real-world hits.

IIRC, Twister was Canadian and in his late teens in the middle 90s, so he'd be in his middle to late 30s, now... and that simple search brings up several hits which might all be him.  I kind of like the idea that he might be the head brewer at a brewery and a former IT person...  Given that he's fifteen or more years out from his writing, he like more than few other former fic authors probably doesn't want to be associated with his old work.  But it's still an interesting window into one of the early "names" of fanfiction.