Believe it or not, I’ve never written fanfic before, despite having been writing in some form or another most of my life. But I literally woke up the other day and said, “Omigosh, this needs to exist.” So I wrote it, and that’s how we got my possibly-bizarre Harley Quinn fanfic I posted earlier this week.
I’ve never felt comfortable writing with other people’s characters, even if I thought of a cool story. But this time, it just felt right.
Harley Quinn is a relatively recent addition to Batman’s rogues. She was introduced by Paul Dini in 1992 on Batman: The Animated Series, an absolutely fabulous kids’ show featuring The Dark Knight himself. Harley is just such a genius character–I’ve always loved her. She’s a psychiatrist with a background in competitive gymnastics who becomes obsessed with the Joker, to the point of throwing away her life as Dr. Harleen Quinzel in order to follow him and be his minion/lover, Harley Quinn (a play on harlequin, get it? Eh? Eh?).
I just thought, hey: What if she still wanted to make it as a psychiatrist after all that time with the Joker? I mean, it takes a lot of work to get to the point where you are interacting with patients. She’s a smart cookie! Aside from the lovesickness/psychotic break/delusions that turned her into Harley Quinn, maybe she’s still got some of that Dr. Quinzel in her. And that’s where I got “From the Desk of Dr. Harleen Quinzel.”
I have less love for recent incarnations of the character: she’s veered well off the smart-scientist track and into a more bubblegum ditz/super-strong sex symbol. But I’ll always have a particular fondness for that pun-loving, wise-cracking gymnast-scientist.
M.E. Kinkade 