Riding the Wheel of If

Riding the Wheel of If is a Qui-Gon/Obi-Wan slash novel written by MrsHamill in 2000. 
It was published in print zine form in January 2003.
The author's site describes the plot as: "...Obi-Wan, searching the dimensions with the aid of his traveling lightsaber, looking for his Qui-Gon." On March 22, 2000, the first episode of Riding the Wheel of If was posted to MA, and when it was finished, the story was more than 250,000 words long. 
About the idea for the story MrsHamill said: "I had a very strange dream... Obi-Wan, walking into his quarters, and seeing Qui-Gon, who looked -- different somehow. Obi stands in confusion as Qui walks over to him, grabs his crotch and says, 'You can't be my Obi-Wan; you still have your testicles.'"
In the editorial for Wheels Within Wheels, Sian wrote: "...the initial creation all belongs to Mrs. Hamill, who stole the concept from Phillip Jose Farmer."
==Story==
MrsHamill's TPM epos gives the 'destined to come together' idea a different spin. Set after the end of the movie the story remains true to canon - Qui-Gon is dead. However, a grief struck Obi-Wan accidentally discovers his newly built lightsaber's ability to transport him into different realities; same place, same time, yet something is always different. Very soon it becomes evident that Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon were meant to become a couple in every reality This is also a theme in the 1988 Star Trek: TOS zine, Sojourns. 
Obi-Wan spends much time as an agent of the force to help achieve Q/O bliss, yet he keeps searching for the one reality with a Qui-Gon without an Obi-Wan to find his own happiness. Wheel offers a vast scope of attractive AU scenarios, from a medieval Coruscant to the Jedi Order as a bunch of assassins for hire, to Jedis as an actual religious Order. Obi-Wan's quest is what connects all the different AUs and as the story develops, it becomes apparent that he is not alone in his AU traveling. The evil Sith Lord himself tries to influence the balance of the force to his own personal gain in the different realities he visits. Information gathered in one reality might still be valid in the next one, which means Obi-Wan trying to figure out the Sith's agenda and his hunt for the Sith are additional cross-universe storylines that keep the tension through all the different episodes.
==Shared Universe==
Wheel wasn't a one-woman operation for long. It soon turned into a shared universe with other authors joining in, having their own ideas about Obi-Wan's journey, and writing even single chapters of MrsHamill's novel. 
Episode 6 of the main novel (also known as the "first arc") was written by MrsHamill and Hiperbunny 
episode 8 by Merri-Todd Webster and MrsHamill 
episode 11 by Master Eliz-Mar Von 
episode 12 by Fox 
episode 15: Riding the Wheel of If: Episode Fifteen: What Happened Next by Susan Anthony
episode 16: Heroes of the Galaxy by Nansi Alexander, 
episode 17 by MrsHamill and Anna 
episode 20 by Hilary 
episode 21 by Mac 
episode 22 by MJ Lee 
episode 24 by Rushlight 
episode 26 by ResQ 
episode 27 by Dee 
episode 28 by JayKay 
and episode 30 by Emila-Wan Kenobi 
The universe consist of four arcs. 
The first arc is the original Wheel that was later published as a zine. 
The second arc is Obi-Wan's marriage to Qui-Gon and the first stages of his healing.
The third arc is The Clone War.
The fourth arc is Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon raising the Skywalker twins to knighthood. Only the first two arcs are completed but there have been stories written in all four arcs. About the stories that don't fit neatly into the timeline MrsHamill said: There are also 'spin-offs', or reinventions of the wheel (as Fox named them), [...] Two of them are in the first Wheel arc. 
One particular notable spin-off is Susan Anthony's What Happens Next that starts from the Wheel episode fifteen, Seeking an Audience. The novel was later published in a second Wheel zine called Wheels Within Wheels.
==Zine==
Riding the Wheel of If was reprinted in 2003 as a 354-page zine with two episodes written just for the zine publication, and 59 pages of color and black/white art (or most in full color?) including works by Fuumin, Barbana, QorYnn, Merle Decker, Tem-Ve, JadynK, Ambersky, Ebe, RavenD and Eiluned. The zine includes the complete first arc, aka the original novel by Mrs. Hamill with single episodes written and co-written by other authors. Information about the Riding the Wheel of If zine on the AWIT Press website. (Accessed 12 October 2009)
MrsHamill about how the zine came to be:
What fans said about the zine:
===Creator's Notes from the Print Zine===
From the print zine: 
===Art from the Print Zine===
The art is by Ambersky, Barbara, Ebe, Eiluned, Fuumin, JadynK, Merle Decker, QorYnn, RavenD, Sian, and Ten-Ve.
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==Meta==
One of the ideas expressed in the Wheel universe was that everyone has the potential for both good and evil. Following up on that idea, one fan had a closer look at the different versions of the charcters and ranked the characters according to their goodness in the different realities of the Wheel universe: 
See the rest of the essay at Symmetry in "Riding the Wheel of If".
==Recs and Reviews==
===Unknown Date===
===2000===
===2002===
===2004===
==References==
 
Category:Star Wars TPM Q/O Fanfiction
Category:Star Wars TPM Zines
Category:2000 Zines
Category:2003 Zines
Category:Shared Universes