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dragolyn gave me interview questions. I've never been asked questions or sent a meme or anything, so this is a new experience.
1. What draws you to be involved in fandom stuff? Not just Buffy but in general. What is it about being a critical fan that appeals to you?
I’ve always wondered about that, because I’d almost prefer NOT to be a fan! But it seems as if I was genetically programmed: When my mother died, we went through her things and found the first short story I ever wrote, when I was five and a half. It was about Mickey Mouse and Goofy. I was writing fanfic before I even knew what fanfic was!
But I think it’s that I mostly enjoy a world where it’s okay to believe that characters are real — by that I mean, I know that Spike or Vin or Skinner or Doyle or whoever are not real people, but they exist in a world inside my head, they have feelings and beliefs and senses and are corporeal, and I want to know about them, I want to find out everything I can about them. Fellow fans understand that — we can discourse on what Spike is really like underneath or how Giles really behaves, but we also can say “the way ME wrote them” or something. We have both the real reality and our reality playing together (this of course doesn’t include those folks who can’t distinguish between real life and objects of fannish interest; those people scare me and make me embarrassed to be a fan). I never just watch a show I like — later on, I think about what those characters feel and what they do outside my screen. In fandom, we can do that and no one tells us we’re freaks. No one censures us for spending thousands of words and hundreds of hours analyzing an episode or dissecting a character. I will always do that, and it’s nice to have a world where I can.
2. What do you like best about where you live? Is it where you want to be, is it home to you? Or are there other places you'd like to try?
I don’t think I could ever happily live elsewhere than Seattle. We moved around a lot when I was young, and every time we came back here, I felt like I was home. I need mountains, because I grew up climbing them (real ones with snow), I need the sea, because water is such a big part of our lives here. I need temperate weather with no extremes. If I couldn’t see something like Mt. Rainier shining pink and golden in the evening sun, looming over the city as I drove south on Aurora, I would be miserable. But I could almost see myself retiring to Lyme Regis, in Dorset. Or Llangollen, in Wales. I love Llangollen with a passion. I did almost move to London once. When I remembered the six month quarantine for animals, though, I decided against it. But it was close.
3. I think that your writing is very bold. You don't pull your punches or seem to get shy about writing what you write. Is that ever a struggle?
Oh wow, thank you! I am shy, though, horribly shy. Sex scenes terrify me. And since I’m all about the love, sex is kinda mandatory, even if all it leads to is cutaway to billowing curtains. I’m strangely modest (in the prim way, not the humble way), and I get all embarrassed about love scenes, and take refuge in poetical language that often feels badly drawn to me. But others seem to like it, so it works as a refuge. I think the most signficant thing is that I am a person who has BIG emotions — nothing’s ever half-way with me, and so when I write characters, I want to get at the core of what they feel or are. And that often is very intense, at least, the way I see them, they’re intense people, and so it comes out that way.
4. Who do you love? And what do you love?
It’s strange that you’d ask that now, because lately I’ve felt very isolated and lonely. My ex got married recently, and I thought it was interesting that after sneaking around and lying and being a shit, he gets the reward of love and marriage, and I get nothing. But I love my dad, even though we had a very violent and rocky life, and I love my sister, even though I don’t like her. Though she’s gone, I love my mother and I miss her. I have a few friends who I love but who, I think, don’t love me back, or even like me all that much. A couple who do, but they’re getting far and few between. I tend to put more energy into people than they ever do to me — I stopped calling or writing a lot of folks to see if they’d call or write, and they never did. I adore my strange kitty.
But what I love is so huge I couldn’t list it all — big emotions, you know. I love words on paper when they’re lyrical and wonderful, I love movies and tv shows and actors and musicians. Music and film are so important to me that I think I would literally die without them. I love animals of all persuasions, and people who are kind and work to change the world and make it a better place at great cost to themselves. I love buying presents for people for no reason. I love fashion and the smell of new clothes and driving on long road trips and sitting on my back porch in my Adirondack chairs eating cherries and drinking iced tea when it’s hot out. There’s always something wonderful in the world to notice.
5. If you scripted the perfect day for yourself, morning to night, and could include anything and everything, what would you write?
Ooo! I think I’d get up late, after ten or so (I live to sleep in), and it would be nice out but not too hot, so I could eat breakfast on the back porch (cherries would be involved). I’d check e-mail and have lots of nice things instead of spam. I’d get a delivery in the mail of new CDs and new DVDs, and money would not be an object so I could have ordered dozens. Then I’d go to a good movie matinee, and there would hardly be anyone in the theatre even though it was in the largest auditorium with the best sound, and no one would sit behind me to kick my chair. It would be an outstanding movie with lots of emotional payoff, and really, really pretty guys. Afterwards my friends and I would go to IHOP for pancakes and have witty, fun conversation. Then we’d convene to my house for a barbecue and cooking by Jo or Viv, and Jo would have made me that incredible coconut cake or a Pavlova. Then we’d watch more movies on the HDTV, and stay up real late, and drink alcoholic milkshakes, and someone else would clean the kitchen, and we’d watch whatever my latest vid was and people would heap praise on me. Then I’d go to bed and be actually tired enough to fall asleep.
Or, possibly, I’d be in London, doing anything, with tons of spending money and staying at a posh hotel. And I’d meet a cool British guy over lunch at Wagamama who’d fall instantly in love with me, and we’d start our jet-set bi-country lifestyle. He’d be from a wealthy family or have made a fortune in some positive business or other, but be very down to earth and not a toffee-nosed snob, bashfully charming, cultured, open to fandom, and have the sense of humor of Nick Hornby (basically, he’d be a dead ringer for Tony Head!). Of course in the afternoon he’d take me shopping at Harrod’s and Liberty and all the good shops, and then we’d have dinner at whatever the chi-chi’est place in town is, and drinks and dancing after.
And nowonetwomany asked me her interview questions! Whee! People are making me think.
1. Joss has just hired you to write the opening episode of AtS season 7
(before taking off the write the script for the new, well funded Firelfy
movie.this is Sabre's happy day, just go with it ;-)). How would you bring
back Spike? And what other little bits of tweaking would be top of your
agenda?
Ohhh... wow, what a question. What I would like to see is Angel got the news from Buffy (preferably by a phone call!) about what happened with Spike. In much the same way as the Scoobies thought that Buffy was trapped in a hell dimension, Wes and Angel aren’t so sure that Spike’s sacrifice put him in a good place. Angel is actually kind of concerned for Spike, since he ponied up to be a good guy at the end, and he knows it would help Buffy, who’s feeling guilty. Wes finds a way to mojo Spike back from the beyond, and uses W&H’s considerable resources to do it — even though he’s warned Spike might come back “wrong” himself. Then the fun could begin with what “wrong” meant!
2. I know that you got into fandom generally through Zines, and you've
talked a little about the differences in writing for online and offline
fans. I'm fascinated by the contrast. How did you get into 'zine fandom, and
especially into zine fanfiction? Was it something you actively set out to
do? Was there a higher degree of 'quality control' over what was 'published'
in the zines? If so, how did you feel about that?
I used to see fanfic zines at SF cons back when I first started going in the early ‘80s. Actually I’d never have gone to a con until I was invited — a huge local SF con com called our newspaper office and wanted a film critic for a couple panels. I said I was a big SF fan, and sure, I’d love to and found out a couple friends of mine went to this every year. I kept going to the con afterwards. I never read fic — I figured they would be crap writing by stupid people who couldn’t get published themselves. Once I got hooked up with some fans, after searching for 16 long years for fellow Professionals fans, they showed me fanfic, and I was kind of surprised. I met some new people at a slash con, and one of them was also a published, experienced writer, and I realized there was this whole different world where I could get quality fic about people I was obsessed with. So it all kind of happened by accident, in a way, though I’d searched for other fans for so long. I was what they call a feral fan — one out there on her own, no knowledge of society, but still a fan.
Zines were all over the place — there were some outstanding ones, and some that were crap. I was super lucky — the person who first published all my zine stories was a friend, that experienced writer I mentioned, and then a couple other good zine publishers took stories — one in Oz, btw! Putting out a zine was a huge labor of love and money and time — so you didn’t take things for granted. Arguments used to erupt over page counts and word counts — some people padded the cost of zines by printing with huge margins and wasted white space, and said, well it’s a big zine so it costs more. Some publishers stole or didn’t give trib copies as recompense. Some publishers made enough money to buy a freaking house. Most of us, though, were in it for love and fandom. People lived to go to cons, so that they could get the newest zines. I never had the truly awful experiences many folks did; I was really blessed.
3. You've been given a time-machine, a transporter and an unlimited expense
account. Which three people/events would you go spy on, just for curiosity's
sake?
I’d go to the court of Elizabeth I. I think she’s one of the most fascinating people in history, I’m just obsessed with her. I’d love to have seen what she really did on a day to day basis. Then maybe I’d go to the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Continental Congress, what have you, because the formation of the US and the principles that were set in motion for the foundation of this country were unprecedented, and I think those old guys in periwigs did some pretty cool things considering what and who they were. It’s hard to say about the third one though. Maybe see something like the Nuremberg rallies, or something like that — it’s hard to tell on film why some of what happened with the Nazis happened. In many ways, I’d really like to know why it was so galvanizing to those people, I’d like to actually *see* that horrible history and know what it was like. Or conversely, go back and watch my dad earn one of his WWII medals — I’ve always been very proud of him for that, it would be cool to see him as a young man, with “suicide kid” painted on his helmet and truck, dodging artillery fire to bring ordnance to the front lines.
4. You've just won the Nebula prize (or something else appropriate to
whatever genre you're writing in - not really up with the prizes). Describe
your acceptance speech. Who would you thank? Would you try for emotional,
funny, honest, or something else? And would you have it all written out in
advance, or deliver it on the fly?
Holy cow. I guess I’d have to thank my parents for giving me the financial support to get started in writing, even when they didn’t know how to give me the emotional support. And to whomever had edited my work, because I truly believe that an editor is integral to making the best story possible. I’d also thank anyone else who’d had a hand in research or facts or something. I’d be as brief as possible — acceptance speeches often make me uncomfortable because they get really emotional, and I get embarrassed.
5. You're really best known as a slash writer, and I get the impression you
still think of yourself as falling within that genre. But then there is
Spuffy. What draws you to that ship? When did you jump aboard?
You know, I wrote a lot of slash, still do, but... I never self-identified that way, which has earned me a lot of scorn from people who used to be my friends. A lot of my local pals are serious hardcore slash-only types, and they really are not terribly friendly about my het obsessions (Skinner and Scully, Mulder and Scully, Spike and Buffy). And a lot of slash fans think I betrayed them by not writing it exclusively. It’s just that it’s how I got started — the first people I met, after searching for 16 years, were slashers, and Professionals was almost entirely a slash fandom. It’s hard to explain how hard it was back then, without the Web. You just didn’t know about this whole new underworld unless you actively sought it out. I never even knew about it, till they explained it, and then I was like “oh wow, I can see that.” I’ve always found same-sex porn way more titillating than het, and I think a lot of it is that it’s not how I am, so it’s more interesting. I love guys together, and slashiness is fun. But I often felt funny because I really didn’t think only that way, but all my peers did. Most of my oldest fan friends are slashers.
What I love most is complex relationships between equals, that are often thwarted or challenged. Love can’t be easy. And slash really gives that to you, whereas het usually doesn’t need to be mitigated or explained. I wrote an essay at my site about het slash, which interested me, in Buffy, Nikita, and XF fandoms. They were het relationships that were almost slash-like in their forbiddenness, their thwartedness. Slash in Buffy just doesn’t interest me much, although I’m intrigued by the possibility of Wes meeting Spike and what he’ll make of him. Plus I still think Wes and Angel are boffing. Spander bewilders me completely. If I were ever going to write Spike slash, it’d be Giles and Spike, though.
dragolyn gave me interview questions. I've never been asked questions or sent a meme or anything, so this is a new experience.1. What draws you to be involved in fandom stuff? Not just Buffy but in general. What is it about being a critical fan that appeals to you?
I’ve always wondered about that, because I’d almost prefer NOT to be a fan! But it seems as if I was genetically programmed: When my mother died, we went through her things and found the first short story I ever wrote, when I was five and a half. It was about Mickey Mouse and Goofy. I was writing fanfic before I even knew what fanfic was!
But I think it’s that I mostly enjoy a world where it’s okay to believe that characters are real — by that I mean, I know that Spike or Vin or Skinner or Doyle or whoever are not real people, but they exist in a world inside my head, they have feelings and beliefs and senses and are corporeal, and I want to know about them, I want to find out everything I can about them. Fellow fans understand that — we can discourse on what Spike is really like underneath or how Giles really behaves, but we also can say “the way ME wrote them” or something. We have both the real reality and our reality playing together (this of course doesn’t include those folks who can’t distinguish between real life and objects of fannish interest; those people scare me and make me embarrassed to be a fan). I never just watch a show I like — later on, I think about what those characters feel and what they do outside my screen. In fandom, we can do that and no one tells us we’re freaks. No one censures us for spending thousands of words and hundreds of hours analyzing an episode or dissecting a character. I will always do that, and it’s nice to have a world where I can.
2. What do you like best about where you live? Is it where you want to be, is it home to you? Or are there other places you'd like to try?
I don’t think I could ever happily live elsewhere than Seattle. We moved around a lot when I was young, and every time we came back here, I felt like I was home. I need mountains, because I grew up climbing them (real ones with snow), I need the sea, because water is such a big part of our lives here. I need temperate weather with no extremes. If I couldn’t see something like Mt. Rainier shining pink and golden in the evening sun, looming over the city as I drove south on Aurora, I would be miserable. But I could almost see myself retiring to Lyme Regis, in Dorset. Or Llangollen, in Wales. I love Llangollen with a passion. I did almost move to London once. When I remembered the six month quarantine for animals, though, I decided against it. But it was close.
3. I think that your writing is very bold. You don't pull your punches or seem to get shy about writing what you write. Is that ever a struggle?
Oh wow, thank you! I am shy, though, horribly shy. Sex scenes terrify me. And since I’m all about the love, sex is kinda mandatory, even if all it leads to is cutaway to billowing curtains. I’m strangely modest (in the prim way, not the humble way), and I get all embarrassed about love scenes, and take refuge in poetical language that often feels badly drawn to me. But others seem to like it, so it works as a refuge. I think the most signficant thing is that I am a person who has BIG emotions — nothing’s ever half-way with me, and so when I write characters, I want to get at the core of what they feel or are. And that often is very intense, at least, the way I see them, they’re intense people, and so it comes out that way.
4. Who do you love? And what do you love?
It’s strange that you’d ask that now, because lately I’ve felt very isolated and lonely. My ex got married recently, and I thought it was interesting that after sneaking around and lying and being a shit, he gets the reward of love and marriage, and I get nothing. But I love my dad, even though we had a very violent and rocky life, and I love my sister, even though I don’t like her. Though she’s gone, I love my mother and I miss her. I have a few friends who I love but who, I think, don’t love me back, or even like me all that much. A couple who do, but they’re getting far and few between. I tend to put more energy into people than they ever do to me — I stopped calling or writing a lot of folks to see if they’d call or write, and they never did. I adore my strange kitty.
But what I love is so huge I couldn’t list it all — big emotions, you know. I love words on paper when they’re lyrical and wonderful, I love movies and tv shows and actors and musicians. Music and film are so important to me that I think I would literally die without them. I love animals of all persuasions, and people who are kind and work to change the world and make it a better place at great cost to themselves. I love buying presents for people for no reason. I love fashion and the smell of new clothes and driving on long road trips and sitting on my back porch in my Adirondack chairs eating cherries and drinking iced tea when it’s hot out. There’s always something wonderful in the world to notice.
5. If you scripted the perfect day for yourself, morning to night, and could include anything and everything, what would you write?
Ooo! I think I’d get up late, after ten or so (I live to sleep in), and it would be nice out but not too hot, so I could eat breakfast on the back porch (cherries would be involved). I’d check e-mail and have lots of nice things instead of spam. I’d get a delivery in the mail of new CDs and new DVDs, and money would not be an object so I could have ordered dozens. Then I’d go to a good movie matinee, and there would hardly be anyone in the theatre even though it was in the largest auditorium with the best sound, and no one would sit behind me to kick my chair. It would be an outstanding movie with lots of emotional payoff, and really, really pretty guys. Afterwards my friends and I would go to IHOP for pancakes and have witty, fun conversation. Then we’d convene to my house for a barbecue and cooking by Jo or Viv, and Jo would have made me that incredible coconut cake or a Pavlova. Then we’d watch more movies on the HDTV, and stay up real late, and drink alcoholic milkshakes, and someone else would clean the kitchen, and we’d watch whatever my latest vid was and people would heap praise on me. Then I’d go to bed and be actually tired enough to fall asleep.
Or, possibly, I’d be in London, doing anything, with tons of spending money and staying at a posh hotel. And I’d meet a cool British guy over lunch at Wagamama who’d fall instantly in love with me, and we’d start our jet-set bi-country lifestyle. He’d be from a wealthy family or have made a fortune in some positive business or other, but be very down to earth and not a toffee-nosed snob, bashfully charming, cultured, open to fandom, and have the sense of humor of Nick Hornby (basically, he’d be a dead ringer for Tony Head!). Of course in the afternoon he’d take me shopping at Harrod’s and Liberty and all the good shops, and then we’d have dinner at whatever the chi-chi’est place in town is, and drinks and dancing after.
And now
onetwomany asked me her interview questions! Whee! People are making me think.1. Joss has just hired you to write the opening episode of AtS season 7
(before taking off the write the script for the new, well funded Firelfy
movie.this is Sabre's happy day, just go with it ;-)). How would you bring
back Spike? And what other little bits of tweaking would be top of your
agenda?
Ohhh... wow, what a question. What I would like to see is Angel got the news from Buffy (preferably by a phone call!) about what happened with Spike. In much the same way as the Scoobies thought that Buffy was trapped in a hell dimension, Wes and Angel aren’t so sure that Spike’s sacrifice put him in a good place. Angel is actually kind of concerned for Spike, since he ponied up to be a good guy at the end, and he knows it would help Buffy, who’s feeling guilty. Wes finds a way to mojo Spike back from the beyond, and uses W&H’s considerable resources to do it — even though he’s warned Spike might come back “wrong” himself. Then the fun could begin with what “wrong” meant!
2. I know that you got into fandom generally through Zines, and you've
talked a little about the differences in writing for online and offline
fans. I'm fascinated by the contrast. How did you get into 'zine fandom, and
especially into zine fanfiction? Was it something you actively set out to
do? Was there a higher degree of 'quality control' over what was 'published'
in the zines? If so, how did you feel about that?
I used to see fanfic zines at SF cons back when I first started going in the early ‘80s. Actually I’d never have gone to a con until I was invited — a huge local SF con com called our newspaper office and wanted a film critic for a couple panels. I said I was a big SF fan, and sure, I’d love to and found out a couple friends of mine went to this every year. I kept going to the con afterwards. I never read fic — I figured they would be crap writing by stupid people who couldn’t get published themselves. Once I got hooked up with some fans, after searching for 16 long years for fellow Professionals fans, they showed me fanfic, and I was kind of surprised. I met some new people at a slash con, and one of them was also a published, experienced writer, and I realized there was this whole different world where I could get quality fic about people I was obsessed with. So it all kind of happened by accident, in a way, though I’d searched for other fans for so long. I was what they call a feral fan — one out there on her own, no knowledge of society, but still a fan.
Zines were all over the place — there were some outstanding ones, and some that were crap. I was super lucky — the person who first published all my zine stories was a friend, that experienced writer I mentioned, and then a couple other good zine publishers took stories — one in Oz, btw! Putting out a zine was a huge labor of love and money and time — so you didn’t take things for granted. Arguments used to erupt over page counts and word counts — some people padded the cost of zines by printing with huge margins and wasted white space, and said, well it’s a big zine so it costs more. Some publishers stole or didn’t give trib copies as recompense. Some publishers made enough money to buy a freaking house. Most of us, though, were in it for love and fandom. People lived to go to cons, so that they could get the newest zines. I never had the truly awful experiences many folks did; I was really blessed.
3. You've been given a time-machine, a transporter and an unlimited expense
account. Which three people/events would you go spy on, just for curiosity's
sake?
I’d go to the court of Elizabeth I. I think she’s one of the most fascinating people in history, I’m just obsessed with her. I’d love to have seen what she really did on a day to day basis. Then maybe I’d go to the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Continental Congress, what have you, because the formation of the US and the principles that were set in motion for the foundation of this country were unprecedented, and I think those old guys in periwigs did some pretty cool things considering what and who they were. It’s hard to say about the third one though. Maybe see something like the Nuremberg rallies, or something like that — it’s hard to tell on film why some of what happened with the Nazis happened. In many ways, I’d really like to know why it was so galvanizing to those people, I’d like to actually *see* that horrible history and know what it was like. Or conversely, go back and watch my dad earn one of his WWII medals — I’ve always been very proud of him for that, it would be cool to see him as a young man, with “suicide kid” painted on his helmet and truck, dodging artillery fire to bring ordnance to the front lines.
4. You've just won the Nebula prize (or something else appropriate to
whatever genre you're writing in - not really up with the prizes). Describe
your acceptance speech. Who would you thank? Would you try for emotional,
funny, honest, or something else? And would you have it all written out in
advance, or deliver it on the fly?
Holy cow. I guess I’d have to thank my parents for giving me the financial support to get started in writing, even when they didn’t know how to give me the emotional support. And to whomever had edited my work, because I truly believe that an editor is integral to making the best story possible. I’d also thank anyone else who’d had a hand in research or facts or something. I’d be as brief as possible — acceptance speeches often make me uncomfortable because they get really emotional, and I get embarrassed.
5. You're really best known as a slash writer, and I get the impression you
still think of yourself as falling within that genre. But then there is
Spuffy. What draws you to that ship? When did you jump aboard?
You know, I wrote a lot of slash, still do, but... I never self-identified that way, which has earned me a lot of scorn from people who used to be my friends. A lot of my local pals are serious hardcore slash-only types, and they really are not terribly friendly about my het obsessions (Skinner and Scully, Mulder and Scully, Spike and Buffy). And a lot of slash fans think I betrayed them by not writing it exclusively. It’s just that it’s how I got started — the first people I met, after searching for 16 years, were slashers, and Professionals was almost entirely a slash fandom. It’s hard to explain how hard it was back then, without the Web. You just didn’t know about this whole new underworld unless you actively sought it out. I never even knew about it, till they explained it, and then I was like “oh wow, I can see that.” I’ve always found same-sex porn way more titillating than het, and I think a lot of it is that it’s not how I am, so it’s more interesting. I love guys together, and slashiness is fun. But I often felt funny because I really didn’t think only that way, but all my peers did. Most of my oldest fan friends are slashers.
What I love most is complex relationships between equals, that are often thwarted or challenged. Love can’t be easy. And slash really gives that to you, whereas het usually doesn’t need to be mitigated or explained. I wrote an essay at my site about het slash, which interested me, in Buffy, Nikita, and XF fandoms. They were het relationships that were almost slash-like in their forbiddenness, their thwartedness. Slash in Buffy just doesn’t interest me much, although I’m intrigued by the possibility of Wes meeting Spike and what he’ll make of him. Plus I still think Wes and Angel are boffing. Spander bewilders me completely. If I were ever going to write Spike slash, it’d be Giles and Spike, though.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
Illuminating!
Date: 2003-07-10 06:41 pm (UTC)I'm very much a newcomer to the world of fanfic, or fandom at all. I've been reading various stories since December and hesitated for a long time before giving any feedback because I wasn't quite sure what authors wanted to hear. Typos? Grammar? Compliments? Random associations stirred up by the story? In the past month I've slowly begun to give feedback, and it still makes me nervous. I don't know exactly how to proceed.
I've read two of your stories, Somniloquy and Better Left Unsaid recently, and I didn't send you feedback. I liked them both very much. I'll reread them so I can send you something more thoughtful than that. I hope you don't mind if I friend (aka "gentle reader")" you so I can selfishly be inspired by your musings.
Re: Illuminating!
Date: 2003-07-11 12:22 pm (UTC)You know, I can't speak for other writers (although, really, that never stopped me before ;-) ), but I think that while a lot of folks really want to hear only "Loved this, you're divine, write more, you are a goddess" and they write so they can receive this kind of feedback, there's still really a lot of us who love to hear anything that clearly involves some thinkin' on someone's part, even if it's negative.
I think there's a difference, too, between "you don't use enough semicolons" or "you need to use a spellchecker" or "man, your dialog sounds like any two people, not these characters" and something like "at times I felt the plot overwhelmed the dialog" or "some of the passages were overwritten and didn't have the flavor of the show" or something like that. A lot of us can handle the latter kind of response pretty well, and we do want to hear if there are areas we're falling down in. Every reader's interpretation is different, of course, but it's still good to know how different. I'll never know if someone doesn't tell me.
If someone wrote and told me about random associations, or just how something made them feel, I'd be thrilled. One of my stories in Mag 7 fandom seemed to evoke that response in people, and it's one of the few times I can say I got feedback that made me sniffly, just based on how people responded. One friend told me it made her want to paint. So I think yeah, many writers would be honored if you said anything like that at all -- it's a gift, I think, when we get that.
I sent out a lot of feedback when I first started reading Buffy stuff. Many BNF types never responded to me, so I never knew how they felt about it. It seems par for the course these days, but don't let it discourage you -- plenty of us DO appreciate anything!
You give good interview
Date: 2003-07-10 11:36 pm (UTC)Kind of scary, but I could've written that bit myself. Along with the part about the cat.
What I love most about these answers is the way you paint pictures with your words. Now, see, whenever I read your entries I'll imagine you having written them while sitting on your back porch, with an earthenware bowl of cherries sitting nearby, and surrounded by teetering stacks of CDs and DVDs.
Re: You give good interview
Date: 2003-07-11 01:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-07-14 04:23 am (UTC)Great choice - as would I ironically enough. Both her and Catherine Parr fascinate me, as do several other prominant Renassiance women. It was a brief period of education for (very noble) women, before the 17th century completely undid everything.
I'dgo back and watch my dad earn one of his WWII medals
No wonder you're proud of him. Where did he serve?
My grandad ended up in Changi during the war, and most of my father's relatives' names are inscribed on the wall of the Australian War Memorial. He's entire family was basically wiped out. War sucks.
Slash in Buffy just doesn’t interest me much, although I’m intrigued by the possibility of Wes meeting Spike and what he’ll make of him. Plus I still think Wes and Angel are boffing
Spike/Wes fascinates me, as well. I imagine the subtext will be huge, especially as JM and AD are both canny and clever enough to play it up.
Great answers! Thank you :)
no subject
Date: 2003-07-14 10:41 am (UTC)Man, to have your whole family wiped out like that... jesus. I can't even imagine; I think in this day and age it's just really so hard for us to understand that kind of sacrifice.
Re the Spike/Wes thing -- as much as I'm not into Spike slash (though I have read some really, really good pieces, I have to say), there's almost a part of me that would love it if they went canonical with the two of them -- both lonely and unhappy, both sad and desperate, both a little on the ambiguous side sexually... It would be nice to have a canon same-sex couple on a Joss show again. It always seems to have to be women to be safe, but why not guys? If it was an angst-fest, it could be very interesting.