WRFA - Author Interviews [Author

Is there anything you'd like to share about yourself? (i.e. where you live, interests, hobbies, etc.) (submitted by Sorciere)

Answer: I live in Texas, near Austin, where I've pretty much lived all my life with a few random exceptions. Hobbies and interests--hmmm. Writing, reading, crochet, jazz dance, medieval, Roman, and Egyptian history, astronomy, HTML, and genealogy. Political science is my major, so it sort of all connects together, except the crochet and dance. Well, so far, anyway.

What about "X-Men" the movie grabbed your attention and made you decide to start writing fanfic about it? (submitted by Jamie)

Answer: Diebin made me want to. Total obsession from the first story--I think "Niagara Falls" and "Cupid Doesn't Wear Leather" were the two I discovered on the WJ.com site, which led to a 'net hunt for more, and then two very long, scary emails of mass feedback to her. The movie itself made me stay because of all the possibilities in it. W/R was supposed to be my breather from my fandom in Voyager I'd burned myself out in--as you might note, it's been an almost year-long breather now. I liked all the complex relationships--I think the movie did a very good job in not only introducing interesting characters, but also in making sure that they interacted in some pretty fascinating ways. Plus, the movie was based off of a rich and varied history of comics and novels and cartoons. There's just a wealth of background, both applicable and not, that you can drag out and use.

Best of all, of course, I love the W/R interaction. I love them as a potential couple and love the very strong connection between them. I like the dichotomy of the very young and the ageless that is both Rogue herself and is also the L/R dynamic in general, and I like most of all the fact that even a year later, I can't get away from them no matter what I do or what else I try to write. I love them because when I read it for the first time, I believed in it unquestioningly, and that's a rare thing.

And I admit it, I get a huge kick out of the arguments against it as well. I can be contrary.

What is the writing process like for you? Do you find any part of writing difficult? (submitted by Diane)

Answer: It usually starts with single idea or scene--it may not even be the point of the story at the end, but that's how it begins. "Exceptions", for example, was just a style exercise in description and ended up having a point. Jus Ad Bellum, on the other hand, started out almost fully formed in its essentials so that my only problem was getting it down while it was so clear in my head, and then fleshing out the basic premise. I just didn't expect that the fleshing would go beyond around eighty pages. Boy, was I wrong.

My biggest difficulty is consistency--how I choose to characterize per story. "Year and a Day" Rogue, for example, would NOT get along with "Illusions" Rogue at all. I've never, ever been happy with one of my Rogue characterizations. Jus is the closest I think I've come to getting the one I want, and she's still pretty flawed from what I think she should be and what she is on paper--or monitor, as the case may be. Logan, same thing--there's been a gradual but pretty obvious shift in how I view and write him, and I go back and forth on who I think he is with my mood, what I've been reading, what I've been writing, and who I'm beta'ing for. The biggest flaw I have as a writer is that I've never been able to settle down and say, okay, Rogue is THIS, Logan is THIS, and let's get that story written around that. Every single story, I've added or removed something of them that differs them from any other, and sometimes, that REALLY annoys me. It's rare I can go back to a much earlier story and really connect with what I was thinking the characters were at the time.

Question: You are an extremely prolific writer. Where do you get your inspiration and where do you find the time? (submitted by various)

Answer: Prolific. Yes, I suppose I am.

Inspiration is almost anything, sadly enough. It can be a story I read in any fandom, or a song that suddenly clicks something over in my head, or personal favorite, I start a writing exercise that suddenly takes off into places I had no idea I wanted to go. I love those best--I love not knowing what's happening but learning along with the characters. It's when I'm most likely to pick up and get seriously obsessed.

Time appears when I need it--sounds weird, but true. If I can get the basic idea down and relatively plotted, the rest usually comes pretty naturally and I can add, edit, and work on it at my leisure. I used to take hard copies to class and edit during the more boring lectures while everyone around me slept--I figured that was pretty productive and in Lit class, I even think I was keeping the spirit of the class. The only exception to that is Jus--I literally can't edit without a couple of hours at my disposal to mull, which is why it's taken since May to get where I am now. Jus is too complex for me to just play with randomly.

Question: You've written angst (Possession), foof (Instinct), humor (On A Man and His Penis) and smut (On Bluffing and Its Consequences) stories. What is your favorite genre to write? Is any particular one more difficult to write? (submitted by various)

Answer: Angst or drama is easiest for me and the most fun. Give me plot! Give me psychological pain! Give me torture! I'm a massive fan of it. It comes naturally, I suppose. Angst almost always equals character growth, character development, and basically, fun ways to twist everything into new shapes. My creative writing teacher noted I'd write nice soap operas. I need to send him the link to Not Unspoken one day. I think he'd appreciate it.

Smut and foof are mood things. When it happens, I'm usually REALLY surprised, and rather pleased.

Humor is almost impossible. I love to read it, I love to think about it, but I cannot write it to save my life. "Happy Little Sounds" is the result of a root canal, a jaw infection and the judicious application of Vicodin and caffeine while sleepless, so I honestly think that I'm not really responsible for that one. "On a Man" was an exercise for Sare Liz one night when we were bored and I tossed lines to her to inspire her on a fic she was writing. It wasn't for public consumption originally, but when I put it back together in Word the next afternoon, it appealed to me.

Question: Do you work on more than one story at a time? How do you keep them straight in your head? (submitted by Amy)

Answer: Ooh. I do write more than one storyline at a time--it's easier to keep from burning out on a particular story. I can switch over when I feel it's going badly and work on something lighter or darker or beiger or something-er. "No Secret at All" for example, was written and edited while working on two "For Now" stories, Happy Little Sounds, On Bluffing, Illusions Part I and An Unusual Situation. I'm less likely to seriously screw up a storyline if my mood changes before the story ends, and I can switch to something else.

Keeping them straight? They're different enough that I don't worry too much about accidental overflow, though of course the big exception is this--"Sleeping with Dogtags", "An Unusual Situation", and "Altruistic" all have a very similar underlying premise. That drives me crazy, because Altruistic DOES want to pick up threads I'd saved back for An Unusual Situation.

Question: What is your attraction to angst? (submitted by Victoria P.)

Answer: LOL. It's the most fun. I like happy stories, and when I started, I was rather surprised that I was writing nothing but relative foof and sunshine. That, of course, changed rather quickly.

But to answer the question, characterization is developed most thoroughly in angst. It's easy to write any character in their natural habitat, and have them remain unchallenged in their essential characteristics and beliefs and send them on the merry way through the daffodils. I like to see what they'd do when they ARE challenged, and what their break-points are, and what it would take to get them to those points. It's the most fascinating use of a storyline I can think of--the idea of not necessarily character change, but the exploration of everything a character is or could be. Logan may be seen as a sociopath in certain circumstances, but that's not everything and all he is and will ever be, and the opportunity to find out what else there is in him is easiest when I drop in the angst.

Question: Your writing seems to feature a very strong connection between Logan and Rogue. What creates that sort of bond? What, in your opinion, are the key components of their relationship, the things that make them different from other couples? (submitted by Darkstar)

Answer: Mutual need, buried attraction, and the entire outsider concept. I'm a romantic before I'm anything else (I can hear Andariel's disbelieving laugh now ) but I really, really am. These are two very different people who are both essentially survivors--when you get past the superficial differences of age or background and break it down to basics, there it is. Rogue's roughly fifteen-sixteen when she runs away from home and she somehow manages to survive pretty damn well for a good period of time

without much in the way of outside help. Logan started from literal scratch fifteen years ago without a memory and with a mutation that he knows vaguely isn't completely natural, complete with traumatizing dreams. Both of those are big handicaps to work out from under.

The age thing I've never really considered much of a complication. It's irrelevant once she gets beyond age of consent, and Logan is pretty much ageless. If we stuck with actual chronological age range, Logan had better be scoping out the older cemeteries for Friday night dates according to comicdom canon, and in movieverse--technically, he's fifteen, period. That's all he knows and remembers, no matter physical age. For all we know, they grew him in the lab with supergenes, gave him the nice metal skeleton, and sent him out into the world all in a single day. Didn't say it was likely, but lots of things are unlikely, like mutation machines, square dancing, and dogs playing chess, and I saw a dog play chess once. I can also square dance, so see, maybe not so unlikely.

But you know, that's not really it either. It's a matter of feeling, not thinking. No couple makes sense or has ever made sense in the history of mankind--we all meander around in Real Life wondering what on earth X sees in Y or why we're attracted to Z and not A. I'm still spending quality time trying to figure out my parents and my grandparents, because surface would have screamed divorce in three years or less.

They feel right to me. I suppose it comes down to that, in the end, and that's the only criteria I use.

Question: Which character is hardest for you to write? The easiest? (submitted by Jamie)

Answer: Ororo. I cannot write Ororo. It's this massive block I can't get around--I can write around her and have others muse on her and have her be wise from other people's pov, but I cannot write from her pov to save my life. I also cannot write the Love and Lust Rogue (I've tried), or Scott very well. Even thinking about it blocks me up. Xavier is difficult because, see, he's Picard to me when I write. I know, I know, but I swear, I WILL have him say "Make it so, Number One" to Scott and never notice. I'm perfectly capable of suspending Picardish vibes when reading other people's work or writing him indirectly, but I have a sinking suspicion that if I got into his head, he'd be a spaceship captain in under five pages.

Rogue's easiest to write--she's practically a blank slate in some ways, since she's right on the threshold of adulthood and literally could go any direction under the sun. She's got so much going against her in the mutation department and so much growing up to do still, that almost any incantation could be considered viable. Personal favorite is a very strong or independent Rogue, though I've definitely failed to get that across relatively often. I also have a weakness for a mildly psychotic Rogue, but that's just me.

St. John--he might as well be an original character the way I write him, so saying he's easy to write is sort of like cheating. It WAS difficult to decide what his character would be like and it took me several stories to nail it down, so there was some work involved there. His entire comics background is pretty much useless, and he has, what, one entire line in the movie? Big difference--I changed his mutation without knowing I was doing it, and found out about five or so stories into the Love and Lust series that I'd done it. On the other hand, his personality from the comics I've sometimes dredged up from some comicfen friends who looked things up for me. I have this fantasy I'm going to rewrite him into the Brotherhood one day and try to combine his comic background into an A/U movieverse. It's a funny thought. I drag him everywhere I go in movieverse now like a favorite blanket. So far, though, no one seems to mind, so I'm content.

Question: How did you come to your consistent characterization of Logan as slightly more...sociopathic than we normally see? What made you decide to go in that direction? (submitted by Victoria P.)

Answer: Slightly?

Okay, you can REALLY see the difference between "A Year and a Day" Logan and "Illusions" Logan, and "Illusions" to "Jus Ad Bellum" is another developmental leap. I blame a lot of that on Sare Liz—she became my beta after I posted "In a Thousand Miles" and is probably the single greatest influence on my Logan to date. She (and Fyrdrakken) KNEW the comic background and after awhile, the sheer amount of information they shared began to utterly fascinate me despite myself.

Another heavy influence, especially recently, is Minisinoo. I don't live in a character vacuum, so to speak--conversations and betas and other stories by writers I admire have added to what I know and what I understand the characters to be. Sometimes it's frustrating--awhile back, I was challenged by Donna to make Logan actually say the words "I love you" to Rogue. Out of ninety movieverse stories, he's said it four times, I think. But I can't see it very often in the way I characterize, so I can't write it. He can be in love as he wants, and do idiotic things for love, but those three words always stump me.

I don't exactly consider him a sociopath--at least, not all the time. More someone that has their own very strict code of ethics/honor/morality, that doesn't necessarily mesh with contemporary standards. He's more—the practical type. Okay, so that's almost an actual definition of sociopath. With his life and his background, he doesn't seem the type to go in for worrying about the legal/illegal thing. On the other hand, I think he's drawn himself hard and fast lines on right and wrong, black and white--Fyr said it best when she said that he had to be able to look at himself in the mirror eventually. No one, no matter how jaded, is truly perfectly amoral, and those lines are what separate the human from the animal. I think, more than most, Logan is very, very aware of how close the animal is below the surface, and needs those boundaries to assure he stays on the human side of the fence.

Question: Every relationship has its dark side, and you aren't afraid to bring that out in your work--"Illusions" comes most readily to mind. How do you interpret the dark side of Logan and Rogue's relationship? What are some of the dangers, the pitfalls, the destructive tendencies that you see in them? The Angst Muse and I just had to ask. :) (submitted by Darkstar)

Answer: Oooh--interesting one. Okay, here's something I picked up from "Danse Macabre" by Stephen King that I just fell in love with and pretty much sums up my entire attitude on the subject. To paraphrase, the only difference between the people walking around free on the street and the ones in the rubber rooms with custom-made little jackets is that, somehow, our reality switch is more or less still functioning pretty well and theirs isn't. We somehow keep our dreams, fantasies, impulses, paranoias, and idiosyncrasies under some sort of control, whereas they do not. That's more true than I think anyone wants to really acknowledge.

Illusions and Just Breathe (Images in a Broken Mirror to a lesser extent) is how fragile that switch really is. We're all subject to an amazingly diverse range of inherent characteristics, but we only allow ourselves to exercise a few of them. Under the right set of circumstances, those particular undesirable/ignored characteristics are going to get a dominant hold in us.

In both Logan and Rogue I can see a dangerous tendency toward obsession. Not necessarily a failing--after all, obsessions are what make geniuses invent airplanes, find element 114, write great novels, invent computers, and split atoms. Without some safety features in the brain or behavior, however, some forms of obsession lead to some seriously scary places, not only diagnosed psychological disorders but such undesirable habits as stalking and so forth.

Illusions plays on two things I consider intrinsic to Logan--his sense of duty toward Rogue, and his honor. In Illusions, Rogue's destructive tendencies emerge under the pressure of being both an adolescent and wanting to be normal, wanting the direct physical contact she's been denied by genetics. Combined with the personalities of three different people who seem to be taking over her psyche, she turns to dangerous pursuits to escape it, and herself. Combined with her crush on Logan (infatuation, love, whatever you want to call it), and her jealousy of Jean, she begins to see her skin as the one huge obstacle that's keeping him from wanting her as well. And so she pursues the cure for her skin, thinking that it'll solve all the problems in her life in one fell swoop. She tries to push him into something he's not ready for and he knows she's not ready for either, and she finally succeeds without really clearly understanding the circumstances she succeeded under. Logan's obsession is with her, and eventually, his own fight against an attraction that he's very, very aware, under these circumstances, is just NOT a good idea any way you cut it. He can't escape her and he can't leave her because he feels responsible for her. It's a catch-22 for them both in some ways.

LOTS of very cool stories have dealt with a destructive L/R vibe--off the top of my head, Dianna's "Use Me", Spyke Raven's "I Heal Fast", and Charon's "Edge" are the ones I think dealt best with it. Victoria's "Their Little Game" is another one I remember, and Diebin's "On Tuesdays" and "It Was Wednesday" duology.

Question: You've written several series. How do you keep the tone, storyline and characterization consistent and fresh throughout its entirety? (submitted by Elaine)

Answer: I don't think I do. I mean--LnL was fun to write, but I think it probably is about six or seven stories too long. I can even think of the stories I'd like to trim off or integrate into one longer, more interesting story, but then, in LnL'verse, it's enough that I loved writing them. But I try very hard not to go over the same ground more than once, or if necessary, twice. Repeating themes are great if you can make them over into new, fresh shapes, but I definitely do not succeed in that even half the time.

I'm still too close to my WR stories, so I'm not at my most objective.

Question: How have the "kids", and St. John specifically, developed over the course of the "In Lust and Love at Mutant High" series? (submitted by Diane)

Answer: Hmm. St. John started and ended as a cynic of the first order , but I think he's more able to accept everything about himself than he was at the beginning. He's willing to work for something he wants, and commitment doesn't scare him as much. He's learned more than trust--he's learned to forgive. And I think most importantly, he's learned, like Rogue, that he doesn't have to always deal alone.

Bobby--eh, I'm not sure he's gotten much out of LnL. How to get over the untouchable girl and settle down with Mr. Right in thirty-two stories or less? In some ways, he grew up faster than St. John--he gave up on the impossible and found the possible was pretty darn cool. In the LnL's, he's always willing to take risks and just jump, which St. John and Rogue cannot do. In all honestly, Bobby's probably the healthiest character I've ever written, and that's quite disturbing, come to think of it.

Rogue--she's a hard one. In LnL, I don't really understand her all that well. She learned to trust those close to her, learned that being Rogue doesn't necessarily mean giving up being a kid. She's willing to ask for help if she needs it, and is more willing to be open with others without suspecting ulterior motives. I think, most importantly, she learned to be comfortable with who and what she was.

Question: Do you set a specific goal with each part/story of a series? (submitted by Elaine)

Answer: Yes and no. In a planned series, I made a point of continuing in a theme or adding more emphasis to it over time. For Now was the growth and development of Rogue from an adolescent into an adult, and her slowly growing more paranoid about her skin. After story 15 or 16, I got a vague glimmering how I wanted to finish developing the LnL stories, though not enough for me to really start anything resembling actually planning. At least, most of the last ones build much better on each other toward a point than the first ones. Altruistic covers a single day each part and a sort of themed milestone of sorts for each character in each part. Soft on Bright is simply character/chronology specific.

Question: When are you going to give us the missing 4 months in "A Year and a Day", the missing "At Eighteen" in the For Now series and are Logan and Rogue *ever* going to get together in "In Lust and Love at Mutant High"? (submitted by Victoria P.)

Answer: Probably, maybe, ask Molly, respectively. I can't write LnL Rogue at all. For Now: Eighteen is tricky, because the original was A/Ued when I simply could NOT do that to Rogue on top of every other issue she was working through, and because I started feeling guilty about how I characterized Jean. Plus, the For Nows don't need an At Eighteen, since everything that COULD go there was pretty well covered in "At Nineteen" and "At Twenty". The missing four months aren't necessary to the storyline of Year and a Day, so I don't worry about them very much, which is probably the best argument in the world for me to eventually write them. Of course, I'm also half scared of them--they have, like, all these subplots I'd need to deal with. Though I admit for amusement's sake, I'd like to revisit the Chicago prostitutes. Maybe on YaaD's one year anniversary, I'll lose my mind and try to write a twelve part series in four-five days without a beta. And someone can tell me that I'm an idiot and start reminding me how I wasn't sleeping during that period of time and how grouchy I was.

Question: When you write a series, do you intend for it to be one from the beginning? Do you have sequels in mind or does reader feedback influence you in regards to further installments? (submitted by various)

Answer: All of the above. For Now was a very planned series, more or less. Soft on Bright is a planned series. I had a good idea of what was happening, what was going to happen, and how things would change, or at least a vague knowledge that the story wasn't over. A Year and a Day was vaguely planned and I did try and develop subplots inside each story, so I guess it falls into this category.

Not Unspoken is its own category of weirdness I won't even try to explain, and in any case, that RR isn't really mine. It belongs to every reader and writer. Bitterness is just--strange.

Love and Lust and Altruistic were not at all, to the point where I still look at those in a sort of wonder, especially LnL. Most especially LnL. It was supposed to be a simple exercise in slash, to see if I could do it, one, and two, because I was burning out in L/R and was worried I was losing interest in the fandom. The feedback was amazing--I ended up writing fourteen installments in seven days, and was plotting them while working, studying, etc. It and Altruistic were written more or less on demand--I never would have considered doing it without those first ultra-positive feedbacks, and I basically kept writing both because I loved writing the series and because so many people seemed to get a serious kick out of reading it.

Hope is the one exception. First it wasn't a series, just a view into a very unhappy Rogue. Then I got bored and plotted out the next year and a half of the storyline, then wrote "The Best Thing". Then skipped forward and wrote "Not a Straight Line" (which I really need to edit and repost one day). Now it just sits there and makes me feel guilty for all the notes and effort I put into its concept that I never followed through on.

Question: Will we see more of "An Unusual Situation" before I start collecting Social Security? :) (submitted by Jamie)

Answer: According to my poly sci prof, Social Security is not going to be around by the time the twenty-somethings retire. I can comfortably state it will be done before then. I love you too, babe.

Question: Where does a story like "Jus Ad Bellum" come from? Can you tell us a bit about the research you did before writing it? (submitted by Jamie)

Answer: It comes about that Jus appeared because I was in an absolutely horrible mood. Ask anyone who knows me--I'm at my most productive either when I'm in a super good mood or when I'm really, really, really NOT. May was in general an icky month for me, so it seems almost inevitable that something would happen then.

It came together, strangely enough, when I was re-reading "Danse Macabre", an overview of modern horror movies and novels, that mentioned a guy walking out and finding he got a dime that didn't fit his world. I'd been wanting, desperately, to write a post-MRA story, especially with such wonderful writers as Darkstar, Sandra, and Kat Hughes having given such disturbing glimpses into the possible future of the X-Men, and Peachy's "Not Another Number On My Arm". Even had a couple of short stories based in a post-MRA universe that were unfinished and sort of moldering in my folder, waiting for me to get the right inspiration to use them. When I read about the guy finding the dime, I thought of how very disturbing that must have been, and the entire beginning was suddenly there in my head. I went for a drive and started plotting out what I'd need to do to make it work. The first thirty pages of Jus I are, except for minor editing, spellcheck, and some rewording, exactly the way they appeared in the first draft written the same day I knew I was going to write it. Part III has a middle section of about five pages that was originally a separate short story that I reworked, and Interlude 3 is a reworked version of another short story set in the same timeline. I recycle.

The thing that drove me to write it, however, was that I wanted to watch the X-Men win. Most post-MRA stories have our heroes in camps, ghettos, or all dead, and no way out. That works and I've enjoyed it immensely. I just wanted something different--just from logic, with their power, with their numbers, and with a convenient loss of ethics, they should be able to seriously kick some human rear. Scott would be an amazing sniper, for example, not to mention he's a truly gifted strategist and leader—Magneto picked up dozens of guns and cock them on the heads of policeman, lift entire cars, etc. in the movie--Pyro controls fire and Bobby does ice on a grand scale--Jean's a telekinetic and a telepath, and Kitty, in comicdom, was a computer genius--Ororo is weather personified. You don't piss off people with that variety of powers and skills and think anything less than a surprise nuclear detonation directly on top of them is going to stop them--and in Logan and Sabretooth's case, that isn't going to do it either. I thought it was inevitable, if they were pushed enough, if they had the leadership, organization, and resources, and if they had the sheer drive to win at any cost, they could do it. They were pushed, they had Scott and Magneto for leadership and resources, and they had the former X-Men and Brotherhood operatives seriously unhappy with the status quo who knew each other pretty well and had worked together or against each other enough to solidify into a force to be reckoned with. And with their options--i.e., none except running from the country and leaving their lovers, siblings, family, etc. to die, or hanging in the camps waiting to die, they were motivated to do anything to win.

I spent massive amounts of electives doing nothing but taking classes in WW I and enlightenment history because the time period (and the philosophies that led to it) fascinate me. I'm a history buff anyway, so I drew on everything I could think of to recreate in the modern world a modified supremacist/WWII attitude. The Holocaust camps of WWII, the Palestinian and Yugoslavian refugee camps, the mass exodus and disenfranchisement of entire groups of people based more or less on genetics or religious beliefs.

Research--"Schindler's List" (novel, and movie for the visuals), "The Defeat of the Mind" by Alain Finkielkraut, which gives an overview of the Enlightenment and the roots of racial supremacy in the philosophical movements of the nineteenth century, and I recommend everyone read just because it manages to make my least favorite subject on earth utterly riveting. Notes from about ten different classes, "Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl", the Encyclopedia Britannica for specific information, Minisinoo's emails for comic background, Indian culture, and reference. Machiavelli's "The Prince", which is one of the most cynical but surprisingly accurate books I've ever read.

Stories--read anything by Darkstar, Kat Hughes' "The Box Room" (I dedicate the Palm Beach camp to her), the chilling "Not Another Number on My Arm" by Peachy, and "A Place" by Sandra. All can be found at the XMMFC, btw, so for MRA reading, check it out.

People--Ann, one of my betas and the one that gives me the hardest time about ethics, Minisinoo, stated above as well as some help with Scott's character, Molly and her live journal and some of her conversations about the Palestinian situation in Israel, Sare Liz, Andariel, and Fyrdrakken for character development. The internet is a beautiful place--I put in a word and found articles everywhere that gave me both ideas on what I was trying to do and definite ideas on what I didn't want to do.

Question: Your story "Jus Ad Bellum" fascinates me with its complexity in your characterizations, particularly those of the alter-Scott and alter-Logan in your postwar universe. How do you approach characterizations like that, when you turn a heroic figure into an anti-heroic figure? What safeguards do you use to ensure that you don't go too far and make the character unrecognizable? (submitted by Darkstar)

Answer: Ooh. Lemme think.

I think it comes down to the circumstances you set up and where you draw the line for your character that they can't cross over. Working within their known weaknesses and strengths, for example--Logan's devotion to saving Rogue is well documented, whether you're a shipper or not. If he'd failed, what would that do to him personally? Scott's belief in the core of Xavier's belief in humankind/mutantkind peace and all--not only how strong is it, but how much can he justify believing in it living in an experimentation camp and watching friends, wife, students, tortured and dying all around him? Jean's an ethical telepath--what would it take, what circumstances, would let her toss out her beliefs for the greater good (as she sees it)? Or particularly, what would let any character justify what he/she did, how would they rationalize it? It comes down to what I think they could rationalize away as saying "necessary" and what they'd consider "absolutely not ever".

Scott, for example, in Jus, supports the separation of human and mutantkind for safety purposes--because mutants aren't strong enough to fight another war. He considers that necessary. But he hasn't turned them into death camps for mass executions--I can't see Scott being able to justify that to himself. So I know the line he draws. Logan could probably kill the entire human population in battle without remorse, but not in cold blood for no reason. He doesn't take advantage of the helpless. Simple line to draw and say, this far, no further. And I think all of us have lines we draw just as thoroughly inside ourselves, that even if worst came to worst and we did things we thought we'd never do--there are some things we simply cannot or will not do.

I try to decide, at the very beginning, what I truly believe a character could NOT do, for any reason, draw the line, and work backward from there. But even then, I don't always think I get it right or completely consistent. That is definitely subject to individual interpretation of the characters.

Question: Another facet of your characterization that intrigued me in "Jus Ad Bellum" was the relationship between Logan and Scott. They almost seemed to mirror each other in certain characteristics. What made you decide to write them as such? What were some of the key parallels and differences in their characters? (submitted by Darkstar)

Answer: I like them. They're interesting and they are opposites in a lot of ways. Scott's middle name should be Control. Logan, most assuredly, should have "Bad Impulse Control" taped somewhere visible on his body for others to be warned by. Scott is a believer, a True Believer, so to speak. Logan isn't, at all. Scott's a strategist at heart, looking at long term goals, point A to point Z--Logan's a tactician, point A to point B, and we'll worry about point C when we're at B, so to speak.

Both are very duty-oriented though. If they believe something is their duty, God help you if you get in the way. We saw what happened to Mystique and Sabretooth when they interfered with Logan's duty to Rogue. Scott's duty is to lead the X-Men, run the school, and do it well--he doesn't take kindly to challenges of that. Both have a strong sense of personal honor, though Scott's is more tied to contemporary standards than Logan's. Both are, at heart, pragmatists. Xavier has a super cool dream, but you need someone who can translate that to practical action, and that's Scott. Logan is under the impression that if they'd kill you given the opportunity, you should take them out first. Both men are loyal--once you got the loyalty, no matter what, it's yours for life.

In effect, their similarities probably wouldn't be enough to tie them together--in point of fact, I think they'd find each other too darn annoying to ever GET to the similarities. But in Jus, they both ended up with a single goal, for both the same and different reasons, and those things are what drew them together. They wanted mutantkind to be free and for those who died not to have died for nothing. They wanted revenge for the wrongs done them and those they loved. Logan needed Scott's organizational and leadership skills, his natural way with people, and Scott needed Logan's ruthlessness and ability to get the job done at any cost. Fear and shared goals bind people faster than anything else, and those are the ties that would bind them most closely.

In general, shared hardship is a good way to bring people together. It strips everything else off and gets down to the basics. And at the core, Logan and Scott are similar in the important ways and, in Jus, they learn to appreciate and count on those important differences as something positive instead of negative.

Question: You've co-authored a few stories/series with Sare Liz ("Soft of Bright", "The Gloves" series, etc.) What are the positives and negatives of sharing a storyline with another author? (submitted by Elaine)

Answer: Ah, the positives. Sare pushes me; she's a mile ahead of me stylewise and has a character outlook about two inches different from mine, so to speak, which forces me to justify things I wouldn't bother justifying on my own and therefore, she makes me write a better story. I don't have to carry the plotline on my own. More characters can play because I don't have to know them all. Working with Sare is almost inevitable sometimes—a storyline sometimes requires her to write in it.

I've worked with Beth more or less directly (me, Sare, and Beth for the GTKYs), and am working with Andariel and Shana off and on three other stories. All bring an outlook to a story I could not manage on my own, and a polish and point of view that I couldn't hope to replicate otherwise. The Unspoken RR is an excellent example of the sheer random brilliance of other authors.

The only real negative is that we do depend on each other--if one loses time or interest in a storyline, there it goes. You should see the WIP folder for that alone.

Question: What are your thoughts about posting works-in-progress? Once you've begun a story as a WIP, does the storyline change once you've begun writing? (submitted by Tara)

Answer: Sometimes. The big things don't--before I post, I work out all the big arcs and little arcs so I know where I plan to go. Again, there's an exception to that, but not in anything that goes over fifty pages. If I commit that much time to writing it, I'd better have a damn good reason for starting it in the first place. Little things might--long, constructive feedback I've gotten over a part of a story has worked to my advantage before in making me clarify something that I left clouded, or better emphasize a point.

Of course, in Voyager, all bets were off. I actually completely lost interest in the fandom. Totally. I denied it for awhile and I hate it, because I left two WIPs there--I have this fantasy that someday, someone will email me and ask to finish off the storyline for AZ themselves, since I don't see myself getting into it anytime soon.

Question: Did you ever feel that your creative vision was compromised because of the external pressure to get the next part out? Did you ever feel rushed? (submitted by Tara)

Answer: No. Yes. Maybe? I'm not sure. I've deliberately held out on "Situation" and "Illusions" and write them at my own pace, and Jus, though more or less complete, is being released the same way. Nothing leaves my hands that, at least at posting, I don't consider the absolute best I can possibly do. Of course, ten minutes AFTER posting it's a different story, and a month later, I stare in wonder that I ever, ever thought something worked at all. I did push myself very hard for "A Year and a Day" though, due to feedback and reader response, so yes, in that one, I did feel rushed, but I can only blame myself for that. Even in re-reading now, however, it doesn't suffer in comparison to my other, more planned series, so there's something to be said for pressure. Altruistic pushes me, but I did put it on hiatus to concentrate on final edits of Jus IV, and technically, since nothing WAS planned, I can't say there was much of a creative vision to be compromised.

Question: Have you ever suffered writer's block? How do you overcome it? (submitted by various)

Answer: I write something else. Listen to music. Chat with friends. Beta someone else. Re-read my favorite stories in any fandom or go shopping for new books to read. When all else fails, I pull out a WIP and work on technical editing like spelling and word choice. Then, you know, I crochet blankets.

My niece has a pretty pink one. It's very large. I was very stressed. Jus gave me many ethical tangles. I also remodel my webpage and do my archiving duties during non-productive periods (and you know, I am soo far behind in that I'm ashamed of myself). When I'm REALLY blocked but I want to write, I do writing exercises.

Question: If somebody asked you what three stories of yours they should sit down and read, which would you suggest as your favorites and why? (submitted by Diane)

Answer: I'd rather recommend other people's--I think most of what I've done has been done better by someone else. But, thinking....

"On Love and Lust at Mutant High"--I do love it. It was fun. It's the only series I've ever written that I literally enjoyed every second of. Like being able to eat a ton of whipped cream without getting sick. It has many fun characters, it has a lot of different relationships, and it's flexible. It's friendly to any ship under the sun. There's little angst, comparatively, and everyone is enjoying themselves. But I think I loved it best because it had nothing at all to do with W/R really--if people read it, they weren't reading it because it was W/R, because there's very darn little in there and most of that is fairly indirect. They read it, as far as I can tell, because they really enjoyed the concept and the storyline, and had as much fun reading it as I did writing it. I'm a big fan of fun with reading and the compliment to my ability to tell a story well.

Jus Ad Bellum--because, currently, I think it's my best work. I didn't shortcut characterization, for once, I didn't try to get around ethical problems without confronting them directly, and I didn't try to write it until I knew for a fact I could write all of it. It's not only plotted, it's plotted thoroughly and I've explored, at least to myself, every possible plot change I could make, so I know exactly where I am in the story at all times. Because, more than anything else, I think it's the story I failed to write in the Voyager fandom and always wanted to, and it's the story that, despite its many flaws, is the one I look at and feel the most proud of. So it's my little obsession.

Third one is hard. I'm thinking....

A Change to Color--it's flawed, very much so. I think it's badly paced, but it's an ambitious failure of sorts, and if I'm going to fail, at least I can be comforted it wasn't from lack of trying . If I didn't get everything I wanted to say out correctly, at least I avoided the stuff I didn't want in it. But it covered one of my pet peeves, which is relationships shown two dimensionally or in black and white. 'Jean's bad, she left Scott and screwed Logan (who's an idiot), poor Scott, poor Rogue, let's all cuddle them and kill Jean while we're at it.' I'm pretty guilty of it myself, so "Color" is sort of my penance to re-read and wince over when I start pulling the same storyline out to use.

I like the idea that Jean's an X-Man perhaps, just perhaps, she's a basically good person. Might have had or will have judgement errors, like every other single person on earth except perhaps a few saints in the making and my newborn niece (who, let's all face it, is perfect ). I'm perfectly willing to admit at least two things I wrote did NOT convey this idea. Color was my first try at making Jean something other than a homewrecker just waiting for a couple to destroy. Yes, she left Scott and took up with Logan--my shipper heart may scream NOOOO! but if he's single and she's single, and there's attraction, then well, goodie for them. I don't have to like it much, but then, I hated my sister's ex-boyfriend and he wasn't that bad a person in retrospect, just annoying as heck.

Rogue has to deal. So does Scott. Yes, it hurts, but so do a lot of things in life. Yes, it's intensely painful to love someone who doesn't love you back. Yes, it must be a nightmare in the making when they're two doors down from you having sex, and I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy. The fact that you love someone that doesn't love you and is involved with someone else doesn't automatically make that person stupid, cruel, or malicious. That someone else is not automatically evil, psychotic, and bent on destroying your life just for kicks. Doesn't mean you don't wish they were, or think they were, or really fantasize that they are, but there it is. In Color, Scott understands this better than Rogue--he thinks it's a mistake, but he deals with it as an adult, and understands that people don't make choices simply to make his life, or anyone's life, an utter misery. Jean was attracted to Logan, Logan was attracted to Jean, damn Scott hates it and he wants his Jean back, but he knows intellectually that they aren't together just to cause him pain, or to cause Rogue pain. So he moves on. He hurts a lot, but he doesn't try and make Jean and Logan miserable, doesn't badmouth his former fiancée. Rogue does both, hates them both, and lets it show, and Scott's the one that shows her through example what an adult does when something like this happens. Scott didn't crawl into bed with someone else to hurt Jean, but Rogue did have sex with someone else as her own form of revenge, which didn't quite work out as she wanted.

Scott and Rogue's later sexual relationship wasn't written as revenge against the other parties. It was theirs alone--not that they were in love, or that they were using each other to substitute for the ones they loved, but that they found in each other something that was attraction and maybe shared comfort in loss, but never debasing it to merely revenge or substitute sex. Just like Logan and Jean, this was done for them and them alone. Logan and Jean, of course, didn't like it much but they also took it as adults for the most part.

Of course, there's the happy ending, because, surprise surprise, I'm a shipper. But the reasons were as simple and complex as love itself. Not because Jean was bad and Logan realized this upon waking one morning in a fit of inspiration, nor because all along Logan REALLY loved Rogue and was denying it. It happened for the same reason love always does--it just DID.

Question: Bryan Singer has asked *you* to write the script for the "X-Men" sequel. What would it be about? (submitted by Diane)

Answer: I'd rather not. I'm a shipper, and shippers are notorious about not exactly being fair on screentime. I can point out now though that the men's uniforms would lose those pesky tops right off and the rating of the movie would be such that only select moviehouses could show it. Sentinels would be a very cool, though--I like them. They're large and destroy many things, and I'm all for that. Personally, I'd love to see a post-MRA world and how the X-Men deal with it. Darkstar, dear, you gave me a serious obsession here.

Another interesting storyline would be the Phoenix arc--I saw the strange, abbreviated cartoon version a couple of times and enjoyed the massive novel-length summary a fanboy friend emailed to me when I started getting interested in the X-Men.

Would I write W/R into it? Oh yeah. Protestations of jailbait be damned.