(laughs) That answer sounds so weird. I’m sure y’all are regretting this interview already.

There’s no mystery about my pen name (laughs). It’s not a secret code; it refers to what I live in. As the general contractors for our home, my husband and I found it hard to describe to subcontractors, insurance agents, bankers, etc. what type of a structure we are building. It’s a Quonset hut (an old military style barracks), and looks like a tin can lying on its side. We came up with the nickname ‘tinhut’, a play on ‘atten-hut’, the military slang for ‘attention’, and thus our house was christened. Since I live in the tinhut and am the lady of the house, I am tinhutlady.

Why do I live in a Quonset hut? That’s a long story and I won’t go into it here but I will say it is a nice big roomy home and I love it. If you’re still scratching your head and wondering what one looks like, rent “Iron Giant.” The cool artist guy from the junkyard lives in one. The film has also influenced me on how I write a particular side of Logan.

Yes, I have written in public places but not on a computer. In fact one of my favorite scenes, the one between Ororo and Logan in The Professional, was written out on a scrap of notebook paper while I was waiting for someone to get out of a meeting.

With a shorter story the idea can come fully mapped out visually in my head in its entirety and I simply write it down without having to make notes. A Fairy Tale for Megan, Time Warp, and On Pranks and Pranksters are good examples of this.

Roadblocks for me are not too common as I’ve usually had a good mental image of where the story’s going before I start. If I’ve hit one, it means I cannot see what’s going on in a particular scene and need to skip that one and come back to it after I’ve completed the ones I can visualize. Another reason I can hit a roadblock is if I’ve taken a character in the wrong direction. That usually means stopping everything to start cutting sections of text until I root out the problem and get back on track. The most pages of text I’ve cut? Ten. It hurt, believe me, but it made a better story in the end.

While I like movies and television shows, usually I’ll follow the ones that pique my interest and don’t assume my intelligence is that of a 15-year-old boy. When I saw the first X-Men movie, I was thrilled. It brought back memories of reading the comics and watching the old TV cartoons. It was intelligent, thoughtful, and had a strong plot. There was only one problem and it nagged at me to fix it. Logan’s line to Jean about his heart belonging to someone else did not ring true to me, especially after his last scene with Rogue. The chemistry between Logan and Rogue, although not canon, was absolutely wonderful and I couldn’t get it out of my head. That led to the itch to write but I ignored it until a friend introduced me to shipper fics. Suddenly I realized I wasn’t the only one who had a problem.

I joined a list and began to read. The more I read the more I decided to take the plunge to write again and put down my version of what should happen after the end of the movie. Not knowing how long to make it, I split the story into five pieces and submitted it to a beta, thank goodness. That became the series To Know, To Teach, To Learn. The stories have not stopped since, much to my surprise, delight, and dismay. ;-)

Would I write in other genres? I’ve thought about it and I might someday. Until then I’ll stick with these characters, as they have been lots of fun to play with.

The hardest for me to write is Jubilee. I love the character but feel she has her finger on the pulse of what’s happening with the styles, people, and places around her while I am usually behind the times in everything.

I suppose that leaves us with who is the easiest to write and that would be - nobody. They all require a lot of work to get inside their heads and make sure that everything I have them do and say sounds plausible.

I have written in first person twice. Once just to see if I could do it and the other because the story demanded it. Usually, though, I write in third person and for a very good reason. As opposed to a typical book, a movie can let you see all the characters at the same time, same with a play. The audience decides whom they want to root for or listen to as much as the director. I try to duplicate this in my stories by giving the information in third person in an almost omniscient fashion. Sometimes this means that I jump from the mind of one character to another in the space of a paragraph or two and (as I’ve heard) this can be confusing and even disorienting. The fact is I want to tell so much about the characters and have no other way of doing it. I always leave it to the reader to decide what they want to know and what they’re willing to ignore.

There’s no set time limit for me to get a story right; I think the shortest writing time has been 40 minutes and the longest 4 months. There have been a couple of stories that I’ve finished and posted that I knew were not ‘correct’ but I couldn’t figure out what was wrong with them so I took a chance that the reader would forgive me my mistakes. Most of the time, though, if the flow is there and I can stand to look at the story for one final read-through, I’ll know the job is finished.

By read-through, I mean that as I write I print out the finished scenes and go over them a few days later when they are no longer fresh in my head. This helps me pick out problems or phrases that don’t work. This also helps my continuity because I do not necessarily write in order and need to double-check myself constantly. A beta reader is an invaluable help in this but the two I love to use are usually swamped, so that’s why a lot of my stories say they are unbeta’d. Anyway, I read over my stories at least three times trying to tie all the details together and make sure I have not missed anything major. This helps in one more way: if I get bored reviewing my story that many times, I know the reader will be bored with it too and I may start throwing out sections that bog it down and tighten up the wording and action in other areas. This is the reason why I hang on to a story until it is completed and will rarely post a piece if it is not entirely finished.

Yes, sometimes I do get bogged down with the nitty-gritty details but usually I need those details to influence the movement of the story. Sometimes they are the very catalysts that begin a story in the first place. I’ll see something that’s out of place or strange or read something somewhere that will pull a story together or provide the opening mood or explain why something major did or did not happen. For example, I did not actually start writing one story until I read an article about border security problems with illegal aliens in Arizona. In that article I found the perfect lab rats for the villain, the perfect reason for a law enforcement agency to be involved with the X-Men, and the perfect motive for the villain to need Logan. I guess it stems from the type of books I like to read. Since I love mysteries and stories that you have to think about, I guess I’m hopelessly doomed to include details in my writing.

Yes, I do find that readers are terrific at pointing out things I’ve layered into a story and even things I unknowingly put in. This includes someone saying they actually have the same mannerisms that a character has, or spotting a detail that lead to a major turning point in the story, or feeling that a certain word I had a character speak was just so perfectly right for that character. Some of the most surprising revelations come when someone mentions how the story made them feel and I realize that I struck a chord with a stranger. For instance, while writing The Rational Mind I had a lot of fun imagining the story and action and all the other details but one - I never could picture what color the character’s clothes were. It wasn’t until later that a couple of readers said it reminded them of old black and white television western shows and I realized I had been subconsciously influenced by the same shows and that’s why there was no color.

There have been some word plays and subtle character habits and characteristics that I have used over and over in several stories that have never been caught. (smiles) I think I’ll keep them a secret until someone mentions them.

Somewhere along the way while writing them, Amber and Megan evolved into secondary characters. I’m not sure I planned that. There are certainly enough X-Men characters floating around for me to find someone to use in almost any situation. I have no intention of getting rid of them, though, and have grown rather fond of them.

Will I make up other original characters? Minor ones, yes. Ones like these, I don’t know. I guess there is a certain freedom in creating my own characters but these creations will never be totally imagined as I’ll always be influenced by people I know. Maybe I’ll try to cast an actor or actress. That’s a pretty good idea.

I found that Megan (the character) offered me the opportunity to show a very interesting side of Logan, not the side of him that is protective of kids but the one that is still like a child. If Logan had to grow up quickly from animal to human to adult, it would give him a unique perspective on life. He does not remember what it was like to be a kid so he deals with them on an entirely different level than the average grownup. He is also still trying to learn how to relate to people, especially the ones in the mansion. The people he learned how to socialize with were ones in bars and in the fight circuit, according to the movie. Imagine his frustration with trying to learn a whole new set of rules with an entirely different type of people. He may hide it under a gruff exterior or a cocky attitude, but he is, in a way, like a child learning what to do and what not to do. Megan is the perfect foil for pointing out to him that he is not alone in this situation and he responds with an openhearted sympathy and tolerance he will not give to any adult, with the exception of Marie

So many people have picked up on this that there have been requests for more Megan fics and I have been happy to oblige. She has even wormed her way into two major stories and will probably appear in more when the situation calls for her.

Then again, I have found Piotr to be quite a handful. His sense of humor and artistic sensitivity give the character a great depth and a lot can be done with him since he is the outsider still. I guess he gets tagged as the favorite with Remy in an extremely close second.

Bobby has definitely started to earn the respect of the others by listening to what everyone has to say and using the information to come up with the right answers. Jubilee has become quite the investigator and is really learning to use that clever brain of hers. Remy has had to deal with some mishaps and has become stronger, in character, than he was. He is also more willing to take responsibility for his actions and initiate problem solving solutions. Samuel has come to understand that he is a powerful member of the team and feels a wonderful sense of duty to make sure others are protected from harm. Kitty has learned that to be small does not equate to being weak and has grown in confidence, especially where her particular savvy with computers is concerned. Rogue has definitely matured, as a person and as a team player. She is strong on emotions and morals and is more willing to fight for them and those she loves now instead of running away from things in a self-sacrificing way.

I’m not so sure that Logan looks at himself as a teacher although he’s been a pretty good one. This is serious business to him, teaching someone to survive and defend himself, as both of his subjects have everything to do with his dominant characteristics. I see the character more willing to accept the role of coach - someone who helps someone learn in a less authoritative way. I would hate to be the kid who acts up in his courses, though. ;-)

As for the ‘student’ characters seeing him as a teacher, I’m not so sure they do. In the series they took it upon themselves to help him find his past when they thought he had no one else in his life who cared. Then they learned he was made into a killing machine that has caused a lot of deaths (that’s a pretty scary revelation) and yet still threw him a birthday party as if he were one of them. In On Pranks and Pranksters, they learned that Logan bet Scott they could rise above any challenge Scott could come up with and that show of confidence earned him their loyalty. In The Professional, when they thought he was in trouble, they raced to his rescue. In Loose Threads, Logan thought they were in danger and pulled out all the stops and slaughtered the enemy ruthlessly, which lends itself to Logan seeing them as more than just his students. I think they love Logan in a way he cannot understand and they are willing to not show it in order to keep him comfortable enough to stick around. To quote Remy: “He has a soft spot for all of us, I think. It is the sweet spot that is reserved for Rogue.”

(laughs) I bet that’s more than you wanted to know, right?

Merging movieverse and comicverse has been relatively easy because I have tried to pull the best from both. The history in comic books is very rich and detailed but the comics themselves have been inconsistent at times. Singer created the movie with the spirit of the characters in mind but played fast and loose with history. I figure I can get away with a little fudging if I remain true to the characters themselves like Singer did but I also feel that Singer is missing out on some wonderful plots by not exploring more traditional story lines.

Lots of things inspire me to write - a song (Meeting Death), a picture (Time Warp), an article (Loose Threads), a movie (To Know series), a remark someone says (The Professional, Bad Apple), a plea for help (A Fairy Tale for Megan), or a line challenge (One Big Bad Rock). I’m never sure when or where something will strike. Usually I will have had several images floating around in my head for a week or two and all it takes is one thing to galvanize them into a cohesive unit that I have to write down. The unique thing about Time Warp was that it interrupted a story already in progress and I usually don’t write more than one fic at any given time. I made an exception for it. ;-)

I think there are two strong factors that bring the characters together in an unspoken understanding. Per movieverse, both Logan and Rogue have been mentally raped. Both are also dealers in death, whether they want to be or not as neither can disarm themselves. It is their backgrounds that affect how they deal with these two situations, though. Marie had a home and family, although there is a debate about just how happy that family life was. Logan had nothing, woke up with nothing, and probably didn’t know he was human for a while. When they met, it was a case of self-sacrifice for the safety of others vs. survival of the fittest. She sassed her way into his heart and he won her love with his actions.

As for who they are, I wouldn’t begin to dwell on all the aspects of their personas as that’s up to interpretation and I’ve seen so many writers that I think nail the characters better than I ever could. They are incredibly interesting, complex, and extremely entertaining characters because of their similarities and differences and I always look forward to reading and writing about them.

A few people have requested I cough up the story of how Logan and Marie met in this universe and a few have expressed interest in seeing how wild their married life will be. I guess this means I’ve struck a chord somewhere. That’s a good thing because I really would like to experience this kind of challenge and freedom again.

The two have evolved in my stories to be more like…well, brothers than friends, brothers that are antagonistic at times and irritate the crap out of each other but are willing to respond if the other truly needs help. Logan respects Scott’s intelligence and common sense and Scott respects Logan’s insights and abilities. Logan wonders why the hell Scott is such a stick-in-the-mud and Scott, always wanting to solve things, finds Logan a difficult puzzle to try and sort out.

I suppose I could take the easy and traditional route and play them as competitors in all things but I think the competition between them mainly stems from typical male one-upmanship. I always did think the Scott/Jean/Logan triangle was tiresome at best and the movie did nothing to dispel that, to me at least. Scott stood up to Logan when there was a hint that he was after Jean and Logan respected that. Logan apologized to Scott when Xavier took a fall because the young man was now without a leader. Scott must have asked Logan to suit up and Logan did; one to save Rogue and two to protect the team. Logan didn’t argue with Scott to have Ororo fly him up to the torch, he reasoned with him. Scott must have had some reaction when he saw that Logan sacrificed everything for Rogue. Those things and more told me that there was something other than just animosity going on between them.

Besides, (smiles) I really like both and have a hard time putting one above the other. Strong, complex characters make for a better and deeper story, don’t you think?

I majored in theatre and worked as an assistant art director for a television station for a few years during and after I finished my coursework. Some of the classes were absolutely wonderful and I had a terrific playwriting professor. While acting was a loathsome task for me, I loved watching, directing, editing, lighting, constructing, and staging productions. It’s kind of like my writing in a way. When I come up with a story I visualize it, script it, and later edit out what I don’t want, then direct the story as it goes along. Like live theatre, a lot of times unexpected things happen and I deal with it, always keeping in mind the point I wanted to make both to myself and the audience.

There are much more talented people out there and I suggest you read their stories if you want a literary accomplishment. Mine are more of a detail-filled romp of action and melodrama with a bit of humor thrown in for levity. I’m hoping anyone who reads them sees the characters having the adventure as well as I can. I certainly don’t mind if you want to drop me a line and tell me what you think of them.

But only if you want to.

The most difficult aspect is simply devoting time to it as there is so much more that I want and need to get accomplished. Writing has to take a back seat to everything unless I desperately need stress relief and even then I’m as likely to pick up a hammer or a paintbrush as I am the computer.

I had the idea for Loose Threads when I was finishing up The Professional last year. I had to write another story first, Bad Apple, to make it plausible for Mystique and Pyro to get together. When I came back to Loose Threads, it wasn’t until February 2003. By that time there were promos out for X2. I tried very hard not to be influenced by them because my universe is a lot different than Singer’s.

About half of the novel was written by the time I broke down and went to see the movie in May. Since most of my story was already plotted out, I only went back and revised dialogue and setting in specific scenes we had in common, such as the prison capture scene for Cyclops and Xavier, and Cyclops and Jean in the generator room. Other than that, I didn’t change much. Okay, I’ll admit that Singer ticked me off when Logan and Rogue did not have screen time together worth mentioning, among other things, and I seem to recall changing a minor character’s name to Sanger so I could kill Singer in effigy. ;-)

Writing it was like trying to ride several roller coasters at once and keep them all from crashing into each other but the story was too strong to back away from once I started it. I kept everything straight with some terrific help on the first fourth of the novel by two wonderful beta’s. The rest I trusted to my notes (which, for this mess, were meticulously kept) and the images in my head. It took four months to make sure the thing was done and in order. Even now I cringe to look at it because I still think it’s too long but I am proud of it, especially since I actually finished the thing and it still remains true to my original vision.

I’m working on a fic now, wrapping it up actually, where Logan deals with an old adversary without the aid of adamantium and Marie has to come to grips with her new powers and some old memories. It’s called Meeting Death and is kind of spooky. I think I was influenced by the Halloween season as it includes a vampire of sorts...

I wasn’t sure any story would come after Meeting Death because I really need to work on my house but I have had some nagging images lately of semi-comedic, semi-tragic events surrounding a possible road trip to Florida with Marie, Jean, Kitty, Scott, Logan, and Piotr. There is the added attraction that another major Marvel character (not a mutant) is involved in the tale. Nothing has sparked me to write it yet, so I’m not sure if it will fly or suffer a horrible demise, as have others. I can’t rule out those sudden surges of inspiration, though, so maybe a surprise is in the wings that I haven’t anticipated. I’ll post if I come up with anything. (Back, Megan-bunny, back!)

Take care, y’all, and thanks for the questions. It’s been a blast rambling on about the characters, writing, etc. and I appreciate your interest to no end. I know it’s just fiction but it’s a lot of fun, especially when shared with others who think the same way.

Cheers, thl