Interview: ladysorka
1. About you:
• Pirates or ninjas?
Ninja Pirates, of course. Though Pirate Ninjas come in a close second.
• What's your favorite pizza topping?
I like weird vegetarian pizzas. Does it have artichokes, roasted peppers, goat cheese, garlic, spinach, a white sauce, or something else most people would go "...what" at? I will probably love it. I had a great one with corn and black beans on it the other night. If I have to get one from a normal place, I usually go with Pizza Margherita or mushrooms, peppers, onions, and mushrooms, with extra mushrooms.
• What if anything do you listen to while driving?
My ipod's "drive" playlist, which is basically music with a beat I can sing along to. (Which is in contrast to my airplane "sleep" playlist, which is quiet instrumentals with basically no beat at all.)
• How do you take your coffee?
When I drink coffee, which is basically a couple of times a year, I drink it strong, black, and with dessert. I'm not much of a coffee drinker. I'm also not much of a tea drinker, and I hate soda. I figure if I've made it 30 years without becoming addicted to caffeine, I might as well keep it up.
• What's the strangest pet-related thing that ever happened to you?
Well, when I was a kid I had a goldfish named Holly that ate every fish we tried to put in the tank. Also, it refused to die and lived for a really long time for a goldfish, despite my mother almost accidentally boiling it once. That goldfish was creepy.
• Interests and favorites in all sorts of things: pets, hobbies, fandoms, music, books, food, movies, etc...
Most of my hobbies are really stereotypically geeky. I run Linux on all my computers and am kind of obsessed with XBMC and my dedicated HTPC. I really love science fiction, especially space opera, and have seen basically every single space show in English and a few that aren't, including ones from before I was born (Blake's 7 is the best). I listen to tons of new age, ambient, Celtic, weird electronica, and stuff that wouldn't be out of place at a Ren Faire. I'm really into following science news and can tell you all about what's currently going on in space travel. I honestly don't really have any non-geeky hobbies at all. Except hiking, I guess.
Also, I have a very awesome cat. Named Chiana.
• Have you done/do you do fandom meet-ups? Do you have a place where you are willing to meet people (and if so, where)?
I go to Vividcon every year, so if you're going to be there drop me a line. Also, if you happen to be visiting Las Vegas, I'd love to get together for lunch.
• Would you like to live somewhere else and why?
YES. Anywhere else. Anywhere at all. Seriously, you do not want to live in Las Vegas. Just say no. But sadly, I can't afford to move right now.
2. About your creative processes:
• How did you get into writing fanfic/creating fanart? How long have you been creating fan art or writing fan fiction?
My answer to this one is kind of weird. I've been involved in online fandom since about 1995 and was a "feral" offline fan before that, but I've honestly never been much of a writer. I wrote a few terrible Farscape and Digimon fics back around 2000 (please do not look them up), but after that I pretty much stopped writing except for Yuletide and just was a feedbacker/meta/vid-lover person. Until last year, when I suddenly starting writing ALL the SGA fics.
I. I don't even know.
• How do you write? With planning at great length with notes and spreadsheets? Get a bunny and just launch into it? Handwrite on yellow legal pads, or always on a word processor? With music going, or in a cafe, or quietly when there are no distractions? Do you procrastinate? How do you manage that?
I get an idea and let it sit in my head for awhile, kind of loosely plotting it out that way. I don't make an outline, because if I outline I feel like I've already written the story and lose all momentum. If it needs it, I'll start making worldbuilding/research notes, and maybe sketch out some maps (which will be really bad, because I can't draw).
Then I turn on some instrumental music because it helps me concentrate and start with the first scene. It's like pulling teeth. I stare at it. I erase it. I start the first scene a second time, usually completely different than the first try. I may erase it and do this a third time. Then I finally get going, and once I get going it's really easy and I'm a fairly quick writer. But I have to write the story from start to finish - I can't write scenes and just insert them places. In order or nothing. I edit the previous days work before I start writing the next day, and I do this by reading out loud and correcting in the document itself. I don't make drafts in multiple files.
I procrastinate like a mofo, though. I generally manage this by tearing my hear out and writing the end right before it's due. I don't recommend this method.
3. About SGA:
• Is SGA your main squeeze, or are you poly-fandom-ous?
SGA and SG-1 are my main fandoms right now - I have problems separating them into two different canons in my head, which probably annoys people. I do more SGA than SG-1, though, mostly because of pairing preferences.
I also poke a little bit at Haven and Person of Interest, though I'm not writing in either one, and I always have at least a toe in Hikaru no Go. And I've been on a bit of a weird Sentinel nostalgia thing lately.
• Why did you decide to participate in this year's McShep Match?
Why not? It's fun, deadlines help me write, and John/Rodney OTP. Also, I feel like the SGA challenges are winding down, so I'm trying to hit them while I still can.
• Best thing about McKay/Sheppard: go!
DORKS IN LOVE!
• Who's your favorite, John or Rodney (or both)? How come?
I refuse to pick. You can't make me.
• Where can people find more of your work (McShep or otherwise)?
All my stuff is up at my AO3 account.
• What got you into fanfic/SGA/McShep?
I got into fanfic when, the first time I was allowed online by myself in 94/95ish, I searched for Star Trek and somehow managed to find the archive for alt.startrek.creative. Seriously. I've been in fandom pretty much ever since.
In terms of SGA itself, my trajectory was a bit more complicated. I watched SG-1 from the beginning while it was airing, but I mostly fell away from it around season 4 when I left home and thus wasn't watching it every week with my mother. When SGA started and its fandom started getting big, I downloaded the first season and marathoned it in a day (literally, I remember going to bed at like 5:00 in the morning). But while I enjoyed that first season, I only spent about a month in the fandom before I wandered off. I stopped watching the show somewhere in season 2.
Then, in the fall of 2009, I was bored. Fall Out Boy and Panic at the Disco had broken up, so my previous fandom had kind of jarringly ended (don't judge me), and I was wandering around fandomless. I was looking for something to read, and the 2009 SGA Big Bang had recently posted, so I said what the heck, I vaguely know these characters, why not. A few days of reading later, I dug out my big fat SG-1 season 1 boxset, because hey, I hadn't actually watched any Stargate in forever.
That was late in November, and by March I had watched 15 seasons of television and two movies. So... yeah, that happened.
4. Hiiiints! C'mon, you know you wanna! Just a bit of squee about your Match entry...
It's much shorter than it was originally going to be. Also, I changed the entire plot twice.
6. Team Captains' Question: Okay, redshirt, you've signed on for a very dangerous mission to go back in time and it could be a one-way trip. I should add that while every effort will be made to keep you within the dawn of civilization - we really don't know where that dial will stop. But you are allowed one personal item... name it.
This T-Shirt, obviously.
• Pirates or ninjas?
Ninja Pirates, of course. Though Pirate Ninjas come in a close second.
• What's your favorite pizza topping?
I like weird vegetarian pizzas. Does it have artichokes, roasted peppers, goat cheese, garlic, spinach, a white sauce, or something else most people would go "...what" at? I will probably love it. I had a great one with corn and black beans on it the other night. If I have to get one from a normal place, I usually go with Pizza Margherita or mushrooms, peppers, onions, and mushrooms, with extra mushrooms.
• What if anything do you listen to while driving?
My ipod's "drive" playlist, which is basically music with a beat I can sing along to. (Which is in contrast to my airplane "sleep" playlist, which is quiet instrumentals with basically no beat at all.)
• How do you take your coffee?
When I drink coffee, which is basically a couple of times a year, I drink it strong, black, and with dessert. I'm not much of a coffee drinker. I'm also not much of a tea drinker, and I hate soda. I figure if I've made it 30 years without becoming addicted to caffeine, I might as well keep it up.
• What's the strangest pet-related thing that ever happened to you?
Well, when I was a kid I had a goldfish named Holly that ate every fish we tried to put in the tank. Also, it refused to die and lived for a really long time for a goldfish, despite my mother almost accidentally boiling it once. That goldfish was creepy.
• Interests and favorites in all sorts of things: pets, hobbies, fandoms, music, books, food, movies, etc...
Most of my hobbies are really stereotypically geeky. I run Linux on all my computers and am kind of obsessed with XBMC and my dedicated HTPC. I really love science fiction, especially space opera, and have seen basically every single space show in English and a few that aren't, including ones from before I was born (Blake's 7 is the best). I listen to tons of new age, ambient, Celtic, weird electronica, and stuff that wouldn't be out of place at a Ren Faire. I'm really into following science news and can tell you all about what's currently going on in space travel. I honestly don't really have any non-geeky hobbies at all. Except hiking, I guess.
Also, I have a very awesome cat. Named Chiana.
• Have you done/do you do fandom meet-ups? Do you have a place where you are willing to meet people (and if so, where)?
I go to Vividcon every year, so if you're going to be there drop me a line. Also, if you happen to be visiting Las Vegas, I'd love to get together for lunch.
• Would you like to live somewhere else and why?
YES. Anywhere else. Anywhere at all. Seriously, you do not want to live in Las Vegas. Just say no. But sadly, I can't afford to move right now.
2. About your creative processes:
• How did you get into writing fanfic/creating fanart? How long have you been creating fan art or writing fan fiction?
My answer to this one is kind of weird. I've been involved in online fandom since about 1995 and was a "feral" offline fan before that, but I've honestly never been much of a writer. I wrote a few terrible Farscape and Digimon fics back around 2000 (please do not look them up), but after that I pretty much stopped writing except for Yuletide and just was a feedbacker/meta/vid-lover person. Until last year, when I suddenly starting writing ALL the SGA fics.
I. I don't even know.
• How do you write? With planning at great length with notes and spreadsheets? Get a bunny and just launch into it? Handwrite on yellow legal pads, or always on a word processor? With music going, or in a cafe, or quietly when there are no distractions? Do you procrastinate? How do you manage that?
I get an idea and let it sit in my head for awhile, kind of loosely plotting it out that way. I don't make an outline, because if I outline I feel like I've already written the story and lose all momentum. If it needs it, I'll start making worldbuilding/research notes, and maybe sketch out some maps (which will be really bad, because I can't draw).
Then I turn on some instrumental music because it helps me concentrate and start with the first scene. It's like pulling teeth. I stare at it. I erase it. I start the first scene a second time, usually completely different than the first try. I may erase it and do this a third time. Then I finally get going, and once I get going it's really easy and I'm a fairly quick writer. But I have to write the story from start to finish - I can't write scenes and just insert them places. In order or nothing. I edit the previous days work before I start writing the next day, and I do this by reading out loud and correcting in the document itself. I don't make drafts in multiple files.
I procrastinate like a mofo, though. I generally manage this by tearing my hear out and writing the end right before it's due. I don't recommend this method.
3. About SGA:
• Is SGA your main squeeze, or are you poly-fandom-ous?
SGA and SG-1 are my main fandoms right now - I have problems separating them into two different canons in my head, which probably annoys people. I do more SGA than SG-1, though, mostly because of pairing preferences.
I also poke a little bit at Haven and Person of Interest, though I'm not writing in either one, and I always have at least a toe in Hikaru no Go. And I've been on a bit of a weird Sentinel nostalgia thing lately.
• Why did you decide to participate in this year's McShep Match?
Why not? It's fun, deadlines help me write, and John/Rodney OTP. Also, I feel like the SGA challenges are winding down, so I'm trying to hit them while I still can.
• Best thing about McKay/Sheppard: go!
DORKS IN LOVE!
• Who's your favorite, John or Rodney (or both)? How come?
I refuse to pick. You can't make me.
• Where can people find more of your work (McShep or otherwise)?
All my stuff is up at my AO3 account.
• What got you into fanfic/SGA/McShep?
I got into fanfic when, the first time I was allowed online by myself in 94/95ish, I searched for Star Trek and somehow managed to find the archive for alt.startrek.creative. Seriously. I've been in fandom pretty much ever since.
In terms of SGA itself, my trajectory was a bit more complicated. I watched SG-1 from the beginning while it was airing, but I mostly fell away from it around season 4 when I left home and thus wasn't watching it every week with my mother. When SGA started and its fandom started getting big, I downloaded the first season and marathoned it in a day (literally, I remember going to bed at like 5:00 in the morning). But while I enjoyed that first season, I only spent about a month in the fandom before I wandered off. I stopped watching the show somewhere in season 2.
Then, in the fall of 2009, I was bored. Fall Out Boy and Panic at the Disco had broken up, so my previous fandom had kind of jarringly ended (don't judge me), and I was wandering around fandomless. I was looking for something to read, and the 2009 SGA Big Bang had recently posted, so I said what the heck, I vaguely know these characters, why not. A few days of reading later, I dug out my big fat SG-1 season 1 boxset, because hey, I hadn't actually watched any Stargate in forever.
That was late in November, and by March I had watched 15 seasons of television and two movies. So... yeah, that happened.
4. Hiiiints! C'mon, you know you wanna! Just a bit of squee about your Match entry...
It's much shorter than it was originally going to be. Also, I changed the entire plot twice.
6. Team Captains' Question: Okay, redshirt, you've signed on for a very dangerous mission to go back in time and it could be a one-way trip. I should add that while every effort will be made to keep you within the dawn of civilization - we really don't know where that dial will stop. But you are allowed one personal item... name it.
This T-Shirt, obviously.