Ask the author - RivkaT
Hi all! oxoniensis asked me to participate in Ask the Author, and I’m thrilled to be here.
As I imagine many people did, I invented fan fiction in my room as a kid, mostly Star Trek and Sime/Gen-I even wrote in with my bog-standard OFC idea to one of the Sime/Gen zines (a universe by Jacqueline Lichtenberg and Jean Lorrah), and as I recall Jean Lorrah, presumably recognizing that I was about 12, wrote me a very nice response. A good welcome to participatory fandom. I also found Star Trek slash intriguing.
Fast forward a decade or so, and I found myself with a lot of free time. Then I fell for The X-Files, and a friend told me that more stories could be found online! My computer had MS-DOS, one meg of RAM (this is not a typo), and a dialup modem. I was set for life!
I was fortunate that one of the first stories I read was one of Jane Mortimer’s. I wrote her an adoring feedback letter and she responded very graciously. After I’d read a couple hundred stories, I decided that I could at least write one that would not bring the average quality down, and I did. After that, well, I was hooked.
Eventually, astolat convinced me to give Supernatural another try (I’d seen the pilot but hadn’t been engaged-possibly because I watched a very dark show in a small window on my computer), and Dean Winchester convinced me to stick around.
I’ve written more stories in SPN than in any previous fandom, which is both surprising and completely understandable-surprising because I felt like I was in XF and SV forever, and understandable because I’ve participated in a lot more prompts/challenges/etc. in recent years. One of my favorite things to do, actually, is Eight Crazy Nights: I take prompts and post stories/ficlets for every night of Hanukah, increasing the number every night. I love remix and have been blessed with a number of good ones for my own stories. Which reminds me: my stories can be found here.
Substantively: I often write Sam/Dean (which I see as fundamentally a tragedy, but a delicious one), with excursions into various other pairings. Dean/Castiel can be absolutely wonderful, but it also makes me hurt for Sam, so I have a complicated relationship with it! Many of my stories explore issues of consent, from mistake to various levels of coercion. I try to warn-or mark that I’ve chosen not to warn-and I think that some of the tropes are themselves signals for issues of consent (“aliens make them do it” or “sex pollen”) but if I’ve missed the mark I would appreciate feedback. I love standard sf/fantasy cliches/plot devices because they are an excellent way to illuminate character. Working with mustangsally78 in the X-Files and Buffy helped me relax a little and take chances with metaphors and similes; she also gave me the excellent advice that, when writing a story, blow the budget-you can have as many big fights and set pieces as will work.
Some of my stories, Sam/Dean by default unless otherwise marked:
Heat:
Vagabondage: bondage/trust play (with Dean/OMCs).
Fixing it:
Better Angels: Post-S4 finale, Lucifer takes a Winchester host
Cliches, Inc.:
The Glamorous Life: Dean’s infected by an incubus. Complications ensue.
Only Sweeter: Dean gets amnesia. Sam tries to use it to fix him. Complications ensue.
Knight Moves: Undisclosed cliche.
AU:
Captured by the Game: Sam was raised by Azazel instead of John.
Crossovers:
Chuck versus the Uncanny (Chuck, gen)
Under Darkening Skies (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dean/Willow)
Castiel/Sam, possibly my favorite secondary pairing:
Penance
Dean/Castiel:
I fell in love in Hell and it is simply so depressing: Castiel has something he needs to make Dean see.
Creepy:
Sanguine and Visceral, in which S4 Sam gets what he wants from Dean instead of from Ruby. Not Sam/Dean, but possibly even more erotically codependent.
Meta:
Dear Mr. Hanson: Becky gets a C&D for writing Sam/Dean, and her lawyer responds.
Filthy Mind: Dean acquires unwelcome nightly visitors. I put this in the meta category because it’s very much about our desires/my desires and the moral status of fantasy, though it’s got a plot of its own and everything.
I would love to talk about the stories, writing, why Dean Winchester does it for me when I barely noticed the existence of Jason Teague on SV or Alec on Dark Angel, or any other questions!
As I imagine many people did, I invented fan fiction in my room as a kid, mostly Star Trek and Sime/Gen-I even wrote in with my bog-standard OFC idea to one of the Sime/Gen zines (a universe by Jacqueline Lichtenberg and Jean Lorrah), and as I recall Jean Lorrah, presumably recognizing that I was about 12, wrote me a very nice response. A good welcome to participatory fandom. I also found Star Trek slash intriguing.
Fast forward a decade or so, and I found myself with a lot of free time. Then I fell for The X-Files, and a friend told me that more stories could be found online! My computer had MS-DOS, one meg of RAM (this is not a typo), and a dialup modem. I was set for life!
I was fortunate that one of the first stories I read was one of Jane Mortimer’s. I wrote her an adoring feedback letter and she responded very graciously. After I’d read a couple hundred stories, I decided that I could at least write one that would not bring the average quality down, and I did. After that, well, I was hooked.
Eventually, astolat convinced me to give Supernatural another try (I’d seen the pilot but hadn’t been engaged-possibly because I watched a very dark show in a small window on my computer), and Dean Winchester convinced me to stick around.
I’ve written more stories in SPN than in any previous fandom, which is both surprising and completely understandable-surprising because I felt like I was in XF and SV forever, and understandable because I’ve participated in a lot more prompts/challenges/etc. in recent years. One of my favorite things to do, actually, is Eight Crazy Nights: I take prompts and post stories/ficlets for every night of Hanukah, increasing the number every night. I love remix and have been blessed with a number of good ones for my own stories. Which reminds me: my stories can be found here.
Substantively: I often write Sam/Dean (which I see as fundamentally a tragedy, but a delicious one), with excursions into various other pairings. Dean/Castiel can be absolutely wonderful, but it also makes me hurt for Sam, so I have a complicated relationship with it! Many of my stories explore issues of consent, from mistake to various levels of coercion. I try to warn-or mark that I’ve chosen not to warn-and I think that some of the tropes are themselves signals for issues of consent (“aliens make them do it” or “sex pollen”) but if I’ve missed the mark I would appreciate feedback. I love standard sf/fantasy cliches/plot devices because they are an excellent way to illuminate character. Working with mustangsally78 in the X-Files and Buffy helped me relax a little and take chances with metaphors and similes; she also gave me the excellent advice that, when writing a story, blow the budget-you can have as many big fights and set pieces as will work.
Some of my stories, Sam/Dean by default unless otherwise marked:
Heat:
Vagabondage: bondage/trust play (with Dean/OMCs).
Fixing it:
Better Angels: Post-S4 finale, Lucifer takes a Winchester host
Cliches, Inc.:
The Glamorous Life: Dean’s infected by an incubus. Complications ensue.
Only Sweeter: Dean gets amnesia. Sam tries to use it to fix him. Complications ensue.
Knight Moves: Undisclosed cliche.
AU:
Captured by the Game: Sam was raised by Azazel instead of John.
Crossovers:
Chuck versus the Uncanny (Chuck, gen)
Under Darkening Skies (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dean/Willow)
Castiel/Sam, possibly my favorite secondary pairing:
Penance
Dean/Castiel:
I fell in love in Hell and it is simply so depressing: Castiel has something he needs to make Dean see.
Creepy:
Sanguine and Visceral, in which S4 Sam gets what he wants from Dean instead of from Ruby. Not Sam/Dean, but possibly even more erotically codependent.
Meta:
Dear Mr. Hanson: Becky gets a C&D for writing Sam/Dean, and her lawyer responds.
Filthy Mind: Dean acquires unwelcome nightly visitors. I put this in the meta category because it’s very much about our desires/my desires and the moral status of fantasy, though it’s got a plot of its own and everything.
I would love to talk about the stories, writing, why Dean Winchester does it for me when I barely noticed the existence of Jason Teague on SV or Alec on Dark Angel, or any other questions!