Interview (slightly late)
Hi there - here we go, a bit late due to me overdoing the time-zone compensation thing.
1. What was your first fandom?
Actually, way back in the dark ages, it was LoTR, now I think of it, because I recall days out in the hills near where I grew up with teenage friends where we re-enacted battles; we even had a cosplay dinner. I wore a long burgundy velvet dress, and thought I was the bees' knees. We had a medieval feast but I think it was meant to be Aragorn's court and I had a crush on the most fanatical of the LoTR fan-boys.
Aaaand then, the interregnum, where I trained in a profession, and worked too hard, and got burnt out, and read murder mysteries, fantasy and sci-fi but wasn't really in any fandom. Until four years ago, when, far too late, I had a second adolescence.
Now comes the *facepalm* bit - Twilight was my gateway drug. Yeah, I know it's politically incorrect crap but it just pushed my buttons at the time, mostly the adolescent UST I think. So, as you do, I didn't want it to end, and (not having any idea about fandom) I did some vague searching on google and chanced on a fansite. Three months of hypomania ensued - no really, clinically hypomanic, I'm sure of it, I ticked all the boxes. Never before or since, which is kind of a pity because man, that was fun. Didn't need sleep because I was reading and writing fic, exploring it all, starting with the porn *facepalm #2* then discovering the interesting, thoughtful fic, then sliding from het to slash. In the process I wrote several chapterized short stories then a WIP novel of 28 chapters, featuring Edward, Bella and Jake in a 3-way relationship. I also rediscovered sex through all this, a lasting bonus!
Then I segued off into Livejournal and Harry Potter (Sirius/Remus and Harry/Draco) where I also started doing more fanart as well as reading and writing. Something in the Potterverse led me to explore a bit of slavefic, as you do, and through that I chanced on "Advantage" by Resonant. So that was me done and dusted, I was mainlining SGA slash day and night, and have been for the past 2 years.
2. How did you get into writing fanfic/creating fanart?
See above. I always wrote - emo poetry when I was a teenager, then all that fell away when I was in my "serious professional" years (not that I'm out of those, I just don't take it all that seriously these days). Always felt daunted by actual novel writing and then I decided to have a go about 15 years ago and I wrote a murder mystery in 4 months (plus endless revisions). OMG it was Mary Sue Solves the Crime, big time, and although parts were okay it never really gelled as a complete work. The sex scenes were okay though - clearly the bit that interested me most!. But it was a whole damn novel and it taught me that I could write, and that helped when I discovered fandom. I wrote from the start, in Twilight, then HP, then SGA. Twilight was all WIPs, with chapterised works, a chapter a week. Very Dickensian in structure, and an interesting experience. I was very influenced by how others did it - started with the clunkier structures common in twilight fandom (announced POVs at the start of fics, strictly alternating POVs, etc.) Then I found better writers who wrote more naturally, and explored different POVs - the novel is actually 1st person present tense, varying POVs, partly as an exercise in technique which just kept on keeping on.
In HP I did a longer Big Bang work, and another medium-length story, and it's only in SGA I've really discovered short stories and ultra-short writing, like drabbles. Even written some poetry again, recently.
With the fanart - Art was always closest to my heart, and I nearly went to art school but in the end, middle-class timidity and parental expectations led to the professional career instead. I did quite a bit of original art in my twenties, then virtually nil until I hit fandom, especially HP and thereafter. I've gradually increased the fanart and I find it more relaxing than writing - in fact I procrastinate with the writing by doing art.
And, in the last year or so, I discovered podfic as well. Mostly I've recorded SGA, and a little Sherlock Holmes. My voice is kind of ruined after a few spectacular chest infections when I was overdoing it and burning out, but it seems to work okay despite being deeper and a little nasal. Endless tedious editing is needed, however, so I don't record as much as I'd like.
3. Is SGA your main squeeze, or are you poly-fandom-ous?
Poly, although it is my main comfort and home-base fandom. I've written Twilight and HP in the past, and I currently write some BBC Sherlock and ACD Sherlock Holmes, and I have a couple of Inception bunnies but haven't written them yet. I read SGA, read some SG1 in the past but can't be arsed watching all the eps, also read Sherlock Holmes and Inception, and a little White Collar. I went berserk last Yuletide and wrote in 5 other fandoms as well, for the hell of it (Breakfast with Scot, Due South, Mythbusters, The Oresteia, and M*A*S*H* meets zombies). Oh right, Mythbusters, I read and write some of that, too. I'll read almost anything if it's reccd and sounds interesting, but I always come back to John and Rodney and SGA with a sense of relief.
4. What makes John and Rodney such an inspiring couple for you?
Everyone has put such great insights down for this, it's hard to know what to say. They just work, and they can both be so different in the hands of different writers, but they're always recognisable. I like that both of them can be tough and efficient, or vulnerable and passive. And they're just so easy to kink up, that's a huge drawcard for me! Plus, the humour and the snark, I love that stuff.
5. Who's your favorite, John or Rodney (or both)? How come?
Rodney for his brains and snark, and John is just hot, and eminently kinkable. So both, for different things.
6. Where can people find more of your work (McShep or otherwise)?
The fic's on AO3, and quite a bit of the more recent art. Pretty much all the fic, older art and podfic's on DW (mirrored to LJ). All under mific.
7. Pick a piece/story of yours that stands out for you. Give us links and tell us why!
My fave overall is still http://archiveofourown.org/works/144671 'A Cunning Plan' I think (various Sherlock Holmeses, but based on 2 Kate Beaton SH cartoons). Then, I'm very fond of http://archiveofourown.org/works/139894 'In a Strange Land', a due South/Galaxy Quest crossover done last Xmas for due South secret Santa. It's as mad as it sounds, yes. In SGA mcshep works, hmmm. http://archiveofourown.org/works/215683 'Desert Rose' is the most epic so far, but I think my fave of recent times is the much briefer http://archiveofourown.org/works/208493 'Collateral Damage'.
8. Finish this sentence: John and Rodney walk into a bar...
John and Rodney walk into a bar, and just for a moment it's overwhelming. Then Rod waves from over by the jukebox and Sheppard glowers at them through his horn-rimmed glasses, and the ice is broken. They push through the crowd of Johns and Rodneys, leaving a trail of "Hey, watch it, Buddy!" and "Ouch, mind my toes, moron!".
Rodney sneers at a first-ep McKay who's still in the crappy tan outfit until he sees John eyeing a jailbait Meredith with long dark-blond hair.
"Reunions, dontcha love 'em?" says John.
"Not so much, no," snaps Rodney. "Eyes front and center, Colonel!"
John just smirks, hand fisting the back of Rodney's jacket as he propels him through the crowd to where Rod has their drinks waiting.
9. What question do you wish we'd asked?
Nope, I think I've gone on quite long enough as it is! But if you think of anything I'm up for it in the comments.
1. What was your first fandom?
Actually, way back in the dark ages, it was LoTR, now I think of it, because I recall days out in the hills near where I grew up with teenage friends where we re-enacted battles; we even had a cosplay dinner. I wore a long burgundy velvet dress, and thought I was the bees' knees. We had a medieval feast but I think it was meant to be Aragorn's court and I had a crush on the most fanatical of the LoTR fan-boys.
Aaaand then, the interregnum, where I trained in a profession, and worked too hard, and got burnt out, and read murder mysteries, fantasy and sci-fi but wasn't really in any fandom. Until four years ago, when, far too late, I had a second adolescence.
Now comes the *facepalm* bit - Twilight was my gateway drug. Yeah, I know it's politically incorrect crap but it just pushed my buttons at the time, mostly the adolescent UST I think. So, as you do, I didn't want it to end, and (not having any idea about fandom) I did some vague searching on google and chanced on a fansite. Three months of hypomania ensued - no really, clinically hypomanic, I'm sure of it, I ticked all the boxes. Never before or since, which is kind of a pity because man, that was fun. Didn't need sleep because I was reading and writing fic, exploring it all, starting with the porn *facepalm #2* then discovering the interesting, thoughtful fic, then sliding from het to slash. In the process I wrote several chapterized short stories then a WIP novel of 28 chapters, featuring Edward, Bella and Jake in a 3-way relationship. I also rediscovered sex through all this, a lasting bonus!
Then I segued off into Livejournal and Harry Potter (Sirius/Remus and Harry/Draco) where I also started doing more fanart as well as reading and writing. Something in the Potterverse led me to explore a bit of slavefic, as you do, and through that I chanced on "Advantage" by Resonant. So that was me done and dusted, I was mainlining SGA slash day and night, and have been for the past 2 years.
2. How did you get into writing fanfic/creating fanart?
See above. I always wrote - emo poetry when I was a teenager, then all that fell away when I was in my "serious professional" years (not that I'm out of those, I just don't take it all that seriously these days). Always felt daunted by actual novel writing and then I decided to have a go about 15 years ago and I wrote a murder mystery in 4 months (plus endless revisions). OMG it was Mary Sue Solves the Crime, big time, and although parts were okay it never really gelled as a complete work. The sex scenes were okay though - clearly the bit that interested me most!. But it was a whole damn novel and it taught me that I could write, and that helped when I discovered fandom. I wrote from the start, in Twilight, then HP, then SGA. Twilight was all WIPs, with chapterised works, a chapter a week. Very Dickensian in structure, and an interesting experience. I was very influenced by how others did it - started with the clunkier structures common in twilight fandom (announced POVs at the start of fics, strictly alternating POVs, etc.) Then I found better writers who wrote more naturally, and explored different POVs - the novel is actually 1st person present tense, varying POVs, partly as an exercise in technique which just kept on keeping on.
In HP I did a longer Big Bang work, and another medium-length story, and it's only in SGA I've really discovered short stories and ultra-short writing, like drabbles. Even written some poetry again, recently.
With the fanart - Art was always closest to my heart, and I nearly went to art school but in the end, middle-class timidity and parental expectations led to the professional career instead. I did quite a bit of original art in my twenties, then virtually nil until I hit fandom, especially HP and thereafter. I've gradually increased the fanart and I find it more relaxing than writing - in fact I procrastinate with the writing by doing art.
And, in the last year or so, I discovered podfic as well. Mostly I've recorded SGA, and a little Sherlock Holmes. My voice is kind of ruined after a few spectacular chest infections when I was overdoing it and burning out, but it seems to work okay despite being deeper and a little nasal. Endless tedious editing is needed, however, so I don't record as much as I'd like.
3. Is SGA your main squeeze, or are you poly-fandom-ous?
Poly, although it is my main comfort and home-base fandom. I've written Twilight and HP in the past, and I currently write some BBC Sherlock and ACD Sherlock Holmes, and I have a couple of Inception bunnies but haven't written them yet. I read SGA, read some SG1 in the past but can't be arsed watching all the eps, also read Sherlock Holmes and Inception, and a little White Collar. I went berserk last Yuletide and wrote in 5 other fandoms as well, for the hell of it (Breakfast with Scot, Due South, Mythbusters, The Oresteia, and M*A*S*H* meets zombies). Oh right, Mythbusters, I read and write some of that, too. I'll read almost anything if it's reccd and sounds interesting, but I always come back to John and Rodney and SGA with a sense of relief.
4. What makes John and Rodney such an inspiring couple for you?
Everyone has put such great insights down for this, it's hard to know what to say. They just work, and they can both be so different in the hands of different writers, but they're always recognisable. I like that both of them can be tough and efficient, or vulnerable and passive. And they're just so easy to kink up, that's a huge drawcard for me! Plus, the humour and the snark, I love that stuff.
5. Who's your favorite, John or Rodney (or both)? How come?
Rodney for his brains and snark, and John is just hot, and eminently kinkable. So both, for different things.
6. Where can people find more of your work (McShep or otherwise)?
The fic's on AO3, and quite a bit of the more recent art. Pretty much all the fic, older art and podfic's on DW (mirrored to LJ). All under mific.
7. Pick a piece/story of yours that stands out for you. Give us links and tell us why!
My fave overall is still http://archiveofourown.org/works/144671 'A Cunning Plan' I think (various Sherlock Holmeses, but based on 2 Kate Beaton SH cartoons). Then, I'm very fond of http://archiveofourown.org/works/139894 'In a Strange Land', a due South/Galaxy Quest crossover done last Xmas for due South secret Santa. It's as mad as it sounds, yes. In SGA mcshep works, hmmm. http://archiveofourown.org/works/215683 'Desert Rose' is the most epic so far, but I think my fave of recent times is the much briefer http://archiveofourown.org/works/208493 'Collateral Damage'.
8. Finish this sentence: John and Rodney walk into a bar...
John and Rodney walk into a bar, and just for a moment it's overwhelming. Then Rod waves from over by the jukebox and Sheppard glowers at them through his horn-rimmed glasses, and the ice is broken. They push through the crowd of Johns and Rodneys, leaving a trail of "Hey, watch it, Buddy!" and "Ouch, mind my toes, moron!".
Rodney sneers at a first-ep McKay who's still in the crappy tan outfit until he sees John eyeing a jailbait Meredith with long dark-blond hair.
"Reunions, dontcha love 'em?" says John.
"Not so much, no," snaps Rodney. "Eyes front and center, Colonel!"
John just smirks, hand fisting the back of Rodney's jacket as he propels him through the crowd to where Rod has their drinks waiting.
9. What question do you wish we'd asked?
Nope, I think I've gone on quite long enough as it is! But if you think of anything I'm up for it in the comments.