Team interviews: kassrachel!
Name: kassrachel, also known as Kass
Team: Peace!
Let's talk about: kassrachel!
1. How long have you been writing fan fiction and/or making fan art and/or whatever else (vids, knitted goods, pornographic gingerbread cookies)?
I've been writing fanfiction since 1999 -- this fall will mark my ten-year anniversary in media fandom. I've been vidding since 2008.
2. Have you participated or are you participating in any other fandoms?
At the moment SGA is my primary fandom, though I'm also pretty obsessed with Lost (those are the two fandoms I've vidded so far) and I'm also deeply in love with Friday Night Lights.
My first fandom was Sentinel, and I was a Sentinel mono-fan for a few years; then due South; and then I slowly started to dip my toes into the waters of polyfannishness, falling in love with Harry Potter and House and Firefly and Veronica Mars in rapid succession.
But in 2007 I fell headlong into SGA, and it's been my major fandom ever since.
3. What fanwork are you most proud of? Or, what is your favourite of your fanworks? (links, please!)
I'm going to offer two things -- one story and one vid.
The story is called "A Narrow Bridge," and it's the story I call "the yeshiva AU" -- it's an AU set in a world where John and Rodney are students in an Orthodox academy. (It's here on my website, and here at the Archive of Our Own.)
And the vid is called "Strange Angels." It's my love letter to SGA, which I made shortly after the series ended. You can download it from my vids page, or watch it streaming at blip.tv or at BAM.
4. As far as creative processes go, what type of writer/artist are you? Do you create an outline/find photo references/make maps, etc., or do you jump in and go with the flow?
It depends on what I'm working on! For a relatively short piece, I tend to start with a single idea and just start writing and trust that the story will take me where it needs to go. But for a longer piece -- something with plot beyond "John and Rodney are secretly pining for one another, then they figure it out, hijinks ensue" -- I tend to make an outline, often in collaboration with my incredibly awesome beta-readers.
5. Where can interested readers/viewers find more of your work? (homepage, LJ fic index, etc.)
All of my fic (in many fandoms, not just this one!) is available at my website, which is at http://trickster.org/kass/. I've also mirrored the fic at the AO3.
6. Do you write original fiction (poetry, screenplays)? Do you create original art (comics, photographs, quilts, wedding cakes)? Care to share?
I don't write fiction in RL, though I do write in other genres. It's pretty different from what I write here, though, which means I derive even more joy from the time and energy I get to spend in fandom!
7. How are you so awesome?
I'm not half so awesome as David Hewlett, that's for sure. :-) But thanks for asking!
Let's talk about: SGA!
8. What do you enjoy most about SGA and/or SGA fandom?
I love the sheer creativity of this fandom. I love that we've taken a decent SF show and turned it into so many amazing things. I love the wild range of AUs, the crack!fic, the anthropomorfic, the epic novels and drabbles and poems -- I just love the many different wonderful things we've found in Atlantis.
Lately I've been enjoying watching a few of my friends falling in love with SGA. They're not all as immediately drawn to McShep as I was and am, but it's still awesome to see new people discovering Atlantis. When I first found the fandom, a couple of years ago, one of my friends said "Welcome home to a galaxy where you've never been," and that still feels true to me. Atlantis is home.
9. Why do you ship McKay/Sheppard? What draws you to the pairing, what do you like and dislike? Favourite scenes or episodes? Quotes? Screencaps? What other SGA pairings do you ship?
My heart belongs to John and Rodney; I think they were made for each other. Rodney is a great big dork who's braver than he lets on; John's a great big hero who's dorkier than he lets on. (See? They're perfect together!) I love John's wry humor and Rodney's bluster (and, even more, his genuine smiles) and I love how much they obviously mean to each other.
That said, I also really love Ronon and Teyla, and I desperately want all four of them to be happy. So if someone who I trust to treat the characters with love is writing a different Atlantis pairing, I'm likely to read it. I like OT4. I like the four of them in pretty much any combination. But mostly I'm in love with McShep.
Favorite scenes or episodes... man, I can't possibly choose. I have a particular love for "Letters from Pegasus," "Sateda," "McKay and Mrs. Miller," "The Tao of Rodney," and "The Shrine." But really, any time the two of them are onscreen together, I'm a happy fangirl. Especially if they're snarking at each other.
10. Why did you choose to join Team Peace?
Er...because it seemed it would be awkward to be the captain of Team Peace but a member of Team War? :-)
More seriously, because I think that even if there's a war going on, John and Rodney find peace in one another's arms. They can be themselves with each other, and I'm not sure that's ever been true for either one of them with anybody else. That's the truest kind of peace there is.
11. C'mon, you know you wanna! Just a bit of squee about your Match fic?
I'm thrilled that my story let me work with a part of canon that I'd been itching to tackle. And I like the sex scenes! *g*
12. What are your 'tells'? How can a fic of yours be spotted in the wild? (again, go ahead and make origami out of the truth!)
Well, I tend to write first-time stories, with banter, loving snark, often one of the boys being a dork and not realizing that the other is interested in him, and then a happy ending. Of course, that's also true of at least half of the fandom, so I don't think it's much of a "tell"...sorry!
Team: Peace!
Let's talk about: kassrachel!
1. How long have you been writing fan fiction and/or making fan art and/or whatever else (vids, knitted goods, pornographic gingerbread cookies)?
I've been writing fanfiction since 1999 -- this fall will mark my ten-year anniversary in media fandom. I've been vidding since 2008.
2. Have you participated or are you participating in any other fandoms?
At the moment SGA is my primary fandom, though I'm also pretty obsessed with Lost (those are the two fandoms I've vidded so far) and I'm also deeply in love with Friday Night Lights.
My first fandom was Sentinel, and I was a Sentinel mono-fan for a few years; then due South; and then I slowly started to dip my toes into the waters of polyfannishness, falling in love with Harry Potter and House and Firefly and Veronica Mars in rapid succession.
But in 2007 I fell headlong into SGA, and it's been my major fandom ever since.
3. What fanwork are you most proud of? Or, what is your favourite of your fanworks? (links, please!)
I'm going to offer two things -- one story and one vid.
The story is called "A Narrow Bridge," and it's the story I call "the yeshiva AU" -- it's an AU set in a world where John and Rodney are students in an Orthodox academy. (It's here on my website, and here at the Archive of Our Own.)
And the vid is called "Strange Angels." It's my love letter to SGA, which I made shortly after the series ended. You can download it from my vids page, or watch it streaming at blip.tv or at BAM.
4. As far as creative processes go, what type of writer/artist are you? Do you create an outline/find photo references/make maps, etc., or do you jump in and go with the flow?
It depends on what I'm working on! For a relatively short piece, I tend to start with a single idea and just start writing and trust that the story will take me where it needs to go. But for a longer piece -- something with plot beyond "John and Rodney are secretly pining for one another, then they figure it out, hijinks ensue" -- I tend to make an outline, often in collaboration with my incredibly awesome beta-readers.
5. Where can interested readers/viewers find more of your work? (homepage, LJ fic index, etc.)
All of my fic (in many fandoms, not just this one!) is available at my website, which is at http://trickster.org/kass/. I've also mirrored the fic at the AO3.
6. Do you write original fiction (poetry, screenplays)? Do you create original art (comics, photographs, quilts, wedding cakes)? Care to share?
I don't write fiction in RL, though I do write in other genres. It's pretty different from what I write here, though, which means I derive even more joy from the time and energy I get to spend in fandom!
7. How are you so awesome?
I'm not half so awesome as David Hewlett, that's for sure. :-) But thanks for asking!
Let's talk about: SGA!
8. What do you enjoy most about SGA and/or SGA fandom?
I love the sheer creativity of this fandom. I love that we've taken a decent SF show and turned it into so many amazing things. I love the wild range of AUs, the crack!fic, the anthropomorfic, the epic novels and drabbles and poems -- I just love the many different wonderful things we've found in Atlantis.
Lately I've been enjoying watching a few of my friends falling in love with SGA. They're not all as immediately drawn to McShep as I was and am, but it's still awesome to see new people discovering Atlantis. When I first found the fandom, a couple of years ago, one of my friends said "Welcome home to a galaxy where you've never been," and that still feels true to me. Atlantis is home.
9. Why do you ship McKay/Sheppard? What draws you to the pairing, what do you like and dislike? Favourite scenes or episodes? Quotes? Screencaps? What other SGA pairings do you ship?
My heart belongs to John and Rodney; I think they were made for each other. Rodney is a great big dork who's braver than he lets on; John's a great big hero who's dorkier than he lets on. (See? They're perfect together!) I love John's wry humor and Rodney's bluster (and, even more, his genuine smiles) and I love how much they obviously mean to each other.
That said, I also really love Ronon and Teyla, and I desperately want all four of them to be happy. So if someone who I trust to treat the characters with love is writing a different Atlantis pairing, I'm likely to read it. I like OT4. I like the four of them in pretty much any combination. But mostly I'm in love with McShep.
Favorite scenes or episodes... man, I can't possibly choose. I have a particular love for "Letters from Pegasus," "Sateda," "McKay and Mrs. Miller," "The Tao of Rodney," and "The Shrine." But really, any time the two of them are onscreen together, I'm a happy fangirl. Especially if they're snarking at each other.
10. Why did you choose to join Team Peace?
Er...because it seemed it would be awkward to be the captain of Team Peace but a member of Team War? :-)
More seriously, because I think that even if there's a war going on, John and Rodney find peace in one another's arms. They can be themselves with each other, and I'm not sure that's ever been true for either one of them with anybody else. That's the truest kind of peace there is.
11. C'mon, you know you wanna! Just a bit of squee about your Match fic?
I'm thrilled that my story let me work with a part of canon that I'd been itching to tackle. And I like the sex scenes! *g*
12. What are your 'tells'? How can a fic of yours be spotted in the wild? (again, go ahead and make origami out of the truth!)
Well, I tend to write first-time stories, with banter, loving snark, often one of the boys being a dork and not realizing that the other is interested in him, and then a happy ending. Of course, that's also true of at least half of the fandom, so I don't think it's much of a "tell"...sorry!