Interview: cypanache
1) If you could visit any place at any time period, where would you go and what would you do?
We’re just visiting right? I mean I don’t have to stay there? Okay with the caveat of I can get back to beautiful, important things like electricity and tv and the internet and Starbucks (oh and my husband), then I would really like to go to Philadelphia during the Revolutionary War. I’d just like the chance to sit in on the Continental Congress and see what these ‘giants’ of history were really like and whether we’re anywhere close to what they thought when they were trying to create their democracy.
2) Have you ever met anyone famous?
I met Mikhail Gorbachev once. A college lecture group I worked with brought him in to speak. It wasn’t nearly as so exciting as it sounds because he speaks no English in public.
3) If you could meet any famous person, alive or dead, who would it be and what would you say/do?
Stephen Sondheim hands down. Once I regained the capacity to speak, I’d ask him about everything from what it was like to be mentored by Richard Rodgers to whether he thinks it’s possible there’s another show in him. And then if he says no, I’d probably resort to holding him hostage.
4) If you could switch lives with any person, who would you choose and why? If you want to switch with a person who is dead, we’ll assume that you wanted to live their life while he/she was alive.
Hmmm. Continuing my Broadway theme, I think I’m gonna go with Patti LuPone. She’s had an amazing career and recently has had the opportunity to blow people out of the water with roles I’d die to play. Add to that, that as a live theatre mainstay she gets to make a good living, doing awesome work in challenging pieces, without the whole paparazzi crush that can come with movie stardom.
5) Who is your favorite author, alive or dead, and why?
This ones actually easy: Nevada Barr. She’s a park ranger who writes the Anna Pigeon mystery series, which are well worth the read. I have never read books which manage to combine everything from twisted, surprising murder mysteries, breathtaking descriptions of natural landscapes that make you feel like you’re there, sharp unapologetic dialogue, and a lead female character that is both tough and feminine and utterly real in a way that avoids all the typical clichés. If you’re ever looking for a good read, her mysteries are my go to recommendations.
6) What is your favorite book and why?
This is so much harder because I don’t have a tendency to reread books. As arrogant as this may sound, I have a freakish memory for plots, so I rarely find joy in rereading a novel. Meaning I can’t go just with a book I pick up again and again.
Okay so back to the question. I’d love to say its some deep and complex piece of literature like Grendel (which I do actually enjoy) or Heart of Darkness (which I hated), but truthfully . . . I’m gonna have to go with Little Women one of the few books I have read at least sections of more than once. I think there’s a nostalgia factor there. Add to that, it kind of introduced me to my preference for the unconventional love story, because I may be one of the few girls who at the age of seven squealed in delight when Jo married the Professor rather than Laurie.
On the modern, less nostalgic front, I’m going to also say Joe Abercrombie’s First Law Trilogy. It’s viciously funny, takes most epic fantasy archetypes and turns them neatly on their head, plus it has one of the most sympathetic yet disturbing antiheroes I’ve ever read about.
So that was one book and a trilogy, was that sufficient or did I cheat?
7) Who is your favorite singer, alive or dead, and why?
Mandy Patinkin (yes I have a Broadway fetish). Sometimes he uses way too many vocal histrionics, but when he nails a song, he just does something with it that makes you feel like you’re hearing it for the first time.
8.) What is your favorite song and why?
Man, I’d have to break this down by categories and then possibly composers/singers to even really get started. I love music. I mean really love it. I have over 300 Broadway cast albums in my collection alone. And my non-Broadway taste pretty much covers the spectrum from Rap to Country to Pop to Old standards. So I’m gonna cheat (again):
Favorite Sondheim (he gets his own category): “Franklin Shepard, Inc.” from Merrily We Roll Along (Raul Esparza’s version; there’s a great clip of him doing this at the Kennedy Center on Youtube) – While it comes from one of my least favorite Sondheim musicals, this song just embodies everything that’s great about Sondheim to me. It’s funny and frantic and really more a sung monologue than anything else and when it’s done right the audience finds itself laughing even as its getting the emotional punch in the gut of essentially watching a friendship draw its last breath on stage.
Favorite Non-Sondheim Broadway: “Nobody Needs to Know” from Last Five Years (though that never actually made it to Broadway, so off-Broadway). –I truly believe Jason Robert Brown (the composer) is Sondheim’s successor in American musicals and the whole show Last Five Years says why, but “Nobody Needs to Know” is just… heart wrenching. It’s a beautiful song that’s about a man waking up in the bed of his mistress and reflecting on the disintegration of his marriage, which makes it my go to song for angst.
Favorite Modern: “Love Song” by Sara Bareilles – This song just makes me smile. Makes me want to dance and sing at the top of my lungs and yet when you listen to the lyrics it’s really more about a woman’s empowerment than most traditional pop love songs.
Favorite Old Standard: “One for My Baby” by Billie Holiday (though I also really like Dianne Reeves version off the Good Night and Good Luck soundtrack) – I love everything about this song, from the sad quiet baseline to the lyrics, to Billie’s voice. There’s so much atmosphere to it you almost feel like you’re sitting in some smoky bar with a glass of scotch circled in cigarette smoke.
And if you asked me this question tomorrow I might give you different answers.
9) What is your favorite movie and why?
I can actually give you a single answer to this: The Great Escape. Best ensemble caper flick ever! It’s just a movie I can watch again and again and never get tired of.
P.S. Favorite Romance – The Painted Veil with Naomi Watts and Edward Norton
10) What is your favorite television show and why?
Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. I’m grouping them together because as far as I’m concerned they’re just two halves of the same whole. BtVS/Angel is really my first true cult/fandom love, and I have yet to see anybody write an ensemble show in the uncompromising way that Joss did. Every character got real satisfying arcs (even if you didn’t necessarily like where they wound up, you couldn’t fault the journey that took them there), and Joss understood that in a show like BtVS/Angel there needed to be an emotional price. Beloved characters had to die, to grow, to leave, to face consequences for their actions that sometimes changed them irreparably. To me all of Joss’s shows (and I’m including Firefly in this) are the gold standard by which other ensemble shows should be measured.
11) Who is your favorite actor/actress, alive or dead, and why?
Jimmy Stewart. He is the ultimate sexy everyman. Everything he does on film just seems so natural and genuine.
12) What is the one movie/television show that you would never admit to family, friends, co-workers that you watch? Yes, I know asking defeats the point, but spill your guts anyway.
JAG. There’s a story behind this, beyond the fact that I have a real love/hate relationship with the show. When I was in high-school JAG came on at the same time as Buffy, which meant I always relegated my father (who loved JAG) to the kitchen to watch his show while I watched Buffy on the big screen in the den. Dad teased me about Buffy so I was pretty derisive about JAG in return pointing out how incredibly one note the hero is (which he is, and to this day I have problems with him), etc. etc. Anyway while I was studying for the bar I happened to catch JAG reruns on USA, specifically those with the kind of anti-hero character of Webb. I fell in love with that character. So I watch and I fic. But I’m kind of ashamed of it and God knows, I’d never admit it to my father.
13) Do people in your Real Life know that you are a member of NS?
No. Generally I try to keep people from knowing where I post.
14) Do people in your Real Life know that you read/write fanfiction?
Yes. Both my husband and my parents know. Its such a big part of my life (my main hobby) that I kind of took the approach with my husband of if you’re gonna love me, you have to love all of me, including this really insane part. He doesn’t read any of it and he knows better than to stand over my shoulder while I’m writing (he got an elbow in the gut that way once), but he knows I write and the fandoms I write in.
My dad actually has read some of my work. I was in the BtVS fandom for a really long time from middle of high-school through most of college, ran websites, wrote, all of it. Dad thought it was great, got a huge kick out of it, and laughed his head off when he pointed out to me that I was writing fic with a rating I technically wasn’t old enough to read (my father and I have a very strange relationship). But my work has for the most part always been very plot driven with smut/sex kind of being only a component of it, so I guess it’s kind of understandable that he wasn’t absolutely horrified.
15) When did you first start reading fanfiction?
God, I think I must have been about 13 or 14 when I first started. I was a latchkey kid with too much time on my hands, a voracious appetite for reading and a good modem. I think I started with Power Rangers (yeah, yeah, I know) and Deep Space Nine if my memory serves but that’s almost 14 years ago so its possible I’m off on that.
16) When did you first get started in writing fanfiction?
I was about 16 when I finally put fingers to keys and tried to write something. I started with BtVS, writing Buffy/Giles fanfiction, which actually had a larger following than you might think. I kind of hit that pairing at just the right time when it really took root, got some great supporters and authors and took off. I stayed with B/G and then moved to Wes/Faith (I think I have a watcher/slayer thing) for about four years. It was a great experience and comparing the fics I started with to the fics I finished with over that run is something.
17) Is fanfic writing just a hobby for you or do you hope to go further with your writing?
At the moment it’s pretty much just a hobby. I’ve never fully abandoned the idea that one day it might turn into something more, but right now I pretty much work and write and occasionally pay attention to my poor beleaguered spouse and that takes up all the time I have. And right now I’d rather enjoy my writing and the feedback that comes with fanfic than try to force it to become another job.
18) When you aren’t writing awesome fanfics, what do you do and/or want to be doing?
I’m at work or at a social gathering usually wishing I was at home at my computer writing. Sometimes my best ideas come to me when they have absolutely no business doing so, and wind up screwing everything up. Seriously, I know it may not seem like it because of the length of time between updates, but my stories are always sitting there in the back of my mind.
19) How and why did you first get interested in Chlex? What do you like most about the characters? What do you hate about them?
I got interested in Chlex this summer, when I went looking for a new pairing/fandom I could get behind. There is nothing currently on TV which is really inspiring me on the writing front and my other fandoms were either dying or not updating frequently enough to keep me attached.
A friend of mine finally got me to sit down with her Smallville Season 1 and 2 DVDs. Although it came on after Buffy, I had avoided the show because I’m usually not really a Superman fan. There’s too much black and white in his clean-cut American heroism for me. But I found I liked the reinterpretation with the origins idea and how it raised some questions for him and placed Clark in some morally murky ground (whether he actually ever acknowledged it or not).
Lex was my boy from the start (I have a thing for anti-hero pragmatists; see above re: Wesley and Webb). And the dirty, horrible, nasty truth is I honestly could have swung any way in his pairings provided it was het (It’s not that I don’t enjoy well-written slash, but I don’t ‘ship it the way I do het and have too much respect for those who do it well to try it myself). So I went out looking for fanfic just to see what I could find, and I’ve read it all, even pairings which shall not be named (you may throw things at me later). And as with any fanfiction genre, I have read really well written and really poorly written stories with every Lex pairing. But it seemed that the consistently best het stuff, which explored the most interesting aspects of Lex came from the Chlex corner of the world. Then I found Skauble’s “What You Don’t Know” which was so darkly romantic and by that time I had also gotten myself up to Season 3 and the whole thing in combination sold me. Her website directed me over to N-S, and the rest is history.
So in summary all Skauble’s fault.
What I love about Lex and Chloe has a lot to do with their similarities. They are idealists wrapped in pragmatists. Both of them believe in this greater things (different greater things, but greater things). Chloe believes in heroes and good and Clark Kent and she, to be truly clichéd here, “loves like she’s never been hurt” with everything in her. Lex believes in the right of the human race to survive, and its capacity to exceed its limitations through science, provided its willing to make some sacrifices to do so. He wants to believe in things that are unseen and unknown, and while he doesn’t know how to love the way Chloe does, he still wants to believe love exists and is possible, even though every experience he’s had should have pretty much taught him it doesn’t. He’s just all screwed up about what it looks like (when your most loving and comforting symbol in your life is the memory of your post-partum psychosis mother who let you take the rap for her, I think your perception of love gets seriously warped).
And yet for all that, both of them are pragmatists. They’re able to see that choices are going to have to be made, and sometimes they’re going to suck. And they’re willing to face the fact that they can’t expect these things to come easy or without cost. You will never here the words “I shouldn’t have to make that choice” out of their mouths because they’ve keyed in on the fact that when the stakes are this high, sooner or later you always have to make “that choice.”
What I dislike about Lex and Chloe has more to do with the spurts of character discontinuity the show has than the characters themselves. Chloe’s sudden unyielding placement against Lex prior to discovering Clark’s secret made no mental sense, nor did the fake baby plot from Lex’s perspective. With regards to their actual personalities, there are things there that I can acknowledge as flaws and that I would probably find personally annoying, but from a writer’s perspective I usually just find that makes them more interesting to write (i.e. Lex’s hubris, both’s desperate clinging need to be loved. Their tendency to dig into a position and charge full speed ahead etc.)
20) How and why did you first get interested in writing Chlex fanfiction?
As I said, I went into this looking for a new fandom to write in, so when I found this site and started devouring the stories here, I was intentionally looking for what I could add as an author. Because I have a tendency to come to fandoms late (with the notable exception of BtVS), my modus operandi as a writer has always been towards what I call “the gap”. In almost every fandom/pairing there is generally an aspect of a relationship or character which hasn’t been addressed in any real detail or a point in time that for one reason or another fics don’t get set in all that often. I look for that so that I’m bringing something new to the party. Because lets face it, I’m never going to do a season 7 fic as cool and dark as TAA’s “Depths We Sink To” or an unplanned pregnancy fic as beautiful as Zannie’s “Nameless”.
But what I did see was, for lack of a better word, “missing” was a fic which really dealt with Chloe and Lex in season 6 at the exact emotional point they were at (with the hating) and in terms of the experiments Lex was doing. I didn’t want Chloe to just acknowledge they were out there, I wanted Lex’s crimes and potential descent to be a central aspect to the story, something Chloe had to struggle with and make choices about. I could contribute something new there. Hence “Collaborator” was born, and I hope it’s met my goal of being something that generally feels original.
21) Is there anything while reading Chlex fanfiction that you really like/hate?
I cannot stand stories which overly soften Lex. It’s a fine line between Lex’s being sweet and romantic and Lex being out of character (and for me at least one of the major challenges of “Christmas in Metropolis”). I want my Lex to have edges, even with Chloe.
I’m very conscious of dialogue. A story which can nail the character’s voices will always hold my attention, no matter what weaknesses in plot, more than a well plotted story where the characters don’t sound like the characters I know.
I really like that the writers here tend towards long-form chaptered stories. I have often bemoaned that with the advent of livejournal, many fandoms have moved towards much shorter stories which are really more character reflection pieces than fiction. While I’ve written a few myself and enjoy reading many of those, I always want the longer stuff.
22) What (if any) other fandoms do you read/write for and why?
Oh man, I’ve written short stories for a lot of different fandoms – Heroes, X-men (movieverse), Traveler, Harry Potter. Generally what attracts me or compels me to write are two elements, 1) a particular male lead (intellectual, a little broken, and hardened pragmatist. This is never the main male, always a side character); and 2) a love/duty divide, I have a tendency to write my love stories as choices, more often than not there is a essential divide between my male and female lead whether because they’re on different sides of a fight/belief or have damaged each other in some way (Lex/Chloe, Wes/Faith; Chambers/Kim; Webb/Mac), those two elements are really what start me moving. As far as fandoms that I’ve really sunk my teeth into . . .
1) BtVS/Angel – My first and probably longest love. As I said before, I ‘shipped Watchers and Slayers (Buffy/Giles, Wes/Faith). I think in general Joss’s shows are fairly inspiring to fanfiction writers because he understands chemistry without anvils, and the complexity of human relationships, how you move away from people and come back to them, and the connections between people may not always be understandable or pretty (the Wes Faith dynamic was a great example of that), so there was just an amazing amount of fodder there and like so many others I couldn’t walk away.
2) Power Rangers (Old School) – Yes, I’m aware this is just weird and fairly embarrassing on many levels. But stay with me for a minute. As I said, I started reading fanfic when I was pretty young and started with PR fiction. I came back to the fiction after I left Buffy (obviously not the show, because that’s just painful) and realized there’s a core group of fairly good writers (about 10 to 12 of us), who have really used the show as a spring board. It’s about as close as you can come to truly original fiction in the fanfic world. Because essentially you’re working with very elemental character sketches and a few key events which have the potential to be quite emotionally traumatic, but never actually get explored on the show. From there, there are worlds that can be explored and that core group does it pretty well. I’m actually very proud of my PR stories themselves (if slightly embarrassed of their inspiration).
3) JAG: I can’t stand Harm so I only write Webb/Mac fiction. Again this kind of continues in my vein of dealing with pragmatist males and couples who have damaged each other in some way. There’s a massive gap in the fiction for that ‘ship that really deals with the fallout of after they broke up (he faked his death and she only found out when she wound up in the line of fire of an assassin who was after him. There was a lot unfinished crap there), so I have tendency to play there. But truthfully it has to be the most hostile fandom I’ve ever been in (the Harm/Mac ‘shippers don’t know how to let the rest of us exist in peace. Dude, you won!), so I move in and out of it as I get enough energy to deal with the crap.
23) What type of environment do you need to write? For example: extreme quiet, blaring music, subtle background noise, etc.
A lot of times out of the sheer necessity of trying to find time, I write in the evenings while watching a tv show with my husband, but when I’m really trying to push out a chapter the best environment is me and my headphones and my specially created Chlex playlist (I have one for each major story I’m working on).
24) How do your ideas come to you? Do you always write them or do you let them disappear?
It depends on the idea. ‘Collaborator’ was a fic that was pieced together from finding the gap I talked about, to then trying to figure out what on earth would get these two characters into the same room with each other. I was looking for an opening while watching Season 6 and when I saw ‘Freak’ and how distraught Chloe was, everything clicked.
’We Are Who We’ve Always Been’ and ‘Christmas in Metropolis’ however sprang up fully formed, hit me over the head, and insisted on being written. The ideas took hold and the first chapter was written in the same day because I quite literally could not think about anything else.
Though it may not sound like it, I don’t immediately write every story that comes to me. I have three very different story ideas sitting on the back-burner which will compete to be the next one to come up and take Christmas’s place when it’s finished, and it is my intention to try to get all of them written eventually.
25) Do you plan a story from the beginning to end or start with an idea and let the chapters come to you as they do?
For very long stories like ‘Collaborator’, like many of the authors here, I have several very clear plot points, and I always know exactly how the fic will end and have a clear ending scene that I want to hit in a story, and extremely detailed character arcs for how I want the characters to evolve. Then as I’m writing there will be elements that will start to get integrated and prompt additional scenes to be stuck into the outline or will change details of already planned scenes even as the essence of the scenes remain the same.
With my shorter stories like ‘We Are’ and ‘Christmas’, I actually know all the scenes (I may not know the specifics or how long the scenes will be, but I know what has to happen in each). So I guess it just varies.
26) Do you ever input certain aspects about yourself into the lives of Chloe and Lex? For example: Do you have Chloe listen to your favorite song or have Lex watch your favorite movie?
Yes and no. In small ways I do it, mostly when I’ve already determined that I need something for that moment, and I can pull on an element of my experiences to supply it, provided it fits. For example, in ‘We Are’ Lex turns on ‘One for My Baby’ which as I mentioned is one of my favs, but I think it works, because I can picture Lex liking old jazz, and the song is appropriate for the moment. Similarly, the aspect of Chloe and Lex sharing their drinks in ‘Collaborator’ stems from the fact that I kind of have a hot beverage fetish, but again I think it integrates smoothly because Lex is rarely without a drink in hand.
On the other hand no matter how much of a Broadway fanatic I am, you’ll never see it in a fic here because it doesn’t make sense from either Chloe or Lex’s personalities.
27) Do you associate your writing with any songs even if it isn’t a songfic?
Oh God yes. In addition to the playlists I make, every fic I write has a very specific song that gets tagged to it. For example, ‘We Are’ is integrally tied to Kelly Clarkson’s “Sober” for me; and likewise ‘Collaborator’ to Kelly Clarkson’s “Addicted” (I have no idea why my Chlex fics seem to tend towards Kelly Clarkson songs, since it’s not really a general preference for me). “Christmas in Metropolis” isn’t inspired by Becky great Christmas video but whenever I need to get back into the mood, I watch that, so that would be Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas”
28) Do you prefer writing easy, quick stories or long, layered stories?
Just as I prefer reading long-layered stories, I prefer writing them as well. Particularly with this couple. Since I have a tendency to play in the later seasons, this is not a comfortable couple, and I think to build them up correctly to make the emotion and connection feel real (at least in my writing) it has be lengthy. On the other hand, I have to admit ‘We Are’ has to be one of my favorite things that I’ve ever written, because its composed of almost nothing but emotional pressure points, so . . . I guess that’s not entirely clean.
29) Which do you find easier to write: dialogue or description or are the equally hard/easy?
Depends on the story. (I know, I don’t actually give straight answers to anything). But truthfully, shorter stories (ala ‘We Are’) are always description heavy and that’s just what feels natural. Whereas, longer stories are driven by the dialogue and that’s what flows.
30) Is there anything that you won’t write or feel uncomfortable writing?
Not much. Sex scenes are tricky for me. I’ll write them, and god knows I love to read them, but they do take some effort. And frankly there are authors out there whose stuff will be sexier. Honestly, my sex scenes have a tendency to be more about the emotion than the technique and quite often the technique is not always that adventurous.
31) What do you do to cure writer’s block? What advice can you give to new writers who might be scared to post their stories?
Writer’s block: Write through it. I know a lot of writers say get up and walk away. And I think that works to a point. But I also think there’s a threshold of the amount of time you can step back from a fic before you lose momentum and there comes a point where you have to just start putting fingers to keys and keep typing. You’ll have to trash a lot of what comes out (or better yet, put it in your scraps folder because you might use a piece of dialogue later), but sooner or later, something will click and then it will start to come fast and furious again.
New writers: First things first. Be familiar with your material. Here’s the thing. Fanfiction is distinctly different from original stories for a reason. Your readers know these characters, they have opinions about them already. You have to know things like how Lex will react or how Chloe phrases things. Nothing will make me avoid a story quicker than the words “Lex might be a little OOC here” to me that’s a sign of laziness on the part of a fanfic writer. Second, I think you have to feel your story. There has to be an emotional investment, if when you read your story it makes you happy or makes your gut clench or whatever that response has to be, you’re halfway there. Third, get your grammar, spelling, and tense right. Those three things right off the bat will mark you out as new and many will walk away. Then, find someone to read it for you and give you a little insight and encouragement. If you want, I am happy to be someone, pm me and I’ll give you all the help I can. Finally, to borrow from Nike, “Just Do It”. You can’t find a warmer or more supportive board than here. Your first piece of fanfiction will not be your best. You will read it a year or two years from now and cringe, but it will bring joy to someone and your next chapter or next piece will be better and that’s only going to happen with trial and error.
32) Have you ever read someone else’s fanfic and wished you thought of the idea first?
Occasionally. Not often, because usually original ideas correspond with well-executed fic and there’s something magical about getting swept up in that. But occasionally when a story has been started and left unfinished after only a few chapters or when it starts out promising and then for some reason went horribly off course with a characterization, my fingers start to itch. Luckily I don’t think I’ve ever encountered that impulse on this board.
33) Have you ever wanted someone else to write your story idea?
No. My stories are very personal, and rarely do they come with just a plot outline. Often there are very specific scenes with particular pieces of dialogue that I want to make happen, I couldn’t bear to see the story without those pieces and if someone else wrote it it wouldn’t happen.
34) Are reviews vital to keep you writing or will you finish a story even if you aren’t certain people are reading?
You know, I know we’re all supposed to be writing for the muse, the satisfaction of a well told story, but honestly… I think any fanfiction writer who tells you that reviews don’t matter is full of crap. They matter. They matter a lot. And yes they are vital. I have an insane amount going on in my life and putting out a chapter is not an easy process. Often one chapter of ‘Collaborator’ is several nights and a whole weekend’s worth of writing and tweaking. And while there’s an amazing personal high that comes from completing a chapter and knowing in my heart that it’s right. There’s something even better about getting confirmation of that from other people. Not letting you guys down is what makes me keep putting myself through that.
I know how much joy good fanfic can bring to my life and I love knowing that my fic is doing it for someone else. There’s nothing better than the ‘omg I stayed up all night reading this’ or the ‘please god you have to update’ reviews because I’ve experienced those same emotions about a story. And there is nothing to describe the high I get if a writer I really admire reviews my work.
35) Have you ever had a review that made you think something about your story that you never thought of before? Has a review ever made you want to make a major change to your story?
Sabrina’s reviews do that to me constantly. Not the major change, but I use her insights as my gauge. If she’s picked up on it, I did it right. If she’s brought up a question or a concern I usually go back to my outline to make sure it’s going to be addressed if I feel it leaves a logic gap otherwise. It’s gotten to the point where I feedback her feedback just because that whole process makes my work better.
36) How badly do you want to write for Smallville or at least rewrite some of the seasons?
A little. Unlike a lot people on this board, I don’t have any undying need to undo the ‘ship that will not be named, but I would like the opportunity to redo Lex’s descent. I think the writers had set up something really nice in season 3 for the motivations behind that (with Lex’s view that the human race needed to keep from simply handing itself over to some alien protector), and while they would occasionally come back to it was always in a piecemeal disjointed fashion that usually left it feeling odd and forced. In a lot of ways, ‘Collaborator’ is my effort at exploring those motivations and beliefs in a more coherent manner.
37) Do you see Chloe and Lex or other Smallville characters in different television shows or movies? Meaning, do you watch a movie like Star Wars and start thinking that Lex is just like Han Solo?
You know until I started writing ‘Christmas in Metropolis,’ I would have said no, but then I did, so there goes that. I do see Lex in The Painted Veil and I’ve been dying to find a couple I could do a reinterpretation of that story with, but the thing is the heroine is too self-involved at the beginning to work for Chloe, so I think that one is destined to remain in the back of my mind.
38) What do you think AM and MR would say about your fics if they read them? How would you feel if someone from the show did read your writings?
When I write, I have a tendency to write a story like I’m blocking a play. Visualizing exactly where AM or MR would be at a specific moment, how MR would say a line or what AM’s facial expression would be here or there. I often go back to my video files to get those details right, for example if I want to know how Chlex interacts at sword points we go to the end of Progeny and Commencement. If want to know how Lex is drunk . . . its Reckoning no matter how painful that scene might be for my ‘shippers eyes. So I would like to think that AM and MR would like to play some of those scenes, specifically the ones towards the beginning of ‘Collaborator.’
Truthfully, I think they’d think I was crazy.
39) If you could have any super power, what would it be and why? Would you use it for good or evil?
The ability to stop time. I’d use it to take a nap and do more writing.
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