1) If you could visit any place at any time period, where would you go and what would you do?

There seem to have been a few times and places that were a nexus of art, civilization, politics, philosophy and history. Those are the times I would visit – Athens at the time of Socrates, Byzantium at the time of Justinian and Theodora, Florence at the time of Michelangelo and the Medicis. I wouldn’t want to stay in any of those places long-term though. I like my computer and my ibuprofen too much.
2) Have you ever met anyone famous?

Not really. I talked to Jimmy Buffet in a traffic jam in Knoxville, TN once. And I’m acquainted with some semi-famous writers.

3) Who is your favorite author, alive or dead, and why?

I can’t narrow it down to one. Poets are harder for me to decide between, but my favorite novelists are probably Charlotte Bronte and Guy Gavriel Kay.

4) What is your favorite book and why?

I can’t decide on one for this either. But the books that have had the greatest impact on me are Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women and Guy Gavriel Kay’s Tigana. I really think Little Women helped shape the way I understood myself growing up. And reading Tigana is, hands down, the most emotionally powerful experience I’ve ever had with a book.

5) What is your favorite television show and why?

Buffy the Vampire Slayer is my favorite. I think it’s probably the best written show I’ve ever watched and it’s one that I still find incredibly compelling. I also loved the first three seasons of The West Wing and the first two seasons of Alias.

6) Do people in your Real Life know that you are a member of NS?

Just my sister.

7) Do people in your Real Life know that you read/write fanfiction?

Just my sister. I have an academic career and reputation that wouldn’t work well with fanfiction notoriety. Although, I’ll say that I know (either directly or indirectly) of many, many other professional academics who read or write fanfiction.

8.) When did you first decide to move from writing fanfiction to writing professionally? Had you always planned to write professionally and fanfic was the hobby or did the transition come through writing fanfic?

I actually started with professional fiction writing. I’ve written all my life, and I had a few different fiction manuscripts that were agented and marketed, but my fiction has never been a good fit for genre conventions so nothing really panned out. So I was burned out on writing for a few years before I randomly started writing fanfiction, and that really helped me cultivate the craft of narrative and revived my love for writing. It was a natural move to go back to writing professionally.

9) How did you find the place to sell your work? Was there major research involved or just a bit of fate & faith?

I’ve done a lot of market research now, but honestly, when I first submitted Renaissance to EC, I’d done almost no research. EC seemed to be the biggest publisher of erotic romance, so I just submitted a proposal. A lot of luck involved there. EC wasn’t a good long-term fit for me though and neither was erotic romance. The genre is unfortunately limited in terms of depth and quality. Some of it is very well-written (a lot of it isn’t) but few readers are looking for fiction with any depth – and that’s where I’m not a good fit.

10) How much effort was involved in switching a work over from Chlex fanfiction to Original work?

Some of the stories weren’t (or wouldn’t have been) hard –Renaissance was fairly AU as it was and the Smallville backstory wasn’t a significance feature in the fic. But even Nameless, which I still think might have had potential, was harder than I expected. I found it easier to just start from scratch and write original fiction.

11) How did you choose which stories would work best for Original fiction?

I only chose stories that fit basically into the romance genre narrative pattern (many of my stories don’t) and that aren’t as deeply ingrained in the Smallville canon. Irrevocable and Untouchable would have been impossible since the entire plot is grounded in events on the show. Anything that includes Clark as a superhero makes it difficult too.

12) Are you currently working on any writing: fanfiction or original?

I’ve been working primarily on nonfiction for the last year or two. It’s good for my career and I’m actually making money with it, but I just don’t have the passion for nonfiction that I do for fiction, so I’ve got to get back to fiction pretty soon.

13) Which story (stories), fanfiction or original, are you most proud of? Which took the most effort to write? Which gave the best fan response?

In terms of fanfiction, I’m probably most proud of Irrevocable. I really like how it came together. And it’s one of the stories I want to go back and reread the most. I also love rereading Road Tripping (although I fully recognize its limitations). And In Experience turned out far, far better than I ever expected when I started. As far as my original erotic fiction is concerned, I think Complicated is the best – and I was thrilled that I managed to develop a full story in so few chapters.

14) What (if any) other fandoms do you read/write for and why?

I wrote a couple of Harry Potter stories, but that was mostly for my sister (who is a huge HP fan). I’ve briefly considered some other fandoms but nothing has inspired me like Chlex.

15) What type of environment do you need to write? For example: extreme quiet, blaring music, subtle background noise, etc.

It honestly doesn’t matter. I can write with the television on or off, at a desk or on my couch or on my bed. Eating, drinking or none of the above. The only thing I rarely do is play music when I write. I don’t know why – I just never have.

16) How do your ideas come to you? Do you always write them or do you let them disappear?

I get ideas all the time – most of them never turn into stories. Sometimes, if I particularly like an idea, I’ll keep coming back to it and try developing it in my brain. If I can’t let it go, that’s when I’ll start writing it. I actually still have a couple of Chlex ideas that I’d love to write, if I ever go through another Chlex phase.

17) 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, yes, yes, of course. I think this is inevitable. I think the farther my stories went into AU, the more this happened (either intentionally or not). For instance, Chloe in Renaissance and Glow was more like me than Chloe in the Lessons stories or Road Tripping. I think my Lex’s sense of humor is a lot like mine – more so than we actually see on the show. And I would often throw in things I was interested in while writing. I was going through a Provence love-affair when I wrote Glow. I was teaching Victorian literature when I wrote Irrevocable. That sort of thing.

18) Do you associate your writing with any songs even if it isn’t a songfic?

Never. I don’t know why. I love music but it has never really inspired me creatively. I’ve never even considered writing a songfic.

19) Do you prefer writing easy, quick stories or long, layered stories?

I think the answer to this one should be fairly obvious to anyone who has read my stories.

20) Which do you find easier to write: dialogue or description or are the equally hard/easy?

Dialogue is by far the easiest for me. Sex scenes are the hardest. Narration, exposition, description, action etc. fall somewhere in the middle, depending on the story context and my mood.

21) Is there anything that you won’t write or feel uncomfortable writing?

I’m not sure there is any content I would consider completely off-limits. I have trouble writing sex scenes of things I don’t find personally sexy (the anal sex scene in terza rima was incredibly hard for me to write). The only things I would say I’d never write are things I’d consider morally wrong (like rape that is written as eroticized or something like that).

22) What advice can you give to new writers who might be scared to post their stories?

Writing is only half-done if it isn’t shared. While writing for oneself can be good practice or can be therapeutic, that’s all it can be if you aren’t willing to let other people read it. It’s scary but it’s worth it.

23) Have you ever read someone else’s fanfic and wished you thought of the idea first?

Yes, occasionally. But usually the ideas I like are from writers I really respect, so I know they handled them better than I would have.

24) Have you ever wanted someone else to write your story idea?

Never. For some reason, that has never occurred to me.

25) 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?

Absolutely – both praise and criticism has helped me think about my stories better and more deeply than I might have otherwise. I’ve never significantly changed a story because of one review or even a lot of reviews. I generally stick to the plan I started with, but the nuances of my fics were often influenced by reviews. I think those of you who have read my fics from the beginning can see where I’ve responded to reviewers’ questions or concerns in the story itself. I also like to make shout-outs in my stories to reviewers or reviews.

26) How badly do you want to write for Smallville or at least rewrite some of the seasons?

The problem with writing Smallville is that I’d have to mess around with characters who are less than interesting to me. I would have written a ChLuthor spin-off in a heartbeat, though.

27) 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?

I don’t do this very often. I have noticed that the male characters I generally like the most are sort of like Lex and that the female characters I usually respond to are kind of like Chloe.

28) 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?

I don’t really know! I think I might be kind of embarrassed since I put their characters in so many graphic sex scenes.