How long have you been writing fan fiction? Do you write it only for the Herc/Xena universe? 

I've been writing fan fiction, of one sort or another, since I was about 14 or 15.  And since I'll be 40 this year, well, 25-26 years, off and on, or there abouts. So, no I don't write exclusively within the bounds of the Herc/Xenaverse. I also write in the Star Trek: Voyager (amongst others) frame work. I started out by writing a truly awful Arthur of the Britons story .. way back when. No doubt that is a show no one else will have heard about or even seen. Feeling my age (and my nationality) here. Arthur had this best friend, a Saxon boy his step father had raised as his own, but I was an innocent 14...Slash was unheard of in my world view then! That came years later...Two years later.  I was 16 when I first encountered slash fiction, and have been fairly well hooked ever since. I can even tell you the name of that first slash story, though not the author. 

What are your favorite characters to use? 

That entirely depends on the universe I'm writing in. In Herc/Xenaverse definitely Ares and Joxer. Not even in a slash context either, I've been branching out into Gen fics of late. (The shame of it!) And, I don't always have them 'together' as it were, no, sometimes their just both in the story. I guess I like to see them acting outside the narrow constraints that cannon set them in. I do not hold with the concept of 'fannon' - I hate the idea of fans being constrained in any way. 

If someone has a story to tell, let them tell it. They just have to risk people saying it's rubbish, or ignoring it. Or indeed, loving it. After Ares and Joxer, I like to write Strife and Cupid, but that's entirely Erin's fault.  She introduced me to the idea that there was more to either of them than at first met my eye. I also like to write Iolaus and even, at time Gabrielle, but Herc and Xena can be too cardboard cutouty, if you see what I mean, their characters are driven by the constraints inherent in being the hero, always good, always perfect (though less so with Xena). 

Do you prefer writing slash or het? If you have a preference why? 

Oh, easy, slash. I simply don't write much, if any, het. I think that that is because it's nothing special. Well, I'm a heterosexual woman, if I want het action I drag my husband off to bed for the real thing! Reading about het sex does nothing for me either. Sometimes, though not often, I find myself reading some sex scene and find myself wondering if the writer has ever had sex, in any size shape or form involving another living, breathing, actually participating there person, you know what I mean? Though, I hasten to add, this is not at all common with the Herc/Xenites. We all at least seem to have either hands on experience or the good sense to go read up on the subject! It's the physically impossible positions that get me, either in slash or het. So, I'm a slasher at heart, well, I suppose, in a way, it's like het men and 'girly' vids. Two (or more) girls doing each other will peek their interest two or more guys will do the same for me! 

What themes do you notice popping up in your work most often? 

The effects of child abuse, be it physical or emotional. The desire to be loved, which is something I think we all have. The need for children--it's a privilege, not a right, in my eyes. Yet, it's one of the strongest desires that drive us as a species. Other themes, well, I suppose the need to change and grow, to evolve as a person (or God), to challenge the future, despite your past. Damn, don't I sound pretentious?  There might be others but for the life of me, I can't think of any offhand. 

Do you also write original fiction? If so, do you find it easier or harder to write than fan fic? 

I've started writing more original fiction of late. I find it easier now than I did before. I think the fan fiction has given me the confidence to tackle original fiction in a more positive way. Positive in so far as now I know I can do it, you know? Fan fic is by far the easier of the two to write, to me that is, each and every one of us will have our own POV on that one. Original fic, however, can be the more satisfying of the two. To know that here, before me, is something that I created, that I cut from whole cloth, it's just a great buzz! But then, so is logging on and seeing feedback for a fan fic. Either way it's the touching of someone's life. It might not affect them in any profound way, but to know I made someone laugh, someone cry, someone want to rip Gabs/Herc/Discord's head clean off their shoulders... I'm not fussy, I'll villify anyone! 

What story that you've written do feel is your best work, and why? 

Oh, another hard one! I guess it'd have to be The Fool and The God. I loved writing that one. It was the first very long story I ever wrote. I'd done many shorter ones, many serial stories, but never a single, long, story arc. It's got the word count of an average 230 page novel. I suppose, in a way, it was my first novel, although I don't think I'll ever see that one in print.  I loved the concept of facing Joxer with what he most wanted and desired, but from a source other than what he expected. He knows, right from the start of the story, that his 'friends' only put up with him, they don't love him the way he loves them. When he's faced with the injured, and mentally damaged Ares, he gets the love and respect he craved all his life. He just never expected to be from his son, the God of War Who would?  F&G is the story I get most requests for a sequel for. I'm just so glad so many others like that one too. 

Which story would you most like to be remembered for, and why? 

Most definitely The Fool and The God, I would have say. For all of the above reasons.  I love the idea of Joxer, everyone's fool, being the only man that Ares would face down his father for, and it's not a sexual love, very much far from it! If anyone ever suggested to Joxer that he wanted to be in Ares' bed, in a sexual way, he'd rip them apart with his bare hands. Joxer would never do that to his son, ok, his son is a thousand years plus older than him, but that doesn't matter. Not to Joxer, not to Ares. 
Fool and the God is the one story I'd want to see filmed. Could you imagine the byplay between Kevin and Ted in the Ares-Joxer scenes? Especially the 'how are babies made' sequence? That and I have the not so secret desire to see The Rabbits of War hopping around the sets. 

Then again, I could see both Joel Tobeck and Karl Urban delivering the emotive scenes with Strife and Cupid each facing up to their troubled past. I'd love to hear Joel read the speech where he accuses Cupid of being a hypocritical bastard ... After Cupid apologizes for not thinking about him, for wallowing in his glorious misery.  The mental image of Kevin Smith doing the death of his babies scene, still brings a tear to my eyes, and I wrote the bloody thing! 

What aspects of you writing do you think have improved the most since you started writing? 

I think my ability to actually sustain a story has vastly improved.  My understanding of plot development, my growing grasp of basic grammar.  I won't claim to be better at spelling. Anyone who's ever beta read for me would just cry me a liar, and justifiably so. I can't spell for toffee! I tell you, I cringe when I re read something I wrote even a few years ago.  I also think I'm now better able to communicate my thoughts and ideas to others, both in my private life, my fandom life and my working life. I just have to remember who gets which set of discussion topics.  Well, not too many of the list sibs would want a daily, blow by blow account of life with the **********'s, now would they? Yet, family gossip does have its place, so long as I'm hearing it, not being it.  Nor would any of the lawyers or Civil Servants I work with want a blow by blow account of a slash scene... no, wait, the lawyers might, they can be strange... and my husband really isn't at all interested in anything we slashers get up to, or anything to do with my work.   Mark you, he at least stays home with our son while I go off to a convention or whatever! 

Do you have any goals in mind pertaining to your writing for the future? 

Yes, I want to sell a novel. I want to be able to walk into a book store and think 'Shit! I write that!' Selfish and conceited, maybe, but it's a dream I've had for very many years.  Maybe one day, huh? I'm currently working on my latest idea, so maybe this time.  I don't let my hopes get too high though, makes it too far to fall when they come crashing down. I know, I know, I'm a coward, but cowards live longer, don't they? 

Which of Kevin Smith's characters do you like writing about most, and why? 

Ares, because he is at one and the same time., the easiest and the most varied of his characters. He's shown more often than the others, but there is also a more rounded personality with him. Bacchus, Timor and Iphicles are by and large just two dimensional foils for the heroes to bounce off of. I, in my own person point of view, think that the only thing to hang of of Bacchus would be your jacket.  There is nothing to make me sympathetic to him, so I couldn't write him as the central character, he'd end up irritating me far too much. Likewise Timor, he was just too stupid to survive. and why Ares didn't fireball him I do not know. Then there is Iphicles, I don't see him as a whiner. On the contrary, he had justifiable grievances with Herc the Jerk and their mother, not even over shadowed by his younger brother, he was totally eclipsed by him. Alcmene was  supposed to have loved her husband, yet as soon as she knows she's to have a demi god, she ignores the son her 'beloved; husband gave her, and starts on about how her whole life is dedicated to Hercules' welfare. Sorry sweetheart, you did have an older son there too, you know! He was denied the one thing that would have helped him deal with Hercules, the unshakable knowledge that their mother loved him too. Personally, i don't think she did!  So the final order would seem to be: Ares, Iphicles, Timor and Bacchus. 

But I've recently been toying with a Lawless fan fic idea... but let's not go into that at the moment. 

How long have you been a member of KSA? 

I couldn't rightly say. About a year, maybe a little less. I don't really know, sorry, I tend not to pay too much attention to time passing by. It'd make me way too depressed <g> all that time at work, wasted, I could have been writing fics at home if not for work... I can say it's been a learning experience though, mostly enjoyable, and I've made many friends through KSA, Joxerotica etc. So all in all a very worthwhile time, who could ask for more? 

This interview was conducted in January 2000, by Jenn M.