Introducing Barbara...
 

Disclaimer: When the Ladies of Chronicle X asked for this interview, I reminded them that I was actually more of an authorette than an author, having produced very few stories. But they said they wanted to hear from newbies as well as more experienced writers, so I happily complied. I'm very honored to be asked for my opinions on various and sundry subjects. As you'll see, I love pontificating for an audience...
 

Q. Tell us something about yourself, Barbara.

A. Chapter ONE. I am born.

Oh.

You probably want the capsule version. Let's see -- I'm an auburn-haired (okay, reddish brown-haired) Irish-American, raised Catholic, a scientist, a woman, and I'm short. I have an odd sense of humor, a great figure, and a gorgeous partner. (And only two of those are lies.)
 
 

Q. Have you always written fiction or did TXF inspire you to try story-telling?

A. Fiction? You mean apart from the grant proposals? Until last November, I'd never written fiction -- but I've always been a voracious consumer of fiction.
Discovering fanfic two years ago was a revelation on two counts: *Free* stories! Even cheaper than a used book store. And they were stories about characters I already knew, and had been enjoying watching for years. I never would have started writing -- or the start would have been much later -- if it wasn't for fanfic.
 
 

Q. When you aren't writing fanfic or watching TXF, what do you enjoy doing?

A. I enjoy reading, going out with friends to plays, movies, the ballet, to museums and out to eat. I love browsing through bookstores (any bookstore), hiking in the local foothills, and sweating through my jazzercise class. I *love* to travel.

Sometimes I get tired of all that, though, and prefer to eat chips and salsa in front of the TV, and muse on the size of Mulder's... IQ.
 
 

Q. What about the show moved you to write X-Files fanfic?

A.  The size of Mulder's IQ.

Oh, and, um... well, actually, it wasn't the show that inspired me. It was other fanfic writers.
 
 

Q. If you could change one thing about the show, what would it be?

A. Knock that IQ down a little. Mulder thinks too much. He should sweat more. I see an ep starring... CabanaBoy!Mulder.

Other than that, in reality, I'm pretty easy. I like the show as presented, flaws and all. I've been able to find *something* to enjoy in every episode produced so far (except for Teso dos Bichos, the only ep I actively disliked all the way through and ever after). And there are *so* many eps I'll always watch again.

BUT, if I was the Queen of the World, I tell you what I'd do... I'd buy the Fox Network. In my new capacity as She At 1013 Who Must Be Obeyed, I'd let Chris have his 22 eps, and then I'd take over.

I'd need some Chief Executives in Charge of Development, so the folks running Chronicle X, Sparky's Doghouse, The Primal Screamers, and all the other great fanfic archivists out there would be appointed to recommend a constant supply of new stories.

My first programming move would be to demand that all shows re-run on F/X be followed by filmed adaptations of my favorite post-ep vignettes, such as Shalimar's Camp, Justin Glasser's Nom de Guerre, JZJenn's Tempting, Alanna's Laughing, Dianora's Impasse, Mish's So Let it be Written, and Anne Hayne's Sonnet stories. In addition, I'd have to have a "Slightly Mundane" list from Amanda Finch and a review by AutumnT to round out each episode.
 

My Summer programming moves would blow the competition away. June would be case file month. We'd have some top quality case files with *great* characterization: Stories by Nascent (Theory & Practice, Pillar of Salt), Jill Selby (Rags, Ever After), Analise (Lucky Lizzie), Vehemently (Scatter, Signals), RivkaT (Acadia), D.A. Prewitt (On the Wings of Destiny), and Kipler (Genius), with Teleplays by Vince Gilligan. We'd do Karen Rasch's "No Greater Love" for sure, and we'd pay a big signing bonus to the kid who played Kevin Kryder, because of course, we'd do "Kevin" by Justin Glasser.
 

For July, I see a series of "Playhouse 90" type evenings of one act plays, based on some of my favorite vignettes and short stories.

We'd have a week for "Exercises in Subtlety", with Marguerite (When the Bough Broke, Solar Flare, Worth Her Weight, Canceled Check), Meredith (Heaven in Hell's Despair, Mapmaking), JS Michele (Care Package), Punk Maneuverability (Escape Speed), haphazard method (Reading Between the Lines), and Chey Burgess (Don't Think of a Blue Elephant).

Then a week for "Different Ways of Looking at the Ship", with Nascent (Meta Romance), Maureen B. Ocks (Office Politics), Elizabeth Boyd-Tran (Anything at All), Audrey Roget (The Shirt, Illuminati), Amy Seymour (Go Be, True Colors), Suzanne Schramm (Dividends), Scullysfan (Cacophony), Alanna (Going to Hell), Lilith (Rumination on Dead Cows) and ebola (Fascination).

Followed by a week for "Oh, the Horror", with Wayward (The Light of One Sun), Jennifer Stoy (Before I Forget Blue), Brighid (Porphyria's Lover), RivkaT (Shibboleth), CiCi Lean (Mr. Natural), wickedzoot (The Bad Maggie Scully stories) and plausible deniability (Habeus Corpus).

And finally, a week for "The Unclassifiable (and Thank Goodness For Them)", with Alloway (All the Mulders), CiCi Lean (The Sea and the Serpent), Gwendolyn (Eight & Twelve), Kipler (Soliloquy), Journey To X (Rosemary for Remembrance), Vehemently (Navel Gazing), and SummerQ (Swallowed Screams).

By the time August rolled around, I imagine we'd be hearing complaints from DD and GA, so, I'd pick Chris Owens up off the basement floor, dust him off and let him shine in "Plausible Deniability Presents: Stories of a Young CSM".

Of course, I couldn't let DD and GA completely off the hook, but we could give GA a rest by filming Ghosts by Torch, Scar Tissue by Joann Humby, and Banging Your Head Against a Red-Haired Brick Wall by Blair Provence. I'd build a sound booth in Malibu and bring in DD and MP to do a radio play based on Sheare Bliss' "Complicated Shadows" -- they could do it poolside. When DD started to squawk, we'd bring GA back for "Mustang Sally's Syntax and Measure -- The Miniseries", Deny Nothing by RivkaT, as well as Izzy Izenthe's Ignition Series.

Since Summer is the hottest season, I'd have to buy HBO so we could do "Iolokus -- A World Premiere" on cable (none of that silly Standards and Practices stuff to get in the way).

I'd have lots of late evening air time to fill, so I'd appoint DashaK Associate Queen of Smut, with Plausible Deniability as Her (Platonic) Consort. In addition to their own stories (especially Red Valerian, Jitterbug Perfume, Increments, Momentary Lapses, The Carrot and the Stick and Iced Tea), we'd do Invocation by The Pen Name, Anne Hayne's Heart of Midnight and Loners, Alloway's Seaside, Red Valerian's Sense and Insensibility, Laura Anne Gilman's Betrayal, MD1016's Cheapened Things, parrotfish's Caught in the Act and Twelfth Voyage, The Words series by Karen Rasch, Dance Without Sleeping and Apocalyptic Poet by Lydia Bower, and Alanna's Takeoff Series. Naturally, we'd have to do "Late Night with Khyber -- A Complete Course". And then everyone could take the next week off to recover.

For cliffhangers, we'd have The Road series by Nicole Perry, and Walls by Saraid, and for a summer season-ender, we'd have the "A.I. Irving Labor Day Weekend Tripleheader": The Actor, The Cry of the Truth, and Winterlude. Once Patrick Stewart saw that script, he'd probably pay us to co-star.

September would be for Specials: Separate evenings for 12 Degrees, 12 Rites and 12 Tales, as well as Between Two Truths by Anne Haynes, "Missy Pennington's Tempest -- The Whole Darn Thing", Meredith's Show of Strength, Marguerite's The Chosen One, Alanna's Preponderance and "Titanium -- A Work In Progress", and Loch Ness' Letters of Transit.

We'd definitely have to make time for a couple showcases: "All My Stories, with Rachel Howard" and "BoyFic Week With Your Host, Dawson Rambo".

I'm not averse to making money, so we could have "Michaela's Grace Realized", sponsored by Kleenex, and "A Terma99 Anthology", sponsored by the San Francisco Tourist Board.

We could even have "An Evening with Dark Nascent, Hosted by Darin Morgan", though this would probably have to be the grand finale for the schedule, because I'm not sure any of us would survive.

That's about it. Oh, one other thing. If I was Queen, I'd redesign the world for short people. There are more of us than you think, and we're very tired of reaching for things all the time.
 
 

Q. How would you classify your work?

A. This is hard. I'm my own worst critic, so my first response to this question was to say either amateur, or horribly cerebral and painfully contrived. But I'm trying to work on the negativity thing, so how about: character driven pieces that have a little UST, a little angst, and usually some humor (she said hopefully).
 
 

Q. What is your take on the Mulder/Scully dynamic?

A. The standard take seems to be that if they didn't love each other so much, they'd be a teaser for the evening news: Double Homicide! Film at 11! I don't really see that. I think they have a deep, solid connection -- one that is based on mutual respect, by the way, rather than mutual need. I just don't see either of them being as needy (read neurotic) as some do. They truly are partners, and always will be. I've enjoyed following the development of the relationship through the series. I saw UST in the pilot, and it was what started me watching. But the connection is so much more than sexual -- it's spiritual, emotional, intellectual. They've obviously made a strong commitment to work together toward a common goal, combining their separate strengths. That's rare -- and great to watch (and read).

The funny thing is, as far as writing goes -- I have a hard time writing the relationship as a full-blown MSR. The pro-forma parameters of a "romantic" relationship just don't fit this couple very well -- their connection is too complex for that -- which is why I like non-pro-forma MSRs. I think we need new terminology, because reducing the interaction to UST/RST also diminishes the connection.
 
 

Q. Tell us some of the circumstances behind the writing of your first piece of fanfic.

A. It was pure theft -- or voodoo, I'm not sure which. I was reading "How Stella Got Her Groove Back", and Terry MacMillan's wonderful, loopy, driving prose rhythm took over my head. At the same time, after watching a re-run of "The End", I wondered what Scully might be thinking after seeing Mulder with Diana. The lines just *insisted* on being written down. It was a lot of fun.

I posted the story (Oyster Season) first on XAPEN, because I was terrified, and felt that it was a nurturing sort of place -- and boy, was I right. The first feedback I got was from other writers who post there -- and they were very encouraging. I was hooked!
 
 

Q. What was the first XF fanfic you read?

A. I can't tell -- it was very popular -- and absolutely dreadful, I thought. Why I kept going after that is a mystery. Thankfully, I soon found the good stuff. Karen Rasch's No Greater Love, I think, was the first thing I really enjoyed.
 
 

Q. Where do you get your ideas?

A. Heaven only knows. But just as soon as I figure it out, I'm going straight back for more.
 
 

Q. Do you start with a single idea, or have the whole story mapped out when you start?

A.  So far, my stories have only *had* one idea, so I guess I start with that. Embellishments and odd turns are welcome during the writing, but I don't count on them to help me finish the story. I have to know where I'm going, or else I won't start. Plunging into the unknown makes me cranky.
 
 

Q. Do you have any kind of rituals you follow when writing?

A.  Um. I sit down. Then I type. Sometimes I drink iced tea. That's about it.
 
 

Q. Describe for us the actual physical area you work in, Barbara.

A. Well, okay, but don't tell my mother. She'll be on the next train up with a dust rag and a can of Endust. I work on a dusty laptop in my dusty living room, sitting in a dusty rocking chair. I have the TV on across the room with the sound OFF. I've finally achieved my goal of living in a library, so apart from the chairs, TV, and sofa, there are 7 bookcases and stacks of unread magazines (Time, The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, Archeology, Vanity Fair, Scientific American, Premiere, and Sports Illustrated). As with my fanfic reading, I'm very far behind on current events -- I'm good right up to Dec. 1997, but I have no idea what's happened in the world after that. My motto is that I've been given a certain amount of reading to do in this life, and right now, I'm so far behind I will never die.
 
 

Q. Do you listen to a particular type of music when you write?

A.  NO! Must. Have. QUIET. Having a limited number of neurons means that I get distracted very easily. (Although one of my story blocks *was* resolved by listening inadvertently to a Bangles song. And no, I'm not telling which song or which story. I don't want to hear from any boggled Bangles.)
 
 

Q. How do you deal with writer's block?

A.  I walk around it. No, actually, I drive around it. I came up with most of the dialogue in "Stakeout Through the Heart" while creeping through traffic on Thanksgiving weekend. I think it must be because after you've searched the car thoroughly for loose change and the odd Snickers bar, and made up rude haikus based on your fellow commuters' license plates, there's nothing else to do, so you might as well work on your story.
 
 

Q. How important is feedback to you?

A.  I've never put a request for feedback on my stories, because when I started, it seemed... rather immodest to ask. Of course, under the skin of every modest person, there beats the heart of a raging narcissist, so if someone *volunteers* their opinion or reaction, it delights me no end. And astounds me as well -- the idea that someone would take the time to write makes my day, my week, my 8 months of writing so far. But it's not the *reason* I write. I like to write -- the process amuses and entertains me, even when it's also frustrating the hell out of me. I post because I've always liked to entertain others, and *hope* that's what I am doing.
 
 

Q. Who are some of your favorite fanfic authors? And which are some of your favorite pieces of X-Files fanfic?

A. I *love* this question. I made a list. And then I thought, "How interesting is a list?" So my answer is in the "How I'd change the show" epic above. The only problem is, I'm so far behind, I *know* there's great stuff sitting on my hard drive, or printed out and sitting on the floor (next to the magazines) -- that I'm sure
I'm missing a lot.
 
 

Q. Which is your favorite of your own work?

A.  There are things about all of them I really like (and really dislike as well, but remember, I'm trying to work on the negativity thing). But I'd have to say I'm most happy with "Dream On", because I tried to take all the lessons that Amy Seymour, haphazard method, Paula Graves, Marguerite, wickedzoot, and DashaK taught me while performing beta duties on one or more of my stories, and put them into that one.

And I do have to stop here for a minute, and say thanks to them. Without their encouragement, support, and assistance, no one would have been interested enough in
my stories to want to hear more from me.
 
 

Q. Now what about your favorite character, or the character you relate to most strongly?

A.  I like 'em both. I can't favor one over the other -- it feels wrong. I think the partnership is what is most interesting about the show. As individuals, each has qualities I can relate to, and each has the capacity to delight and disappoint me.
 
 

Q. What's the biggest problem you encounter when writing? How do you go about solving it?

A.  Getting an idea is my biggest problem. Once that's conquered, the writing is an always interesting, sometimes frustrating, more often rewarding, even occasionally joyful, exercise. As for solving the getting-an-idea problem, I haven't yet. I'm the one idea at a time girl, and I still haven't figured out how to fix that.
Between stories, I just have to sit around and wait till the muse thwaps me upside the head.
 
 

Q. What is/are the most significant thing(s) you've gained from participating in the world of X-Files fanfic?

A. Getting over a fear of trying to write something. I've always wanted to, but never knew where to start. The discovery of a community of brave souls that were not only writing, but presenting their work in a public forum and even *critiquing* each other was a thrill. The other cool thing is, since doing this, I've made some
new friends -- who also write fanfic. So when I just *have* to tell someone, "I just got the greatest idea for a story," I don't have to bite my tongue before
continuing, "where Mulder and Scully...."
 
 

Q. Do your family and friends know about your fanfics? What are their reactions?

A.  No, they don't know. My family would be proud but puzzled, I suppose (that's how they feel about most of the things I do). My friends know I write, but not the subject matter. They would be... rather incredulous, I think. They just don't "get" TXF, and certainly not to the point of writing about it.
 
 

Q. What encouragement or advice would you give newbie XF fanfic writers?

A. I can't give anyone else advice with a straight face -- I just don't have enough experience. So, keeping in mind a warning from "Alice in Wonderland" (stolen from Amy Seymour's sig) -- "I give myself very good advice, but I very seldom follow it." -- this is the advice I'd give myself, and any other newbie writers who are interested:

If you've got the itch to tell a story, go ahead. I guarantee, you *will* have a lot of fun. BUT, while it's important to take writing a story seriously (enough to present it properly, spelling and grammar-wise, and get it beta read), it's also important to enjoy yourself, and realize that it's not the end of the world when no one pays attention, and not the beginning of a Glorious Career if they do. The most satisfying and entertaining part of the whole exercise should be getting the idea and writing it down, I think. The rest is gravy.
 

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