I started watching Battle of the Planets in 1982 on Aunty ABC, Australia's national broadcaster. I couldn't watch every day and we didn't have a VCR, so I think I must have only seen forty or less episodes. For the life of me, I can't explain *why* it hooked me the way it did; there were plenty of other shows I watched more often, but I don't remember them. Well, not until Robotech came along; my friends all thought I was barking mad, still watching kids' cartoons when I was 20 years old...

When I was a kid, it was Princess. Female character, so I suppose some degree of identification was natural. Nowadays, they all have something to offer, although when writing, it's still her head I find it easiest to get into. I should note here that BotP is the only version I've seen.

Zark. Even as a kid, I detested him. Just too cutesy-poo.

The short answer is, writing is something I have to do; if I don't, it hurts. The long answer is somewhat more complicated. When I was 13, I got sent to hell (boarding school) for a year as a weekly boarder. I hated it there; at the same time home life at weekends was rather unsettled as well, so I suddenly discovered the pressing need to be able to go somewhere else, mentally speaking . I made up a lot of stories, using my favourite characters, and spent a lot of time off in my head. I left boarding school and went back to a normal school and a normal home life. All of a sudden I had all these stories *and* the privacy to finally write them down instead of just memorising them. I think that's where my writing method comes from; to this day, I work out the majority of the details in my head without ever setting pen to paper until I'm ready to sit down and really write.

Many. In no particular order except recall, Naa-Dei Nikoi, Nancy Tang, Gloria Oliver, Ennien Ashbrook, Ebonbird, Heather Graves all spring immediately to mind. There are more.

Several things.

1 - Beta readers. A good beta reader is, as Dei once noted, worth their weight in the finest arabica coffee beans, and to me that's far more valuable than gold. A good beta reader can take something that's so-so and really help you focus.

2 - Reading. If you're widely read, you'll pick up the skills of good writing almost by osmosis, provided that a) you're thinking while you're reading and b) you're reading good writing, not trash.

3 - A while back, I went to a script writing workshop taught by a bloke named Mac Gudgeon (nobody would believe me if I made that up, but that's his real name). Mostly I went because it was a chance to have a chat with the co-writer of one of my favourite movies (a little Aussie feature from a few years back called "Ground Zero" - Colin Friels and the then-ubiquitous Jack Thompson, about Maralinga, if you're interested. And if you know about Maralinga), but I did pick up a couple of useful things.
One of those, and the one I use most often, was to find something that showed the point of the story; a quote, a phrase, whatever. Keep it handy and it'll keep you honest when you want to wander off on tangents. The Ithaca series, for instance, has two; the poem "Ithaca" which is about the value of the journey as opposed to the arrival, and a quote from Tolkein.

4 - Music. I don't mean that songs are direct inspiration (except in the case of "Little Wing", for me); rather, if I'm having trouble finding the mood of a story, or returning to it, the right music can help.
I write a lot under the influence of Henryk Gorecki's Symphony #3 (Symphony of Sorrowful Songs), Opus #44 (Miserere) and Opus #35 (Amen).
Stunning, awesome, beautiful, moving pieces of music. They jumpstart me almost any time.

"In A Small Room" (Heather) - as stated, Zark gets on my wick but she made him a real character with dimensions, no small achievement.
"Fledglings" (Nancy) - trying to build a coherent background out of the scattered clues in BotP canon is a mighty task and I felt like Nancy got really up close and personal with the characters.

Side note: In A Small Room and Fledglings were the first two pieces of fanfic I read in this universe. If there's one reason I decided to really investigate Gatch fandom, it's those two stories.

Others...

Ennien Ashbrook's "Battle of the Planets Arc" is terrific, because it turns canon on its head (Ennien, if you read this, *please* finish that storyline, I'm begging you). "Conversations" by Ennien and Kathleen Coventry really blew my wheels; it's out there, it's got style and real passion in the writing (another beg plead grovel for that to be finished *g*). Ebonbird's "Between" arc; the prose is wonderful, spare but *so* evocative. Naa-Dei's "To Superman" had a similar effect. Talk about getting inside a character's head.... Gloria Oliver's Gamble/Ascension series is great. Lori's "The Secret of Red Impulse" and "Sex and the Single Swan" written with Ebonbird had me in hysterics.

They're all my babies *g* but if you put a gun to my head and made me nominate only one...I'm kind of partial to "Little Wing" at the moment. That'll wear off though.

The easiest was "Outfitting." First of all, because it's just a piece of fluff. Second, because my standards and my expectations of what I could turn out were lower then. I'm working harder now.

One Down was difficult simply because the length meant a sustained effort.

Toughest of all though, is the Ithaca series. IV's been posted, I is ready, III is getting there (and here's a warning; if you thought One Down had some dark stuff, wait till you read this). V is half done and VI is kicking along nicely (I didn't even know VI existed until the Madmen in the Cellar dropped it on my head late one night). But II...that baby is really giving me hell. I thought at first that I was having trouble just because of the emotional territory I was going to have to cover. That's part of it, but the biggest hassle has been in finding the right viewpoint, the right angle. I *think* I've got a handle on it, but it's going to be like pulling teeth. Basically, I'm scared silly, because Ith II's job is to show the emotional arc between Princess' hope at the end of the war and the state she's in by the time IV and V roll around. If I can't do that credibly and honestly, then the whole series falls apart.

Only in two cases. First, there will be a somewhat-amended version of Ithaca IV to address some quite valid issues that were raised when I first posted it. Second, there was a continuity error in One Down that I will get around to fixing one of these days. It was a back-story point that changed from one chapter to the next. Apart from those two, no; once they're posted, they're finished. I could rewrite and tweak endlessly, trying to make each story just a little bit better, but then I'd never get on to new stuff.

The thing I love to see most of all is a story that moves me. The direction doesn't matter, so long as it's not to the nearest barf bag. If someone's written with passion, with *feeling* and the author's managed to translate their passion to me, they've succeeded in their aim. A story that takes the everyday and makes it extraordinary, or turns canon on its head and makes me look at a character in a whole different way - that can really rock my world.

On the negative, I hate anything that yanks me back out of the world that the author is supposed to be building. Cheesy dialogue, laziness in plotting, cheats in emotion; these things will send me running for the aforementioned barf bag. "House of cards" stories, where the whole plot is predicated on some flimsy excuse which doesn't hold up; the stupid syndrome, where the plot only works if every character has the intelligence of carpet lint...you know the things I mean. Also basic errors in spelling and punctuation irritate me beyond belief, for two reasons. First of all, I'm a born nitpicker. Second, and more important, the author's put all this work into creating a world and drawing me in to it, then they yank me right back out of it with carelessness. Even the best plotted, most creative idea will lose out to carelessness if it's bad enough.

Gatch Joe, because he's an incredibly complex character and people like that fascinate me. And then Zark. Given that he's number one on my personal Loathing List, that might surprise you, but - to paraphrase Jun in "The Secret of Red Impulse" - how else am I supposed to reduce him to shrapnel?

First answer would be none of them. Talk about a tough life! But on reflection, Princess; she's the one who sits back and watches, probably has the closest thing to a pipeline into each team member's head.

Actually, yes. I'm trying to write for market now, and that *never* would have happened without the help of certain people on the botp ML - people who've beta read for me and who've sent me encouraging feedback on what I've written. Guys, *if* you ever see a novel with my name on the cover, check the dedication inside - it will be at least partly your fault :)

Oh yes. In anime, Robotech (the Invid Invasion series especially - Southern Cross didn't do a lot for me). Ghost in the Shell had terrific concepts, let down by the acting (that comment applies to the dub version; I'm still looking for a sub. If anyone knows where I can lay my hands on one in Australia *please* let me know). Non-anime, X Files, Red Dwarf, Wallace and Gromit. The West Wing is my current favourite on television; terrific characterisation, it's sharp as hell and a few episodes (most notably the capital punishment episode from the first series) rank high on my 'best moments in television' list. Movies, too many to mention.

You would ask that...

Before I answer, let me tell you something. For most people who are moving house, the biggest single category, the group that will take up the most space in the removalists' truck, is furniture. For me, it's books. The last move I made, over half of what had to be packed and moved was the library.

Favourites in no particular order:

Katharine Kerr - her Deverry series is great and she's written some other stuff like Polar City Blues that's worth a look
Stephen King - The Stand and the Dark Tower series in particular Arthur C Clarke - the man's a visionary, that's all there is to it
John Wyndham - has a distinctive voice. The Kraken Wakes is an especial favourite
James Michener's Space and The Drifters are both books I love
CS Lewis' Narnia Chronicles
Michael Moorcock - I started reading these when I was about ten years old, which convinced one of my teachers that a) I had psychological problems and b) so did my parents for letting me read that stuff
JRR Tolkien - my mother gave me a copy of LotR for Christmas when I was about ten, and I finished it in three days flat. It would have been less but she took it away for a few hours so I'd sleep, eat and actually acknowledge the existence of the real world for a while
William Shakespeare
John Marsden's Tomorrow, When the War Began series - these are supposed to be young adult fiction, but they're great
My collection of Gary Larson, "Dilbert" and "Calvin and Hobbes" anthologies - it's not often a cartoonist makes me cry but Bill Watterson did when he drew that raccoon story.

To look at, not read: Brian Froud's "Faeries," "Unicornis," and yes, that's how it's spelt, by Michael Green, Graeme Base's "Animalia" and "The Eleventh Hour."

Reading, as if you couldn't guess. The internet, music (I have an eclectic music collection, and also play guitar, flute and bodhran plus I sing), acting (amateur). I'm also on a quest to find the perfect capuccino and the world's best short black triple. Ah, caffeine: it's three out of the five major food groups, you know :)

I'm a radio announcer and copywriter, which means I have the best job on earth.

Can be found at www.geocities.com/kingsideau/index.html.