This month's featured author is Una McCormack. Una writes DS9 fanfic and five of her stories are featured on this page.

If you're a fanfic writer and would liked to be featured on this page, please drop us a note at [email protected] We'll also gladly take recommendations for writers whom you think deserve to be "in the spotlight."

Name: Una McCormack

Website: Here Be Una

Tell us a little bit about yourself.

Born 1972 near Liverpool; moved to Cambridge in 1990, live here with my partner Matthew and not enough shelves. Just started the second year of my PhD on the social impact of new technologies. What else? 'Blake's 7' fangirl since the age of 8; red hair and specs; email junkie; obsessive reader and writer; love watching B7, snooker, 'Farscape', films in the cinema, Garak, and John Cusack.

How long have you been writing?

�I wrote for pleasure as a child, although I didn't do any writing during my teenage years after a close family member died. I started writing fanfiction for 'Blake's 7' when I was 18, and have written a fair amount of fiction in that fandom since then. I was never really inspired to write for another fandom, and then started watching DS9. I saw 'In Purgatory's Shadow' and 'By Inferno's Light' and bingo! I had to write about Garak.

How long have you been a Trek fan?

You won't believe this, but not quite a year and a half. I started watching DS9 in the summer of 1999, and wrote my first piece of DS9 fanfic, 'Wastelands', in November 1999.

What is your favorite series to watch? To write for?

As far as Trek is concerned, DS9 for both, no shadow of a doubt. I don't watch TOS or VOY, and only watch TNG if there's nothing else on (although I did enjoy in on first transmission).

However, 'Blake's 7' has been my favourite show for watching, reading and writing for over twenty years. I really shouldn't have put in writing!

What is your favourite episode of Trek?

'In the Pale Moonlight'. No contest. One of my top-ten episodes of anything ever. Sizzling Garak and Sisko interaction and characterization; brilliantly-drawn secondary characters; a story that rips savagely through hypocrisy and cant; guilt, angst and crises of conscience - what more could a girl ask for?!?

What type of fanfic do you like to write?

The clues are in the above answer! I started out as a history and politics student, and I like to write stuff about the personal ramifications of political belief, and the relationship between the individual and society. I also like characters who are outsiders. I much prefer writing from a first-person point of view. Oh - and I like to write about Garak!

You write Garak-centred fanfic. Any reason why?

Where do I start? Very simply, I think he's a fascinating character.

The fascination, I think, stems mostly from his ambiguity and his complexity. You can't help but like Garak, but a lot of what he does is wrong and often plain wicked. But I'm not interested in apologizing for what he does since, really, you can't. I'm interested in exploring why such an obviously perceptive and intelligent character has allowed himself to lead a life which he clearly knows is bad, both for his victims and for himself.

Then the angstometer is turned up to 11. Take 'In Purgatory's Shadow'. We get a glimpse of the loneliness of exile. We learn why Tain holds such power over him. And, as if that's not enough, in the next episode he gets whacked with an attack of claustrophobia! How can I resist unpacking and exploring all that?

Plus he makes me laugh. He has so many great one-liners. He can't resist going that extra bit too far and invariably gets thumped as a result. You can see that the script writers had a field day writing for Garak, and I know how they feel.

Have you done any other type of writing?

Yes, I write quite a lot professionally - I've even written about online fan communities! I published my first newspaper article when I was 18, and sold my first short story when I was 19 (to 'Dr Who' Magazine!). I have also worked as a proofreader and editor, and have churned out large amounts of press releases, book blurbs, promotional material - you name it. I write a lot of articles for B7 fan productions, and I also write vast numbers of emails!

How did you get started writing fanfic?

With B7 I had been writing stuff when I was quite young, beginning with a rather dodgy stick-man cartoon scribbled into notebooks when I was about nine. I started writing again rather nervously at university when I got involved in fandom and various people encouraged me to 'give it a go'.

Some of this stuff is online at: www.aquitarfiles.org.uk where you can marvel that I actually let a vast, shameless and completely unironic Mary Sue loose on the world.

With DS9 it was seeing Garak that got me started. I had to write about this amazing character.

Which of your stories do you like the best? Would you like to share an excerpt of that story with us?

My favourite story of my own is 'Shell Shock', which isn't listed here, but which can be found on my website. It's my favourite because I found writing it a very affecting experience. I'd been wondering what precisely had triggered Garak's claustrophobia, and I thought I could piece together a few throwaway lines from canon to make up a story. I had also been reading 'Strange Meeting' by Wilfred Owen, and it struck me that I wanted to say something about the way in which those who commit crimes destroy not just their victims and many possible futures, but also ruin the best part of themselves.

The good bits in the following excerpt are, obviously, written by Owen. It was a great surprise to me when I finished this story to learn Owen had exactly the sort of terrible experience I had tried to describe in the story.

~*~

He opened his latest file, a selection from a set of human writers known as 'The War Poets'.

He began to read.

_'It seemed that out of battle I escaped Down some profound dull tunnel, long since scooped Through granites which titanic wars had groined...'_

A grey morning, rain drenching the open fields. A grey base, eight functional plastic buildings, quickly raised, quickly destroyed. A procession of grey Bajoran faces, sweating terror, rank with fear. One face, pinched, small, a thirteen year old boy...

The page had blurred before his eyes. Garak had to blink to clear his vision,

_'The pity of war, the pity war distilled...'_

It was a mistake to read human poetry. It only aggravated him. Where was the pity in war? War was brutal, merciless - it rewarded the victor, it destroyed the victim. There was no pity. By the end of last week, fifty-seven Bajoran resistance fighters lay in a mass grave sixteen miles from Jalanda City. Where had pity been then?

_'I am the enemy you killed, my friend...'_

Garak slammed the file closed in contempt. Enemies who were friends, friends who were enemies. He had no time for the delusions of human morality. He concentrated on eating instead.

What is your favorite fanfic by another author?

Garak authors whose writing I adore include Cardie-ologist particularly 'The Elim and Elmo Show') and Arcady, whose writing is magnificent (impossible to pick a favourite story of hers since there is insight in every sentence she writes). Also, for general DS9 fic, Matt Edwards writes the sort of political stories that I love.

In B7 fandom I greatly admire Alison Page and Loulou Harris (go to www.aquitarfiles.org.uk again), both of whom have a virtuoso creativity that takes the source material, throws it up in the air, and creates something you wouldn't have thought possible that still manages to remain true to the spirit of the show.

Is there someone who inspires your writing, be it a famous person, one of the actors or another fic writer?

Cardie-ologist has been an absolutely remarkable beta-reader and generous source of ideas and inspiration. All of my stories are better as a result of her reading them.

Arcady is the gold standard I aim for. I hope one day my descriptive writing and psychological insight will be half as good as hers.

A lot of my stories spring from something I've read: I use my fiction to play out my reaction to what I've been reading. Most of my Garak stories have at least one reference to TS Eliot somewhere.

What is your favorite book? Why?

That's an impossible question to answer! Books I return to constantly are 'The Lord of the Rings'; TS Eliot's poetry; Jonathan Raban's travel writing; 'Persuasion'; Gitta Sereny's biography of Albert Speer; and my HTML manual. What all these have in common I couldn't say, although there are twin themes of history and loss running through many of them. Except perhaps the HTML manual.

I go through phases of reading everything by an author. At the moment I'm chewing up books by Kinky Friedman and John Le Carre (wonder why); continuing obsessions include Lois McMaster Bujold, PJ O'Rourke, and many detective writers too numerous to mention. I also love children's fiction, which I think knocks the stuffing out of most contemporary adult fiction (go and read Philip Pullman's 'His Dark Materials' trilogy - Harry Potter, eat your heart out).

Tell us something strange about yourself.

I love watching snooker. Actually, I think I already told you that. Hmm. My name is pronounced 'Oo-na', not 'Yoo-na'. That's the best I can do, I'm afraid. I'm not really very strange.

Do you have any advice for other fanfic authors?

Anything counts. If you're answering emails - you're writing. If you're explaining on a mailing list why you like an episode - you're writing. If you're saying what you would have liked to have seen in an episode - you're writing. Don't just say, 'Oh, I can't write'. Have courage and go for it. I didn't think I could write fiction, until I gave it a try.

Print it out and proof it. If you're unsure about the technicalities, get someone to read it for you.

Try to improve with everything you write. Think about the words you use and their nuances of meaning (keep a dictionary close to hand), what themes you're trying to write about, how your story is structured. And don't be afraid to delete something if it doesn't work.

Most of all, write for pleasure, and enjoy yourself!

Anything else you'd like to add?

I hope people enjoy the fiction.

Note: Each story opens in a separate window. Close the window to return to this page.

The Fabric of Our Lives : Garak's reflections on love, life, loss and sewing. Rated PG.

Obsidian Gothic The story of the fall of the house of Tain. PG

A Full and Frank Exchange of Views Sisko and Garak, just after "Broken Link." Rated PG.

A Clear Conscience TPTB got it all wrong. A postwar story set on DS9, chiefly concerned with a certain tailor-cum-assassin. Rated PG-13.

Shell Shock A mission combining the talents and feuds of Dukat and Garak does not seemed destined for success. Rated PG-13.

Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Flames? Email us at [email protected] This site is owned by Dacia, Tobybeth, Belderan and Michie.