Michelle Slaughter
1) How did you first get involved in fandom?
Hmmm.... I guess that would depend on the exact definition of what "fandom" is. If you mean how did I get involved in submitting stories for publication, I was basically goaded into it. J I had a pen-pal at the time who constantly bugged me to try to submit something for publication because he claimed that I wrote interesting, involving stories. He told me that he really liked the way I wrote and kept pestering me to submit. My best girl-friend, Mary Patton (at the time, she was still Mary Curran-Carter) had several stories published in different Luke Skywalker-themed zines, and she echoed the pen-pal's sentiments strongly. She kept telling me that I was just as good as any other writers who had gotten published, and she kept pushing me to submit. I finally did, to Mary Jo Fox's Leia zine, Snowfire. It was Mary Jo who told me about the Organa-zation. That was the point that I really came into contact with a community of fans and writers who were just as crazy about the SW characters as I was. It sort of mushroom-clouded over from there. :)
2) When did you first start writing?
When I was eight. :) No kidding. My brother, my cousin, and I used to play at being Luke, Leia, and Han when we were kids, running around my grandparents' back yard, waving blasters and laser pistols (my grandparents raised my cousin and spoiled him terribly, so he always had all the cool SW toys like that, and a full supply of batteries to keep 'em alive). I was elected (read: forced) to come up with all the ideas for our "adventures" and how we would carry them out. All in all, I was Leia, having to lead the men around! :) From that grew all sorts of stories and ideas bouncing around in my head, and I used to put them down on paper in little vignettes. Of course, this was before ESB, when I saw Han and Leia kiss (and therefore fell head over heels in love with the man myself!), and before ROTJ, at which point I was finally old enough to really begin to understand the complexities of the story in the films... particularly the romantic aspects. By that time I was about 11, and I thought I had finally figured it out. HA! I feel bad for my versions of Han and Leia, really. They were much happier in their romance when I was 11 than they were when I became a teenager. :)
3) What was the first story you were brave enough to show anybody?
I showed them to other people from the beginning, really, though I held back more as I got older. Some stories I even wrote as requests for friends and fellow SW fans (my Karana Saren pieces--which have never been published anywhere, on purpose, were were born of a request by a friend, John Mullins, for a female Grand Admiral). The first story I was ever brave enough to show to a stranger, however, was also the first one I ever submitted for a zine.
It was Whither Thou Goest for Mary Jo Fox's Snowfire#4. I was extremely nervous about doing so, too. I had traded two or three letters and emails back and forth with her, but I didn't really know her that well (though I felt she must be a kindred spirit to be a Leia-centered fan like me), which made wary of giving her my story--especially on the basis of having her decide to accept or reject my latest "baby" (I get way too emotionally attached to all my work).
Worse, if she liked it, she'd put it in the book, where it would then be open to the criticism of STRANGERS. But, she managed to talk me into it, and I managed to live through it. That was scary, though. All in all, I guess I've never really been "brave enough" to submit any of my stories. The zine eds always seem to have been talking me into it. I'm grateful, though. It tells me they must like what I do if they're asking me to write something for them.
4) What about SW keeps you coming back for more?
One word: Han. :) Okay, okay... not just Han. But he was a big reason for it. :) No, I guess, the main thing is just the idea that good can triumph over evil, even after horrible things have happened. More than anything, I really admired Leia's strength of character, her resolve, and the fact that she carried herself with such dignity, even though she wasn't much more than five feet tall and had a couple of pastries stuck to the side of her head. She came along at the right time for me. There weren't any heroes for girls my age in that time. Lynda Carter's "Wonder Woman" tried, but she was so busy trying to be everything Steve Trevor would want in a girlfriend that her superhero side got lost somewhere in there and she became more camp than anything. So there weren't really any resilient female characters for girls my age to relate to.
Then here comes this princess in the stereotypically white gown... with a whole new attitude. She could shoot as well (sometimes better) than the men she traveled with, she looked the bad guy right in the eye with a scornful, indignant gaze (even when he clapped her irons), and she took charge of her own "rescue" when it went so terribly wrong. She was no damsel in distress. The bad guys took everything away from her, but she never gave up. I needed that as a kid from a divorced family. On some level, I suppose I still need it.
I always thrilled to the idea that these people pulled through these huge tragedies in life. My parents were newly divorced, and that was the biggest tragedy in my seven-year-old life at the time. SW helped me through that. Much of why I love it now is for the nostalgia, on top of the fact that it's still timeless, not dated by the era in which it was made.
It's much more than just that, though of course. However, I don't know how to describe it. I have never analyzed why SW touches me the way it does. I have just enjoyed the fact that it does so.
5)Who are some of your favorite authors?
SW related, I suppose? Fanfic or profic? I have favorites among both, naturally. :) Being a writer, I can't see discriminating against or in favor of either style. My profic faves are Timothy Zahn, Barbara Hambly, A. C. Crispin. Those are the SW-related ones, anyway. Among the fanfic faves are Carolyn Golledge, Mary Jo Fox, Monique Robertson, Sue Zahn, and Stacy Galler (and I'm not just saying that).
Now, if you're talking non-SW, that's harder to pinpoint. I buy books with stories that sound like they'd interest me, without giving much thought to who wrote it. I have quite amalgamated collection of books. The Gate To Women's Country by Sheri S. Tepper has always been a favorite book, and I found If I Pay Thee Not In Gold by Piers Anthony and Mercedes Lackey highly interesting, but I confess I'm not sure I have ever read another book by any of the authors. I recently finished Cat's Eye by Magaret Atwood, and her way of telling a story has interested me in seeing if I can find other books by her.
From the Trek collections, I like Peter David's Imzadi, and I adore A.C. Crispin's Sarek and Margaret Wander Bonanno's Strangers from the Sky, as well as two Voyager books by Jeri Taylor; Mosaic and Pathways.
I just finished re-reading another book for the third time, though it may shock my SW friends to know it was Batman: No Man's Land by Greg Rucka. But he is an excellent storyteller, and he's one of the great writers who keeps me going back to my local comic shop for more. Well, him and Ms. Devin Grayson. I'm not sure if either author has written any other books, Batman-related or no.
6)What are some of your favorite stories?
Fanfic stories? Oh, we don't have that kind of time! :) I'll list a few though (alphabetically, of course, since I have no clear favorite among any of them); A Matter Of Trust, Bespin Pledge, Inevitable Circumstance, Journal of the Whills: The Preservers, Journey to Serenity, Pas de Deux, Portside Girl, Reflections, Signs of Spring, Tears of Fire, Thoughts While Dressing For Dinner (and its companion piece, Meditation On A Lady), and a boatload of others too numerous to name.
7) What stories of yours are you particularly proud of?
I don't have many published pieces to choose from, really. Of those I have posted or published somewhere, I am most proud of The Color Of Love and Once Upon A Time, the latter especially as it is the first piece I published establishing my take on Leia's adoptive parents. At one time, there were a thousand ideas in my head regarding stories about them, how they raised Leia, and what her relationship with them was like. I was proud to have finally finished a piece about them, incomplete at it is without the background I developed for them both.
8)What stories of yours (if any) do you wish you'd never released?
Uh... all of them. Seriously. I'm too critical--okay, anal--when it comes to my own work. I write, then rewrite, then rewrite again, round up a couple of beta-readers for feedback, make more changes, then send it to my "editor" in 'Frisco, Susan Prather, and rewrite yet again. All this is done, ostensibly, so the zine eds don't really have to change or edit too much when they get the piece. In other words, to make it as perfect as possible to my mind.
But I'm never enirely pleased with the end result for long. By the time the zine comes out and I re-read the stories I've written, I catch myself saying, "I should have explained that differently," or "That's too wordy," and of course, the ever popular, "What the heck was I thinkin' when I wrote that?!?!" :) I'm too much of a perfectionist to ever be completely happy with the end result, because I just can't seem to stop re-editing the work in my head, even after it is posted or published somewhere.
9) Where do you get your ideas?
Everywhere. Music, drawings... words alone, in particular. My head is crammed full of words, and often the snippet of some song or a line in a movie (or a conversation I have with someone else) will just spark this dialogue in my head between the characters. And nobody ever believes this, but sometimes it just comes to me. There can be total silence in the house and my mind starts wandering, and then--BAM!--some story idea or new character development hits me. I used to get the ideas just while I was working during the day, and I'd turn the dialogue over and over in my head until it was break time, then I'd grab my notebook and start jotting down whatever I had come up with. At the end of the day, I'd take it home, refine it, and build the story around it. (That happened with "Color of Love", in fact).
10) Describe your writing area.
Any place I can sit down and do it, whether it's a comfy chair with a notebook on my lap, or the computer console at work or home. If I can be in a reasonably comfortable position, it does matter where I write... just so long as I do it.
11) What inspires you?
That's harder to answer, because I really don't know. I don't pay attention to the triggers for the inspiration, I just go along for the ride. I don't really write so much from inspiration, I think, as I do from just whatever place needs expressing. Writing is an emotional outlet for me, more than anything. I guess, if I had to name one thing that makes me write, it's frustration with the outside world. Writing lets me escape that, lose myself in the fantasy, instead, and come out of it feeling renewed and refreshed. I know it sounds corny, but there it is.
12) Do you consider yourself a niche writer (i.e., just Han & Leia)?
I'd like to say "no", but I don't feel that would be wholly true. I think it's less a Han & Leia thing as it is just a Leia thing. I relate to her better than any of the other characters, seeing her as the middle ground between Luke's idealism and Han's cynicism. Leia's a realist, but she has some optimism, and she's always looking for a better tomorrow, while suffering from great sorrows of the past. I can identify with that, and her single-mindedness. I can only seem to write about the other characters in relation to her, not by themselves. I've never done a piece solely from Luke or Han's POV, really. Even the Bail and Marlena stuff I have in mind focuses more on their relationship with her than others. (I've mapped out only one story idea involving just the two of them, before they adopted Leia).
This isn't to say that I can't write stories without Leia in them. I have. The Saren pieces were written almost solely from the Imperial POV, having no interaction between Saren and Leia. Then again, Saren's flip-side character is Lisa, the Zingali woman I introduced in "Whither Thou Goest"--and Lisa is simply an extension of me, a character I made up in those backyard adventures so I could be someone other than Leia. She's grown beyond me, beyond what she was in the beginning, but she retains some Leia-esque qualities if I'm honest about it. (I thought it would be fun to make Leia have to deal with a woman so much like herself.)
13) A lot of your stories seem to have Celtic influences. Why is that?
I was not aware of this, actually, though it doesn't surprise me. The Zingali are my own amalgation of Cherokee, Irish, and Scottish ideals, myths, and legends. That was done purposely. As for the rest... hmmm. I suppose those influences have bled over because I write from inside myself, and I am very proud of all three heritages. Maybe I just listen to too much Celtic music when I write (and when I don't). :)
I guess the most logical answer is that I write mostly about Leia, and many of the Celtic and Cherokee ideals mesh so easily with those I would consider to be Alderaanian, as well. The love of the land, the respect for nature and all living things, the fierce pride and determination to fight in order to keep these ideals--all this I can see in the Alderaanians.
Does that make any sense?
14) Feel free to comment on anything about fandom in general.
I find it too hard to comment on fandom in general, because I think generalizing is limiting to all of us, and unfair. I mean, SW fans come from such diversly different backgrounds, and each of us with our own ideas concerning the characters, the general story, and what other people do with them that I find it impossible to say anything general about the community, other than that we must all love it if we keep coming back for more.
The only other general thing I think I could say is that we might all (myself included) be a little more tolerant of one another's opinions on the SW stories out there (pro- and fanfic), as well as one another's ideas of what is enjoyable about being a SW fan. In the end, we are all a community, and we do love the story that brought us together in the first place... not so very long ago, in a galaxy not so very far away.
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