Dear Readers,

Welcome, each of you to the Writer's Showcase. Whether it is your first time here or if you have visited this web site before I hope each of you will enjoy yourself and come back week as week. I am excited you are here and I hope you will discover something you did not know about this gifted and treasured writer.

This week's 'Featured Writer' is a five time 1998 Kerth Awards winner. Her Kerth Awards include Best Dramatic Story, Best Alternate Beginnings, Best Series, Best Lex Story, and Best Fic Overall. As you tell by her numerous awards she is a very talented writer. She also, has very devoted loyal readers who have made her one of the most popular and respected writers in L&C fanfic.

Now without further ado, I am proud and honored to present this week's Featured Writer in the Writer's Showcase ...

Personal Information

Author name
Chris Mulder

E-mail addresses
mulders@mindspring.com

Homepage
none

Residence
U.S.

List affiliations
Loiscla list
Fanfic list

Lois and Clark or Superman Status

How long have you been watching L&C?
Since the Pilot episode.

How long have you been a fan of Superman?
Since I was a kid. My weekly allowance used to go for two comic books and a piece of bazooka bubble gum to nervously chew while I read. <g>

How long have you been writing?
Also since I was a kid. I was always making up stories for my brothers and sister.

How long have you been writing L&C fanfic?
I wrote my first one in the spring of 1995.

What types of Fanfic have you written?
I'm mostly interested in the relationships between and among the various characters who people the world of L&C, so all of my stories--whether they have an A-plot or not--have got my thoughts/observations on the feelings and motivations of the characters.

What is the Most recent story posted?
"Meet Me in Kansas City"

Favorite story you've written?
Whichever one I'm working on is always my most favorite, *and* my least favorite. <g>

Current project?
I'm working on an episode for Season Six at the moment.

What are the personal picks of other Fanfic you've read?
Wow! That's a tough one! Let me see ... I've read so many good ones that it's hard to choose. How about if I tell you a few of the ones I've gone back to read again and again ... Jeff Brogdan's "Unknown Emotions," Pam Jernigan's "Going to the Chapel," and "Second Chances," Jennifer Baker's "Heartbeat," Zoomway's "Always Something There to Remind Me," Debby Stark's "Carry Tiger to Mountain," and Evelyn Catano's "A Matter of the Heart." There are others, but I don't want to take up too much room at your site. <g>

Interview Questions

What attracted you to writing Fanfic and what about it do you enjoy?
I was hooked on the show from the first night I watched it. The way it was written and presented, what Dean, Teri and the other actors brought to their roles, even the music and the sets, it all just captivated me. It wasn't long before I was making up stories ("daydreaming" my parents and teachers used to call it <g>), about these characters and the events in the episodes. However, this was just for my own amusement because, at that time, I didn't yet know about the on-line fandom.

One day, however, about mid-way through 2nd season, I heard that there were on-line fanclubs for TV shows, including L&C, so I went looking for other fans of my favorite show. I found a web site which had information about a discussion list, downloadable photos, and ...fanfic. How about that? There was actually a term for what I'd been doing all those months ... "fanfic." Cool! ;-) Before long I was getting stories from the archive (it wasn't a web site then, but a majordomo address that you wrote to to request a story), and trying to get up the nerve to actually send in a story of my own.

Fortunately, we had a very patient and supportive fanfic administrator in the person of Rhen Brink. She encouraged me and put up with my wanting to change things even after I'd sent the story to her for uploading. I've tried to thank her before, but I'm not sure that I could ever adequately do that. She was just terrific. -)

Anyway, my first story went out, in spite of my dithering, <g> and then I got a couple of letters from FoLCs saying they'd enjoyed it, and hoped I'd write some more. I guess a little encouragement is a dangerous thing, because I've been writing fanfic ever since. ;-)

As for what I enjoy about it ... everything that I enjoy about the process of writing learning more about the characters, creating situations for them to react to and learn from, and finding just the right word or phrase with which to express my ideas. With fanfic,however, there's the added bonus of the FoLCs. Writing fanfic has provided me with a way to meet other people who like writing *and* L&C as much as I do. That's been a wonderful gift.

What about the L&C and the characters do you like the most?
I really liked DJL's take on the characters, especially her view that Clark is the real person and Superman is the disguise. I also heartily approved of Martha and Jonathan still being around in this version. I always used to feel so sorry for Clark in the comics because he was all alone. As I mentioned above, I'm most interested in the relationships and anything that affects them.

How do you interpret them in your work?
By trying to remain as true to the characters--as they were portrayed on the show--as I can. I don't mind stepping outside of the show for an event, or situation that I can put in one of my stories, but I want my Lois and Clark to sound and act like the Lois and Clark I've seen on the screen.

How did you begin writing in general?
With a scene. A scene will pop into my head, or insinuate itself into my dreams, and I'll play with it. I ask myself things like if this is going to happen what has to take place in order for this scene to be believable? A premise will suggest itself and I'll replay the scene again with that premise as the forerunner. Most of the time, the premise won't be quite right for the scene as I riginally envisioned it. Then I've got a decision to make alter the premise or alter the scene. I look at both from L&C's POV. Whichever is more true to the characters is the one I go with.

Okay ... so now I have a very basic premise and one scene. (That scene, interestingly enough usually turns out to be from the climax of the story. I don't know why, but that's been the case so far.) From that point on, it's a matter of working my way through the rest of the story What leads up to the premise? What are the consequences of the premise? How does this affect L&C or the other characters? Are they changed by it, do they learn from it? Does it all make sense? Can I back it up? How do I get them from "Point A" to "Point B?"

Each time I add another piece of the puzzle, I replay the whole thing in my mind to see if I'm still on track with the original scene. And, somewhere in this process, I always have to alter the original scene. It's never failed yet, but it's also never been a problem because what I end up with has always been better than what I started with.

The characters usually tell me what will work and what won't.<g> The process I go through kind of reminds me of that definition of being a sculptor if you want to sculpt an elephant, just get a block of marble and chip away anything that doesn't look like an elephant. <g> Well, I just keep mentally chipping away at my story while it slowly reveals itself to me, scene by scene, until finally I'm left with what I should write.

What are you working on now and where do you see it going?
At the moment I'm working on a Season Six episode, which is a different kind of fanfic for me. I've been part of collaborative efforts before in the round robin group, but this S6 venture seems more fraught with possibilities for failure somehow. Maybe because we do the round robins as a way to spend time together and have some fun, in addition to being part of a creative effort. Writing for Season Six, though, I have a keen awareness of the other writers who'll be coming after me, and I don't want to do anything which might hurt their episodes.

As for other fanfics in the works, I have an outline for a Soulmates continuation, and ideas for sequels to "Dimensions of Loving" and "Meet Me in Kansas City." However, my major project as soon as I've completed my obligation to S6 is to finish a non-L&C book I'm working on.

What is your opinion about the following types of L&C fanfic's? I've enjoyed all different kinds of fanfic. I don't favor one format over another. What's more important to me is that the story be true to the characters.

Has *everything* been done in your opinion, and if not, what is left?
I hope it hasn't all been done, or I'll be out of a job. <g>

What do you think makes the best story?
A well-thought out plot (either A or B), more waffs than whams, more L&C than villains, and a sense of fun

Open Forum For Author Comments
This seems like a great opportunity to thank everyone connected with fanfic, the FoLCs who write and/or read it, to the FoLCs who have so generously given of their time and resources to make sure that the stories have a home so the rest of us can find them. I also want to thank anyone who has ever written a fan letter. Those letters are worth more than gold to us writers, and we appreciate every one we get. -)

mail to mulders@mindspring.com.