Dear Readers,

Welcome, each of you to the Writer's Showcase. Just sit back and enjoy yourself as you read about this week's featured writer. I am happy you came and hope you come back week after week.

This week's 'Featured Writer' is a lady who has written a wonderful series dedicated to the life and love of Lois and Clark. Her loyal readers are waiting anxiously for the next installment. She, also, has been at the helm of one of L&C's most successful and possibly be the oldest L&C Nfic Lists.

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
Debby (please note spelling, it's not and never has been "Debbie" everyone makes that error, but this is too important a forum for me to brush it off with a sad smile... :) Stark

E-mail addresses
Debby@swcp.com

Homepage
ftp//ftp.swcp.com/pub/users/dstark

Residence
Albuquerque, NM, USA

List affiliations
Member of L&C list since 9/94 and L&C Nfic list. Also, I am on a few other lists (UFO, computer oriented, and whatever else I feel like at the moment).

Lois and Clark or Superman Status

How long have you been watching L&C?
A Fan and Critic of L&C since 9/93 which was when the pilot first shown.

How long have you been a fan of Superman?
Since the age of 5 or I could pick up a comic book. Fan of Superman since the 50s.

How long have you been writing?
+25 years in one form or another.

How long writing have you been writing L&C fa

Nfic?
I started writing vignettes in reply to discussions on the list.. I only had gotten on the internet in September of 1994, when I immediately joined the mailing list. We would discuss things, naturally, and I joined in with gusto. Sometimes though, I couldn't express what I felt well so, I'd do it in a vignette story form. They would be as long as my email program at the time allowed, maybe ten K (i.e., not very long at all).

Dawning came about due to a discussion of how Lois would react if she found out CK=Superman. The only way I could argue my POV was to write a story, but it had to be longer than a vignette...

What types of Fanfic have you written?
I have written fanfics for The Prisoner (a British TV show) and L&C.

What is the Most recent story posted? and Where?
Part 21 of Dawning. I'm behind due to real life craziness and at my site. (ftp//ftp.swcp.com/pub/users/dstark Stories)

Favorite story you've written?
Parts of Dawning; Carry Tiger to Mountain; SwapMeet-Burbank.

Current project/projects?
To continue Dawning; reread/rewrite(?) and post an XFiles/CK crossover; and I have some ideas for an alternative L&C beginning story and a young CK story.

What are some personal picks of other Fanfic you've read?
There are quite a few good ones available. I like the ones that show creativity even when dealing with an idea that has occurred to others time and again in the past. I like humorous stories but don't mind intense ones when the writer has taken care. I like 'em long or short, as long as I feel satisfied at the end. )

Interview Questions

What attracted you to writing Fanfic and what about it do you enjoy?
I joined the list, one of the first things I did when I got a good internet account (which I still have). The list was immediately conducive to discussion. I found I liked to try to make my point by writing up little vignettes. The vignettes soon became full-fledged stories. )

I enjoy the creativity, I enjoy getting into the heads of "My" characters, I enjoy exploring their depth and breath, which the show itself had a hard time doing for a variety of reasons that don't constrain fans.

What about the L&C and the characters do you like the most?
I enjoy exploring them from birth to... who knows? I find they have great potential for growth--a writer has no choice but to go along with that gladly. The characters seem to promise that they can take any challenge one might throw at them and as a result grow and reveal even more surprises. I like them and I want to know more about them.. even when I have to make it up myself.

How do you interpret them in your work?
With as much breath and depth as I can... yet hinting that there is even more that I have yet to reveal.

How did you begin writing in general?
I've done some nonfiction newsletter work. I've written material for only myself to read; it kept me company. Eventually, with this L&C experience and my own maturity, I'll go back to the private writing, but I want to stick with L&C as long as I can.

What are you working on now and where do you see it going?
Dawning (naturally...) I was going to try to wrap it up in the Metropolis world of Christmas but may instead aim for "Thanksgiving". I have lots of threads to work on and tie up, and even when I "end" it, who knows? The only thing I see stopping it at the moment is Y2k. Oh, and my inability to get some vacation time off... ;)

What is your opinion about the following types of L&C fanfic's?
Action?
I think it tests a writer's ability to write descriptive scenes. It's not easy but well done it can be quite satisfying. Superman *is* action after all, with the emphasis on powers. The trick is to blend that with the Lois's cunning and the heart of L&C together.

Drama?
This is a tricky genre to write because without care it can read trite and cliched. Also, fans want to read L&C feeling light hearted and in love (or, if pre revelation, the potential for love is there and both characters suspect something is happening). Drama challenges that feeling. For me, if surviving the drama hasn't helped the characters to grow in some way by the end, then... well, I hope author had fun writing it and learned from the experience.

Humor?
Another tricky genre. L&C easily lends itself to humor... but for me it can never descend to laughing at any of the characters or it damages them. Laughing and joking between characters, for example, shows that they know each other well and the writer knows them well, too. Put downs and hurtful "humor" better have a good reason to be in a piece of writing or I won't be amused. I enjoy funny situations dealt with by the characters in ways that enhance their self knowledge and our knowledge of them.

Round Robin?
I've done a little of this. A few years ago some friends and I did an email round robin called "Africa Screams", available on my site. It's an interesting genre.

Nfic?
Sometimes I like reading about a playful interlude, a vignette in which two characters just have a lot of fun, but mostly I want full-fledged stories (whether short or long), with a plot, some action, some drama, some humor, with the nfic thrown in as a natural consequence of what's happening in the story. I'm glad there is nfic that pleases me in both these respects.

Has *everything* been done in your opinion, and if not, what is left?
I think we've only touched the surfaces of these characters and there is a lot more exploring to be done! )

What do you think makes the best story?
Realizing that the writer loves or at minimum respects all the characters and seeing that feeling shining through in the story. When the author cares, the reader can't help but care, too. Those are the best stories.

Open Forum For Author Comments
I usually have fun writing. I wish I had more time to do so and that when I had time it coincided with feeling inspired. This set of questions has helped inspire me this afternoon... but a storm is moving in and as soon as I as I hear any thunder, off goes the computer...Well, I'll sit back and read for a bit then. )

Debby@swcp.com