Hatstand Interview with Tarot

Interviews by Fans
Title:	Hatstand Interview with Tarot
Interviewer:	Metabolick
Interviewee:	Tarot
Date(s):	June 2010
Medium:	online
Fandom(s):	The Professionals
External Links:	interview is here, Archived version
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

A 2010 interview with Tarot is at The Hatstand.

For others in this series, see Hatstand Interview Series.

Some Excerpts

Hi, I'm Chris Power [real name], aka Chris Quinton *g* ... I started off co-writing in Starsky & Hutch fandom, and as far as I can remember, I wrote under the name of Chris Power. More recently I've written in Highlander The Series, under sidhe woman aka Chris.

[The first B/D story I wrote]: Um, well, the first was a tandem effort with A.N.Other. We were at a get-together with other friends and the talk naturally turned to the Lads. Since we'd done a fair bit in S&H by that time, it was suggested we try our hand at B/D. We agreed - A.N. reluctantly. We talked it over between us, worked out the backgrounds we felt could have formed their then current mindsets, and A.N. started writing 'Consequences'. Then decided there was no way any lasting sexual relationship was going to work between them. Given the scenario she'd written for them, Doyle would kill him. So I took it on. At that time I felt I couldn't go back and completely rewrite her part, so I did my best to try and salvage it. Bless her, she really didn't like Bodie much... Yes, it went out on the Paper Circuit - this was waaay before computers! - but when I reread it a while ago I wasn't at all happy with it. I felt I'd failed to do the Lads justice.

[My favorite story that I've written] That's a difficult one. I think it's a toss-up between 'Of Tethered Goats and Tigers', and 'Masquerade', with 'Goats' just a nose in front.

[Sex scenes] have to be choreographed as carefully as a fight scene, or you end up with body parts in some very strange contortions *g*. I usually skip over the sex scenes when I'm writing, keep on with the plot threads, then go back and complete it, making sure it is integral to and advances the plot. I am not a fan of tab A slot B sex scenes that are thrown in for titillation. If it gets in the way of the plot flow, it gets cut.

I hate with a passion any story that portrays either Bodie or Doyle as effeminate, with the emotional responses of an hysterical and hormonal teenage girl. Usually it was Doyle who was given this treatment. Back in The Day we used to call it the 'Consumptive Poet Syndrome' I don't know if it is still done as I haven't read any Pros fic for quite a while. I hope it's died a natural death. On-screen Bodie and Doyle are two very dangerous, strong-minded men. British men, at that, and believe me, the average British male of the 80s displayed all the emotional range of a block of wood. Displayed, being the operative word. Having said that, I'll defend to the hilt the right of any writer who wants to portray them in that way. I just won't read it.

An experienced editor is there to help give a story that final polish. Every comment from an editor is weighed and evaluated, and nine times out of ten I go along with it. Unfavorable reviews get the same evaluation, to see if I can discover what they've picked up on that I might have missed. But a review is a very personal thing - one reader's meat is another's poison - so a couple of bad reviews out of a dozen glowing ones do not upset me. When a writer puts their work out there, they must grow a thick skin and not react to any adverse criticism as if it is a personal attack. If they can't take the heat, stay out of the kitchen.

[Regarding someone else rewriting an ending or doing a sequel, unauthorized or with permission of one of my stories]: I have no problems with either *g*. Hey, it would be the height of hypocrisy to be against it, wouldn't it, given the very nature of fanfic?