COCO CHANNEL Interview with Laura Jacquez Valentine
| Interviews by Fans | |
|---|---|
| Title: | COCO CHANNEL Interview with Laura Jacquez Valentine |
| Interviewer: | Karmen Ghia |
| Interviewee: | Laura Jacquez Valentine |
| Date(s): | September 1999 |
| Medium: | online |
| Fandom(s): | slash, fandom, Star Trek |
| External Links: | "An Interview with Laura Jacquez Valentine September 1999". Archived from the original on 2013-06-12. |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
COCO CHANNEL Interview with Laura Jacquez Valentine is archived at The Society for Slash Diversity and The Committee of Chekov Obsessives Comparing Historical and New Narratives in Ensign Literature.
See List of Star Trek Fan Interviews.
Excerpts
Karmen Ghia: What was your earliest story?Laura Jacquez Valentine: The first Star Trek story I posted was a Spock/female piece called "Lonely Words". That was in the summer of 1996. I'd written some fanfic before that, mostly TOS and "Beauty and the Beast", but I'd never shown it to anyone except a few friends. I remember one of those was an original-character story about a young Vulcan, and another was a complete Mary Sue that I'm ashamed to admit to. I was twelve years old, so maybe that excuses it.
My first slash story was "First Light", a Spock/female, Spock/male, Spock/Pike story. It was rated NC-17, and it was a very long time before I would write another NC-17 story.
KG: Why so long?
LJV: Because I hate writing NC-17 fiction--or, at least, NC-17-for-sex fiction. I don't even enjoy reading it much, unless it's very well written. Most of it isn't. A lot of writers create these wonderful, wonderful stories, and then the sex comes along and it's just an interruption in the tale. And sometimes it's a pretty crude interruption, and I don't see the point...
Recently, Mercutio wrote a long Star Wars slash story called "Walk Softly and Carry a Big Lightsaber". The UST in that tale was...incredible. The sexual resolution was drawn out over several chapters. And I was never bored. Not once. I loved every word of it--because the sex was there for a reason, and it was necessary. It wasn't an interruption at all, it was simply part of the story. That kind of NC-17 I like--and I wish I had the skill to write it.
"First Light" was a learning experience. It taught me that I could write believable slash, and that I could write NC-17 fiction. It also taught me that I hated writing NC-17 fiction except under very specific circumstances. And those circumstances don't come up too often, partially because so many stories aren't primarily about sex, and also because I don't quite have the skill or talent to handle it.
Would "The Meditation of Blood" be improved by writing it into an NC-17 or R-rated story? Would Chekov's actions in "Wintergreen" have more impact if the sex was explicit? I think a lot of my stories would suffer if they were more explicit. They'd lose a lot of what makes them emotionally and erotically charged. That's where my strengths lie, and I want to make use of them, not try to add things that don't belong.
KG: Who is your favorite character in slash to write about? Read about? And why?
LJV: In Trek, it's Spock. In other fandoms, it varies. Walter Skinner from the X-Files. Darth Vader or Luke Skywalker in Star Wars. I like reading and writing about characters who are a bit mysterious, characters we don't really know, or who have something going on behind the scenes.
What goes on inside Spock's head? Why does Skinner walk the line he walks? How much of Anakin is still alive, trapped inside Vader? How close to the Dark Side does Luke walk?
KG: What do you feel is the future of K/S?LJV: Does it have a future? So much of it is formulaic. You have your first-time stories, your Gol stories, your Kirk-dies stories...
I'd like to see more twists on the relationship. More things that change. Or some really interesting AU's. I'm trying to screw with things with the little-bonding, and some bits of De Re Vulcania, but I don't think I'm doing it very well.
KG: I was recently reading an article in diary form about filmmaker Roger Nygard latest project. This 'feels' partly true to me (even I'm sure there's more to K/S than this) but I'm wondering if you have any reaction to this quote from the article: "March 22, 1997, Pasadena: Today we interviewed two writers of underground, homoerotic Kirk/Spock stories at the Pasadena Convention Center. These stories are typically written by and for heterosexual women - women who want to read sexual stories about Kirk and Spock but don't want to imagine them with other women." (LAT Magazine 6/20/99)LJV: "...don't want to imagine them with other women" rubs me the wrong way. I don't think that's it at all. I do like them with women, and I know other slash writers who like seeing them with women. The trouble is that they don't have many decent female choices within canon, and their relationship to each other is so interesting that K/S is almost the logical conclusion of the whole deal.
The only canon female I can see Spock with is Uhura (unless you buy my explanation of his relationship with T'Pring, which most people don't); there is no one for Kirk. And through it all, they have each other.
KG: I also like the Foresmutters Project, even if I'm (frankly) not impressed with the stories I've seen so far. It's nice to see where K/S started.
Reactions and Reviews
Some fan reaction is here.