Ask the Author: veronamay

Interviews by Fans
Title:	Ask the Author: veronamay
Interviewer:
Interviewee:	veronamay (Sel)
Date(s):	May 5, 2008
Medium:	online
Fandom(s):	Supernatural
External Links:	interview and comments are here, Archived version
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veronamay was interviewed for Supernatural Roundtable.

Some Excerpts

Fannish l'histoire de moi: I discovered fandom in May 1999 at the elderly age of 22. I was channel-surfing one night and happened across Good News Week. Most of you will recognise the name after Jensen's appearance in March; the host, Paul McDermott, used to be part of a hugely popular musical comedy trio known as the Doug Anthony All Stars (DAAS). This was my first fandom. I wrote a large amount of horrendous Mary Sue and slash fic in DAAS, which is thankfully no longer available online, then moved on to Due South in December 2000 and wrote slightly less horrendous slash fic there for a couple of years. Some of this is still hosted at the Due Slash archive. My other fandoms over the next few years (of which there are many) are all listed in my userinfo, but the ones I was most involved in were: Savage Garden, The Boondock Saints and Doctor Who (EDA!verse). In 2005 I spent time in Lotrips and House MD. This led me to Jeeves & Wooster, and I was happily ensconced there when in late September three friends, all independently of each other, all in the same week, insisted I get hold of the pilot episode of some new show called Supernatural.

I started watching when "Faith" was airing in the US (the Australian schedule runs a few weeks behind). By the time I saw "Bloody Mary" I was hooked. I posted my first fic, Snapshot: Devil's Trap, at the end of May 2006. I stayed away from the RPS side of the fandom until the first season was over, because I like to be well versed in canon and characterisation before I look at the cast. Then the Paley Festival panel happened in March 2006, and I watched every interview featuring the boys that I could find and posted my first (crack) fic, Dirty Dancing, at the end of April. My first actual fic, No Sleep Till Bedtime, followed a month later.

I write and read both RPS and character fic, mostly of the slash variety (Wincest and J2) with a little gen here and there. I like writing first-time fics with lots of UST and, because I'm Bi-Bro, with the characters switching off in some way (unless it's specifically a dom/sub scenario). I prefer writing in the third person, usually present tense. I lovelovelove writing dialogue, and I hate writing porn. I suck at titles and summaries. I have absolutely no ego about my fic while it's in beta, and I have an extremely laid-back attitude toward feedback.

SPN is the fandom that breaks boundaries; this is true of me as well. Prior to this fandom I had never written (decent) long fic, or anything with a sustainable plot. I'd never written a series/'verse. I'd never written a crossover. Two years in, I've done all of these things, and it didn't even hurt. Much.

Oh, great. Just make me come out and admit my shameful love of bodice rippers, why don't you? ;P

Okay, here's how it went. I pretty much lived with my nose stuck in some romance novel or other while I was growing up. I read hundreds of the damn things, until I finally overdosed on m/f chisel-jawed-hero-woos-reticent-yet-spunky-heroine and ran screaming into the wilds of slash. Then last year, I signed up for Big Bang without a bloody clue what I was going to write. At the time I was reading an abridged edition of My Secret Life, which is the publication of a series of clandestine sex journals written by an anonymous Victorian gentleman. This reminded me of the fact that footmen were often seen and used as sexual objects at that time, and were usually hired solely on the basis of their appearance. Good footmen were young, tall, strong and handsome. Hellooooo, Jared.

After that, all the pieces sort of fell into place. I knew the genre back to front, I had no trouble writing Jensen as the witty rake with a heart of gold, and as soon as I decided I was actually going to do it I knew I wanted to use the language of flowers, because I think it's an enchanting way of progressing a flirtation. I love non-verbal communication of all kinds.

That was how I spent most of my research time, incidentally: looking up different plants and finding ones that said the right things. Also, boring stuff like figuring out how long it'd take to travel from London to Dallas, how to get there, how and where to send an international telegraph, etc etc etc. Oh, and which were the most popular cravat knots at the time. That was very important. *g*