COCO CHANNEL Interview with Greywolf the Wanderer
| Interviews by Fans | |
|---|---|
| Title: | COCO CHANNEL Interview with Greywolf the Wanderer |
| Interviewer: | Karmen Ghia |
| Interviewee: | Greywolf the Wanderer |
| Date(s): | March 2000 |
| Medium: | online |
| Fandom(s): | slash, fandom, Star Trek |
| External Links: | An Interview with Greywolf the Wanderer; reference link |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
COCO CHANNEL Interview with Greywolf the Wanderer 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
Greywolf the Wanderer: I'm *still* trying to finish the third Blues story; so far it's 109 pages and still goin'! Dang. Never expected to end up doin' a novel, you know? The damn thing just kept growin'. What else... Couple of different A/U stories, one will probably go to a zine and one is headed for the NG, if I ever get 'em done. A longish Spock-h/c one, about half done I think. Got a couple PWP's kicking around half-written, waiting for inspiration to strike. Actually I've got another Spock/McCoy in the works too -- but that one is going to be a real bitch to finish and god only knows how long it'll take me. I've got the start of *another* Spock/McCoy done, dunno yet how long it'll be, but that one will go for the Ng for sure. Heh heh -- seems a lot of zine fen just don't want to be adventurous. Mention Spock/McCoy and a lot of folks *plotz*.
Hmm. Actually I suppose that's unfair. There *are* slash zines galore; I forget they're there sometimes, but they are. And some are very tasty too.
And of course there's about a dozen little scribbled "what if such-and-such" notes here and there. I've got more ideas than I have time to finish them in. Bless my Muse, she's a love, she really is. I've been doing quite a bit of beta-reading too -- I enjoy that-- sneak previews galore plus a chance to give back some of what folks have been kind enough to give me.
GW: I've been a rabid hardcore TOS fan since I first saw it at the age of ten, in the summer of 1968 up in British Columbia. I've been into K/S since I was about 14 or so and the light first went on in my brain.
But I've only really been involved with *other* fans and reading fanfic since about 1996. Well, mostly. I did buy the two New Voyages books when they first came out, and I've got almost all the novelizations and the Blish and Foster episode transcriptions, and quite a few of the older Pocketbooks. The newer ones are bloody awful though. But I could never find anyone else who saw what I did on the screen, until I got into UseNet near the end of 1996. My RL Trekfan friends thought I was fucking nuts. But then one day I found a.s.c., and *then* I found Killa's marvelous story "Turning Point" -- and damn, I about had a nuclear crotch meltdown! (evil grin) Haven't looked back since then.
KG: What was your earliest story?
GW: Hmm. Well, deep in the dungeons under my house there's a box of bloody awful stories that will never see the light of day--earliest of those I wrote when I was 11 and it really does suck. I look at it now and then to remind myself that yeah, I *am* learning my craft. (grin) My earliest Trek story posted on line was "Blues For Allah," which is a shuttle crash story where Uhura gets to shine and save the day. No naughty bits but I got a shitpot of feedback for it and I was *hooked*. That was posted in, hmm, I think November of 1996.
KG: What do you feel is the future of K/S?
GW: Good. There are lots of new writers, and now I am seeing people open up more, be willing to try different things, like they used to do in zines way back when. Right now zines seem to be in kind of a rut, mostly first times, mostly happy endings, etc. But I think that is cyclical and it will change again after a while. And on the Net, the sky's the limit. There are more male fans now, and just more open-mindedness. And eventually I think the zine world will come to its senses and relax. They've had their hard times, and they're still kind of in this circle the wagons mindset. But it's a great big Trekiverse and there's always possibilities. I am optimistic.
KG: I recently read "The Prize" over on the Foresmutter's Project and I liked it. The sex was pretty good and the fashion and decor were great. But this is what puzzled me: Here you have two engaging and sexy guys who could be anyone, Alexander and Bagoas, Ed and Flynn, Brooks and Helmut, so why did the author even bother to make it K/S? I suspect it was more than that the author would have a pre-packaged audience but, if so, I'm sorry, I don't get it.
GW: Hmmm. I think possibly you're right -- but also possibly the author really did see them strongly as Jim and Spock. I saw Spock that way; Jim was not as clear to me, because I can't see Jim agreeing to be tokhe'straav, willing-slave. But hell, I enjoyed all the longhair Vulcans and the mucho nookie so much I just kinda blew off the other stuff. I don't think it's a terribly realistic story -- but hot damn it's great for "one-handed reading", if ya know what I mean... ;-)>
KG: Me, I'm just a webizen so I know nothing of the printzine community, except for a brush or two with certain members. What is with those people? Are they really as uptight, narrow minded, hyper critical/sensitive and condescending as they seem or am I really just too fucked up to see their good points? GW: Like netfen, they are all kinds. There are some really spooky gunshy paranoid printfen, and some wonderful smutty-minded cheerful and outgoing printfen, and damn near everything else between. Me, I just laugh at the rude ones. Yeah, there are one or two who really are world-class arseholes. But hell, they're the ones who have to *live* in their skulls, I pity them more than anything. And some of the printfen have been very very kind and thoughtful and just plain wonderful to me, who they didn't know from Adam at first. If not for them I would never have made it to Friscon, and I've had more damn fun at that con. So I'd say, don't let the bastards grind ye down, and enjoy the cool fen. Because a lot of them really are pretty cool.
KG: What's your thinking on chicks with dicks and Tupper Trek? I don't find it interesting, but my tastes are more, um, graphic. (I actually have trouble figuring what's going on [sexually] in much of K/S, it's way too subtle or something for me.)
GW: Chicks with dicks bores me. There's one zine writer who writes these endless relationship stories, with little or no sex and most of that off-camera, and all they ever do is argue about politics and get upset over the stupidest little shit. And she is *mondo popular*. Go figure. But then again, some of our TupperTrek parodies are fucking *hilarious*! And it was the awful girly stories that inspired those in the first place. For myself, if a writer in all seriousness has Spock or Kirk bursting into tears and acting girly, I go read something else. But the TupperTrek parodies, or JungleKitty's Skankiverse stories, crack me up totally. So even from manure can come forth roses, nies? And what the hell, hochofedra, I guess some fen really like all that mushy girly stuff. More power to 'em, they can have my share of it. (rude grin) Me, I prefer hot sweaty monkey-sex and lots and lots of it. And a good gnarly angst-fest once in a while, or hurt/comfort -- as long as everyone stays *in character*. I loathe traditional romance fiction, so I don't like to see my Boyz written that way.
GW: I am given to understand that In the Time of the Beginning, the regular Trekfan community was really nasty and horrible to the K/S crowd. Like our slashwars over on a.s.c. a couple years ago, only if anything even worse. Cops usedta confiscate zines; people lost jobs, had their marriages break up, really Bad Shit went down. So they hunkered down and hid really well, and stayed that way for years and years. But online, we have privacy; no-one can get my street-name from my ISP, the most they'll get is confirmation that yes, Greywolf the Wanderer *is* a user here. So we don't share those fears. Sure, if my boss knew that *I* was Greywolf I'd lose my job in a New York minute. But my boss doesn't know and can't find it out. So I'm safe, in a way that they never were. So we're open and cheerful, while they tend toward secrecy and fear, and that makes for clashes.
But I think they're starting to realize now that there's room for all of us here, and that we're no threat to one another. It helps that a lot of us are among them and letting ourselves be seen and interact with them. As time goes by and the shit keeps on not hitting the fan, even the most fearful has to stop and take a breath and mellow out now and then.
They can have artwork, which is one of the big things I like about zines. We get instant feedback and shitloads of it, compared to them, and that's what I like about the net. That and it don't cost me a shitpot of money. But I think the antagonism is mellowing out and will continue to do so. It may flare up again some time down the road -- but if so, then it will mellow out again too, a while after that.
GW: Me, *I'm* queer as a three dollar bill. So I haven't a clue, really, what all the nice straight married ladies see in this stuff. But hell, as long as they keep writing that nasty hot monkey-sex, I don't care. I read, I enjoy, life is good. The academics and the women's studies crowd have all these theories about sex roles and gender issues-- hell, they sound at least vaguely plausible. But for me, it's one of the few places I can find what *I* like to read -- hot gay stuff that is more than just the mindless boring shit you find in alt.sex.stories.