COCO CHANNEL Interview with Wildcat
| Interviews by Fans | |
|---|---|
| Title: | COCO CHANNEL Interview with Wildcat |
| Interviewer: | Karmen Ghia |
| Interviewee: | Wildcat |
| Date(s): | February 2000 |
| Medium: | online |
| Fandom(s): | slash, Star Trek |
| External Links: | An Interview with Wildcat; reference link |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
COCO CHANNEL Interview with Wildcat 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:... how long have you been in Star Trek fandom?Wildcat: I think that I originally got net access in the summer of 1997, and I stumbled across fanfiction shortly after that. I lurked for about six months before I found the nerve to actually write down a story that had been in my head since I was, oh, about twelve years old. Needless to say, even though the story had evolved a lot in the nearly thirty years I carried it around, it still reflected the thought processes of a twelve-year-old. Nevertheless, I was hooked. I've been writing ever since.
KG: Have you mainly stayed in TOS slash. Do you think that will continue or is the grass starting to look greener somewhere else? And if so, where?
W: I've stayed completely in TOS, although I've written both slash and het stories. My very first story featured Spock with an original female character, but after that I ventured into K/S. I stayed there for a while, but gradually I found myself more and more drawn to stories depicting a relationship between Spock and Uhura. Right now, I don't have much desire to leave that relationship, although I did post a Kirk/Khan story right before Christmas that was quite a departure for me.
KG: And was very well received on ASCEML, as I recall. You've got a way with slash. What was your earliest story?
W: As I mentioned above, it was a story about Spock with an original female character, titled "Time and Again." There were some pretty heavy Mary Sue elements that make me cringe, but there was also quite a bit in the story of which I'm proud. It contained some complex time-travel twists, and of course, it will always hold a fond place in my heart because it was first.
KG: Could you list as many as you can remember of the stories you read prior to writing your first story?
W: As I remember, there really wasn't much to be found at the time. I didn't know a methodical approach to finding webpages and archives, and I'd never heard of a newsgroup. So, I ran search after search after search. Then, I stumbled across Dejanews, and started searching that for every keyword I could imagine. I wish I could remember more of what I found early on, but one story in particular that sticks out in my memory is "Twenty Questions." I also found Greywolf's "Blues for Allah," in which Spock and Uhura get marooned after a shuttlecraft crash. Although I didn't go away from that story thinking, "Gee, Spock and Uhura would make a nice couple," I'm sure that the seeds must have been planted. Another story I found was, surprisingly, a slash F Troop story and yes, that one made me raise an eyebrow or two. The story that really made me sit up and take notice, though, was Killa's "Bitter Glass." That's still my favorite story ever, although Macedon's Salene series is a very close second. I'd recommend the Salene stories to anyone, even if you don't like DS9 and/or you don't like Jake Sisko.
KG: What pairings make you feel warm and cozy when you read and why? When you write them and why?
W: Kirk and Spock used to, when I both read and wrote them, although I'm finding that my interest in K/S is waning with time. I love to write Spock and Uhura, and I'm sure that if other people were writing them, I'd love to read it. Spock and Uhura always seemed so compatible, and I think that there's a strong basis in canon for a relationship between them. Jungle Kitty's Kirk/Brandt stories also induce a warm fuzzy feeling, simply because she's come up with the perfect match for Kirk, and her romantic stories are never sappy. Also, even though I've never really been able to watch Voyager, I enjoy about anything with Tuvok. He's such a great character, and I was always disappointed that nothing much was done with him in the few episodes I saw.
KG: I've pretty much burned out on reading K/S. I never wrote much in the first place because I simply couldn't find anything to say about it. Do you have any thoughts on the future of Slash on the Web?
W: Not really. The stories always seem to go in cycles--we'll see a lot of Voyager for a while, then we'll see a lot of K/S. For a while it seemed like there was a new Garak/Bashir story every time you turned around, but recently I haven't seen many. I'm not sure that the newer series and pairings will have the staying power of TOS and K/S, but then again, I'm biased.
KG: I have a feeling Chatokay/Paris might be with us for awhile. At least I hope so, they're interesting guys in slash.