Cascade Library Interview with Aubrey Robin

Interviews by Fans
Title:	Cascade Library Interview with Aubrey Robin
Interviewer:	Cascade Library
Interviewee:	Aubrey Robin
Date(s):	November 6, 2000
Medium:	online
Fandom(s):	The Sentinel
External Links:	interview is here, Archived version
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In 2000, Aubrey Robin was interviewed for Cascade Library.

Some Excerpts

I had read a lot [of fan fiction] but never considered writing any until The Sentinel by Blair Sandburg. By the time that episode aired I was so annoyed with what the creators had done with Jim and Blair's relationship that I had pretty much stopped watching devotedly. I think I watched most of that ep with my eyes covered <g> -- until the hospital conversation, anyway. By the time they rolled the credits I think my first story had sprouted full blown in my imagination.... First was To Do List. I think I actually started writing it within a few days of seing TSbyBS, but for me it was totally cathartic. I had to *fix* things and had absolutely no intention of writing beyond that. Heck, I had no intention of it seeing the light of day but then I asked someone - a perfect stranger and don't think *that* wasn't intimidating - to beta it and that made all the differennce. I remember the very first LoC I received - the writer said I made her cry! Yikes! It was *great* ... I don't think it's my *best* story, but it's the one that got me started in fanfic and helped me begin to trust myself when it came to writing. I had forgotten what it was like to craft a story, to make it into something better than you originally anticipated. By writing it I opened up a whole new world for myself.

I hated ["The Sentinel by Blair Sandburg"] -- up until their second conversation in the hospital. But then I had felt betrayed by the writers so much already that I wasn't surprised that they had totally let me down on how Jim was going to handle this. Forty minutes of Jim looking angry and Blair looking miserable was excruciating. There's so many things I disliked about that ep that to this day I still fast forward through most of it. And I'm still ticked at Naomi. That's another thing I need to fix someday. As far as ending the show, I would have wanted the best of all worlds - Blair receiving his doctorate and still wworking with Jim. How? Beats the heck outta me...

When I can read a scene I've written and know it's *exactly* how I wanted it to sound [is the most satisfying to me]. There's *such* satisfaction in that. Also, having the ability through net fiction to write my version of Jim and Blair and have it accepted so graciously. Oh, and the omnipotence thing <g>. I love having Jim and Blair and Simon react the way I want them to, to grow into what I want them to be. That's what's been so great about writing almost serially; I've been able to mold them into what I always hoped they'd be.

Of course I love [feedback], even when someone disagrees with my vision. What I have found, like so many others, is that the feedback fades away the more stories you write. Everyone always loves to love on a new writer and encourage them -- which is wonderful. But once you've got a few stories done the feedback diminishes. Believe me, I am totally guilty of this. If I discover a writer new to me whose story I like, I'll send a note. If a story is posted by a writer whose work I love I'll usually race to read it but skip the feedback part, especially if I've already sent an LoC about her previous work. Shoot, now I feel bad. *Sigh*. I gotta get busy! But realizing that made me grow up a little bit as a writer; as wonderful as feedback is, it can't be the *reason* I write.

I'm not sure which story it was but the big ol' hook for me was Wolfpup's Den. I literally immersed myself in the stories there for weeks; I was insatiable! But the real eye-opening stories for me were by Iris Wilde and Kim Heggen. When I grow up I wanna write like them.