Cascade Library Interview with Hephaistos

Interviews by Fans
Title:	Cascade Library Interview with Hephaistos
Interviewer:	Cascade Library
Interviewee:	Hephaistos
Date(s):	September 4, 2000
Medium:	online
Fandom(s):	The Sentinel
External Links:	interview is here, Archived version
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

In 2000, Hephaistos was interviewed for Cascade Library.

Some Excerpts

Ha! My answer [to the question of how I became a Sentinel fan] will sound like half the fandom's... Kristine Williams. Actually, I'll go back farther than that. When I first started using the Internet (like a kid in a candy store), I'd check out sites devoted to favorite TV shows. I was kind of surprised there were other people out there as devoted to television as I was (my closest friends either don't own a television, or only watch PBS). Anyway, I happened upon Gossamer, a huge X-Files fan fiction archive, and I can't even tell you how blown away I was. Hurt/comfort (a phrase I'd never known before) as far as the eye could read, and read I did. I just had no idea that other people were into hurt/comfort; I'd always assumed there was something horribly, sadistically wrong with me. Now I realize that I'm either in good company in my sadisticness or I'm actually fairly 'normal.' Once I'd overdosed on Mulder-pain, my brain synapses started sparking again, and I thought, "Hey, if there's all this fan fiction stuff for The X-Files, maybe it exists for other shows, too." Kind of a no-brainer in retrospect. So I did a Yahoo search, noticed the listings for The Sentinel (a program I'd seen but never really thought much about), and clicked on the first listing -- Kris Williams'. I was overjoyed to discover that yes, hurt/comfort was just as prevelant in TS. Like many others have said, the fan fiction helped me to appreciate the television show so much more, and I was hooked. I think it's sad that, for whatever reason, so many of us couldn't see all the wonderful aspects of the show from the show itself. A good discussion topic, I suppose.

The Rig. Definitely [my favorite episode]. This episode offers everything: a vulnerable Jim, an injured Blair, a comforting Jim, an in-danger Jim, a rescuing Blair, a great BOTW (I really enjoyed her), a couple of spiffy nicknames for the guys, Jim angst, Blair angst, the bomb countdown, domesticity, and Bo Jackson (just kidding about Bo Jackson). This episode also marks a kind of turning point for the guys' relationship -- Jim is very territorial about the loft at the beginning, while at the end he's making fun of the house rules. Maybe I'm reading too much into these scenes (though I know others have reached the same conclusion), but it seems like the house rules are suddenly not so important to Jim. There's also a great moment of trust and openness when Jim tells Blair about his fear of deep water ("I've never told anyone this before..."). Finally, from a strictly shallow point of view, Jim and Blair look absolutely beautiful in this episode.

Like so many other writers here, I've been writing fanfiction for years and just didn't know it. When I became obsessed with The Sentinel and found myself knee-deep in such quality fiction, I wanted to be a part of it any way I could. Writing my own stories was a given, the question was whether I'd post them or not. I got my feet wet rather unexpectedly -- DawnC had started an interactive story, kind of a round robin, called Trauma. My very first posted TS writing was a part to that story. I was amazed when I received feedback in less than an hour (it was past midnight for heaven's sake). Once I felt like I had a handle on the characters, I decided to post my first story -- Into the Madding Crowd. I had just been on a simply dreadful business trip and, even as new as I was to the fandom, the experience just screamed "Blair."

I always call myself a 'Blairbabe,' but the truth is, I like the dynamic of all three main characters (I include Simon in this category). The 'team' is what I enjoy writing the most; these guys are just wonderful together.... I suppose Blair's the easiest to write because he has so many obvious physical traits and speaking characteristics. With Jim, it's hard to not rely on a lot of jaw clenching and glaring.

Well, for one thing Virtual Season episodes are] WAY longer than I usually write. I don't do 'long' very well. Virtual episodes also require (more or less) case stories which I do enjoy writing. We also (at both Virtual Seasons) try to stick with the four-act format which in some ways makes the writing easier. Regular stories have no such formats, which (and I'm being wishy-washy) makes writing them both easier and more difficult.

I just know [the first piece of fanfiction I read] was in the X-Files fandom; I still have all those stories I downloaded at the time. Most of them are pretty dreadful, but they sure didn't seem dreadful when the discovery of fan fiction was so new. We are very fortunate here in TS to have such quality writers ... [The first fanfic I wrote] was an Hawaii Five-O script I wrote in the 7th grade (I still have it and it's hilarious). I also used to write mini-plays based on TV shows and then force my little cousins to take parts and act them out on my tape recorder (kind of a Jane's Radio Theater). I still have the tape of the one I wrote for Chopper One -- anyone remember that show? My cousins wouuld probably kill me if they knew. Great blackmail material... [The first piece of Sentinel fanfiction I read was] Avalanche by Kristine Williams. I was hooked on TS fan fiction immediately.