Cascade Library Interview with Shallan

Interviews by Fans
Title:	Cascade Library Interview with Shallan
Interviewer:	Cascade Library
Interviewee:	Shallan
Date(s):	July 24, 2000
Medium:	online
Fandom(s):	The Sentinel
External Links:	interview is here, Archived version
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In 2000, Shallan was interviewed for Cascade Library.

Some Excerpts

Strangely enough, it wasn't until the end of the second season [when I became a Sentinel fan]. The cable system back in Springfield wasn't much to brag about. There weren't any UPN channels. However, I was surfing the channels one night and came across a repeat of the Cypher episode on FOX. After that, I scoured the TV Guide for other times the show was aired. Several months later, I bought a satellite dish. It was mainly to get the Sci Fi channel, but I also found UPN and The Sentinel. I've been hooked ever since.

Oh, I love telling this story. I've been writing fan fiction every since I was a young girl, only they didn't call it that back then. But as for writing TS, I was at a Hispanic Heritage seminar in San Diego, California. My job at that time was as the Equal Employment Opportunity Manager for the Guard. Anyway, I had left a small reception (cocktails and snack foods) since I knew the finale for the third season was on that night. I had the VCR programmed back home, but I didn't want to wait until I got there to see it. When Blair couldn't be revived and those three horrible words flashed upon the screen, "To Be Continued," I almost freaked. I hoped that there wasn't anyone in the rooms next to me to hear my language or anger. Then, the next day, I already had started in my mind an alternate conclusion. However, when I read in the USA Today that UPN had cancelled TS, I started writing. Guide's Choice was pretty much written, in long hand, in one day. To say the least, I didn't pay too much attention to the speakers at the different seminars. And posting it on the Internet scared the hell out of me. I realized that this story wasn't for a college course, to be seen by one person that I knew, or just something that I was going to lock away with my other notebooks. I was putting something I wrote from my heart out to be viewed by who knows how many people. It wasn't until I started receiving very positive feedback that I finally calmed down. I still get very nervous every time I have a story posted.

I enjoy writing Jim because he is so easy for me. He's like so many of the guys that I've worked with on a daily basis and still have to interact with now. I understand where he's coming from and why he acts like he does. Other writers think he's an unfeeling jerk who doesn't deserve a friend like Blair. I feel he's a true creation of what his background created. I know that I'm not the same person that I was from high school. The military does change you. As for my least favorite, I'd rather say which is the hardest to write and that is Megan. To me, it is hard to write using female that has a strong character and not have her considered a...I won't use the word, but its another term for female dog. Like Cassie was written. Megan is too multi-dimensional and I don't think I can do her justice.

I am a BIG sci-fi buff, both with TV and movies and I'd rather watch them than any other type. I absolutely fell in love with Stargate: SG-1 from the first episode and watch it religiously. Of the Star Trek shows, I'm okay with the original series, but really don't make a habit of watching it anymore. Next Generation was pretty good but I wasn't too thrilled with Deep Space Nine. Too dark and sometimes too intense. I thought, toward the end, they kept the storyline about the war with the Dominion hanging too long. The final show was a bit of a let down. Now I really like Voyager and enjoy how the characters have evolved. While I wasn't all that thrilled about them bringing in the Borg Bim...er, I mean, Seven of Nine, her character has filled out pretty good. No pun intended. I'm a little worried about how they intend to take this final year of the show. As for other shows I really like, or liked as they are now no longer, SeaQuest DSV (and its hybrid 2047), Poltergeist: The Legacy, The Others, man there are so many. The big three, NBC, ABC and CBS really have no idea when it comes to SF shows. FOX is somewhat better, but I don't even want to talk about UPN. The Sentinel was sort of a sci-fi show, but then it wasn't. The idea of hypersenses is not all that far beyond belief. Blair had it right when he said there were hundreds of documented cases of people with one, two, maybe even three hyperactive senses. Yeah, someone having all five does stretch the imagination, but it is more believable than something happening like the new Invisible Man show on the Sci Fi channel. But the most unique part of TS was the relationship between Jim and Blair. Two men could work and live together, NOT be homosexual and the subject wasn't ever, at least I don't remember that it was, raised. What a concept!!

More, more, more [feedback]! We have a lot of really great writers out there and they don't get the good feedback that they deserved. BPP is a great example. As the season went along, the LoCs got fewer and fewer. Was it because the audience just expected a story to come out each week and didn't think it was necessary to write? As man does not live by bread alone, fan fiction writers need to know how you feel about their stories. However, remember the adage about if you're not able to say something nice. A college professor always called her critiques "positive criticism". If you have an issue with something someone wrote, and you can't be polite, then don't write. I have a problem with slash stories, never feeling comfortable about the subject matter. However, I don't go writing to the author and ripping them up for even thinking such things. During the course of answering these questions, I took a small timeout and read a couple of new stories archived at the Cascade Library. I immediately wrote to one of the writers, since she was new to the Library, and told her how I liked her stories. Her reply back let me know that she really appreciated hearing from me.

I used to write as a young girl, penning stories in notebooks that were hidden in my dresser when not in use. I think I still have them. I remember writing Adam 12 stories, Alias Smith and Jones and The Magician. Of course, they were mainly Mary Sue type stories, but I didn't know what that type was then. I just wanted to dream about a different life than what I had and the stories helped me escape. I don't need to escape now...a short vacation with Jim and Blair does me just fine.

[The first piece of fanfiction I read]: What else? A TS story on Kris Williams' old site. I'd just moved into my tiny, lonely apartment in Littleton, Colorado 2 1/2 years go, new to the city and state, and started to surf to pass the time. I don't remember what I was searching for at the time, but her web page came up and I thought I was in heaven... I'm so sad that she has moved into another realm, but what she is writing now is still great.