Cascade Library Interview with Sis

Interviews by Fans
Title:	Cascade Library Interview with Sis
Interviewer:	Cascade Library
Interviewee:	Sis
Date(s):	June 12, 2000
Medium:	online
Fandom(s):	The Sentinel
External Links:	interview is here, Archived version
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In 2000, Sis was interviewed for Cascade Library.

Some Excerpts

I like reading all kinds of literature, not just fanfiction. I love movies and television, even though there's usually only a couple of series I make sure to catch just about any time they're on - like TS, XFiles, and Stargate. I grew up watching and reading science fiction and horror, courtesy of my mom, who has always been a big fan. It was she who told me about The X-Files, and when I mentioned The Sentinel, she said 'oh, yeah. I watch that.'

And I'm a big fan of Kung Fu, both the original and the new one, as well as a few other fandoms, some of them kind of obscure.

I really like messing with computers and electronics. I enjoy surfing the web, and just fooling around with programs on my computer to see what I can do with them. I'm a list junkie and have joined way too many already.

I've been to several science fiction and media conventions, and think they're great. I've been both a convention goer and a dealer, and have had a blast either way. I'm big on collecting things, from comic books, to action figures, to Peanuts memorabilia. Expensive habits, all of them, as it turns out.

I've had some art, and like messing about with that occasionally too.

Well, this probably doesn't actually apply, but one of my favorites [that I've written] is Perspective which appeared in the fanzine Sentry Duty, edited by Mysti Frank. It was one of the first long Sentinel stories I ever wrote, and it dealt with a rival sentinel that was a nasty sort, but so beat up and victimized by so many problems, that I began to feel sorry for him. The story was hard to write, but at the same time, it was taking on a life of its own. The villain insisted on putting forth his own point of view -- Simon went from playing a stand by role to a bigger one -- it just went places it wasn't originally supposed to go. And I loved that about it. It also had more action that I generally have in my stories, and it seemed to move fast enough so that it might work in an hour or so time block. Maybe two hours.

I watch lots of shows, but I've only been compelled to write for a few. I was enjoying the heck out of the program, and it was pulling at me to write something. At that time, I wasn't sure there was really anything out there. I had looked at some XF and KF stuff on the web, but hadn't searched for much else. I was hoping Sentinel fiction existed and was pleasantly surprised. There was lots. I lurked on Senfic for a while, then finally saw Survival, the episode that really pushed me to want to write something. That was Musings written in Simon's voice. It was kind of scary to post my first story -- I had written for fanzines, but never been in a situation where I wrote something, then suddenly it was available -- for more than a limited print run. And you usually don't hear much from the stuff that comes out in fanzines -- this was instant -- it leaves your hands and appears on the llist within moments. Scary and thrilling. And very sobering -- you need to get it right the first time.

I think [the first fanfiction I read] was some Star Trek that was published as a paperback years ago. Up to then, I had only heard of fanfiction, but this was the first time I was able to get my hands on some. I purchased some Star Trek fanzines after that, and was able to get into all kinds of things, because once you get into fandom and start networking, it's like falling down a rabbit hole. There's stuff lurking in corners everywhere... I think [the first piece of fanfic I wrote] was Batman. Never published of course. When I was a kid I was writing fanfiction, although I didn't know that's what it was. But I was liberally lifting characters from books and television and playing with them... Can't remember exactly [what the first Sentinel fan fiction I read]. It may have been Michalina's short Cypher aftermath. I'm pretty sure that's the first one I printed out. It sort of happened all at once because I kind of ran across Guide Posts, and got greedy. Some of the first stuff I remember grabbing me in a big way is work by Kristine Williams, Sharon, and Martha, and those constitute my first memories of really getting hooked.