Cascade Library Interview with TAE

Interviews by Fans
Title:	Cascade Library Interview with TAE
Interviewer:	Cascade Library
Interviewee:	TAE
Date(s):	March 28, 1999
Medium:	online
Fandom(s):	The Sentinel, Due South
External Links:	interview is here, Archived version
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In 1999, TAE was interviewed for Cascade Library.

Some Excerpts

I first got on the net in August 1997. I was surfing one day and found a Quantum Leap site. I then discovered fan fiction. Then I found a Due South site. Then I discovered slash (:-0). Then I found a crossover with The Sentinel. Then I found The Sentinel fan fiction. Like so many others, one of the first authors I read was Kris Williams. Can we say 'hooked'? Then I found Wolfpup's Den and Guide Posts. I kept missing actually seeing the show (I don't watch a lot of TV, well, broadcast TV, anyway). I finally managed to watch an episode [His Brother's Keeper]... I was so embarrassed that I had to leave the room several times. Having horses and riding, I tend to be, well, rather critical, shall we say, when it comes to horseback scenes on film.

Well, I had read everything at Guide Posts. Including some very immature stuff (MarySues) that left me cringing. Here I need to apologise to a lot of good writers out there. I can't stare at the computer for the amount of time it takes to read a story, so I generally print out the longer ones (over 20K) and read them in bed at night. I frequently read a really great story, but won't ever get around to sending an LoC, because by the time I'm back on the computer, I've forgotten. So, to everyone who has ever written a fic, thank you. Anyway, like so many before me, I decided that I could write a better story than the MarySue I had just read.

I was terrified [to post my first story]. I had very little experience (OK, NO experience) with writing (well, not since high school, which isn't the same thing) any kind of fiction. When I got my first LoC, it was such a nice one, that I heaved a big sigh of relief and immediately wrote another story, and then another, and then yet another... It's true, what they say about if you give a writer encouragement that they write more.

I was a Due South fan, first. When I first got on the net, I quickly discovered that there was going to be a new season of the show. One of the things I noticed was that David Marciano had other commitments which precluded his return. I was disappointed, to say the least. However, several folks on the list were saying 'I don't care how good he is, I'm going to hate the new guy' without ever even having seen him act. One of the precepts of my upbringing was to root for the underdog. When I heard about the way people snubbed Callum Keith Rennie at the convention in Toronto, I decided that he'd have to be really, really bad for me to dislike him. I needn't have worried. He was wonderful. Took a little getting used to, but I found his character to be very compelling. It was a natural to cross the two series. Particularly since Due South canon shows Fraser to have at least three enhanced senses (hearing, smell, and taste), so it wasn't too much of a stretch to make him another sentinel.