Liz Williams

Fan
Name:	Liz Williams
Alias(es):	E. H. Williams, arcady or arkady, mevennen, mondhile
Type:	fan writer and writer
Fandoms:	Science Fiction, Fantasy, Star Trek: DS9
Communities:
Other:	arkady.org/ arkady.btinternet.co.uk/ home.fastnet.co.uk/arcady/ sites.google.com/site/mondhile/
URL:	at LiveJournal at Wikipedia Liz Williams photography
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Liz Williams is a British sci-fi/fantasy writer, fanwriter, historian and occultist.

She is a creator of both fanworks and professional works, having been a participant in multiple fandoms over the years.

She is known for several stories centring on Garak and published in the mid-1990s on multiple author sites or specialized groups for DS9 fandom.

Convention Guest of Honor

• a guest of honor at Phoenix Con - Dublin in 2009
• a guest of honor Finncon - Finland (2009)
• one of the guests of honour at Odyssey, the 2010 Eastercon - London

Comments on Writing Fanfiction

In 2000, Williams participated in a fandom project called Writers and Writing in which fans submitted their answers to a series of questions.

Question: "Most of you have written fanfic for a while. How does your very first fanfic differ from your latest work? How do you feel about that first attempt?" --

I only ever write DS9 fanfic - sometimes slash, more usually not - and I started purely because I got an idea for a story about Garak. After that, more ideas presented themselves and I've now written quite a few. What has changed over the 3 years that I've been writing fanfic is that I pay much more attention to structure: the first story (In a Stone City) was unstructured and much more of a mood piece. But in a way, it's still my favourite, because I like the writing in it, and I think I did a good job with the actual language.

Elements like plot, story and pace are the aspects of writing that I find hardest, and that I am continually trying to improve upon. At present, I'm not writing much fanfic at all, because I'm concentrating on my pro fiction, but it's something I fully intend to return to at some point. Writing fanfic has definitely helped the pro fiction, as characterisation is something that I'm reasonably good at anyway, and fanfic allows me to concentrate on other aspects of short story writing that need work. Another aspect of fanfic is world building (my favourite activity! I'm such a tourist) - I can try out ideas about Cardassia and its history which canon doesn't answer but which are interesting to explore. But mainly my fanfic has been driven by this one character, and the fun of having that particular voice in my head.

Question: "Write about the pairing you care so much about. State why - especially if it's not a canon pairing - you feel your characters should be in a relationship. Do you feel that TPTB failed/succeeded in developing that relationship satisfactorily?" --

As I've mentioned before, I'm not particularly enamoured of the Garak Bashir relationship per se. I'm interested primarily in Garak, and since I began by writing fanfic that was essentially a pastiche of the Sherlock Holmes stories, with Garak as Holmes, it seemed appropriate for my protagonist to have a sidekick who was a doctor, who was a little naive, and who could be relied upon to behave more or less in an 'ordinary' manner (as opposed to the necessary deviousness and brilliance exhibited by Holmes/Garak). I developed my take on the relationship between them because people asked me to (always happy to oblige!) and because I was then writing stories where it was appropriate to have a romantic foil.

I'm not convinced that canon Garak and Bashir either do or would have a relationship, although I think there's an attraction there on the side of Garak himself. I also think that TPTB seriously screwed up their friendship, simply as a result of lack of imagination. Getting Garak involved in the Section 31 material was obvious and relevant, yet this did not happen. I'm surprised, really, since this would have been one of those no-brainer solutions that could have led to more episodes than the rightly acclaimed 'In the Pale Moonlight.'

I'd like to have seen Garak romantically involved with someone other than the very innocent Ziyal, who - while a potentially interesting character in her own right - was not a suitable candidate for a romantic interest, due largely to her characterisation. I would rather like to have seen Garak involved with someone like Conan Doyle's Irene Adler (Holmes again!) - a scheming, unscrupulous adventuress (or an adventurer - why be gender specific? Perhaps Prof Moriarty might make a reappearance...). Now that the series is over, I may write such a character for him one day. But Bashir - not really. Their values are too different for a relationship to take hold, and I think Bashir would end up frustrated and Garak bored. Mind you, it doesn't mean that we haven't all had a lot of fun in trying to see how it might work!

Sample Fanworks

For other DS9 stories see the author's website here.

Star Trek: DS9

• Dark Enough, (p.73) published in Beyond the Wire, Issue #2
• Eminence Grise, (p.129) published in In Exile, Issue #1
• A Party of Myself, (p.140) published in In Exile, Issue #1
• Common Ground, (p.168) published in In Exile, Issue #1
• In a Stone City, published in the DS9 group alt.startrek.creative, also published in In Exile, Issue #1 (p.48)

Fan Comments

[Cardassia Sutra]: garak/bashir, nc-17. a very entertaining premise that starts off well and is worth reading even though the style dissolves into ellipses and sentence fragments for more than five paragraphs towards the end--a technique i personally find almost impossible to read. still--rather humourous and pretty much free of angst.

Professional Works

For more information about Williams's short stories see her pages mondhile shortstories and arkady.org (2007). For the list of her books, you can access arkady.org (2007) or mondhile books.