Gossamer Interview with an Author: Amperage

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Interviews by Fans
Title: Gossamer Interview with an Author: Amperage
Interviewer: Widjojo, Yasinta ("Observer")
Interviewee: Amperage
Date(s): May 23, 1996
Medium: online
Fandom(s): The X-Files
External Links: Gossamer Interview with an Author: Amperage, Archived version
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

The Gossamer Interview with an Author: Amperage was conducted in 1996.

It was posted in the non-fiction section of Gossamer's Specialty Archive.

Excerpts

When and why did you start writing x-files fan fic?

I started writing X-files fan fic in the spring of 1994. I started publishing it on EMXC in the winter of 1995.

What fascinates/irritates/moves you enough about x-files to write fan fic?

Why write fan fic? Why do anything? Why write? I write because it's what I do, what I've always done. I began writing X-files fanfic because I had decided, at that time, that I didn't feel like pursuing publication. The fact that I could publish on the net was a nice happenstance.

I started watching the X-files from the first episode onwards. The truth of the matter is that I adore the last two Evil Dead Movies-- which star Bruce Campbell--so I wanted to see Brisco County Jr.. X-Files came on after Brisco. By the spring I was okay with Brisco, but it was the X-files I couldn't miss and by April I was taping the eps. That first summer, bumming around the house, with nothing to do, I played the tapes I'd made of the episodes as I cleaned house and worked on other things. I really got into the characters and into the feeling of the show. At the time I'd decided not to do any "serious" writing, so writing fan-fic was just a natural outflow.

You generally write from Mulder's point of view, or the point of view of a third party. Do you relate better to Mulder than to Scully?

I like dark characters. As a child I liked Rochester much better than Jane and it was only the dark things in her character that made her salvageable to me. I didn't like evil characters--they frightened me--I like dark characters, not evil ones. I also have always been drawn to literary characters with some psychological problems.

How would you define Mulder and Scully's relationship?

Ewwwwww. . .blech. They rely upon each other, they need each other. I don't see it so much as Mulder needing Scully, as it is a mutual thing. The best close friendships are like that. It's not about attraction. It's about the other person being there, being trustworthy, seeing you through the hard times. It's about fights sometimes, and making up and being able to step through the rules about space sometimes and sometimes knowing when the other person needs something that they may not like and other times knowing when to leave the other person alone.

In the South there is a concept that family always supports you, no matter what. You ask about right or wrong only after you support the family. That's what Mulder and Scully have. They support one another and are there for one another.

I don't so much have a problem with someone who sees them as having sex--fine, sex doesn't preclude this kind of relationship--the problem is that then that's all the writer thinks about their relationship--sex and family things, and that's not what this is about. It isn't about babies or which sofa to buy, it's about trust and knowing the other person will back you up.

I take that back, I do have a problem with the sex--not the physical act and the having fun per se. I have a problem with the way it's conveyed in ur culture. When two people have sex the assumption becomes coy looks and touching and kissy-kissy. It moves from the head to the hormone. And that is absolutely too stupid.

I love my husband dearly, but it was the head that lead me into this relationship and the head that makes it strong and lasting. Besides of which, I can't see them having an exclusive sexual relationship. First off, Mulder would probably screw around behind Scully's back. Second off, it would probably feel like making love to your brother. . .ewwwwwwwwwwwwwww

How do you work on a story?

I sit down at the computer whenever I have a chance, pull up the story on my wordprocessor and start typing. When I've achieved something I send that part round to my tireless editors and friends: Goo, Rodent, Monkeyboy and Linda. They critique and edit and I redo or move on.

I rely on them, especially Goo and Rodent. And Rodent probably most of all. She isn't as well known in the atxc, because her work precludes a lot of writing, although RoundFiles is a classic, but with the amount of editing and proofreading she does for other people--not just me, there are a LOT of people she helps--she is probably one of the most important people on the net.

Of course, Rodent's probably going to cringe when she reads this, because I know she prefers the "hermit" approach (much as I do <g>) But she is extremely selfless in this regard.

You have written some stories with other people. How did you come to write these stories?

Umm. . .in Camping, Goo sent me an opening and it was cute and funny and I had an instant image of Mulder meeting up with a copperhead and Scully running into his back, so I wrote it. And it just went from there.

Then Rodent or Goo started Colors and it just went round robin. We had all contributed to it several times and were all enjoying doing it. It came round to me when I was having a horrendous time in my life and I didn't feel very funny at the time. Several large things were happening, none of them fun or funny and my focus, day-to-day, was mostly on getting through. I was still managing to do Oklahoma at that time, but that was all. That's why it wasn't finished.

Oklahoma was something. . .I'd had an idea for it and I even mentioned this work in my first story, The Woods. I expanded on it a bit for Sacrifice, mostly because it gave me some color, and then let my mind develop some images of the story. Goo used what I had told her about those images in Corpse, of course.

I decided I didn't want to do Oklahoma on my own. Too big, too much, and I wanted to see where it would go if there was more than one mind directing it. I quizzed both Goo and Rodent about it. Rodent couldn't because of things going on in her own life, but Goo was salivating. . .after she finished Corpse. Undeterred I sent her the first chapter. Okay, okay, was her response, let me finish Corpsical. I bummed a little bit, worked on Therapy II, and wrote another snatch. I hooked her.

I used what I learned fishing. You throw out a lure that should catch fish, given the clarity of the water, the temp of the water, the time of year and kind of fish you want to catch. Well, something bumped my lure, was definitely interested. So I threw out the second time in the same spot and my bass jumped out of the water to catch it. She wrote the next bit.

Of course it may had just been that she was scared I'd write the whole damn thing before she could get her two cents in.

You tend to use strong female characters in your stories. They are sometimes depicted as sirens who use Mulder to achieve an aim (Lia). Why do you like using these sorts of characters?

I don't consider myself as writing strong female characters. I write female characters who are every bit as tough as the male characters. Women are not hothouse flowers and never have been. If our society has chosen to see them as such it is a mark against our society. Women do relate in different ways than men do, but they are not weak and I refuse, absolutely refuse to portray them as weak. That is not realistic and it also creates an image in the reader's mind of how a "lady" should be: an image that is maladaptive and destructive to female self-image.

Women need to have the image of themselves as able to cope, and able to do for themselves and able to live on their own, and able to be themselves without a man to complete themselves. I don't think I can be vehement enough on this issue. To believe that without a man a woman is "incomplete" or "lacking" to believe that a woman is not as strong as a man is to lead girls down the path towards dependency and often spousal abuse.

As to the "sirens" well, it's fun. Isn't it? Besides, that goes back to the issue of strong women, I think. Women should have the right to be as assertive as men in the sexual arena. That's another area we have problems with. Women who won't make their sexual contacts wear condoms because their learned behavior is that the man leads in sex. Women who don't have nearly as much fun in the sack as men because they were taught that men lead.

Why do many of your stories have violent themes, tending towards horror?

Isn't that what the X-files are? If people don't like violent themes, tending towards horror, why are they watching the show? Sorry for being snipey. No. That's what the X-files are. That's what drew me to the show and what I like.

Other Interviews in This Series

References

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