Helmboy

Fan
Name:	Helmboy
Alias(es):
Type:	Fan Writer
Fandoms:	Star Trek: Voyager
Communities:	ASCEM
Other:
URL:	@ The Tom Paris Dorm
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Helmboy is a Star Trek: Voyager slash writer who focuses on Chakotay/Tom Paris fic. She's archived at The Tom Paris Dorm, BLTS, and Trekiverse.

Comments from Helmboy: 1999

I always like to get men's responses to what I write. I have had men tell me that they liked the psychology of the men in my stories and one gay man wrote that he liked the hugging and kissing in Canaan Land. He told me, that for him, there wasn't enough of that in many stories.

I remember being very intrigued by it and look at men's letters with a huge interest in their pov.

[snipped]

…[In] some fandoms you get nailed on [characterizations that portray male characters and slash as overly-feminine] and for jaywalking and breathing and not standing up straight. I have the scorch marks on my behind to prove it for doing parodies in fandoms that take themselves waaaaaaaay too seriously.

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAAAHA! Sorry. :0)

I think some of the shows are very ripe for parody and none of mine, in my opinion, were disrespectful. However, the feminization thing is a hoot to spoof.

I think that women write the emotions in that men sometimes don't express or at least acknowledge to others. My experience with gay men's letters is that they like the romance. If some don't then cool. There are so many writers that a blanket remark won't work. You have women like Britta and Bridget who write a very man sort of pov. There are others who don't. There are many like Karen S who write humor and sexy and all kinds of stuff. There are versatile women in many fandoms like Lianne Burwell and Mona Ramsey. (All hail Mona!) Then, there are writers like Siubhan who wrote Left Hand of Madness and Margaret Berger who wrote the Sweet Dreams stories, both classic Voy stories. Both are very male in pov in my opinion. Both were clear in presenting men. And, there are ten million others.

None of them can be covered in a few statements. Its too broad and varied.

I have noticed that the stories *some* men write are instantly recognizable to me as written by men. There often (but not always) is another sense to them, a different sensibility, that you can pick up sometimes. I read men's stories to hear that point of view and see that sensibility. It makes me think about what I do. I may not change a word but its another pov, helpful to me in figuring out the intricacies of this kind of relationship from a lot of pov's, not just mine.

Sex seems to be more of an act to be performed in some (note that word) men's stories --the mechanics being very important: size, number of orgasms, who screamed and how long.... <drool> .... while in women's, its an emotional thing (usually), connected to feelings and sometimes those feelings make the men women.

[snipped]

When people thought that I was a man (my online name is Helmboy after all) I was told that people thought I was a man writing with a woman's touch. :0) It may just be a point of view thing based on male and female outlook. Or it may not but in my experiences on both sides of the fence, the view of the work was interesting from a man's and a woman's perspective. It is also often different. However, I read stories that interest me and men and women write both. I could no more condemn men's writing than I could women's.

[snipped]

I always love to get mail from men telling me what they thought. One gay man told me that he never cries from stories but Canaan Land made him cry. Very cool. Perhaps it would be helpful for the men on this list to LOC the authors and tell them what they think about what they read.

I can't do romance in the regency style without falling into parody. I can't do gushy romance. I am writing men. However, I think that from what men tell me that they like the contact, the conversations, and the touching and kissing. So, I try to remember that my first maxim in my writing is that even though this is men, this is a love relationship with all the good, bad and ugly that implies. My guys kiss each other and hold hands. I guess if that makes them fem, so be it. But, in my set of rules for my own writing, that makes them normal. In the worlds I write, gay love and sex is normal.

[snipped]

I don't think that romance novels are comparable to slash. I think slash is something unique. If it were just another genre we would all be doing this for money. :0)

I tried to read romance novels but can't. The relationships are not my cup of tea and the dialog and emotional set ups are too over the top. I respect anyone's choice of material to read and enjoy. As my aunt once told my uncle when he was disparaging In the Heat of the Night's sheriff who had married a black woman: "There isn't enough romance and love in this world, damn it. I LIKE THIS!"

I agree with her. However, not every set up is everyone's cup of tea. Frankly, we need more gay men telling us their views in a way that presents the information we, as writers, really all crave from you, the mainstay of our imaginations. I personally *love* to hear from gay men and women about what they like, dislike, want more of, would like to see less of, in my stories.

This helps me and makes me clear on the audience as well. Maybe I won't change a thing but letters always give me something to think about.

I had the good fortune to meet and talk to for a long time, the godmother of slash, Gerry Downes. She is a dreamsickle of a woman. She started K/S a million years ago and is an amazing writer. She edits Sentinel slash for the great writer, Toshua, and she talked about the idea of feminization and such in slash. Some things she liked and some she didn't. I guess it was whatever you liked was cool.

Frankly, she was *very, very* cool. :0)

[snipped]

Slash is women (usually) writing about men (usually) in relationships with other men. Of course, the female perspective will come into play. For some that means feminization and for others it means something else. But, so what. I could never write this:

"Hi, honey! I'm home!"

Chakotay walked through the door and tossed his briefcase on the couch, tossing his jacket off too.

Tom, his wonderful little snugglebunny, wiped his hands on his frilly pink apron and stepped away from the replicator he was slaving over, dropping a kiss on his hubby's lips.

"Hi, sweetie. Din-din is almost ready."

"Thanks, baby. How about a roll in the hay?" Chakotay smiled at Tom's newly-wed blush.

Of course, they had been hitched for 27 years but that was okay. It didn't matter that Tom still undressed in the closet at night and only *did it* in the dark, on the bottom, fully clothed.

They were still as in love as the first time they made love in that alley back on Alpha Ceti V.

*And* I could never write this one: (Maybe) ;0)

CRACK!

The whip broke the stillness, making Tom quiver, as he hung in the straps. Chakotay, wearing black leather and six inch heels, aced back and forth, a tiperillo dangling from his rather full, sensuous, red, *gasp*, lips.

"Beg, wench!" he demanded, cracking the whip again. "BEG!"

"Mommy...."

Well, maybe I *could* write that one. ;0)

Hugs!

Notable Work

• Canaan Land

Referenes

Related Concepts, Fandoms, Terms, Fanworks
See also	ASCEM, Better Living Through Treksmut, Golden Orgasms, The Tom Paris Dorm, Trekiverse