Interview with Jane of Australia

Interviews by Fans
Title:	Interview with Jane ("INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPYRE AUTHOR")
Interviewer:	"Several years' worth of emails have been rolled together to form this interview."
Interviewee:	Jane of Australia
Date(s):	likely 1997
Medium:	online
Fandom(s):
External Links:	at her website via Wayback, Archived version
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Interview with Jane of Australia ("INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPYRE AUTHOR") was conducted in roughly 1997 and posted to Jane of Australia's own website.

Teaser: "INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPYRE AUTHOR - After more than a decade of near-anonymity, "vampyre author" Jane finally speaks, about her writing, her characters, research and..."

From the interview's introduction: "Several years' worth of emails have been rolled together to form this interview. By no means all questions have been answered, but the most often-asked are covered here, and where questios [sic] have been omitted, it's usually because they were of a personal nature, and best answered "person to person" between associated!"

Some Excerpts

HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN WRITING, AND HOW LONG WRITING FANNISHLY? I started writing when I was about six years old, which is not about 35 years ago *gasp* and I started writing for fandom in 1974. Strek Trek, then Wars, then Pros. If you mean, when did I begn writing slash, then ... about 1982.

WHAT WAS YOUR VERY FIRST B/D STORY? I have no idea! I really can't remember! It wasn't "Old Longings," though that was one of the first opus. I just don't remember what the first story was.

IT'S SAID THAT YOU REALLY HATE EDITORS! Not true. I've had good working relationships with a number of fine edtors, both pro and fannish. What I don't like is having fannish stories, which are written for fun, needlessly scrutinized by "editors" who are themselves amateurs in the publishing game. Notice that I said needlessly. I didn't say that my writing is perfect and editor-proof (it isn't, no one's is), but I believe that you have to draw a line somewhere. If I was being paid big bucks to rewrite or cooperate with a "subjective editing," that's one thing ... but I discovered early that non-professional editors would get into my narrative and want to exchange their own turns of phrase for mine! This is to say, they change my "voice" into their own, and to me, that's not editing, that's co-writing. Understand that professional editors don't do this -- it's the province of fannish editing, and very very soon it turns into power-games. I wouldn't play those games. I preferred to just not be published by fannish editors who wanted to "edit" in that way. The consequence was, I was only ever published in a few zines not done by Nut Hatch -- and I guess the story got about that I "really hate" editors. The truth is, when fannish editors stick to editing, know where to draw the line and stop -- just as pro editors do -- they're fine. I've worked with several fannish editors, and appreciated their input!

WHAT OTHER FANDOMS DO YOU WRITE FOR, OR FOLLOW? I write in B/D, [S/H, Due South, a very little Robin of Sherwood, UFO, Star Wars, Zorro, Man From Uncle, Wizards and Warriors, UFO. I use several different pen-names, remember! I don't write nearly as much as I used to. Why? Wear and tear on the body! The back, hands and eyes won't do the work they did 10-15 years ago. Also, working more hours than I used to ... being married ... getting a life ... all this takes time away from story-writing. I do still write, I just don't write as much, and I lot of what I write is professional. I also write under several pen names there!

THEY USED TO SAY YOU DIDN'T LIKE BODIE, BUT THE WAY YOU WRITE HIM...! Here's another bit of twaddle that was circulated about me. Like the "fact" I'm a vegetarian (I'm not), and I have curly hair (I don't), and I don't like Bodie (I do). (Check out my wedding pictures if you want to know what I look like, ask my husband if you want to know just how vegetarian I am ... and look at what I write if you wat to know how much I like Bodie!! Okay, I was more of a Doylefan than a Bodiefan ... FIFTEEN YEARS AGO! To me, the young MS looked like a fallen angel (and still does), which fascinates me utterly. But that's not the same as saying I didn't, and don't, like Bodie!! I hate to say it, but I was roasted alive by several "waves" of fans in the mid-1980s, before the Internet came along. I dropped into and out of fandom several times, wrote nothing for years on end ... and finally decided to just not be a part of the fannish community at all. Notice that it's taken me fifteen years to "speak" in public, albeit on the website. I don't "do" conventions, nor enter competitions, nor accept awards, nor submit stories to other people's zines. Life became very much more pleasant, harmonious and peaceful when I made these decisions!

WHO GOT YOU INTO THE FANDOM? You mean, B/D? A group of penfriends in the USA, in 1982. They've long-since left the fandom; one of them has died, another is now a kindergarten teacher, another is married. I won't name them on the Internet, because there is such a thing as privacy!

HOW MANY FANNISH STORIES HAVE YOU WRITTEN? Combining all fandoms I've written for, under all pen names, going back to the first fannish story I produced ... (pause for thought) ... I have no real idea, but it would have to be between 300 and 500 individual stories, some of them no more than 3ppm some 500pp. It's, uh, a lot of writing. It was, and is, a terrific hobby!

I HEARD THAT YOU AND KATHY KEEGAN HAD A BIG FIGHT...? Absolutely untrue! I won't speak at length about this ... suffice to say, we parted on the best of terms, but Kath just had other places to be, other things to do, and her life took her in one direction while mine took me in another!