McShep Match Team Peace 2009 Interview with danceswithgary
| Interviews by Fans | |
|---|---|
| Title: | McShep Match Team War 2009 Interview with danceswithgary |
| Interviewer: | |
| Interviewee: | danceswithgary (Val) |
| Date(s): | August 16, 2009 |
| Medium: | online |
| Fandom(s): | Stargate Atlantis |
| External Links: | McShep Match: Team Peace, Archived version |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
danceswithgary was interviewed in 2009 for McShep Match.
It is part of this series: McShep Match Interview Series.
Excerpts
How long have you been writing fan fiction and/or making fan art and/or whatever else (vids, knitted goods, pornographic gingerbread cookies)?
After a year or so of reading slash across a variety of fandoms, I finally bit the bullet and created my own LJ in August 2006 with the intention of commenting on my favorites and attempting to write my own Clark/Lex in the Smallville fandom. My first story was posted 9/6/2006 and since then I've written and posted 123 completed fics (not counting 70+ drabbles individually or my McShep Match story) and 6 WIPs (hangs head in shame) totaling 922,000 words. I'm hoping to hit the one million words mark by the end of this year.
Of the 123 completed, only 33 are McShep - I wasn't drawn into SGA until the spring of 2008 (thanks to undermistletoe). I also have, at last count, 65 bunny docs hopping around on my hard drive in various stages of completion. Unfortunately, my writing output has dropped considerably the past year due to health issues, but I keep plugging away.
In early 2007, I began compiling CLex recs by theme, which grew into danceswithclex. It really needs to be updated, but I've been too busy writing and Photoshopping and writing McShep recs and so on.
In addition to the writing, fandom rekindled my artistic side and I've been working on various Photoshop creations since 2007. I currently have over 800 icons, banners and covers posted to my Scrapbook on LJ. SGA really kicked my icon making into high gear with the various icontests I've entered.
I created my very simplistic website in 2007. It is hand-coded using CSS with the stories saved as html from Word docs.
And they're while not pornographic, I have made fannish cookies with my then 24-year-old daughter, who's a comics fan.
HOW in the WORLD do you respond so fast and so accurately to the searches on sgastoryfinders? it's like lightening and you almost always know the obscure stories! Do you have like, awesome google fu?
As long as it's McShep (and I enjoyed the story), then I usually have the fic saved to my hard drive. I currently have 3000+ SGA files (McShep and Gen) and in some of the files I've compiled a collection of an author's stories that feel like a logical progression along a timeline for me, so it's actually a lot more than 3000 stories in total.
I run keyword searches (Vista rocks with the AND function) until I find the fic, then Google for the link if I don't already have it saved in the file from an earlier search. I tend to re-read my collection often, so my personal favorites are particularly easy to find.
I also handle a lot of the CLex searches in the SV fandom the same way with the 4000+ files I've saved for that OTP.
Why do you ship McKay/Sheppard? What draws you to the pairing, what do you like and dislike? Favourite scenes or episodes? Quotes? Screencaps? What other SGA pairings do you ship?
The dichotomy of the characters appeals to me, just as it does with Clark and Lex in Smallville. In John and Rodney's case, it's the differences between scientist and soldier, verbose and silent, handsome flyboy and quirky genius, bravery and perceived cowardice (although we know better). Despite their differences, they find common cause and friendship and sometimes even more. In addition, while I don't care for gen in SV, I find that I enjoy reading it in SGA because of the strength of the team and McShep bond. I prefer the episodes where John and Rodney do things together like discuss comics and movies and play games or solve the latest problem. I dislike the episodes where John (or other team members) treat Rodney badly.
What do you like about creating art of your favorite couple vs writing it?
I've always preferred stories that provide enough information for me to visualize what's happening, the art lets me express my interpretation. I often create a cover for my stories long before they're complete because it provides a focal point for me. It's only recently, as an offshoot of the SGA icontests I participate in, that I've begun creating pieces that aren't dependent on a particular story, either mine or another author's. However, even with my icons, each piece has an internal storyline for me based on expression or background. Needing that 'story' is why I'm not very prolific and sometimes only create 5 or 6 icons a week spread across several challenges.