Not Tonight, Spock! Interview with Cynthia Drake

Interviews by Fans
Title:	Not Tonight, Spock! Interview with Cynthia Drake
Interviewer:	Sarah Leibold
Interviewee:	Cynthia Drake
Date(s):	1984
Medium:	print
Fandom(s):	Star Trek TOS, slash
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In 1984, Cynthia Drake was interviewed for the zine Not Tonight, Spock! #5.

Excerpts

[Are Kirk and Spock gay?] Well, there is, of course, the obvious - any man whose main sexual outlet is another man is gay - how else would you define the word? Particularly since with K&S you're not (usually - depends on the writer) dealing with an experimental fling but with something that is going to be the permanent & only sex partner. But I know what you mean - are they basically drawn to other men in general or is this relationship something so overpowering that it overrides their normal sexual orientation? When I write, I generally see Spock as a virgin, because it's more fun for me that way... The Kirk I write about has fucked his way around pretty thoroughly before falling in love with Spock. Speaking as a lesbian, I hope that by ST time such definitions will have lost much of their meaning. With unknown races entering the Federation with who knows what sexual orientations I would hope that it will be the person (or persons or whatever) involved that matter, not what sex they are.

The K/S premise seems to me to leap right out of the screen, but I can't call my self an objective observer. From early childhood days I loved the slash concept. When I used to watch "Man From U.N.C.L.E." I concocted the juiciest fantasies about Illya and Napolean - and this was even before I even heard the word homosexual. I also loved Sherlock Holmes & Dr. Watson. But when in my 20's I started watching 'Trek' it was like finding pure (?) gold. Reading "New Voyages" was the first inkling that there were others out there like me - only not as sick. Reading THRUST told me there were people even sicker than me (only joking). After that sweaty experience (reading THRUST), there was no turning back.

I'm a sucker for a nice first timer any old time at all. I love first time stories. In fact, if a story jumps right into the middle of the relationship I feel left out. (This does not preclude my doing the same thing in a couple of my own stories. I refer to that as the 'so there' syndrome.) Slave/master. I enjoyed immensely writing "By Worlds Divided" and "An Inhabited Garden". There are a few of that genre I've read that I've loved, but most of them are terrible. Of course, a lot of people probably consider mine terrible too. To them I say - nyah, nyah. Perhaps because s/m stories are so intense, I am extremely choosy about them. I hate death stories, and stories where they break up, and would never write one. I enjoy a humorous story, & have tried my hand at one ("And A Bottle of Rum" coming in T'HY'LA 4). I don't like stories where one of them (voluntarily) sleeps with someone else. I don't like K&S in bed with McCoy. (Pardon me while I retch.) I like stories with endearments. (Here I'll duck the pies & rotten eggs.) But give me a romantic first timer like Leslie Fish's "Shelter" and "Poses" and "This Deadly Innocence" or [Gayle F's] "Beyond Setarcos" or K.S. T'lan's "Dealers in Kivas & Trillium" and I'm a happy maniac for the duration.

Let me begin by saying that as of Thursday, June 14, all backordered copies of FINAL FRONTIER 2 have been mailed out. (Pause for several minutes of the Hallelujah Chrous.) There will be a FF3. I already have a great deal of fine material "- despite my rather feeble protests that I wasn't ready yet things just kept arriving in the mail. More is promised. There is a glorious color cover by Suzan Lovett (not promised or in the works or anything but RIGHT IN MY DRAWER) as well as inside art by the Southern Cross which is guaranteed to burn up the mails. There is a wildly hilarious looong story by A.T. Bush, which was supposed to be in issue 2 and other stories. I love poetry, so there will be quite a bit of that, too.

I see [Star Trek fandom moving] away from Kirk & Spock. I think writers will begin focus on the mechanical objects in the films. We'll have stories linking a reborn 'Enterprise' with the'Excelsior'-sex during trans warp drive. Nomad will return, & engage in a steamy affair with the bridge computer, although there will be strains due to the computer's tendency to count down when approaching the critical moment. Only kidding. I really don't know,- I'd like to see lots more K/S & the new movie will be a powerful impetus. As long as writers & artists keep having these siek imaginative ideas & as long as editors remain the masochistic - ah, hard-working - bunch they are now, K/S zines will continue to roll off the presses.

I'd like to address the flyer which was circulated at the last Shore Leave convention. The flyer was titled NAKED DOUBLES & was by a prefers-to-remain-anonymous-but- we-all-know-who-she-is-anyway author. It is unfortunate that said author could think of no more mature way to vent her angers & anxieties. While segments of this flyer were admittedly humorous, & in some cases quite true, the rest of it was execrable. The vicious attack on [P T] in her grief is quite inexcusable. [P] has taken no money for either of the novels mentioned, & even if she had, that would still be no reason for the author to stoop to such depths. The linking of such reliable, prompt, courteous editors as [V C] & [B S] with other less reliable (not to mention incommunicado) editors is laughable. The same applies to most of the other people mentioned in this flyer. As for the comment on the Southern Cross, the jealousy & petty spite that motivated it should be embarrassingly obvious even to the author. As anyone who has seen any of the Southern Cross' art knows, fandom is graced by her awesome talent. The entire tone of the flyer is vindictive, immature & stupid. The only saving grace is that the above qualities are so evident upon even a casual perusal that I can't see anyone taking it seriously. The author has overstepped the bounds of civilized behavior this time. I care deeply for most of the people mentioned, & am outraged on their behalf.