Sisters in Smut Interview with Red Valerian
| Interviews by Fans | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Sisters in Smut Interview with Red Valerian |
| Interviewer: | |
| Interviewee: | Red Valerian |
| Date(s): | 2001 |
| Medium: | online |
| Fandom(s): | The X-Files |
| External Links: | Interview with Red Valerian |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Sisters in Smut Interview with Red Valerian was conducted in 2001.
It was part of a large project conducted by members of the Sisters in Smut archive, an X-Files archive with a focus on the character Walter Skinner. Red Valerian, this particular interviewee, was owner of the Sisters in Smut archive.
See Sisters in Smut Interview Project.
Excerpts
Nom de Plume ( please tell us what inspired it ):
Red Valerian is the only plant in my garden that I haven't managed to kill off yet. On the contrary, every spring it fills my beds with dusky pink flowers that stay in residence until late September. If that weren't enough, I've been told that the plant's common name is 'Kiss Me Quick.' Now if that isn't a reason, I don't know what is.
What was your first experience with fanfic?:
I think I read an 'American Gothic' story somewhere, but it didn't leave much of an impression. A few months later I chanced on an article in a British internet magazine, which said something like: "A bunch of ladies are burning a hole in Cyberspace by writing romantic X-files fanfiction. Pay a visit if you've ever wanted Mulder and Scully to get it on..." The link provided was to the main Gossamer site. Once I started reading, I didn't surface for six months.
What was your first encounter with X-Files fanfic?:
As luck would have it, I read the wonderful "The Sound of Windchimes" as about my second story. That showed me that the "bunch of ladies burning a hole in cyberspace" were in fact a group of talented and highly skilled authors.
How long have you been a fan of the show?:
About halfway through. I discovered the show via the fan fic rather than the other way around, but eventually I bought and watched all of the earlier boxed sets, so I've seen everything now apart from Season 8.
What made you into a Skinneroticist?:
Reading Lyrica's "Sharp Focus" opened my eyes, as I've said many times before. Superb stuff. I was an instant convert, and started to write my own fic soon afterwards. In fact I can 'hear' Lyrica's voice in some of my early fic, and I cringe when I read it. It was unintentional plagiarism, however. I used to send Lyrica all of my stuff before I posted it, and she was wonderfully supportive and encouraging.
What was your first experience with SIS?:
Ah...well SIS was my brainchild....as I suppose everyone knows by now. I'd been to a rather boring New Year's Eve party and got back really late but still sober and full of energy. I couldn't get to sleep so I started reading some of the Skinner stories I'd been grabbing off Gossamer and storing on my hard-drive. Back then there wasn't a specifically Skinner/Female site, and I was having to trawl Gossamer and Sue Tennyson's site daily in search of my Skinner fix.
That's when inspiration stuck.
Why not start an archive devoted to the sort of stories I wanted to read?: I could archive Skinner/female erotica from a range of authors, including myself PLUS invite new authors to come over to the Skinner side. I stayed up all night and made the first SIS title page. It was little more than a list of links to my fave Skinner/female stories. Back then you were allowed to link to Gossamer, so that's pretty much what I did. Then I uploaded the page and sent the url to some of my fave authors. Lyrica. Jordan. Anne Vermillion. Manik. Everyone was very positive about the idea and within four days the archive was up and running properly. It proved an immediate hit and pretty much took over my life for a while. We went public on January 4th 1998 and over the first three years the site got more than 250,000 hits.
What are your top five all-time favorite stories?:
Difficult....but here goes, in no particular order:
Light From Darkness - WesternRose
Eleventh Hour - Rachael Anton (The obligatory MSR)
When did you start writing?:
I've just checked Gossamer, and my first story was posted there in August 1997, so nearly four years ago now. I'd actually written the story a few months before, but I first posted it to a now defunct X-files erotica site whose name I've forgotten, but the archivist was the talented Bobbi. Which reminds me, can I add her "Pleasure of the True Lover" to that list of favourite stories?: (I've just remembered her site name: Auto-Erotic Asphyxiation! How could I have forgotten that?:?:?:?:)
What was the first X-files/Skinner story that you wrote and what inspired it?:
My first story was really an MSR, but Skinner was sort of lurking there in the final scene ready to pounce. It was called 'Superficial Contact' and it really was a PWP with no redeeming features whatsoever. I think 'I Spy' was the first real Skinner/Scully I wrote. Dawson betaed for me, if you'd believe it. I met mlb and a lot of other writers when they sent me feedback on 'I Spy' - so the story was very good to me.
How do you feel about fanfic in general?:
Well, I often quote this: "Fan fiction is a way of the culture repairing the damage done in asystem where contemporary myths are owned by corporations, instead of owned by the folk." --- Henry Jenkins, director of media studies, MIT [1]
That pretty much sums up my opinion.
What advice would you give to aspiring writers?:
Go for it. Don't be afraid to post your work. There's nothing quite like seeing your name up there in space. And feedback is better than sex.
Well.....almost.
Is there anything else that you would like to say?:
Just want to wish the new SIS archivists the very best of luck with the site. It was hard to let my baby go, but I just no longer had time to do it justice. I know I've left SIS in safe hands, and look forward to seeing the exciting new features that I know are planned for the near future.
References
- ^ This is a oft-quoted line from Textual Poachers.