The Xena E-Zine Interview with Rooks

Interviews by Fans
Title:	The Xena E-Zine Interview with Rooks
Interviewer:
Interviewee:	Rooks
Date(s):	April 14, 2001
Medium:	online
Fandom(s):	Xena: Warrior Princess
External Links:	interview is here; reference link
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

Rooks was interviewed in 2001 for The Xena E-Zine.

Also see The Xena E-Zine Interview with LJ Maas.

Some Excerpts

In looking back, I think it was the visual cues that affected me most; the way Gabrielle was hold Xena's arm, or the way Xena would sort of casually hug Gabrielle. They "looked" right together, and that drew me in to get more of the emotional connection they shared. Fanfic at that time was great because it really focused on what I saw as simply *more* of the emotional connection I saw on the show.

"Is writing Uber a more attractive prospect these days than writing regular X/G stories?"

In a way yes, because I think it lets you take the parts you want from the Xena/Gab relatioship and toss the rest. I actually think this is one of the weaknesses of Uber fiction - I can't really read Uber anymore, because I don't recognize the characters at all. I think these days, most of the Uber stories out there are simply romance stories between a tall brunette woman, and a short blonde. Usually one of them is an abuse victim - it doesn't matter which. I simply don't see Xena and Gabrielle there, at least not in the same way as I see them in a story like "Towards the Sunset". Maybe this is just because of my own shifting understanding of the characters on the show. I can't really go back to writing a romance story that focuses on Xena and Gabrielle anymore, because I no longer see them as lovers.

"Given that the genre is female dominated, were you ever apprehensive about revealing to people your gender? Why or why not?"

I wouldn't say that I was ever apprehensive, but I was aware that it made a difference. When I first started writing, I didn't really have a good grasp of just how many women there were writing fan fiction out there. I used my standard handle - not to disguise my gender or anything like that - and I started getting messages that assumed I was female. I had no problem telling anyone who wrote me that I was male. Lunacy knew I was male very early on because she and I chatted a bit, so if you look back at some of her reviews of my stories, she refers to me in that way. But I never really made a point of saying "I'm a guy!" in my stories. Not that I don't think it is an issue - I don't think I'll ever understand what it means to write a female character in the same way as a woman might, but at the same time I think part of me wanted to bust down some stereotypes.

"With the series rapidly coming to a close, what future do you see Xena fanfic?"

It's already become a vastly different part of the fandom than when I first started. I think what's here now will outlive the show for a while anyway, mainly because I don't think the bards are really using the show for inspiration anymore (I'm talking alternative bards here, not Ares-Xena bards etc. The Ares/Xena fiction may very well die out for all I know, but I'm not at all tapped into that part of the community).