Transformative Works and Cultures Interview with Keith R.A. DeCandido
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| Interviews by Fans | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Transformative Works and Cultures Interview with Keith R.A. DeCandido |
| Interviewer: | |
| Interviewee: | Keith R.A. DeCandido |
| Date(s): | 2010 |
| Medium: | online |
| Fandom(s): | |
| External Links: | interview is here |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
In 2010, Keith R.A. DeCandido was interviewed for an issue of Transformative Works and Cultures.
Some topics discussed were fan fiction, Supernatural, and Tie-in novels.
Some Excerpts
One other advantage that fan fic has is that it can choose to ignore interpretations of the character they don't like. To give an example from fan fic I've written, my ex-wife and I wrote a bunch of fan fics that crossed over Highlander with the Hercules/Xena universe, and we chose to ignore pretty much everything that happened on the latter two shows after a certain point where the shows went in directions we didn't like (the death of Iolaus in Hercules, and the Dahak and India arcs in Xena). But if I'm writing official tie-in fiction, I don't have that luxury. If Dean acts in a manner I don't like on one episode, that episode has to be part of what I take into account in a Supernatural novel.
I always try to have a good relationship with the fandoms I write in, especially if it's something like Supernatural where I'm a fan of the show first, and also a tie-in writer. I'm also plugged into Star Trek fandom, Farscape fandom, Serenity fandom, et cetera.My books are aimed at people who like the show. Some of those are the hard-core fans who post on Internet bulletin boards, but numerically speaking, that's a very small number of my readership and an even tinier number of the show's viewership.
Also, I discovered early on that it's impossible to please "the fan base," because they're not a monolithic group. So it's hard to say what resonates, because different things resonate with different people. I've had readers tell me that I "obviously" like Dean more than Sam, and ones who are just as sure that I prefer Sam and think Dean's an idiot. For that matter, I've read plenty of online reviews that profess how obvious it is that I've never actually watched the show, which is categorically untrue (I even have witnesses!)