Twenty-Seven Grilled Bards and One Reviewer: Bat Morda

Interviews by Fans
Title:	Twenty-Seven Grilled Bards and One Reviewer: Bat Morda
Interviewer:
Interviewee:	Bat Morda
Date(s):	July 6, 1998
Medium:	online
Fandom(s):	Xena: Warrior Princess
External Links:	full interview is here, Archived version
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Twenty-Seven Grilled Bards and One Reviewer: Bat Morda is a 1998 Xena: Warrior Princess fan interview at Whoosh!.

Series

For others in this series, see Whoosh! Interview Series.

Some Excerpts

Humm... why do I write? Well, it's an escape for me. I find it relaxing often therapeutic and it's given me an outlet to express all sorts of things. I'd say there is an element of creative compulsion and self indulgence mixed in. And lets face it, it's kind of a power trip too. In my universe I get to call all the shots and see what happens. I also get to experiment try different things and tap into all sorts of psyches. That's kinda cool. Besides, Xena and Gabrielle provide a rich playground to do that in. They are dynamic characters in their own right, a wonderful depth to their relationship, cool things from the show to draw on and a setting where pretty much anything can happen. Who could ask for more?

Certainly I don't sit down to write with the idea of "here I am, little 'ol lesbian me, writing about my life and using these pre-Mycenaean and 1940s chicks to do it. I don't feel qualified to write about the Lesbian Experience at large. I don't even own a kd lang CD and somehow I think it's key to the whole thing. I just go off and write my little stories where it just so happens my leading ladies feel the same way about other women that I do. Since their my stories though, if anyone gives them any guff about it, they then get to kick their narrow-minded *ss*s and that's where I think I firmly step into Fantasy Land. Even thought I've admitted that some characters are more "me" than others, and some of the things I write about are from personal experience or my own personal views, I don't think that's the same as addressing the Lesbian Life Experience in the general sense. I suppose in that way, my stories are a reflection of what it's like to be me. While though lesbian, is not exactly the same as a reflection of the lesbian experience. I don't think. Is this making any sense at all to you?

I'm just being my self indulgent self. I'm not particularly fond of making up character names, especially for the extras. When I wrote TSFA, I included friends as the students in Janice's class and as the 1940s Amazons. Well more friends commented "Hey! Put me in the story" I mentioned I'm a pushover, no? So, since UM is a bit more "out there" than the previous two, I just decided to go overboard like the rest of the story and make my buddies more active characters. Besides it gives me something to taunt them with, if they p*ss me off they can meet Bat's fate from the prologue. The reason I put myself in the story (that is me, only I'm acting. "I'm not a str8 chick but I play one in fan fiction...") was because I wanted to start things with a grisly death and didn't have the heart to do that to any of my buddies. So lucky me, I got offed.

The only other thing I've really written fiction-wise is an unfinished, alternative Star Trek: Deep Space Nine novel. It's 4/5ths done and has been in said condition for about 2 years. Only a couple of people have read it and I've no plans to finish it. This was before my introduction into the Xenaverse.