Twenty-Seven Grilled Bards and One Reviewer: Della Street

Interviews by Fans
Title:	Twenty-Seven Grilled Bards and One Reviewer: Della Street
Interviewer:
Interviewee:	Della Street
Date(s):	August 19, 1998
Medium:	online
Fandom(s):	Xena: Warrior Princess
External Links:	full interview is here, Archived version
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

Twenty-Seven Grilled Bards and One Reviewer: Della Street is a 1998 Xena: Warrior Princess fan interview at Whoosh!.

Series

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

Some Excerpts

My motivation is probably that of most fan fiction writers: pure self-indulgence. We all occasionally think, "Wouldn't it be fun if this happened?" on a TV show. With fan fiction, we just go a step farther and try to flesh it out on paper. I've really enjoyed the challenge of trying to write dialogue and consistent characters, even if they are someone else's. ;-)

XWP was the first fiction I ever wrote, other than legal briefs. :-) I am taking a shot at a Voyager short story, but technobabble is a lot harder than legalese. It makes me appreciate a less-complicated formula, like, say, Xena, Gab, and a horse.

I told myself I wouldn't use this interview as a forum to knock the third season, but it's necessary a bit to answer this question. I found the first two seasons wonderfully romantic, clever, and inspirational. I hadn't ever been impacted by a TV show like that, not to the point of wanting to read -- let alone write -- fan fiction, spending the mortgage on memorabilia, going to conventions, etc. The third season shifted the characterization (in my view) from romantic to melodramatic, but the overarching concept of two women destined to be with each other against all odds is... sigh.

I'm Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm when it comes to writing XWP fan fiction, which means avoiding a lot of the problems that might be faced in real life. For example, in my Xenaverse, no one seriously questions the appropriateness of two women having an intimate relationship. Xena and Gabrielle are disgustingly in love with each other, and have no interest in anyone else even before they've acknowledged it. (Yes, that's right--if Xena were marooned for a year on a desert island with twenty restless Hestian virgins, she wouldn't even notice them.) Realistic? Doesn't matter to me. I write and read fan fic stories as a form of escapism, so I mold the characters and their world to make myself happy.

[There is some controversy about what uber-Xena fiction is. What is your current definition of a completely uber story?] Hmm. Good question. I guess it would be: A story about descendants or reincarnations of Xena and Gabrielle in which there is some link, in addition to similar physical appearance, to their forebears. I actually don't think of Janice & Mel stories as "uber," because they are characters who have actually appeared on the show, but I guess they would fall within my definition.