Twenty-Seven Grilled Bards and One Reviewer: Ella Quince
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| Interviews by Fans | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Twenty-Seven Grilled Bards and One Reviewer: Ella Quince |
| Interviewer: | |
| Interviewee: | Ella Quince |
| Date(s): | August 9, 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: Ella Quince is a 1998 Xena: Warrior Princess fan interview at Whoosh!.
Series
For others in this series, see Whoosh! Interview Series.
Some Excerpts
My inspiration [for writing fan fiction] has always been a love of a particular character or set of characters. If they are sufficiently appealing, then they just beg for stories that will explore their personalities and relationships. For me, XWP was unusual in the degree of attention it spent on developing the personalities of Xena and Gabrielle, and in the complexity of their friendship. Writing about them was almost irresistible.
I wrote my first Star Trek fanfiction story nearly thirty years ago. Star Trek introduced me to the concept of fanfiction and I wrote a few stories based on the Classic series, and a few more based on ST:TNG. However, I've written more XWP stories than all the others combined. Since the Trek stories were written in the days before internet fandom, it's difficult to judge the differences in reader responses. Xenite readers have been very generous in sending me comments on what I've written.
Actually, I was inspired by reading fanfic warlord stories, rather than by the series. So many bards see the warlord Xena as this very sensual, domineering lover -- and it's a scenario I've loved reading -- but I felt that the warlord in HTLJ was cold, calculating, and manipulative. Sex was a management tool, not even an enjoyable activity. Which fit with Xena's statement in DEATH MASK that she had simply stopped feeling. It's the reformed Xena that fascinates me -- a woman who has faced her very real sins and honorably taken responsibility for them. I can believe that an emotionally numb Xena committed the atrocities of the warrior princess, and then reformed when her feelings returned. So I focused on that twilight time when she was hovering on the edge of reclaiming herself, but hadn't quite taken the final step. An earlier version of that warlord would simply have slaughtered Gabrielle and moved on. End of story. [g]