Twenty-Seven Grilled Bards and One Reviewer: Paul Seeley

Interviews by Fans
Title:	Twenty-Seven Grilled Bards and One Reviewer: Paul Seeley
Interviewer:
Interviewee:	Paul Seeley
Date(s):	August 9, 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: Paul Seeley is a 1998 Xena: Warrior Princess fan interview at Whoosh!.

Series

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

Some Excerpts

At first, [writing fan fiction] was an experiment in goofing off, but it has become much more than that. Writing can be a great deal of fun when you feel affection for your characters and your readers, and over time it has become both more challenging and more rewarding. The stakes have been raised because I want to do right by Diana, Charlie, and everyone who has come to give a damn what happens to them. Plus, I'm still having a marvelous time wreaking havoc on the fictitious femmes' lives.

Although I wouldn't call it a romantic show, it does have those elements on occasion; but then, XWP is as fungible a tv show as I've ever seen. The creative folks behind the scenes seem to blur the borders between genres as easily as Robin Williams switches voices and topics. The episodes I truly relish are the ones which contain elements of each genre you mention - "Altared States" ran the gamut from slapstick to spiritual drama, and "A Necessary Evil" had me alternately giggling at Callisto, biting my nails for Gabby, and throwing air punches at Velasca. I damn near swooned over the combustion generated by Xena and Lao Ma in "The Debt." The show is all good fun, and it wouldn't be as entertaining if any of those components were lost or minimized... and that definitely includes the romantic bits.

If nobody read and responded to the first story, there would be no reason to write another. It's like singing in the shower, you know? You never really know if you have a magnificent voice or a tin ear until you let someone else hear you hittin' the notes. The readers didn't throw rotten fruit or boo me off the stage, so I kept singing. I'm not booked at Carnegie Hall or anything, but the reader response was ecstatic enough to keep me making a joyful noise, so to speak.

Any story which carries the unmistakable imprint of the Xena and Gabrielle dynamic is Uber fiction. I see that imprint as mentoring with a profoundly distaff slant which eventually leads to egalitarian partnership. The characters might begin on unequal ground, with the elder leading the relationship at first, but they gradually redistribute responsibilities and trusts until they have attained a functional parity.

The X & G archetypes don't have to be mentioned by name or even alluded to in order for the story in question to qualify. I think "Alien : Resurrection" was Uber fiction, with Sigourney Weaver and Winona Ryder's odd little relationship attracting my attention more than the slimy xenomorphs.

In fan fiction, anyone who understands the shifting power dynamic between Xena and Gabrielle and makes an honest effort to portray it realistically in different incarnations has written a completely Uber story. And God bless'em.