Winterfest Interview with Edith Crowe

Interviews by Fans
Title:	Winterfest Interview with Edith Crowe
Interviewer:	Winterfest
Interviewee:	Edith Crowe
Date(s):	2006
Medium:	online
Fandom(s):	Beauty and the Beast
External Links:	Edith Crowe Interview, Archived version
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In 2006, Edith Crowe was interviewed for Winterfest.

See Winterfest Interview Series.

Some Excerpts

Another major interest is the field of fantasy fiction and the scholarship thereof. For many years I've been involved with a group called the Mythopoeic Society, and have delivered papers at their conferences, published articles in their journals, and have served as Corresponding Secretary since 1999.

Not necessarily specific endings (other than happy), just a general idea and usually some kind of symbolic theme. Other than that, I go where the story takes me most of the time, and constantly surprise myself... Yes, the characters do take off on their own in most cases. I wouldn't say I end up with an "entirely different" story--usually just much longer and more detailed than I started with. Sometimes they're so long I realize I have to continue with another story. Since all my BATB stories are related to each other, in a consistent "universe", you could say I've just written one very long story!

I think if you're dealing with characters you really care about, you pay attention. Some fanfic writers only use the characters to accomplish their own ends, usually some kind of therapy; others are just not good writers, I suppose--they write generic stories that could be about anyone and just happen to call the characters Vincent and Catherine. I only write about characters I'm really interested in, and figuring out how to extrapolate from canon in a way that remains true to those characters is a big part of the appeal of fanfic writing. That and finally getting them together!

I have a theory that there's a continuum with "nest-builders" at one end and "sensation-seekers" at the other. I'm about as far over on the "nest-builders" end as one can get, so obviously that part appeals to me. Also, it's the part you see little of in canon. Conflict equals drama seems to be gospel with TV writers, so canon is skewed toward that. One of the main motivations with fanfic is to "fix" canon, including stressing the parts that are neglected in the actual show. I happen to find everyday life, particularly finding a way to achieve that "happy life," a lot more interesting than mayhem.

I don't write what I don't want to read, so--only happy endings. No death stories. No sex for the sake of sex, but only if it serves the story. There was no 3rd season....I try to avoid painful developments, without degenerating into the unrealistically saccharine. One of my motivations for writing BATB was as an antidote for all the ridiculously unnecessary angst the characters were put through in canon.

I can't imagine why anybody wouldn't want to [post their stories online]--it makes your work available to so many more people. I've bought a lot of zines in my time, but those are so expensive. The Internet makes the stories available to a lot of people who don't know about zines and/or couldn't afford them. I don't remember any more whether I sought out places to post my stories or vice versa--probably some of each. I like the Beauty & the Beast Reading Chamber because it's a relatively stable site, has stories nicely organized, categorized, and rated, and is simple enough to load quickly. I don't think I've ever said no to anyone who asked if they could post my stories.

Under another name, I've written a significant amount of slash fanfic in the Sentinel universe, which probably surprises the heck out of many of my BATB "fans." For those who don't know what I'm talking about, that's fanfic that presupposes a same-sex relationship between the characters. Slash has nothing to do with "slasher" as in gore. Hey, star-crossed lovers are star-crossed lovers.