Winterfest Interview with Marina Broers

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

See Winterfest Interview Series.

Some Excerpts

In the beginning, I made some drawings of BB and I wanted to use my work to create notepapers and stationery. At that time I didn’t have a computer so I went to a shop and made photocopies of the art in several sizes and created layouts with it. Then back to the copy centre to make copies of the finished product. The result wasn’t perfect but for the time be, it had to do. Then home computers became available .. or I should say ‘more affordable’ and I bought my very first computer .. a Macintosh Performa 5200. I had no real knowledge of it. Sure, I had worked with a computer at work but that was years ago and I only had to use a special designed program that was made for the company. So I really had to start from the beginning. I remember those first weeks after I got that computer. Often I was at it till late at night...trying things...not giving up until I finally figured it out. It was a slow process, but that’s the way I learned it. I bought good books, and they helped me to learn to understand the computer and its programs.

I started [my] site in august 1999, and yes I am the only webmaster/owner... hahahaha I remember that, after I had figured out how to create webspace and upload stuff to that server I thought, “OK, now I got the webspace...what am I gonna to put on it!” I believe the first things that I added to it were my own drawings and some stories which were previously published in the Chatterbox magazine. I didn’t know many people in fandom and wasn’t part of mailing lists yet, so my resources were very limited.

Sometimes when I know that someone has material I can use, I contact them directly, like for example photos from conventions, But in other cases, regarding stories or art for example, I have to wait until someone is sending me new input and that’s hard sometimes. I wish people would do this more. I have a few loyal ‘writers’ who sent me their stories on a regular basis, but I would want so many more of them. I don’t care if stories have been published on other sites too. I think it is just a way of reaching more fans when a story is published in several places. My site is an ‘all seasons’ site, meaning you will find ‘classic stuff’ but also stories and photos regarding 3rd season. I accept practically everything, as long as it has to do with B&B…with one exception though.... I don’t publish real “graphic” art on the site (you know what I mean J ) Doesn’t mean that I don’t like that (hahahaha), but that is just the one thing I keep off my site. I accept adult stories of course, but no art.

Yup...I am a closet beastie. lol Why? Because I discovered that in general other people didn’t see the series as I did, and often you get upsetting remarks about it so I decided to keep it all for myself.