Winterfest Interview with Teri (TAP)

Interviews by Fans
Title:	Winterfest Interview with Teri (TAP)
Interviewer:	Winterfest
Interviewee:	Teri P
Date(s):	2005
Medium:	online
Fandom(s):	Beauty and the Beast
External Links:	AN INTERVIEW WITH TAP, Archived version
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In 2005, Teri P was interviewed for Winterfest.

See List of Beauty and the Beast Fan Interviews. See Winterfest Interview Series.

Some Excerpts

I began writing when the second season of batb ended and the rumors began as to the third season. My intent was to deep the classic universe alive, primarily, I must admit, for myself. Though I write for myself, I love that others have enjoyed my stories, and am really glad to have played a small part in keeping the batb fanfic alive for fandom.

I’ve always been a big reader, but I can’t say that I was influenced by any particular author. Probably more than anything I was influenced by the other fanfic I read, some of which I thought was excellent, and some not so good. Sometimes an author would write well, but not get the characters or world right (in my view of both, of course, which is subjective) and sometimes the world would be right but the writing bad. Both made me want to try and do both, and do them well, especially during a time when some authors had stopped writing because they were so devastated by the end of the televised story.

One of the things that frustrated me most in reading fanfic was the use of recitation of events without building a strong emotional component. It became a paramount objective of mine when I began writing to always try and flesh out recitation of visual events with an equal (and often greater) amount of emotional content. When I was satisfied with the emotional content. When I was satisfied with the emotional content of a scene, then I felt I’d gotten it nailed, but if I wasn’t, then the editing usually continued ad nauseum until it felt right to me. I’m not formally trained (beyond the basic literature and composition courses required for a college degree), so most of what I do is from what I know of as a reader; but I do tend to study things to death once I have an interest in them, so I suppose I’m fairly well-educated on the topic of writing in general. However, I don’t think studying writing can ensure that someone becomes a good writer – I believe that a person has the capability for that within them or not, and then fine-tunes their craft by constant attention to detail.

I guess I write about V&C’s romance, using erotica as a vehicle, because feel it suits them so well, and because it’s where I saw the story’s natural progression. Romance is the key word for batb, for me, and erotica is a natural fit to the world they’ve been placed in. Look at the two characters; Vincent, in his mid-thirties, is obviously (at least to me) an alpha male at his sexual peak. It’s true that in a ‘normal’ human male, that would be in the late teens or early twenties, but Vincent’s physiology allows us to project a different pattern unto him, and the development of his early life (i.e. repressed and or delayed sexuality) makes for a perfect fit at the time we see him. Then there’s Catherine, a well-educated, beautiful woman at the age where women are usually at their physical and sexual peak (early thirties). Add in the supernatural nature of the ‘bond’, the romantic ambiance they’re situated in, and voila, ‘soulmates’ is the obvious label for them, and sex is the perfect vehicle (again, in my opinion ;>).

The bond has and still does represent a key component in my fanfic for the batb universe. It is the medium that transports this couple to a plane beyond other romantic couples. It’s what allows us to take them places that ‘normal’ couples can’t go, and without it being laughable! It’s also one of those things that for me has and continues to undergo constant change. The bond is something that continuously evolves in my head. I’m not sure yet that I know everything I think it is or should be, from a fanfic standpoint. In my early work I treated the bond in a very substantial way, as a channel for communication in a non-subtle way. I prefer a bit more subtlety now, but still like it to be a supernatural force of sorts. It’s definitely something that gives a batb fanfic writer a lot of flexibility!

I never, ever want to see myself or others I know in my “real-life” universe, present in my fanfic! I’m a real stickler for not mixing fictional universes with other things, and the minute I read that in other stories, I’m jolted out of the universe as I see it. That’s a bad thing for me as a reader, so I don’t do it in my fanfic. In general it’s why I don’t care for AU (alternate universe) stories. It’s also why I don’t accept the 3S events – they just are too contradictory to the fictional universe and character development I accepted in the first two seasons. The only boundaries I set for myself is to ensure that wherever I take the characters, it’s believable given the character development of the first two seasons. I don’t like to set stories outside the tunnels, and rarely do – because that’s where I feel C&V have the potential for the most romantic encounters. I don’t like to take Vincent too far from the tunnels, because I feel that’s where his character is the most romantic and mysterious, two things I think are very important in fanfic for this universe.

My stories mostly got posted by default. I was one of the 4 originators of the CABB group and website, so putting them there was an obvious choice. Ultimately I wanted my material posted together, and that worked well at CABB and the Steam Tunnels as well. I also wanted to know where it was, and need to ensure that the sites where they’re posted aren’t simply abandoned and left hanging.