TrekGirl welcomes Jungle Kitty.  I have to admit to being ignorant of JK's talents for some time.  As a devotee of  Voyager fan fiction, I'd mostly given the TOS fandom scant consideration in the past, but in my role as "interviewer" I knew I'd have to ditch that attitude.  And not a moment too soon!

As I read her fan fiction the talent and class of Jungle Kitty's writings were quickly revealed to me, transcending and nullifying my own dim view of TOS and Kirk in particular.

Lucky for us, she's a good talker too....
 

TrekGirl asks:

How would you describe yourself?

I am exactly what you would expect me to be. <g> OK, seriously...I'm married. I have a dog. In Real Life, I'm an independent consultant and trainer in document production and project management, which leaves me lots of free time for Trekkish activities. I used to be an actress and singer, although all the travel I do for work seriously cuts in that lately. I'm the Professor of Kirkology, appointee to the Well-Endowed William Shatner Chair, and Keeper of the Spanking List.

Right now, I'm kind of nervous. My answers to these questions will probably be woefully inadequate. Although *long.* <g>

How long have you been writing?

Well, let's see.  Up until sixth grade, I was a playwright.  I wish you could have seen "Greta and Her Goat," the finest play ever written by an 8-year-old, IMHO.  And the death of George Washington's first wife did not leave a dry eye in the house in fifth grade.  My juvenile play writing career was capped with "The Judgment of Paris" (are you listening, Raku?) performed by sixth-graders wearing sheets and pillowcases as togas.  I made the transition to fiction shortly
thereafter with a story about mer-people.  All I remember is that everyone's name had a hyphen in it. Puberty set in and resulted in some very slashy Beatles stories, not to mention the story where I had psychic powers and was married to Little Joe Cartwright of "Bonanza."
After an extremely angsty diary entry about how unfair it was that I couldn't sit next to my best friend in history class, I put down the pen, creative wise, except for a one-act play about twenty years ago.  Between then and being infected by the Trekfic bug about two years ago, my only writing was work-related.

What is your preferred fandom and why?

Just TOS for me.  A friend said I was a Star Trek snob.  I told him I preferred the term "purist." <g>

I'm not really sure why. It just captured my imagination in a way that nothing else ever did. Although I've only been active in the fandom for a couple of years, I've loved TOS--OK, I'll be honest--I've loved Kirk for 30+ years.

I'm always interested to hear other people's reasons for loving Trek. So many of them have reasons like its optimism about the future or the role models it provided. And I'm always a little shy to admit that my interest was purely sexual at the start. I guess I'm just an old-fashioned girl. ;-D

If this is not part of the previous answer, why write about Star Trek?

Well, I can think of a couple of reasons, the first being that TPTB didn't do a lot of things I would have liked, so it's up to me to create that.

The second reason is: I was sitting around being bummed out that there won't ever be anymore TOS movies or eps, nope, it's over. So I went websurfing. I'd known there were Trek stories on the web for some time, but I never went looking for them before. I think a part of me knew that there would be no turning back. <g>  I was also afraid that the stories might be so awful (like my adolescent Bonanza epic) that I'd be embarrassed that I even read them. And, yeah, I found some of that. No, I won't name names. <g>  But mostly it was a stunning surprise, especially Killa's "Surrender" and Tjonesy's "20 Questions." I wanted to try my hand at it. So, to render a long story slightly shorter, I think
I write Trek stories because I know of no other way of keeping it alive.
If it keeps on developing, it's not over.

Who are your favourite characters and what drew you to write about them?

Kirk. And I write about him because...I dunno. That's just the direction in which the Trekkish part of my imagination runs. I guess I'm intrigued by Kirk because, even though he's the hero, he's got some interesting flaws and contradictions. And to me he seems much more human than other TV heroes of the era. I like that he's relaxed and comfortable in the role of commander and isn't afraid to let his personality shine through.  (I'm comparing him to Pike, who I think either didn't have a personality or else had a detachable one that he kept locked in a safe. Probably only took it out for shore leaves.) I think there's more joy than sadness to Kirk, and when you consider all that he's been through, that's pretty remarkable. I like that stubbornness, I like when he gets too uptight and has to be taken down a peg, I like the fact that he's not perfect. I like the fact that he's drop-dead, traffic-stopping gorgeous and his charm is at least triple to legal limit.

I like most of the other TOS characters and I do like to include them in stories when possible. Spock, McCoy, and Uhura appear more often than the others. Their voices are more distinct to my ear. The others rarely come to life for me really. Chapel kind of grates on me in the eps but when I use her in a story, I bend over backwards trying not to let it show. In "Ladies Night," she ended up stealing the story because of that. I'd really love to work Harry Mudd into a story. Helen Noel, too.  She just rags on Kirk in "Dagger of the Mind." <g> I like him irritated.

Oh, and Gary Mitchell. Yeah, I love trying to figure him out. IMO, he's one of the most puzzling characters in TOS. Even though he was in just one ep, I feel that they gave us a little more background on him than on some others who were regulars. But what they told us and what they showed us about him doesn't really hang together. There's lots of room for exploration there.

If you write relationship pairings (e.g. J/C), which pairing is it and how would you describe the relationship in canon and in your own fictional interpretation?

I primarily write K/Brandt, a relationship that has no basis in canon.  Well, except for the way I see Kirk. I like to think that has a basis in canon. Suzanne Brandt is an original character. I created her out of a basic frustration with The Girlfriend of the Week Syndrome and a dislike of many of those women. Initially, I wanted to see how he would respond to a woman who was both a friend and a competitor, someone who was like him in many ways. I thought there was going to be at most three stories about her. Then as the series started developing, I began exploring what might happen to Kirk in a serious, non-platonic relationship, one that wasn't over at the end of the ep and lasted more than a few days. Of course, now I'm exploring Brandt (as well as Kirk & Brandt together) as much as, if not more than Kirk. For me, she's becoming more her own person and less a means of discovering him.

I know many people see Kirk as a perpetually horny, skirt-chasing, love 'em and leave 'em kind of guy. I think they might have him confused with Mitchell. <g> I think his longing for a different sort of life in "The Paradise Syndrome" and the happiness he found for a short time with Miramanee is an often overlooked part of his character. So I'm kind of dangling that in front of him, but making him work at it. I'm evil. <g>

What do you think makes for a good story?

Believable characters I can care about. If they don't resonate with the canon characterizations, I'm turned off. I know that one fan's resonance is another's "who the hell is that supposed to be" so it's a purely subjective experience, as is all reading.

I like when the author can surprise me. I like when I don't know what's going to happen next. I like when a writer lets me see a canon character in a different way without making them feel untrue. Laura JV did a lovely job with Finnegan in "To Live and Die Honourably," and Rabble Rouser is showing me the potential in Rand.

I like a plot. I especially like a plot that tells me something about the characters or is driven by them, which is why I almost never read Star Trek pro fic anymore. If the plot is so specific to the characters that it couldn't happen in quite that way to anyone else, I'm in heaven.

If a story is riddled with spelling and grammatical errors, I give up on it. (This from a woman whose grammatical error made it sound like Brandt's vibrator could talk? <blush> I guess I'm from the 'Why learn from others' mistakes when I have so many of my own to examine?' school of writing.) I know there are people who feel that makes it seem more like work when this is just a hobby, and yes, it does make it tougher. But I just can't get comfortable with a story, no matter how good the idea is, if the writer doesn't have a basic competence with the tools of the craft. And yes, I'm still working at it. <g>

I get impatient with PWPs that literally have nothing else to them. If there's no depth of characterization, it feels like playing with action figures, and that's not why I read.

When you read another author's fan fiction what do you look for?  Are these elements to be found in your own work?

I look for Kirk. I think he's present in every one of my stories. <g>  I don't want anyone to get the idea that I don't enjoy stories that don't include him or aren't about him. But he's what draws me to Trek.  If it's TOS, he's lurking around in my mind. But I am capable of seeing the story beyond that. Honest.

Seriously, I tend to be most impressed by people who write the sort of things I can't or really have to struggle with. I enjoy reading their stories, partially because I'm trying to figure out how they *do* that.  Wildcat's narrative skill is amazing. J Winter can spin believable, exciting, action-adventure plots at the drop of a hat and he populates them with people I enjoy. Laura Jacquez Valentine has a way of turning me upside down and making me like it. The lushness of Killa's writing makes me quit for a couple of days, because anything I would write would be a felony offense--writing under the influence. <g> I'm envious of anyone who can make the political, technical, military, or scientific
part of a story believable and interesting. Nesabj and UKJess both have a stunning way of writing Kirk in his command persona, something that I haven't really got a good feel for.

Having struggled with it myself, I've really come to appreciate smooth, fluid writing. Right now, I'm reading Kathleen Dailey's "Unspoken Truth," and every now and then, I just have to stop to appreciate the fact that I haven't been thrown out of the story once! It just flows.

There are some things I think I do well, mostly because my theatrical background has given me a pretty good sense of them. And I definitely enjoy them in other people's stories. Crisp dialog. Humor, especially if the writer understands pacing and rhythm. I *especially* like a story with a believable mixture and balance of humor and seriousness.

Do your stories have a theme, such as loss, belonging, abandonment etc.  What are they?

I think one of my main themes is owning your own life. I believe that comes through most strongly in "The Life That Lies Before," but can be found in many of my stories to some extent. It's the cornerstone of my personal philosophy so it's probably not surprising that I keep coming back to it in one way or another. Lately, I've been getting into exploring the idea of home, whether it's a place or a person or a situation.

What is the appeal, to you, of writing slash (same sex) stories?

Slash really doesn't have much appeal to me as a writer anymore, unless it's humorous. I just can't get serious about it.

I know it's difficult to answer for your entire sex but I've noticed that a lot of female authors write male slash stories, do you have any theories on why this is so?

I can only answer for myself. When I started out in fanfic, I was looking for sexy stories about Kirk. What I found was K/S. I wrote K/S because I wanted to write about Kirk in a sexual way and had already heard the term "Mary Sue" and didn't want to confront all the negative connotations of that right off the bat. I've joked that my K/S stories should have been coded K/s because I think it's pretty obvious where my interest was. K/S was a way of exploring Kirk. Now I explore him in a different way, one that to me seems to resonate more with the Kirk I see onscreen. But I was never a slasher, as in 'a person with an interest in slash per se.'

TOS (The Original Series) ended over 30 years ago, and although some of those characters have appeared in various other Trek series' over the years, what do you think the appeal is to continue to write about Kirk, Spock, Uhura and McCoy et all?  What is their relevance today and is it any different from those characters appearing in TNG, DS9 or Voyager?

I hope I won't offend any non-TOS Trek fen. I think TNG, once it got going, had scripts that were far superior to those of TOS. But the stories just don't stay with me the way the TOS scenarios do, even though some of them were just plain cheesy. In many cases, I couldn't tell you the story of an ep without referring to a videotape. But I feel very familiar and comfortable with the TOS people. In TNG, the regular characters seem to lack color. There are some fine actors in there and I see them doing everything they can to bring life to it. But to me, the intriguing characters are the guest stars. Q, Vash, Dr. Leah Brahms.  I haven't seen enough DS9 or Voyager to really have an opinion on their overall content, but again, when I have watched it, I just haven't been drawn in by the characters.

Maybe these later Trek shows are truer to a definition I once heard of "hard science fiction." The protagonist is the idea. The characters come in second, and sometimes not even a close second. It seems to me that this may be the case in the later Trek incarnations. The idea or the problem is more interesting than the people confronting it. TOS has very little relation to science or science fiction, in my opinion. Maybe I'm comfortable with that because just about every bit of science past second grade confounded me. I have read quite a bit of science fiction, but the ones that I've enjoyed most have at least had a balance between idea and characters, or it seemed like the writer understood the value
of telling the story through the characters, instead of subordinating them to their theory.

Or I could be completely off and it could just be that I was first exposed to TOS when I was 17 or so and it was imprinted on me. Maybe I'm just out of step with "this younger generation." Now would you like me to knit you a cap or do you prefer mittens? <g>

A Scarf would be nice, please. ;-D

I'd like to share an example of your writing style, please choose a scene from one of your completed works and describe what you are trying to achieve in the snippet (dialogue or narrative direction).

This is from "Rain Check." I chose it mainly because, right now, it's my favorite of my stories.  :-D  I remember when I was first starting to work on it and I described it to Jonk & Laurel, I told them I wanted the story to be like one of those romantic comedies from the 1950s, the kind with Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant. If Audrey Hepburn had worked in Special Ops. <g> Not gloopy and not screwball, but that nice area in the middle.

The story takes place while Admiral Kirk is Chief of Fleet Operations.  At the time of the story, he and Captain Brandt have been living together for about a year. Due to plot complications from earlier stories, she's also been stationed on Earth during that time. This is the story of what happened when she was once again assigned to an off world mission. Brandt and her team have been sent to retrieve a stolen artifact--the Sacred Kelna of the Yuldi. <g> You'll see Lori
Ciani in this story, but not in her traditional role. TJ Durant, an original character of J Winter's, also appears by permission of the author.

Throughout the story, it cuts back and forth between Brandt's mission and Kirk on Earth. There are also a number of flashbacks, but not in what you're about to read. Those are some of the devices that I hoped would give it that cinematic feel. This section appears about 1/3 into the story and at the start, Kirk is setting up for a poker game and Brandt is about to begin her interrogation of Broder, the thief who stole the artifact.

From "Rain Check" ....

"Yes?" he said as he flicked the switch on the desk unit.

"Hi, Jim." The voice of his old Academy buddy boomed out of the speaker.  "It's TJ."

"Durant! How are--"

"Listen, Jim, I don't have much time. The Cygnus is pulling into Spacedock for personnel changes. I'll have eight hours in San Francisco.  So I thought the two of us could go prowling for women."

"I don't 'prowl' for women, TJ. In fact, I don't think I ever did. But in any case, I don't now."

"Then you and Brandt are still going strong, I take it?"

"Yes."

"I guess that means she's out of bounds, too."

"Yes." Kirk let just a little edge creep into his voice.

"Does she know that?" Durant's voice rose hopefully.

"Yes."

He weighted that one, knowing that Durant wouldn't give up that easily.  After a week of unrelieved "yes sirs" from nearly everyone he encountered, Kirk found he was enjoying the exchange of friendly barbs.

Durant rose to the occasion with a wry, "Maybe I should ask her."

"She's offworld."

"Damn. She and I keep missing each other."

"Funny. She doesn't seem bothered by that."

"Well, she'd hardly--"

"Say, TJ, how'd you like to take her place tonight?"

"Uh, Jim, I don't know what you've heard, but--"

"In a poker game, you dolt."

"I don't know..."

"There will be two very lovely, very unattached ladies there."

"Oh! Well, I'd hate to leave you a player short. Count me in."

***

Brandt cocked her head toward Broder.

"What do you make of him, Jack?"

"To be honest, I'm puzzled. He doesn't seem bright enough to have engineered the theft. But I can't imagine anyone who is bright enough also being stupid enough to use him."

"That's what I'm thinking. The Klingons wouldn't even consider working with him."

"Are you sure the Klingons are involved?"

"They would benefit if the treaty between the Yuldi and the Liuthans doesn't go through."

"Interesting that he hasn't turned the Kelna over to them already."

"I know. I'm wondering about that myself. But regardless of who's behind it, the Yuldi won't regard any agreement as binding if it isn't signed in the presence of the Sacred Kelna. And if we don't find it by sunset tomorrow, the Prime Minister is going to return to Yul and declare war."  Stepping briskly away from the window, she said, "Let's see what our young friend has to say about it."

He matched her pace as he took his place next to her. "Good cop, bad cop?"

"No, cop who wants to wrap this up quickly and cop who goes along with everything she says."

"Ah."

"Bring the med kit."

***

Durant glanced around the table. Kirk was raking in another pile of chips to muttered curses from Admiral deMarc, Commodore Morrow, Captain Figueroa, and Admiral Ciani.

Two very lovely, very unattached ladies. I'll get you for this, Kirk.

Yes, Figueroa and Ciani were undeniably attractive and apparently unattached, but Ciani outranked him to a degree that he found unnerving, and Fig had turned him down at the Academy and gave no indication that she regretted that decision.

"No offense, Jim," Fig was saying as she gathered the cards, "but I think I like playing here better when Suzanne's around. Once she's lost all her money--the first hour--and accepted that you aren't going to stake her--the next thirty minutes--she's very good about food and
drinks."

"All right, I can take a hint." Kirk finished stacking his chips and stood. "What'll it be?"

"Abayan pretzels. And another beer," Fig replied.

"Beer I've got. But Abayan pretzels..."

"You've got a synthesizer," she said with a backhanded wave of her hand.  "So hop to it. Sir."

"Wait a minute," deMarc snarled. "How are we going to win our money back if you don't play?"

"Which would you prefer, Rob?" Kirk asked. "To lose more of your money to me, or food?"

"FOOD!" the other players yelled.

Kirk headed to the kitchen, thinking that Fig wasn't the only one who wished Suzanne was here. Among other things, she knew the synthesizer code for every damn snack food ever invented.

***

Brandt nodded to k'Vor, who gave Broder one last menacing look before taking up a new position guarding the doorway.

Brandt studied the whip-thin delinquent for several long moments. He was young--his ID said he was a drama student at Liutha University--and he was scared. She almost felt sorry for him. Why the hell was he mixed up in this? Only one way to find out.

"All right, Broder. Let's have some answers."

He pulled himself up straight in a pitiful show of false bravado. "I don't have to tell you anything."

Brandt snorted derisively and turned to Wallis.

"Isn't that cute, Jack? He doesn't have to tell me anything. Amazing that someone so naive got this far."

Wallis shook his head disdainfully. "The mind boggles."

Brandt pulled up a crate and sat down across from Broder, smiling with false warmth.

"Who put you up to it, Broder? Who planned it for you? I know you weren't working alone--"

"I was, too!"

His eyes opened wide as he realized he shouldn't have said that.

"Really? Prove it. Where's the Kelna? If you stole it, then you must know where it is. Be smart, Broder. The game's over. Tell me what I want to know, and I'll go easy on you." Her eyes narrowed to two sinister slits. "But if you don't, I'm going to--"

"I'VE GOT RIGHTS!"

She rocked back on the crate, laughing.

"Oh, better and better! He's got rights."

Wallis chuckled as Brandt stood and rested one foot on the edge of the crate. She leaned in to Broder, who fidgeted nervously as she began speaking in a low, even tone.

"Now, listen to me, you worthless piece of warp wash. You've got nothing. I'm in the business of producing results, and no one is going to question how I got them. So I'll make this short and simple. There are some big events going on that an insignificant nobody like you couldn't possibly understand, but I'm not going let you screw them up.  Who did you steal it for? The Klingons?"

"The K-k-klingons? I don't know any Kl--"

"You're wasting my time," she snapped. "And I don't like it when people waste my time. So shut up and listen."

She stood and walked around Broder until she was standing behind him.  Then she leaned over and hissed into his ear.

"Have you ever heard of sodium corbomite?"

Wallis covered a snort of laughter with a cough.

***

Durant leaned back in his chair, admiring the way Fig's hands flew as she shuffled the cards. During their years at the Academy, her room had been the site of the hottest game on campus, despite her roommate's notorious lack of skill at any game more complicated than "Crazy Eights."

"Sounds like Brandt is still the worst poker player ever to come out of the Academy," he remarked.

"It never ceases to amaze me that a Starfleet officer can be that bad at poker," deMarc said.

"Pitiful, isn't it?" Fig chimed in. "I tried to coach her when we were roommates, but she was hopeless. She said she couldn't see the point of bluffing, when it was 'only a game.'"

"Sacrilege!" Ciani shook her head. "Did you ever play with her, Durant?"

"You could hardly call it playing. But, yes, I took her money once or twice."

"Ha!" Fig crowed. "You're too modest, TJ. I was there, remember? You whupped her ass, beat her out of her allowance for an entire month, and then asked if there was some sort of religious edict forbidding Kyrosians to play cards."

"And what did she say?" Morrow asked.

"We'll never know. Gary Mitchell got there first. He said, 'Of course they're allowed to play cards. They're just not allowed to be any good at it.'"

Over the laughter, deMarc rapped impatiently on the table and demanded, "Fig, are you going to deal or not?"

"I'm waiting for the ante. Are you in, Lori?"

"No, I'm out. I haven't won a hand yet. I need a break." Ciani stood, stretched, and headed toward the kitchen. "Jim, do you need any help?" she called sweetly.

"Maybe she'll have better luck out there," Morrow said with a meaningful glance toward the kitchen.

"Ha!" scoffed deMarc. "Ten credits say she doesn't get to first base."

"Twenty says he falls in line like a good little soldier," countered Morrow.

"Gentlemen, the game is five-card draw, jacks or higher to open." Fig began briskly dealing the cards. "And a hundred says they're both found dead within a week of Brandt's return."

"And Brandt will have an air-tight alibi," said deMarc.

"She won't need one. It will look like suicide," Morrow replied.

"Nah. Too predictable," Durant said. "I give her credit for a little more style than that."

"So what's your take on it?" deMarc asked.

"Admiral Ciani will definitely look like a suicide, but Jim... Hmmm..."  Durant scooped up his cards and began arranging them. "It will look like Jim died of natural causes."

He took a beat to slide the jack of hearts into place next to two of its brothers. Then he looked around the table with a devilish gleam in his eye.

"While wearing a French maid's outfit."

.... End of Scene

Hopefully, improving. Definitely not the finished article, but I'd like to think I'm not stagnating.

How do you keep improving your skills, what help did/do you have?

Beta readers are essential to me. I also greatly appreciate the readers who take the time to talk with me about what I've written and what they see developing. I'm more conscious of language that I used to be, and that's probably just from writing more, building up the muscle. Beta reading for others is enormously helpful. Closely examining someone else's story and trying to help them communicate their ideas as clearly as possible also makes me think about what I do, what I do well, and what I need to work on. It also gives me a chance to closely observe someone else's process. Working with Wildcat as mutual betas has been extremely helpful. We have very different writing styles and methods of developing our stories. Working closely with her has given me a chance to examine how she "does it." I think my stories have more substance now because of her. I think my writing is now more like that of a fiction writer and less like a playwright. Greywolf made me appreciate the need to explain "why." I'm more aware of the need to bring the readers along, instead of expecting them to "get it" just because I do.

I'm also finding it useful to try different styles and POVS, and work with different characters. I just finished a story that was told through the personal logs of various characters. And every now and then, I like to do a "monologue" story--strict first-person, fairly short.

I've also been thinking lately that the TOS creative soil has been so well worked over the years that it's actually become rather difficult to do the POV of the main characters and keep it fresh. I think that's part of why I'm bringing in more of the supporting cast and developing more characters of my own.

Do you consider beta readers a help or a hindrance and what do you expect from them?

As I said, beta readers are essential to the way I work. I want them to push me to improve. I'm basically lazy and if I have something that has a beginning, a middle, and an end, I slap [The End] on it and send it off to the betas. I would be very disappointed if they said, "Great! Post it!" Because I know it's not great, but I need someone to ask questions, to point out the holes, to tell me when I've gotten carried away, and to generally revive my interest in that story.

I recently posted "Homecoming." When I finished the first draft, I sent it to Wildcat with the question, "Is this even a story?" At a certain point, I get too close to the story. I need the perspective of someone who's interested in it and cares about the characters, but can stand back from it a little. I also need someone to say, "Huh? I don't follow this." I have a love-hate relationship with spelling things out and without the questions from betas, I'll write in this
pseudo-mysterious way that would probably leave the readers completely
in the dark.

To me, writing has a lot in common with acting, probably because acting was the first of my creative endeavors. It's a lot like the rehearsal process. I almost always start out writing the dialog with almost no narrative. So there's the script--the bare bones. Then I add the initial narrative--the blocking and physical action. Finally I flesh it out (emotions, subtext, and other elements that don't come from the dialog or movement) and that's the tough part. I also keep rewriting the dialog and blocking. I have to try lots of different things to see what works and what doesn't. I'll write rambling paragraphs that contradict each
other, don't fit there, might fit somewhere else, what the hell was that he'd never do that, interesting but belongs in a different story, oops sorry can I start over, hey that's it, yeah, yeah. Then I sort through it and boil it down to what I hope captures the essence of what I was trying to say. Acting is about making choices and I think writing is, too. Don't do three things if one will convey the meaning. I used to write some pretty florid stuff. I'd just keep writing, hoping that if I packed everything in, something would hit home. It's a great technique for exploring, but it's pretty tiresome for the reader if you leave all that there for them to wade through.

Anyway, back to the theatah...sometimes I feel like I'm the director and the actors are the characters. Sometimes I'm one of the actors, esp. when I read the stuff out loud to check the rhythm. Sometimes I'm the playwright, but I don't really like that b/c everyone knows writers have no power. No one sleeps with the writer. <g>

Beta readers are like guest directors, coaches, mentors, or a preview audience. I rely on them to say, "Pull it back, it's too much" or "Give us more of that, follow that thought" or "Good, good, that's it!" My favorite directors have told me, "Show me everything you've got, go way out on a limb, don't worry, I'll reel you back in and I won't let you look like a fool in front of an audience. But first I have to see what the possibilities are."

Sometimes another actor will surprise you and you respond on pure instinct and suddenly it's opened up something entirely new. In writing, this happens when a character makes their own decisions or a beta reader says something that hits you like a ton of bricks.

When I post the story, it's opening night. You lucky people never get to see all the mistakes made on the way there. Now if only someone would send flowers...

I didn't consciously develop this process. Script, blocking, experiment, and polish. It's only recently that I've realized how close it is to what I do as an actress.

Is professional publication your goal or are you just having fun?

Both. I've sent a couple of things off to pro pubs and haven't gotten those rejection slips back yet. But I doubt that I'd be happy if I wrote purely with the goal of being published. Years ago, I tried to make a career in professional theatre. But I found that pursuing it as a career killed a lot of the fun for me. Now I've found my niche--somewhere in the middle, sort of a semi-professional, glad to work with the better companies when I do and thrilled when they pay me $200 for twelve weeks' work. <g> I still work at it, I'm still serious about doing it well, but I'm doing it for the same reason I did it in the first place--the fun of it.

I think it might be the same with writing. I started doing it for fun. I still want to do a good job, I still want to improve, but I don't know that I have the discipline or temperament to do it professionally. And I'm not sure that the constraints of that wouldn't take the fun out of it for me.

Which of your own stories would you recommend to the Internet reader and why?

My "best" stories (according to reader feedback) seem to be:
Contemplating the Death of an Old Friend, Golden Boy, The Life That Lies Before, Blood Claim, The Uneasy Dancers.

But if you just want a good laugh, go for:
The New Dog, Where No Peep Has Gone Before, Romancing the Peep, A Captain's Pleasure, Talk Dirty To Me

Hot sex and eroticism, I'd say:
Empty Bed Blues, 1-900-Captain, Visions of Sugarplums, The Gift-Wrapped Admiral.

[Author's Web Page]

You have a chance to recommend another fan fiction, not your own, what would it be and who is the author(s)? (consider any pairing or characters)

In no particular order:

Wildcat's "An Eye For An Eye," "The Kobayashi Maru," and "The Most
Forgiven"

Killa's "Surrender" and "The Ghost in the Machine"

Robin Lawrie's "TOS Photoshoot: The Loft" and "Penis? Irrelevant!"

Anon's "Scent of Success"

Laura Jacquez Valentine's "To Live and Die Honourably"

UKJess' "Fortune's Favoured Child" and "Lost and Found" and Nesabj's "Shipwalk"

Tjonesy's "Twenty Questions" and Kathleen Dailey's "Unspoken Truth"

J Winter's "Prelude to Glory"

Any other comments?

When can I expect the check? What? No pay? Hmmmm... Right, right, I do
it for the fun.

I do love chatting via email so if anyone reads this and wants to respond--

Hold on Kitty!  They can finish reading this and find your e-mail address below.  Writers...sheesh!

Would you recommend this exercise to another author?

Yah, sure, you betcha.

Is there a question that you wished I had asked, if so what was it?

What was my proudest moment in Trek fandom?

Now, answer your own question! :-)

Getting the Spanking List signed by the man himself. Happy sigh.

Thank you very much for sharing your thoughts with me, I hope you enjoyed it.

Yes, I did. What it good for you, too? ;-D

Oh yes, very! ;-)
 

The featured author's recommended own work :
Jungle Kitty's Star Trek Fiction

E-Mail the featured author :
Jungle Kitty

The featured author recommends *you* read :

Wildcat's - "An Eye For An Eye," "The Kobayashi Maru," and "The Most Forgiven"

Killa's - "Surrender" and "The Ghost in the Machine"

Robin Lawrie's - "TOS Photoshoot: The Loft" and "Penis? Irrelevant!"

Anon's - "Scent of Success"

Laura Jacquez Valentine's - "To Live and Die Honourably"

UKJess's - "Fortune's Favoured Child" and "Lost and Found"

Nesabj's - "Shipwalk"

Tjonesy's - "Twenty Questions"

Kathleen Dailey's - "Unspoken Truth"

J Winter's -  "Prelude to Glory"
 
 

 Complete the Circle