meet the writers: f_m_r_l
1. Tell us a bit about the person behind the pen name.
I’m a geek who lives in Geek Mecca with an absolutely adorable partner geek, too much computer equipment, and an insufficiency of cats.
2. How did you first become acquainted with the Sherlock Holmes fandom?
How did I first become a fan? I was a voracious reader as a child. I read everything to hand, including a rather fascinating sewing machine manual. Librarians shoved books at me like workers shoveling coal into a steamboat engine. Eventually, libraries being even less infinite at the time, we got to Sherlock Holmes.
3. Were you a writer before you discovered the fandom?
A writer is one who writes, eh? I was a writer since, at the latest, first grade.
4. So, describe your writing process.
Generally speaking? An idea comes to me or is suggested to me and I decide it would be fun to work with. I then do too much research, because I love doing too much research, collecting notes, sources, etc. as I go along. Everything bounces around in the back of my head for a few days (weeks, months) and I make notes when I come up with something I particularly like. By the time I start really typing the story up, I usually have a general sort of outline in my head and strong ideas of how to approach everything along the way.
5. What sort of compliments do you receive on your work? Criticism?
To summarize, mostly I hear “interesting” or “funny.” I’ve been lucky that the ‘funny’ comments have tended to show up with the pieces that were intended to be humorous and the ‘interesting’ comments have tended to show up with the pieces that were intended to do something interesting instead of vice versa.
I wouldn’t mind more constructive criticism than I receive; the closest things I’ve received to direct criticism (as opposed to just not commenting nor presumably reading more) has been on practical formatting issues such as “you repeated that part twice in a row” or “your links aren’t working.” Those are really helpful, though!
6. Is there a character in the fandom who you really relate to? Do you write him/her a lot?
Watson’s attempts to approach difficult situations with humor (or, in Watson’s case, humour) are something I find easy to relate to. Holmes’s struggle with “black moods” definitely resonates with me. I can’t, off the top of my head, recall having written from Holmes’s perspective at any point in my life.
7. When you post a finished story, you obviously want people to read it. Are reviews your everything?
I write whether I post anything or not. Knowing that someone found some aspect of my work enjoyable and / or interesting is what keeps me posting, though.
8. What do you look for as a reader?
It largely depends on what my mood is. Good storytelling, good characterization (I don’t always demand that things be absolutely in character, but I prefer good characterization), and a lack of things that jolt me completely out of the story will get you far.
9. How do you know when a story is finished?
When it does everything I set out to have it do, and flows coherently from the end to the beginning, it’s likely somewhere around done.
10. Do you have a favorite pairing? A favorite character? A favorite character BESIDES Holmes or Watson?
You know, I do love the way Watson makes a complete idiot of himself over Mary when they meet, though it does belie the popular interpretation of the “women of three continents” comment. But then he finds himself going off with Holmes at a moment’s notice, etc.; he couldn’t have been an easy husband to have.
I tend to write Holmes / Watson much more often.
And, no, I don’t have a favorite character. Or at least not one consistent favorite character.
11. Slash is very popular in the Holmes fandom. Do you write it?
Yes.
If you write slash … here’s a rather personal question that absolutely does not have to be answered. Does your own sexual identity come into play when you write m/m or f/f slash?
I’m bisexual, which proves to my satisfaction that bisexuality exists. I don’t feel I have to write the character as gay all along and just suddenly coming to the realization that they weren’t attracted to the opposite sex, or straight, dammit! except for this one case of overwhelming, somehow transcendent attraction, etc. And neither the straight nor GLBT community is entirely ‘other’ to me.
12. Here’s a fun one. Do you have any ridiculously amazing Holmes merchandise?
Do the books count? The Granada series? The 2009 movie?
13. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle introduced some fantastic, powerhouse women in his stories. Who is your favorite?
He didn’t really have any fully fleshed out female characters, did he? My favorite would be the unidentified woman who walks in, blows Milverton away, and then goes to get on with her life elsewhere.
14. What are a few of your favorite original stories? Why?
I love Study in Scarlet, mostly as the discovery of who these two people are as they discover each other. I also get quite a hoot out of Doyle’s descriptions of far away, exotic America. There are a number of stories that I like more for bits of writing than for their mysteries. For example, I hated the mystery and resolution of “A Case of Identity,” but I loved the fanciful bit at the beginning. I really like “The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton,” an adventure story rather than a mystery. I guess I’m a fan of little mystery!
15. Every writer has had a flop. Or at least something close to it. Do you have one?
Of course.
16. What about your successes?
I believe I’ve had some of those, as well.
17. Many Holmes pastiches are published. Do you want to be published? Are you?
I would prefer not to have any of my Holmes stories published, and outside of that I’m already just about as published as I want to be.
18. Speaking of pastiches within the fandom, which one is your favorite?
Again, that depends a lot on my mood at the time. I’m bad at favorites.
19. Is your involvement in the fandom something you keep to yourself, or something you can openly discuss with family/friends?
It’s something I can openly discuss with some of my friends and one member of my family if you count my partner.
20. One final question. Where can we find your work?
The Sherlock Holmes stuff? You can find most of it at my journal, at , Cox & Co. , and/or Holmes / Watson ‘09 .