FanFic Ask Me Anything ~*~ Version 3.0 Daily Questions (See list on pg 164 or 1)

No, to be honest when I read Serbia my brain immediately thought Siberia. Not that I don't know where the two are located, but because they are close in spelling and I was transposing letters in my brain. I looked at it for a second and realized, 'That's not how you spell Siberia'. A few seconds later, 'Ahh...Serbia. Hey, I know somebody who lives there.'

I'm a little slow on the uptake.

Another question. When you saw Star Wars for the first time was it dubbed or did it have subtitles? If it was dubbed, how did Luke sound? I always laugh when I hear dubbed movies where the voice isn't even close to the real actor's voice.

 

Hi...and thank you so much...I appreciate every single comment you make on that...and heck, I would appreciate corrections and criticism, too.

The first thing that fascinated me about Ewoks back in '90 when the cartoon first aired here with a horrific dub was tree worship. My grandmother used to tell me about old Slavs and their beliefs and a lot of them were surprisingly similar. I went on to create a whole set of names, last names, personal histories and profile images for every single nearby tree I could think of. I still use the said names nowadays and I mourn each of those trees that had to be cut down or, more often, that was cut down due to somebody's paranoia.

Later on came more things that I assume a lot of fans of Ewoks might be into - fascination with the machinery and tools they create while not having even discovered metal yet.

Not to mention that the cartoon got me into cartooning. I started drawing characters based on how they appeared in the sticker album, as I had no VCR and I could not re-watch episodes as I pleased, and I would make my own comics. Three years later, my mom found a fun ad in a newspaper and that was how I spent three years in an animated movie workshop for kids and teens. I was not talented, or at least not able to take it seriously, but I still fantasize about being an animation writer or a story board artist.

...

Hold on, this will be creepy. Nearing the end of my teens, I used to be so much into Formula One and I stumbled upon this website called Girls F1. By today's standards, it was badly designed and its topic were photos of drivers looking hot. However, it was the only such website at the moment, the only one where females who were into F1 could hang out, socialize etc. On the site's forum, I met a lot of fan fiction writers. I was not familiar with the term before and then I remembered my comics from the reply above this one, and realised that those were fan fiction as well. So...since I could not understand the stories everybody else was writing as I didn't get what was so cool about all those predictable Mary Sue plots, I wrote a series of six fics about...

...F1 tracks' human alter egos. For example, Monza was an older lady, Sepang was a nasty pre-school kid, and so on. Everybody on that forum considered me more or less nuts, for breathing soul into inanimate objects, creating complex relationships among them and whatnot, but I enjoyed writing for a couple of people who liked it and I made a couple of lifelong friends on there. Later on, I did try to write a couple of Mary Sues for girls from the forum, the usual thing where they end up with their preferred driver and live happily ever after, but those were still the polar opposite of the erotic and emo stuff the others were into - my stories were about drivers forming a boy band, a girl turning into a driver's cat for Halloween and ultimately, I had a crossover between the usual stories with girls and drivers and my tracks universe. Now, THAT was wrong.

And from 2004-ish to November 2014, I have not written one single fan fic. Now I'm back to square one and I'm loving it.


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Me and fashion have a love-hate relationship, as I fuse neopunk, cartoony stuff and some tribal elements to create a pretty unique style, so most of the things in SW are too simple for me.

But yeah...favourite accesories (on a male) and favourite outfit (on a female) would be these:






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1. A strong female lead. It seems that we're getting one, but I hope she's stronger than both of those we had in previous trilogies!

2. At least some scenes set on Endor...if not in this one, then in next one.

3. A scene that will make me laugh as much as C-3PO's unfortunate mix-and-match in AOTC did.

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I only started reading them earlier this year, and yes, of course. I don't think any of them were translated here, they're imported and sold the way they are, often for the same value stated on the back cover, which is NOT the case with most foreign books here.

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As I responded to Goodwod, I never wrote a fanfic in Serbian, poems can sprout in any of the languages I'm fluent in, and my prose is almost exclusively in Serbian and translated to English for those who want to read it.

How I learnt English? It was Big Muzzy before I started school, lessons while at school, translating articles from foreign music magazines and writing things down in a mini-dictionary and, from graduation on, Internet and talking to native speakers.

I spent high school and uni bored to death in English classes, as the high school teacher ignored me and the folks who were attending the classes at the university were not capable of anything and I considered that to be a waste of time.

Hi. I'm fine, hope it's the same with you.

Most of my poetry combines dystopian elements with various folklore and religious imagery.

Influences? A lot of them, but out of classic, it would be Sergei Yesenin due to his ability to picture feelings with words and among modern and avant-garde authors, I prefer Anne Clark.

You're forgiven.

We don't dub anything other than some cartoons, so nah - there were subtitles and everything was as normal as it could've been on a CRT TV with a rounded screen and a room antenna hanging from a curtain.

In fact, I cannot stand dubbing, though back in the days, my friend and I would watch Polish satellite channels solely to laugh at a single older man speaking everybody's lines in literally all shows. Not sure if they still do that, but it was soooo funny!

 

What fictional culture would you like to see used as an inspiration in SW and how?

What real life culture would you like to see used as an inspiration in SW and how?

 

Cuisine in Serbia: would I relate it more to Mediterranean/Greek/Italian fare, or similar to German or Russian? What is a traditional dessert?

 

I TOTALLY KNOW WHAT'S IN YOUR COPY/PASTE BUFFER NEXT. XD You are predictable.

Just kidding. I have no answer to the first question as that would be outright plagiarism, but as far as the second question goes, any southern and middle-American in a SW film or a TV series, as long as it can be incorporated, would be interesting.

A combo of Mediterranean, middle eastern (we were under the Ottomans for 500 years) and Austrian/Hungarian. We have bastardized almost each staple of each of these. In some cases, like with our version of mousakka, which we call musaka and make of potatoes, not eggplants, one gets a meal that's easier to digest, but in some other cases, you get meals where literally each ingredient has been replaced with a cheaper one.

The most famous traditional desert would be Vasina torta (Vasa's torte) and you'll find it on this page - scroll down for the recipe in English:
http://foodforthought-jelena.blogspot.com/2011/10/vasina-torta-klasik-srpske-kuhinje.html

It's pretty heavy, as it contains walnuts in place of flour.

 

The ewoks use a lot of surprisingly advanced technology for a non-metal using civilisation and I was wondering what technology we have not seen them have would you like them to have?

 

There are quite a few famous (current and former) Serbian sports stars. Are you a sports fan? If so, who is your favorite athlete (Serbian or otherwise)?

 

What are your fanfic pet peeves?

 

If you were stranded on a jungle planet in the GFFA, what are the three items you'd like to have with you?

And for you only, a related question: if you were stranded on the Forest Moon of Endor, what are the three items you'd like the Ewoks to give you?

 

Do you do your best writing/plotting at night/evening or bright and early in the morning?

 

This miiiight as well get me in trouble given the holy grail of this forum, but I don't like spelling errors that are more or less preventable. If I can get the word right, having never been to an English-speaking country, why can't a native speaker? Leaving out apostrophes, getting similar-sounding words wrong, the your/you're stuff etc makes one's writing look messy. And it's so easy to fix. Are you Tara Gilesbie? No? Then don't do it.

Another thing I've never been a fan of are stories centered around effing like bunnies or slaughtering everything and everybody with no substance, whatsoever. Last night, I read two fics by Jedi_Lover and while they both were essentially sex fics with two particular characters, the amount of humour in each of them made them an interesting read. That's something I like to see people pull out. If it's dirty, make it hilarious at the same time.

From the now-retired Serbian sport figures, I am a huge fan of Dejan Bodiroga, the nice guy basketball player whom people used to compare with a lot of legendary NBA players, and Dragan Stojković "Piksi", the football (soccer) player known for his cult status in Japan. Since I was a really small child when I got into the later, I kinda wanted to be him for some reason. Then my dad had to make up this story where Piksi was some sort of a male Thumbelina and his parents kept him in a shoe box when he was a child and I would pester him to tell me that story all over again every bloody day, throughout the summer of 1990. 'm glad I didn't know Piksi and I shared the day and month of birth back in the days, I would've probably been sure that I'm him

Out of current athletes, of course, I like Novak Đoković, Ana Ivanović and Jelena Janković and the frenzy most people are in when they're playing is hard to describe.

Foreign? There's one I'm not proud of and one I'm proud of.

- I used to be a big fan of Jacques Villeneuve, but now I'm not sure how that came to be. I guess teenagers are into rebels etc etc, now as an adult, I have to scratch my head, not sure if he had any major qualities.

- I've always liked Brazil in football, until the current generation where I just cannot relate to anybody. But the player whom I appreciated most was Bebeto. If the name doesn't ring a bell, the whole world either loves him or hates him for having invented that baby rocking goal celebration back in '94.

The best things happen when I'm very, very tired and, for whatever reason, unable to sleep. I wrote some 1000 words for my fic this morning in a semi-asleep state and this might be the best part I've written so far!

 

It's the same as my working space, my room. Long due for a new coat of paint, some poster removal and yadda yadda, but hey.

Spoiler

The poster on the left keeps on falling from the frame, which is ironic, as it's one of there I want to keep after painting the room green (can't stand looking at Anthony and Flea, YUCK!), the drink in the glass is Pepsi Max, the saucer-topped object is for essential oils and there's this exact thread on the computer screen.



To my right - a bunch of data DVDs with old soccer matches, classic cartoons, RHCP (with John Frusciante only) audio and video bootlegs, topped with my modest collection of non-digital and non-Ewoks SW books. Behind all of that, there's about one half of my 220+ magazine collection. I assume I don't have to explain who's in them and whose are the CDs and other media and the strings above. Far right, there are some RHCP and Formula One books that I kept for sentimental reasons, and not pictured, next to them, are ten books on Chernobyl and its aftermath. By now, you should be scared of what a combination of my major interests will lead to.



Above my head would be a painting that looks so out of place in this room, my beloved scanner topped by my beloved Italian-Italian dictionary, some retro toys and my vinyl LP collection. Note that Tom with a club is guarding the LPs the same way older Teebo with a spear is guarding some other media in the previous photo.



In front of me right now are some bracelets, some USB sticks, a bunch of Ewok action figures joined by one certain Mon Calamari hero, plethora of reminders, some random, but relevant items and a super-weird postcard I got from a friend in UK today. We're taking all those Uranus jokes too far.



Judi does not approve of this Q and A until there's a photo of her, so she jumped on my lap.

Jungle equals snakes...so, a snake repellent, a water cleaner and a good speeder, so I can get the hell away from where most snakes are.

As for the later, just like I said to Gamiel, give me a day. I need to fast-forward through everything, so I don't give a random, stupid response.

Yay, I'm not alone! Her Hoth outfit is cool as well, but kinda...too white for my taste. A splash of colour would make it better on people in this galaxy.

As far as the video goes, I'm still not sure if it's a parody, a praise or both. Probably both?

 

No, no the word is homage and as Picasso once said "Good artists borrow, great artists steal" showing himself to be a great artist since it was originally said by Oscar Wilde

I am all for it, any special part of southern and middle-American culture you would like to see used?

 

Late answers (and my apologies to Ewok Poet for the interruption!)

Fictional culture: Lately I've been listening to the audiobooks of Kate Constable's Chanters of Tremaris series, which has several different cultures on the same world that use the same magical source but different "chants" (they sing, or in one case dance to access it) that give them different abilities. It would be interesting to see something loosely based on that in the GFFA: multiple Force traditions on the same world that differ in more than what side of the Force they use. Dathomir sort of has this with the multiple Witch clans, but we don't know much about many of them.

Real life culture: Possibly something based on the Orkney Islands; there's a really interesting site that I stumbled across a while ago that details some of the old folklore and traditions from that area (orkneyjar.com -- probably a PG-13 at least for some of the folklore elements.) The Andes area of South America has some intriguing past and present cultures as well, and I can't recall seeing anything similar in Star Wars. In any case, it's important that the culture is incorporated well. When the attempt goes wrong, it often seems to go very wrong and ends up looking like a terrible caricature.

More of a night owl, but I have to live in a lark's world. So not so much staying up late any more.

Yes, three family pets (still at home thanks to the economy and the fact that we're all pretty easy to live with most of the time.) There are two cats and an occasionally noisy little dog. One cat is old and sweet, but will piddle on anything cloth that is left on the floor. The other was a young stray, who has remained a rambunctious (and somewhat ill-mannered) kitten his entire life. He goes scampering around in the morning and likes to play hide-and-seek. The dog is a Floppy-Eared Something adopted a couple of years after the loss of our previous canine. She's a sweetheart, even if she does like to bark. (Seriously, she'll "woof" softly and guiltily under her breath when she knows that she's not supposed to be barking.)

Third and last, only girl with two much-older brothers. Which is to say that I was probably into double-digit ages before winning an argument with anyone.

It used to be in another room (kind of an office that's used for miscellaneous stuff), but I had a bad habit of leaning back with my feet on the desk and my back has started to protest that kind of thing. So now most of my writing is done in my room at a small table/desk that was a gift last year. The legs are spray-painted bright blue and I'm very fond of it. Let's see, the room has some blue and yellow wallpaper (not striped, exactly -- more of a gradient) and a space calendar on the wall. And some bookshelves full of books, as well as miscellaneous items like the stuffed stingray and scorpion that I bought at the zoo (they were too cute to resist; it's a very cuddly scorpion!) It's the lair of a nerd, essentially.

Since there was a gap where I couldn't answer, I see no problem with doing two questions. I think that rule is mostly to give all the questioners a chance and keep people from getting quizzed to death. Thanks for the compliments on my story, it's much appreciated!

Writing influences: That would include all of the writers (fanfic and profic) that I listed as early influences (I think that was Findswoman's question.) Some of my favorite pro writers since then are: Terry Pratchett (funny and thoughtful fantasy books), Kristen Britain (really engaging "regular" fantasy with great characters), Ben Aaronovitch (writes the Rivers of London series mentioned under "other fandoms" -- lots of fun, but again warning on the R levels of violence and sexual content), Diane Duane (very insightful about the human implications of magic and sci-fi elements -- it would be fascinating to see her take on Star Wars, which isn't that far-fetched since she's done licensed novels for Star Trek), Maggie Stiefvater (The Scorpio Races is basically the book that you have always wanted if you are interested in the water horses of Irish and Scottish folklore), Ursula Vernon (writes fantasy with a wonderful offbeat sense of humor that will warp you forever -- probably one of the stronger influences, to the point that I sometimes worry), Ysabeau S. Wilce (the series starting with Flora Segunda is a very unique alternate history mixed with fantasy -- and the protagonist's family troubles might have had something to do with the situation that I set up for my diary OC, now that I think about it), John Jackson Miller (the KOTOR comics manage to keep the humor and likeability of the protagonists while going to some very dark places), Nina Kiriki Hoffman (A Fistful of Sky is the only thing that I've read through by this author, but it's one of the best "character from a magically gifted family" tales that I've ever seen and it's depiction of the main character's curse talent is enthralling -- note that it's possibly a PG-13 to R rating based on my vague memory), and Clive Barker (the Abarat series takes place in one of the most vivid worlds imaginable, and often goes straight to creepy -- no idea what you'd rate it except "D" for disturbing. ) Lots of others, too, probably, but those were the ones that came to mind as current favorites whose writing makes me think "it would be so awesome to be able to do that."

For fanfic influences, there are so many that the list would go on to infinity. So I'll just mention a few that I can actualy identify as links in what I've written or planned. Zarza in my OC diary was almost certainly inspired by the antagonist of an old favorite fanfic, Sheila Paulson's Lost Davy (http://ww.debwalsh.com/venkie/lostdavy.htm). I didn't even notice until just now, but now that I've thought about it... a supernatural being of shifty, fractured identity and unknown motives, one that talks but you can't always communicate with it normally. Yes. There's probably a kinship there. Sokolniki's Invidious Intent (http://boards.theforce.net/threads/invidious-intent-oc-54aby.50017556/) has a great cast, including a major character who manages to be both appealing in personality and vicious enough to justify his status as a Darksider. It's a story that I've been keeping an eye on, both to hopefully avoid doing something too close to the same (since one of my current projects does involve a number of Dark Side OC's, and a couple of others at least brush on the Imperial days of some EU characters) and as a guide to "this is how you write interesting antagonists really, really well." Also, it's a page-turner and I'm addicted. The third fanfic influence that I remember is that reading works by laloga (http://boards.theforce.net/threads/...omance-drama-complete-as-of-5-19-14.50007700/) and Queen (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/5573389/1/Said-the-Joker-to-the-Thief) convinced me that Ahsoka could be very interesting in fanfic. That's why she ended up being referenced in Long Gone and I now have all kinds of plot bunnies for the character. And it's largely down to those two writers for pointing out the immense story potential and the postive aspects of her character.

Books I'm currently reading: Ingo by Helen Dunmore (nifty YA/kids' fantasy about merpeople set in Cornwall), listening to the audiobook of Trickster's Queen by Tamora Pierce (fantasy, as habit-forming as everything else she writes), Death Star by Michael Reeves, re-reading Gerald Morris's Squire's Tales series, The Book of Night with Moon by Diane Duane (cat POV fantasy -- combines fantasy and Watership Down style animal cultures, two of my favorite things!), and The Worth of a Shell by M.C.A. Hogarth (adventure set on an alien world -- I'm getting to like the characters a lot, even though reading the reviews spoiled the ending and I know it's going to break my heart. This one is definitely an "R" rating based on the content mentioned in those reviews.)

Okay, I had to go watch it since I've been hidden under a rock this weekend. Looks vague, but all good so far!

 

I am trying to figure out which of my stories here are just about funny sex. I am guessing Null Aboard and Master? I am glad you found them interesting.

I haven't read all the questions and answers, so this may be a repeat. Can you recommend any particular series of books that are not Star Wars but a Star Wars fan would enjoy. For example, my two main fandoms are Star Wars and Dune. Is there any other SciFi books or series of books you would recommend?

 

Do you have a favorite mythological/legendary creature? What interests you about them, if so?

 

Do you like to travel inside or outside your country? What are your favourite destinations and where would you like to go?

 

Do you have hobbies surrounding water: skiing, swimming, etc., or the mountains: hiking, skiing?

 

Yup, it was those two. When you gave me advice on how to get around on FFN, I followed the link in your signature and the title "Null" caught my eye as I thought it was an actual error in the database and then I read it and laughed a lot. And since I wrote an original novella where nudity is treated as comic relief, I probably looked at it through a very different frame, but I guess all writings are open to such interpretation.

As for the later question, apart from the SW universe, I'm not much of a science fiction person. I prefer some other genres. So, sadly, I cannot come up with a valid recommendation.

I would like some Force mages who utilise a mix of beliefs from those cultures, maybe something as mysterious as that Mayan calendar was to us...which would then turn to be barely relevant, or not as relevant as everybody thought.

Perun, the Slavic equivalent of St. Elijah, on whom we based a lot of our own St. Elijah's day customs. The man literally shoots thunder from the sky.

I have not traveled much in the recent years, for a number of reasons, so I would be open to pretty much anything. Last year I made an impromptu four-day trip to Locarno, Switzerland and it was so much fun.

Where would I like to go most? I really, absolutely, totally MUST visit The Exclusion Zone while it's still safe to go inside of the buildings in Pripyat. As soon as the day is long enough again, the situation in Ukraine stable enough and I find somebody mad enough to go with me, I'm going!

I have not properly been to a mountain since 1991 or so, and to the seaside since 1994. But I like swimming a lot and I do plan to replace cycling with swimming from the next week or so until February, March or whenever it's not too cold and windy anymore.

 

Ewok Poet do you know that Perun have apperaed as a character in both Marvel comic and in Hellboy?

Now that is an intresting idea.

Personally I think the best way to use real life cultures is to take some of them, three to five is a good number, use the parts you like then mix and mach, enhance and minimise, maybe radically change the tech level and/or the place were they live.

 

To the first thing: no, had no idea. I'm gonna look that up ASAP!

 

Neat! Reminded me of the phenomenon of St. Elmo's fire (glowing light that appears sometimes around ships' masts and other things) and I had to look it up and see if there was a connection. Apparently Elmo's fire is associated with a different saint -- St. Erasmus, who is called Elmo in Italy. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Elmo's_fire) But it's often a byproduct of thunderstorms, too.