Interviews with Authors version 4.0 - interview with JediMara77!!

My very first impression of you, Laura, was that you were very sweet and very genuine.

That opinion still holds. You are quite literally one of the nicest people i've met in the world of fan fiction.

Loved reading your well thought out responses. Thank you so much for the little peek into you

Candles By the Sea was the first i'd read of your work. I knew then that you were going to be a big fan fic favorite Your style is lovely and I so enjoy how you focus on the aftermath and healing aspects of Obi-angst rather than the actual torture (either emotional or physical) that may have caused it.

And thanks to dianethx for the wonderful thought provoking interview questions

--shan

 

We are indebted to Art_of_War for the following fascinating interview with Souderwan. My apologies for how long it has taken me to get it posted.

---

[i]1. Could you share some background information about yourself with us? [/i]

Hmmm?background information, eh?

I was born a poor, black child?[face_plain]

Ok?sorry. Couldn?t help myself! First time I read that in [b]Darth_Scroobius?[/b] profile, I just laughed my butt off! [face_laugh]

Truth be told, I really [i]was[/i] born a poor black child, though. Born in Miami, grew up in Jamaica, moved back here in 1990, joined the Navy in 1995, drive submarines for a living, blah, blah, blah?

I?m not that interesting. Next question.

[i]2. When and how did you first become a Star Wars fan? [/i]

It was a dark and stormy night. Ok...sorry. I?ll stop. I don?t remember exactly when it was that I first saw Star Wars but it was definitely around 1982 or so. I was in Jamaica and we?d just gotten our first VCR, which was a big deal. One of the movies we got with it was Star Wars. I had heard about it, I?m sure, but I was six, so who knows what I thought? What I [i]do[/i] remember clearly was the moment when Darth Vader walked through that door past all those storm troopers. I was like ?Woah! Cool!? I got truly hooked when Vader held his two fingers in the air and announced ?I find your lack of faith, disturbing.? [face_grin]

I?ve been hooked on SW since.

[i]3. And what about fanfiction? When did you first start writing it and what drew you to it? [/i]

What?s today? I started writing fanfiction a little less than a year ago, actually. It?s a kind of long story but I?ll give you the short version. Prior to about a year ago, I?d never even heard of fanfiction. It was a completely foreign concept to me. I, like many others, was caught up in the RotS mania that was sweeping the nation. In April, I had bought the RotS novelization and was blown away by Stover?s work. I had noticed that he wrote much the way I did when I was writing creatively over a decade before so I was kind of stoked about that. At any rate, I joined this discussion group on SW.com regarding RotS. We got into this heated discussion about the choices of the Jedi in general, and Mace Windu in particular.

About a week before I had joined the group, as I was reading the novelization, I had this weird moment as I was reading the scene in which Anakin talks to Yoda about his dreams. During that scene, a story just burgeoned in my mind when Anakin thinks that Yoda couldn?t possibly have understood how he was feeling. It?s hard to describe, but everything just sort of?appeared in my mind. Sound weird? Well?it was. I kind of dismissed it until I got into that discussion. There were a few people who refused to accept the possibility that Mace was not acting very Jedi-like when he decided to off old Palpy.

The second part of the story that had formed in my mind started demanding that I write it first. So?I started blogging the story at SW.com. I used the novelization as a starting point given how similarly Stover and I wrote and posted away. I got blocked by the moderators there for violating TOS (I had no idea). A few people were interested in the story so I started emailing it around to people who wanted it. Finally, a friend of mine, [b]Ragozy[/b], suggested I share my story here. I was blown away by the massiveness of this place! Still am! But?well?that?s how I got here.


[i]4. What or who has influenced your writing style the most? [/i]

Easy. Matt Stover. Since then, I?ve learned a great deal from reading both good and bad fics here on the boards. There are some really amazing writers here.

[i]5. Many people, after reading [link=http://boards.theforce.net/The_Saga/b10476/20073250/p1] Fall of the Sith [/link] and [link=http://boards.theforce.net/message.asp?topic=20747580&start=20749093] Descent Into the Dark [/link], have commented on your ability to write amazing fight scenes. How do you go about bringing these to life? Is there a certain method you use or does it all f

 

Cool. I've got to check his stories out sometime.

 

Woo-hoo! ::Face_waving_lighter_around_and_stomping_on-bleachers:: Thanks, AoW, for bringing us an interview with one of the hardest-working authors on the boards, and one of my favorites.

And Souderwan never told me he grew up in Jamaica, the bum.

My favorite things he's written are probably Mace's characterization in "Edge Of The Darkness" and Leia's characterization in "Fulcrum." Both AU, but more fun than a lot of regular "U."

Evil = good.

Er--I mean, wait. Let me figure this out. It made so much sense when Palpatine was explaining it . . .

 

Wonderful interview and very fascinating.

 

Damn, Souderwan. You're deep.

drive submarines for a living, blah, blah, blah?

I?m not that interesting. Next question.

Disagree! And if you've been in a bunch of fights, where are those stories?

You have great views of Anakin and Padme, and even more so the Force. I love the island/sea metaphor - it works so well.

 

Great interview and I learned a lot. I thought Fall of the Sith was fabulous. I also want to find out about the fights... Oh, and forgive my ignorance. Do you still use periscopes in the submarine or is that sooo WWII?

 

Awesome interview, my friend

Personally I think your life story would be a good book to read. Think about it...in your spare time

 

Great interview Souderwan rawks!

 

Excellent interview, Souderwan!!

 

Wonderful interview, Brian! I especially love the philosophy that seeps into everything you write. Authors that can do that so 'effortlessly' amaze me.

 

Great interview, Souderwan, thanks! We're all fortunate that you figured out that what you were writing was fanfic and found your way to these Boards!

 

Very interesting interview, Souderwan!

Great analysis of Anakin. Although you write Yoda and Mace pretty well, too.

For what it's worth, I do understand what you mean about having stories seemingly appear fully formed in your head. It's happened to me, too. An odd feeling in a way, but also exciting.

 

Great interview, Souderwan! I especially like the Force analogy--I love a writer who lets the Force be its own "character" with its own permutations. Seeing someone pay attention to it makes me a happy camper.

Very informative and enlightening interview!

 

Great interview Brian. I am a new fan and am embarrassed to admit that I am still working on finishing Descent into the Dark. It is a compelling story that grabbed my attention right away. I can't wait to finish it and move on to more of your stories. Keep it up.

Cathy

 

Hello, everyone!! This is NYCitygurl. Due to KD's absense, the fanfic mods have kindly let me take over this thread. I'm really excited to get it back up and running again

I'd really like a team of interviewers to help me out, since it'll be a big project. If you're interested, please PM me on the sock or my username. Any who sign up will probably just be assigned authors to interview.

If you would like to suggest authors, please feel free to!! Also let me know if you want to do the interview yourself or if you just wanted to put up the suggestion.

If you have any other suggestions, please feel free to PM me


Our next interview will be with DarthIshtar and will go up sometime this weekend

 

Huzzah for it being up and running again! THanks for taking over this, dear!

 

NYCitygurl - I still have one interview finished that KD never used. I'll send it to you.


Edit: message sent!

 

Thanks so much!!! I also have ikntoviews with TKL and Knight_Aragorn that are waiting in Word documents that I got from PMs. I don't have her list or documents, so I have to get everything all over again.

 

DarthIshtar is well-known around the boards. She's written in all three sagas, and had started several challenges, including the Title Challenge. She is the former CR for the Provo, Utah FanForce, and is partially responsible for getting some of her fanforce friends to post stories here.


Can you give us some background information about yourself?

I was born Kathryn in 1980, nicknamed Kaki (pronounced like the pants) within a few days and am now called Ish by a lot of people in real life as well as on the boards.

I have two sisters (one older and one younger) and a younger brother. My older sister and my only brother are both getting married in May. My older sister has a 7-year-old son who is addicted to all Star Wars comics in which things blow up. We get along great as a result.

I was born in San Antonio, TX and currently make my home in an apartment in Provo, UT, where I am a junior in English and a minor in Spanish Translation at Brigham Young University. I live in the same apartment or in the same building as three other members of my fanforce, all of whom are boards.theforce.net members.

I'm a redhead with green eyes and only started reading the EU because I heard about Mara Jade, who had the same coloring combination.

In my free time, I like a lot of music. I inherited an upright piano, Model K Steinway, made in 1904 and named her Meredith in May. I also play a violin named Ludwig, a viola named Amadeus and do handbells with my family. My main musical efforts right now are dedicated to BYU's Women's Chorus. It's a 170-woman choir and the members are some of the coolest people you'll ever know. I love it, even if it keeps me incredibly busy during the school year.


[bow did you get into Star Wars? [/b]

It was very simple. My entire family was going to the SW marathon at a new movie theater and they made me go along. I hadn't ever heard of the movies, much less seen them, but I figured it was better than staying home. I sat between a 300-pound Elvis impersonator and a man in purple spandex, but was hooked the moment Vader came onto the screen. I have a thing for bad guys. I was shocked at the end of ESB, 'shipped Luke/Leia for 30 minutes, cried when Yoda died and thought Obi-Wan was a royal jerk.

And, as anyone in my apartment can tell you, I developed an unhealthy fascination with Palpatine. I think he is the coolest villain because, like Saruman, he can confuse you as to whether or not he's evil. He is a sophist and really creepy.


When did you start writing fanfic?

Literally, it was 24 hours later. Since I had never heard of Star Wars, I thought it was a new thing and that there would never be a sequel. I was so devastated by that that I sat down and started writing a story about Han and Leia Solo, Luke Skywalker and the traitor Lando whose real name was Nick. Because I was 13 and hero-worshipped Leia, I basically turned her into a Mary Sue because I wanted to. I wrote that story, then turned it into a screenplay...

Needless to say, it all stunk, but it gave me somewhere to start. And, until I developed actual writing skills, I kept writing the same Han/Leia romance story in different stupid variations. I had, at that point, gone out with one boy and it was the kind of "romance" where we would sit at the same lunch table and go to the 6th grade dance together. I did not get romance at all, which thankfully has changed somewhat.


How did you find the JC? Have you posted fanfic elsewhere?

You can thank or blame JediGaladriel for that. She was writing "The Penitent" at the boards and posting it at her website, where I was reading it. When I found out that I'd have to go to some place called theforce.net to find the rest of the story, I headed straight over and registered. I started posting my own stuff shortly thereafter because I loved being able to get immediate feedback.

I have posted at fanfix.com, fanfiction.net and have been archived at Crossroads at the Outer Realms, Jedi Antane's Temple Library and Bast Castle.

 

Yeah Ish!

It finally got up and is good to read especially the hints at the ends. I guess I need to take those seriously, eh?


Thanks for posting this NYCityGurl!

 

Quite insightful interview, really interesting to read Well done Nat and Ish

 

interesting.




it's nice to see this thread back.