#crotchrocketspockets

Q: What do you think are some defining aspects of your work? Do you have a style? Recurrent themes?

A: I love pondering meta and sociological aspects of the Wasteland, and relating it back to historical times and empires.

Q: Which of your works was the most fun to create? The most difficult? Which is your most popular? Most successful? Your favourite overall?

A: Most fun and my favorite overall is "Relics".  Most difficult was "Delight".  What do we mean by successful?  Most popular is "Better Days Ahead".

Q: How do you like your wasteland? Gritty? Hopeful? Campy? Soft? Why?

A: Hopeful, liminal, blending all of the different cultures together.  There are already enough overly depressing apocalypses around--I want to see humans be good at coming together and rebuilding.

Q: Walk us through your creative process from idea to finished product. What's your prefered environment for creating? How do you get through rough patches?

A: I generally like to sit down at my desk, have a large amount of caffeine, and just write.  For rough patches, I take a break or let my partner do an editing pass.

Q: What (if any) music do you listen to for help getting those creative juices flowing?

A: Lots of playlists on 8 Tracks. :)

Q: What is your biggest challenge as a creator?

A: Plot.  Coming up with plot.

Q: How have you grown as a creator through your participation in the Mad Max Fandom? How has your work changed? Have you learned anything about yourself?

A: I've started thinking a lot more about the spiritual aspects of settings in general.

Q: Which character do you relate to the most, and how does that affect your approach to that character? Is someone else your favourite to portray? How has your understanding of these characters grown through portraying them?

A: I love Miss Giddy dearly, and want to write more with her and about her.  My understanding of her as someone who perhaps remembers Before the apocalypse makes her really interesting to me.

Q: Do you ever self-insert, even accidentally?

A: Yep!

Q: Do you have any favourite relationships to portray? What interests you about them?

A: I haven't written any  of the relationships yet!  Still working my way up to that.

Q: How does your work for the fandom change how you look at the source material?Do you prefer to create in one defined chronology or do your works stand alone? Why or why not?

A: They're all stand alones so far, just because I haven't really written a lot more than ficlets.

Q: To break or not to break canon? Why?

A: I personally enjoy breaking canon, because I like bringing back favorite characters and don't always enjoy angst that much.  And I want them to live, dammit.  That's what fic is for.

Q: Share some headcanons.

A: I've always headcanoned that, besides the gardens, the Citadel probably cultivates insects for protein.

Q: If you work with OCs walk us through your process for creating them. Who are some of your favourites?

A: I do, though I haven't written about my own yet.  I'm biased, in that my favorites are a couple of fan warboys that a friend and I created, Motorbreath and Crotchrocket.

Q: Who are some works by other creators inside and outside of the fandom that have influenced your work?

A: A lot of the meta from Tumblr!

Q: What advice can you give someone who is struggling to make their own works more interesting, compelling, cohesive, etc.? 

A: Research ancient cultures and find parallels!  That's been a fun thing for me.

Q: Have you visited or do you plan to visit Australia, Wasteland Weekend, or other Mad Max place?

A: I'd like to go to Australia some day, but I am a creature of cold and wet Oregon, and am fairly certain I wouldn't be terribly comfortable in the desert for Wasteland Weekend. 

Q: Tell us about a current WIP or planned project.

A: I'd like to continue "Better Days Ahead", maybe!  And perhaps write down some of the backstory for my OC.