- What can you tell us about yourself?
Well, for starters, I'm a huge nerd. Hehe~ My name is Heather, I'm 19 at the moment and my favorite thing to do is write. I'm always writing - even if it's something I look at and say "This is junk." --- I'll keep writing it, if only for the fact that it keeps my creative juices flowing. Besides Jacen, TK and Star Wars - I'm also into cosplay/costuming, video games (Silent Hill, Grand Theft Auto, the Myst Series, Knights of the Old Republic, they're all where it's at! XD) and webdesign. A lot of people have told me that I am evil. *cackles*
- When did you first develop an interest in Jacen and Tenel Ka?
The very first time I read about them. When I was a wee tyke I picked up a few YJK books and instantly fell in love with the two - I especially loved the way TK would react to Jacen and his jokes. From then on, through the rest of the YJK series, the NJO and such, I was rooting for the two to finally admit their feelings to each other and get together... it hasn't really happened yet, but I still have faith!
- Would you consider yourself more of a YJK J/TK or NJO J/TK fan? Is there any difference for you?
I'm in between on that one, I believe. YJK J/TK had a definite feel to it; the way that you knew the two liked each other and could watch their relationship grow. I loved that about YJK J/TK -- but you could never have as much angst when they're younger, which is why I like NJO J/TK (what there was of it and what the readers could make of it), because they're old enough to torture and make really angsty. *cackles*
- Who or what first encouraged you to start writing both fan fiction in general and the J/TK pairing?
Reading some of the stories on the board and around the internet about J/TK, as well as ones that included J/TK in them, it got me thinking. It seemed kind of like a way to show your support for the pairing - and since I've always been fond of writing, I decided to try my hand at it. What I came up with was 'At Least Smile' -- written about a year and a half ago. With that one, I tried to stay as canon as I could, as close to the NJO as I could manage. About half a year after that, I decided to try my hand at it again - this time, not worrying as much about staying as "canon" as before.
- Have any writers inspired you in the past (both unpublished and published authors)? How did that happen?
My favorite author is Matthew Woodring Stover, who is a huge inspiration, because he's an incredible writer. I love his stories and the way he weaves all of his characters together (Raithe from Blade of Tyshalle = <3) MWS also draws some pretty evil plots, which I adore to death (hence, one of the reasons why I might be so evil) --- Lemony Snicket, because he is quite evil and his books are for children too, so that makes it even more evil. :D --- Troy Denning, because Star by Star gave me hope that J/TK could be fact one day, especially with him writing the next books. SbS also included some of the best descriptions ever. ( And the voxyn scared me. ;-; )
- Do you struggle with any aspect of writing?
In fanfiction, it's mostly trying to get the characters right, that's what I struggle with the most. I come up with these really odd situations that I want to put them in -- but I have to sit down and plot out how they're going to react to them and what they're going to do. Original character sometimes give me trouble as well; I'm always worried they're going to be 2-D, boring and Mary Sue-ish. I find myself working so hard on the OCs sometimes that the other characters end up looking 2-D and boring! >_< With original writing, filling in plot holes in my major malfunction. Grrrr...
- I think most readers and writers alike would agree that every pairing has a different type of “feel” to their fanbase. How would you describe the J/TK atmosphere?
They're very positive - I've never really seen this fanbase lash out at any others. The fanbase is almost like J/TK themselves, calm and collected. Hehe~ The fanbase is also very creative. Since the novels have given us hints to J/TK and have never actually explored the two as a couple ( which hopefully, will change ;) ), it gives the fanbase free reign to take what little we've been given and weave it into our own stories and plots.
- Curveball question – if you were only allowed to write ONE character, would you choose Jacen or Tenel Ka or a completely different SW personality?
Probably Jacen. Since Tenel Ka knows how to keep her emotions in check. It’s not as easy to mess with her mentally. And I'm a sick and twisted individual who likes to lay on the angst, so Jacen would be the obvious candidate for torment. >D He's also been a favorite character of mine for a long, long time. I loved him since the minute I started reading about him. It took a little while for TK to grow on me, although I love her just as much now. :D
- Do you feel comfortable writing stories set in the Hapes Cluster (a matriarchal society)?
I love writing stories relating to the Hapes Cluster. I think the reason I love it the most is the fact that it's always described so gorgeously. The people are described with a different type of exotic beauty and the backstory of the Cluster is deep as well (the raiders/pirates, so on) -- the matriarchal society factors in sometimes, other times I try to work around it (Gadell, most obviously a male, becoming Commander and so on) -- I had to find reasons why that would work to my advantage in the society.
- Jacen’s views on the Force were often criticised by others. Do you find you’re willing to take the hard road or adopt an unpopular view? Does that reflect in your fan fiction?
When I have Jacen use the Force, I try to make it for simple things - his views have been explored to death in the novels, so I try to steer clear of looking into it more. To me it's like writing about something that's already been written 493840934890348 times. I try to focus on stuff that the novels didn't work on - perfect example: Jacen and his love life. The poor boy is going to be 25 in the next novels and he's maybe had about one-and-a-half kisses. -_-
- You’ve written many J/TK vignettes. Can you pick a favourite? Is one of them particularly special?
'FALLING: Into Your Arms' is probably my favorite. It has that whimsical romantic feeling - all while getting across what has to be told. I have a lot of stories where Jacen tells Tenel Ka how he feels about her, but I think this one is my favorite. I thought it would be perfect to enter in the Valentine's Day challenge this past February. The challenge was to have a character write a love letter to another, if I remember correctly - I didn't know if the way I did it would qualify, but it ended up winning first place in the Beyond the Saga forums. So I was very proud of that one. ^_^
- Inevitable question – Where did the “Beasts of the Olde Galaxy” plotline come from?
Hahaha~! For some reason, I didn't see this question coming, but I really should have. :D 'Beasts of the Olde Galaxy' was something I came up with while talking to my sister about the NJO - I was mentioning Jag for some reason and I began to sing a stupid little song with his name (I do that with all kinds of things -_-) -- I added an ending to his name in the song - "Jagula" - and the story was born. Dracula was obviously an evil being and who else for Jag to be evil to but Jaina, and why shouldn't he bring his partners in Jaina-torturing-crime, Kyp and Zekk? :D It was a tad harder to think of monsters for them - Zekk maybe not as hard, but Kyp was impossible. At one point he was Kyp Kong, at one point he was Kypenstein... but I needed something suave, that would draw Jaina in. Hence, the Phantom of the Opera. The story was also something totally different, which I really liked - I liked trying to write the characters into a completely different setting. And who could pass up the awesomeness that is Lowzilla? And Jacen in cute little bifocals. TEHEH. Also, "Bust" and "Dracula's Wedding" by Outkast kept me going while I wrote it. They had the spooky-funk feeling.
I understand you run a number of Jacen and Tenel Ka websites. Can you tell us about them?
I have four main sites that relate to the two. Viridity is a site ("character shrine" as they are sometimes called) about Jacen Solo. It contains pictures, info, fanart, fanlisting, etc. I started it a couple years back after not being able to find that many sites on EU characters - since Jacen was my favorite, he was the most obvious choice.
Through Her Skin is the Tenel Ka counterpart to Viridity, except it's much smaller, since she's not as prominent of a character. That site was opened recently, after sitting on my hard drive waiting to get done. I'm still working on it.
Under Control is a site dedicated to Jacen and Tenel Ka as a couple, it's also the fanlisting for them. It seriously needs mad updating. I need to add more fanfiction, I need to work on the lyrics section, the moments section, pretty much everything. >_<
The last is The Feigned - the site I created last year to house all the junk revolving around the main fanfiction series I've worked on since October 2003. That one has a bunch of odds and ends, the soundtracks, photo manipulations, etc. I have a lot of work to do on that one as well. They're a lot of fun to have, I just wish I could update them all as fast and as much as they need. ^_^
- I imagine you’re often confused with the user _Tenel_Ka_. Have you had any amusing experiences because of that?
LOL~ I remember the first time I posted any fanfiction (the vignette, 'At Least Smile', linked above) someone had said something like, "You have always written Tenel Ka so well!" I got a little confused because I had never written anything and posted it on the board, so I had no idea how he knew I wrote TK before. After I realized he was speaking of _T_K_, I breathed a sigh of relief and that's when I quit asking myself, "Did I post something here before and just not remember it?!"
- If you could tell the J/TK fanbase one thing, what would you say?
Keep the hope alive. :D J/TK isn't shot down in canon yet. There's still a chance. And if that doesn't happen - we can always continue our fanfiction! Muaha!
- Are there any new projects on the horizon?
For now, I'm gonna continue working on 'Halfway to the Heavens', which I hope will turn out to be more of a horror/angst story. Teehehe~ And I'm also going to continue the rewrites of 'The Feigned' - 'Urbania's Void' began to overwhelm me with all the stuff I still had to put it, it really needs to be rehashed a bit. But whenever I update any sort of writing project though, it goes here though. So that's easy enough to watch for new projects. I come up with things all the time that I just jot out, so I'm sure there's a bunch of projects sitting in my head going, "WRITE ME OR I'LL KILL YOU!" ...you know the drill. -_- I also might try my hand at a few more stories that run in the same vein as 'Beasts of the Olde Galaxy' (wacky crossover/odd settings) -- I had a lot of fun with that one. Oh yeah and in November, I'll be participating in National Novel Writing Month, so my fanfiction might slow down for that crazy month... but I'll post all about that in my writing livejournal - so if anyone wanted to actually keep up with me pulling my hair out over NANOWRIMO, you can go check it out. -_-
- Any last words?
Thank you for the interview! And thanks to everyone who sat through my silly answers. :D And of course MTFBWY!