Dear Readers,

Welcome, I am glad you have chosen to drop by and read this week's interview. I hope you enjoy it and you will come back week after week. Also, you will find links to past featured writers at the end of this interview. Just click on the writer's name and you will be taken to their interiew.

This week's Featured Writer is a European Folc who not only writes L&C fanfics in her native language (German) but also in English. She has a wonderful command of the English language and her fanfics are a delight to read and enjoy worldwide.

Now without further ado, I am proud and honored to present this week's Writer, in the Writer's Showcase ...

Personal Information

Author name
Nicole Wolke (Ckgroupie on IRC)

E-mail addresses
NKWolke@t-online.de

Residence
Grossbuellesheim, a little village with less than 1000 souls in Germany <g>

List, AOL, or web affiliations
Loiscla Fanfiction List
Loiscla List
German LnC List

Lois and Clark or Superman Status

How long have you been watching L&C?
It was one historical evening in August 1994 and I'm sure my poor husband still curses that day when he looked into the TV guide and told me that there was a Superman-movie as ,tip of the day". He asked me if I wanted to watch it and I said ,not necessarily" because, you know, Superman? That flying guy in tights? Wasn't that supposed to be science fiction and didn't I detest science fiction? But since there was nothing else to watch or to do and since we were living in an one room apartment at that time I had to watch it after all and what a great torture it turned out to be!

I still remember the moment I fell for Clark Kent <g>. It was when he talked to that old actress Beatrice. He said ,We have time." and then he smiled at her and I thought ,Wow, look at *HIM*!"

At first I didn't know that it was a series, so you can imagine my astonishment (and my delight) when I detected ,Superman" (that is the German title of the series) in the TV-guide the following week. Of course I watched and I didn't miss one episode after that. I started taping them with ,Honeymoon in Metropolis".

But I only became a *real* fan when Pro 7 (the German network that airs Superman) had obviously decided to ,kill" a good part of their viewers, by letting us wait for Lois's answer of Clark's proposal for more than one and a half year. Desperate times cry for desperate measures and I started to look for every little glimpse of information on the show that I could get. I even advertised in some teen-magazines (yeah, I know... it's embarrassing for a woman at my age) and I was lucky to find other fans who were as desperate as I was. It turned out that shared desperation is much nicer and from now on we traded information, magazines, articles, tapes and finally we even were so lucky to find somebody who got Dutch TV and they were showing Lois&Clark there. Not only did they show the third season long before we got to see it in Germany they also showed it in English with Dutch subtitles and so I got to hear Dean's voice for the first time! Needless to say that I fell for Dean as much as I did for Clark . Come on... you just *have* to love that guy!

I got access to the internet in May 1997 and I learned to know what it means to be in fan's heaven. The Loiscla list, the fanfiction archive and finally IRC made me to a very happy FOLC. I'm not sure if it is a good thing to get involved with a TV series as I did and still do with Lois&Clark but to be honest, I enjoy every minute of it <g>.

How long have you been a fan of Superman?
Before Lois and Clark I hardly know that Superman existed. I had a vague idea of him, I knew he could fly and that he was a comic figure. I also knew what he looked like, but I never had read a comic neither did I watch the movies.

But I do remember one little incident that got my attention when I was a teenager. I was at the dentist and was reading one of the magazines they had there. Inside was a little excerpt of a comic, only a few images long. It was a continuing series (I don't know if this is usual in the USA, but in our magazines they often have these little continuing comics in them) and it was in Black and White. It was an excerpt of a Superman Story and I think they had Clark and Lois watching a movie in the cinema. Clark had to disappear (does this sound familiar <g>?) and when he returned he reflected about his relationship to Lois. It was not a long story, just a little glimpse, but I remember that it had me wondering if Lois would ever find out that Clark was Superman. I also remember that I instantly knew that he was in love with her and that she secretly had to love him, too.

I take the fact that this little comic made such a great impression to me as a proof that I am kind of ,born" to be a Superman-Fan <g>. And I'm still amazed that Lois & Clark made all these thoughts that I had back then come true.

How long have you been writing?
I wrote one little story when I was a kid, but after that writing never seemed to be my way to express myself. I always loved reading though and one of my majors in College was German philology. I'm not really sure, what made me write a story though, I guess it was mostly just a result of my pain for the Alt-Clark. His future really bothered me. I couldn't let him be so lonely in his world and so I decided to let him find his Lois.

How long have you been writing L&C fanfic?
Actually I started writing Fanfiction before I knew that *was* something like Fanfiction. I wrote my first story long before I got access to the Internet. When I finally entered the world wide web, I was surprised to find out that there were a lot of other FOLCS who had had the same good idea of writing their own stories and I was in heaven when I detected the archive. I spent uncountable wonderful hours reading Fanfiction since then.

It took me a while to find the courage to translate my first story. I still don't feel very comfortable with writing in English, but since this is the language of the FOLCS I guess I have to do it <g>. I'm very happy to have wonderful help in Georgia though, who edited my stories and who shows a never ending patience to help me. I'm also grateful that I get so much support from the writers on #L&Cfanfic.

What types of Fanfic have you written?
I've written five stories so far (almost six, since I just finished another one) and participated in a couple of round robins, both English and German.

I'm afraid all my stories have one big mutuality They all lack a good A-plot L and they're all very long <g>. I love to write Waffs, I love to watch the two main characters through the eyes of each other and this is what I do in my stories. My first story is the best example for this. I'm totally uncreative when it comes to some logical action and I'm all admiration for writers like Sheila Harper for example, who are able to develop a complete strong A-plot *and* have wonderful Waffs! Sigh...

Most recent story posted? Where?
My first two stories ,The other Lois" and ,Partners, friends and..." are about Alt-Clark finding his Lois. These are also the only stories I have translated so far and they are both posted at the Fanfiction Archive. I actually rewrote these two stories in the German version (I finally found someone who helped me to improve my poor A-Plot) and put them together as one big story ,Der andere Weg zum Glueck" (An alternate way to happiness), but I don't know if I ever get to do this with the English versions, too.

My third story ,Welcome back, Lane and Kent" is about Lois and Clark getting tough competition at the Daily Planet in form of a new reporter-team. Those two new reporters manage to get a scoop over Lois and Clark and I guess you can easily imagine what this does to ,Mad dog Lane". Time for more action and less ,amore" for the happy couple. This story is my unloved puppy, even if people continue to tell me that it is good. It has too much A-Plot for my taste and I was temporarily bored writing it which is probably a very bad sign. BTW, I stole the A-Plot from a political scandal of the 80s over here in Germany, not that you think I did it on my own <g>.

My fourth story ,Dringende Familienangelegenheiten" (Urgent family matters) is a continuation of the fourth season. I tried to be as truly as I could to the ideas Tim Minear told the FOLCS on #Loiscla after ,Family hour" was aired. So I have the little boy JJ experience an accelerated childhood for example. He gets one year older every day of his visit to Lois&Clark. I really love that story and I still hope that I'm getting to translate it one day. The problem is It's very, very long and that means a lot of work.

You can find all the German stories at the German Fanfiction Archive http//tv.freepage.de/lncfanfic/index.htm

My fifth story is for a fanzine project and I can't tell so much about that one. It's one of my favorites though and it was written in English <g>. The most interesting thing about this story is, that it was written in two days (an almost frightening experience).

Favorite story you have written? Why?
My favorite story is my fourth one. I love it, because while writing it I found so many answers. Answers both for my view of Lois&Clark and also for my personal life. I had nothing to start with but an excerpt I found of what Tim Minnear told on IRC and my wish to find some kind of satisfying closure for the show. So I just let my thoughts flow from there and surprisingly once they started, they didn't stop until I had a story that I still like to read myself.

Current project/projects?
I just finished a first rough draft of a new story and I wrote it in English. It's about the love story of Lois and Clark watched through Jimmy's eyes. It's called ,Gossip has it that..." and I hope to post it one fine day in the future. I'm also involved in some German email round robins and I hope I'll find a good premise for a new story real soon. Time without writing is wasted time <g>.

Personal picks of other Fanfics you have read?
This is tough, because there are so many!

I love ,A consumation revelation" from The Gorn, mostly for her handling of language. Maybe it is because I'm a musician, but my approach to English and actually to language in general is very much about sound. I read many stories aloud to ,listen" to their unique sound for example and it's also a great help for me to write in English if I read my own sentences aloud. Gorn's stories are like a good symphony to me. Every word seems to be ,destined" to be at exact the place she put it.

I also love everything written by Zoomway. I love her humor and they don't call her the ,queen of double meaning" for nothing, but the most fascinating thing about her writing is for me that nobody else seems to know the characters as well as Zoom. She can write about Ellen, Dr. Klein, Bobby Bigmouth, Mayson, Dan... name one, Zoomway has them all always ,in Character". That's totally amazing. I especially love her ,Clark". When she writes something about Clark or sees something through Clark's eyes I could yell out ,I agree!" to every sentence... (and she would probably smack me with Dean's snorkel if I did <g>). I love all her stories, but if I had to pick one of her stories to be my favorite, I would chose ,Always something there to remind me."

There are numerous others. I did mention Sheila Harper before, she's my ,A-plot-idol" <g>. My favorite Story of her is ,A shot in the dark". I also love Demi's ,Heaven's prisoners" a lot and Chris Mulder's ,Meet me in Kansas City." Other favorite stories are Kathy Brown's ,Camping with Clark" for her waffy view of marriage, Crystal Wimmer's ,Full circle" for a very exciting look in the future, Debby Stark's ,Swap Meets Metropolis" because of the totally fascinating plot and most recently Labrat's ,Sugar and spice", because it's an ,inbetweeny" I always wanted to read. And last but not least A week is not a good week without one of Julie Mack's vignettes <g>.

General Interview Questions

What attracted you to writing Fanfic and what about it do you enjoy?
Before L&C I have never been a fan of anything. Sure I watched TV here and there and there have always been shows or movies that I liked more and others that I liked less. But I never had a ,must see" TV show before and maybe that was why fandom hit me so very hard. <g>.

The more I watched the series the more I started daydreaming about the characters. I made plans for them, I recapitulated old episodes and thought about ,What if's" and ,Inbetweenies" even before I knew what that was. I enjoyed my weekly discussions with my pen-pals about the episodes and finally I came to write down one of my daydreams.

What do I enjoy about writing fanfiction?
I guess a big part is about filling gaps and answering questions the series left unanswered. There are so many points in that unique love story of Lois&Clark that the series didn't tell us or couldn't tell us and here I am to find out what happened. I also enjoy playing with the language and the wonderful feeling you get, when you write a scene and suddenly it ,lives". You can *see* Lois and Clark, you can *hear* them talking, you can *feel* their emotions. It doesn't happen with every scene, it doesn't even happen in every story, but when it does, you want more! <g>

What about the L&C and the characters do you like the most?
What attracts me most in L&C is certainly the love story between the two main characters. I'm one of those people who love the soulmates-idea and the special ,bond" that Lois and Clark share. I also love the view of marriage that the series showed. Maybe the love story is too good to be true, but I never had a problem with the show being unrealistic. I loved it that I could believe in this unique romance of a very special man and a remarkable woman. One of the great things of the show was, that it was a show about a relationship and yet it was able to avoid most of the usual fight- jealousy- divorce- infidelity- stuff that is generally thought to make a love story interesting for an audience. The happier Lois and Clark got, the more I loved the show. For example did I like first and second season, but I really started to *love* the show with Lois and Clark falling in love with each other and so third and fourth season are my favorite parts of the show.

There're many other things I like in Lois&Clark. The humor, for example, some of the villains and even the sad parts. I guess a lot of credit has to go to Teri and Dean's acting. Their chemistry didn't only make sparkles fly in the love scenes, but it made me laugh and cry numerous times.

How do you interpret them in your work?
I must admit, the center of my L&C universe is Clark. I write about his view of the world, his love, his sorrows, his life, his fears and his joys. And since Lois happens to be the center of *his* universe, her view takes a good part in my stories, too. But when I write from Lois's perspective it is mostly about Clark. She sees him through her eyes, or she reflects about her feelings for him.

I guess Clark's point of view is more inspiring for me, because he is so much closer than Lois and doesn't wear his soul on his tongue as much as Lois does. Teri had much more opportunities to show different sides of Lois's personality during the show than Dean had for Clark. For example, It was obvious how much the love to Clark changed Lois's character, how more open she got and how more vulnerable. With Clark the development was less notable and I find myself looking for it again and again <g>.

But it is also, because for me Clark is the image of a perfect man. He's intelligent, gentle, caring, honest, strong, sensitive, vulnerable, handsome, he has everything you could wish for. But what I love most about Clark is that he is so perfect and still he needs Lois to live. She is his one and only chance to ,fit in" and even if she drives him crazy most of the time, he could never live without her. I guess everybody secretly dreams to be that special to another person, as Lois is to Clark and I love writing about him realizing it.

I always try to stay as near to the show as I can when I interpret the Characters, but of course it is hard to judge myself if I manage to fulfill these noble intentions. Imagining Teri and Dean saying the words I write does help me. If I can really see them or hear them in my head, I know I'm on the right way.

How did you begin writing in general?
The only thing I wrote before Fanfiction was a ,book" when I was eight or nine years old. It was about a bird-family living in a tree-village with all the other birds <g>. Nothing else then until I couldn't live with poor Alt-Clark never finding his Lois.

What are you working on now and where do you see it going?
I must admit that the story I have just finished actually didn't ,flow" really good <g>. Nevertheless it was a new challenge to finish it despite my writer's block and I'm curious to find out how the end-product will be. I still think that the basic idea, Jimmy reflecting about Lois and Clark, is interesting, but the problem I have with the story is, that too many parts of it are so well known. I guess you'll find (or find not) my solution in the archive someday and then you can judge for yourself.

I'm also working on a few email round robins with some of the German fanfiction writers. I don't know if anyone of these will ever get posted.

And as to a new story I'm waiting for my muse to kiss me right now, but I'm sure it won't take long.

What is your opinion about the following types of L&C fanfic's?
Action?
Authors who are able to write good action stories put me in awe, but I don't prefer these stories as a reader if the action isn't mixed with some good Waffs.

Drama?
Drama is great as long as the relationship of Lois and Clark is a topic and as long as it has a happy ending. I absolutely love dramas like ,Heaven's Prisoners" for example, but I can't read deathfics or stories that leave Lois and Clark apart. One of the things I love about L&C is that Lois and Clark are only perfect when they are *together* so taking this part away ruins the story for me.

Humor?
I *love* humorous stories and I adore every writer who is able to make me laugh <g>. Humor was one great part of the show and I'm happy to find a lot of it in so many stories.

Round Robin?
When I started IRCing I was amazed to find out about Round Robins. It was coincidental that my access to IRC was around the time that #L&Cfanfic was built. So I was able to watch the development of the IRC Round robins from the beginning and I was also innocent enough to just try it. Had I known how great writers the people on the channel were, I guess I would have been too shy to jump in. As things are, I'm very happy I didn't know it <g>.

I like the process of writing in a group, if it is a life round robin on IRC or an email round robin. It's always exciting to wait for my next setup and also to see where the following writer will lead the story from you. Writing English round robins as a non native speaker is one of the most exciting and most challenging experiences I know. It is also one of the most terrifying experiences though <g> and I don't do it too often.

Since I'm not the only German FOLC with a hang to writing Fanfiction, we created our own German writing channel almost a year ago and we do Round Robins every week. We have very much fun and actually this experience helped me a lot for the English round robins, too. I learned not to panic to much, I learned to adjust to a time limit and to find my ,rhythm" in a round robin. It's much easier now and I can enjoy it even more J.

Nfic?
I like to read nfic, but I don't write it. At least not for the ,public eye" <g>. I made one little attempt in nfic so far and quickly decided that it isn't my thing. I also found out that creating this special ,sizzle" is actually much more difficult than I thought and I admire those who are able to do it. I also found out that a bad written nfic is unreadable. You can read a bad written PG fanfiction story and only cringe here and there, but a bad written nfic IMO is just awful.

Has *everything* been done in your opinion, and if not, what is left?
I know it has been said before, but everything will never be done. Lois&Clark has a magical way to speak to peoples fantasy and to bring out their creativity. To say it with L&C ,They're no old stories, just new angles." I think that sums it up for me <g>.

What do you think makes the best story?
A combination of a strong A-Plot, a waffy B-Plot, great writing skills of the author and a final new realization for our favorite couple about their relationship and it's future.

Where is the best place for a reader to locate your work?
The Lois and Clark Fanfiction Archive http//lcfanfic.actwd.com
The German Fanfiction Archive ,Lois und Clark Superstories"
http//tv.freepage.de/lncfanfic/index.htm

AKA CKgroupie on IRC
NKWolke@t-online.de