Dear Readers,

Welcome each of you to the Writer's Showcase. I am glad you are here and hope you will come back week after week.

Wow! Where do I start with an introduction about someone who is a living legend in the ranks of Lois and Clark Fandom? To say she is a wonderful, creative, brilliant writer is an understatement. To say she is someone I admire and respect, also, is an understatement. But she is all of those things and much much more.

She is the source from which many rivers of information flows. If you want to know 'anything' about Superman or Lois & Clark she is the person to go to. And you would think that this kind of knowledge would make a person aloft and detached but she is the opposite. She is someone who is friendly and always willing to give a helping hand to a fellow FoLC.

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

Personal Information

Author name
Zoomway

E-mail addresses
Zoomway@aol.com (I'm sensing a trend ;)

Homepage
http://www.actwd.com/zoomway/zoom2.htm (yup a trend)

Residence
South East Texas (a swamp ;) Close enough to the border with Louisiana to smell the boudin cooking.

List affiliations:
LOISCLA (list mom) LOISCLA-GENERAL (fanfic list) and that's about all I can handle ;)

Lois and Clark or Superman Status

How long have you been watching L&C?
Never missed an episode from the pilot onward (93-97) I didn't start taping episodes to *keep* until Green Green Glow of Home. Prior to that I had the feeling Lois & Clark was going to be like Moonlighting, no true friendship would be permitted and no romance. GGGoH changed my mind. Clark had become a precious person to Lois by that episode, and it showed. Prior to Bryce Zabel's episode, it was a 'cute' show with appealing lead actors, but with GGGoH, it said "this can happen" that Lois and Clark could be friends, lovers and that Lois could be in on the *big* secret, and it would all not only work, but lift the series beyond what romantic comedy limits were at that time, but also go beyond how the Superman legend itself was defined.

I sincerely believe it was Bryce Zabel's vision of Lois and Clark (as a couple) that survived over Deborah Joy LeVine's vision in the same manner that Gene Coon's vision of the original Star Trek survived over Gene Roddenberry's. It's Zabel's version of the couple from Strange Visitor, Green, Green, Green Glow of Home and All Shook Up that is easily identified in later episodes. A quality I'd define as 'adult innocence' as opposed to 'juvenile adulthood', which I would classify many early episodes that were not Zabel's, or a class of television romantic comedy in general like Moonlighting wherein a couple speaks of sex in sneering asides, but never really seems to have adult, loving, caring relationships. The 'adult innocence' by contrast, describe two people who have to learn together to create, maintain, and function within a grownup relationship, and yet are so new to the concept and so charmed by it, that their innocence is never lost. The hundredth kiss remains as fresh as the first.

How long have you been a fan of Superman?
Since childhood. One of the few comic books I bought on those long back-seat drives cross country as a kid. ;) In those days Lois was a pretty awful character. She had two goals (neither had a thing to do with journalism. ;) Unmask Clark as being Superman (how she got the idea he was Superman, I don't know) and to trap Superman into marrying her. She also had hair-pulling fights with Lana Lang.

How long have you been writing?
My writing has always been non-fiction, the kind I've been paid for anyway. The only fanfiction I ever had a desire to write was L&C.

How long have you been writing L&C fanfic?
I started in December 93 (Counter Clark-wise), first posted a joke fanfic (X-Files meet L&C) July of 94.

What types of Fanfic have you written?
Just L&C

Most recent story posted?
Round robin"Just Another Manic Sunday" but one that's just mine .. hmm, probably "Cruise Control".

Favorite story you've written?
"Counter Clark-wise". This one was important to me and as I said, I started writing this story when Lois & Clark was in its 1rst season. I wanted to show that L&C could be in love, Lois in on the secret, and it still could be a fun and exciting show. I also wanted to have a story with no villain other than Clark's morals and his conscience. Lex is in the story only to act as catalyst. Once he launches 'fate' in the direction it takes, Lex is no longer in the story.

"Always Something There to Remind Me" is a close second as far as 'favorites' go. I wanted to do a story about the 'alternate' Clark, but I also wanted to deal with issues and sexual tension the show created between Alt. Clark and Lois.

Current project/projects?
Several ;) a Lois and Clark/Quantum Leap crossover, a "request fic" for aev (Adrienne), a story taking place 2nd season with Lois pregnant, and she has no idea how it happened, and a non-nfic nfic ;) Also a fanzine project that is an adaptation of 'Speeding Bullets', an Elseworld story from DC Comics.

What are the personal picks of other Fanfic you've read?
I'm terrible with titles .. oh boy, well, "Heaven's Prisoners" by Demi, "Montrose's Toast" and "Hand of Fate" by Phil Atcliffe, "Meet Me in Kansas City" by Chris Mulder, Jeff Brogden's stories, Jon Knutson's fanboy stories, Sheila Harper, Carry Tiger by Debby Stark, any nfic from Julie Mack or Lab Rat, stories by my round robin cohorts, just a lot of writers really

Interview Questions

What attracted you to writing Fanfic and what about it do you enjoy?
Making the characters say and do things I'd like ;) Keeping with the show's continuity and characterization as much as possible since I love the show it seems like the best way to thank the show.

What about the L&C and the characters do you like the most?
That they go the extra mile especially when they have a problem and they address the problems rather than retreat from them because their relationship is vital to both their survival. John Byrne rarely gets credit for changing the Superman myth (making Clark the real guy and Superman the disguise). That credit often wrongly is attributed to Deborah Joy LeVine, but what I do credit DJL with is taking on the project when WB approached her to do it. It might have been a completely different show had she said no and it had gone to someone else. I also love what I referred to earlier as the 'adult innocence' of the characters and the series. Long after they became lovers, they still managed to maintain that innocence. No easy feat ;)

How do you interpret them in your work?
As close to how the series and the actors interpreted the characters as I can get, again, I see it as a tribute to what they gave me, and I see it as a way of giving something back. These are the characters I fell in love with, I can't imagine interpreting them any other way.

How did you begin writing in general?
As a researcher for clients who didn't want to look things up themselves ;)

What are you working on now and where do you see it going?
A request fic for someone and that means it goes the way the requester wants. However, it seems to have turned into an 'Elseworld' in the sense that it has taken a hop from the show's established continuity, and when you change just one thing, a *lot* of things change. As a consequence, the story has gotten a *lot* longer than I originally intended ;) That's okay though, it's fun exploring how they might have branched off from a given point.

What is your opinion about the following types of L&C fanfic's?

Action?
Ideally all L&C stories should have some action even if just a Superman moment. Make it compelling, involving, or even humorous. Try to tie it into either the A (main) plot or the B (character) plot. Always make scenes count.

Drama?
As long as it doesn't get morose ;) I'm not a fan of downers, angst, or deathfic. Drama as a 'format' is what all storytelling is about. The conflict or premise leading to the characters' growth or evolution and of course resolve of the conflict.

Humor?
My favorite kind ;). Humor can have more truths and discoveries, if handled correctly, than any other form of writing.

Round Robin?
The hardest test of a writer's ability, trust me. The most rewarding in a sense because it's like improv, live theater and working with other writers you admire. It's not for everyone, but you'll never forget the experience even if you try it just once.

Nfic?
My second favorite kind and if it's humorous, even better. I have no talent for this type of writing, but I do admire those who do.

Has *everything* been done in your opinion, and if not, what is left
I can't answer that since I haven't read everything. ;) But as L&C once said "There are no old stories, just new angles" ;)

What do you think makes the best story?
An understanding of the characters, their motives, just enough plot to act as a framework,but not so much of one that it intrudes on the characters since the series itself was character-driven, plot-driven stories just don't work as well.

What kind of Superman memorability do you collect?
This is a long answer. I have hundreds of comic books, posters, drinking glasses, action figures, keychains, neckties, animated art cells, the music sheet from Trask's theme, all the Reeve movies on tape, the Fleischer cartoons, Kirk Alyn serials, George Reeves TV series, autographs of Chris, Kirk and Dean in costume as Superman, about 10 Superman statues, dolls, valentines, stickers, card collections, books, calendars, artwork and the autographs of the Superman creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, there's other stuff too that I can't even think of at the moment ;)

Open Forum For Author Comments
Fanfic is *people*. Fans who love something and feel compelled to continue it in this form of writing. Their love comes through their writing, and that's the best part ;) An attorney for 20th Century Fox confronted a fanfic writer of The X-Files and asked this person "Why don't you write something original? Something that someone else doesn't hold the copyright to?" His absolute ignorance of what "fanfic" was all about was almost laughable. It's not about 'writing' it's about 'experiencing', being part of something bigger than yourself, and there are some people who don't understand that, and never will.

Zoomway