Rowan

First, thank you for the site redesign! Didja have fun?

Well, just show me someone who _wouldn't_ have fun throwing around this much pink. *g*

I love the idea behind 'The Stranger's Portrait', and the fact that it is a complete stand-alone, referencing nothing in the Buffyverse. What was the inspiration for the Artist?

There are a lot of people who earn their living exactly as the Artist does and I'm fascinated whenever I see them at work. There's a certain intimacy to drawing - we tend to see photos, rightly or wrongly, as dispassationate, whereas a hand-drawn portrait is much more obviously a personal, subjective perspective. But there's also a distance between the artist and the subject - I think you would probably wonder and speculate about every one of your customers, and what their face reveals about their personality and history, while at the same time being aware that you'll never know the full story. Probably not even a part of it.

That's how I wrote the Artist in the story, but he was actually a character that grew up out of the needs of the story, rather than the other way around. I've a great deal of affection for him but the exact way in which he came to be is a little nebulous. The story began as just some random wonderings about the implications of being a vampire and having no reflection. You'd be curious about it, surely, and eventually you might even forget what your own face looked like. Since I'm a Spike fan, I instinctively put him into this scenario, and the story just progressed from there.

Spike has always seemed to revel in being evil. He's the "Big Bad", the ultimate evil, the once and future master, if given time. Yet your story hints at a deeply-hidden anger and frustration underlying that pride. Were there any particular scenes or instances that spurred this interpretation?

I don't really see Spike as being the ultimate evil, or wanting to be the ultimate evil. I think one of the defining Spike quotes is "from now on we'll have a lot more fun and a lot less ritual around here." That's been his attitude all along - he's not interested in world destruction, he just wants to have a good time, a specific example of which would be his "Happy Meals on legs" speech to Buffy in Becoming II. The image he tries to build up is definitely that of the "Big Bad" but his actions speak louder than words. Spike is a character that, despite appearances, has many points of vulnerability. Fundamentally he's dependent on two factors - the need to feel wanted, and the need to feel powerful, usually through violence. Take those away and you get Season 4 Spike, i.e. suicidal.

Then we move to 'Wolfself', which next to your Faith story, is my favorite. You wrote it a while ago; looking back, would you change anything? Do you think this interpretation of Oz still holds with recent events (recent being up through Season 4)?

I've gone through stages of wanting to rewrite "Wolfself" completely because it's so bare (which I guess is sort of an advantage too) and more importantly because I'm not completely sure if its internally logical. But at the moment I like it, so there's not much I want to change. Perhaps I'd draw the distinction (or lack of) between Oz-Oz and wolf-Oz a bit more clearly.

I see the Veruca storyline in season 4 as working both for and against the darker interpretation of Oz. For, because it undermines his claims that he has no control over what he does as a werewolf, and therefore blurs the line between 'good' human Oz and 'bad' werewolf Oz. Against, because his anguish at leaving Willow seemed pretty genuine. I think that the Oz in "Wolfself" would've dumped Willow for Veruca in a heartbeat.

Oz as psychopath. Just have to say I like it, and it was done well. Yet, not the most common characterization. Why did you do it?

At the time that I wrote it, I had never read anything that could properly be called dark Oz fic - he was always written as the perfect boyfriend, or the quiet hero, or just not written at all. ("The gang got to work, Oz and Willow researched in the library while Xander sharpened stakes.") That was very frustrating because Oz is so much more than those things - of all the characters I would consider Oz to be one of the most opaque, and whose motives and thoughts are often the most obscure and complex. So "Wolfself" was a bit of a backlash against the one-dimensionality of the Oz I was seeing in fanfic at the time. (Thankfully, there's a lot more Oz fic around now, much of it dark and/or slashy.)

At the same time, exploring the darker side of Oz is sort of logical when you consider that a large part of BTVS is about the dichotomy between appearance and reality. That cute little blonde teenager is the Chosen One, the tweedy Watcher used to be a punkish Ripper, the big bad vampire has a soul. So why shouldn't quiet, thoughtful Oz be a sociopathic psycho-killer in his spare time?

'Darkside, Lightside' - the coming together of two enemies, coming together. (Snicker - I just had to, I'll take that out. Hee.)

No, let it stay! More punning can only be for the good. Right?

You did a great job of staying true to the essential natures of Buffy and Spike, letting them love and be loved one day a week while trying to kill the hell out of each other for the other six. The vignette style of the piece is very effective; it gives it a "slices of life" feel. Was that done consciously, or did the piece just write itself that way?

Writing it was an unconcious thing - I wrote the first draft in an extended creative burst and that's what came out. But during the revision/re-write stage, it seemed fairly clear that this was the right way to do it. The contrast between the two 'worlds', of Spike and Buffy being simultaneously lovers and enemies, was much clearer in the vignette style. Because really the whole story is about dichotomies and opposites, and the symbiosis inherent in the existence of any two opposing forces. (Sigh, I wish I had this many big words when I was actually writing the damn thing.)

Characterization. Point of view. Mood. All tools in the writer's toolbox. What do you find to be the hardest to capture?

Well... it depends. (That's not the kind of answer you wanted, was it?) Characterisation and point of view sort of go hand in hand, because I find it easy to get into the headspace of certain characters, and near-impossible with others (hello Dru, Xander, Giles, Tara, and the list just goes on and on...) But I'll go with 'mood' as the hardest, because at least I can usually tell when my characterisations are totally off the mark. Mood is much more hard to gauge.

What do you like to see in fanfiction? What sets your teeth on edge?

I look for fiction that has something insightful to say about what makes the characters tick, or tells the story in a style that makes me sit up and listen. My pet fanfiction hate is character bashing, because inevitably the character being bashed comes off as being a complete bitch/bastard without any redeeming qualities whatsoever. Conversely, Mary Sues, Willow Sues and Buffy Sues are no fun either. I mean, let's give Joss Whedon some credit - it's extremely rare to find a BTVS/A:TS character that lacks depth, even in the minor leagues.

So, Rowan, what's in your CD player now? Limp Bizkit? 'N Sync? What are you reading these days?

Limp Bizkit? Definitely not. And 'NSync? Well, they're better than the Backstreet Boys, but that's not saying much, really... At this moment, I'm listening to the radio. But the CDs sitting next to the stereo and waiting their turn are Augie March's "Sunset Studies", Placebo's "Black Market Music" and Primal Scream's "XTRMNTR". In the book department, I've just finished Michael Ondaatje's "The English Patient" for the second time, and was floored all over again by his brilliance. Now I'm trying to get through Susan Sontag's "On Photography" but she's being terribly post-modern and every five minutes I put it down in favour of childhood classics, like Susan Coolidge's "What Katy Did".

Standard question: fave characters, authors, stories?

My favourite character by a long way used to be Spike (duh), but since he got the chip in his head he's become a little too fluffy for my taste. Oz has always been a favourite, as have Willow and Buffy. More recently I've become fascinated by Faith, for being dark and deep and twisted and cool.

At the top of any list of writers I adore are Kyuuketsuki Ouji Spike, who makes it look so deceptively easy, and Kita/Donna, who is just amazing in every way. Also among my favourites are Sandycat, Insomnitic, Puca, _-SuN-_, Annie Sewell-Jennings, Zero, Jessica Walker and Kismet. Last but not least is that small and overlooked section of Willow/Spike writers, who write dark, serious and most importantly _excellent_ fiction. Kudos to Bluebell, Melpomene, Lanie, Kathryn, Jonquil and others that swim against the tide of fluff.

Favourite stories? Way too many to name, but I'd recommend 'Chemical Burn' by Kyuuketsuki Ouji Spike, 'Komodo' by Kita, and 'Murder the Moon' by Sandycat to anyone.

Some writers need absolute silence to create. Some can scribble merrily away on a subway, taxi, or at work. What's your scenario?

I have to be at a computer; this holds true for pretty much any time I have to prepare something. At school I used to get in trouble for scribbling out whole paragraphs and switching sentences around - I'd hand in papers that were more ink blot than actual writing. So I'm thankful that I live in the age of the word processor.

The ideas come at random (on the train, in the shower, during lectures, often when I'm trying to go to sleep) but I invariably end up writing the stories in the window of time between 10 pm and 3 am, with the stereo on and something downloading on Napster. Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds, Smashing Pumpkins, Jeff Buckley and Portishead tend to be the best background music. It also helps when I've got essays due or the examination period is closing in - being a born procrastinator, nothing encourages my muse more than the knowledge that I haven't started studying yet for those four exams next week.

You can catch all of Rowan's writing at her website Winter.