InsaneJournal

CHAMPION INTERVIEW # 24- Amand_r!



Your Name: amand_r
Your Team: Team Dragon



1. 'Canon compliant' is a hot button topic in Harry Potter fandom (thanks to all the 'After-Book Specials' JKR is hosting). What is your definition?

Uh. I haven't really thought about it. I guess I treat canon compliant as canon compliant. I would like to include JKR's additions as canon, and I mostly do, pretty much because they don't conflict with anything I've ever thought about the canon—I imagine also that when/if her encyclopedia comes out, she'll add things that I think are questionable with what I've written. Or whatever.

To be honest, it's never bothered me. I'm much more concerned with canon characterization—for me, all the canon fact compliancy in the world can't make up for an OOC Snape, hugging kittens or eating bon bons or something, for instance.

Gosh, that wasn't very helpful.


2. Has fanfic influenced your writing? If yes, was it a particular story you can name for us?

What I read the most are stories from other fandoms, and I like to think of them when writing for a different fandom. Like, the whole Bruce Wayne/Clark Kent thing works for me in terms of Snape/Harry, although sometimes I think it should be more like Batman and Flash. In fact, for some reason I have a whole love-on for Snape/Hamlet/Batman. We could call him Snapeletman, and he could be a potions master who is very indecisive about fighting crime.

As far as impacting writing overall, I find myself more influenced by television dialogue and nonfanfiction work.


3. What element(s) about the relationship between Snape and Harry do you find most intriguing?

I like the whole "they hate each other horribly" thing to work for me (although by that definition, I guess I should like Sirius/Snape as well). I also think it's a great pairing to do the "straight man and the funny man" bit, which is a pattern that I see (and use) in other fandoms, too.


4. How would Severus Snape find your team mascot most useful?

It has many uses. You can point it in advantageous directions, and then when it finally dies or is killed, you can use the carcass for all kinds of things. Also, if it dies while you're out in a snowstorm, you can cut it open like a Taun Taun and huddle inside it for warmth. Yeah, Snape would be that guy. In fact, sometimes I imagine Snape dressed as Han Solo. Or Boba Fett. Mmmmm, Boba Snape with a jet pack. I think Tripper should do art.


5. What would you consider your greatest strength in writing?

My fanfiction can bench press 300 pounds. Unfortunately, right now it's in Senate Committee hearings because it might have lied under oath about taking HGH.

Srsly, I don't like to talk specifically about my fic. It just jinxes me.


6. Is there something your beta(s) constantly catch you doing?

I think if I type "form" instead of "from" one more time, my beta reader is going to reach through the screen and surgically remove my hands or something.


7. Have you ever collaborated/partnered with another author or artist? If yes, please describe it for us. If no, would you consider it?

I wrote a story with two other people, a big six-chaptered story that involved a wild goose chase, drug runners and zombies. I think we argued in three-way chat night after night. But the end result is still something I can read to this day, and it's funny, and it has drunks and Skittles in it, so that's a win. I also did one with jamwired that was so...oh god, it involved sex, Spam, Ecco the Dolphin, Gilligan...just thinking of it makes me laugh uncontrollably. That said, it would take an intravenous tequila drip a really good idea and a different writing format than the round robin format to get me to do it again.


8. Now that canon is complete, do you find it more freeing or less when it comes to writing or enjoying fanfic/fanart?

My favored fandom has had a closed canon for the past ten years, so the last book didn't do much for me as far as changing my writing or reading patterns. You develop a selective sense about what you can drop and what you should keep, and readers overall should get that. If they don't, well then, they have other things to read.


9. In your opinion, what kind of kink/theme does fandom need more of?

I'm not so big on the kinks, but I'd like to see more stylistic experimentation with HP fandom. tryfanstone has a snarry in particular that plays with narrator, IIRC. I'd like to see some stories that play with the idea of chronology, narrative reliability, expectation, but also forms like point of view, layout, visual representation. That kind of stuff.


10. How do you feel about participating in this year's Snarry Games?

I'm excited. I think I've worked my way though a great deal of the Snarry out there and I'd like to get a fresh batch. I also wanted to write a Snarry (with a deadline), and I thought this sounded like fun. Also, I'm enjoying bouncing things off RaeWhit over dinner. Things that are not food.




Thank you, amand_r! Stay tuned for more Champion Interviews and Opening Games Crack!Art!