Hello and welcome to the Immeritus Fandom Blacklight! This feature puts the Blacklight on the giants of the Harry Potter fandom. These are the people who have written the best fanfics, created superior fanart and composed the finest fanpoetry—and we're finding out more about what makes them tick. In our interviews, we ask for their views on the Harry Potter books and the fandom and learn what inspires their creativity. We're interested in their methods of working and their favourite characters. And then, we ask a few more questions!

We're very pleased to announce that this month's interviewee is the author and poet, Venivincere. Veni is 40 and lives in the wilds of the Eastern Time Zone (ie in the US). A talented and versatile writer who has crossed between fanfiction and fan poetry, her work includes sonnets, haikus, limericks, drabbles and longer works of fiction. This breadth of work intrigued us and we wanted to know more about her thoughts on writing and fan poetry, the often overlooked creative area in fandom, in particular.

I: Which (real-life) authors and/or artists do you most admire?
V: I've got a rather eclectic bunch whose stories and words stick in my mind and make me read them again and again. Not necessarily because they're literary geniuses, but because they've told stories I can't get out of my head. Thor Heyerdahl, JKR, Tolkein, Mark Helprin, Dickens, Donne, Neville Shute, Frost, Shelley... there are many, many more but these come to mind first.

I: Have they inspired your own style in any way?
V: Good question! When I was writing as a teenager, Tolkein shaped my vocabulary and phrasing and my ability to tell things in broad, sweeping statements instead of showing small things in detail. Thank God I grew out of that. Any more, I think my favorite writers affect me most in the ideas I carry around and the themes that lurk in the back of my stories. For instance, Frost's "Stopping by Woods on a Snow Evening" is about choice and taking the road less traveled, and that is always at the back of my characterization of Harry. The Dursleys represent those who take the most common path (and who want everyone to know they took it just as well as or better than Mrs. Next Door, thank you very much). Harry never thinks "what would the Joneses do," he follows his heart wherever it leads.

In the same way, I always think of that famous thought from Donne's Meditation VII when I characterize Severus: "No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were: any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee." Snape is a conflicted man who, despite all his troubles socializing in school still recognizes the need to belong somewhere. He is defined by his mistake, and by Dumbledore's redemption of him. In either case, he is a necessary part of the whole. No matter how awful he is to Harry in canon and in my stories, he still protects Harry because he is a part of Dumbledore's "island", where he counts for a great deal.

I: What advice would you give to novices wanting to start writing/drawing?
V: Stop wanting and just do it. If you hang yourself up because you fear you're not good enough or because you don't have enough time, you'll end up like I did, missing 20 prime years. It's OK to take four weeks to write four paragraphs that suck. It's a learning experience, and Rome wasn't built in a day. Write like crazy, find betas you trust to challenge you, and revise until the cows come home. Knock yourself out. Have fun.

I: Why did you read your first Harry Potter book?
V: I happened to be in a very long and busy checkout lane of Best Buy when I suddenly remembered I needed to get a birthday present for my niece. Right next to me on an end cap was a book display, and Harry Potter was on it. I thought it was perfect timing because I hate to shop, and finding something without having to make an extra trip (or take any extra steps) I counted a major coup. I knew she'd read the first two, so I picked up PoA, which was just out in paperback. The line was at a standstill. I leafed through PoA while I waited and found it interesting, so I reached over and grabbed SS/PS just as the line began to move forward again. The next day I was at the bookstore getting CoS and PoA for myself.

I: Which is your favourite HP book and why?
V: All the way through GoF, I would have said PoA. But after my second reading of OotP, that became my favorite, and now HBP is. Harry grows in each of the books, and I like the story of him coming into his own intellectually and emotionally.

I: What do you like most about the Harry Potter series? What do you like the least?
V: I don't think there is any one thing that I like most or least about the series. I go into reading this with the expectation that I can trust JKR to follow through on plot points and maintain verisimilitude in her characterizations book to book, and in the main, I think she does a wholly entertaining job of it. That's good enough for me; I don't sweat the adverbs or other style issues too much.

I: Who's your favourite canon character to read about and why?
V: Snape. He's the most conflicted character, and he has a past that would be worthy of his own series of books. I'd love to see this story from his point of view, knowing what he knows. Second to Snape, Harry. I just love that kid. I react to Harry in a variety of ways; kind of like Molly, because I'm a mom and have a little of that longing to give him mom-attention, but I also have a bit of hero-worship for him, too.

I: What would you most like to see in the final book?
V: Both Snape and Harry alive. I'm dreadfully afraid that Harry's finally going to learn how to appreciate Snape when Snape takes the Avada for Harry. But if she doesn't kill Snape off, I would love to see Harry forgive Snape and say thank you to him, and for Snape to apologize to Harry for being so rough on him (even if it was necessary). Also, I would love to see one last word from Sirius. I know he can't come back from the Veil, but while Harry searches for the horcruxes, I hope he falls upon a stash of Sirius' memories, or finds something that will be a lasting and comforting memento of him, something more hopeful or symbolically hopeful than the broken mirror. I'd like to see Ron and Hermione finally get together, and if it's got to be Ginny (my slashy, Snarry heart denied) then I'd like to actually see some of the action instead of it being hinted at. ("His biggest support", indeed. I want beef!).

I: What would you say to someone who referred to the HP books as childrens' books?
V: I'm toeing the party line on this one: "Have you read them?" These books can be read by children because they're straightforwardly written and the symbolism doesn't get in the way of the story. But adults can find a goldmine here. Look at their readership. Look at the number of academic papers written about the series or which use the series in support of other subjects. Adults are definitely reading them and finding lots to talk and think about.

I: How do you view the gender divide in the HP series? Do you find the female characters as engaging, well-rounded and strong as the male characters? If not, why not?
V: I would love to see them better explored, but aside from a couple chapters of the series, the entire story's been from Harry's viewpoint. Typical teenaged males don't usually explore their relationships beyond the surface, and because of that, I don't think we're ever going to get depth from any female character (or any male character who isn't very close to Harry).

That said, Hermione is a wonderful character. We can't see her shine from Harry's eyes, but there are little clues sprinkled all over the text that she's got a separate life away from the boys. I'd love to see more of it. Maybe in book VII we'll get a chapter from her point of view. That would be lovely!

I: When did you first discover the HP fandom and fanfics/fanart/poetry?
V: I was bored at work one afternoon in 2002 so I hopped on the internet to find out when the CoS movie would be released in my area. I stumbled upon an article that talked about how some fans weren't waiting for the next book to come out, that they were writing their own Harry Potter stories. It gave a little history of fanfiction, talking about Star Trek, and then they mentioned 'slash' and Kirk/Spock and said the same thing was happening in HP. People were writing about Harry and Draco as a couple!!!OMG!!11!! They gave a paragraph of text from someone's fic (It was from something forgettable on FFN), and it was a scene of Harry kissing Draco. I was electrified. I immediately Googled on the paragraph text and came up with a link to the story, and then I searched for "Harry/Draco" and found an NC-17 rated fic, and before I knew it was 5:30 PM and I was going to be late picking up my son from daycare.

I spent the next several months sleep-deprived. I discovered The Leaky Cauldron for news, and joined a ton of Yahoo groups, then a couple months in, I read my first Snarry and I was lost all over again. I found Walking the Plank, and it was my Mecca for the next few weeks of my life. I read absolutely everything there from start to finish, then went back and read my favorites again. In Feb. 2003 I wrote my first fic, “The Proof in the Argument", and in June 2003, I got an LJ and migrated most of my fan activities there.

I: How would you say your work has improved since you first started out in the fandom and how instrumental has feedback been to that?
V: Every fic I write I go back and look at the beta comments from fic I've written before, and if any of them apply to the fic I'm working on, I fix my current fic with them before I send it off to beta. I always think the last fic I wrote was the best one, because of that. Feedback hasn't helped so much with the quality of my writing but it has definitely encouraged me to continue, especially when I get in those moods where I think everything I write sucks and why am I continuing to embarrass myself this way. All feedback is good, even one or two words. There's no dearth of fic out there; if someone's taken the time to not only read my work but comment on it, that's meaningful to me.

I: Are there any topics which you think are taboo or out of bounds for the HP fandom? Are there any subjects that you personally would not address in your fanwork? Would you censor your work depending on who you thought your audience would be?
V: I don't believe in the censorship of ideas when it comes to adults. If a writer wants to address something within the context of the Harry Potter universe, then they should do so, as long as they make their best effort. I believe if you're going to tackle a subject that is difficult or foreign to you, you should do the research first. I made that mistake of incomplete research with "At The Unicorn Club". I felt bad enough about it that I ended up including a warning on the fic, and I think it's been effective -- it has nowhere near the readership of other fics I posted around the same time.

I don't think there is much I wouldn't address in my work. There's not much I haven't addressed. I've written chan, non-con, explicit homosexual sex, SM... looking back, though, I don't think I've written a lot of violence with weapons (excepting, of course, a good paddling). Without being too explicit here, I would probably shy away from writing most horror!fic unless I had a bunny that just had to be written. But I can't imagine ever finding interest in a horror bunny.

I: What genres have you worked in? Are there any genres you would avoid and if so, why?
V: As I said above, I'd avoid horror, but everything else is fair game. I've written in a smattering of genres: The Burning Desire arc, "Burning Desire”, it's sequel, and "Peer Review" are all humor. "A Lesson Learned”, "Confession" and "Caught" are drama and angst. "The Gifts We Take”, "The Gifts We Give" and "A Broom for All Seasons" are romance, "The Malfoy Manner”, which many consider to be kink!fic, "At the Unicorn Club” is pure smut and "A Well-Matched Pair” is fluff. *looks at list* I haven't written anything truly AU, say, no magic or different universe, and I haven't written any crossovers, and I haven't written anything with Mpreg.

I: Have you noticed a bias towards male slash in the HP fandom? If so, has this affected the kind of work you've produced (e.g. by making you less likely to write about/draw het or femmeslash)? What are your thoughts on the reasons for a mainly female fandom writing/depicting a lot of male slash?
V: Well -- it's sort of a "can't see the forest for the trees" issue. I never really started out reading gen, het or femmeslash, just slash -- so I haven't seen much of a trend at all. For all of the rumors that fandom is dying out, however, there seems to be more and more new people participating every day. I can't say whether this is due to a dynamic shift in interest or the vacuum-like sucking in of new fans. In any event, bias toward male slash hasn't played any causal role in my abstinence from writing gen, het or femmeslash fics. I like writing male slash because I like the dynamic, and in the HP universe, the characters who interest me most are men. I suppose I would write gen if I had a compelling bunny, but I probably would stay away from writing het or femmeslash because I don't feel I have as good a grip as I would like on the female characters.

I don't know why other women enjoy reading and writing about male/male relationships, but I like to do it because it's hot, it gives me a chance to explore relationships outside the normal assumptions, it's hot, I get to write and read about the most fascinating characters interacting in ways they don't in canon, and it's hot. Oh, and did I mention it's hot? *fans self*

I: Do you keep your fandom life separate from your 'real' life e.g. do friends and family know that you write? Why do you think so many people keep that divide - is fandom something people are ashamed of, in your opinion?
V: Only a few friends know, and my family knows some, but not all, of my involvement in fandom and what I write. My pastor knows, oddly enough, and even more oddly, perhaps, he is accepting of it. My son knows, but I don't let him read my fic (though I did read him a couple PG fics I've written). I'm not ashamed of my work, but I live in a very conservative, small community where this sort of thing would not be taken well at all. My son would suffer socially if people knew, and I won't have it. Needless to say no one at work knows. That would not be safe. I suppose if I wrote gen!fic or even het with a lesser rating, I wouldn't be so close-lipped about it. My fic often explores the sexuality of younger teenagers, however, and that is fast becoming a no-no topic in the States. I want to keep writing it, but I don't want my family to suffer for it, so it stays unmentioned.

I: Who are your favourite fanartists/authors/poets?
V: Oh, wow. This is a hard question because there are so many. I really love Soda's, Scarah's, Lizardspots', Wacca's and Glockgal's art, but I feel bad just naming them because there are so many others who I truly admire. As far as authors go, well. I can't name them all. I just can't. But a few of my many favorites are Aspen, Amanuensis, Dolores Crane, and Icarusancalion. Fandom poets are hard to come by, but I've enjoyed Underlucius' work, and Florahart does wonderful limericks.

I: What do you like best about the fandom?
V: It's infinite variety, of people and their ideas, of their fic, of their art and their feedback. Yeah, there's wank sometimes, but mostly, it's a joy to be a part of.

I: What prompted you to start creating your own fanworks?
V: Waaaaaaay back in the mists of time, there was THE Yahoo group to belong to called Veela, Inc. I don't even know if it's still there, as many of the maintainers are no longer in fandom, but that was the first Yahoo group I joined. I read fic there (along with fic in lots of other places), and after several months of reading lots and lots of dreck and a few gems, I decided to take my 20 year hiatus from writing (I'm not good enough. I don't have time) and fold it until it was all corners, and... yes, well, anyway. I decided to try my hand at the Veela, Inc. Valentine's Day 2003 challenge. I had just finished reading A.J. Hall's incomparable "Lust Over Pendle", and then directly afterward had the misfortune of reading something so awful it could have been fodder for McTabby's Summary Executions. I thought "even I could write something better than that," and before I could talk myself out of it, I'd written Draco/Neville. I posted it on Veela, Inc. and I think I got a comment or two on it, and I was hooked.

I: What preparation do you have to do to create your fanworks? How essential is it to muse on canon characters and storylines before putting forward your interpretation?
V: I have to be well-rested and have a relatively large block of free, uninterrupted time to get any appreciable amount of words on the page. I spend some time with the story idea and think about the characters, ask myself how they would react in a given situation. Often I'll stack the books near me while I write so I can refer back to canon events and make sure I get them right. If I don't have my books, I make a frantic plea for help on LJ and everyone's always wonderful and answers right away.

Depending on the theme of the story, I may or may not listen to music. When I was working on "Confession", I spent most of my time listening to Requiem for a Charred Skull by Bramwell Tovey. If I'm writing poetry, the form usually follows the subject (though I have a particular fondness for writing sonnets). This was especially true writing “My Lovers Come”, where the body of the work was the comparison between the three lovers. That one just screamed Spenserian sonnet, which is all about the interweaving of three closely related ideas.

I: How would you describe your approach to writing? Do you sit down and plot out an entire story before writing, write in stages as scenes develop, or just sit and write, for example?
V: I don't usually outline my stories in advance. Sometimes I start with a vague idea of plot, sometimes a theme, sometimes I get a few lines of dialog in my head that I build around. Mostly, I don't know where a story is going until it's finished. Occasionally, the only thing I know is the end, and I have to figure out how to get there. Drabbles are different. I usually have a relatively fully formed idea in my head for them, and it just remains to get it in under the word count (if any).

Poems are very different, though. Sometimes I start with just a word and a strong feeling, and it remains to put the feeling into words, to give it a context and character. I like working with the strict forms like sonnets because the force of rhyme and rhythm can often have a surprising effect on meaning. Sometimes, the words available can't say what you want them to, but that doesn't mean it's not perfectly valid to change what you want to say. Writing poetry is fluid like that; it's a struggle to wrestle control of the idea from the structure of it, sometimes. Oddly enough, I usually never have trouble finding the right word for the rhythms and rhymes; that part comes naturally to me. I do have difficulty limiting my language to contemporary usage and vocabulary, however. If it worked for Bill, why can't it work for me? :-)

I: Who's your favourite canon character to write about/draw and why?
V: Snape, definitely, then Harry, in that order. They both have so many angles you can take with them and so many flaws and conflicts, that it's easy to come up with a good story between them.

I: Of all your work, which is your favourite piece and why?
V: Ooh... this one is difficult. Usually it's the last thing I wrote, and that holds rule right now; my favorite fic is "Peer Review" and my favorite poem is "Ordinary Celebrants”.

I: You've written quite a lot of Snarry. What's your attraction to the pairing?
V: I got into Snarry when I was relatively new in fandom. I think part of my attraction to the pairing was the newness of the entire fandom experience, but it's remained my favorite because of the possibilities of the pairing. These two in particular have a great deal of conflict and lots of ways you could believably draw their characters. They are both so flawed that when you throw them together there will always be something interesting to say about it.

I: There has been quite a bit of debate in the fandom recently regarding chan. The question about the age line has been raised and if that should vary if one character is an adult and one younger. Regarding reader response, debate has asked about which character readers identify with, whether chan is meant to arouse, whether the genre is exploitative, whether chan writers are responsible for the reactions of readers, and how chan compares to writing about rape and murder, for example. How would you personally define chan? Do you think chan authors/artists bear any responsibility for the reactions of their readers/viewers? What do you think appeals to chan fans about the genre?
V: Whew! I'd better take these in order. :-)

I define chan the same way I do at the LJ community hp_despoiled. Chan is fanfiction and fan art portraying heterosexual or homosexual acts between a fictional adult and a fictional child under the age of consent. Others also include child-child relationships, but I think the dynamic is different enough in those kinds of relationships that stories about them should be classified differently. Chan is different from pedophilia because pedophilia is the exploitation of real children (which I find abhorrent).

Beyond clearly labeling any fic that could contain chan, I don't think authors and artists bear any responsibility for the reactions of their readers or viewers. However, I do believe they have a responsibility to do what they can to keep their work out of the hands of minors. Most kids and many teenagers are unable or have difficulty divorcing their experience of the world from a normative one. In other words, they might be able to read it and say "That didn't happen!" but they are not likely to be consciously aware that "That kind of thing doesn't normally happen."

I think people who enjoy chan come to do so for a variety of reasons. Some like it for the exploration of a young person's first sexual experience. Some like it because of its representation of the despoliation of innocence. Still others enjoy the power dynamic. Some like it because it's a safe place to explore the sexuality of younger people without exploiting them, and some just read it to get off. I am sure there are other reasons, but I like it for all three of those. In response to whether it is meant to arouse, I think that the reaction belongs solely to the reader. A writer can't write something funny and demand that you laugh at the funny part of her story. In the same way, the writer is not going to be able to dictate to the reader whether they should get aroused or not while reading chan.

I: In your fic 'A Little Death', you explore the aftermath of a chan scenario between Lucius and Draco, yet you focus quite poignantly on Lucius' guilt and shame with it. That's quite an unusual perspective as it creates some sympathy for an isolated, inadequate Lucius, and is a very brave piece of writing. 'A Lesson Learned' is more typical of the chan genre and almost the complete opposite of 'A Little Death' as it features a guiltless Snape and an aware, almost willing Harry. When the story ends the reader is left with the impression that both characters want more. What prompted you to write such contrasting scenarios? Was Lucius' reaction prompted by the fact that Draco is his son? Why did you choose to explore a pleasurable experience with Snape, the canon character who has regrets about his life choices, and a regretful one with Lucius, the canonically cold, Death Eater?
V: When I was writing "A Little Death" I wasn't thinking of the contrast between that story and "A Lesson Learned." I was more character focused. I can believe in (or at least I could believe at that time, given what we knew about canon back then) a Snape that takes advantage where he can, so it was easy to write a Snape taking what he wanted. I wrote Lucius guilty in response to a challenge. At the time, there was debate going on about the proper point of view (POV) of a chan piece. Most thought it should be with the child, though some thought that stories about the adult taking the advantage could work from their viewpoint. Then the second wave of the Harry Potter Chan Fic Challenge got underway, and I found this prompt that required guilty feelings on the part of the adult, and I jumped for it. I also saw that it went very well in tandem with another challenge prompt. I approached Yaoishonen, who chose that other prompt, and we worked together to create two related stories. In the first story, Lucius was unaccountably aroused by Draco's wiggling, and he was horrified by it. In "A Little Death," he realized that his attraction to his son was wrong but also it was the most intimate connection he had with Draco. He longed for Draco, but felt horribly guilty about it at the same time, and that conflict, his desire and shame, made him quite a sympathetic character.

We always want to know something secret about the characters we read about, something more than we already know. Snape's a miserable, sour man, and it's difficult to imagine him taking pleasure in anything, ever. So it's compelling to see him taking pleasure (and believable, at least to me, that he'd take illicit pleasure) in something. Same with Lucius. It's compelling to see just what makes that cold exterior crumble. It's like a secret we learn about them, and who can resist a secret?

I: There isn't as much poetry in the fandom as one might think. What do you think about the fandom reaction to poetry in general, since you write both fic and poetry, and why do you think there is so little poetry in the HP fandom?
V: Hmm. Actually, I'd venture to guess that there is about the same percentage of interest in poetry in fandom as there is in the general reading community. That is to say, not much. There isn't anything in particular about the text that lends itself more to a poetic response than any other type, so it makes sense there isn't much of it around. I'm not bothered by it, though I do wish there were more of an interest. The few comms I've seen devoted to fan poetry haven't lasted very long, sadly. Nevertheless, I will continue writing fan poetry despite the fact that there is little interest, because I enjoy it and it hones my skills.

I: You've written both English and Spenserian sonnets. Which do you find more challenging and why do you think so many poets shy away from the Spenserian form?
V: I do think Spenserian sonnets are more difficult to write. First because the form requires a comparison between three similar things, and also because the rhyme structure is more lyrical than an English sonnet, to my ear. I'd venture to guess that most people stay away from it because their subject doesn't lend itself to the form.

I:  Finally, many poets find the image focused haiku form difficult, yet you make it seem effortless. With so many haikus in your collection, what do you find so attractive about the form?
V: It's short. I like short. I'm ADD so any time I can hold a complete thought in my head at one time, I'm full of glee. Haiku is short enough to make it easy. Limericks are about as long as I can focus on at once, so haikus are well within my comfort zone. That said, here's one for you about my interview experience:

When asked for my thoughts,
I flushed with lion-like pride.
I answered blushing.

Thank you for the opportunity to share with your readers!

That concludes this month's interview! We hope you've enjoyed it as much as we did! If we piqued your interest, you can find Venivincere's fanfic and fan poetry works here. Please pay attention to warnings and ratings as both contain adult content. If you want to comment on the interview please follow this link.