Karmen Ghia: What are you working on these days?

Robin Lawrie: I have a couple of half finished "hurty" J/7 stories, one that should be finished by the time you read this. Then I plan on co-writing another J/7 with atara stein, which should be interesting as I haven't co-written anything before. I've also knocked out a couple of non-Trek f/f smut stories, one of which I'm thinking of submitting for publication. But sometimes I'll read a comment or see something on TV that sets my mind off on treksmut thoughts and two days later there's a story. Mostly unplanned.

Due to a recent computer mishap, I lost all my saved email for the last 18 months. That and some Real Life stuff has slowed down the treksmut output, and I turned to fractal art. Does good things for my creative urge, and is a different discipline than writing. I'll get back to more writing soon.

KG: What's fractal art? (I'm one of those Los Angeles savages, that's why I must ask.)

RL: Fractal art is a type of computer generated artwork. Fractals are often discussed in the same breath as Chaos Theory, Mandlebrot sets and dynamical systems in general. Think of it as truly wonderful pictures; the output of truly horrible mathematics. Here's my Fractal Gallery URL http://homepages.tig.com.au/~robinl/fractals.htm

KG: Okay, I'm sorry for the mundane questions but how long have you been in the Star Trek fan community?

RL: Crikey! . Been watching and enjoying Trek since repeats of TOS on TV. Avid TNG viewer, since it started here in Australia, and also like DS9 and Voyager. No real *fan* involvement until going to my first con about seven years ago, and joined the local "official" fanclub. Then once I got online found the 'net Trek newsgroups, lurked a little while, discovered some great treksmut, and started writing soon after. Maybe three and a half years ago?

KG: Have you stayed mainly in TOS or do you do other genres?

RL: I wrote my first TOS in Sept 97, and have written eight TOS stories now. I read some great K/S before then, and it took the "Shatner" out of Kirk for me, so that I could feel comfortable writing it. But I write across all Trek series, all pairings, all genders. Currently happy writing J/7 and Voyager, though that could change now that DS9 is back on TV here.

KG: How did you decide to start writing what was in your head? What was your motivation?

RL: I found out about alt.startrek.creative.erotica from a tag line in a post to aus.sf.star-trek. I thought "Wow! Rude stories about trek people!". It sounded like a good idea, so I went looking, found the newsgroup, found the archive, gave feedback, wrote to authors, then after five days thought, "Y'know, I could write this." It happened pretty quickly. Then all these story ideas kept popping up in my head, and I had the time and inclination to write them down. I bounced a few ideas off my RL friends here, and they seemed to like them well enough. I got some good feedback from the next couple of stories, and that made me think I wasn't doing something entirely wrong. I got a kick out of using my fave trek people in erotic ways. Also having them do stuff that the Star Trek writers might not have them do. And once I started writing there wasn't any real reason to stop. It's fun, I enjoy it.

KG: How did your first story come about? Can you recall the decision to write it or did you just wake up one day, face down on the keyboard, and there was the first 3,000 words? (This happened to me, that's why I'm asking.)

RL: Posted my first story to ASC in Aug 96. Called "NCC90210" it is very bad, a Mary Sue, and has Wesley in it. At the time, I thought it was terrific . And no, it's not on the website . This is from the intro to it :

I started to write a fairly straight story, with just a few naughty bits and Wesley being lost forever in space (yes!). Then I realized as I reread it, the only bits I really liked were the rude bits. I ended up with something low on plot but big on rude bits."

How it happened was, I sat at the computer, thought a little bit about what I wanted to happen, wrote it down, read it through, chopped half of it out, then posted it. Took about three days. Then made a pest of myself on ASC bugging everyone to tell me how great it was . What a total prat!

Now, if I get a big head about myself, I'll go back and read it for the cringe value.

KG: What writers do you feel have influenced your slash writing?

RL: Torch and her "Playboy" series. I remember rolling my eyes at P/K when I first heard about it, calling it "teen angst". Then I read torch's series and really got into it. Torch has an excellent feel for m/m sex scenes. I also got a well needed kick up the bum from torch very early on when I was thinking about quitting writing. I read some of BGM's G/B early on, and was blown away by the sheer "naughtiness" of it . Lovely hot sex, written with obvious enthusiasm and delight as Sophie played around with her favorite guys. She made it ok for me to write it hot. Ruth Gifford and her Picard and Q stories had me thinking about Picard in a whole new way. Her stories were also the first bdsm treksmuts I read, and made me want to read a whole lot more of them. Ruth's feedback to me was always appreciated and motivating, making me go "Yes!" when a story I'd written was good enough to earn some comment from her. Many excellent TOS writers got me thinking about K/S including Greywolf, Killa, Jungle Kitty, Wildcat, Judygran. Their insatiable appetite for all things TOS and willingness to help out and give an opinion is wonderful and priceless. Makes you want to write more, just to give something back.

KG: Who is your favorite character in slash to write about? Read about? And why?

RL: Because I've written so many different pairings all over Trek, I don't have one absolute favorite. Each slashy couple have their own dynamic and each writer will use them a little differently. Some stories I've written, I've had the idea for the plot first, then think about which characters would do it the best service. I wanted to write a story about fetishes, and thought "Well I could see Picard crossdressing, but what about CHAKOTAY! YES!" and went off and wrote _Persona_.

I'd read a treksmut because of who wrote it, rather than what pairing it is. After a while you know what writer will give consistent, excellent work and attention to their stories, and make it a joy to read them no matter who they're writing about.

KG: Do you have some special technique for writing slash? (For example: I listen to really loud techno music. What do you do?)

RL: Mostly I think about a story idea for a couple of days before doing any writing. Then when I have some time to myself during the day, start writing it out. No music. I write a lot at night when the house is quiet, and the kids are asleep, but some of my kinkier stories have been written while being hassled all day by my kids, pestering me for dinks, cookies, changing the video, etc. Sometimes I'll be drinking scotch at night and writing. I've written "angry", and knocked out a story while feeling very cross or down about stuff. Some of the sillier stories I've written in one go, giggling as the ideas pop out.

KG: Do you have any thoughts on the future of K/S?

RL: K/S will always be around in one way or another. New writers are discovering slash, and fanfic in general, and the old writers are still writing. When I tell people what I do, I always give K/S as the example slashy couple as they are the trek characters *everyone* is familiar with. Not everyone knows Picard, but everyone knows Kirk and Spock. Then I ask them, "So, you don't watch trek, but you know about Kirk and Spock. Why do you think that is? That you remember *those two*. What do you remember about them? Why do you think they hung out so much? Liked each other? Best friends, huh?". It's always amusing to see the light bulb go on in their heads and hear the "Ohhhhh!" as it sinks in. I've heard people who've never come across the concept of fanfic or slash, grasp the idea of K/S so quickly that their they're telling me slashy parts of TOS eps they suddenly remember, or start outlining K/S "what ifs" to me. This is how new writers start. K/S is conducive to slash writing. People will start writing it before reading all the "classic" K/S slash. There will always be fresh K/S ideas.

KG: Me, I'm just a webizen so I know nothing of the printzine community, except for a brush or two with certain members. What is with those people? Are they really as uptight, narrow minded, hyper critical/sensitive and condescending as they seem or am I really just too fucked up to see their good points?

RL: Dunno much at all about the printfen. Don't do zines. I know people who have had run ins with them, but I steer clear of conflict. I've been asked to contribute to a couple of DS9 zines, but one way to get me to NOT do something is to give me a deadline.

KG: What's your thinking on chicks with dicks and Tupper Trek? I don't find it interesting, but my tastes are more, um, graphic. (I actually have trouble figuring what's going on [sexually] in much of K/S, it's way too subtle or something for me.)

RL: I have a bit of a giggle about Tuppertrek. I don't find it offensive, and if someone was writing it seriously and really though about K/S that way, I'd just nod and say "Well that's just fine for you," and probably not give feedback on that story. I do think that some people forget that Kirk and Spock are MEN and not girly girls. As parody, I think Tuppertrek is a fine thing, and I've indulged myself there with a Chakotay/Paris story that made me giggle at least. I've probably read more Voyager slash that had "chicks with dicks" scenarios. But I do like hard and earthy blokey sex. It's one of the things about m/m that attracts me. I like to "smell sweat" when I read graphic slash .

KG: I was recently reading an article in diary form about filmmaker Roger Nygard latest project. This 'feels' partly true to me (even I'm sure there's more to K/S than this) but I'm wondering if you have any reaction to this quote from the article: "March 22, 1997, Pasadena: Today we interviewed two writers of underground, homoerotic Kirk/Spock stories at the Pasadena Convention Center. These stories are typically written by and for heterosexual women - women who want to read sexual stories about Kirk and Spock but don't want to imagine them with other women." (LAT Magazine 6/20/99)

RL: I'm not really sure what comment you're looking for here. I don't feel slash is particularly underground, probably because I could care less about who knows I write it. I don't think of myself as het nor am I defining my readers as het. More like "I write stuff that people read." And I'm sure Jungle Kitty would not agree with "don't want to imagine them with other women". Brandt would be really pissed off! .

KG: I like your story, "Doing the Business" (although the teeth thing is hard for me and for much the same reason that I've never seen "Marathon Man"), why did you decide on Chekov for that story? (Sulu strikes me as more of thug than Pavel. Even Rand in a strap on...)

RL: Firstly, glad you liked it, thank you. I posted it anonymously to start with because of the high level of violence in it. At that time, the stories I was posting were quite different in theme and tone. I didn't want someone who knew my writing and liked it, reading DtB expecting a light and happy little fanfic, then getting freaked out. I "came out" as the author early this year when writing _Boys Night Out_ and _No Relief_, after spending most of last year concentrating on "dark" stories. And yeah, the teeth were the clincher for a lot of people with that story. Trust me, it was deliberate .

As for Pavel, well... . Always, in the back of my head when watching TOS I used to grin about his accent. When I was writing this, I wondered if Kirk ever grinned about it too, and made opportunities on the bridge for him to say " enemy wessels" just to have a giggle about it behind his back. So how happy would Chekov be about that if he found out. Of course this was not in the Trek universe. In an A/U like the wet carpark stories I'm stretching and pushing things.

KG: I loved the biker touch. What made you decide on a Ducatti motorcycle and not a Harley or something else?

RL: A Ducatti has a distinctive "burble" to its engine noise. You can hear one coming a mile away. I wanted Kirk to anticipate Chekov's arrival . Chekov appreciates quality, and also is not identifiably American. He didn't have to ride a Harley.

KG: About half way through the Harley question I realized I was having an Americentric moment. Sorry. There is one thing in "Doing the Business" that puzzles me: When Chekov get up to "assault" Kirk, he takes off his Rolex (groovy detail!) wristwatch. Excuse me, but I'd like to know, is he going to fuck or fist Kirk? I'm just not clear on it.

RL: Taking the watch off hints at a fisting, and I meant it to. Not a lot of m/m fisting in slash, strangely enough when you compare it to everyday m/m smut. OK, so there was violence in that story, but the action happened off stage. The flogging was described in terms of the noise, the tying up and beating happened before the story begun, and Chekov's assault happened afterwards. And yet, I still felt that it was a hard and dark story. I suppose I hit my limit on pushing violent images on the reader, and left it all up to your own head. The same way that in a Picard Riker story _The Guilty Party_ I implied the rape scene without describing it in detail.

So for me, I guess in my head I would have had him fist Kirk then wank onto him. But I'm a mean kind of gal .

KG: Oh, I wouldn't say that. You can't be that mean; at least you acknowledge Chekov's existence. And while were on the subject: Why isn't there more Chekov slash?

RL: Dunno. He's a sweety, and I like what I've read of it.

KG: Yeah, me, too. What makes Chekov an attractive slash subject for you?

RL: I guess it gives him a chance to round out as a character and do more than be bossed about by Kirk. Plus I think he got short changed in the romance department because that was seen as Kirk's job. And working next to Sulu for so long, flying as partners, has a real hint of "Top Gun" slashiness to it .

KG: They make a nice couple, don't they? What is the motivation to write slash? One can't sell it; one can't even eat it.

RL: It's play. It's fun. You get to make the characters do what *you* want, instead of having them stick to what other people want them to do. You can use them to keep the Trek experience happening even after a series ends. So what that TOS, TNG and DS9 have finished their runs! They never finish as long as slash writers keep writing. Two, or more, big boofy blokes, going hard and getting sweaty... hey, what's not to like? Sharing that with like minded people is another part of the attraction of slash. Writing is not work. Work is work.

KG: Do you have any thoughts on the future of Slash on the Web?

RL: As long as they make TV shows with blokes in them, there will be slash on the web. A slasher might move on to another fandom, or stop writing for a bit, but there'll always be slash somewhere.

KG: You're very cool. Do you have a webpage and would you like to put the address here? Would like to put some recommended URLs, too?

RL: Yep. Robin's Rude Trek Stories has been around a while now. It's not on any webrings, but I have a few of my fave fanfic URLs on the links page. It's at http://www.home.aone.net.au/what/

I update it roughly every month with new stories I've written. Only my stories on there (plus one stray J/7 that atara wrote), but there's a hell of a lot of them, in all the trek series.

KG: And one final question - in your opinion, who's bigger? Kirk or Spock?

RL: Kirk is bigger, but Spock can stay hard longer and get hard again more quickly.

KG: Thank you, Robin.

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