Karmen Ghia: What are you working on these days?

PEJA: Aside from several stories in the Sentinel, First Wave and Farscape genres, I'm working on compiling a Fanfic Registry and several other new exciting pages for the website.

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

P: I've loved Star Trek since Kirk first appeared on the screen

KG: So, did I dream it or did you once mention that you manage 167 lists?

P: Yea, sad ain't it. The slow lists are doing much better since the membership drive and the birth of the newsletter.

KG: How did get into this line of obsession? I hope you make time to eat and sleep occasionally.

P: The kids signed me up for the internet. Thought it was something I would have very little interest in, but I stumbled on fanfic while. I was doing a search for Blake 7 and the rest is history. That was a little over a year ago.

KG: How long have you had the Wonderful World of Make Believe archive?

P: If I'm not mistaken, I have been doing the archive for about a year. Had to learn it from HTML up, but it was worth it.

KG: Any archive stories you'd like to tell?

P: Not really. The archive has basically had very little trouble. Although we did have new writer who had stolen her stories from a couple writers and changed the names. Soon as her deceit was uncovered, her work was pulled and she was banned from the archive.

Hey stuff happens.

KG: Considering the size of your archive, that's not bad. What Star Trek genre (TOS;TNG;VOY;DS9;B5) have you written the most in? Do you think that will continue or is the grass starting to look greener somewhere else? And if so, where?

P: I'm not yet writing in the Star Trek genre... but have a piece tickling at the back of my mind... Marianne's pic with Kirk on the fence is an inspiration that has to be answered.

KG: I like Marianne's work; she draws incredibly fast. What was your earliest story?

P: First one I wrote was in high school. I used to write It Takes A Thief, Man From UNCLE and yeah, now that you mention it, Star Trek back then. but then I didn't know it was fanfic.

KG: I didn't even know about fanfic until just a few years ago. But obviously I've spent most of my life under a rock. How long have you been reading slash and FanFic?

P: Since November of last year, I think.

KG: So you just dived in with both feet! I salute you; I lurked, if not skulked, for months. So, of course, the next question is how much and how long were you reading slash before the 'hey-man-I-wanna-do-this!' light went on?

P: That happened a couple months later. I was looking for a way to avoid journaling and this was fun

KG: My diary went out the window when I started to write slash. I'm just now getting back up to speed. If it's not too personal a question, what kind of journaling were you doing if you were doing a specific type? I ask because I'm curious about how people get to writing slash and/or fanfic.

P: One of the things I did when I started back in the writing world was buy and read tons of theme books. One was "The Artist's Way" can't recall the author name, but they had lessons to open your creative mind. One was to do something I came to term "Morning Pages" because the first thing you were supposed to do every morning was to write three pages of whatever came to mind. Long endless pages of drivel that I had to pull from my mind like a bad tooth. I've got about five books full of the stuff. Came to dread the morning.

Other author's swear by it. I prefer my way.

KG: I've done morning pages and didn't care for them either. (Note: morning pages are an exercise from _Artist's Way_, by Julia Cameron Mitchell.) Could you list as many as you can remember of the stories you read prior to writing your first story?

P: That would be nigh on to impossible. I read everything Blake 7 gen, then started in on the B7 slash. First one of those was a B7/Star trek X-over with Avon and Riker in the shower....a real giggle

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

P: After a long haitus, I had been writing scifi and horror for several years, but never had much inspiration to have it published. The slash/fanfic leap came about when a challenge caught my eye.

KG: Do you remember which challenge where?

P: It was a Sentinel Challenge. A story involving rubber bands, ties and a couple other things. I came up with a little something called "Behind Locked Dooks"

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

P: I'm not sure if I can say any have influenced my writing. I have a style that doesn't quite follow the norm. At least I can't see it in common with anyone else's. I read historical romances, Joanna Lyndsey is the one that comes to mind.

KG: In what ways, positive or negative, have these writers influenced you?

P: I've done a lot of research into writing, books written by authors giving tips and how to's. Those are the authors I think have done the best for me. They allow me to see the internal workings of the writing process. For a serious writer, that is the life's blood of the fiction

KG: Could you give me a couple of titles? I'm always interested in process. I've spent a lot of time there; maybe too much.

P: Titles are a blank. There is the _Artist's Way_, of course. And the Zen Book Of Writing, Writer's Digest has a series of about 13 that covers Plot, Theme, Setting....only one I didn't buy and devour was manuscript formatting. Also a series of "The Writer's Guide to....forensics, poisons, weapons..." you get the picture. Then the scifi builders series and World Builders.

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

P: I've always been especially prone to read Sentinel, even when I hadn't seen the show, I was writing it. Got all my history from the mailing lists. Now I've seen the eps that have been shown on SciFi; don't know if seeing the show has improved my stories...highly doubt it, but then I prefer to write AUs.

KG: I've read some Sentinel and critiques of it and even surfed up some photos of the Jim and Blair, just to see what the fuss was about. They're cute; I can dig it. I'd like to hear their voices someday (and the Chakotay and Paris as well) since I'm into voices. What pairings make you feel warm and cozy when you read and why? When you write them and why?

P: There are so many pairings I read because of the archive that that question would be almost impossible to answer. I love Spock and Kirk, Spock and McCoy, too, in the Star Trek fandom.

KG: What parings turn you on when you read them and why? When you write them and why?

P: I don't think it has anything to do with pairings, at least for me. I love a well written story. Especially if the characters get rough. I write a lot of BDSM or non-consensual bits. Slaveboy bits are an instant read for me.

KG: Do you have some special technique for writing slash? Something that inspires you?

P: No, I have no idea what I'm going to write when I start a story. It starts with an image or a sentence and I disengage my brain and let the words flow.

KG: I wish I could do that. I'm one of those sick and twisted writers that actually works with… an outline. There, my terrible secret is out. Have you written any K/S? Do you have any thoughts or feeling about K/S?

P: Like I said, no K/S yet, but I'm simmering on that fence.

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

P: The world of slash will go on. It's been there a long time. We are a well known secret. I believe slash or gay fiction has a place no matter what the mainstream world wants to think.

KG: Oh, the mainstream world can go to hell. I've felt this way since I realized I would never get into the dominant social group, so it can all go to hell. Do you work with a beta reader when you get a first or second draft?

P: Nope. Just write it, glance over it for spelling errors and post it

KG: What is the motivation to write slash? One can't sell it; one can't even eat it.

P: For me it does the same thing as "morning pages" to kickstart the creative flow. Only it's more fun.

KG: You're very cool. Would you like to put your website address and/or recommended URLs here?: