This is a public service announcement ... with DVDs!

[rivkat]

From ter369 -- Deep Discount DVD, whose prices generally beat Amazon's unless Amazon is having a sale, has dropped its prices 20% more if you enter "SUPERSALE" as the promotional code at checkout. And there's never any shipping charge. I bought many DVDs as a result.

Bonus meme: If there is any question you would like to ask me about any one of my fics, then go ahead! What I meant by a particular line, why I chose that characterization, what I was listening to as I wrote, what crack I was taking and where you can get some...anything. Anything you might like to know about how I wrote a fic, I shall do my best to answer.

Comments

[norabombay.livejournal.com]

I want to thank you. I just spent $108 on DVD's there. Bramwell, Bill Hicks and more are mine.

You are my new best friend :)

[juno.livejournal.com]

Ooo - good. Happy to see this meme.

Ok so in 'Skin Deep' (which I reread today *again* cause I love it so) do you think that Lex is sleeping with Kal because she is hot, reminds him of Clark or both? Lex is so difficult to read here - he seems to enjoy Kal all right but there are few hints of an emotional attachment.

Do you see Lex in this story as being able at some point to fall in love with Kal if Clark had never changed back? Would Clark have told him the truth if he had not changed back?

[runpunkrun]

Oh, yay. I just saved ten dollars on the S3 SV DVDs. Procrastination DOES pay. Thank you.

Now, I will ask you a question. Hey. I'm going to ask two questions. Tellingly, they both involve sex.

Whenever I reread "Skin Deep," I always expect a longer, more detailed sex scene after Clark's happily a boy again, yet I never get one. Why did you choose to treat that as just one more sexual encounter in an established relationship rather than another first time for Clark and Lex?

This is more morbid curiosity than anything, but in "Switch," what's up with so much of the sex being interrupted by parental units? It's like they couldn't take off their pants without Lionel or Jonathan walking in on them. Poor kids.

[fromward.livejournal.com]

Oh, thanks! *bookmarks*

I've been wanting to ask you this. *g*

[astrea9562.livejournal.com]

How did the story for Rainbow Sign come about? It had some fun cliches played with and, at the same time, had some of the most beautiful imagery I've ever read. I adore that story to bits.

*hugs*

[rivkat.livejournal.com]

Well, of course she's hot and reminds him of Clark -- the latter virtually guarantees the former, right? I wanted Lex to be hard to read because, let's face it, Clark's not exactly the shiniest apple on the tree when it comes to understanding human motivations. Also, through much of the story I was unsure which way Lex was going to go at the end. As long as Clark was still lying to Lex, Lex wasn't going to commit. He didn't want to be any more emotionally involved than he already was. He loved Clark, and as long as Clark wasn't admitting anything to him, sleeping with Kal was his diet-soda version of connecting to Clark.

If Clark had stayed female and told Lex everything, Lex would have loved him just as much. If Clark had stayed female and tried to build a new life with Lex without telling him who he really was, Lex would have gotten homicidal -- xenocidal, really. It would have been the final betrayal. So, would Clark have told Lex? Sadly, I'm not sure my favorite Big Dumb Alien would have figured out that he needed to do that without the shock that changing back to male provided. Clark is all about hope, but sometimes hope alone is inappropriate without corrective action.

[rivkat.livejournal.com]

Skin Deep: As I discussed above in this thread, I kept Lex mysterious more or less deliberately. In the first draft of the story, Lex rejected Clark after Clark switched back, mostly because of the lies (but a little bit because Lex didn't want to deal with being outed, though I don't think he said that in the story). But my dauntless beta reader mecurtin pointed out that I hadn't set that up properly; Lex should have been more passive-aggressive about Kal's secrets throughout the story for that ending to work, instead of acting like he was happy to take whatever Kal was giving. I saved the scene, because I think it's pretty powerful, but Mary Ellen was right that it didn't work for the story I wrote.

Anyway, part of the reason the sex scene is short is because it's pinch-hitting for that older ending. (Not an elegant reason, but at least an honest one.) The rest is that they both separately knew who Kal was, so it really wasn't the first time for either of them, and unlike Lenore's wonderful "That Old Schizophrenic Jealousy," I wasn't focusing on the difference between what Clark & Kal could do for Lex. Arguably Clark would be more interested in what sex was like as a guy than he appears, but both of them have just been through the emotional wringer and I was looking for affirmation of the connection rather than something more extensive.

But maybe I should write a coda in which Lex instructs Clark in the joys of hot man on man action.

Switch: That's easy -- it's farce, and parental interruption is great comedy material. Anyway, it's not all the time: (1) Lex blows Clark, and just after, Lionel walks in; (2) Lex blows Clark in the bathroom and nobody walks in; (3) Clark blows Lex when they're alone in the mansion; (4) frottage in the underground lab, again uninterrupted; and (5) the only true interruption, Jonathan coming down into the underground lab. You could argue that (1) also counts as an interruption because Lex doesn't get to get off, which he might have if the encounter had continued, but I actually don't think he would have because Clark would have started to freak out. But he would have wanted to, so maybe we should count that as interruption mid-sex rather than immediately post-sex.

I am embarrassed that I could produce that list off the top of my head.

And, wouldn't that be "prurient" curiousity, not "morbid" curiousity?

Re: I've been wanting to ask you this. *g*

[rivkat.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Unfortunately, you've asked about one of the great mysteries, one that I'm sure misterrivkat would love the answer to as well. I can't answer the whole question, but I can maybe provide context.

Let's see -- I wanted to write something happy; it was actually my second Smallville story ever, and I wanted a contrast to The Presence of Fire. I wanted them to have fun.

I also wanted to use "Alexander the Fabulous" somewhere, because it's such a great epithet. The house with the roommates is based on an actual house in New Haven, though the roommates I knew were four guys. I have fond memories of cooking in that kitchen and watching the final episode of Star Trek: TNG in that living room, so that's the place I saw as the setting. I wanted Lex to be protective but still blind to what Clark felt for him, and the "pretend we're dating" cliche seemed to be a good way to play that out. Lex sacrificing himself for Clark is my bulletproof kink, so I was writing Lex as someone who'd do so.

The rainbow stuff came out at the end of the writing process; the Jewish prayer Rachel says is one of my favorite prayers, and "No more water, the fire next time" is such a powerfully evocative phrase. The rainbow let me work in the idea of a covenant, and "the fire next time" let me keep a sense of fragility about the relationship -- this is a world in which the Rift could still happen, a world in which Clark can say that he doesn't want to hurt Lex and Lex can think "too late," and hate himself just a little bit more for thinking that.

I don't know if that really answers your question -- I'd be happy to try again to clarify.

[vylit.livejournal.com]

What were you listening to while you wrote Genesis?

What made you decide to write Golden Rule? Was there any part you found hard to write? Did Lex seriously consider leaving Clark after he found out the truth?

Do you feel more sympathetic to characters after writing them? Does writing a character cause you to look at the character in a different way than you did before?

[lambourngb.livejournal.com]

I think "The Presence of Fire" was one of the first things I read by you. I was curious as to how it came about, and what you think of the story now, when we've had canonical lines in "Devoted" about Lex acknowledging that his dark side is creeping over him, the numerous times Clark has wielded the "you're turning into your father" ax to Lex, and the most recent line in "Bound" where Clark wants Lex to change, and Lex confesses he doesn't think he can.

What is your favorite story that you've written? What is your favorite story that was least liked by fandom (by levels of feedback, I guess)?

[rivkat.livejournal.com]

The Presence of Fire was my first posted SV story. It came about because I was in the first stages of obsession with the show, and it turns out I have a real thing for alien invasions. I didn't know that when I wrote this first story, but it's clearly part of the reason I wrote it. I wanted to experiment with the switching timelines, and I feel like it worked out okay. Someday I really need to go whole hog and write an alien invasion novel, though. I also wanted to explore how the Rift might come about in a way that both parties would have legitimate grievances. I don't agree with what Clark did, but he did have understandable reasons for doing it, and I feel that it was in character -- and I still feel that way, actually, as he's become more of a jerk.

I also think the story still works reasonably well as a story about Lex; obviously, I no longer think that it would be plausible for the two of them to get together when Clark's in college, because relations are too strained for that.

My favorite story? Ooh, a softball question! I'm going to go by fandom, because it's too hard otherwise. X-Files: with MustangSally, the third Iolokus story, the one with all the quotes from the Tempest. On my own, the Bonus Secret Story on my X-Files page, because it was my first real foray into solo comic writing (excluding my very first story ever, Dynamic Duo, which was a gag written for a challenge and doesn't count). It's ten pounds of metaphors and similes in a five-pound bag, and I had fun writing it. Especially the simile about Scully and Mulder being like sound waves.

Buffy: Serious Moonlight, because it's Egypt and mummies and there's collateral chicken damage, which is a phrase I'm not responsible for but adore. Also, a crucial plot point happens so organically that it always makes me smile: Buffy punches Spike in the nose, as she often does, not really realizing yet that's he's human, which gives him two black eyes and a swollen face, which prevents him from being recognized as William the Bloody for a few crucial days. We didn't plan that; it just wrote itself that way, and it was great.

Smallville: My comfort re-reads are Five Things that Never Happened to Lex Luthor and Switch. Five Things may be cheating, because it's five stories really, but part of what I like is that the structure medium-short-long-short-medium worked well for the stories. I like the first, in which Cassandra's visions pass to Lex, a lot for the visions; the second for the sex; the third for the elaborate alternate reality I imagined, only a fraction of which made it into the story; the fourth is my least favorite, only because its emotional punch dissipates over time; and the fifth is a shaggy dog story, but I think the punchline works well.

Favorite story least liked by fandom: Two obvious winners, the XF story Tikkun Olam, which was a lot darker than what I think people expected but I like because the plot worked on an emotional if not a logical level. But we boiled a cat on a stovetop, as part of a deliberate reference to our much more popular Iolokus series, and I think a lot of readers were turned off. Second, SV's Ceremony of Innocence. Again, I think I understand why it didn't get much response -- structurally, it's oatmeal, not much plot and some incidents like raisins every once in a while. But it is a story about a descent into darkness that happens not because of external events but because Lex chooses to interpret events in certain ways, so the sense of stasis, stuck time, slow decay -- that's what I wanted for the story.

Thanks for the opportunity to ramble!

[rivkat.livejournal.com]

Interesting questions!

When I write SV, I often listen to my Clex mix, which is a bunch of mostly depressing songs about truth and screwed-up relationships. These days, Tom McRae's "Dose Me Up (End of the World News)" and Prick's "Into My Arms" (http://www.prickmusic.com/press/satori.htm) are on pretty heavy repeat, along with Placebo's "The Bitter End."

Golden Rule: I had the idea for the first scene, with Lex waking up with amnesia, and I started writing -- it changed over the third season, obviously, because of Lex's previous memory troubles. But I actually liked the contrast between Lionel's use of memory wipes and Clark's -- Clark tried to change things comprehensively, rather than just buying himself a free pass for a particular bad act. I really wanted Clark to come off as both loving and twisted -- as Lex says in The Presence of Fire, "Because nothing says 'I love you' like involuntary brain surgery." The end was really hard to write. I couldn't figure out what Clark should say to Lex to make him stop asking questions. I still think that scene's a little stiff -- if you read Jenn's remix of the story, it's clear that the dialogue I wrote isn't quite right for Lex.

Did Lex seriously consider leaving? Good question, and one that's hard to answer. Where would he have gone? He'd let Clark so far into his life. His alternative seemed to be his father's way, and that was an awful thing to contemplate. In the end, I think Lex wanted to be the kind of person who could have walked away, but he knew going into that last conversation that he wasn't. He just wanted Clark to step into the darkness with him, which Clark did.

Sympathy: I never used to write Clark because I didn't get him and I'm here for Lex, but since I started writing Clark I think I can tell some stories that Lex's POV couldn't. I don't know if I'm more sympathetic to him -- I certainly tend to write Clark's POV as more than a little sociopathic, e.g. Golden Rule, Genesis, Clark's POV in Ruat Caelum, so maybe sympathy isn't the right word. But I do think I respect him more, because I've had to think more about his internal logic. Writing Lana hasn't given me any more sympathy for her, or more respect. In general, writing a character is useful to force me to think about that character's reasons for acting the way s/he does, so that even if I don't use the POV I use the character in a story not just as a plot device but as a person with his/her own plans, hopes and fears.

[runpunkrun]

But maybe I should write a coda in which Lex instructs Clark in the joys of hot man on man action.

Oh, it would be delicious if you did. I do understand your motives (and reasons) for the short sex scene. Clark and Lex had had a lot of sex by that time, no matter what body Clark was in, and the m/m sex was more of a reunion than a first time for them. As it stands, it reads more like an emotional coupling rather than a physical one, which actually is satisfying in its own way since all the Lex/Kal sex was presented as being driven by physical attraction without emotional desire. Which is to say, both Clark and Lex had to pretend Kal was just some girl, not Lex's best friend. At the end, they don't have to pretend anymore. But I still wouldn't say no to a sexy coda.

And, wouldn't that be "prurient" curiousity, not "morbid" curiousity?

I suppose it could go either way, depending on how depraved I'm feeling. *g*