E. A. Smith interview

conducted by Richard Lobinske

for the fanfics The Love's Labours Trilogy, "The Tempest", and "So Long as Men Can Breathe . . ."

1. What other fanfics influenced the writing of your stories so far? Were there fanfics that you did NOT want your fanfics to resemble, for whatever reason?

This is actually a pretty tough question to answer. The psychological profile of Daria I use in my stories was built up slowly in my head over the course of years, constructed from my watching of the show, and incorporating ideas I read in fanfic and fan essays, as well as my own interpretations. As a result, a lot of fanfics influenced my own, by influencing the way I see the characters, but it's really hard for me to put my finger on particular ones.

In a larger sense, TAG's works have been a great inspiration to me. His "April Is the Cruelest Month" was one of the first fics I ever read, and the one that sucked me into fanfic, the one that showed me it could truly be something great. His continued excellence in storytelling serves as a gold standard for fanfic writers. There are many fanfic authors I love, but TAG stands head-and-shoulders above all the rest in my eyes.

As for fanfics I didn't want to copy, pretty much any fic about Daria's relationship with Trent or Tom would fall into that category. Not because I don't enjoy them - there are some that get on my nerves, but there are many I really like - but because I started writing my fics as a corrective to how Daria's relationships are often portrayed in fanfiction (more on that later).

2. Was there anything about the plot of "The Tempest" that changed as you wrote it, or were there were any major bits that didn't occur to you to write (i.e. Jake's death, the way Daria didn't cry until the funeral, that kind of thing)?

3. How much of "The Tempest" did you plan before the start?

I'm going to answer #2 and #3 together because they're pretty closely related. I always plan out my major plot points for any story from the beginning. There are authors who can start with just an opening scene or idea and go from there, but I'm not one of those authors; if I don't have a clear view of my final destination in a story, as well as the major stops I intend to hit along the way, then I tend to wander aimlessly. In the case of "The Tempest", I knew from the beginning about Rita's visit, her fights with Helen, Jake's heart attack and death, Daria's eventual epiphany about her relationship with him and how it tied in with her problems with relationships in general, and her eventual reconciliation with James at the end. These were the main points of the fic; a lot of the rest were details I filled in along the way.

At times, though, what I originally conceive of as details will expand to become major story points. Daria's evolving relationship with Quinn, for example, was something that revealed itself to me as I wrote it, as a natural result of their reactions to the situation and of Daria's own inner conflict and self-evaluation. What started out as a detail became a major theme of the story.

"The Tempest" was also partially rewritten between when I started posting and when I finished. From my first installment of the story, Kara Wild started sending me emails with very useful, detailed critiques, and when I finished writing the first draft of "The Tempest" (several days before I finished posting it), she requested the entire story, and was therefore able to comment on the resolution while I still had the opportunity to rewrite as much as I felt necessary. Her comments led to several small improvements in the fic (for example, Daria's "breakdown" at the funeral was initially more demonstrative, and Kara very rightly suggested I tune it down a bit), as well as an additional scene that had not occurred to me (Helen's nighttime talk with Amy about how she was handling Jake's death - I had gotten so wrapped up in Daria's emotional world, and Quinn's to a lesser extent, that I had let Helen fall by the wayside; when Kara noted the absence, I realized that I needed to give Helen a chance to complete, or at least progress along, her own emotional arc).

4. What changes in your series of fics do you wish you could change or correct, and how? What parts of the series are you very proud of, or work far better than you thought they would?

When I read back over my fics, the thing I usually get the biggest itch to redo is the dialogue. I have a tendency to have my characters speak in long, complex sentences that sound very poetic in my head but bear little resemblance to how real people speak (as Harrison Ford might say, "You can write this, but you can't say it.") I have managed to rein this in a good bit in my Daria fiction, because I have the series as a guide to how the characters should speak and sound, and I try to write such that, when the characters speak their lines in my head, it sounds like the show. However, I can still go overboard at times, especially when I'm writing scenes that are really engaging me emotionally, and if I went back to do a "special edition" of my fanfic, I would almost certainly rewrite a lot of that kind of dialogue.

As for specific incidents, one thing I think I could have done better is Daria's rejection of James's advances in "Love's Labours in Ruins". I still believe my reasoning about Daria's character and reactions to be sound, but I think I needed to lead up to it more. As it stands at present, her rejection feels too sudden; the reader isn't prepared for such a sharp discontinuity in her emotions. It would have been better, I think, if I had made her conflicting feelings about the situation more obvious, so that when she jerks her hand away, while the reader would probably not approve, he would at least have a better understanding of why it happened.

As for moments that I am particularly proud of, or work better than I had anticipated, the front runner there is undoubtedly the funeral scene in "The Tempest". While I was writing it, I knew (or at least really hoped) that it was quite powerful, but nothing could have prepared me for the response I got from it. People told me that they read it and wept; they thanked me for such a sensitive portrayal of the death of a loved one. There were several times I got choked up reading people's responses to that scene. I still consider that scene to be among my finest moments as a writer, and "The Tempest" to be the best thing I have ever written, in or out of fanfic. There are several other parts in my fics that I am very proud of as well (and I feel good about all of the Daria fanfic I've written; I don't feel any of them turned out as a disaster, for which I am very relieved), but that scene and that fic easily top the list for me.

Another moment in "The Tempest" that moves me is at the very end of the scene of Jake's viewing at the funeral home. Daria, Quinn, and Jane are sitting on a bench together, with Quinn resting her head on Daria's shoulder, all of them emotionally exhausted in their own way, for a moment just shutting out the world and leaning on each other. That picture always brings a lump to my throat.

Stepping outside of the post-college continuum, I am also very proud of the scene in "Seven Days" where Daria and Jane both wake up from nightmares, only to discover that their dreams might be more than just dreams. Jane's fingertips are bloody and raw, and Daria has a handprint on her arm from Samara grabbing her through the mirror. I've always thought that was the most chilling scene in the fic, and I'm delighted it turned out as well as it did.

5. How did you come up with the idea for the Love's Labours Trilogy and the particular parts thereof?

The roots of the trilogy and its sequels can be traced back to when I first started to read Daria fanfic, near the beginning of 2003 (even though I had been a fan of the series since the second season, it had not occurred to me to search for fandom online until after Is it College Yet? had aired). At the time, there wasn't a whole lot of fanfic being set in Daria's college years, and I started to think about doing a series of my own. I toyed with the idea for months, but it never went beyond the initial conceptual stage, just a general outline of the basic situation and one or two episode ideas. That series was never realized, but two elements of it survived into my later stories: the character of James McCarthy, and the idea of having an installment where Jake dies. Both were in very different forms than they would later take, however. The biggest difference in James was that he was still going to be attracted to Daria, but he was going to keep it a secret, not willing to risk their friendship by telling her. Also, originally, James was to have a religious background, not as part of any attempt of mine to evangelize, but as a way of bringing up the one big area of life that the series never really touched on ("Groped by an Angel" was more about the late-90s angel craze rather than any real spiritual belief). These aspects of the character were abandoned when I used him later.

Fast forward to the beginning of 2005. One morning as I was getting ready for school, I found myself thinking of the ways that Daria's romantic relationships had been portrayed in the fanfics I had read, and how Daria's own perspective on her past might differ from those of many fanfic authors, based on my own ideas of what made Daria tick. Suddenly, I could hear Daria's voice in my head, giving her own sardonic comments on her "present" views of Trent, Ted, and Tom. At first, I just let her talk, but it wasn't long until the basic framework of what would become "Love's Labours Lost?" was sketched out in my head. I got very little schoolwork done that day, as I wrote the story in my head; though, in reality, it felt less like I was writing it than Daria was telling it. It was as though I had been preparing to write this fic for years, building up my ideas about Daria over time and having them all pour into this one story. As soon as I got home, I pounded out the fic on my computer in one sitting, throwing all the energy I had into it. It was an exhilarating, exhausting experience.

When "Love's Labours Lost" was finished, I posted the story on fanfiction.net, and thought that was the end of it; I had made my contribution to Daria fandom and I didn't have any plans for more. While the fic had an ambiguous ending plotwise, it said what I wanted it to say, and it felt emotionally complete to me. But, to my surprise, the fic got very good reviews, and several readers called for a sequel. And when I began to think about it, I realized that this first fic opened the door to really explore a lot of the character issues I had just touched on before. "Love's Labours in Ruins" and "Love's Labours Renewed" were born out of that, as a chance to not just present Daria with a dilemma and see what her thoughts on it revealed about her character, but to actually follow through and trace an entire emotional arc that would lead to her addressing a lot of the issues the initial situation dug up. Those stories took hold of me just as strongly as LLL? did, and I tore through them in almost a frenzy, all the ideas inside of me bursting to get out. In the end, I felt I had something that worked very well as a whole (surprisingly well, since the latter two fics weren't planned as part of the original) and that took Daria to an emotional place that really allowed me to probe her character and psyche thoroughly.

6. One of the most successful things about the Love's Labours Trilogy and "The Tempest" is Daria's first person narration. It's not straight canon though, because in addition to dispensing barbs, she displays some sensitive introspection that's still harmonious with her character. Why did you choose the "first person" narrating style, and how did you develop this Daria-esque writing style? Was there other fan fiction that was helpful, did it just flow, or did you steal her diaries?

As I said in the reply for the last question, the first person writing style came to me as part and parcel of the actual story; I conceived the original fic as Daria talking in my head, and I wrote it down the same way. When I saw how well it worked for the original trilogy, I kept it on for "The Tempest". I've always enjoyed writing in first person, with its immediacy and ability to convey a strong sense of connection with the narrator. It's a style that I think lends itself well to fanfic that wants to dig deep into Daria's character, because there's so much going on in her heart and mind that doesn't come out on the surface, and first-person perspective drives right past those barriers into her innermost thoughts. But it's also incredibly draining, because it really amps up the pressure to get her thought and speech patterns down just right; if the entire story is going to be told by Daria, it had damn well better sound like Daria. If you can capture her rhythms and thought processes, it sounds great; otherwise, it seems fake, like the writer talking through her. In developing it, I tried to think like Daria would talk, which was hard because, even though we share a lot of personality traits, our speech patterns are very different. But if you watch a TV show for five years, you're bound to get some idea of how the lead character sounds, especially when she's one with as unique of a diction as Daria. But it's one of the hardest things I've ever done as a writer, and there are parts where I thought I did it well and parts that don't ring quite true to me. I can certainly understand why it's a very uncommon thing in Daria fanfiction. Like many aspects of fanfic writing, though, it's been a great learning experience for me; my writing style has benefited tremendously from writing fanfiction.

7. Why didn't you use the first person style in "So Long as Men Can Breathe"?

"So Long as Men Can Breathe" had a very different origin than the rest of my fics. It was inspired by a thread in the Deep Thoughts forum on PPMB discussing the deepest fears of the Daria characters. I suggested that one of Jane's might be the fear of being found out as a fraud, of discovering that she might not be that great of an artist after all. My mind immediately jumped at the idea of writing a fic around this possibility, and the framework of SLAMCB was born. Since it was originally meant to be a Jane-centric fic, I knew I wasn't going to use Daria's first-person perspective, because it would have been too limiting; and using Jane's perspective wouldn't have worked as well dramatically, because there were some scenes I wanted to tell from Daria's view. So from the beginning, the third-person perspective was set in my mind. As the story evolved (over the course of months - I had the original idea in February, and didn't have a complete outline until October), its focus shifted away from Jane and more towards Daria, ending up being more evenly split between the two. In the end, I probably could have written it from Daria's point of view with very little alteration, but I'm glad that I didn't. With the story so evenly split between three characters, limiting the perspective to just one person would have felt unbalanced and incomplete.

8. Did you draw any of the events in the Love's Labour Lost series from actual or autobiographical events? Some of it seems drawn from reality (oh, boy, does it ever!); how did you manage to write it without going back to places you'd rather not revisit?

The specific incidents in the trilogy aren't (too) autobiographical, but my own disastrous romantic experiences in college certainly informed them. I know from personal experience what it is like to have a friend suddenly want to become more than just friends, what it is like to have your heart broken by a disastrous first date, and what it's like to try to reassemble a friendship from the wreckage left over from such an event. While Daria and James's experience isn't a copy of my own, my memories gave me a very good idea of what both of them were thinking and feeling during the whole thing, and I did my best to interpret those feelings and actions in light of the characters. Fortunately, the memories I drew on are several years old now, and I'm able to look back on them with some objectivity, so it wasn't a too torturous experience to revisit them (though I think some of the passion that tilted "Love's Labours Renewed" slightly to the side of melodrama might put the lie to my protestations of being completely over it). Nevertheless, those memories were one of the reasons that the writing of the trilogy was such an emotionally draining experience for me.

"The Tempest", on the other hand, was a much more intellectual exercise. I had written all my fanfics up until then in a fury of creativity; "The Tempest" was largely a result of careful, unemotional craft. The story did not take hold of me; rather, I shaped it bit by bit, methodically examining every aspect to make sure that it was doing exactly what I wanted it to do both in terms of analyzing Daria's character and keeping the story moving along realistically in terms of both plot and emotion. A lot of this was because I didn't have many emotional memories to draw on; I've never lost a parent, and though I have lost other relatives, it doesn't really compare. I had to draw on my observations of the grief of others, friends and relatives I had known who had had a parent die, to get an idea of how people reacted to such a loss. In the end, even though the more cerebral approach didn't energize me the way that my more frenzied emotional method had before, I think it produced a better story.

9. There's quite a long time between "The Tempest" and "So Long as Men Can Breathe". Do you intend to go back to it, or do you not want to dwell on the aftermath of Jake's death?

I'd certainly like to go back to it, if for no other reason than to analyze the aftermath of Jake's death. While "So Long as Men Can Breathe" showed one (rather negative) effect of Jake's passing, there would certainly be many others, both on Daria and on the Morgendorffer family as a whole, and addressing those would be my first priority for any such stories. But I would also like the chance to explore more of their college experiences as well, and trace how their friendships grow through time, as well as portray Daria continuing to deal with the issues she's struggling with in the Trilogy and "The Tempest".

The gap between "The Tempest" and SLAMCB was not the result of deliberate planning, but of plot necessity; I couldn't see Jane getting that kind of opportunity until she had been in school for a couple of years, so the fic was really set as early as I could justify it to myself. Also, the core plot of SLAMCB was conceived before I wrote "The Tempest", and while it is set further along in the same continuum, it was not originally intended as a follow-up. If I do write a story intended as a direct follow-up to "The Tempest", it will definitely occur closer to it in time.

10. Has writing fan fiction changed your habits or experiences as a reader of non-fan, i.e., science fiction, fantasy, classic, etc., fiction? If so, how?

As a reader, not so much; but as a writer, it's been a huge benefit. My writing style has improved by leaps and bounds since I started writing fanfic. Much of this is due to the limitations of writing something I know is going to be posted on a message board. Since there are space constraints, I can't indulge my tendency to overdescribe every little detail, or have characters ruminate for pages on points of philosophy (like I did in earlier drafts of my novel). Also, people reading a story on a message board aren't going to be as patient with such things as people reading a novel, if for no other reason that because reading off a computer screen is a much more straining experience. So I had to learn how to keep the same affect, convey the same ideas and emotions, using a much more restrained style, which did wonders for limiting my tendency to ramble (though the people reading this interview might beg to differ). This applies to dialogue especially; Daria and Jane in particular speak in very clipped sentences and have very snappy exchanges, forcing me to really learn economy of words if I wanted to capture the feel of the series. One thing my best friend pointed out to me when he read "Seven Days" was how it was immediately obvious to him that this was the first of my works he had read where I was obviously writing for a particular audience, instead of just myself, and that it was a very good influence. Since I wanted to write a story people would like, I couldn't produce some incredibly dense and lengthy work, and think that if people didn't "get it", it was their fault not mine. I'm actually planning now to go back and rewrite my novel with these new tendencies in mind.

11. (An alternative universe where Jane is not away with her father throughout Daria's first semester at Raft but the events of the Love's Labours series have taken place. Daria is home for a weekend after the events of those stories)

Quote:

INT. JANE'S ROOM. DAY.

(Jane is lying in bed, apparently suffering from a bad cold. Daria enters)

DARIA: Hey.

JANE: (in a low croak) Yo!

DARIA: Get my emails?

JANE: (Says nothing, nods)

DARIA: Well...what do you think of the situation?

JANE: (speaking with difficultly) Come closer, amiga.

DARIA: (comes closer) Yes, Jane?

JANE: (again, somewhat softer than before) Come closer.

DARIA: (comes closer still) Yes Jane?

JANE: (almost inaudibly) Closer.

DARIA: (almost on top of her) Yes Jane?

JANE: (At the top of her lungs and in Daria's ear) What the hell is wrong with you? The guy just tries to hold your hand, and you treat him as if he's Upchuck chasing you with a rophynol dart gun! And don't say it was some sort of automatic reaction, because I remember how spontaneous you were when you got alone with Tom!

DARIA: (sarcastic) Glad to see you're better, Jane.

JANE: (In a normal tone of voice) Seriously-he sounded like a nice guy, and you treated him like toxic waste. What's your problem? Time to come clean, Morgendorffer.

DARIA: (Your answer goes here, in character)

DARIA: Jane, I'm not even sure what happened. I was nervous, and I reacted badly. The whole time I was thinking of it as a "date", I was uncomfortable at best. Then, for a while, it didn't seem like a date. We were enjoying the play the same way we would have had we just gone as friends. When he took my hand, though, all that awkwardness, that anxiety, just rushed back on me, and I acted on instinct. I pulled back, because the only thought I had at the moment was that I didn't want him touching me like that. I didn't want to hurt him, but at the time that seemed less important than getting back my protective barrier. After that, it all just rushed downhill so fast that I felt as though I was just along for the ride. It was almost like the rational part of my brain had stepped aside, and could only watch in horror as something more basic took control and wrecked everything. I didn't really want to do what I was doing, but I did it anyway. In a way, it wasn't that unlike when I kissed Tom; the rational part of my brain didn't want to be doing that either, but it lost out to something else. And both times, I ended up really hurting someone I cared about.

For a more thorough, and maybe more objective, analysis of Daria's reaction, see my reply to question #13.

12. What influenced you to try a first-person story from Daria's viewpoint? How successful do you feel this technique has been? What are its difficulties? What are its strong points?

I think I've already answered the first two questions, so I'll go on to the last two. Probably the hardest thing about writing first-person, especially from Daria's perspective, is getting her particular "sound" right. I can't write in my own voice and expect the reader to buy it as Daria. It helps that Daria has her own unique cadences and way of expressing herself, because it makes it much easier to tell if I've gotten it right or not, but it also makes mistakes that much more glaring. So this is really both a difficulty and a strength.

The strongest point of writing in first person, I think, is the focus that it gives to the story. When you are seeing only through the eyes of one character, it allows you to keep distractions to a minimum and really delve deep into that character's psyche, sometimes dispensing with plot almost completely. "Love's Labours Lost?", for example, is an almost completely plotless story, focusing completely on Daria's ruminations; this wouldn't be possible (or would at least be much harder) to pull off with a third-person narrator. Once again, though, this is a strength that is also a difficulty, in that it makes it that much harder to get inside any other character's head. When all you have is Daria's perspective, not only do you not have any idea of what Jane or Quinn or Helen are thinking (or what they are doing when Daria isn't around), but you have to get past Daria's very strong preconceptions before you can see the characters accurately. This is great for examining Daria's character, but is an obstacle to examining any other. This trade-off worked well for the trilogy and "The Tempest", but the more stories I write in this continuum and the more developed it gets, the more impractical the first-person perspective is going to get, I think.

13. Daria's recoil from James holding her hand in "Love's Labours in Ruins" was even stronger than her reaction to Ted's handmade necklace in "The New Kid". What brought about this interpretation that her experiences with Tom, Ted and Trent would result in her being even less open to male attention than in high school?

Part of the problem wasn't that she was less open to male attention in general, but that James's timing was horribly off. At the time, Daria was still recovering from her relationship with Tom, which is pretty evident if you look at her thoughts about all three guys in "Love's Labours Lost?" Her reflections on Trent and Ted are pretty balanced; she sees both the good and the bad in each relationship, and isn't torturing herself much over even the things she regrets. Her reflections on Tom, on the other hand, have none of that equanimity; they're just a mass of questions, all of which basically boil down to "What was I thinking?". At this point, she's in that stage of a breakup where you really can't remember what you saw in the person in the first place, which, in my experience, you go through even with a lot of amiable break-ups. So strike one for James was that Daria was just not ready for another relationship yet; had he waited another six months or so (because Daria is not the kind of person to heal quickly), he might have had better luck.

Strike two for James was that Daria was feeling rather pressured and uncomfortable about the idea of dating him in the first place. She had seen him as just a friend, nothing more, until he sprang this on her, putting her very much on the spot. I know from personal experience how incredibly awkward it can be when someone you thought of as just a good friend suddenly suggests taking the relationship to the "next level", and awkward social experiences (especially ones involving the opposite sex) are not something that Daria handles well. She's not especially interested in him that way, but she doesn't want to hurt his feelings, and she also wonders if accepting the date would be a way to grow emotionally, to acquire some of that gusto and willingness to take risks that she'd seen in Jane but never had herself. In the end, she goes out with James for all the wrong reasons, and as a result is so nervous the whole time that she ends up doing something she regrets.

Strike three for James was Daria's own tendency to run from problems, especially relationship problems. She dumped Ted at pretty much the first excuse she could get, the first time he let her down, and she would have done the same to Tom had he allowed her to. Daria pushes people away rather than let them hurt her; it just so happens that, in this case, the way he was hurting her was from her own guilt at hurting him. So that, after she had done the deed, she had to get away from him. (Of course, she found that it was not that easy, and to her credit, she does attempt a reconciliation.) It's this tendency that's at the heart of most of Daria's problems with all her relationships - her family, her fellow students, and her friends and boyfriends. She's learned that people will inevitably hurt you if you let them in, so it's better to build walls to keep them out. There are ways to get through those walls, to make Daria feel safe enough with you to let you in, but it's a rare person who finds them. And, ultimately, the Love's Labours Trilogy and "The Tempest" are about Daria learning she has to tear those walls down and how she begins to do so.

So, in the end, all of these factors - all of Daria's fears and neuroses - came together in just the wrong way to spur Daria's actions toward James.

14. Getting a little personal here, but the scene in "Love's Labours in Ruins" where Daria and James go to the theatre and she stamps her foot three times to summon the Furies seems very real, and almost rooted in reality. Was this scene based on real events, and if not, tell us how you felt about writing it.

I'm not sure what you're talking about in referencing the Furies, but the theater scene wasn't drawn from any specific memories of my own. I've had awkward romantic moments at plays and movies, but nothing that awful.

15. Describe James as you see him. How does he compare to other fanfic boyfriends that Daria has had?

James's character was initially shaped by the necessity that he be someone who would approach Daria in her first days at Raft and be accepted by her. Therefore, James is both intelligent and sardonic, though not quite the cynic that Daria is. He has a great passion for art and learning, and will happily indulge in long, philosophical debates with Daria. And he shares her sense of humor; he's someone she can watch Sick, Sad World with and know that he understands exactly why she enjoys it. He's also more outgoing than her, which is why they are friends in the first place (I can't think of a single incident in the series where Daria initiated any kind of relationship; anyone who is going to be her friend is going to have to make the first move). He admires Daria greatly - her mind, her artistic ability, her determination to live her life on her own terms. In all these ways, I think he makes a very good friend (and, if disaster hadn't struck, probably would have made a good boyfriend) for Daria.

On the more negative side, James is a bit socially inept; as well as he is drilled in some of the forms, he doesn't really understand all the polite niceties. Because of this, he has a tendency to speak his mind without thought of the consequences, which is why (as is hinted at in "So Long as Men Can Breathe") he and Daria have a history of conflict as well as friendship, because she has the exact same tendency. He also has a temper, one which is quick to flare up but also quick to cool down. Fortunately, even though they haven't learned how to keep from fighting, they have learned how to make up afterwards, which is what has kept their friendship alive.

16. In "So Long As Men Can Breathe", Daria says the true reason that she switched from creative writing to journalism as a major because of practical concerns after her father's death. From your point of view (which is not necessarily what Daria might say if asked the same question), what prevented her from thinking "Carpe diem!" after her father's death and brooked no compromise in terms of what she wanted to study? A way of looking at Jake is that he's a good man who's never had the chance to understand himself; it's almost as if after having had the metaphor for the frustrations of standard family and career life Jake gives under the influence of glitterberries in "The Teachings of Don Jake" illustrated in the most extreme way, Daria chose the path of the good job, suit, and debt up to her hair.

The reason Daria gave in the fic is pretty much the same as how I see it. Jake's death made Daria face up to her parents' mortality for the first time, and it scared her for several reasons. She had lived her entire life under her parents' protection, and even though they could be flakes at times, she had always known that they would be there for her if she really needed help. That certainty allowed her to follow a more risky path in school, because she knew that if she had trouble getting a job at first, her parents would help her out until she did. Daria is not a natural risk-taker - given two choices, she's almost always going to take the safer path - and it was this assurance that allowed her to pursue her own muse despite the risk. But once Jake died, she could no longer feel so certain that that safety net would always be there; if something happened to Helen, she might very well find herself completely unsupported should the worst occur. So she switched majors to one for which she did not have the great passion, but which seemed like a much surer bet. She excused this to herself by saying that it was more practical, and that she would have a much better chance at really making a difference, but the reality was that she acted out of fear. And it was only after she admitted to herself how miserable she was that she began to see what that fear was doing to her.

17. Any particular reason for the Shakespeare-influenced story titles?

When I was trying to think of a good title for my first fic, I wanted it to be something that could have appeared as an episode title, and a lot of episode titles were literary references or puns on the titles of other works. After a bit of brainstorming, I thought of Love's Labours Lost, which I felt fit very well, since the first fic was Daria's own examination of her past relationships and how she would deal with this possible new one. I put in the question mark at the end to make it Daria's questioning of whether or not all that past experience was actually going to benefit her in the present. It also appealed to me simply because I love Shakespeare, and I liked the symmetry of LLL being (according to some scholars) Shakespeare's first play, and this being my first fanfic. So I used that for the first fic, and continued with variations on the theme for the rest of the trilogy.

The early working title for "The Tempest" was simply "Christmas", but I was not very comfortable with it. It was too vague, too generic, and a bit too jolly for what I had in mind. It made sense to me that, since this was the sequel to the trilogy, I should try to tie the titles together thematically, and the most obvious way to do that was to use another Shakespeare play. It didn't take long to settle on The Tempest as the perfect Shakespearean title for that fic, considering the upheaval in Daria's life.

When I first conceived of "So Long as Men Can Breathe", I thought of it as Jane's version of "The Story of D", and so I was going to call it "The Artwork of J". But as the story evolved, its focus widened from just Jane to include Daria and James as well, examining how each of them dealt with their own artistic talents (or, in James's case, lack thereof). By that time, I knew I wanted to keep the tradition of Shakespearan titles going, and because the story dealt with questions of art and how people relate to it, I immediately thought of the sonnets, since so many of them touch on the same issue. After a bit of browsing, I fixed on Sonnet 18, feeling that it came closest to saying what I wanted. So I quoted the closing couplet in the fic, and used the first phrase of that couplet as the title.

18. How do you feel your version of Daria differs from others in fanfic?

19. What aspects of Daria's personality are most important for your stories?

Again, it makes sense to me to couple these two questions together. The aspect of Daria's personality that shapes my fics more than any other are her fears - her fear of being hurt, her fear of loneliness, and her fear of losing herself if she tries to change. All of my college-era fics deal with these issues in one way or another, both by examining how her fears hurt her, and the struggles she goes through to overcome them. I think it's this focus that makes my version of Daria, not unique (because there are other fanfic authors who have dealt with these same aspects), but at least different from the majority.

20. The Daria of the Love's Labours extended series is easily one of the most unsympathetic and unlikable representations of the character written in fanfic, (probably eclipsed only by Brother Grimace's earlier depictions), and yet, it is one of the most canonically-accurate depictions of her. Do you agree with this statement; if so, was it your intention to show her in this light, and why?

I never saw her as unsympathetic, but as human. Daria is a deeply flawed person, but it's those flaws - more than anything else - that make her a fascinating character, at least to me. And I don't think Daria is any more flawed than any of us; it's just that her flaws are a bit more evident than some of ours. I see Daria as very admirable in many ways, and she is someone I would be deeply honored to have as a friend, but I've always found the most interesting stories to be the ones that concentrate on a character's faults, the consequences of those faults, and the attempts they make to overcome them. It's her flaws that make Daria real, and examining her flaws allows us to, by extension, examine the human condition; and that's the reason behind everything that I write, fanfic and non.

For all that Daria is a comedy, Eichler created a character rife with dramatic and even tragic possibilities; by focusing on the more negative aspects of the character, I see myself as simply bringing to the fore aspects that were there already but usually covered up by the humor (which is one of Daria's strongest defenses, equally the source of one of her greatest strengths and one of her greatest flaws). I find myself sympathizing as much with Daria's faults as with her virtues, and sometimes it's hard to even separate the two. That's the Daria I try to portray in my fics: the very human Daria, struggling to overcome her own fears and neuroses like so many of us.

21. Going off the question above, the Daria of this series seems to be almost a direct opposite of the Daria in the Falling Into College series. What are your opinions on the differences and similarities of the two Darias within these series?

I'm embarrassed to admit that I have yet to read the FIC series; the sheer size of it is daunting to me. However, I have read some of Richard's other work (the Mother's Love stories and "Accidental Future", all of which I enjoyed), and I would say that the main divergence lies in how Daria deals with her neuroses. In both series, Daria has the same basic fears and issues she does in the show, but Richard's work presents a version of Daria capable of handling those neuroses in a much more mature manner; she acknowledges them, struggles with them briefly, and then overcomes them to move on to the next challenge. My Daria, on the other hand, fights for every advance against her inner demons, and has much more of a "two steps forward, one step back" history with them. In the end, I think they are both legitimate interpretations; it all depends on just how deep you think Daria's problems run.

Despite how it may appear at times, I really enjoy more positive, light-hearted presentations of Daria. While I love angst, I don't get a kick out of watching Daria suffer - I like her too much for that - but out of how she grows from the suffering (which is why, as much as I think it is a very well-written story, I could never again bring myself to read TAG's "And When Your Heart Begins to Bleed" - the Daria there does not learn from her suffering, but instead lets it turn her into something bitter and cold, and that was just too painful for me to watch). I may not return as often to stories where Daria goes on comedic or action-oriented adventures, but I enjoy them as a fun ride. And when the fun is coupled with real character exploration and development (which does happen a good bit), then they can become some of my favorite fics, to be read over and over again when I'm in need of a good laugh or a joyride with some meat to it. Both kinds of stories are equally valid and valuable, but in different ways.

22. How does your take on Daria's future differ from others in fanfic?

Ultimately, in the long-term future, I don't see it as ending that differently from most future-set fanfics. For all the angst, I see my Daria as having a happy ending. College is her crucible, her time of tempering, even more than was high school; she's going to go through agony but emerge from it a stronger, healthier person. While she will always be Daria, she will in time learn to deal with her inner demons, learn to open herself up to those around her, and gain the confidence in herself as a total person that she's always lacked. In the end, while I don't think her life will be earth-shattering - she's not going to win a Nobel Prize or write the next Ulysses - I think she will be more than satisfied with it. She'll be an accomplished, respected woman (within reason), probably with a family of her own. So while her road may be rockier than in most other fanfics, I think the final destination is going to be pretty similar.

23. Who are your favorite characters from the Star Trek universe and from Babylon 5? (Gotta have a moment to decompress after some of these questions, you know.)

When I was a teenager, I was the biggest Star Trek geek you could imagine (I'm talking about not being too far removed from changing my name to that of a ST character - well, maybe not that bad, but not that far removed from it, either), and I practically worshipped Spock. Ultimate intelligence wrapped in emotional control and logic - Spock was everything I wanted to be as a teenage boy (and having cool pointed ears would have been nice too). And I sympathized with his sense of being divided, of never being able to attain the identity he searched for. He has such a great style as well; everything he said was compelling partially just because of the way he said it. Out of all the ST characters, he probably still remains my favorite (with Garak from Deep Space Nine a close second, who is again an intelligent character with a mysterious identity, along with a dark streak that appeals to my older self).

I never watched Babylon 5, probably since it was being aired during the same years as DS9, and I resented it as a competitor to my favorite of the ST series (foolish, yes, but that's how you see things when you're younger).

24. It seems that you went out of your way to make the Daria of Love's Labours a very canonical Daria, in terms of her emotional development and reactions to social situations. Why did you choose this route for the character, and how difficult was it to write. Also, was there a point in writing these fics where you wanted to give Daria 'a break', so to speak, and allow her to have a happy moment? Why did you decide not to?

It never occurred to me to make her anything less than canonical, as far as it was in my power to do so. Unless you are, for whatever reason, writing a deliberately out-of-character fic, canonical characterization should be the first goal of any fanfic writer (to be distinguished from canonical setting, which is much less vital in my eyes). Getting her characterization correct was actually one of the easier aspects of writing these stories; not because Daria is a simple character (far from it), but because I had already spent years ruminating on her psyche and what I believed made her the person she is, building up very detailed theories over time. When it came time to actually create the story, Daria's actions and thoughts came very easily to me, since by that time I felt that I really understood her. It was much more difficult to me to capture her subtle nuances of speech and humor than it was to keep her actions in character.

I did give Daria a few breaks in the stories; they aren't times of unadulterated joy, true, but there are instances where the tension eases back a bit and she can breathe. The best example of this is in "The Tempest", during Daria and Jane's meal at the hospital. After discussing the various issues that Daria is dealing with, they shift gears into something resembling their usual banter. It's not as obvious as it could be because I stop the scene there and don't detail their lighter moments. The same thing applies to Daria and James at the play; they were enjoying it for a while, before James made his unfortunate move. I don't go into detail about these moments because, ultimately, they are not what the story is about; I wanted to keep the focus on the more angsty moments because those were the ones that advanced both the plot and the character development. That might have been a mistake, since even the heaviest of tragedies often benefit from some comic relief, and I did put a lot more effort into blending the comedy and the drama in "So Long as Men Can Breathe" (and in "Seven Days" as well).

25. Again, you seem to have gone out of your way (in this reader's opinion) of making this interpretation of Daria a believably accurate post-canon representation. Is this the case, and if so, tell us how you also followed through on this with the other characters. Jane, for example, seems especially true to this train of thought, especially with the ending of The Tempest.

Jane is a tricky character to write (I once read a very good essay explaining why this is so in some detail, but I can't remember the title now and I can't find it on OD). Except for the first few episodes of the series (before I think the writers really had a handle on the character), Jane is not just another Daria. She's cynical and sarcastic, but she also has a real joie de vivre, a drive to go out and grab life by the balls. She really enjoys her existence, and she scorns and pities those who she feels are wasting theirs through shallow pursuits. What may seem like completely opposite characteristics blend very well in her, making her a joy to read and a bear to write. I worked very hard at getting her just right, and if you think I succeeded, I take that as a great compliment. While writing her, I kept most in mind her "go get it" attitude, along with her devotion to the two greatest passions in her life - art and her friendship with Daria. Therefore, at the end of "The Tempest", she takes action to help Daria mend her fences with James and get a new beginning; and in "So Long as Men Can Breathe", when her art is criticized, she immediately sets out to rectify the situation, only succumbing to despair when she feels all her efforts have been thwarted.

26. By one interpretation, these stories could almost be called "Season One" post-canon. Your opinion?

I am honored that you think so, but if you mean that these stories could have been a sixth season of Daria, then I don't think I agree. For all its dramatic moments, the series always kept the comedic elements in the forefront, something the Love's Labours Trilogy and "The Tempest" relegate to secondary status. "The Tempest" is a very different kind of story than the series would have told (I don't think they would ever have gone so heavy as to kill off a major character), and while they might have used a story similar to the Trilogy, I think it would have been approached in a much more comedic manner (not too dissimilar to "The New Kid", I think). "So Long as Men Can Breathe", however, I think does come closer to the style of the more dramatic episodes of the show.

27. What would happen to Jane if she could not make it as an artist, per the central conflict in "So Long As Men Can Breathe"?

In his Daria: 2010 series (which I highly recommend), Robert Nowell portrays a Jane who has not achieved great artistic success, and has taken a job as an art teacher. I think this is a very good projection of Jane's future. Like writers, there are very few artists (outside of the corporate realm) that can make a living just doing art; most have to get a day job, even the very talented ones. I think Jane is talented (though probably not the next Picasso), but it's simply not in her to play the politics necessary to get ahead in the art world; however, she's going to be miserable in pretty much any job not touching art, so I see her getting some kind of regularly-paying gig that still allows her to indulge her muse. Art teacher, decorator (for customers with a particularly twisted aesthetic), or something similar. I think she's smart enough to avoid Trent's total burnout and make a fairly comfortable living for herself. Of course, if all those fics about the great Lane fortune are true, then all of this is academic anyway. ;-P

28. What is the one character who you would have liked to have given more air-time to, but couldn't because it would have distracted from the fic? How would you have liked to showcase that character?

I would have loved to have given Jane face time in the Love's Labours Trilogy. My favorite fics are usually the ones that focus on and explore Daria and Jane's friendship, and I really wanted to include some of that in the Trilogy. For a while, I considered having Jane call Daria up, and the two of them talk about the situation. But, in the end, I felt it was necessary for Daria to face this alone, without Jane's support and advice; it was the only way I felt she would come to the necessary conclusions about herself. I did try to keep the spirit of Jane alive in Daria's mind, though.

Fortunately, I was able to satisfy my Jane jones in my next fic, "Seven Days", which is the only one of my fics that I see as more Jane's story than Daria's (though not by much).

29. Why did you choose to not have any direct conversations between Jake's brother Esau and Helen & the girls? What branch of the military is Esau in?

Part of it was simply logistics - I already had so many different familial complications flying around in that fic that I really didn't want to introduce another one. But I think it also serves to emphasize the emotional distance that Daria felt with Jake, that she doesn't even communicate with his family after his death, beyond a basic greeting. I think she was also a bit frightened of Uncle Esau, who is in many ways the recreation of his father. Without having any personal experience with the man, she's not going to attempt a conversation in the state she was in at the time, and he's too concerned with Ruth to really care much about them.

I see Esau deliberately following in his father's footsteps, so he's in whatever branch of the military Mad Dog was in.

30. Why did you kill Jake off, and why did you foreshadow it so blatantly for Daria, who (after the events of "Jake of Hearts") almost certainly studied up on coronary cases and equally certain, would have been able to recognize the early symptoms of an oncoming coronary incident (and seems as if she had done so)?

The purpose of any angsty story, at least for me, is to examine and grow the characters, to squeeze them hard to see what comes out. Jake's illness and death forced Daria to really confront her inner demons, the walls she had built up around herself to such an extent that she had never really known her own father (not that Jake made it easy, but Daria never even made much of an effort). She had become aware of her problems during the Trilogy, but her efforts to work through them had become stagnant because she had taken the usual Daria route of retreating and ruminating on her problems, instead of actively trying to solve them. To really deal with her issues, she needed one final, tremendous push, and Jake's death provided that. It might have worked if he had just become very ill and then recovered, but that seemed like a cop-out to me, an artificial happy ending tacked on after Daria had solved her problems. I did struggle with the question of killing him, but in the end, I felt that the story worked better if I pulled no punches.

The foreshadowing was as much for the benefic of the readers as the story. It wasn't necessary for realism, since many heart attacks occur with little or no warning, but I felt that it would look too much like "shock for shock value" if Jake just collapsed with no warning. I was very concerned about the tone of the early scenes of the fic, since they were much more comedic than the rest; I didn't want my readers think they were reading a lighter work, and then feel cheated when things took a very dark turn. So Jake's symptoms partially served to alert the readers that this fic might be headed for colder climes. But they also served to begin Daria and Quinn's bonding, as they banded together to try to protect him from the wrath of Helen and Rita. Their sorrow and guilt when they failed brought them together even more.

31. How do you see Jake? Dead, yes, but before "The Tempest", what was he like, to you?

Obviously, Jake is a very troubled individual, almost bereft of confidence, particularly among his family. Since he had no good role models for fathering while growing up, he doesn't feel that he knows anything about being a good father (except that he's not going to be like Mad Dog, and that's not really a whole lot on which to hang an entire philosophy of parenting). As a result, he hides behind that smokescreen of cluelessness, not only because he's not as driven as Helen, but also because that way he's safe from feeling responsible for his mistakes. It wasn't his fault, he did his best, but he was just out of his depth. Despite his complete lack of confidence in himself, he's not a total loss as a parent. He and Daria do share a connection, and he understands her better than Helen, because he's willing to accept her the way she is (one good result of his determination to not be like his father). Daria may have never felt that she knew him, but their relationship was not held completely at arm's length, either. Quinn, on the other hand, is much more of mystery to him, so he just throws money at her, trusting that to solve Quinn's problems for him.

I think it is possible that Jake is not quite the disaster in the working world as he is at home. The one time we get an extended look at him in his element - the convention in "Of Human Bonding" - he's no Donald Trump, but he's nowhere near the complete goof that he is at home, either. And he's managed to keep some big clients (Le Grand Hotel, for example), so he can't be that bad. Jake might be as much of the breadwinner of the Morgendorffer household as is Helen.

32. Why did you choose to have Daria cry at Jake's funeral, instead of in private or not at all?

The funeral seemed the best place for Daria to finally come face to face with her father's death. The image of a coffin being held over and then lowered into a grave, along with all the attending iconography of a funeral, is very powerful, and I felt that it would be the jolt she needed to break through her numbness to the real grief that lay beneath. Once those walls came down, she was simply overwhelmed by her pent-up grief.

Symbolically, her lack of tears up until that point were representative of all the emotional walls she had built up around herself, which finally received their mortal blow when she realized that those walls had robbed her of her only opportunities to ever really feel close to her father. Just as her tears signified that she could finally begin to heal from Jake's death, they also showed that her larger healing had also begun.

33. How do you see Helen? What parts of her personality strike you as most important?

Like the Fashion Club, Helen means well. She truly wants to be "the perfect working wife and mother". Her problem is that she gets her identity, her entire sense of self, from her work; and where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Except in the direst of circumstances, she considers her work more important than her family, because that's where she feels most like the woman she wants to be. I also think her job serves has her refuge from the chaos of the Morgendorffer household, a place where she can be surrounded by like-minded people who may demand a lot from her, but only the things she knows she can give. No deranged husband, no cynic, and no fashion drone. It's a place where she can hide from a marriage that she fears is growing stale, and children that she just can't connect with.

I do think these aspects of her are softening by the end of the show. As Daria matures, Helen is starting to see her as a rational human being, instead of this bizarre creature who lives in her own world. She is starting to relate to her well enough to offer advice and then trust her to make the right decision, instead of trying to force her into her pre-set vision of what her daughter should be. It can only be hoped that her nascent connection with Daria will spread to Quinn as well.

34. I had a hard time with the level of malice between Helen and Rita, crowned by Rita's cutting comment about Daria's unsuitability for marriage in the hospital. Why did you decide to amp the level of anger between Helen and Rita for the fics?

I didn't see myself as amping the sibling rivalry so much as letting it run its full course. In "Aunt Nauseum", their bickering was cut short of its final result by Daria and Quinn's interference; in "I Don't", it was interrupted by actual physical violence. In "The Tempest", I felt that I was simply allowing it to proceed all the way to its natural conclusion, the point of no return for both of them. Helen's attempts to be truly gracious to Rita, and Jake's heart attack, just added to the tension. Helen might have realized this, but Rita is an inherently self-centered person, and all she knew was that she was angry with her sister and wanted to take whatever cheap shots she could. In the end, Rita just went too far. I think they will eventually reconcile and go back to their previous cold war positions, but it's going to take a long time.

35. One of the things that struck me as unusual in the Love's Labours series was that Daria, speaking in the first person, seems to be aware of how horribly she's acted towards James, and just how undeserving he is of her feelings and actions (a particularly brutal moment is her reaction to James taking her hand at the play). I thought that "Love's Labour Renewed" showed James with a level of restraint towards Daria that only a saint could have. How difficult was it for you to write those scenes, and how well do you think you did in the writing?'

I don't see James as all that saint-like; in my view, he and Daria both screwed up, and they both overreacted. His restraint with Daria was due as much to his own feelings of guilt at the role he played as any gracious acceptance of her flaws, though it is true that his mistakes were of a smaller magnitude than hers. But I don't see either of them as the good guy or the bad guy; they are both flawed humans who, while trying to connect, bruised each other instead. Daria is aware that what she is doing is horrible, but she can't stop herself; her fears and neuroses have taken over, and her rational mind is just along for the ride. It's easy for people, especially intelligent people, to think that their mind is completely in control of their actions, but we are slaves to our more basic emotions and drives more often than we might think. I think everyone has experienced the sensation of having just said something awful and not really knowing why, but where it's too late to go back on it. This is very much what happened to Daria in "Love's Labours in Ruins".

Those scenes were very draining to write, both emotionally and physically. When I write, I almost always start to feel the emotions my characters are feeling, and that fic in particular ran me ragged. That tendency can be helpful, allowing me to really get inside the heads and hearts of my characters and predict their actions; however, it can also cause problems, since I have to be careful not to let my feelings take over and drive the story towards melodrama. I think there are parts of "Love's Labours Renewed" where this happened, and while I think it still works as a whole, it could no doubt be improved by reining in the drama in a few sections.

36. The end of "The Tempest" and the events of "So Long As Men Can Breathe" are two years apart, according to the inner timetable. During this time period, we are led to believe that Daria and James made their peace, and are now very close friends. This is the one facet of your series that seems forced and unrealistic to me; how do you account for this turnabout, especially since we haven't seen any viable changes in Daria, and James seems to have developed into a palatable version of Tom Sloane?

37. Again, following up on the question above, it's slightly hard to believe that not only would James simply let go of any romantic feelings for Daria, forgive the snub he was given on their date which (as their later conversation seems to indicate) seems almost congenital, and still maintain the emotional connections and closeness required to arrive at the state we see in Breathe. How did he do this? Why is he still around Daria (and Jane, who he acknowledges as emotionally capricious in terms of dating and would only serve to remind him of Daria)?

It may be a clichˇ to say that time heals all wounds, but in many cases, it's quite true. Both in my own experience and that of many of my friends, it's very possible to become close friends with a person that once broke your heart, if you know how to go about it. The key is to take time apart - completely apart, with no contact whatsoever - before you try to rekindle the friendship. The Trilogy occurs around the end of September, and Daria and James don't meet again until the beginning of January, giving them over three months apart. This runs close to the minimum amount of time necessary to heal enough to try to be friends again, but it's important to keep in mind that they went out on just one date; it wasn't as though they had to recover from the wreck of a months- or years-long relationship. And it's not something that happened immediately. When Daria invited James in at the end of "The Tempest", it wasn't her saying "let's pick things up right where we left off", but "let's try to work through this and start to heal our wounds". In my estimation, it would have taken at least a year before Daria and James were back to the close friendship they had originally shared, and it certainly wasn't done without effort. James still has feelings for Daria, and Daria knows it; he had to learn how to control those feelings and deal with them, and Daria had to learn how to not allow that knowledge to scare her out of the friendship.

In "So Long as Men Can Breathe", Daria has in fact changed from what she was before, but because of the nature of the story, there wasn't much of a chance to display it. She didn't turn into some social butterfly, by any means, but I made it a point to put in that she was part of a study group, showing that she does have some kind of a social life outside of just Jane and James. The Daria of the series would never have bothered with that kind of thing. Jane and James are her only close friends, because her personality is not the type to need or want more than just one or two close relationships, but she's no longer holding the rest of the world at bay. She works with others, and enjoys their company; but when she's going through a hard time, or dealing with a personal issue, it's Jane and James she's going to turn to, not her study partners. As for James, I don't see him being much like Tom at all, except for his enjoyment of intellectual discussions with Daria. Tom is a very polished and confident individual, while James is covered with rough edges. The only similarities I see between them are the traits they would have to possess to be friends with Daria in the first place.

38. Another follow-up from above: not that I'm trying to being up the Daria/Jane shipper angle (and I'm not) but why don't you have Daria, Jane or James dating someone else? Why didn't James move on, and at least start dating other girls casually?

There's nothing to say he, or any of them, did not. I think all three of them have had various romantic experiences in the time between "The Tempest" and "So Long as Men Can Breathe"; it just so happens that none of them were involved in a relationship at the time. This especially applies to Jane, whose attitude towards college dating is basically one of "get your fun in while you're still young", which I think fits with her personality; she's not likely to settle on a long-term relationship when there are so many options out there for her to explore. If I go back and write fics to "fill in the gap", the question of romance for all of them will certainly be one I will tackle. I have thought about writing a fic where Daria starts going out with a new romantic interest, and James has to deal with his feelings of jealousy, but it would be a hard thing to do without coming perilously close to a Mary Sue-esque major focus on a non-canon character. I like James as a character, but I do want to keep my stories centered on Daria and Jane.

39. Why did you choose not to show Daria's freshman-year roommate?

40. Why did you choose not to show ANY of Daria's interactions with anyone else during her freshman year? Do you think that by doing this, you actually strengthened her canonical nature because we have to view her world through her eyes alone, and therefore assume that there's no one worthwhile for her to associate with, or that you actually lower the level of sympathy that readers can have for Daria because we see her treat an innocent person in the way we assume everyone has been treating her, because she seems to have no other friends?

The decision not to show Daria's roommate was pretty much one of focus. I wanted the Trilogy to be Daria and James's story, no one else's. To introduce other characters, I felt, would have diluted that focus. Also, I don't see Daria's roommate being a very important person in her life. She knows that Jane is going to be showing up next semester and that they are going to find a place together, so this roommate thing is just a temporary living situation anyway; if they happen to hit it off, fine, and if they don't, Daria's not going to put a lot of effort into it. Also, I think Daria would have been willing to shell out (or, more likely, have her scholarships shell out) the cash necessary to get one of the suite-style dorms, where four individual bedrooms open into a common living area. In that situation, your roommates are a much less intrusive part of your life, and if you don't really take to them that much, they can fade right into the background.

As for not having other friends, that came about for several reasons. One of them I've mentioned before - Daria's just not an outgoing person. She doesn't make the effort to meet people, so if she's going to make friends, they're going to have to approach her. And Daria doesn't feel the need for a lot of friends anyway; she's the kind to have one or two very close friendships, and keep her relations with everyone else on a friendly acquaintance level at best. This isn't even necessarily the result of her emotional walls; it's a consequence of personality, of being an introvert. (Daria's problem isn't that she only has a few close friends, but that with her, it's either very close friendship or keeping you at arm's length, with very little in between. ) She had James, and Jane was coming soon, and that was all she needed; not that she felt that no one else was worthy, just that no one else was necessary. And after she lost James, she retreated into herself, wanting to fix her relationship problems before she ruined another one - ironically, withdrawing in fear from something that could have actually helped her with her problems, actual experience in relationships.

41. Why did you choose to not have Daria discuss her situation about James with Quinn?

At this point in their relationship, and in Quinn's development, I don't see Daria thinking of Quinn as being of much use in this department. For all that she has matured in other ways, Quinn's dealings with boys are still on the level of trophy relationships, with no attempts at anything more (at least, not after "One J at a Time", in which Helen actually reassured Quinn that there was nothing wrong with her dating habits). Her advice in this situation would have been to go on and find someone else without worrying about it, which wasn't going to be of much help to Daria. Not to mention that the times when Daria did listen to Quinn's relationship advice (such as in "Sappy Anniversary"), it tended to cause more trouble than it solved. In a few more years, Daria might start turning to Quinn for help in these areas, but not yet.

42. What kinds of Daria fanfics are you planning to do in the future? (Feel free to brainstorm a little.)

One ambitious idea I've been toying with is of doing a Daria fic in the classical Aristotlean tragic mold. Daria has all the makings of a tragic heroine - she's an admirable, virtuous person who is nonetheless deeply flawed. The tricky part is that most great tragic heroes - Oedipus, King Lear, Brutus, Othello, and others - have flaws that lead to them taking actions that result in their downfall. Daria's faults, on the other hand, are more the kind that lead to inaction, and it's a very difficult thing to make an inactive tragic hero work; the only successful one I can think of is Hamlet, and it took a Shakespeare at the very height of his powers to get it right. While Daria's flaws hurt her, it's hard to be completely destroyed (which, in classical tragedy, usually means being killed, though there are exceptions) by not taking action. Also, there is the question if I can bring myself to write a fic that is so destructive to my favorite character; all my other fics (even "Seven Days", in a way) end on a redemptive note, but there is no redemption at the conclusion of a classical tragedy, just death and ruination. It's hard for me to read that, and it would be even harder for me to write it.

Another idea I've had is of detailing the time Jane and Vincent spent together during Daria's first semester at Raft. This could possibly lean more in a comedic direction than my other work, but I would probably slip in some angsty family stuff as well. I don't have a lot of ideas for it yet, but it's a notion I've had.

There are a couple of crossovers I've been toying with as well. I've wanted to do a Daria / Firefly for ages, but I've yet to find a plot that works. The ones I have considered so far have either had plotholes that I just couldn't figure out how to plug, or haven't had the kind of balance I think crossovers need (being mainly Firefly fics with some Daria characters added, instead of being a true blending of the two shows). Also, a few months ago, Bubba-Ho-Tep and I discussed a Daria fic based on (or at least inspired by) the Ayreon rock opera The Human Equation. This is the story of a man put into a coma by a mysterious car accident; within his own mind, he's having to struggle with his own memories and personified emotions to try to resolve the issues of his life. The fic would spin off of Daria's accident in "Boxing Daria", and use different Lawndale characters to personify Daria's emotions. It's in the very early stages of thought for me, but I think it's a promising idea.

I once had an idea to do a Last Action Hero-inspired fic, where a fan is sucked into Daria's world, and then brings Daria back to the real world. But I think Scissors MacGillicuty's "Where's Mary Sue When You Need Her?" has pretty much cornered the market on that kind of story, at least for the present.

43. What attracted you to the idea of doing a Ring crossover?

I got the idea in January of 2005, just when the Ring fan community was really starting to buzz in anticipation of The Ring 2 (which, unfortunately, disappointed most). I'm not a horror movie buff, but The Ring was something different - an intelligent, well-written psychological thriller that dealt with some very serious moral issues. The story was compelling, and I quickly became a regular reader (though not participant) of the fansites, learning all I could about the many different permutations of the mythos, and even reading some of the fanfiction and the original novels (those that had been translated into English). Then, a few months before the sequel came out, the production company set up a role-playing message board as part of the promotion; it was set up to be a place where people who had "seen the tape" could come and relate their experiences, spinning stories about what they felt and saw and how they were dealing with the curse. (Or it might have been all just studio employees acting like role-players, but either way, it was a lot of fun to read.) There were stories of those who watched the tape by accident and were trying to figure out what was going on, stories of those who used it almost as a drug to get a cool trip, and stories of those who wanted out but couldn't find anyone to watch a copy. Many of the stories were well written and suspenseful, and I would look forward to reading each new installment.

Since that was the time I starting to write Daria fanfic, it wasn't much of a leap to think what a great crossover it would be to put Daria and Jane through an experience with Samara and her tape. The world of The Ring is almost perfectly suited for crossover; you don't have to blend two entirely different universes, but just introduce into the Daria universe a single element - the "cursed" videotape - and see what happens. And it allowed me to examine how Daria and Jane would deal with the issues that it raised - the existence of the supernatural, the moral question of whether or not it is justified to risk the life of others to save your own, and the reality of their own approaching and certain demise. Of all the fics that I've written, "Seven Days" was the most fun to plan and write (despite the less-than-happy ending), allowing me to indulge my love of fantasy (dark and macabre fantasy, but that just makes it even more fun).

44. How do you feel about the Tom-Is-Evil Issue?

I've never understood it. Though I like Tom, I can see how some people could see him as boring, or resent him for the monkeywrench he threw into Daria and Jane's friendship; but calling him "evil" is completely unsupported by the series. With the exception of The Kiss (which I see as the result of foolishness and frailty, hormones taking over and pushing the brain aside, not deliberate malice), the series always portrayed Tom as a fundamentally decent person. He's smart, friendly, and very patient; it's a far more accurate criticism to say that he's too good, to the point of being unrealistic. The only real fault I've ever seen in him is that he's a bit too smug, but that's hardly a damning offense. Calling him "evil" flies in the face of his canon characterization.

I think Tom was a good first boyfriend for Daria. Even though their relationship was doomed in the long run (Daria's quite correct in saying that they are both coming from and going to different places), it was very beneficial to her in the short term. Tom's patient enough to stick by her while she's still figuring the whole relationdateship thing out, and perceptive enough to see through her attempts to shove him away out of fear. It gave her the opportunity to learn something of how a relationship works, and they had some good times - what else can you ask for in a first relationship? They had some rocky points as well, but no more than one could reasonably expect from Daria's first serious romantic escapade. Despite what Daria says in "Love's Labours Lost?" (where she's still recovering from the break-up), I think she came away from it a better person than when she went in, though she still has a long way to go.