The Longest Year interview

With Greystar

1. Where did you get the idea to do a series on a pregnant Daria?

Actually, I remember getting the image in my head of Daria and Jane sitting on a couch or something and both looking at an EPT stick (the box was in view someplace). There was a rapid ticking in the background and both of them were looking totally freaked out. I knew that Daria was going to be the one that was affected by what the result was going to be. After that it was "Well, how did we get to this point?" and that's how "Empirical Evidence" got started. It was supposed to be an entirely stand-alone story that ended with Daria opening her hand to look at the results and letting the reader's imagination fill in the rest, kind of like Stockton's "The Lady and The Tiger." With a couple of trips past the Beta Readers, a little more tweaking and rewriting, the stand alone story became the first part of the saga I didn't know it was going to become. After that it was pressure from my Beta Readers and the few "Alpha" Readers that had the original story thrust in front of them for opinions that made me decide to run with it.

Was it entirely from the show ("My Night at Daria's") or elsewhere, or both?

My Night at Daria's was an obvious starting point for such a story, and I think that was actually why I turned away from it and used Sappy Anniversary instead. It left more of an opening at the end to fill in the blanks of what happens next.

Had you read any other "pregnant Daria" fics before starting TLY? Did any other fics or pregnant teen stories inspire or influence your story?

With the exception of a couple of parts of Roger Moore's "Pause In The Air" series (though it's been so long, I'm not sure of the timing), I'd have to say no. I have read stories where Daria has been a parent, though none with her going through the stages of pregnancy.

2. How do you get inside Tom Sloane's head to write about his reactions to events?

Through his left ear and, let me tell ya, it's a tight fit. He needs to clean his ears better, too. Seriously, though, it's not so much a matter of getting in his head as just writing what seems right for the character. Once I sit back and go over what I've written and can see and hear it going on, so to speak, I'll go back and tweak it so that if fits whatever character I'm working on.

How do you see Tom Sloane in the original series vs. your TLY series?

Tom got played off a lot as sidekick and straight man to both girls, but I don't think that he was ever given a chance as an actual character in the show till the last three or four episodes and IICY. It seemed to me that, with the fandom, it was either love him or hate him, and in my opinion he got pigeon holed into the role of "stuck up rich kid slumming it in the burbs with the public school girls." I wanted to try to get him away from that.

3. How did you come up with the plot twist involving Amy's long-past fling with Angier Sloane? What led you to make Angier the villain of the piece, in many ways?

That was one of those things where I just tried to keep up with what was playing though my head at the time. There was no real conscious plan to make him specifically the bad guy, it was just what came out as the scene played itself out.

4. What kind of research have you done on the stages of pregnancy to keep the story realistic?

I did a fair amount of research on-line, looking up health and parenting websites. I also ended up asking a few somewhat uncomfortable questions of a close friend of mine who's got two kids of her own and wasn't much older that Daria when she had her first.

How have you modified things to fit Daria's particular circumstances? (She's out of shape, short, etc.)

Not a whole lot, really. Daria is on the small side, stature-wise, but she's not really all that out of shape, if you look at it. Most everywhere she goes, she has to walk, and there's gym on what would be an almost daily basis.

5. Jane's sexual orientation issues come front and center in "Facts of Life," creating the possibility for a new kind of love triangle. On what events from the show are you grounding her orientation—the "Alison event" from "Is It Fall Yet?" or more than that?

Jane's orientation was a door that the writers flung open and, to my mind, never satisfactorily closed. Look at how freaked out Jane was after her encounter with Alison, and then at how angry she was when she found out that Alison had hopped onto the sack with Dodson. I don't think that Jane's reactions would have been as intense, melodramatic affect aside, if she hadn't actually considered the possibility somewhere in the back of her mind. Being a teenager during that particular time in her life can be damned confusing, and lots of kids question themselves about sexual issues, especially in these days of the internet and instant information access.

6. Daria's denial problems become undeniable in "Facts of Life." Again, on what scenes from the show involving Daria are you basing her current problems?

There really aren't any specific scenes in mind with that, it's more of what generally comes across in her attitude and what feels right for her character. If you must have an example, though, look how Daria took so long to admit/realize that there was something besides mutual hostility building between her and Tom. The whole thing came to a head in DDMD, and Daria was totally blindsided by it.

What have readers said about this aspect of Daria's personality?

No one's specifically 'dissected' it, so to speak, but it I'm told it seems to be pretty accurate.

7. If you could have fan art for your series, which scenes do you think most deserve to be memorialized in pictures?

I'm really not much for self-promotion, but when I got this question, I started going back through the stories and figuring out what I thought would be the best scenes to have memorialized. I really only got as far as Hearts Burned before I decided that it was really better left up to the potential artist what ought to be done, if anything. If my ego had it's way, each story would be a graphic novel. Still, here's my partial wish-list.

Empirical Evidence = Daria and Jane sitting on the bed waiting for the result, or after they find out.

Reflections and Revelations = Amy finding out that Daria is pregnant and Sandi choking on her salad in the background.

Exposure of D = Quinn's cigarette in the girls room with Andrea

First Steps = The moment Helen and Tom find out Daria's pregnant. The fight in the living room afterwards.

Preemptive Strike = Daria, Tom, and Jane in the OB-GYN's waiting room, with Daria talking to the pregnant lady. Daria getting her sonogram in Dr. Nelson's exam room

Hearts Burned = Trent and Tom's fight. Amy, Kay, and Angier in the office when Amy reveals her and Angier's past.

8. What kinds of reactions from readers have you been getting to the TLY series?

Generally favorable. There have been a few who have wondered why I didn't have Daria dwell more on the abortion question more than she did. (See question 15)

9. Why the long delay before "Facts of Life" appeared?

Pure and simple burnout.

10. What plot twists have you considered for the series but dropped? Where else could TLY have gone, but didn't?

Well, now if I told you that . . . l Actually, there haven't been a lot of things that were rejected. Most everything considered has gone into it in one form or another.

11. The changes to the normal Dariaverse brought on by her pregnancy have generally been right on target in your series (though the Amy-Angier thing was a shocker). The new dialogue written for old scenes has been especially good (e.g., the conversation over pizza between Jane, Daria, and Tom at the beginning of "Facts of Life"). What gave you the idea of incorporating your story in with the established fifth season, instead of creating your own AU?

The reason I didn't go totally AU with the story is because, when these things happen, it's usually with what's considered the worst possible timing. Real life doesn't come to a stop while you deal with the problem, it goes on around you and you have to deal with events that are totally out of your field of control.

12. What else have you written in the area of fiction? How about nonfiction?

There is a story, posted in chunks, over on the Sheep's Fluff Message Board, entitled "Strange Warrior." It's not exactly an original work in the strictest sense, as it borrows elements from a wide array of games and television shows. I've never really done any nonfiction.

13. What parts of the series have been the most difficult to write, in whatever sense?

The hardest parts have been in "First Steps"; Helen and Jake's big blow up and Amy's admission that she's unable to have kids.

Why?

With scenes with that kind of emotional content, I need to keep a steady rhythm going. For some reason, the Universe seems to conspire against me when I need to do that. And there's also the fact that everyone thinks the "Do Not Disturb" sign on the den is a decoration.

Have any parts been particularly easy?

Well, "Empirical Evidence" as a whole came pretty easily, but I had most of that story formed in my head from the beginning. The scene where Quinn and Andrea meet up in the bathroom for the first time was one that was actually pretty easy to write. Call me strange, but I think that if those two gave each other a chance, they'd end up as pretty good friends.

Do you have any favorite bits?

The fight between Trent and Tom would be high up on the list. I've secretly wanted to see those two go head to head for quite some time.

14. In your series, Amy appears to be the eldest of the three sisters. Why did you choose to arrange the age order in this way?

That wasn't the intention. I always figured that Rita was the oldest, then Helen, then Amy. Amy once made a comment along the lines of "with Helen and Rita going at it all the time, all they left for me to do was to supply the color commentary." I took that as evidence that she was the youngest and kept, or was deliberately pushed out of the so-called line of fire between her two older sisters.

15. Pardon the sensitive question (and feel free to decline to answer), but what are your views on abortion?

Basically, 'don't ask, don't tell': Don't ask me about it. Don't tell me you're planning on doing it. Don't tell me you've had it done, I don't want to know.

It appears as though you had the characters (including Daria) jump to the decision to carry to term without giving much thought to alternatives.

I felt that it wouldn't have moved the story along in any significant fashion and would have actually dragged it through territory that I didn't want to get bogged down in. Telling of the decision process would have been a long story unto itself and an angst-fest of Moore-ian proportions, which I was trying to avoid at the time. (And there's no way I have the mental stability for that kind of trip.) Besides, it wouldn't have been much of a story if Daria decided to terminate her pregnancy as soon as she found out about it, would it?

Do you see Daria as "pro-choice", "pro-life", or somewhere in between?

This is really a kind of open territory here. In "Arts and Crass", Daria has stated that she doesn't care what other people do to themselves, but I believe that it is quite the opposite when it comes to her own well-being.

16. Where do you (the author) see your series going, without giving away too much? How many more episodes, will there be angst, will Andrea be a babysitter, will the baby be ugly and Quinn forced to leave home, etc.?

I really don't know where the story is going to go until the characters take me there. There will be a few more episodes, enough to coincide with the run of a season and ending with an IICY kind of thing. I'm still trying to figure out what is going to happen with the FC plotline.

17. Do you have any plans for a sequel series, showing Daria as a young mother?

I'm no where near looking that far ahead, this series is taking enough time, and real life isn't cooperating. Right now I'm just going to work on one story at a time and try to finish this monster I've started.