<Host2>WELCOME TO THE HAL CHAT

* Host1 takes her hand and leads her to a stool in the middle of the room, lit by a warm spotlight

<Hal> Not too hot - I'll sweat

<Host1> No, it's a nice kinda warm!

<Guest 1> **loud clapping erupts**

<Host1> Now, Hal has visited us here a few times, and it's her turn to tell us all about what she's been up to in slash.

<Hal> Does this mean I'm supposed to talk now or did you have more to say?

<Host2> INTRODUCING: HAL

<Host1> I'll let Hal tell you more about herself, but in the meantime, if youhave any questions for her, please DCC them to me, Host2, Host4hadows, or Mulder, and we'll take them in turn.

<Host3> Nice to see you, too...

<Hal> Hrm, about me...

<Hal> I read slash, I write slash, I'm Canadian

*** Host1 changes topic to "Hal Tells Us All"

<Hal> I started to write nearly a year ago, when there was less fic and most of it was M/K or M/Sk

<Hal> and I thought that I didn't have anything to contribute there -- there was already so much good stuff

<Hal> so I thought I'd boldly go and try to push back the weirdness envelope

<Hal> I like unusual pairinHost4 and parody, sometimes together

<Hal> and in the great banquet of fanfic, I see my work as a sidedish of salty, garlicky, sour dill pickles

<Hal> something you eat, screw up your face, and wait for a week before trying again <G>

<Hal> Hrm, what else?

<Host2> HAL, could you tell us a little about that name of yours?

<Hal> It's from Larry Niven's Ringworld

<Hal> The name of a female alien

<Guest 2> Do you *like* Ringworld? I hated that novel!

<Hal> I wanted something unusual, but I should have picked something easier to spell!

<Hal> I like Niven's ideas and backgrounds more than his plots, I think

<Hal> OK, what else?

<Host2> FIRST QUESTION: We all get a million ideas for fanfic every day, how do you decide what to write and what to discard?

<Hal> That's a difficult one

<Hal> Some ideas just hit me and say "write me, write me" and I know those are right

<Hal> others I work on and discard because they're not going well

<Hal> and some, like slashing Young CSM and Lee Harvey Oswald, it just seems good sense to discard

<Guest 6> have you ever had an idea that you didn't want to give up on and kept going back to?

* Guest 1 feels some dissapointment at that one.

<Hal> Yeah, I have a couple of WIPs like that - I don't know if I'll ever finish them

<Hal> because other thinHost4 keep coming up and taking priority

<Guest 2> Guest 2 too! Young CSM and LHO! Sounds Great

*** Host2 changes topic to "HAL: IDEAS: The Good, the Bad and the UGLY"

<Hal> anything that will take more than 2 days to finish gets shelved more easily

<Hal> if it doesn't work right away, I'm less likely to keep at it

<Guest 2> How long does an average story take you to write?

<Hal> I'm not sure if I can work that out - some only take 2 or 3 hours

<Hal> maybe that's the average for the short ones

<Hal> longer ones can be weeks

<Guest 2> Do you know where you're going when you start the story, or do thinHost4 come to you as you write?

<Hal> I usually have a vague idea, but bits and pieces come as I go

<Hal> something longer I do plot a bit so I don't lose track

<Guest 2> Have you ever sat down with no ideas, and a blank screen and just found a story when you started writing?

<Hal> I sometimes sit and make myself get an idea - Free Agents was like that

<Hal> but usually I have more ideas than I know what to do with

<Guest 6> do the boys 'talk' to you as some writers describe?

<Hal> Not often, but once in awhile. Blue Screen was like that - Frohike kind of took over.

<Host4> NEXT QUESTION: What was the first slash story you ever read?

<Hal> The first story I *remember* reading was Cyanide and Astroglide and it's still my all time fave.

<Hal> I think it influenced me quite a bit

<Hal> Ethan is who I'd like to be

<Hal> Wait, I lied - I did read some Trek slash first

<Hal> And the one that stands out there is L R Bowen's The Lily White Boys

<Hal> She slashed Tom Paris and Nick Locarno and did a damn good job of it

<Host4> NEXT: What work of yours are you most proud of?

<Host4> here's a question from Guest 2: *Guest 2* Guest 8 asks Hal who she sees Skinner's *ideal* partner as being.

<Hal> I confess to being besotted with a lot of my own work, but the *idea* if not the writing, I'm most proud of is Blue Christmas

<Hal> I despair of ever getting an idea like that again

<Guest 6> that was elvis and mulder, right?

* Hal nods.

<Hal> It started out as trying to think of the weirdest pairing possible and it sort of changed into this "Elvis as messiah" piece

<Guest 6> i think you struck just the right tone... elvis was very belivable

<Hal> And Skinner's ideal partner - besides me - hrm, someone fun and devoted

* Hal thanks Guest 6.

* Guest 1 whispers Pendrell Pendrell Pendrell

<Hal> Yeah, Ok, Pendrell <g>

* Guest 6 whispers kersh kersh kersh

<Guest 1> ?me gaHost4...

* Mulder thinks of no one but Skinner

<Host4> NEXT QUESTION: "What was the hardest to write?"

<Hal> I think "Blue Screen" - because it was so different from what I usually do

<Hal> I was trying to write a humour piece and, as I mentioned, Frohike kind of took over and asserted his anHost4t

<Hal> it actually got me quite upset and I left the story for several weeks before coming back to it

<Hal> I think some people were a bit taken aback by the story as well

<Hal> the idea of someone becoming tired of Mulder...

* Mulder grumbles <beg>

<Guest 1> I thought blue screen was maddeningly realistic

* Hal thanks Guest 1.

<Hal> I don

<Hal> I don't think people want to read that sort of thing all the time, but for a change maybe

*** Host1 changes topic to "Inspiration Time for Hal"

<Host4> NEXT QUESTION: Have you, or do you plan to *ever* write any gen-fic?

<Hal> I have some unfinished genfic on my hard drive, mostly humourous bits

*** Host1 changes topic to "Rubbing Elbows with the Mundanes"

<Hal> some I'd like to pick back up

<Hal> I do have an MSR parody in the works - does that count as genfic?

<Hal> but I see slash as my usual space

<Host3> Question: What other fandoms are you in?

<Hal> Millennium, sort of and you've seen me write crossovers <g>

*** Host1 changes topic to "Hanging Out in Other Universes"

* Hal takes a moment to contemplate sweet Special Agent Barry Baldwin...

<Hal> I lurk around reading Trekfic sometimes

* Guest 6 trys not to gag

<Host1> what makes you want to write so many crossovers, Hal?

* Guest 1 communes with Hal

<Hal> but I'm not really *in* other fandoms, simply because I don't have time

* Guest 6 wonders about skinner/baldwin

<Hal> Crossovers - I suppose seeing how the characters would react to one another

<Hal> that was the fun thing about Free Agents. I really did draw those pairinHost4 out of a hat.

<Hal> And then trying to see what each pair had in common or didn't, that was really enjoyable

<Guest 1> Free Agents was priceless -- very funny

<Hal> I sort of think of MM/XF crossovers as a special case though

<Host2> QUESTION: Do you get much feedback when you post a story?

<Hal> Oh God, the feedback question.

<Hal> I would like to read from a prepared statement...

<Host1> lol!!

<Hal> Feedback is like money, no one ever gets enough, and no one wants to talk about how much they get

<Hal> I find that what I get is pretty consistant

<Host1> same people all the time?

<Hal> humour always generates more feedback, and from people who don't read slash

<Hal> than the more serious stories

<Host2> do you like critical feedback?

<Hal> some people send for almost every piece, but it changes

<Host1> yeah - I think a lot of folks read *anything* they can find that's humor.

<Hal> So, I sometimes set "feedback" goals for stories and usually reach them.

<Hal> I do like critical feedback, seriously. I'm not thin-skinned about my fic.

<Hal> but I don't like to discourage the "loved it" crowd either <g>

* Guest 1 has been known to blather at length over everything Hal does, its a bit embarassing to be so weak...

<Hal> Was I vague enough?

* Hal hugs Guest 1.

<Hal> I have this fear that if I divulge how much feedback I get

<Hal> that either I'll find out it's very little or people will think I get too much already and stop sending it

<Host1> hmm...but it's so tempting to beg for feedback! ;^)

<Hal> Hal's feedback tip: ask a funny question at the end of the story - it helps

<Guest 1> Host1: don't worry being a big Ol' feedback Ho isn't such a bad thing really.

* Guest 6 furiously writes down hal's tip

<Hal> If you say "did you gag" or whatever, people will write and tell you if they did or not

<Host1> thaks, Guest 1 - I'll try not to be such a Ho, though. ;^)

<Host2> Yep, that worked for me. I posted a story recently (the rubber duckie one) that had 3 questions at the end. feedback increased dramatically.

<Guest 1> *hah* worked for 'Heterosexual Men' -- the first piece of SpenderFic I ever read.

<Host4> NEXT QUESTION: What was your inspiration for Jerry Coartenay?

<Hal> Yeah, Het Man got a lot of "oh god, I couldn't look away" feedbabck

<Hal> The evil Jerry Courtenay...he was supposed to be a throwaway char

<Hal> I needed some random lab guy for a Voyeur!Scully fic

* Guest 1 stand by the garbage can just in case Hal decides to toss him away...

<Hal> So I just made up this good looking blond guy who liked to tease Pendrell

<Hal> but while writing him, he did take on some personality - the "make Pendrell talk dirty" stuff wasn't planned, it just happened

<Hal> Then people began to bug me for more about Courtenay

<Host2> was he based on anyone, or just completely made up?

<Hal> I never did have any inspiration for him, he was just a lucky accident

<Hal> completely made up

<Hal> I'm enjoying him now

<Guest 2> Do people think he's really good for Pendrell, then?

<Hal> But I find it weird to be writing an OC, especially in m/m slash

<Hal> I think people think that he isn't good for Pendrell and they like that

<Hal> They are sort of unstable and fucked up together

<Hal> I don't know - what do you guys think?

<Guest 2> Sounds like there's a need for a PendrellTorture site then <G> People obviously enjoy it when he suffers!

*** Host1 changes topic to "Waiting by the Garbage Can for Hal's "Throw-Aways"

<Hal> Is he good for Pendrell?

<Guest 1> I think the pairing of Pendrell's repression with Courtenay's overt sexuality is interesting and fun. I think he's ultimately good for Pendrell, regardless of how thier relationship finally works out.

<Guest 2> But Pendrell isn't repressed with Walter.

<Hal> True - in every pairing there's a crazy partner and a sane partner

<Guest 5> I like that he brinHost4 strips away some of the layers of repression for Pendrell BUT he could really hurt him too

<Hal> so it's relative - compared to Court, Pendrell's sane. Compared to Skinner, he's crazy

<Hal> Yeah, PB, I don't see a happy ending for them

<Guest 2> Are you talking about your pairinHost4 or fanfic generally, Hal, re crazy/sane?

<Hal> Guest 2: I'm talking about fanfic and literature generally

<Hal> it's an exaggeration, but it's pretty standard

<Hal> Mulder & Scully, Kirk & Spock, Bruno & Boots <g>

<Guest 1> Well having two similar characters together makes you work a lot harder to build conflict.

<Hal> Achilles and Patroclus

<Host1> NEW QUESTION: How do you feel about portraying safe sex in fanfic?

<Hal> I feel that it's a real hassle

<Hal> So, sometimes I ignore it altogether, sometimes I make concession to it.

<Hal> Is there a sort of sub-question to that?

<Host1> well....

<Host1> I guess, how important do you think it is to your stories, and to stories you read?

<Hal> Personally, it doesn't bother me if I or others ignore it. If I were going for realism, I wouldn't be watching the X-Files

<Guest 6> have you ever written a safe sex scene and made it funny... or clumsy... or painful?

* Hal thinks...

* Guest 6 the words 'snap on the latex' comes to mind

<Hal> I don't think so - in fact, I don't write all that many sex scenes

<Hal> LOL!

<Hal> I just like latex gloves

<Host1> Oh, I hate latex gloves!

<Hal> But that's a good idea, Guest 6

<Guest 1> **gah** I'd pay money to see the glove scene from Free Agents played out.

<Host3> No, I have a thing for latex... ;)

<Hal> Sorry, Guest 1, I don't think I can go there...

* Hal shudders.

<Guest 1> sigh... <g>

* Host1 checks everyone's purses and pockets to see if anyone has snuck in some rotten fruits or vegetables...for a new question coming up...

* Hal readies herself for flight...

<Guest 5> no beets <g>

<Guest 1> ack *shudder* beets...