Author Profile

PenName:	Barbayat
Birthyear:	'79
Gender:	female
Native Language:	German
Other Languages:	English
Ratings:	Mostly R, sometimes PG-13 or NC-17
Likes:	OFC/Canon Pairings, het, AU
Favours:	Vampires and Villains

A little Interview:

When did I start writing fanfic?

I started out with originals that sometimes had borrowed elements of other movies, but that was in elementary school. Later I started working on my own universe, but realised that the vampire market was totally flooded and that I needed practise badly. At that time I also became involved with rolegame-playing.

Eventually I started writing stories after our adventures and then when the players began breaking up I began discussing the future of my vampire character. Then we kind of ended up imaging our characters into the John Sinclair Universe (a German long running series about a Scotland Yard Inspector who battles the Supernatural, it's even older than I am) and eventually involved other fandoms as well.

Another character from the same rpg universe, tapped into Robin of Sherwood, then those characters along with a few other immortal non player characters met the characters of the Worst Witch Series, Buffy and then with a few alterations in the time line, came out in the Star Trek Universe.

It was kind of fun, mostly for either, not necessarily for the canons as our super powerful thousands or more year old immortals sometimes scared the shit out of them.

The first 'real' fanfiction is one I have yet to finish, it's an AU fanfic to Die Hard 2 where McClane gets killed and Col Stuart gets happy with tormenting a very unlucky hostage. Not the best plot and certainly full of 'unnecessary' rape scenes, but in my defence I must say it isn't and won't be a hurt comfort story. But it certainly isn't one of my best works.

When and why did I begin writing in English?

That's pretty easy in August 2000 I visited New York and lucky me got sick and stayed in bed watching TV. Then I saw Hard Target for the first time. I became fascinated with the villains no matter how awful the movie itself was.

My English was a lot better back then and I had a rabid love for the language (I still have) and decided to write this one in English. I can't bear to hear the characters in the German dub anyway. As very few are into those characters (probably because the movie is so awful), I never got much feedback on the story, but now looking back there are certain things I need to change, in the pace and with certain scenes and wordings. Even though a lot of people will scream Mary Sue nonetheless, as the story is not only OFC/Canon, but also a long lost daughter story.

Why do I write fanfiction?

I'm usually a fan for certain characters, I like writing about them and I also have the nick for pairing them up. But the most important thing for me will always be in character writing. After all I want to write (and read) something about my favourite characters, but if only the name and looks remain the same it is not the same character anymore.

Some people might say it is bad to write stories just to live out some fantasy with the character in question and I can't change that. Fanfic is my way of breaking out of the boring reality. I need a female character to relate to and most canon females only annoy me.

Do I only write OFC/Canon Romance?

No, but 90% of the time - though the "romance" does not always prove to be very romantic.

In my Darth Maul story, it's more of a property question. The female lead is more obsessed by the idea of belong to Maul than she actually loves him and for Maul she is something that he owns, one of the few possessions his master granted him. He would kill her instantly if ordered to do so.

Situations like that are more common, it's seldom fluffly, romantic, intense love on both sides. In my King Einon fanfic the heroine is married almost instantly after meeting him for the first time. Again not a love situation …. In Beloved Target, the motivation for Pick to sleep with the OFC is similar, power, lust and control.

While some stories have the relationship as the main drive, it's not all that is going on, for example the King Einon story will need a few chapters before the characters even meet and while they get to know each other better, an enemy both have in common is making his moves against them.

The Boondock Saint fanfic will have romance going on with Murphy and the OFC, but it will be just something that happens along the way, the main aspect of the story is Connor being possessed by a demon and the attempt to stop that demon and maybe if possible saving Connor. All in all a pretty hard situation for Murphy to handle.

Why do I write so much AU?

Being crazy about villains, who often die in canon, my main motivation for writing AU is just to make a little change, that causes the villain to survive. Sometimes by letting the hero die, sometimes just by letting him slip away ... occasionally I resurrect villains and continue after the movie.

Other reasons for AU might be that the canon character in question is wildly out of character in the ongoing tv show or sequels. Like Spike in Buffy who even got an entirely new background or Commodore Norrington who obviously got replaced by an evil clone for Dead Men's Chest.

Sometimes I just had an idea an never got to write in time before the sequel came, like for my X-Men fanfic or the Child's Play one.

Do I have a problem with Slash?

Not really, I have a problem with OOC Fanfic. Well not really a problem, I just don't read that kind of stuff. Out of character writing is unfortunately just as common in slash fanfic as it is in any other genre. Some slash writers might not like to hear it, but that is the truth.

I'm a big fan of the Dracula / Van Helsing pairing, though I do not believe it is proven that those to had anything. But it might be an option one can choose to write about. Still ffs about them are rarely any good.

Then some pairings I totally loathe, like Sirius/Remus, mainly because I was very interested in that pairing, but all stories I read were so off canon and the writers so annoying in their "OMG, but it is so canon" attitude, that I don't even want to try another fic. But then again, I dislike most of the shippings in Harry Potter and those romantic relationships who are actually canon bore me with a few unpopular exceptions (Tonks/Remus - I can't wait to read more about it in the next book)

The only shippings I might write about is "Dracula / Van Helsing" and "M / Dorian" if I ever get to it and it fits into the plot.

---