This month is a first – my first male author spotlight! I have to say, I was majorly excited when he emailed me and asked to be hosted here. For people who have been around hanfic for any length of time, there are a few names and websites that will always conjure up memories. Stephen and his site Yellow Walkie Talkie are definitely on that list.
The stories on Stephen’s site are numerous, including his own and many by other authors. I won’t list them all here; just check out his answers for a few good places to start diving into his back catalog of fic!
Why did you start writing hanfic? How long have you been writing?
Long story short, I found myself in a dark place in the spring/summer of 1997. For whatever reason, I latched onto Hanson because their music helped make the dark place a little brighter. I’ve always wanted to write and had written a fan fic – a crossover seaQuest DSV/Star Trek: The Next Generation story called ” I Have Seen the Future” (link)– the previous year, so I guess writing hanfic was inevitable. I wrote Volume One of The Manchester Trilogy, MMMmiracle (which was actually my fourth hanfic), over Thanksgiving week. Funnily enough, I never intended on sharing it with anyone, but ending up changing my mind. I got a free website on GeoCities, taught myself elementary HTML and published the story online. I then spent the entire month of December shamelessly promoting it to anyone who would listen. In other words, I cold-emailed folks and asked them to read my story. The response was unexpectedly favorable. I’ve been writing on and off (mostly off, unfortunately) for about twenty years.
For the new school fans who aren’t familiar with it, can you talk a little bit about just what Yellow Walkie Talkie is?
The Yellow Walkie Talkie is a hanfic site which began its life as a site called HITZ Fiction. I started HITZ Fiction on January 1, 1998, after the rather unexpected success of MMMmiracle, the first installment of The Manchester Trilogy (though it wasn’t my first hanfic). At some point, possibly after the publication of Sins of the Father in March 1998, I changed the name of the site to The Yellow Walkie Talkie. I still don’t understand why my stories were so well-received (they’re not very good) – possibly because I was the only 26 y/o male writing hanfic, which made me a novelty – but that success made the site popular. While in the shower one morning, I had an idea. Growing up I was a big fan of The Twilight Zone and Night Gallery (both by Rod Serling) re-runs that ran on late-night TV. I thought it would be cool if a bunch of hanfic authors got together and wrote Twilight Zone-type stories starring Ike, Tay, and Zac. That became The Taylight Zone Anthology Series. That spawned into other themed anthology series like Club Albertane, Club Albertane: After Dark, Ever Lonely, Christmas Time, and Yearbook. From the summer of 1998 to sometime in 2000, the site accumulated over 230 stories by 114 authors. I personally wrote 16 of those stories and co-wrote three more (bibliography). I lost my passion for the website when my writing muse packed up and left for whereabouts unknown. The site had a sketchy history between 2000 – 2006 (and many different web addresses), before it finally disappeared altogether. The files were long-thought lost until I found them just recently on a CD buried deep within my closet.
What are your favorite hanfic stories and authors?
I think my all-time favorite story is still Conundrum (link). It’s one of the first good hanfic stories I read and it’s basically what inspired me to give it a shot myself. Well, that and I wanted to see more stories that didn’t involve some girl moving in next door to Hanson and falling in love. Ironically, I would go on to help contribute to many of the “tropes” you have listed on your page. 🙂 I remember loving Walls, Roads, Tulsa 74132, MoonBop, Devil/Angel, among others. I was fortunate enough to be acquainted with many of the early hanfic authors.
As far as favorite hanfic stories I’ve actually written, a few stand out. I’ll always have a soft spot for MMMmiracle as it’s one of the most personal stories I’ve ever written. I’m also damn proud of Sins of the Father, not so much because I think it’s a great story (it really isn’t), but because of its sheer size and scope. It’s the longest, most complicated story I’ve ever written. I’m also rather fond of Moving Day (my very own ghost story) and the work I did with Amerika on The Vampire Anthology (writing as ts brody). For example, I don’t remember whose idea it was to have Zac keep the dead girl in a box (The One Thing Now), but writing with her was a heck of a lot of fun.
What is your writing process like?
I generally start with an idea (or even just a title). I then do what I call “writing without a net.” That means I just start writing – without any idea how the story’s going to end – and see where it leads me. Sometimes I’ll start with one idea in mind and switch gears part of the way through. An example of that would be Sins of the Father. It was not originally intended as a sequel to MMMmiracle.
Where do your ideas and inspiration come from?
MMMmiracle came out of my own mental health struggles (and my love for the TV show Touched by an Angel). I think I was trying to write myself out of the dark place. Moving Day came about because of the report that Hanson had moved into a new house and my fondness for Conundrum. A lot of times I’d just be sitting around thinking, “wouldn’t it cool if…” and just start writing. A lot of good ideas came about in the shower.
Which stories are you most proud of having written?
I’ll always have a soft spot for MMMmiracle as it’s one of my most personal stories. I’m also damn proud of Sins of the Father, not so much because I think it’s a great story (it really isn’t), but because of its sheer size and scope. It’s the longest, most complicated story I’ve ever written. I’m also rather fond of Moving Day (my very own ghost story) and the work I did with Amerika on The Vampire Anthology (writing as ts brody). For example, I don’t remember whose idea it was to have Zac keep the dead girl in a box (The One Thing Now), but writing with her was a heck of a lot of fun. She would write several paragraphs and then pass it off to me to continue. We would go back and forth until the story was complete.
Favorite songs to listen to while you write or which inspire your writing?
Most of my hanfic was written to instrumental music, be it new age, soundtracks, classical, etc. I prefer to have few distractions when I was writing and songs with lyrics do just that.
Thank you, Stephen, for being the March spotlight and for turning to PTH to get YWT back online!