Interview with Holymfwickee!

Hi everyone! It's Little Miss Mionie here. I am so freakin' excited to be presenting to you my interview with the fabulous, stupendous, awesome, cool and utterly lovely Holymfwickee. 

Holymfwickee, known in some circles as KenoshaChick, is the author of Hunger Games fanfic favourites such as Scars and My First Date with Katniss Everdeen. She also recommends fanfics at our wicked ally Muttations, so it was super cool to have an interview with her - plus, she included images! Here's our interview - I hope you enjoy!! 

*LMM - Black text
*Holymfwickee - Blue text

Little Miss Mionie: Hi, Jessica! Thanks for joining us for this interview :)

Jessica: Thank you for having me. I’ll try not to be boring.

LMM: Firstly, tell us a bit about yourself. 

Hi! I’m Jessica. I’m a twenty-something living in the US, Wisconsin to be specific. I spent two years at one university with no idea what I wanted to do, switched to a different university, and ended up with a degree in interior design.

I’ve been on the fanfiction bandwagon for longer than I’d like to say and I don’t see myself quitting anytime soon. I love reading, museums, and travelling. And I have terrible eyesight.

This is Isabella, who likes to cuddle at inconvenient times, including when I’m trying to write.

LMM: Let’s get straight into it. What drew you into writing Hunger Games fanfiction? I know half the time I write fanfiction, it’s because I can’t find the plot I want to read.

I was drawn into HG fanfic for the same reason I read and write in other fandoms. I think up a tiny kernel of an idea—it might only be one scene or a few lines of dialogue—but then, I’ll keep obsessing over it until I write it down. So, I guess the answer is I write fanfic so I can sleep at night. Plus, it’s fun. And I read fanfic because, well, when I love a book I don’t want it to end!

LMM: You have also written in other fandoms, such as Twilight. How do you think Hunger Games fanfiction stacks up, since it’s still in its infancy?

Quantity and variety-wise, obviously there’s no comparison. You can find absolutely any pairing or plot in the Twilight fandom, and lots of it. And that’s awesome. It’s a never-ending supply of stories. Good stories, even.

HG is a much smaller pond; however, my overall experience in the HG fandom has been a better one. There are excellent stories, but more importantly there are some excellent people in this fandom. With Twilight, I was a very small fish in a very big pond. I came into the HG fandom when it was first starting to build momentum so I actually made connections with people. That makes the experience worthwhile.

LMM: I think it’s fair to say that you’re a bit more involved with the fandom than your average writer – you recommend fics in the awesome Muttations Podcast “Fanfic Picks” segment. What’s your favourite part about recommending fics? And about being a bit of a BNA in the fandom?

My favorite part about recommending fics is being able to put the spotlight on quality fics, and in doing so, knowing that I’ve made someone’s day. Being reviewed and recommended is a thrilling experience. It still makes my day, that’s for sure.  

It’s so funny that you ask about being a BNA (Big Name Author) because I’m not sure those who are strictly in the HG fandom know what a BNA is. I could be wrong, but I only know because I was a part of the Twilight fandom. Of course, I don’t think of myself in those terms. I’m just flattered that anyone even cares what I write. And BNA or not, I definitely want to be a positive member of the HG community. I also think I’m a bit older than most fans so I hope I set a good example.

LMM: What’s your favourite type of genre or ship to read? Is it different to what you yourself write?

My favorite type to read is AU, so I guess that’s not different from what I write. I usually stick to P/K and G/M. I’m a hardcore Gadge fan. They’re Canon to me. Prim/Rory stories are another favorite of mine.

I am one of those fans who didn’t like MJ, so AU/Post-CF is my ideal story.

LMM: Your most reviewed and loved fanfiction is “My First Date with Katniss Everdeen” – but “Scars” was your first Hunger Games fanfic, written back in 2009. Does it hold a special place in your heart? What was the fan response like back then?

Scars will always hold a special place in my heart. It was my first HG story and it was my best piece of creative writing at the time. Also, I wrote it when I was the most impassioned about the series. There was no other book I loved more than HG and CF. I was telling everyone I knew to read it. Looking back, the time from when I started Scars to the day MJ was published was the most fun I’ve ever had in a fandom. Though there were substantially less fics back then, people were crazy with theories and the anticipation for the last book was both unbearable and exhilarating.

The initial reaction to Scars was amazing because I posted it and then people...I mean...people were actually reading it!? And they were actually writing reviews!? Before Scars my highest review count was barely 100. So to have people read my story and want more was incredibly flattering and baffling at the same time.

INTERVIEW CONTINUES UNDER THE CUT! :)

LMM: Has the response changed since the release of Mockingjay and the increase of fanfiction readers?

With Scars, I get more readers who are looking for alternatives to MJ. And I get that. I like to do the same thing. The numbers however, haven’t increased by much and I think that may be because it’s rated M.

The numbers on MFDWKE has definitely increased over time. It’s become my most read story.

LMM: Most of the response to “Scars” and “My First Date with Katniss Everdeen” seems but centred around your portrayal of Peeta/Katniss. How did you go about approaching these characters when building up a romance that’s quite AU, considering what fans knew of our favourite lovebirds in canon?

Okay, brace yourself. This is going to be my epic response.

With MFDWKE, I tried to keep the characters as in-character as possible even in a slightly different set of circumstances. Giving Peeta the courage to talk to Katniss in the first place makes him a little OOC I suppose, but the books prove he’s capable of tremendous courage, plus he’s charming, so that didn’t seem like much of a stretch to me. And because the characterizations are similar to what they are in the books, I knew the romance was going to be very slow going. Peeta was all set on being in love, but romance wasn’t going to be anywhere on Katniss’ radar until the last few chapters of the story. I couldn’t change the fact that Katniss is quite closed off emotionally, not to mention the fact that she’s determined never to marry! Thank goodness for Prim or they’d never get anywhere. :)

So, in order to build that eventual romance, the first thing that had to exist between Peeta and Katniss was friendship and trust. And trust was one element I wasn’t certain I could genuinely create because in the books Katniss does not trust Peeta until he’s proven himself by his actions in the Games. And even then she doesn’t believe that he’s in love with her! I think the most important question MFDWKE raises is: Could Katniss trust Peeta if not for the Games?

Since the Peeta in MFDWKE couldn’t do anything as grand as take on a pack of careers for Katniss, I decided he would prove he was trustworthy the old-fashioned way—by consistently being kind, being a friend to her, a friend to Prim, all the things that makes Peeta a sweetheart. Of course, he’s not perfect. He messes up quite often, really. But those mistakes, his persistence, and the chemistry they have even during the mundane events of their lives, is what I think makes the story romantic overall.

Scars is a completely different story in terms of romance. That story is all about the romance. Fluffy romance. Dramatic romance. Angry romance (you can always count on Gadge for that).

It’s very OOC. There’s no doubt about it. The Katniss in Scars is much more fragile than she is in the books. (Although, at the end of MJ Katniss is very fragile, so I like to think that the characterization of Scars!Katniss isn’t completely impossible). There is definitely some wish fulfilment involved in Scars; for example, the reunion in the very first chapter is how I wanted it to happen. I wanted Katniss to decide that she truly loved Peeta. I also didn’t want Peeta to be miserable.

I write scenes like their toasting (and the scenes after the toasting) because deep down I want those things to be true. Writing romance for Scars is kind of the opposite of writing it for MFDWKE. There are no inhibitions about being in love.

LMM: “My First Date with Katniss Everdeen” currently has close to 1,000 reviews.  Both “Scars “and “My First Date…” have been recommended at over ten THG sites, and they’ve also been awarded places in the Pearl Awards and the 2010 The Hunger Games Fanfiction Awards. That’s pretty amazing considering The Hunger Games fandom is relatively small in size. How does that type of reception make you feel?  

Um...amazed? Flabbergasted? It’s unbelievable and something I don’t think I’ll ever experience again. I can’t say thank you enough. I haven’t reached 1000 reviews yet, but I’m crossing my fingers. That’s such a big milestone, especially in this fandom, and something I never thought I would achieve.

***Note: At the time of this interview, it hadn't reached 1,000. But now it has! Congrats, Jess!***

LMM: We had a few people tweet in and ask more or less this same question, so it should be fun to answer what readers are dying know :) How to you get into writing-in-Peeta’s-POV mode? Does it involve… baking bread?

I don’t claim to have any clue what goes in a teenage boy’s head, lol. I’m sure I’m not even close. The only thing Peeta and I have in common is that we’re both interested in art. Cooking is not my thing.

However, Peeta’s POV is, oddly enough, the easiest POV for me to write. He’s the most optimistic of any of the characters and that makes for a pleasant writing experience. I’m pretty sarcastic in real life, but Peeta’s optimism is what made First Date bearable to read, in my opinion. If it had been in Katniss’ POV it would have been nothing but suspicion, distrust, and a slag heap’s worth of emotional uncertainty. You know, basically the contents of HG and CF.  

LMM: How does it feel to have it finished?

I’m relieved. So relieved.

LMM: Going back to the books for a second, what’s your favourite part/book in the Hunger Games? Do you find yourself searching for fanfics relating to this? (Example: I am a New Moon-AU obsessive.)

What really attracts me to a book are the characters. If a series of books has awesome characters, but a so-so plot, I’ll still read the whole series. If it has a great plot, but I don’t connect with the characters, I won’t continue. The plot of HG is brilliant, but it’s the characters that I truly obsess over. The conversation Peeta and Katniss share in the caves? That’s what I’ll go back to again and again. I guess I’m a sap that way.

When it comes to fanfic, I do find myself seeking out fics that are related to the characters I care about most. I’m sure there are awesome fics about Cato or Foxface or any of the side characters, but I’d rather look for stories about characters that resonate with me. 

LMM: What inspired you to do the outtake series “Always Trust Your Wingman”? Was it the fan reaction, or a chance to give fruition to plot points that didn’t quite flow with “My First Date with Katniss Everdeen”?

I decided not to include the side-shots in MFDWKE because I didn’t want to switch POV’s or break from my chapter format, which was depicting Peeta’s day off each week.

Fan reactions do play a big role in the initial ideas for those side-shots though. Throughout the story people asked things like, “What is Katniss thinking?!” and “Why doesn’t she wake up and just let Peeta in?!” and “Katniss is so frustrating! I can’t stand her! I love Peeta! Love me, Peeta! I wouldn’t push you down if you kissed me!” Or something like that. And when people ask questions like that it gets the wheels turning in my head. And you know what comes next. It gets stuck in my brain until I write it out. For example, the second side-shot completely came from HG author, Medea Smyke when she said she was so frustrated with Katniss she’d rather see Madge and Peeta get together. And bam! New side-shot.

Incidentally, this is also exactly how Scars and MFDWKE became multi-chapter fics. When I originally conceived the first chapters they were actually one-shots. But if you put a good idea in my head, it usually gets stuck there.

LMM: Now, I thought I’d give you a chance to say anything you want to your readers and fans. Any rumours you’d like to quash? Fun facts you’d like to share?

The number one question/comment/enquiry/plea that I get goes something like, “Is Peeta going to die in Scars?!” Well, of course I can’t answer that. I’m very stingy about spoilers. But I will say that I really, really want to finish the story. I genuinely feel like I’ve let people down by going so long without updating it. I promise I haven’t given up on it. And I hope fans of the story will continue to be patient with me.

Fun fact: A few of the factoids Peeta writes in his letter to Katniss (in Scars) came directly from me.

“I absolutely detest butter cookies. I got sick from eating too many of them at once” – When I travelled to Scotland for ten days I ate so many shortbread cookies that I can’t stand to look at one now without feeling sick.

“I'm allergic to cologne” – All perfume really.

“I once had a pet turtle named Napoleon” – True. A red-eared slider. He was a good turtle.

LMM: You said in an interview with Muttations that you’re a closet fanfic reader/writer (ie, no one in RL really knows you write.) Do you have any plans to write and/or publish in the real world? Try your hand at some original fiction, writing a novel, or a series?

Since I did that interview I’ve told two people in my RL that I write fanfic. And I was pleasantly surprised that neither person was horrified by my geekiness! They’re actually quite encouraging. One has even read my stories. That doesn’t mean I’m going to start telling every person I meet, but it’s nice to talk about it with a personal friend.

I may have wild and crazy dreams about being a published author, but I don’t have serious notions of becoming one. I feel I’m rather realistic about the level of writing I’m capable of producing. I’m happy to stick to fanfic.

LMM: Do you have any fics, or plots, in mind that you’d like to write in the future? Do you think you’d try to write something different to “My First Date…” and “Scars”?

I have some one-shots that I’ve promised to people. One will be another side-shot to join the Always Trust Your Wingman collection. However, I don’t have any idea what the plot of it will be yet. It’s going to be at the request of the 1000^th reviewer of MFDWKE. I’m half excited and half terrified about it.

The other was a request from Medea Smyke where Peeta & Katniss and Gale & Madge go on a double date. I’m not sure what universe that’s going to happen in yet.

And of course I need to finish Scars. That’s all I have planned at the moment.

LMM: Lastly, a “My First Date…” question. How’d you decide on the picture of that lake? ;)

The qualities I was looking for when I searched out the lake was that it be completely wooded with no beach and that it looked hidden, like Katniss and Peeta were the first people to see in a hundred years.

I had some other image contenders like this one:

Or this one:

But especially this one:

I don’t know where this picture came from, but I think they’re posing for my story. ;)

LMM: Thanks for letting us interview you! It’s been absolutely awesome.

Thank you for having me! This is a lot of fun! 

~ Little Miss Mionie