Interview with Medea Smyke!

I'm very happy to presenting you all with an interview with a fabulous author, and friend of mine, Medea Smyke. If you're a Gadge fanatic, you've most likely read her fics; they are legendary for that ship! Medea's fics are a currently very popular in the Hunger Games fandom, and with her being such a wonderful writer too, I thought I'd take the chance to interview her and gain some insight into her writery ways. This is a must see for fans of An Extra Dividend and And So We Run Redux!!
 ~ Little Miss Mionie


LMM: Thanks for doing this, Medea.


MS: Thanks for interviewing me! 


LMM: All right, I'll get straight into it. What made you start writing Hunger Games fanfiction?

MS: Well, I didn’t mean to. At the time I was happy writing for “Lord of the Rings” (LOTR). A friend of mine recommended the “Hunger Games” series to me shortly after CF came out. I browsed through the stories on FFN and couldn’t find anything on Gale/Madge (Gadge) as a pairing, (except a few K/P fics where they were sort of tucked into the background), so I ended up having to write it for myself! That spelled the end for my LOTR days, alas. 

LMM: You are renowned in the fandom for writing realistic and rounded portrayals of Gale and Madge in a romantic relationship. What drew you to this pairing? What do you love about it?

MS: Madge and Gale piqued my interest as a shipper as soon as he made that backhanded comment about her dress in HG. I grew up reading Pride and Prejudice, Anne of Green Gables, and Much Ado About Nothing were the love interests spend a majority of the story at odds. I love that flavor of romantic tension. Then when Madge showed up with the morphling in CF, there was no going back for me. Besides, I was rooting for Peeta to win Katniss. ;) 

Gadge makes for a dynamic pairing. Some might say that pairing Gale off with Madge would’ve been a  “too easy” solution, but I disagree. Turning Gale into a douche tool was taking the easy way out. Anyway. There are a lot of angles to take with Gadge, with the class issues, their stances about the rebellion, prejudice and presuppositions about one another that are present in HG, etc. Their relationship with others in the town also make them interesting to write about. They’re both friends with Katniss but on a very different spectrum. What I also love is that they are minor characters (Madge more so than Gale), which leaves plenty of “off screen time” for fanfiction writers to play with. One of the best examples of this is Solaryllis’s Rebel Like You. 

LMM: Do you find, predominantly writing a fanon pairing (Gale/Madge), that it is harder to get your stories read and reviewed? Or are Gadge fans very dedicated in their love and reviews for Gadge fics?

MS: At first, yes, it was difficult to get readers, let alone reviews. One can’t expect to get the same amount of reviews than a K/P story would. I started writing Gadge shortly after CF came out and I think the pairing was a bit of a surprise to people or downright distasteful. Folks either ignored Gadge fics or they left me interesting reviews with their negative opinions. The G/K/P triangle was still up in the air, at that point, so there was a bit more emotion behind shipping. Even now, few people think seriously of Madge as a character, let alone as a love interest for Gale. On the flip side, though, writing Gadge did draw other Gadgers out of the woodwork and I made some great friends in the fandom that way. Now there is a definite backing for Gadge within the fandom and far more writers to choose from. When Mockingjay came out there was definitely a question about whether or not Gadge would survive, but I think the ship is as strong as ever. Maybe more so. There’s a certain level of canon defiance required to be a Gadger, and that’s always fun. ;) 

LMM: You have a habit of resurrecting Madge Undersee in your fics. Any chance we’d see an angsty fic where Gale mourns her, or sees her for the last time during the bombs? Or are you committed to keeping it AU?!

MS: LOL! I am an emotional coward, so something that angsty would probably break my wee heart. Besides, whenever I sit down to write drama, humor always gets in the way. I have made a cozy corner for myself in AU, and I don’t see dislodging myself anytime soon. There are plenty of other Gadge writers who thrive writing angst, so I’ll leave them to it. 

LMM: You have a talent of for writing our fave Hunger Games characters at all stages of their lives – during the rebellion, facing parenthood – and all of your fanfiction stories are quite different in terms of narrative and genre. Do you deliberately try and write different things? Or has it all just sort of…happened? 

MS: Hmm. It’s a bit of both, part whimsy part deliberation. I do try to make different characters sound different, if successful, the way Collins writes them, so my Gadge stories will be different from the one I wrote about Finnick. She did a fabulous job giving her cast unique voices, so that may account for different narrative styles I use to accommodate them. 

My ideas for stories tend to start with a smattering of dialogue or a random scene and suddenly the whole story unfolds. It can be quite random. For And So We Run Redux, that mammoth story stemmed from the drabble I wrote when I pictured Gale showing up at Madge’s home to help her escape. The first installment of Christmas Cheers started when I was looking for Christmas ideas for my little nephew who was about to be born. The little outfit that says “My Other Bottle’s a Beer” turned into a gift from Haymitch and voila.  They’re quite different stories and that depends totally on whatever random idea pops into my head. Sometimes these develop into full-out stories, sometimes they end up on the shelf. 

LMM: An Extra Dividend is your most acclaimed Hunger Games fic. A lot of fans wondered what happened to Gale post-Mockingjay, and it seems like An Extra Dividend is an idea that a lot of people hope would have happened in canon. What was the writing process like?

MS: Writing An Extra Dividend was probably the most beautiful writing experience I’ve had so far, LOL. Most stories I’ve written have required a lot of hair-pulling and existential crises, but this one seemed to write itself. A large part of that owed itself to lifting half of the plot directly from the play The Shop Around the Corner. The letter-writing, misunderstanding and romance come from the play, while the secondary plot of the Capitol loyalists infiltrating the system was something I added. I have the hardest time with plots, so with that difficulty out of the way, I got to focus on characterization and dialogue - the fun things. What was also unique about AED was that I had the majority of the story written before I began posting. That made a huge impact on my ability to revise each chapter, so I was able to publish a new chapter every week to two weeks. Knowing where the story would ultimately go made revision a much smoother process. It took me about three months to grind out the rough draft, and only a few months more to post the entire thing. Amazing, considering that Redux took me a year. 

LMM: As We Run Redux: Part II is also one of the fandom’s most popular AU fanfics. Have you been surprised by the response considering it is very alternate? I mean, apart from writing a strong characterisation of Gale that was bound to get applause from Gale fans, Redux II has had fanart drawn for it twice.

MS: I've been lucky to have some folks over at Deviant Art draw up some scenes from my stories. They're all awesome! My absolute favorite has to be this artwork for Quintus McFarlane, the pilot in And So We Run II, by Apricotteacup and I can't talk it up enough. 

(The image won't work on blogger, but you can find it here on deviantart.)
When I started Redux it wasn’t strictly AU yet, it was speculative fanfiction, which I think is a distinction and certainly where the draw came from. It certainly became AU, though, after Mockingjay’s release.  By then, though, the story was about wrapped up. I think I’m surprised when any of my stories do well, but given the timing, I think that helps explain why the story had a draw. I doubt Redux II would be nearly as successful if it had been written after the publication of MJ, which established post-CF canon.  In fact, I miss those days before Mockingjay, where authors were able to post stories with their own version of events without having to explain how it differed from canon, since canon hadn’t been revealed yet. We saw some of my favorite fics during that period between CF and MJ, with stories like Holymfwickee’s (then Kenoshachick) Scars.  There’s a certain thrill in speculative fanfiction where anything is game, which deliberate AU doesn’t make up for.
LMM: You love YA fiction. Do you find any part of YA helps you in writing? Eg, writing Gale, Madge and Katniss as teenagers in Redux II – because although everything is very serious in that fic, you’ve written it just like Collins in the idea that you don’t forget that they’re all teenagers going through hell.

MS: LOL, YA fiction has helped me remember how awful being a teenager was and all the emotional wackiness. For the record, it wasn’t that long ago, but I spent all of high school trying to get out of high school, so I don’t think I took advantage of the cool things too, which YA fiction also reminds me. Teens are in this great phase (okay, it didn’t feel great at the time) where they are still adolescent yet turning into adults. So teen characters can be spontaneous when they need to be, but also incredibly mature at the same time. We also see Katniss and Gale thrust into these adult roles, so they have this maturity-beyond-their-years thing going on coupled with occasional hiccups that make for some dynamic characterization.  

LMM: Moving onto something a bit more fun…I giggle-snorted so hard while reading Peeta’s Honeymoon Survival Kit (co-written by Geeky-DMHG-fan.) Was it a challenge to inject humour into such a serious fandom?

MS: Ha! No. I don’t think I could write anything else but humor for long. The darker the series gets, I think something in me feels the need to balance it out with light. When Geeky and I wrote PHSK, we were both pretty upset with how Mockingjay turned out and I think we both wanted to write something that would take our minds off of it and reclaim the characters we enjoyed. Writing drama is so difficult for me - at least - writing it straight. There are some intense moments in some of my fics, but it never lasts long before some joke bubbles through, or the characters do something absurd. I can’t seem to help it. Even SC can’t seem to help it, either. Just think of the scene in Hunger Games where Katniss makes Peeta wear a backpack over his groin even though he’s on death’s door. So funny! 

LMM: What inspires you to write?

MS: The absence of the stories I want to read is one inspiration, certainly. For fanfiction, it’s the desire to speculate about where a story will go (when canon isn’t established) or to keep characters alive (Madge!) or to play with a favorite pairing (Gadge!). The characters themselves are inspiring. I miss them when the story is over and want to know more about what they’re up to, so I make it up. 

LMM: What’s your favourite Hunger Games book, and why? Does it directly reflect the type of fanfics you write?

MS: Difficult question! I tend to blend Hunger Games and Catching Fire together into one story.  If I had to pick between the two of them, I suppose I would choose Hunger Games. We’re learning about Katniss’s world for the first time. The arena is my favorite here and we get to see a whole lot of Peeta. The world is also a little less complicated than it starts to become in Catching Fire when President Snow and the rebellion really inject themselves into Katniss’s life. The story feels more contained and surprising. 

I don’t like Mockingjay at all, so that certainly reflects the type of fanfics I write. I incorporate what we know from HG and CF and pretty much ignore the canon after that point. It feels strange to fly in the face of canon, especially coming from LOTR where canon knowledge was integral to a story’s success, but MJ is unacceptable so I’ve had to adapt my sensibilities. 

LMM: You’ve been writing fanfiction for around ten years. Do you feel (like I do) that your most recent work – which is for the Hunger Games fandom – is your best yet? Why or why not?

MS: Definitely. I tend to always feel like whatever I’m working on is the best as it benefits from a culmination of whatever I’m learning about the craft of writing. Plus, it’s fresh. In the Hunger Games, as opposed to LOTR, I also don’t feel overshadowed by writers who have been in the fandom much longer than me, since it is a brand new baby fandom. It’s been awesome to be part of building and creating fanon rather than entering into an already established fandom. That’s certainly helped my writing.  

LMM: What are your thoughts on Hunger Games fanfiction in general? How does it compare to other fandoms you’ve written in – and is this a good or bad thing? (Eg. You’re unlikely to find an AU “all-human” a la Twilight fic in this fandom. Everything is quite canon based in terms of setting.)

MS: As I mentioned above, HG is a new fandom. I don’t feel lost in the shuffle the way I would in a larger, older fandom like Lord of the Rings, or in very popular ones like Harry Potter and Twilight. It boggles my mind and I would feel too overwhelmed to try and get a fic wedged into one of those fandoms. 

HG fanon, the facts that we take for granted even though they aren’t in the books, is still under construction. I like helping create it. For example, Gale’s catchphrase, “Hell’s teeth” has gone viral. I doubt folks realize that came from And So We Run Redux. It’s nice to be a part of creating fanon instead of walking into a fandom where these kinds of little details are established and expected. 

LMM: Since we are a recommendation site, I thought it would be fun to ask: What are some of your favourite fics?

MS: Right now I am thoroughly enjoying Solaryllis’s fics, particularly Rebel Like You and On What Grounds. Her treatment of Gale and Madge is spot on. She writes intelligent plots with plenty of intrigue and a really cute dog named Zipper. 

Holymfwickee recently published a continuation of her Always Trust Your Wingman fic to include a juicy two-chapter story on Madge and Gale called Double Date. Even though she is best known for her Katniss/Peeta fics, she always puts great perspective on Madge and Gale as individuals and as a couple. 

Fans of Jo and Gale will enjoy Miss Scarlette 05’s crackfic called Pants.  Even people like me who don’t like Jo and Gale together will enjoy it. Just don’t read and drink at the same time unless you have something on hand to clean off your monitor. 

And my favorite Gadge of all time by Geeky-DMGH-Fan is Peeta Mellark Ruined My Life. 

LMM: Are there any secrets, spoilers or titbits of information about any of your HG fics that you’d like to let your readers know about? Perhaps calm down an hysteria about a recent cliff hanger, for instance?

MS: Well, I don’t have anything that I’m posting at the moment, so there aren’t any secrets or spoilers or hysteria. Not that I know of. 

LMM: Can you give us an exclusive and tell what fanfic endeavours you’ve got coming up? :)

MS: Sure! Currently, I am working on two new instalments for my annual Christmas Cheers collection. There will be two different pairings. I’m sure it’s obvious what at least one of the pairings will be. ;) 

After that, I hope to actually begin working on a Hazelle/Mr. Hawthorne “pre-Gale” fic. It will be a romantic fic about how they they fell in love. It will also explore the reasons why Katniss and Gale didn’t know each other until after both of their fathers were killed, even though both of their fathers hunted (which no one else in 12 did) and worked on the same crew in the mines. If Mr. Hawthorne and Mr. Everdeen knew each other, why were their families so separate? I’ve got some ideas about that. 

LMM: Finally, what’s your favourite THG fanfiction that you’ve written?

MS: Oh boy. Erm. Well, I think it has to be An Extra Dividend and possibly I See You. AED was super fun to write. Although, I See You is a Katniss/Gale fic, it feels a little more like the Hunger Games to me. I don’t know. I don’t go back to read my stories often, but when I do, I go back to that one.


You can find Medea Smyke and her fics on fanfiction.net.