Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you MASTER RACE, by Babette12.
Summary: Alienated from the Cullens, Edward finds himself bored in South America. When he "hears" another vampire creating a master race he is intrigued. But who would be the perfect genetic material and what will be the cost to the human mother?
And yes, if you read that and thought “ohhhhh Bastard!”, you’d be absolutely right. Having said that, Babette12 created a Darkward that sets out with one agenda and discovered that not everything goes according to plan …
Babette12 has approached her characters in this story with a deft touch and an intriguing palate of characters and settings which has managed to keep me guessing. She has also given us a Bella that doesn’t fall swooning into Edward’s open arms at every opportunity. The characters are still in canon but she has applied different layers to keep it all fresh and interesting.
"I'm not after a mate, Em, and I refuse to ever change one of them."
"Why not?" he questioned, his mind now drifting to Rosalie's very loving goodbye prior to my arrival. "They are quite nice to have around, you know."This is Darkward with a very firm agenda (amongst other things *snicker*), but if he thinks he’s going to surprise the Cullens and have his own way then he’s in for a surprise. You know what they say about the best laid plans of mice and men after all …
That’s enough babbling from me though, on with the interview!
1. What was it that gave you the ‘spark’ for your story? Was it a picture? A moment or event? Can you remember the initial inspiration?
I was thinking about Edward’s character. What if he never quit hunting humans? If I took his attitude of ‘I know what’s best and will insist on it’, mixed it with his desire for a family and threw in a Bella, what would happen? The first paragraph came to me instantly, it really set his way of thinking in my head. So I sent it to getshorty, we chatted back and forth, and about 50 emails later we had the entire thing plotted out. Interestingly, the scene where she’s giving birth, and dying, and he’s realizing what he’s lost was the second thing written in the story.
2. Do you have a particular process when it comes to your writing, perhaps a certain mood, environment or music? Do you have any ‘triggers’ to get you in the writing mood?
When writing Edward I had to put myself into a black mood. I know that sounds crazy, but he was just so dark to me! I got really tired of him because of it. I’m a happy person, usually, so writing Bella was easy, up until she finally gets mad at Edward. I don’t stay mad at people, either, so spending weeks trying to write her mad at him was also difficult.
I can’t listen to music while writing. I get too focused on it and ignore the story.
3. Give us an elevator pitch. Say you’re in an elevator with a prospective reader for 2 minutes – what would you tell them about the story?
It’s a story about searching for what you think will make you happy, only to find that going after that single-mindedly is a huge mistake. It’s also about repentance, forgiveness and ultimately redemption.
4. Do you picture particular actors for your characters, or are they someone else entirely? If so, who?I don’t follow actors enough to get a picture of anyone in my mind. I can tell you that the first time I saw Rob in vampire make-up I thought he was a perfect match for how I visualized Edward. The others, not so much. Not that I minded them, they just don’t match my mental picture.
5. Is the story all planned out or do you do it as a fly by the seat of your pants thing?
According to baboo (my husband), I don’t go to the bathroom without a plan. The later chapters in the outline were a bit vague, though, which made them harder to write. Getshorty and I had to have weekly skype meetings to discuss what we really wanted to have happen.
I think the level of getshorty’s involvement in this is something most people don’t realize. Yes, I wrote the story, but at least half of the outline, what the characters would do, and how the story would unfold came from her head.
6. Have you got any other projects going on? Any planned for the future?
My current project is the fictionista witfit challenge. That gets updated almost every day. It’s a great deal of fun.
I’d like to try my hand at writing original fiction. It’ll probably be a total bust, but nothing ventured, nothing gained. I’ve had one of my readers ask if I would consider writing a story she came up with but doesn’t want to write herself. Lastly, I have a story where Bella is being chased by the mob. I worry that it might be too much like Dangerous Affections, though, and have a paranoia about doing anything that approaches the scent of plagiarism. That’s why both my stories have been so unique.
7. What was it that brought you to Twilight fanfic? What is it that has kept you here (besides your own writing)
Vixen1836’s story Black and White is what got me into fanfiction. I was looking for more about twilight, googled it, found fanfiction and started to read her story. I was hooked.
What kept me here is that she is such a wonderful person, as were all the ladies on her thread. I’m still friends with many of them. Combine that with all the others I’ve met, women who are supportive, loving and helpful, I would find it hard to leave!
8. Do you have a background in writing? Has the fanfic experience expanded your creativity?
Only technical writing, and even that was a side job. Up until fanfiction my usual prose consisted of things like: the accuracy of the method is shown by performing a 3x3 procedure wherein three placebos are spiked at three concentration levels…. Yep, boring. This has definitely expanded my creativity.
9. How about your creative self-confidence? By nature writers tend to be a notoriously insecure lot so how are you finding the online writing experience?
I’ve been blessed with the best reviewers! Even people who are telling me that I’ve got too many comma splices have been really nice about it. It’s obvious they are just trying to help me become better. I appreciate those very much. It also helps when I have people say ‘I’ll read anything you write.’ Yep, stroke that ego! Stroke, stroke—and now I have a Billy Squier song going through my head, see what I mean about music distracting me?
10. Do you tell your friends and family that you’re an online author with a devoted following, or is this something that you tend to keep for yourself?
My immediate family knows and thinks I’m insane. Baboo keeps telling me that if I get published and earn millions to remember I love him. I’ve shared it with a couple friends as well. Other than that, I keep it to myself.
12. Is there a particular character in your story that you identify with the most?
Easily it’s Bella. She is kind, forgiving and strong. All the things I hope to be.
13. Which RL author(s) inspires you?
Well, there’s that lady who wrote those vampire love stories. Stacy? Samantha? Oh, you know who I’m talking about. I also love Orson Scott Card, David Eddings, Robert Jordan, and others. I tend towards science-fiction/fantasy or historical love stories.
14. Did any FF authors inspire you? What was it that had you reading FF and thinking “I could do this”?
This is kind of a repeat of #7 for me, but there are other authors who inspire me as well as vixen. Wickedcicada, obsessingoveredward, Rochelle Allison, Jennde, just to name a few. Oh, and then there’s this really cool one, Sandy something? She totally rocks. I did one of my witfits in third person POV just to see if I could come close to how cool her Take the Cake story was. Let’s just say it’ll take practice.
What got me started was the Age of Edward contest. As soon as I saw the list of suggestions, and read civilwarward, I thought it was perfect for me.
15. Extra bonus points and a cupcake for brown-nosing to me just then. What can I say? I have no shame! Moving on though, I have a hard time winding these things up so let’s have some fun. What would your porn star name be? That’s the name you get when you combine the name of your first pet with the first street you lived on – personally I’m *cough* Fluffy Brockman.
That would make me Queenie 22nd Avenue!
I’m pretty sure babette works as a great porn star name. When I told my department secretary that was baboo’s nickname for me she said it sounded like a French maid who cleans the castle and sleeps with the master. I just nodded and said that sounded about right.
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