Amy, author of Grantaire and Kindred Spirits, is 18 and lives in Gosford, NSW, Australia. She attends university next year to pursue "a less-than-useless Arts degree".

Q: How long have you been writing fanfic?
A: Since I was six, or seven or so, if you'd believe it, though I wouldn't have called it that, then. I wrote some sort of side plot to Black Beauty. It was about fifteen pages long (I know, I know, I was verbose, even then) and took me about six months to type on my father's laptop, because I could only type with one finger. I still have it, somewhere. The story, that is, as well as the finger.

Q: Why do you write?
A: I write because I enjoy it; because I am better able to express myself in written format than spoken, [and] because--well, let it be noted that a group of young men armed with muskets, clamouring for a story, is not something easily ignored.

Q: What got you interested in Les Miz?
A: I've always liked musicals. I developed a taste for JC Superstar when I was nine, Phantom of the Opera when I was eleven, etc. I acquired a CD of Les Miserables on a whim. I heard an interview of--Rob Guest, I think it was, on the radio in the car, one night about it, but the song they played was Do You Hear the People Sing? I was intrigued to learn what those fellows were so irate about, so I bought it. From there, it was a short step to the novel.

Q: Do you tend to base your stories on the novel, or the musical?
A: Oh, the novel. It provides more background, examples of the speech of at least some of the characters and I can always say to myself "at least I'm not interrupting my plot to describe what it is that you can find in a sewer."

Q: What condition is your copy of the novel in? ;)
A: Ahem. The front and back covers are attached with masking tape. Several pages are folded to mark a place. The third page of Enjolras' "citizens, can you conceive of the future?" speech is detachable and there is what I think is a red wine stain on the first page of R's speech beginning "I'm thirsty! I have a dream, brothers..." the origins of which I am studiously not enquiring into.

Q: What kind of fic do you tend to write the most (humor, romance, vignettes, crossovers...)? Why?
A: I don't know quite which genre it would slot into. 'Hopeless melodrama' sounds appropriate. I can't give a specific reason. I don't set out to write in a particular style. It's simply mine.

Q: Do you usually start with a plot idea or with a character?
A: A character. Or more specifically, a line for a character. A sentence, or paragraph sparks in my head that I can imagine someone delivering. Then, of course, he or she needs a reason for saying it. A plot--hopefully--develops from there.

Q: Do you research your fics? What are some sources you consult?
A: I do, at least a little. I currently lack French history books, so I've been known to dash for the search engines, when it occurs to me that I can't remember the year so-and-so died, or whether or not such-and-such was invented. Gods know if what I come up with is accurate. For the rest, I've been known to dash to my bookshelf to check the dates when things were first published, to see if the characters are allowed to allude to them, and my inability to spell Greek names forces me to keep an encyclopaedia of Greek mythology next to me at all times, in case I have a mental blank on Amphitrite, or some such.

Q: Who's your favorite character and why?
A: Grantaire. He's... to type. I'm invariably attached to the literary dissolute, to the sardonic nature, the devoted follower. It's a warning that I should never get married. Gods know what I'd pick. Besides, how can you not love a man who thought up "By all the saints of Olympus and all the gods in Paradise!" ?

Q: Do you like to write about original characters, or do you prefer to stick to the ones from the story?
A: In general? I prefer to use Hugo's characters. Gods know, there are enough of them. But if another character is necessary, I'm not above agonising over naming him/her for hours, skirting around attaching a personality and tossing the final result in the plot. My Amis are currently in the process of acquiring families.

Q: What one character would you like to read more about?
A: Oh, Bahorel, I suppose. Poor fellow is rather neglected. But I can't write him properly, so I'll leave that in the capable hands of others.

Q: What's your favorite moment from the novel/musical?
A: From the novel? The deaths of Messieurs Enjolras and Grantaire, morbid wretch that I am. From the musical? Well, my favourite song is Drink With Me, but I liked to watch Red and Black.

Q: What's your favorite story of yours, and why?
A: Oh, probably the Untitled one (which I keep intending to come up with a title for). It's long and unwieldy, but it has a plot and a conclusion, so I'm proud of it.

Q: What story have you gotten the most feedback about?
A: I'd say the aged Grantaire one. I don't know why, it annoys me endlessly, causes its protagonist to turn very pale whenever I suggest finishing it and needs a great deal of work.

Q: How did you get the idea for your Untitled story?
A: Well, there is this line: "There are men who seemed to be born two sided. They are Pollux, Patrocles, Nisus, Ephestion." 'Orestes and Pylades' has been worn to shreds as a metaphor and I was one day struck by the image of Cai declaring: "Roman? Bah. My great grandfather had the dubious distinction of possibly being the bastard son of a man who claimed to have a Roman father. So my father calls himself an Equite, I'm cursed with the lamentably difficult to pronounce name 'Caius,' and you tolerate me because you've an unnatural liking for the appropriately named Brutus. With my luck, that imbecile was probably my ancestor. Political assassinations, mad attempts to resuscitate with all sorts of useless patriotic vapours that consumptive crone, the republic and ending with a reprehensibly melodramatic suicide. It's like one of those tedious Greek tragedies. Melpomene must have been cackling through her blood-streaked lips that day. I should've been called Claudius. I'm lame enough. But if a wolf cub fell on me, it'd be sure to bite me. You're probably more Roman than I am." And that was that. It had to be written. Incidentally, M'sieur Lucien Enjolras has not yet forgiven me for that one.

Q: What other fanfic writers do you enjoy reading?
A: Hmm. Elsb, Ursula, Jeni Baron, Lonely Gamine, our Indexer, Rabsjavert, Laura Waterstripe... There are others. I am terrible with names. Those are just those that I actually know, which increases my chance of remembering them.

Q: What's your favorite story of someone else's?
A: Just one? That's pushing it. I'm greatly fond of both An Enjolras Romance and Enchantments and Desolations.

Q: Do you read or write fanfic in other fandoms?
A: I've read bits and pieces. I don't write it, generally.

Q: Do you think Victor Hugo would approve of what you write, and do you care? :)
A: Oh, I don't know. Somehow I doubt he'd approve of any of us running off with his Inspectors and his Rebel Leaders and his Lovesick Gamines, etc., for our own amusement. I'm not much bothered, really, or I wouldn't do it.

Q: What's your advice to beginning fanfic writers?
A: Don't do what I do, which is fret endlessly over any piece of writing, leave it lurking in the back of a computer somewhere and only drag it out at someone else's urging. Authors are meant to be read, after all.

Q: What's a book you'd recommend to everyone?
A: The Count of Monte Cristo. I'm terribly fond of Dumas, just now.

Q: How do you come up with names for your characters?
A: With great difficulty. These days, generally with the assistance of a random generator, or at least a list of names. In earlier times... My Grantaire acquired a name after endless searching through name books and sites. My Enjolras acquired one more quickly due to my exhaustion after attaching one to my R.

Q: What's a question you'd like to ask another author?
A: Does anyone want to buy an Enjolras? He glares, he orates, so far he hasn't slept with anybody--comes in good-as-new condition (barring the bullet holes) and with first name attached. And he scares his typist no end. The only drawback is that he tends to lose things. Ah well. In all seriousness, however does one write an Enjolras without him ending melodramatic?

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