Attitude. Its a simple word, but to me, it heralds so many possible problems in writing.

Attitude. What do people mean by it? In many cases, a variety of different things that are pretty confusing to a writer. ...

A bit of news: Way With Worlds is being translated into German at Christian Spliess's Page. Go and check it out!

And now, on with our regular column:

Three figures lurked in a dark alcove in Castle Cragmore.

They fit together like an strange puzzle: one was burly human with shoulders like rocks. Another was a slender elf, his face and body ethereal and thin. The third was a black-bearded dwarf with a body that reminded one of a clenched fist.

"I find this quite disturbing," the human said elegantly. His accent was clipped and very prpper, with diction so sharp you could cut wood with it.
...

Fantasy lovers are a strange breed. Not too many people seem to spend their free time looking at the newest J.R.R. Tolkien calender or studying The Art of the Brothers Hildebrandt. But there are more of us out there than we would let on. ...

INTRODUCTION:
This is going to be a bit different from my usual columns - instead of me talking to the audience, I'm interviewing an author who has built a strong continuity-driven fiction series. This will be an irregular feature, exploring the ideas and concepts of unique individuals and how they created their worlds.

OUR WORLD:
Imagine a world of living biotechnology, a secret criminal conspiracy, and two enemies-turned-friends who discover the world and each other are not what they thought. The powers of nature, the balance of man and his environment, all spiral towards a terrifying conclusion as ignorance, greed, love, and heroism combine . . .

In Pokemon: Evolution.

Yes, Pokemon - Pokemon turned into Hong Kong Film Noir twelve years down the road. This isn't a standard fanfiction: it's an extrapolated look at a world while trying to keep true to the themes of the original tales and game. Its a developed possible-future story with culture, characters, and causality. With such a tight continuity, I figured an interview with its main creator and writer, Alicia Ashby, would be invaluable.

If you want to find the stories, you can find them here at fanfiction.net by searching for the title "Pokemon: Evolution", its author (under her nom de plume of "Lynxara") or following these links (if fanfiction.net hasn't rearranged its database)

Evolution #1
Evolution #2
Evolution #3
Evolution #4
Evolution #5
Evolution #6

Or visit Evolution's home site:

http://students.roanoke.edu/a/aashby/EvoWebpage/evopage.html< /a>



And now, on to the the interview.

INTERVIEW:
Well, let's start from the top. Pokemon: Evolution is a complete world, a look at Pokemon twelve years into the future in a very detailed setting. How did this idea start?

Well, the idea had profoundly humble beginnings. It started when my co-writer, DamienK, wanted to run a metaconcept of a canon character in an IRC roleplay channel I frequented. ...

There seems to be a growing trend in the literary world that views Science Fiction as the second-rate, poor-relation member of the literature family. One should pat it on the head, and patronise it to ones hearts content, but dont encourage it too much because, poor thing, it doesn t know any better. ...