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. ...

5 ways to take your time in writing, and yet get somewhere

Beware of all of a sudden and its’ relatives
Be wary of sequence words
Watch your spelling of the word
Jargon
Clichés
Most of us have read that short story every once in a while when all the action comes at the end of few words of introduction, which have a knack for appearing quite often. This article will hopefully keep you from doing that.

BEWARE OF ALL OF A SUDDEN AND ITS’ RELATIVES

When a writer sits down to write their first work, it is always not quite their best. Yet he or she may see it as quite an accomplishment. Such things are excusable in the beginning, but as the writer starts to write more they will correct their mistakes, all because perfect practice makes perfect.

Below is a passage that a beginning writer may write.

Joe went into the house and sat down. He turned on the t.v. and flipped to his favorite show. It wasn’t on, so he went to his room. Pressing the button, he found that his radio ...

5 ways to know if you have passive voice and fix it

Objects are acted upon
Limited Dialogue
Look for Was
A feeling of being in the past
The Answers
This article is a follow up on some of the topics I discusses in LWA V, but yet it deals with a type of voice that many beginning writers stumble into, and not by choice.

OBJECTS ARE ACTED UPON

Passive voice, unlike the more excited active voice, gives writing a sense of going no where. The bad thing is that most writers don’t even know their writing in the passive voice until it’s too late...when they finally relax and read their work. In passive voice everything just happens, and objects are acted upon. What do I mean by that? Look ...

Remember the glory days of science fiction, when everything and anything seemed like a possibility? When nothing was certain, and the future applications of scientific discovery seemed as ridiculously fanciful as… well, as fantasy? I’m not sure I do. ...

I decided to write at age 18, and decided simultaneously, to paint the images as well - it took another 10 years to put it all together.

Wars of Light and Shadow began with the seed of an idea - reversing the usual "light / dark " prejudice in our society - and grew and grew. ...