Derrick Ferguson: Who is Erik Fromme?
Erik
Fromme: In the simplest words that I can put together: Erik Fromme is highly
critical, highly opinionated and passionate about the things he loves be it his
family, work, entertainment or hobbies. Though, family and work tend to take
the most of my time at the cost of most other things. Which, I guess, is the
way it should be.
DF: Where do you live and what do you
tell the IRS you do for a living?
EF: I
currently, and pretty much have always, live in Buffalo, NY. Yes, that means
I’m cursed to support sports teams that have done very little to earn that
support in recent decades, but it is what it is.
As far as
what the IRS needs to know about how I earn an income I would say that I’m a
drafter for a Mechanical Contractor. What does that mean? Well, I basically
design either process systems for Industrial facilities like 3M - you know, the
place that made the sponge you use to clean your dishes with - or Praxair for
liquid gases. Other times it’s for heating and cooling systems for Schools,
Hospitals or other Commercial buildings. I mostly work in pipe, but I’ve
recently expanded my talents into sheet metal.
As far as
what I don’t tell the IRS I do to
earn an income... Well, if I tell you I’d have to kill you. And I do know
where you live.
DF: What writers have influenced you?
EF: Truthfully,
I don’t have a good answer for that. I guess I could say that - looking back on
it - I can point to authors like Peter David as being an influence, but that’s
because I’ve been exposed to his work throughout all of my likes from Star Trek
to comics. When I grew up I never paid attention to whose work I was reading as
I cared about what I was reading, and
whether it fit into what I liked. It was simply just about the story. Where the characters acting like the
characters I knew? Was the universe the universe I knew? When it came to those
works, I knew that authors changed every book or every few arcs so I never got
attached to anybody in particular. Their names weren’t likely to draw me to
other works.
Sure, in
hindsight, it was probably a shitty way to deal with it, but I didn’t care as I
didn’t know better. I was never that
hardcore a fan. I never took it that
seriously. Over the past few years, I’ve learned that quality tends to follow quality authors.
Author’s like PJ Parrish whose detective novels really showed me how to
structure a mystery over the long play. Not just how to develop clues, but to build them into the structure of the
story to when these clues came up later as the story unfolded it was organic
and not alien to the story as an afterthought or leap in logic. I was forced to
think about the story as a whole and what I wanted from it.
I will go
back to Peter David who has penned over dozens of titles and has managed to
give individual voices to the many characters he’s either created or taken over
in his time. To be able to get into the various mindsets of all those different
people and understand their motivations is a strong skill to have and to do
that in all of the landscapes is a very strong skill to have.
DF: Let’s get right to it: why Fan
Fiction?
EF: Well,
Fan Fiction was the natural evolution of the PBeM’s I was playing at the time.
13 years ago, RPG’s were all the rage. But, building on pieces of a story as
they sporadically dropped into my e-mail started getting tedious with the one
or two paragraphs I was responsible for at a time when all I had to work with
was a lame three sentences from somebody who wasn’t putting in the effort I
was. When I was presented this new option, I liked the appeal of building whole
stories directly from my own mind with just my own input. It forced me to
consider new factors I hadn’t before like ensemble casts and how to juggle them
all. I was responsible for me and the freedom I had with that responsibility
couldn’t be equaled.
The easy
part to that answer is: the world was already there - in this case being Marvel
- and I’ve been reading comics for years so my mind already occupied that
space. I knew these characters and their universe. All I needed to do was move
them like pieces in chess and focus more purely on story structure and I could
let the character development follow. I guess part two to that answer was the
collaboration. I didn’t have to explain my world to somebody for them to get
it. It was already gotten. So the world building - which I love the most -
could start immediately.
DF: How long have you been involved
with Fan Fiction?
EF: I
started with Marvel Anthology in ’00. It was a very young site with a handful
of titles and a lot more available for proposals including the one I was
interested in the most: Daredevil. Since then I’ve developed a few more titles
across a few more sites, and morphed into the role of EiC for both Marvel and
DC Anthology and have been in that position for about 12 years now.
DF: How long has DC Anthology and
Marvel Anthology been around?
EF: Marvel Anthology started in April of ’00 and DC Anthology was launched in October of
’01. I’ve been affiliated with both sites for pretty much their entire
existence. There have been some sketchy moments when I doubted the longevity of
the sites, when production slowed to almost nothing or when I thought the
bottom would drop out as people realized that they’re writing ‘fanfic’ and
could ‘do better’. But, I’ve been blessed with some very bright and dedicated
authors who wouldn’t let either site die. And right now - even through various
purges and reboots - both sites boast a combined number of over 1,000 issues.
DF: What are the goals of DC Anthology
and Marvel Anthology?
EF: They
should be the same goal as anybody else who wants their stuff read: to put
forth entertaining and quality stories that builds a cohesive world. That’s the
simplest answer I can come up with. We want to be good. Which, knowing the
slams that go around when people see shitty pro work and goes ‘that reads like
bad fanfic’, might sound ridiculous when applied to fanfic, but I take what we
write serious. Otherwise, why do it?
DF: Why should we be reading DC
Anthology and Marvel Anthology?
EF: Because
we have some really talented authors working for us who deserve to be read.
Everybody treats their title and genre inside the universe - like horror or
sci-fi titles - with genuine effort. Characters, personalities, relationships
and story structure all get attention. And I like to think that DCA and MA
offer a bit of a community feel. That these stories don’t just exist inside a
vacuum to each other, but that you can tell the authors collaborate to not just
strengthen their own books, but each other’s and they show that by crossing
over with their titles and building little interconnecting circles that flow
from title to title. Despite, obviously, not
being paid professionals we all act like we are. These are all characters we
love and it would be a disservice to treat them without respect simply because
we’re ‘fanfic’.
DF: One of the criticisms about Fan
Fiction is that it’s either poorly edited or not edited at all. Your response?
EF: Considering
the amount of shitty Fan Fiction out there I almost can’t blame that
perception, but when it comes to the Anthology’s - and a few other sites out
there inside the community - that couldn’t be farther from the truth. We have a
serious of checks that are in place to help insure quality. Firstly, every
title on site starts with a proposal that is examined by - at our site - about
a half dozen people. Any concerns that are raised in that process get addressed
with the proposer and, hopefully, swiftly taken care of to help keep the
acceptance process quick. It then gets voted on and it has to have a majority
vote before it’s accepted.
When it
comes to our monthly releases our editor has a rather thankless job of proofing
every single issue before it gets posted to the site. Every issue gets checked
for grammar, continuity errors or other concerns that might be raised in the
story around the characters and what we might feel be a detriment to the story.
Sure, we’re not perfect but we do our best to ensure that any potential reader
that stumbles upon us wants to come back, or better yet, spend some of their
time offering feedback on things they like and don’t like so we know how to be
better.
DF: Detractors of Fan Fiction will
claim that those who write it are wasting their time they could be better using
to write original stories. What do you say to them?
EF: They
might be right, and there have certainly been a lot of people in our immediate
community who have moved on from Fan Fiction to pursue professional careers to
the detriment of fanfic. But, for me Fan Fiction is writing for the sake of
writing. It’s pure. It just is what it is: an exercise in bettering my talent
and have fun doing it. Maybe it’s a cop-out on my end for not pursuing a shot
to be published and not deal with the hassle that comes from it and if I did
who knows, maybe I could be good at it but for me personally I like the built
in knowledge that comes with Fan Fiction because you’re working with like
minded people. They’re all there to share the same goal. When it comes to
world-building, you don’t have to hold back ideas for fear of infringement and
you don’t have to explain your work in detail for somebody to get it before you
develop new ideas with them.
At the end
of the day, I just like to write. I don’t need an agenda or a paycheck to
motivate me. And I applaud and have given as much support as I can to my
friends who have pursued a professional career. Sure, part of me might feel a
little jealous of them being a professional, but I’m also jealous of the fact
that I’ll never be called ‘doctor’ or ‘astronaut’ or ‘archaeologist’ as I love
space and history too.
And when
it comes to wasting my time I know that, ultimately, I’d rather waste my time
writing if for nothing but to write than watch shitty reality tv show. If some
asshole can watch ‘American Idol’ and yet point the finger at me for wasting my
talent and being creative then who’s the one really wasting their time?
DF: Tell us about some of your
writers. What is their motivation for writing Fan Fiction?
EF: If I
had to judge their motivation for writing Fan Fiction then it would be for one
thing: to tell a story about the characters they love. That maybe they want to
do more with Superman than just read about him. The secondary motivation would
be to share that with somebody else who loves it just the same. It’s fun.
DF: What’s the best advice you can
give someone who wants to write Fan Fiction?
EF: To:
Just Do It. And, no, I paid Nike no royalties for that slogan. Who gives a
damn? Maybe it’s silly to somebody else, but I don’t think so.
DF: Since you’re involved with Marvel
and DC Fan Fiction it can be safely assumed you’re a DC and Marvel fan?
EF: Yes.
Comics were part of what introduced me to serialized story telling. Beyond
that, I liked how it challenged everything. It wasn’t just GI* Joe or the
A-Team doing neat things with guns, it was guys flying unprotected through
space, performing incredible feats of physicality that would put most people in
the hospital. It allowed for anything to be possible and it was exciting to see
where a story without any real limits could go. ‘Guardian’s of the Galaxy’ -
the new one that the movie will be based on - is a perfect example of that.
DF: What’s your opinion of DC and
Marvel these days?
EF: I
would guess its pretty low. Frankly, I haven’t read much of either just because
I don’t have the money to spend on them. When I did I got very tired of the
constant string of events that Marvel and DC forced themselves in. Every event
was sure to ‘change things forever’ and it just got boring. There were few
books that just told a story that didn’t have to blow up 9 planets and kill
about 437 people to be ‘awesome’.
DF: Is Fan Fiction a viable
alternative for those readers dissatisfied with DC and Marvel?
EF: I
would say both ‘yes’ and ‘no’. Sure,
we’ve all asked ourselves ‘How could I do that better?’ or ‘If I did that, I
bet I would have done that this way?’ and Fan Fiction can be an answer to that question. But, if you’re there to just do
DC and Marvel better than DC and
Marvel then I’d think you’d run out of excitement quick because you’re not telling your own story. You’re
re-hashing somebody else’s for your own satisfaction. I’d rather people come to
the Anthology’s to tell a story that they’ve always wanted to read themselves,
but was never written until they did it.
DF: Why not just write original
superhero fiction?
EF: Maybe
someday I might. I just haven’t had that strike of inspiration on an idea that
really pushed its way out of my head. I’ve thought about it, but have always
dropped back on Fan Fiction to scratch that itch. Maybe I find it safe. Maybe I
just find things too derivative to be happy with it.
DF: Do you yourself have any
aspirations for professional writing or editing?
EF: Given
my position at the Anthologies I’ve been doing a lot more editing than writing
lately with coordinating groups of titles together, helping flesh out ideas that
authors come to me with and applying my own touches to those books with
direction - when asked - to help maintain a certain vision and direction for
the site as a whole. I do genuinely enjoy building whole universes.
DF: Do you enjoy editing more or
writing?
EF: I
enjoy writing more than editing, which might sound contradictory to the
previous question. I do editing to help the health of the site as a whole, but
writing allows me to creative for my own ego. I get to toss down my own ideas
and build them as I see them without loaning them out for others to develop.
DF: What’s a typical Day In The Life
of Erik Fromme like?
EF: Typically,
I wake up every Monday thru Friday at 6:00 am and get to work by 7:00 am where
I’m expected to do my duty and deal with about 30 interruptions in that day.
Which, is pretty much like day at home when I roll in at about 4:30. I don’t
get much time to myself and the things I wish to do as my children demand
pretty much every waking moment. I’ve got about 20 or so different projects around
the house to do: kitchen renovations, basement renovations, landscaping and
what not that also demand my time.
Derrick Ferguson: Anything else we
should know about Erik Fromme?
Erik
Fromme: Not really, I would think everything about me is spelled out here. I
appreciate the time everybody spent reading this and not closing it out after
the 3rd question. And I especially appreciate Derrick’s thought for wanting to
interview me for his blog. I’m always fascinated when somebody thinks they need
my opinion, but I’m clearly not opposed to giving it.
