Dave2112
Level of Cherry Feather
- Joined
- Apr 17, 2001
- Messages
- 10,292
- Points
- 0
Greetings all! This segement of TQWD brings you the author of the Tickle Street saga and all-around swell guy...
Strelnikov!
*****************************
1) You are perhaps best-known for authoring the “Tickle Street” series. How did the whole thing begin, what was the most difficult part?
Actually, I inherited Tickle Street from tummyticklish01, who had already written about 7 or 8 stories. I started writing when she abandoned her episodic “Choose Your Own Tickle Street” and disappeared from this board. I wanted to see how it came out, so I finished it.
The resulting story was godawful. The most difficult hurdle for me wasn’t writing my first story, but reading it afterward, comparing it with journeyman work by experienced writers, and then thinking “This sucks like an Electrolux!” Fortunately, I got just enough positive feedback to encourage me to continue. Haltickling was kind enough to email me a detailed technical critique, which helped immeasurably (thanks again, Hal!)
My second story was “Christmas Spirit”, inspired by a Mandell toon of the same name. It was well received, and I decided that maybe I could write after all. “Spirit” still holds up pretty well, I think – I bump it back up to the top every Christmas.
I’ve still got a few Tickle Street stories to tell, but I’m branching out too. Another Lake story is in the works, and an X-Files-ish tale that’s a companion piece to “Women In Black”. I’m working on a Science Fiction novel set in the “Galley Slave” universe too. I write because it's fun. Addictive too!
2) A follow-up “Tickle Street” question. Did you imagine that it would get this involved, or has it evolved out of your control?
When I started, I figured I might do maybe a dozen Tickle Street episodes. I’m up to 38 at last count, but I wouldn’t say that it “evolved out of my control”. The last two Tickle Street stories are already outlined. When I run out of worthwhile Tickle Street stories to tell, I’ll finish those two, close it down and move on. The characters may show up again in stand-alone stories. I've tried to do that anyway – not everyone wants to wade thru an entire series as long as that one.
OTOH, the individual stories sometimes end in ways I didn’t expect, because the characters take them away from me. I’ve tried to give each of my characters a distinct personality, why else should I (or anyone else) care about them? That means that they’ll respond to plot situations in their own way, consistent with their personality, regardless of the initial story idea. Sometimes that’s OK. If it’s not, I substitute another character who does respond the way I want.
3) I know that you are into both archery and gun-collecting. Which do you prefer to target-shoot with and why?
I’m not sure I have a preference, though in practical terms archery is something you can do in your back yard and it’s cheap because the projectiles are reusable. I started both because I’ve always been interested in military history, and archery and musketry (in its broader sense) form a continuum or progression. My bows have all been traditional style recurves or longbows, and most of my gun collection is ex-military types.
One of the neat things about both hobbies is being able to correctly interpret an obscure historic detail or reference, because you’ve done it yourself. An example: Near the end of the latest “Last of the Mohicans”, Hawkeye charges right through a group of enemy Indians on a forest trail. Why didn’t they shoot him? Because, like all sensible people, they were carrying their flintlock muskets loaded but unprimed. Look closely, and you’ll see the Indians trying to prime from their powder horns as he’s coming through. The downside is that it tends to spoil war movies, because you can spot all of the howlers Hollywood puts in through ignorance or to “improve” the action scenes.
4) You have been given a blank check that can be filled out for any amount up to one million dollars. Here’s the catch: you have to spend it all on one thing. What do you buy?
Has to be something extravagant and impractical, right? OK then, I’d buy a WW-II era P-51D Mustang fighter, flying lessons, and enough avgas to fly it from Biggin Hill (UK) to Berlin and back at least once (a detail: I’d look for a postwar aircraft built under license in Canada or Australia, because US-built WW-II production P-51’s are now well over the $1 Million limit.) Why? Because I’m an aviation enthusiast in the same sense that I’m a gun collector – for the historic connection. Besides, it would be pretty difficult to shoot yourself while cleaning it!
5) Jennifer Aniston, Jennifer Garner, Jennifer Lopez or Jennifer Love-Hewitt?
Kirsten Dunst, Anna Friel, Anne Hathaway or Michelle Trachtenberg.
6) Ok, gonna sneak in one last “Tickle Street” question here. If you lived on Tickle Street, which two of its recurring characters would most likely be your best friends, and why?
At this stage of my life, one of them would be Karen Shaw, Joanna’s mom and Brittany’s aunt – see Tickle Street Chapter 38, “Origins”. Karen is years younger than I am, but she’s still a fellow Boomer. If you asked her, “Where were you when Kennedy was shot?” she wouldn’t answer, “Teddy Kennedy got shot!?!” or, worse, “Who’s Kennedy?” The other would be Emily MacDonald, because both of us are science fiction convention regulars. At a con, compatible interests, maturity, wit and intelligence count for more than chronological age. Karen and Emily both know who they are, are comfortable in their own skins, and have nothing to prove to anybody.
Now assume that I was still a young man. Emily again, for the same reason. The other would be Brittany Righetti, because Brittany is Mischief. That might get tiresome after a while, but people change – I suspect that Brittany will eventually mature into someone a lot like her Aunt Karen.
7) You seem to focus on more light-hearted settings and playful tickling in much of your fiction. Even your more torturous stuff is still “among friends” to a point. Is this a reflection of your personal experiences and preferences toward tickling? Or is there a guy with a leather hood and a bottle of baby oil in your secret closet?
I’ve never been at all interested in the BDSM scene. My experience has been light-hearted and playful, and that’s reflected in my stories. There’s plenty of humiliation, degradation and misogyny in this genre already. If that’s the kind of story you want, look elsewhere.
Furthermore, life sometimes does imitate art. I have girl-children, one grown up, the other a young teen. If by some chance they were to encounter somebody who was “inspired” by one of the fictional situations on this board, I would prefer that it be one like mine than the other sort.
8) What is the greatest sports memory you have…that you personally witnessed? (On TV or in person…just not through research.)
Gymnast Kerri Strug’s final performance at the 1996 Olympics that clinched the Gold Medal for the US Team. Running start, vault, about 10 airborne twists and 16 flips, and landed on one foot because her other leg was broken.
9) Ok, there are two questions that I seem to come back to with most of my guests. They always tend to provide some insightful answers, so I’ll throw both at you. First: If you could live in any foreign country, where would it be and why?
Canada: High literacy rate, good health care, and sparkling clean cities. No, wait – that’s Dr. Drakken talking, Kim Possible’s arch-foe from the Disney toon of the same name. Seriously, some of the best times of my life were childhood summer vacations at a Canadian lake resort. I used the place as the venue for my story “Old Custom” – except (alas!) for the tickling, it was just as I described it. Time marches on – it was torn down in 2001 to clear the way for time share cottages. I would have liked to see it again...
Whar foreign place would I choose now? Southwest coast of Ireland. Temperate climate, natural beauty, not too heavily populated, yet it has all modern amenities and it’s only a few hours away from London. Plus the pubs have Harp and Guinness on draft!
10) And finally, if you could invite any three people from anywhere in history to dinner, who would they be, what would you serve and what would you ask each to bring?
Explorer Sir Richard Francis Burton (1821-1890), British Army Colonel Richard Meinertzhagen (1878-1967), and Professor Paul Linebarger (1913-1966), also known as science-fiction author Cordwainer Smith. Think of them all as a mixture of James Bond (all were spies at some point) and Indiana Jones. Afghan/Persian cuisine would be a good compromise – hummus with ripe olives, goat cheese and nan bread to start; then lamb kebab with cucumber salad, basmati rice and hot cardamom tea; and finally honeyed almond-filled pastry with well-sugared coffee strong enough to strip paint. All they would need to bring would be the stories inside their heads.
********************************
My thanks to Strelnikov for the opportunity to pick his brain a bit. It was a pleasure to get to know yet another community member a little better.
Strelnikov!
*****************************
1) You are perhaps best-known for authoring the “Tickle Street” series. How did the whole thing begin, what was the most difficult part?
Actually, I inherited Tickle Street from tummyticklish01, who had already written about 7 or 8 stories. I started writing when she abandoned her episodic “Choose Your Own Tickle Street” and disappeared from this board. I wanted to see how it came out, so I finished it.
The resulting story was godawful. The most difficult hurdle for me wasn’t writing my first story, but reading it afterward, comparing it with journeyman work by experienced writers, and then thinking “This sucks like an Electrolux!” Fortunately, I got just enough positive feedback to encourage me to continue. Haltickling was kind enough to email me a detailed technical critique, which helped immeasurably (thanks again, Hal!)
My second story was “Christmas Spirit”, inspired by a Mandell toon of the same name. It was well received, and I decided that maybe I could write after all. “Spirit” still holds up pretty well, I think – I bump it back up to the top every Christmas.
I’ve still got a few Tickle Street stories to tell, but I’m branching out too. Another Lake story is in the works, and an X-Files-ish tale that’s a companion piece to “Women In Black”. I’m working on a Science Fiction novel set in the “Galley Slave” universe too. I write because it's fun. Addictive too!
2) A follow-up “Tickle Street” question. Did you imagine that it would get this involved, or has it evolved out of your control?
When I started, I figured I might do maybe a dozen Tickle Street episodes. I’m up to 38 at last count, but I wouldn’t say that it “evolved out of my control”. The last two Tickle Street stories are already outlined. When I run out of worthwhile Tickle Street stories to tell, I’ll finish those two, close it down and move on. The characters may show up again in stand-alone stories. I've tried to do that anyway – not everyone wants to wade thru an entire series as long as that one.
OTOH, the individual stories sometimes end in ways I didn’t expect, because the characters take them away from me. I’ve tried to give each of my characters a distinct personality, why else should I (or anyone else) care about them? That means that they’ll respond to plot situations in their own way, consistent with their personality, regardless of the initial story idea. Sometimes that’s OK. If it’s not, I substitute another character who does respond the way I want.
3) I know that you are into both archery and gun-collecting. Which do you prefer to target-shoot with and why?
I’m not sure I have a preference, though in practical terms archery is something you can do in your back yard and it’s cheap because the projectiles are reusable. I started both because I’ve always been interested in military history, and archery and musketry (in its broader sense) form a continuum or progression. My bows have all been traditional style recurves or longbows, and most of my gun collection is ex-military types.
One of the neat things about both hobbies is being able to correctly interpret an obscure historic detail or reference, because you’ve done it yourself. An example: Near the end of the latest “Last of the Mohicans”, Hawkeye charges right through a group of enemy Indians on a forest trail. Why didn’t they shoot him? Because, like all sensible people, they were carrying their flintlock muskets loaded but unprimed. Look closely, and you’ll see the Indians trying to prime from their powder horns as he’s coming through. The downside is that it tends to spoil war movies, because you can spot all of the howlers Hollywood puts in through ignorance or to “improve” the action scenes.
4) You have been given a blank check that can be filled out for any amount up to one million dollars. Here’s the catch: you have to spend it all on one thing. What do you buy?
Has to be something extravagant and impractical, right? OK then, I’d buy a WW-II era P-51D Mustang fighter, flying lessons, and enough avgas to fly it from Biggin Hill (UK) to Berlin and back at least once (a detail: I’d look for a postwar aircraft built under license in Canada or Australia, because US-built WW-II production P-51’s are now well over the $1 Million limit.) Why? Because I’m an aviation enthusiast in the same sense that I’m a gun collector – for the historic connection. Besides, it would be pretty difficult to shoot yourself while cleaning it!
5) Jennifer Aniston, Jennifer Garner, Jennifer Lopez or Jennifer Love-Hewitt?
Kirsten Dunst, Anna Friel, Anne Hathaway or Michelle Trachtenberg.
6) Ok, gonna sneak in one last “Tickle Street” question here. If you lived on Tickle Street, which two of its recurring characters would most likely be your best friends, and why?
At this stage of my life, one of them would be Karen Shaw, Joanna’s mom and Brittany’s aunt – see Tickle Street Chapter 38, “Origins”. Karen is years younger than I am, but she’s still a fellow Boomer. If you asked her, “Where were you when Kennedy was shot?” she wouldn’t answer, “Teddy Kennedy got shot!?!” or, worse, “Who’s Kennedy?” The other would be Emily MacDonald, because both of us are science fiction convention regulars. At a con, compatible interests, maturity, wit and intelligence count for more than chronological age. Karen and Emily both know who they are, are comfortable in their own skins, and have nothing to prove to anybody.
Now assume that I was still a young man. Emily again, for the same reason. The other would be Brittany Righetti, because Brittany is Mischief. That might get tiresome after a while, but people change – I suspect that Brittany will eventually mature into someone a lot like her Aunt Karen.
7) You seem to focus on more light-hearted settings and playful tickling in much of your fiction. Even your more torturous stuff is still “among friends” to a point. Is this a reflection of your personal experiences and preferences toward tickling? Or is there a guy with a leather hood and a bottle of baby oil in your secret closet?
I’ve never been at all interested in the BDSM scene. My experience has been light-hearted and playful, and that’s reflected in my stories. There’s plenty of humiliation, degradation and misogyny in this genre already. If that’s the kind of story you want, look elsewhere.
Furthermore, life sometimes does imitate art. I have girl-children, one grown up, the other a young teen. If by some chance they were to encounter somebody who was “inspired” by one of the fictional situations on this board, I would prefer that it be one like mine than the other sort.
8) What is the greatest sports memory you have…that you personally witnessed? (On TV or in person…just not through research.)
Gymnast Kerri Strug’s final performance at the 1996 Olympics that clinched the Gold Medal for the US Team. Running start, vault, about 10 airborne twists and 16 flips, and landed on one foot because her other leg was broken.
9) Ok, there are two questions that I seem to come back to with most of my guests. They always tend to provide some insightful answers, so I’ll throw both at you. First: If you could live in any foreign country, where would it be and why?
Canada: High literacy rate, good health care, and sparkling clean cities. No, wait – that’s Dr. Drakken talking, Kim Possible’s arch-foe from the Disney toon of the same name. Seriously, some of the best times of my life were childhood summer vacations at a Canadian lake resort. I used the place as the venue for my story “Old Custom” – except (alas!) for the tickling, it was just as I described it. Time marches on – it was torn down in 2001 to clear the way for time share cottages. I would have liked to see it again...
Whar foreign place would I choose now? Southwest coast of Ireland. Temperate climate, natural beauty, not too heavily populated, yet it has all modern amenities and it’s only a few hours away from London. Plus the pubs have Harp and Guinness on draft!
10) And finally, if you could invite any three people from anywhere in history to dinner, who would they be, what would you serve and what would you ask each to bring?
Explorer Sir Richard Francis Burton (1821-1890), British Army Colonel Richard Meinertzhagen (1878-1967), and Professor Paul Linebarger (1913-1966), also known as science-fiction author Cordwainer Smith. Think of them all as a mixture of James Bond (all were spies at some point) and Indiana Jones. Afghan/Persian cuisine would be a good compromise – hummus with ripe olives, goat cheese and nan bread to start; then lamb kebab with cucumber salad, basmati rice and hot cardamom tea; and finally honeyed almond-filled pastry with well-sugared coffee strong enough to strip paint. All they would need to bring would be the stories inside their heads.
********************************
My thanks to Strelnikov for the opportunity to pick his brain a bit. It was a pleasure to get to know yet another community member a little better.
Last edited:
