Interview with the one, the only Krissy (no last name needed)
I started following Krissy (aka @xekstrin) on Tumblr pretty much the minute I found out they were the mind behind my favorite Astoria route, Astraeus. And I am so glad I did. Their feed is always interesting, ranging from the thoughtful to the outright thirsty. If for some reason you don't follow them, I highly recommend you change that right now.
Krissy was kind enough to take some time out of a very busy schedule to answer some questions for the blog so buckle up, settle in and enjoy.
You are one busy person! A new podcast, an erotic short, prolific fanfic, one of which is nominated for the “best sex in fan fic” award from thegoodbits.com. There’s so much I want to ask you. I’d like to start with your erotic short, “Keeping You” which can be purchased on Gumroad, an online platform which facilitates the sale of products by creators directly to consumers. Why did you choose to use that platform for that particular story?
First off I just wanna say thanks for interviewing me :)
I guess I am pretty busy, but it was a surprise to hear someone else say that because that's just normal for me! There's also a ton of stuff I'm doing that I'm keeping dead quiet about on social media because NDA reasons...
I chose gumroad for that story because a few creators I admire had posted their stories on there and I was curious about how it worked! Whenever I'm curious about something new I wanna know all about it. The best way to find out is to just do it myself, so that's what I did.
Other reasons— It's difficult to get a short story published anywhere, and I knew I wanted a higher percentage of the royalties/sales to go directly to me. While doing this I discovered that Amazon takes something like a 35% cut of all sales while Gumroad takes roughly 10%. I just moved across the country and money is a little tight. And Amazon is demonstrably evil so that didn't hurt. I'll probably wind up getting some of my future books on Amazon eventually though, because like it or not it IS the largest marketplace for books right now. One day I will succumb to its siren call.
The response from readers was overwhelmingly positive and I'll probably continue to offer short stories on gumroad! Everyone was extremely nice and also funny. My readers are the best.
Pivoting to your fanfiction: you have covered numerous fandoms but your most recent focus, as anyone who follows you will know, is KDA. What draws you to that particular set of characters?
It's a bunch of hot women with juuuuuuuuuust enough canon information for me to fuck around with it however I like. I love four-man bands. I love colorful neon things. I love WAMEN. I love monster girls. I love music. I love the ARG style "narration" of finding out more lore via digging around social media. Did I mention they were hot? Evelynn is so hot and so my type she makes me weak in the knees. Highkey she was an inspiration for how I wrote Vivienne. I even gave them the same perfume. So in conclusion,
Your podcast, Trash and Treasures, was started with your best friend, Scooby and focuses on reviewing WLW content, with the focus (at first) being romance novels. What was the impetus behind the decision to create the podcast?
We were going fucking bananas batshit crazy during 2020 and were like "what if we started a podcast for an imaginary audience". Like singing in your shower and pretending it's on a world stage, but it was the two of us singing an impassioned shower duet with a kitty keyboard accompaniment. So yeah we also decided to release the episodes this year as things have gotten a little better for us both. It was a really nice excuse to talk to my best friend about books. We're aiming for three seasons I think?
Changing gears a bit, did you always know you would be a writer?
Yes. I'm incapable of being anything else.
What did your path to working professionally as a writer look like?
Luck, fucking around and finding out, being able to bounce back after COUNTLESS rejections, a partner who can pay half the bills and pat my back when I'm lying on the floor in a depression pile, and being too dumb and self-centered and hard-headed to quit. I know I'm a good writer but I'm also just interested in self-preservation. There's a pack of wolves chasing my every step and if I ever stop writing they'll hunt me down and eat me alive. It's very stressful!
Is there any work of art, visual or written, that you look to for inspiration?
I think I've re-read Sweet Guilty Love Bites by Shuninta Amano like a million times. I love melodramatic manga of dubious quality dripping with human emotion. I like new music. I like poetry. Ocean Vuong owns me right now. I like looking at art and trying to describe things in ways I've never heard before. Today I saw a very pretty picture of a river and spent some time practicing how to describe it. I just have to keep my blade sharp and ready all the time or I'll forget how to write and the aforementioned wolves will eat me.
If a VOW member made it, it's also my favorite. What an absolute powerhouse of talent. Everyone in there awes me.
Do you have a favorite piece of your own writing?
Oh, I get to FLEX? oh, you ask miette to SHOWBOAT? you ask me to flare my pretty peacock feathers for you??? [promptly forgets everything I've ever written] If it made you cry or turned you on or made you laugh or infuriated you, it's my favorite.
Many people who read this blog know you as a former writer for Lovestruck. And to be blunt, a writer that was incredibly important to the app. Just a look at the routes you have written is a testimony to how much work you put in. This may be a difficult question considering how long you were there and what you have been through, but when you look back on your time there, what stands out in your mind?
My opinion of Voltage has cooled significantly after that public statement where they made their opinion of their writers very clear. But my favorite memory was probably the time I made a producer blush with a high-heat scene. And the time my GIL producer was reading over Chance's wedding and sighed, "Oh, Krissy. That's too much blood." You can imagine I was very excited when Antonio's route had a literal bathtub full of blood. They wound up spoiling me in many ways. The relationships we fostered were, in my opinion, the backbone of many of the most popular routes.... too bad one of my last official conversations with them boiled down to "We never legally promised you would write Piama and any headcanons you sent us are legally our property. Do you understand that?" And I told them— happily— I never gave them anything I didn't want them to steal.
I think it’s safe to say Vivienne is your most popular route. Is there any other route of yours that you feel deserves more fan attention?
Lyris is such a good boy. Devastatingly so.
A friend of mine is a big fan of your writing, especially Lyris’s route, and asked me to please find out: What is your writing process like? Does it vary depending on what you are working on?
For myself— Often I'll write out of order. I'll write my favorite scenes first. Endings are important and I often do them first. Then I'll start stitching it all together. It goes MUCH faster if I have a good song on repeat. The trick is the song changes every day and I don't know which song it is until I hear it.
If I'm writing for someone else, I just do what they tell me, but if I get excited halfway through I might change things up and be like "I know you asked for A, but I think B is better, do you like it?" and if they like it we keep it, and if they don't I change it.
Do you have any other upcoming projects you would like to mention that I haven’t asked about yet?
Follow the VOW newsletter!!!!!!!! @vowtogether
Do you have a favorite quote or song lyric?
“If you live for people's acceptance, you will die from their rejection.” Just a reminder to myself. I have an awful people-pleasing instinct. Cucumber Quest also put it nicely.
Also, "There's never gonna be a perfect baby." From Adventure Time. In context it's about a bunch of wolves trying to eat a baby but they think the baby looks gross and sweaty and unappetizing and not the perfect delicious baby they were promised, so the leader wolf has to give them a pep talk about just going for it even though reality isn't living up to fantasy. It's SO stupid but every time I start doubting myself and feeling depressed about whatever I'm doing not being Perfect(™), I go, "Listen, Kris, there's never gonna be a perfect baby." I swear I say this at least 10 times a week.
The unofficial VOW Motto: All your threats should be actions.
I was a big fan of the show Inside the Actor’s Studio. Host James Lipton asked every single guest the same 10 concluding questions. I’ve picked 3 of them:
-What is your favorite word? Indelible. Ivory used that word and I immediately knew I needed to befriend them.
-What is your least favorite word? Squelch. >:C
-What profession other than your own would you like to attempt? Herpetologist. Voice actress. Professional nuisance.
What would be your advice to anyone who wants to pursue a creative career?
This is mainly advice to myself but if you take something from it, all the better: Read widely. Don't create with the audience you are afraid of in mind— be that homophobes or people who are dead-set on reading the least charitable interpretation of your work. You don't get any better if you don't fuck up a whole lot. No one "makes" you an artist, that's something you have to own yourself, or otherwise you'll be published or whatever and still feel like you aren't real. Stop self-deprecating, it's much cooler and more interesting to pretend you are already great. Likewise everyone you think is "great" is actually Just Some Guy. Never underestimate the depth and breadth of bigotry. Anti-black racism, transphobia, homophobia, fatphobia, misogyny, all the isms, it's the dominant narrative, people in power profit hugely off of it and will never let it go willingly, and if you aren't actively paddling against it, you're often gonna get swept up into it.
Your peers, not your heroes, are the ones who are gonna save you.
