Author Spotlight: authoresskika
This feature is a collaboration with panempropaganda and everlarkedalways as part of Panem Propaganda’s 100 Days of Mockingjay: Shipping and Fanfiction.
This interview is a companion piece to an article written for Panem Propaganda, available at X.
With many thanks to panempropaganda, everlarkedalways, and spookiestkika.
Graphic by everlarkedalways. Interview by papofglencoe.
“She can break your heart like it’s made of glass and then heal it in no time.” -loving-mellark
What inspired you to write Everlark fanfiction in the first place?
I started writing Everlark after reading Everlark- honestly, it was that simple. I’d finished Mockingjay, didn’t feel done with the story, and sought out some sort of respite on FFn. I read a really remarkable post-MJ/pre-epilogue fic that I sadly don’t remember the name or author of, and got hooked. I read a ton over a few months, and eventually pieced together a story of my own. I’m eternally torn on whether or not I like the first fic I wrote (it was REALLY sad) and I’ve since taken it off FFn, but it introduced me to a few Tumblr folks, including my awesome beta and friend, sohypothetically, so I’m eternally grateful that I put it up and found the tribe of THG fandom.
What’s your personal favorite of your own fics and why? What inspired it?
My absolute favorite fic of mine is one called All the Right Friends in All the Right Places, but I almost don’t want to count it since it has been removed and is the rough blueprint of my first novel- although the book and the fic are really more distant cousins at this point. Instead, I’ll talk about 26.2, my submission for 2014’s F4LLS charity drive: the idea of Everlark running a marathon together after they’ve suffered tragedy came directly from my boss, who ran the Boston Marathon the year of the bombing. He went back and ran it the year after, and he told me that there was a real feeling of hope in the air that day- and with hope such a driving force in THG lore, it didn’t take long for me to piece some bits together and make up a story of the two of them finding their love through that sort of medium. I love that story because it was hard to write, it’s equal parts harrowing, emotional, and romantic to read, but it’s a good piece that I was really, really proud of at the end of the day.
When you’re pushing the limits of character or situation, what ineffable traits of Katniss and Peeta/Everlark do you keep intact to preserve their characters?
In terms of pushing character/situation, it’s a slippery slope. I don’t think there’s a single fic writer that’s completely innocent of not writing one of the pair, or both, a little OOC at times, but I personally will get taken out of a fic I’m reading incredibly fast as soon as they drift too far off the mark. For me, I just kind of rely on their innate qualities- Katniss is a classic pessimist while Peeta is an eternal optimist. Katniss will do anything to protect the people she loves, and she loves fiercely, while Peeta turned outward and sought love with Katniss when his own familial relationships revealed themselves as underwhelming and unfulfilling. Those traits are must-haves in any fic I write, and any I spend time reading, and for me, are far more important than braids, cheese-buns, or favorite colors.
What’s your favorite Everlark trope and why?
I love it in fics when Katniss is revealed to have feelings for Peeta before either of them realize it. Katniss says it herself in the books that she paid more attention to the boy with the bread than she’d realized, and I like it when that gets paralleled with her falling for him before she even realizes she’s done so. It’s a given that Peeta would be smitten with her from the go, but it’s fun for me as a reader (and occasionally a writer) to see Katniss see herself coming to the realization that Peeta is the only one for her.
What is an Everlark fanfic that has stayed with you? Why?
One fic I come back to again and again is aimmyarrowshigh’s The Five Words Peeta Only Says At Night. It’s a very short one-shot, but it packs an insane punch in its limited words. There’s a part where Peeta is revealed to utter the word “God” when he and Katniss are in the throes, and Katniss admits to forgetting, in all the horror that’s befallen them, that something like God existed. That can open up a can of worms about Panem being an arguably atheistic society and that neither Katniss nor Peeta would likely ever have heard the word (film dialogue evidence to the contrary- again, can of worms), but it further drives home for me how much of Peeta is Katniss’s hope, and every time I think of that bit of prose from that fic, I get a little misty, and will be forever humbled by the incredible talent this fandom has to offer.
What is your favorite Everlark headcanon or fanon?
My staunchest headcanon that I might be in the minority of, but hey, it’s mine, is that Peeta and Katniss never officially married, nor took one another’s names. I’m sure there was a toasting, and there would have been some arbitrary decision made over which last name was passed on to their children, but I don’t think they needed an official, government sanctioned document to feel committed to one another for the rest of their days. I also feel, given the loss of her sister and her extreme devotion to her father, that Katniss would have wanted to be an Everdeen for the rest of her life, and that Peeta wouldn’t have wanted another Mrs. Mellark in his life after his tempestuous relationship with his mother. I’ve gone round and round with a couple of my fellow authors on this point, but it’s 1000% true for me.
authoresskika is the author of works such as 26.2, All the President’s Men, All the Right Friends in All the Right Places, and Let Me Love It Out Of You. She is on AO3, FF, and on tumblr as spookiestkika. (She is currently on a tumblr sabbatical while she completes her novel).
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