GM: We know you as Counselor Edon Tel on the Olympic. What other games are you in and what characters do you play?

Derrick: How embarrassing is This...I think I'm in all of them!  Wait, no, I'm only a lurker in Hard Luck, so I'm not sure that counts.  Whew! 

Simi in X

Matarel in Champion

Edon in Olympic

Cam in BB (Blessed Be)

Garret in H-Land

Mike in Bridgetown.

Those are all the Delta Fleet one's in which I'm active. Just for balance, I even have a character outside these games...shocking, I know!


GM: Now that we have been introduced to your characters tell us about yourself?

Derrick: Hi, my name is Bambi.  I'm a Gemini, and my turn-ons include...oops, sorry,
that's the wrong interview....

OK, now you're going to see what a faker I am.  Most of my characters have a bit of my real life in them somewhere.  Simi (my first, and named loosely for an ancestor) is the most me.  I was born and raised in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, home of the oldest graphite breeder reactor on earth and the site of the first successful large scale uranium gaseous diffusion plant. Exciting, no?  Mom and Dad are both from large old Southern families. Just about everyone back home has a Ph.D. in something.  On the upside, that made
for a VERY liberal hometown, even though we were in the midst of the Bible Belt.  I like to think of Oak Ridge as one of those little holes that the tongue on your belt goes through...an island of erudition in a sea of ignorance.  College was Duke, BS in Psych (if that's not too redundant) and worked in the hospital while there.  Then I moved to DC after graduation in '90.  I worked for a year, and then went back to school...MA in Mental
Health Counseling from Gallaudet.  I worked briefly in Honolulu with kids,but soon realized that 40 hours a week of rape, abuse, molestation and neglect were killing me.  I came back to DC after a few months and have been a sign language interpreter here ever since.  I'm not sure if that's quite what you were asking for, but it's pretty much me.


GM: Everyone has strengths & weaknesses as writers. What are your strong points? What are your Weak points?

Grammar is definitely one of my strong points...that and spelling.  I don't know if it's a strong point or not, but I also tend to write just like I speak.  Most people seem to use a completely different register when writing, but I never have.  My weakest point is my creativity.  For the last, god, 10 years my job has been interpreting.  Some creativity, yes, but primarily taking someone else's thoughts and words and just representing them in another language.  No actual ownership of the creative process
there, really.  I'm working on that now.  I'm trying to break out of that shell a bit more.  Hopefully the more I do this, the easier and better it will become.


GM: How long have you been participating in PBEMS? Tell us about your PBEM
experience?

Derrick: You've pretty much had me from hello, guys.  I looked at one or two before finding Expounders, but they were all TERRIBLE fits.  Simi was the first to actually fly, as it were.  I've really liked getting to meet all of you, both in in-character play and online chatting. 


GM: Do you have any advice for anyone just getting involved with PBEMS for the first time?

Derrick:You've got to find the right fit for you.  I mean, I know it was a pain in the butt dealing with Slapfanny and the OBVIOUS mis-understanding of goals there, and I read the back story in Expounders and found the straight guy who honestly thought that by GAY PBEM, you meant all the characters were
happy-go-lucky.  Sometimes, you end up in a place that is just not right. It's better to thank everyone involved, apologize and move on.  If the group can't cohere, it's going to be a bad experience for everyone involved.  I've seen the hundreds of ads out there. There's bound to be some group somewhere that's a good match. 


GM: Do you have a favorite Startrek Episode that you would like to see the OLYMPIC revisit? Why?

Derrick: I'm not sure.  I've liked so many of them in different ways.  I guess there have been some things that have left weird questions in my head, though. What ever happened with the planetoid-ship from "For the World is Hollow and I Have touched the Sky?"  What's gone on with the archaeology for the
civilization from "That Which Survives?"  Come to think of it, that one might work better with Champion considering the new Science Chief.  <Grrrr>


GM: We are just starting to touch on issues with in the plotlines of the OLYMPIC that deal with Gay Marriage and Child rearing. Could you touch upon your feelings as this regards to the PBEM and as the issue relates to the politics of the real world?

Derrick: Is it shocking that I'm in favor of both gay marriage and gay child rearing? I think Dolly Parton said it best. When asked if she were in favor of gay marriage, she said something to the effect of 'hell yes!  You ought to have the right to be miserable with the rest of us.'  Seriously, though, I think it's hypocritical of most conservative groups to criticize us for the
supposed transience of our relationships with one hand while their other hand fights to deny us the social conventions for solidifying those relationships.  And as far as child rearing goes, I think we'd probably make better parents than most.  I've actually been considering adoption myself,
so I have given this a bit of thought.  It's a relatively new phenomenon in our community as well.  I remember in college, one of the members of our gay and lesbian group suggested a panel or discussion about gay parenting.  One
of the grad student members in his 50's looked shocked and said 'gay men don't want to raise children.'  I realized that for his generation, it was SUCH an impossibility that he'd convinced himself that he wouldn't even want it.  He was shocked that any gay man WOULD!  For us, it's becoming more and more commonplace.  In the sense that we'd have to work for it more, I think
we'd be much more likely to be serious about it and do well at it.  For two men or two women for that matter, we have to do quite a bit of work to get a child.  Whether it's arranging for the insemination, or a surrogate mother, or the adoption and possible subsequent second parent adoption (I've known a
lesbian couple that actually moved to another state in order to be able to obtain a second parent adoption) we really have to WORK to make a family. It's not going to 'surprise' us and, hopefully, we're better prepared for it and more committed to making it work because of that.


GM: We have had it said by several of the players and Game Moderators that you interact with on various PBEMS that you tend to bring a unifying force and strengthen group participation in joint posts and plot / character development. Could you tell us how you do it?

I'm really flattered by that.  Mostly, I think it's due to the great folks I play with.  I guess it's just the way I'm wired.  As I said above, my whole past and education have been geared toward some kind of service...mental health counseling, I was pre-med for a while and worked in a hospital, I'm an interpreter now.  I've always been focused on bringing people together,resolving problems, making peace.  It's hard to break out of that mold. Also as I said above, I'm trying to become more creative, so perhaps I'll try to introduce a bit of conflict somewhere to see how it feels.  I doubt I'll be able to be terribly disruptive in-character, though, and I'll certainly try not to be disruptive out-of-character either <wink>.