The first fanfic author that was
nice enough to fill out the questionnaire I send him is (drums and loooooooong
pause) Fredy Bauckage. He is the mastermind behind the mindboggling "The
Case of the Telephone Murder".
Here is his brainwave!
INTERVIEW
WITH FREDY
Can you tell us a bit about yourself?
My full name is Federico Guillermo
Bauckhage, I'm 16 years old and live in Buenos Aires, Argentina. I speak
Spanish, German and English, altough my English isn't 100% right because
I learnt most of it over Internet and writing my first SH summaries with
help of a translator. I'm also photographer, "official" photographer for
my school. I love birds and country, and usually spend most of my holidays
on the argentine country, on the Pampa. And that's why I'm placing my new
fanfic exactly there. My other passion are planes, though I have only 1
hour 40 minutes of real flight with instructor, I spend hours with my flight
simulators. I've got MS Flight Simulator 98, MS FS 2000pro, MS Combat Flight
Simulator and Combat Simulator II. I build missions and campaigns which
are posted in FlightSim.Com (www.flightsim.com ) and also repaint my own
planes. Is this enough to answer this question? :-) One more detail: I
have 1 brother and 4 sisters, and I'm the oldest.
What was it in the Shirley Holmes
TV show that attracted you to it?
The first episode I saw was "The
Case of The Left Thumbprint". I had recorded a Goosebumps episode and forgot
the tape running. After Goosebumps this SH episode caught my attention
and I decided to watch it regularly. But I still believe that Left Thumbprint
is the best episode of all.
What is your favorite character
in the show?
Shirley of course. I can't say exactly
why, but she's my favourite. Another great character is Peggy Holmes.
What was it that made you start
writing SH fanfiction?
I had been writing summaries and
got encouraged by Damon since I had told him I was inspired to write.
What is your favorite genre to
write?
No specific genre... I just write
what I find in my mind, and if I have time for it of course. But I like
suspense and action rather than love and drama.
How far do you go in researching
your story?
Pretty far... so far I can. I want
to make my stories as realistic as possible, and so far I asked and researched,
together with my physics teacher Mr. Jaeger, the telephone murder is actually
possible, altough there are several conditions and limits, but physically
possible. For my new story I do research as well, primarly about places,
vehicles, people and weapons. It'll be hard to keep realistic in this story...
you'll see if I finally get it done. (Webmaster note: The story that is
meant here is "The Case of the Mysterious Creature Hunt" and is currently
releasing on Central.)
Do you feel there is a recurring
theme or a deeper meaning to your work?
I didn't care much about that in
"Telephone Murder". As I said, keep realistic. The fact for me would be
that Shirley, even being the hero of the TV show, a Shirley in real life
would still be a 15- or 16-year-old girl, not exactly a normal girl but
just a person who has limits. I won't write stories of great worldwide
conspiracies where Shirley is the super-hero and saves the world fighting
an archi-villain...no, nothing of that. I prefer local, dark stories, hidden
and mysterious. Her cases don't fill the newspapers headlines, Shirley
always fights in the underground. For me at least, other authors will think
different but that's my opinion.
What is your favorite SH author?
No preferences. there are fanfics
I never read and can't say who's best without reading ALL stories in the
site... what probably will never happen.
What are your thoughts on the
SH fanfiction awards?
When we started talking about it
I thought it was a good idea, but then I got disconnected for a while and
missed things. Can't give you my opinion now.
What are your plans for writing
in the future?
I'll write when I'm inspired to
do it. Time is also a very important factor, my computer time, and my free
time were somewhat limited in the last 6 months. Holidays on the country,
then school, etc... This school year is getting hard in chemistry and biology,
while in most other cases the year's content is soooooooooooooo boring
that you get asleep in class. For now, I'll try to finish my fanfic and
then I'll see what comes later.
And finally a question I have
been dying to ask you ever since I read your first story. How did you think
up such a crazy plot for “The Case of the Telephone Murder”?
We were out with our class spending
a weekend in Tandil and while we were walking through the mountain I started
talking with a friend about things like murder and crimes, etc... We thought
of diverse methods of killing people and how to pass security systems...
and there we came up with the Telephone Murder idea. A really simple method
of killing people through a telephone, even if they are protected inside
a fortress. And then I tought of a SH fanfiction based on that.
Well, that's it. See ya all then
Fredy
Got an author you want to see questioned?
Let me know and send a question along in the message. You can send
me an e-mail or use the contact page.
