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"In Season 5 shortly after you left the show, they did a story arc where Ares declares his love for Xena and eventually proves that his feelings are genuine by sacrificing his godhood to save her. Was this arc already being considered when you were still with the show? How do you feel about where they took the Xena/Ares relationship in S5?"

He did????

They were????

He did????




I hope that answers the question.....

" What type of Xena stuff have fans given you over the years?"

Oh, GOD, I have a treasure trove of gifts!!!! I have some really amazing things that fans have created and sent me. Makes me guilty when people do that, but what a group of people are fans were (are). I've had artwork, foodstuffs, toys, teddy bears, so many many things. I don't know what to do with them. I'm sure not going to throw them out, but until I move into a museum, I can't possibly display them all!

I even got a case of wine. I don't drink, by the way, but my Sheena staff got rocked for one weekend....

"I thought RJ was essentially saying not that the traditional image pounded into her head of what kind of man she should marry caused her attraction to him, but rather that she was fleeing in SINS precisely that failed programming; whereas the merry-go-round of war/violence lost its luster and Perdicus' newfound ethos made him ironically a kindred spirit after all. "

I don't disagree with those as elements. They all can work hand in hand.

"Hmm, did RJ have a 20-something daughter while writing at the time? "

No, but I have to say, the guy is pretty darned intuitive where it comes to characters.

"I had to chuckle at your DVD comment that Jeremy Callahan to your taste played Pompey a tad too oily.
Though I'm sure we all agree he's a fine actor (delicious as "Palemon" in Blind Faith).

Is there always concern for, specifically, a theater, film or TV writer to see if an actor captures your vision of your characters? Or do you more or less try to let that go since you're a part of a collaboration?
(I suspect Xena's writing staff had an unusual amount of writers coming and going and so the main characters really were widely shared, so to speak. It seems other shows' writing staff I've read about are typically smaller - and consisency is therefore easier to manage - is that roughly true to your knowledge?)"

You always want to get the little voice in your head exactly the way you envisioned it, but you rarely do. You cast as best you can and hope that the actor brings more to the character than you saw. Hudson is one such actress. But you let go of your possession of the script once you send it out to go through the process. You don't have time to whine and bitch, you have to work with what you have and produce the episode.

As to writers, no matter what show, the outside writers work with the staff to keep the continuity. Then, after the script is finished, the staff will smooth out the edges. Sometimes that was me, sometimes it was RJ or Chris. But it was one of us and we would do a final polish. Some of the scripts were minor polishes, some were major rewrites. But the focus is on getting the job done. At the same time, you don't want to quash the creativity of the original writers. Just as you don't want to do the same to the creativity of the actors in the editing.

"I was even inspired to submit a "Movie Poster" for the ep. Sacrifice for the Xena artist collective contest..."

Exceptional contest and some pretty amazing work. I was glad I wasn't one of the judges. Woof.

"What the heck, I'll throw one (or two) out there. Who was your favorite character to write, and who was your favorite to 'watch'? An, of course, why?"

Hmm... I loved writing Autolycus and Callisto. For the bravado hiding the little boy in the former and the complete honesty of the latter.

I loved watching Ted. Maybe that's just because I got to know him personally, but the guy really has a wide range of talent. And he's got one of those faces that, I swear, has twice as many muscles as the normal person and he can control each one individually.

I think if I had to pick one character to write right at this moment, though... hmmm.... it would probably be Cecrops. I think there was a lot more to mine in that character.

" Any pranks that you can tell us that was made while you were on set?"

Well, as I said, I wasn't down there long enough to really experience those kinds of things. So pranks on the set? No, didn't see any. But as we all know, they certainly happened.