Most people only know Damon because he is the webmaster
of SHC. What else is there to find out about him?
INTERVIEW
WITH DAMON
Can you tell us a bit about yourself?
A complex person with simple pleasures.
Actually, I'm often more interested in what other people can tell me about
who I am, cause to tell you the truth, I'm still trying to figure that
out :)
In the meantime, I can reveal the
following :
* I'm 30 years
old, live on the South Coast of NSW, Australia, am single (what with work
and the site I'd have to be wouldn't I - no surprise there :) and spend
a lot of the remaining time reading or involved with tennis in the local
area, both playing and administrating. This year will be the fifth year
that a tennis trophy will be presented in my name, the DAMON FORD SPORTSMANSHIP
AWARD, of which I am very proud.
* I have
two degrees from the University of Wollongong, the first a Bachelor of
Education (Primary) and the second a Master of Education (Special Education).
In 2002 I will be returning to continue study for a Bachelor of Arts from
the University of New England.
* I've lived
in the same area all my life, a place that I think is one of the most beautiful
places in the world to live. That said, I do hope to beworking and living
in Canada within the next five years or so, but that will be dependant
on a few things falling into place.
* I work in the
Special Education field with teenagers and adults with an intellectual
disability, assisting their integration and involvement in the community
in the daily life. It's a job that at the moment I am enjoying very much
- seeing the positive effect that you can have on someone's life and helping
them to achieve goals that they may not have thought possible for themselves
is very satisfying.
* I have
one younger sister who is currently working in London and travelling through
Europe, and my parents are retired and living in the same home that I grew
up in. They have worked hard to enjoy this period of their life and I am
very proud of them, and fortunate to have had them as parents.
How come to Sportmanship Award
is named after you?
Well, I've been playing tennis for
about 25 years - it's my main sport, I play division 1 locally and have
since I was 16. I joined the Junior Development Committee in 1993 and served
on it for 5 years before taking a couple of years off and will be back
again for 2002. I also served on the Senior Management Committee for three
years (1995-1998). Between 1997 and 1999 I was secretary of the Juniors
(we have 300 junior players). Additionally I acted as Tournament Director
for several years - which was about 6 tournaments. Each local tournament
attracted between 120-150 entries. This also included a new tournament
that I started for the association, and which has proved to be a popular
addition to the year's calendar. In 1997 I organised and ran Inter-Association,
which is a yearly representative competition. In 1997 we had 41 teams over
a 100 mile radius. And, at the end of 1997 the committee voted on and approved
a motion to award a new trophy in my name in recognition of the work that
I had done over the years. At the time I was 25 and as far as I know I
am the youngest person to have that kind of honour bestowed on them in
the history of the association, which was very flattering.
What was it in the Shirley Holmes
TV show that attracted you to it?
If you were expecting something
profound I'm afraid the following will be a disappointment. The truth is
that Shirley followed Alex Mack in the same timeslot and, having been in
the routine of watching that show, I occasioned to glance at Shirley a
couple of times over the first season. I did not start watching right away.
One thing that always struck me
right from the start about the show was the music, and so composer Terry
Frewer had a large effect on my interest. I ahve always reasoned that good
music reflects a good show, and so, being impressed with the music, I decided
to give the show more attention in the second season. I started taping
the show from episode 16 and became a firm follower from episode 23, which,
you would all remember, is "Cryptic Creature".
Why make a website about the
show?
A question that has been asked of
me many time, usually by my family ! My sister asked me once why I didn't
have a site on Buffy, seeing as it is also one of my favourite shows. There
were a couple of reasons why - firstly, Buffy is a US show and 6 months
behind in Australia - not to mention the number of brilliant sites out
there already. I figured there didn't need to be another Buffy site.
After a bit of research though I
decided that the *did* need to be another Shirley site, and so a tentative
site made it's way online in December of 1998. Three years later and the
site is much bigger and so much more has happened that I would have believed.
As a couple of examples, I would never have believed that I would meet
my best friend through the site, or that it would have evolved into what
it has become today. I would not have believed that people from over 60
countries every week would check in with the site, or that at it's peak
in early 2000 we would have over 150 people, and sometimes 200 people a
day, or the support that the site still receives, which I hope will be
continuing for many more years.
I would not have believed
the support and enthusiasm of the cast, especially Meredith and Sarah,
for the site and taking the time to connect with their fan communities.
I certainly would not have believed that there was such a talented bunch
of authors, nor that they would have written such high quality fanfiction.
I may be biased, but I do happen
to believe that Shirley Holmes has one of the most knowledgeable and talented
fan bases, and I am very honoured that the SHC website is able to act as
a host for sharing that talent with the web world. And I hope that authors
will continue to write and share their visions of a show that had so much
more to offer than just the 52 episodes that made it to air.
How did you get in contact with
the cast of the show?
To go right back to the beginning
I first contacted Leslie (who is now one of my closest and dearest friends)
because she co-ordinated the (now defunct) webring for Shirley Holmes sites.
From there, the site benefited enormously from Leslie's involvement with
the show - especially in just the fact that the site was known to exist
by the cast ! and things have really just progressed from there. The highlights
of course were the chat sessions that we were able to arrange with Meredith
and Sarah, and Brendan did drop by at once to sign the guestbook, so it's
nice to know that the site is appreciated by the cast. The site has always
been intended to complement the show as much as possible - I think many
of you reading are still visiting because you feel, like I do, that while
the show itself may be finished, the potential of the characters and the
stories that remain to be told, and the work to be done on the site itself,
is worth continuing.
What is your favorite character
in the show?
I'd love to surprise people here,
but really, I can't - my favourite character is, and always has been Molly.
For me, the relationship between Molly and Shirley was a central part of
the appeal of the show; in fact *the* central part of the show, a behind
the scenes driver even when both characters were not on screen together,
or even in the same episode. I was very impressed with the story arc of
season three with "Crooked Comic" and "Mysterious Message", but then rather
disappointed to see the potential that those episodes set up not utilised
in the rest of the season.
The criticism of 'not living up
to it's potential' is one that I will always hold of the show, much more
off-screen than on, in publicity, merchandise, world sales etc. I still
find it sad and ridiculous that only seasons 1 and 2 ever screened in the
US. I can never escape the feeling that Credo and Forefront just did not
try hard enough with the show. I hope one day that the franchise will be
picked up by someone and that we will once again see Shirley on the screen.
In the meantime, that has left a lot of potential stories for fanfiction
authors and I hope that we will continue to see a lot more of their work
on the site.
Do you feel that the Shirley/
Molly plot has been neglected in the show?
There's a fine line between too
much Molly and not enough. I'm on record as saying that I would have liked
to seen a lot more Molly on the show. ( To be fair, one of those reasons
is because I happened to like seeing Sarah on screen ) but from a story
perspective I think that Molly was probably around enough, just that in
the episodes that she was in I would have liked to have seen her used more.
I was very disappointed with the fourth season episode "Hidden Heart",
which simply demonsrated the dangers of bringing new writers into a series
when they haven't adequately studied that character or the show enough
to 'get it right' so to speak. Unfortunately, television isriddled with
such mistakes, including three of my all time favourites - Northern Exposure,
Picket Fences and Millennium, all of which faded out with forgettable final
seasons. I'm certainly not saying that Shirley season 4 was forgettable
- on the contrary it had some of the funniest episodes of all, but that
humour was enjoyed even more when you appreciated that it was funny even
when it was not trying not to be !
I will always remember season 4
fondly though - seeing where I stayed in Winnipeg (the Quest Inn) as a
location in "Perfect Boyfriend" always brings a smile to my face and a
flood of memories of standing in that carpark every day, and watching all
the episodes of that season in a certain house in Winnipeg with a certain
actress made the season very special. Ironically at the same time that
I was in Winnipeg, season 4 was airing for the first time in Australia,
so I had the VCR recording every night while I was away.
What was the first ever fanfic
on the site?
This is actually a tougher question
than it should be. I may be wrong, but my memory recalls that HA's story
on Hope's site was the first story. When Hope merged her site with SHC
the stories came over with it - her site was the first release site for
HA and another fanfic writer at that time. As to SHC itself, the first
story it hosted was by Sammy Arthurs, but it remained unfinished and was
eventually taken down in one of my frequent spring cleans, in which case
I think the honour will go to Heaven, and her story "The Case of the Visitor".
I still remember very well the first time that that story came in and the
excitement of being able to put it up on the site. At the time I had no
idea of course that so many more stories would come in, or that they would
be so well written and by such a dedicated fan base. I think I said this
earlier, but I will say it again - I think that the Shirley Holmes Fan
Fiction is some of the best there is - and knowing that no matter what
else happens the stories will always be a testament to the enthusiasm of
the Shirley community for sharing their ideas and stories. And, of course,
even now, three years on, every new fanfic that is either sent to me, or
which I see on fanfiction.net I get a buzz over - I love adding new stories
to the archive, and it's wonderful to see that writers are still inspired
by the show. I know I still am ! I hope that there will continue to be
many more stories added over the coming weeks, months and years. I have
always seen SHC as an index of stories, some will be hosted by me, some
will be hosted first by fanfiction.net and perhaps one day individual authors,
like MGM has, will host stories on their own sites. However it's done.
I hope that SHC will always stay on top of where the new stories are, and
that authors will continue to view SHC as somewhere they would like their
stories hosted. I have tried hard to make the pdf versions something unique,
and hope that authors and readers find them useful as well.
How did you find the experience
of co-writing a story?
As most of you would know last year
I co-wrote a story titled 'Redington Beauty'. The story is no longer on
the site, but I'm happy to talk about the process of writing it. If you
have read the story you'll know what I'm talking about, if not, my apologies
beforehand.
To be fair to my co-author I should
state right off that I am not a writer. I may be an editor, an ideas person,
a brick wall to bounce things off, but a writer I am not. In the story
readers may have noticed a different style in the journal entries of Bo
and Shirley - they were written by me. The majority of the story was written
in draft forms by my co-writer. First, we would brainstorm ideas, work
out our general direction, then she would write the draft of that section.
Together, via email, we would bounce back idea / changes / amendments and
additions until we were satisfied with it.
One thing I love about writing is
when someone else does it :) By that I mean that I love to be involved,
I love to have *input*, I like to think that I have the ability to see
the overall picture, and I love to play with ideas. What I don't particularly
like is to have to flesh them all out - I'd rather someone else did that.
And that's where our co-authorship worked well. We were both good at different
parts of the writing process, and I'd like to think that it worked. We
identified the theme of 'American Beauty' as one that we would like to
work with and went from there. We'd like to think that it worked well :)
One little known fact is that we were still putting the final touches to
the story as it was being uploaded chapter by chapter.
How do you feel about not being
able to write so much?
Lucky. I am very happy in the role
that I have with the website and in working behind the scenes to share
the talent of the writers that do have that ability. Whenever there is
a new story in my email box I get a rush of adrenalin because I know that
there are a lot of readers who are waiting for the chance to read a new
story.
What are your thoughts on the
SH fanfiction awards?
I think they're a great idea, I'd
love to see everyone who ever visited the site and read a story vote. I
think that authors deserve a chance to be honoured by popular vote from
their peers and readers.As you know, I try not to discriminate for or against
stories on the site. I see it as my job to make the story available to
anyone who wants to read and to let each reader make up their mind as to
the merits of each one.
I have been asked many times what
my favourite story is, and I realise that rating or ranking stories might
make it easier for people to find 'the best'. But really, what is 'the
best' - the closeness of the voting in the fanfiction awards, where one
vote often separated several stories is testament that different styles
of stories appealed to different readers. As a readership, we're fortunate
to such a wide range of stories available on the site !
Was the behind-the-scenes work
for the awards hard?
Tallying stuff up was quite easy,
if a little time consuming, but fun nontheless.
Any plans for the future you
can tell us about?
With regards to the site I tend
to go with the flow.
Regular visitors will know that
I tend to go through cycles, sometimes I get an idea and run with it, other
times updates may be a couple of weeks apart. One thing I will say though
is that in the three years I think the longest period between updates was
about two weeks, so there's always been *something* going on on the site.
I intend to keep updating for as long as the interest remains in the show
and the cast. I don't have quite the same amount of time as I once did,
but I think I'm still doing OK, though I do certainly rely a lot more these
days on teh support and input from others like MGM and Faith, plus of course
all the authors who continue to send
stories in. It's also great to
see sites like ShirleyHolmes.5u.com adding to the Shirley web presence,
and Charlie B.M's site on Meredith. I hope that we will continue to see
new sits cropping up in the future.
Any tips for your fellow webmasters?
The one thing I've learnt from being
online, and as a surfer myself is that 'content is king'. If you can provide
what people are looking for, in a clear, simple way then they will keep
coming back. I like to think that I do that, though I also know that I
focus exclusively on the English language - and that's a limitation of
my language skills I'm afraid. I do hope that most people for whom english
isn't a first language can find their way around the site.
It is also crucial to have regular
updates - people like to see something different each time they come to
a site, and that's why I try to update every several days or so, and at
least once a week. I don't always manage it, but if people know that you
*usually* do that, then they are more likely to remember to stop by. I
think that has been a part of the reason for the success of SHC - not all
the updates are big ones, but there's usually *something* new to see. And
I hope to be able to continue that for some time yet.
And finally, I'd just like
to thank everyone again for their support of the site. You continue to
make working on the site a very enjoyable part of my life. I certainly
didn't expect to still be going strongly into 2002 but her we are! Admittedly
I don't hear from as many people anymore, and anyone is welcome to write
to me *hint hint* - I'm never too busy to read and reply to emails! I do
know though that we still have a vibrant fan base that continues to visit
and share their enthusiasm for the show.
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.
