[Kevin] In "Ides of March" and "Fallen Angel", writers have once again changed Callisto and resolved her story (for now). How does this affect your next installment, does it require a large effort to reconcile your series' history with new Callisto episodes?

[Robert] Surprisingly, now "Fallen Angel" has aired, no. I was panicking slightly following "Ides of March" since there were some serious conflicts, with promises of more to come with the rumour of Callisto's sister appearing in "Fallen Angel".

My current story "The 12 Labors of Callisto" (which may or may not be a deceptive title...) is unaffected since it all happens in the past. When Callisto returns to the present/future, about a year's passed which means "Ides of March" is airing. Suffice it to say, for the sequel to "12 labors..." (as yet untitled, but I'm toying with something like "die Goetterdamerung" (or something better spelt anyway)), there have been some changes with how H:TLJ and X:WP are organised. Rob Tapert has been given a free rein by Zeus to pump his own Christian message instead of the Olympian message. He and Callisto have already "had words" in "Making..." following "Armageddon Now"'s implication that she would, even accidentally, murder her own parents - she's basically told him "if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all. Or else." In her absence, he's decided to do literally as instructed. Hence, Callisto's prolonged absence in season 4, and her becoming an angel in season 5 after getting her wish of killing Xena and Gabrielle in "Ides...".

So there's not been a lot of work needed, just some serious double-thinking to do.

[Kevin] Now that you've been authoring Callisto stories for over a year, do you still have a lot of motivation to continue the series?

[Robert] Getting on for two years now... The motivation is still there. It's just a question of finding the time. I want to at least complete the series and as long as there are Callisto fans out there to read the stories and as long as the character remains interesting to me, I'll keep going.

[Kevin] Have you ever had a Callisto story idea that doesn't fit into the universe you've created? What do you do with these story ideas?

[Robert] I've had some. The idea is that much like the "Miracleman" comics (some readers might spot the influences there), after the main arc, there'll be a series of related but self-contained stories based in the same "universe" as the others. So I've got a few sitting on the back-burner until then. (I have quite a nice one planned of Callisto waking up in a psychiatric institute, discovering none of her powers work and being told she's mad. The ending is the pay-off...)

I've also got the "rewrites" of the TV show stories to do - as mentioned, nothing quite happened as seen on the shows, so I'm aiming to go back to each of the Callisto stories in turn and rewrite them for my universe (don't know whether they'll be first person or third person). If I have any ideas for stories set in Callisto's past I'll use either one of the above slots to sneak them in. Otherwise, it'll be the one-offs mentioned above.

Don't know when I'll find the time to do it (how does Terry Pratchett manage to write so many books? Does his wife really write them as well as rumoured??!) but that's the plan.

[Kevin] Thank you kindly, Robert, for taking the time to answer my questions.