At ClexaCon, I had the pleasure of meeting Valerie Anne, one of the most entertaining recappers in the EarperVerse — or any Verse, really. You know how when you meet someone in person who seems so nice online but then is just a major, major bitch? Yeah, that’s the opposite of Valerie, who was even nicer in person, if that’s possible…even if she does accuse me of “attacking” her with the questions below, which seems dramatic, Valerie. Dramatic. How could such perfect questions be an attack?!

One of my favorite things about Valerie is that she has no idea how much her readers enjoy her and are affected by her. Here’s an example. She told a story on Twitter about being at a bar and trying to figure out if a bartender was queer or not. She said she wished there were some sort of sign she could throw or phrase she could toss out — you know, like asking if they had any figs behind the bar. And all I could think of was, “Did you happen to casually mention your name was Valerie Anne? Because if she is queer and is into TV at all, she’s most definitely heard of you.” Like, loudly drop SuperCorp to see if her attention is piqued. Then, when you’ve got her, casually tell a story about yourself in the third person, like, “And she was like, ‘well, Valerie Anne, what did you think of that Alex Danvers cosplay?’ And I was like, ‘I thought it was good, but I’m still looking for my Maggie Sawyer.'” And then…just wait. Putty in your hands. You’re welcome.

Oh, and Valerie’s recaps are what my recaps want to be when they grow up. Enjoy!

Tell us a little bit about your non-Earper alter ego.

Oh, man, it’s all so tangled up since I get to basically fangirl as one of my jobs! I have a day job as a copywriter, and when I’m not doing that I’m writing (about TV, mostly) and co-running social media for Autostraddle. I’m a Hufflepuff lesbian nerd who lives in New York and will read anything I can get my hands on.

How did you find Wynonna Earp and the fandom?

The second I saw the Wynonna Earp promo on SyFy, I knew I was a goner. Snarky, quippy, badass, demon-fighting woman? Done. I watched live that first night and had so much fun live tweeting, and since Emily Andras had promised the show would be “hella gay” (and sure enough, Nicole Haught was flirting with Waverly Earp by episode two), I started recapping the show for the website I was writing for at the time, which helped me connect with a lot of my fellow Earpers.
Is this your first fandom?
No, no, it is not. Though fandom looked different back then, I think I can count Buffy as my first fandom. I was like 12-15, but I was in AOL roleplay chatrooms and making really bad fanart and writing about my feelings about the show in my LiveJournal. Then, of course, since I started recapping a few years ago, I’m anywhere from knee- to neck-deep in one fandom or another at any given time, for better or for worse.

What is your favorite fandom memory?
Most of my favorite fandom memories involve meetups. Seeing the internet come to life is so fun — these handles you see on your screen every day are standing right in front of you — full, real, humans, and you get to hug them and it’s great. During the Earper meetup at NYCC, I even called in to Whiskey & Doughnuts, and it was a fun way to get more Earpers “there” with us.

What is your favorite con memory?
It’s literally impossible to pick just one – I have SO MANY from NYCC 2016 and ClexaCon 2017, but one of my favorites was moderating the Wynonna Earp fandom panel at ClexaCon, where we got to talk about how amazeballs the fandom is. We needed to be moved into a bigger room because so many people wanted to attend, including but not limited to Emily Andras herself (and even Dominique Provost-Chalkley for a bit!), and it was just such a fun, positive experience, right down to the really thoughtful fan questions at the end. It was really surreal, and I was really proud of our perfectly weird fandom.

What is your favorite Wynonna Earp/Earper activity?

Honestly, I love that this is even a question. The answer is that I love that there are multiple activities. I love live tweeting, and Whiskey & Doughnuts, and reading the TV Junkies post-mortem, and listening to the Tales of the Black Badge podcast, and reading everyone’s recaps and theories, and looking at the gifs, and talking to people in the comments of my own recaps, and trying to solve the damn mystery on purgatorysd.com. This might not be my first fandom, but I think it’s the one I’m most actively involved it. I love how immersive the Wynonna Earp fandom is, and I love that it feels like Emily and the cast are right there in it with us.

What has Wynonna Earp come to mean to you?
For me, Wynonna Earp means family. In a lot of ways. One, of course, being the theme of the show itself — Wynonna’s ties to her own family through this curse, her relationship with Waverly (and lack thereof with Willa), this band of friends she has fighting by her side; it’s all about family. Most importantly, to me, it’s about family being more than blood. I’ve met people through this fandom — this fandom that’s under a year and a half old, mind you — who I consider family and am so, so grateful to have in my life.

Are there any pictures you’d like to share of your Wynonna Earp experience?
Yes! When I met Emily Andras for the first time and took a photo with her, Melanie Scrofano photobombed us, and it might be the best photo I have.

I will also include a photo from the Earper meetup at ClexaCon, where I met people who are so important to me and I can’t imagine my life without them.

Dolls or Doc?

THAT IS NOT A COMPLETE QUESTION. If you’re asking who I think would win a hat-wearing contest, Doc. If you’re asking who I think would make the best s’mores, Dolls. If you’re asking who I think loves Wynonna the most, NO. You can’t just make a girl choose between a part-dragon special agent and an ancient, cursed cowboy. YOU CAN’T.
On a scale of 1 to 10, how much do you Fandras?
12/10, at least

Describe why Fandras is a thing in 7 words or less.
You can tell how much she cares.

What is your favorite Earp sisters moment?
IS THIS AN INTERROGATION? AM I IN TROUBLE FOR SOMETHING? WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS?

Eh-hem.
It’s hard to choose. For me, the Earp sisters are the heart and soul of this show. One of my favorites is from Season 1, when they’re sitting around the fire and Wynonna is semi-reluctantly agreeing to let Waverly into Black Badge. But they just keep getting better and better. I love even little moments, like when Wynonna was borrowing lipstick from Waverly, the “wait, which skit are we doing?” and little things like that. Melanie and Dominique just have this perfect dynamic that feels so real.

How have you Earped your life?
Do you mean besides having an autographed copy of the Wynonna Earp comics (in which Tim Rozon wrote that I had a beautiful smile, THANK YOU VERY MUCH) and Fangirls Shirts merch and recapping the show and tweeting about it constantly? Not too much.

What’s the Earpiest thing you’ve ever done?
I mean, moderating that fan panel was pretty damn Earpy. Unless you mean how much am I like the Earp girls, because apparently I remind some people of Waverly (in personality, not looks, obviously) and one time I said, “No thank youuu” and my friend Nic couldn’t stop laughing because apparently I said it exactly like Waverly did when Nicole is trying to pick her up in her squad car in 1×09, totally by accident.

How are you most like Randy Nedley?
Gosh I don’t know. Am I like Nedley at all?? I don’t even have a couch! I, too, think Haught would be a good sheriff? Does that count?

What would happen if you touched the goo?

Oh! I have a photo of Goolerie Anne I can show you. I’d like to think I spent enough of my life fighting my personal demons that I’d be pretty good at fighting off the goo demon, but if it took over Wynonna, who even knows? I do like shiny things, so I’d be down to build a shiny tower.

What Wynonna Earp crossover would you like to see?

I think Wynonna Earp/Supergirl crossover would be fun. I know the tones of the show are pretty different, but I think Alex and Kara have a similar dynamic to Wynonna and Waverly, but there’s a bit of a twist in that on Wynonna it’s the older sister with the burden of saving the world, and on Supergirl it’s the younger. I think it would be interesting because Wynonna and Alex have a lot in common, but so do Alex and Waverly, having just discovered they’re queer. And Kara and Waverly aren’t dissimilar in temperament; they’re both stronger than they look, for starters. I don’t know, I think it would be really interesting to see how those four girls got on. (With Nicole Haught and Maggie Sawyer on a case together, bonding over being regular cops in an irregular world and having girlfriends with sisters who are tasked with saving it.)

Who are better gal pals — Lena Luthor and Kara Danvers or Nicole Haught and Waverly Earp?

This feels like YET ANOTHER personal attack. I’m going to say Lena and Kara because they’re truly galpals and Nicole and Waverly are actual girlfriends. HA. Did I win?

[ Editor’s note — the great thing about EarperViews, Valerie, is that EVERYONE is a winner. ]

Here’s where you can find Valerie:

@PunkyStarshine (personal Twitter)

http://www.autostraddle.com/author/punkystarshine/ (Valerie’s recaps and other amazing things at Autostraddle)

Thanks for reading, everyone, and I’ll see you back here next week for a special THEMED set of Earperviews!