5A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, APRIL 18, 2018
Lundin: ‘I wish … I had
seen more gay people on TV.’
Continued from Page 1A
chairs, in this classroom, and
I was obsessed with television,
as maybe some of you are.
And now I’m one of the peo-
ple who gets to make it.’
“And so I just want to let
them know that’s a possibility
for them if they’re interested in
going that route.”
Foot in the door
Lundin studied political sci-
ence at Reed College in Port-
land, then worked at political
organizations like MoveOn.
Org and the Bus Project.
When she decided to get
into filmmaking, she took
production assistant jobs on
film shoots and did commer-
cial work. She enrolled in the
film school at the University
of Texas at Austin, where she
learned to shoot, edit, direct
and write — and, sticking with
writing, she moved to Los
Angeles.
She worked a series of
grunt jobs, often waking up at
5:30 a.m. to write her scripts
for a couple of hours before
going to her day job. At night,
she’d spend an hour or so with
her girlfriend (now her wife)
before going to sleep so she
could get up early again.
This cycle lasted about
three years until she got staffed
on “Riverdale.” In that period,
she wrote “Ship It” as a screen-
play, which she sent out for
consideration. Producers liked
it, she said, but didn’t know
what to do with it — a reaction
she understands.
“It was a very gay screen-
play,” she said. Plus, viewers
who know nothing about fan-
dom or internet culture may
not relate to it. “But I knew
there was an audience for it.”
Then Lundin found her cur-
rent agent, who understood the
project immediately and sent it
out. “Ship It” became the writ-
ing sample that fell into the
hands of the “Riverdale” folks.
“I think they were looking
for people who could write
young voices and could speak
to what young people care
about today,” she said.
Meanwhile, the publishing
company Freeform Books had
also read the screenplay and
invited Lundin to turn it into
a young adult novel. Having
digested countless young adult
novels, she agreed.
And so it was that during
her first year working on “Riv-
erdale,” she was also writing
her first novel.
“I was getting paid, too,”
she said, “which is cool: Get
paid to actually write it instead
of waking up at 5:30 of my
own accord and just working
on something that I have no
idea if it’s going to be good or
not, or go anywhere or not …
It felt good.”
‘Shipping it’
The idea of “shipping it” —
when fans want a pair, espe-
cially of TV or film charac-
ters, to fall into a romantic
Britta Lundin
Britta Lundin on the set of ‘Riverdale,’ where she’s part of
a group of writers who develop the scripts for the series.
relationship — is of no small
importance in the fandom
community.
If you “shipped it” with
Han Solo and Princess Leia,
you were lucky enough to see
that love “go canon” in the
original “Star Wars” trilogy,
Lundin explained.
But what if you always
saw sparks between Han and
Chewbacca? You’d have to
seek out fan fiction to watch
that dream scenario play out
— to locate an underground
internet community that sees
what you see.
Things get tricky, and polit-
ical, when the characters you
“ship” would be a gay match.
The rarity of that kind of rela-
tionship blossoming on main-
stream TV, which would
be expected of any straight
on-screen relationship, makes
it significant.
“It can get very lonely,
especially if you’re a gay teen-
ager, and all of your favorite
gay ‘ships’ never go canon,”
Lundin said. “And what it
can feel like is, everyone
who makes these movies, and
everyone who makes these TV
shows, doesn’t care about peo-
ple like me. They don’t care
about the same things that I
care about. They only care
about the straight couples.”
Teenagers look to the media
for cues on how to live, she
said, and “when you only see
one way to live in the media,
you start to think that maybe
the way that you want to live
isn’t OK.”
Lundin is comfortable with
her sexuality now, she said,
but “I wish that when I was a
teenager I had seen more gay
people on TV. I think it would
have helped me understand
myself better earlier.”
Living in both worlds
In “Ship It,” a character
named Claire who writes fan
fiction is obsessed with an
actor, Forest, who has a large
fan base but whose charac-
ter is being “shipped” with his
male co-star. Forest resents
this, especially since he wants
to be an action star, and the
insinuation that his character
is gay, he believes, could risk
his career.
These squabbles happen
pretty frequently, Lundin said.
“The creators of the show and
the fans of the show butt heads
over who has control of these
characters, who gets to say
who’s gay and who’s not.”
Interesting questions arise.
“Ultimately, once you make a
show and you put it out into
the world, who owns those
characters anymore? Are they
the public’s, or do they remain
the property of the creator, not
legally but emotionally?”
In writing the book, she
could get inside both charac-
ters’ heads — and highlight
the forces bringing the char-
acters into conflict — because
she’s lived in both worlds.
Asked whether anyone —
teachers, librarians or others
responsible for young minds
— pushed back on the novel
because of its subject matter,
Lundin said, “Not yet.”
If “Ship It” were a film,
it would be rated PG-13, she
said.
“I hope that people who
love gay fan fiction read this
and say, ‘I feel seen. I feel like
someone finally wrote a book
about me,’” she said. “And I
hope that people who know
nothing about gay fan fic-
tion read it and be like, ‘This
was more interesting than I
thought it was going to be.’”
‘Creative, ambitious’
Jenni Newton, a language
arts teacher at Astoria High
School, taught Lundin’s drama
and leadership classes. New-
ton remembers her student as
“creative, ambitious, brilliant,
very philosophical,” she said.
“She’s always stood up for
the marginalized, not afraid to
be heard,” Newton said.
Newton recalled the year
the high school was in a pilot
program that required drug
testing for all student athletes.
And Lundin, Newton recalls,
“made very clear she was in
no danger of failing the drug
test, but she stood against it
so strongly she quit athletics
and joined theater. And that’s
Britta.”
Lundin’s advice for teenag-
ers who want to become writ-
ers, but who may consider
giving up, unsure whether
they have the talent: “You’re
nowhere near that time yet.
You’re still young. And give
it a shot. Go to college. Study
things in school. Keep writing.
Keep practicing.”
Permits: Bank could sustain fishing
Continued from Page 1A
This dilemma has been
building for years — espe-
cially in the coastal crab fleet
— as a swelling tide of skip-
pers approach retirement age.
Lacking viable ways to mon-
etize their permits and move
them along to “new entrants,”
this jam-up could gradually
rob the economy of one of its
last sources of lucrative nat-
ural-resource jobs, according
to organizers of the new non-
profit South Pacific County
Fisheries Trust.
“How does a young per-
son get into this business,”
mused Dale Beasley of
Ilwaco, one of the trust’s
consultants, along with Ed
Backus of Collaborative
Fisheries Associates.
The trust’s board of direc-
tors consists of fisherman
Jim Long, Ilwaco/Chinook
Port Manager Guy Glenn Jr.,
Phil Allen of the Long Beach
Community Foundation, and
Richard Carroll of Jessie’s
Ilwaco Fish Co. The com-
munity foundation and ports
collectively act as commu-
nity partners for the permit
bank.
Beasley explained the
goal is to keep good-paying
jobs in local communities.
“We’re not trying to increase
the fishing pressure, but to
support the three processors/
buyers here,” he said. “This
is a balancing act … what we
want is to keep the jobs that
we have here.”
Catch Together
Although it also eventu-
ally plans to aid transfers of
permits for species like black
cod and salmon — or even
charter operations — the
trust is initially planning to
parlay a deal in which Mas-
sachusetts-based nonprofit
Catch Together will buy a
500-pot, 42-foot vessel per-
mit and lease it for use in
south county.
There are 220 crab per-
mits on the Washington
coast, with 170 to 190 being
actively used. Different per-
mits are for either 300 or 500
pots, with three ranges of ves-
sel size. This will complicate
the job of matching potential
Chinook Observer
Crabbing operations are essentially independent small
businesses.
sellers with someone who is
interested in the specific type
of permit being offered.
“It’s going to be a matter
of how bad somebody wants
a permit,” and what com-
promises they’re willing to
make, Beasley said.
The initial years of mak-
ing lease and then purchase
payments will be challeng-
ing, but the program pro-
vides an avenue to a lucrative
career that would otherwise
be almost impossible to get
into.
Catch Together — which
is backed by the Walton Fam-
ily Foundation — provides
the opportunity for environ-
mentally engaged investors
to help maritime commu-
nities while making a good
return by lending money
that’s unavailable from other
sources. While a bank might
typically require a 35 percent
down, Catch Together and
the local trust won’t require
a down payment. The inter-
est will, however, be a steep
10 percent on a lease-to-own
basis, in which the trust will
get 2.5 percent of the total
permit purchase price per
year for the first five years to
support its operations.
After a fisherman suc-
cessfully uses a leased per-
mit for five years, the trust
plans to buy the permit from
the investor and take over the
transaction in the form of a
sale to the operator. The trust
will seek grant funding and
use annual loan interest of
$8,000 to $16,000 per permit
to pay off the permit’s initial
purchaser, while banking any
excess funds to expand the
trust’s programs and services.
Specific requirements
The trust’s board mem-
bers will be screening appli-
cants for permit leases, with
a variety of requirements
including Pacific County
residency, fishing experi-
ence, and ownership or for-
mal arrangements for a boat
and gear, along with com-
mitments from any neces-
sary crew. The trust will play
no role in acquiring vessels
and gear, partly to limit its
liability.
Participants will have to
agree to adhere to a “Fish-
erman’s Code of Conduct,”
which includes provisions
such as fishing in ways that
won’t degrade the resource,
and treating crew members
fairly.
The trust hopes to con-
clude one or two deals this
year, but will be taking it
slow. If successful, it may
become a model for similar
programs around Washing-
ton state.
“It’s a hundred-year pro-
gram to keep the community
viable, to keep a healthy fish-
ing industry,” Allen said.
“We want to keep our fish-
ermen here, fishing locally.
The program’s going to
evolve and the fleet’s going
to tell us what they need to
stay here. We want this area
to thrive and not just barely
survive,” Beasley said.
I have the power to
explore
Rec: Aquatic expansion planned
Continued from Page 1A
most residents of the Seaside
School District, excluding
Cannon Beach and Gearhart.
The goal of the expan-
sion is to provide indoor rec-
reation space for the commu-
nity, Archibald said. With the
relocation of Broadway Mid-
dle School to a new campus in
the Southeast Hills, the recre-
ation district could lose even
more space.
“There is no real indoor
recreation space for public use,
and when the school is built,
there will be even less for gen-
eral user groups and individ-
uals,” Archibald said. “We’re
really excited to move this for-
ward with this plan.”
Board member Michael
Hinton asked fellow board
members to “do our home-
work” to analyze district leases
with the city, and to make sure
rights of way are clearly delin-
eated and deeded. “I’m in favor
of fine-tuning the plan and get-
ting our ducks in a row.”
The district was formed
in 1969 and the Sunset pool
opened in 1978. Since that
time,
programming
has
expanded to a fitness cen-
ter, community center, senior
lunch program, preschool and
playing fields. The district
employs seven full-time staff,
with an annual budget of $2.8
million.
Last spring, district board
members discussed the pos-
sibility of expansion, either
funded through a bond or sys-
tem development charges —
the fees paid by builders to the
city for essential infrastructure.
Over the past three years,
the district has invested about
$60,000 in consultants for
building expansion.
Board members met at a
workshop early this month,
endorsing a base plan rather
than an enhanced proposal
that would have called for the
purchase of all or a portion of
Broadway Middle School.
The enhanced plan would
have added between $7 mil-
lion and $9 million to the pro-
posal, not including costs for
the purchase of school district
buildings.
The base plan, prepared by
consultants Ballard King with
Opsis Architecture, will add
a second level to the aquatic
facility on Broadway. If
approved by voters, the facility
will see a new entrance, gym,
preschool rooms, an admin-
istrative office, lobby expan-
sion, party room and storage.
According to architects, the
expanded facility could be
completed by 2021.
Board member Jeremy
Mills said while he had some
misgivings about the tim-
ing of the bond, the project’s
benefits outweighed his con-
cerns. “I think this project is so
very needed. I’m definitely on
board.”
Board members Mills,
Hinton, Veronica Russell and
Edward Hassan joined board
president Alan Evans in voting
for the bond proposal.
“We’ll deal with curveballs
as they come,” Archibald said.
“It’s nearly impossible for us
to make every right choice
along the way, but as long as
I have your support moving
forward, I’m hopeful that next
month I can provide the time-
line and some of the actions
that need to take place.”
He hopes to have bond lan-
guage finalized by the board’s
July meeting, he said.
You inspire all of us at Pacific Power to provide the most reliable and
sustainable energy possible. Every solution we create is to power you,
your family, neighborhood and community. Learn how our programs can
help you at PoweringGreatness.com.
© 2018 Pacifi c Power