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Studying fungi, but writing fiction

A recent PhD pens a wildly popular online novel based on Phantom of the Opera

Stephen Pincock
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It's a warm Wednesday morning at the University of Sydney, Australia, and Tanya Golubchik is sitting in a leafy courtyard drinking iced coffee, looking pretty relaxed. The 27-year old molecular biologist has good reason to take a breather. After four challenging years completing a tough PhD on the crop pathogen Fusarium oxysporum, her thesis is finally done and dusted -- 60,000 words or thereabouts bound neatly on a shelf.But there are many people who would rather she work, not relax, and Golubchik has many more words to write. Not words about fungal genetics, however -- she's due to submit a new chapter to her online work of fiction, "A Solo for the Living," whose fans are on tenterhooks, waiting for more.Golubchik writes fan fiction (fanfic), a type of story based on characters from TV, movies, and books, typically penned by a fan of the original story. In "A Solo for the Living," already 100,000 words long, she takes the characters of the 2004 movie Phantom of the Opera and gives them an extended life, filling in their pasts and developing their relationships. Each chapter Golubchik finishes is posted on a Web site devoted to fan fiction, where it is quickly devoured by her fellow fans.As she sips her iced coffee, Golubchik explains how she somehow managed to turn out all those words in roughly two years, during her PhD. In some ways, the writing offers a respite from the rigors of research, she says. "The PhD came first, and then if there's time left over I would write -- usually when things weren't going so well in the lab," she smiles. "Anyway, you can't be in the lab until 11 every night just working, working, working."And the experience of producing large volumes of fiction helped her structure her thesis, she adds. "Even a PhD is telling a story, although it's a scientific one," she says. Golubchik's initial foray into the world of fan fiction involved stories about the television show Xena: Warrior Princess. The feedback she received during the writing helped her develop her craft, she says.Her current story is set against a meticulously researched historical background. In this section from an early chapter, ballet mistress Madame Giry meets Erik -- otherwise known as the Phantom -- again for the first time since the events of the movie, after she's seen him steal food from a patisserie....They regarded each other in silence, the disfigured man and the thin, black-clad woman. The only sounds were the monotonous drip of water off the walls and the wet scenery, and the gurgle of the gutter.At length, Madame Giry spoke."So, Monsieur Opera Ghost. We meet again."Erik glared up at her resentfully. He made an angry flourish at the ruined half of his face. "A ghost no longer, madame. As you no doubt see.""Ah. Then you prefer a different title now...." Here she removed something from her bag and showed it to him. "The Phantom of the Bakery, perhaps?"Erik made a low growl in the back of his throat, lashing out at her mocking hand, but she merely took a step back, holding the bread away from him."You mock me!""I do."Erik struggled to his feet. "I assure you, madame, if you have come here to jeer at my humiliation--""You will kill me, too?"Something in Madame Giry's face made him stand still."I have never believed that humiliation is anything to jeer at," she said. "Perhaps you have forgotten."Despite the fact that the Fan Fiction Web site contains some 7,500 stories based on the Phantom of the Opera (not to mention 283,000 about J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series), Golubchik's chapters have earned her devoted fans, and created something of a stir among Phantom of the Opera fanfic readers.In the 37 pages of comments and reviews Golubchik has received since she began posting the story in April 2005, readers positively gush. Many of them seem to relish the historical detail she includes in the work. "This chapter was spectacularly written! It was so rich in sensory detail that I was practically drowning," wrote one Phantom fan back in 2005. "Oh, update!" added another more recently. "I felt a ridiculous twist of delight and dismay when seeing the email alert -- delight because well, more excellent writing to reread; dismay because now I've to wait patiently for the next chapter again.""The pressure does mount," Golubchik admits. "You do owe your readers something. There's an expectation to maintain a certain style and quality." So while she's looking for possible postdoc jobs overseas, she keeps on writing her story. At this point, it's about 60 percent done, she guesses.So does she harbour any thoughts of giving up the day job? Although she doesn't rule out the possibility of writing something to be published in the traditional way, Golubchik laughs at the idea of giving science up to become a full-time writer. "Well, you have to eat, for one thing," she says, adding that writing can be very "solitary."So for now at least, she has no plans to jettison either one of her passions. "I don't want to give up one side of my personality or the other," she said. No doubt there are a lot of readers who are glad to hear it.Stephen Pincock mail@the-scientist.comLinks within this articleTanya Golubchik http://www.bio.usyd.edu.au/staff/saleeba/saleeba_students_staff.htmPhantom of the Opera plot summary http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0293508/plotsummaryFanfiction.net, A Solo for the Living http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2364528/1/J. Rohn, "Promoting science in fiction," The Scientist, July 7, 2006. 'http://www.the-scientist.com/news/display/23879Fanfiction.net: "THE OUTSIDERS" Book II - Fortuna's Champion http://www.fanfiction.net/s/1010578/1/FanFiction.net: Harry Potter http://www.fanfiction.net/l/224/3/0/1/1/0/0/0/0/0/1
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