jadesfire

Day 15

In your own space, write a love letter to Fandom in general, to a particular fandom, to a trope, a relationship, a character, or to your flist/circle/followers. Share your love and squee as loud as you want to.

Without wanting to get all gushy at you,* my most-loved and most-consistent fandom has always been my Friends-list. I arrived on LJ looking for the House fandom, found it. Then I found the Torchwood fandom. And the SGA fandom. And the Merlin fandom. Through all of those, my interests waxed and waned. I got interested in other media without getting stuck into the fandom - White Collar, MCU - but I kept up my Flist. I added people whose interests coincided with mine, and those whose didn't because they sounded interesting. We ended up talking about everything from deep character motivations to terrible writers to missing scenes to how I was going to run away to Morroco (it was decided more camles were required). I screwed up, and people explained to me why without shouting at me, so I got a chance to apologise and put things right. I got Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr accounts, but none of them really hit the spot that LJ did. While I'm not someone who believes you can just turn the clock back, I am an eternal optimist, and I'm hopeful of putting something new together.

Because fandom isn't the canon, it's the people.

Okay, we all update less often these days, and I'm slowly learning how to Tumblr (and building a new Flist there, which is kind of awesome too), but there are names that have been there from the start that I look out for each morning. There are people I've met in person after knowing for years online, so I can hear their voices when I read their posts. There are some folks I met in person before adding them here. And there are people with long-deleted journals that I'm still close friends with.

We always used to say that you get the Friends List you deserve, but I have never really felt that's true, because I don't know what I did to deserve you lot. The Snowflake Challenge has been wonderful for bringing me into the orbit of a bunch of new people, and I'm genuinely excited to get to know you over the coming months. I've added so many people to my Circle, and every time, I've thought "but should I?" Then I think how it makes me smile when people have added me, and I click anyway.

So hello, people. Old and New. It's been a fun fortnight, and I'm looking forward to seeing what happens next.

*I'm definitely going to get gushy at you.

I love today’s challenge! I’ve legit been waiting for this one. I love lists and making plans and reflecting on what has worked and how new things might work better. Which, is strange for a procrastinator like myself.

But lists give my life order. Goals give me clear, direct things to work towards. And sometimes they even get accomplished. Sometimes..

I also love that this challenge is happening now, almost two weeks into the challenge. We’ve had time to reflect, to get excited about things again, to reconnect with our fandom selves and the people who are in it with us. We know what we want and we have a clearer sense of what it would take to accomplish and if we have it in us to get it done. WOOOOOT!

Day 13:
In your own space, set some goals for the coming year. They can be fannish or not, public or private. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

And remember, the first thing on any To Do List, and Goals list is “Make List” that way you almost immediately have one thing to cross off! Such a great start.

I've done a personal version of this (locked), but I have a fannish goals list too:

1. Participate in more fests. I love deadlines, I like meeting people, I like collaborations. So I'm looking out for Big Bangs, Pod_Together, any fests at all that might get my brain going in one way or another. Last year, I spotted half of them far too late to take part, so I'm going to be watching like a hawk this year.

2. Learn to speak Tumblr better. Critical Role fandom in particular is mostly Tumblr-based, and it's a platform I find very, very hard to navigate. But I got a lot better at in 2017 by just plain being braver, so time for more of that as the new campaign gets going.

3. Sort out the back catalogue. There's fic and podfic all over the place, in my journal and on my computer. It would be good to get it all archived properly on AO3 and organised properly on my computer.

4. Leave more feedback. I think that's something most people have been saying they'd like to do better at, and it goes well with my general goal of talking to more people.

5. Consume more media. Yes, really. I spent most of 2017 with old favourites, as my brain felt too sensitive for many new things. The only new thing I really dipped into was Marvel Netflix, but even then, it was more a continuation of having enjoyed Daredevil. In 2018, I want to try new things to see if I like them. Everything from books people are recommending to the music everyone recommended to me. Time to stretch myself a bit.

Whatever your 2018 goals, may your deadlines be manageable, your collaborators considerate, and your commenters plentiful ♥

Day 11

Share a book/song/movie/tv show/fanwork/etc that changed your life.

So. This is an interesting one. Because the media that changed my life was Doctor Who. I grew up in a non-geeky household, but the last of the Seventh Doctor stories were airing when I was about 8, and I remember specifically seeing parts of Battlefield on the TV in our living room. But Mum must have decided it was too scary, or we were out at the wrong time, because I definitely didn’t see anything else. Still, they stayed with me, and when I was eleven, I discovered the novelisations. And I devoured them. Imagine seeing all your favourite Classic Doctor Who stories, but without any slightly iffy special effects to detract from them. I got all of that.

I bought the VHS of Third, Fourth and Fifth Doctor stories. I had the little metal TARDIS box that contained the Trial of a Time Lord VHS set. I bought book after book. My most vivid memory is sitting on the floor in a dark corner of the Waterstones in Lakeside, trying to decide which ones to buy, and trying to sneakily read a few before Mum came back for me.

Doctor Who made me a geek. It’s sort of that simple.

But there’s another part to this question, so I’m going to cheat and answer that too:

How’d y'all get drawn into fandom? Fall into a favorite book, or movie? Something about a character caught your eye and made you think… huh, I’d like to know MORE about them.

( MORE is definitely the operative word )

Day 9

In your own space, post a rec for at least three fanworks that you have created. It can be your favorite fanworks that you've created, or fanworks you feel no one ever saw, or fanworks you say would define you as a creator. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

I mostly write and podfic, so I'm going to be self-indulgent and rec three of each. For everything that got posted, there were five or six that didn't, so I'm proud of my work for the most part, and I think these are pretty representative.

( It appears I learned to write in the SGA fandom )

I also plan to use the challenge as a chance to fulfill Day 6's challenge of leaving feedback, and reccing them here.

Read so far:

A conversation in the Yellow Drawing Room by Dancingsalome (scripsi)
[Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell]
Lady Pole writes a letter to her friend Mrs Strange about an unexpected encounter.

McFlurries & Love by Brumeier
[MCU, Steve/Bucky]
What starts out as a simple trip to McDonald's turns into a relationship changer for Steve and Bucky.

Print the Legend by Deifier
[Thelma & Louise]
They say you'll see 'em sometimes out there on the road. Call 'em ghosts or spirits or avenging angels. Two redheaded women in a green 1966 Ford Thunderbird...
Reader's note: I think most of my Flist would enjoy this - it's our kind of thing, guys. I've never seen the film, but if you know the basics, go read it!

Such a Time as This by mihrsuri
[Tudor history AU, The Book of Esther]
"You have come to your royal position for such a time as this" or a retelling of the story of Queen Esther with Anne Boleyn as a Mizrahi Jewish lady.

The Adventure of the Thunders of the Upper Deep by El Staplador
[Doctor Who, Madame Vastra/Jenny]
1892, and the famous consulting detective Madame Vastra is summoned to Devon to investigate a mysterious death. Her faithful companion Jenny Flint accompanies her. Sea air and sea bathing are said to be very good for the nerves. Perhaps that's just as well.

Day 3

In your own space, post recs for at least three fanworks that you did not create.

This is a shorter list than I'd like. I've been caught up in a podfic/Yuletide-writing haze lately, and my mind has gone blank. So these are old favourites, recent finds and other things in between.

PODFIC

It's a truism that podficcers don't get feedback. It's partly the nature of the medium - not many people have the comment page open when they're listening - and partly that not as many people listen as they do read. So if you like anything here, or if you listened to something lately, please go and give the podficcer some love. It's hard work and we do it first and foremost because we love it, but I promise you every kudos is treasured and cherished.

I have a basic rule, that if Blackglass records it, and I am vaguely aware of the fandom, I will listen to it. Having said that, there is one of hers that I find myself about to quote regularly, in her exact intonation, before remembering that no one else will get the reference.

Culture, and other balls of twine is how post-Avengers canon *should* have gone. But mostly, the rendition of "that's what's going in the diary for June?" is firmly stuck in my head, and I have now earwormed myself. I also commend to you Fonder (Star Wars) and Robot Trip (MCU)

The whole of Scifigirl47's Toaster-verse, but especially Four (or five) reasons for kidnapping Tony Stark as read by Hananobira. It's not my sort of fic - I am strictly a Gen girl, and prefer my emotions unstated - but I find the reading comforting, and I turned to it in a bout of severe anxiety lately. There's something about Hananobira's voice that I find deeply reassuring.

The best podfic in the history of ever remains Texts from Cephalapods. The original fic was on Photobucket, and hasn't yet been replaced. The original podfic went down when the Audiofic archive had a mishap. But there is a GLORIOUS live recording from Podfication 2016 that I urge you to listen to now. No, right now. Shoo. I'll wait*. From that same year, Drunk Historians and From the Desk of N Fury are also glorious.

*I pulled it out and created it as a single track from the audio file so that I could have it on repeat for a while. I still laughed every time. It's possible I need to get out more...

FIC

I suspect these are mostly 'big hits' but they're maybe a chance to revisit something you'd forgotten.

Recently, Go Now, You Are Forgiven hit me just about as hard as is possible. It's Critical Role, but to a certain extent, you can read it without knowing much about the fandom. It handles religion in one of the most sensitive ways I've ever come across, feeling respectful, critical, sharp and tender, all at once. There's tons and tons of good CR fic, of which I particularly love Impossibletruth's two AUs, We're on the road to nowhere (let's find out where it goes) (Star Wars fusion) and it starts with an earthquake (post-apocalyptic).

To get a little old on you, The Best Laid Plans is a wonderful Merlin Gen story. It's long and plotty and clever and the character voices are So. Good. Similarly Let Us Dare is a wonderful AU and The Five Kingdoms is fabulous. Both take things in unexpected but utterly believable directions, which is definitely something I look for a in a fic.

I recently stumbled across the Rivers of London stories of Philomytha and tore through them in a few days. the walls of where is particularly haunting, but they're all great to read. In the same fandom, Mind the Gap by maple_clef is a great case-fic.

For laugh out loud funny, a recent favourite was Occupational Safety (podfic link - story link in post), which picks up an obvious question from Star Wars: why aren't there more handrails?

For such a good fic, Ask no questions, hear no lines has criminally few hits. It's a wonderful Maria Hill character study that is just perfect in tone and execution. If you know the MCU and read nothing else on this list, go give this one some love.

Day 1

In your own space, talk about why you're participating in Snowflake and, if you’ve participated in the past, how the challenge has affected you. What drew you to it? What did you take away from it? What do you hope to accomplish this year?

I think I started one a few years ago, but only got to about Day 3. 2017 was the year I got back into Fandom, so I'm hoping that by spending the start of 2018 on fannish things, I'll keep that momentum going. I got a little burned out with challenges in the last quarter of the year, and need to recharge the batteries. It's also a good way to get back into the habit of posting here.