themusecalliope

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.

Dear Fandom,

Because of you, I have learned a great deal. I know more about myself and the vast spectrum of humanity. I have developed new skills. I have made new friends.

I really do not know where I would be today without you.
Thank you for helping me grow.

Day 13:
In your own space, set some goals for the coming year. They can be fannish or not, public or private.

Ha! I'm almost done putting together another 101 things in 1001 days list, so I've got this.

Goals for the coming year:
1) Make list of goals
2) Reach 100 fanworks on AO3
3) Make another collab with analise010
4) Post 5 more sets of song recs (4 songs each)
5) Take myself less seriously

And that's it. Short and sweet.

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.


Day 11

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

Okay. Is this supposed to be about getting into fandom, or just a life changing experience thing? Because what you are going to get instead is more of my meditations on the history of fandom.

When I saw Star Wars: A New Hope in the theater I was...5 or 6? It was in the theater for a really long time, but apparently I annoyed my Dad into taking me to see the film. I was obsessed with Leia's hair in the award scene at the end and I remember writing about the film (possibly this was fanfiction?) in first grade. But! This was the mid-70s, and I had no way to interact with others in a fandom for this movie. Home computers didn't really exist. VCRs for home use didn't really exist. My tv was black and white. My friends? Didn't really have opinions about the film.

When I was 10, Benji, Zax, and the Alien Prince (my obscure tv show that no one has every heard of) became my obsession. The best I managed to do was clip some photos out of the TV guide. No one I knew cared about this show. (BTW, I own this show on DVD.)

Escape to Witch Mountain (and really most books by Alexander Key) came to my attention roughly during the same era. I annoyed my parents into renting the film when we were visiting my uncle, because He Had a VCR! Yes. This is the film I ended up seeing over 100 times once we had a VCR of our own. But, apart from the characters from the books/films showing up in an epic crossover I wrote (that no one else ever saw), this fandom was not particularly interactive.

(There were other fandoms in here like - The Original Tomorrow People, the animated Hobbit, Kidd Video, but still, no one to share them with. Just odd looks from my family.)

Then, my Freshman year in High School, I found Doctor Who. In April 1987, I was at the Shakespeare festival in Ashland, OR, and my friend Mindi told me all about this awesome show she liked. When we got home, I tried it. And loved it. And dragged my whole family into the fandom. We found a British food place that sold Jelly babies, and we started going there a lot. (They also serve hot food. If you're ever in North Highlands, CA stop by Touch of Britain.) At some point before I graduated from High School we found a store that sold a Time Lord t-shirt. I joined a fan club. I made friends with some other fans. It was amazing! (Still no internet, mind you, but I did have an Apple IIe and at some point I learned that message boards existed, and used a 300 Baud modem to get there. No fandom message boards though.)

So, really, Doctor Who fandom changed my life the first time. Before I even got to college and discovered the pre-web Internet and PSUVM.PSU.EDU and alt. groups on usenet.

Oh, and before I forget, my friend Mindi and I used to write some Doctor Who fanfiction. We created this awesome new companion that blew things up! ...And then Ace appeared on the show. (insert mysterious music here.)

So, that's my tale of fandoms past. Sorry. Ran a bit long there.

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.

Okay. Ummmmm. Let's try these...

Behold! My podfics three:
1) [Podfic] Battle Mode (Fandom: Welcome to Night Vale, Pairing: Carlos/Cecil) - I love what I did with the effects on this one. I really stretched myself by trying a couple of new things.

2) [Podfic] Shut Up and Kiss Me (Fandom: Thor (movies), Pairing: Darcy Lewis/Sif) - I love this pairing, so I was really glad to record this story. It makes me smile.

3) [Podfic] A Brief History of Liars (Fandom: Old Kingdom, Pairing: Astarael/Yrael) - This one is one of my favorites, and it's from such a small fandom, I feel like folks never see it. I even sing a tiny bit in it.

(Note for the future: Day 6 was the commenting on things day, not a posting here day.)

We all need more love, right? We need to be reminded why we’re here, why we matter, what we will be remembered for when the apocalypse comes (I kid! I kid!) But truly, so many of us have had a rough time of it this last year and could do with a bit of love.

Day 7:

In your own space, create a love meme for yourself. Let people tell you how amazing and awesome and loveable you really are.

What do I even put here? Send the love?

So awkward. I'll just go make some tea for folks who want to stop by.

Day 4

In your own space, create a fannish wishlist. No limits on size or type of fanwork; just tell us what you’d like to see.

So...
1) Like analise010 posts every year - For more people to post Transformative Works Statements for their fanworks.

2) Maybe some Stranger Things podfic?

3) More Wonder Woman/ Steve Trevor fanworks (for preference with Steve surviving somehow).

4)Hmmm...how about some Due South fic recs (as I missed them the first time around).

Thank you kindly.

In your own space, create a list of at least three fannish things you'd love to receive, something you've wanted but were afraid to ask for - a fannish wish-list of sorts. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your wish-list if you feel comfortable doing so. Maybe someone will grant a wish. Check out other people's posts. Maybe you will grant a wish.

...And my mind just went blank.

Okay. Fannish Wish-list -
( further squee )