Trudging through sand
Jun. 10th, 2025 10:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
brightly_litSupernatural Summergen is a gen fanworks exchange I've taken part in every summer since 2013. Spring comes and I start looking forward to it, every year. But, well, the show's been off the air for a long time now, and the fandom's been in decline ever since, especially the lj fandom that spawned this exchange. (Although about 70 fics for this fandom have been posted TODAY, and it's just after ten in the morning as I write this. !) For all that, there was still a lot of participation last year! But this year, the time when they usually announce it came and went. We were sure there wasn't going to be a summergen this year, because weeks passed beyond the time they usually announce it. My friend even asked the mods if it was happening this year and got no response ... but about a month after the usual time, they announced it's happening again this year!! I don't write for Supernatural anymore except for this exchange. It's not where my fannish heart lies anymore. But I'm not over this exchange! I would write fics for this forever. There's a core group of fans who've been there, participating in this thing together, for all this time. It's become a part of the fabric of my life. I'm so glad I don't have to give it up yet.
The seed company was upstanding and sent me replacement seeds for free. We concluded something must have happened to the seeds in transit. She encouraged me to still try planting the first set of seeds, noting that some seeds are more durable than others, so I did. To my delight, the sorghum seeds are coming up! I tried sorghum syrup for the first time recently, and it is indeed delicious. The other thing I considered growing in that bed was corn (which looks almost identical to sorghum, oddly, but apparently they don't cross-breed), but it was such a pain to get the kernels off the cobs to can them last summer, and grocery-story corn is so cheap and delicious, that I decided instead to plant the thing I've never grown before that's rare and expensive to purchase. So, until one of the apocalypses that seems to be headed our way necessitates my growing my own corn, I'll have a little fun with sorghum.
In the meantime, if you have any tips on how to more easily remove kernels from corn cobs, I'm all ears. Some people use a method of pushing them through the center of a bundt cake pan, which seemed like a brilliant miracle solution when I first heard it, but since then I've tried it myself, and watched videos of other people doing it, and ... I dunno, I guess the first person I heard about it from must have gotten lucky, because it turns out it's not generally an easy solution after all. I even bought an electric knife to try to help with it, which didn't work at all, so I just laboriously hacked the kernels off with a knife last year, which is both dangerous and hard on the hands and wrists. So I'm really hoping for a hack that makes it at least a little less dangerous and arduous.
I finally realized the next step in my journey as an author of original work is to make physical copies of all my books available. I've been working on that lately, and tearing my hair out at every stage. What should be minor technological issues easily overcome invariably end up being hours of maddening frustration. For example, I've always saved all my images as I worked on the covers at various stages of completion, and was extremely careful to save a copy before the layers were merged so I could go back and make changes later, only when I went to work on it this time, surprise! No files with layers. I looked up the problem and discovered my image editing software automatically overwrites the existing file with the new file of a different type! (!!!) (!!!! :-#) So all the unmerged files I saved as the filetype specific to the editing program right before trying to ALSO save a .png or what-have-you were erased. I've never before used a program that didn't keep files of every type you saved it as! Well, extremely frustrating lesson learned, I guess. I'll be saving them under different names, on different drives -- everything I can think of to make it so they can't overwrite them! But in the meantime, I'll have to start from scratch with all too many of these covers.
When I was a kid dreaming of being an author, I thought making the covers would be the funnest part! Instead, once I've finished a book, I've just been so excited to publish it, bogged down by all these difficulties that I seem to encounter every time I try to make a cover. It's like trudging through sand, every step of the way -- not least because every time I release a book and make a cover, I always have to learn a bunch of stuff about the image-editing program I use, which is powerful but not intuitive, which I then forget by the next time I release a book, lol. Also because for some reason I always end up deciding I need to use some complex effect that requires hours of research, watching YouTube videos, and then accounting for more recent changes in the software that make the videos out of date, etc. etc. Maybe it can be fun, if I just stop being impatient to get the words out there and put the effort into delivering it in as appealing a cover as possible, because what's the point in publishing the book if you don't end up with a product that looks appealing enough to attract readers?
I remember in high school, I and everyone I knew who submitted stuff to the school literary magazine were always writing untitled poems and stories. Coming up with a title seemed kind of pretentious and like a lot of effort -- sometimes more effort than writing the poem! We felt like, the poem's good! Just read it. But the literary magazine required every submission to have a title, so we'd labor over what to call it, and usually just end up throwing some half-assed title on there. Now, though, I get it. Yes, the poem is good. The book is good. Good enough to deserve whatever must go into its presentation. It still seems kind of pretentious, or slick, to put so much effort into sales when you just want to think about art. A cover that's both commercially appealing and art is even more challenging. But it's worth it.
The seed company was upstanding and sent me replacement seeds for free. We concluded something must have happened to the seeds in transit. She encouraged me to still try planting the first set of seeds, noting that some seeds are more durable than others, so I did. To my delight, the sorghum seeds are coming up! I tried sorghum syrup for the first time recently, and it is indeed delicious. The other thing I considered growing in that bed was corn (which looks almost identical to sorghum, oddly, but apparently they don't cross-breed), but it was such a pain to get the kernels off the cobs to can them last summer, and grocery-story corn is so cheap and delicious, that I decided instead to plant the thing I've never grown before that's rare and expensive to purchase. So, until one of the apocalypses that seems to be headed our way necessitates my growing my own corn, I'll have a little fun with sorghum.
In the meantime, if you have any tips on how to more easily remove kernels from corn cobs, I'm all ears. Some people use a method of pushing them through the center of a bundt cake pan, which seemed like a brilliant miracle solution when I first heard it, but since then I've tried it myself, and watched videos of other people doing it, and ... I dunno, I guess the first person I heard about it from must have gotten lucky, because it turns out it's not generally an easy solution after all. I even bought an electric knife to try to help with it, which didn't work at all, so I just laboriously hacked the kernels off with a knife last year, which is both dangerous and hard on the hands and wrists. So I'm really hoping for a hack that makes it at least a little less dangerous and arduous.
I finally realized the next step in my journey as an author of original work is to make physical copies of all my books available. I've been working on that lately, and tearing my hair out at every stage. What should be minor technological issues easily overcome invariably end up being hours of maddening frustration. For example, I've always saved all my images as I worked on the covers at various stages of completion, and was extremely careful to save a copy before the layers were merged so I could go back and make changes later, only when I went to work on it this time, surprise! No files with layers. I looked up the problem and discovered my image editing software automatically overwrites the existing file with the new file of a different type! (!!!) (!!!! :-#) So all the unmerged files I saved as the filetype specific to the editing program right before trying to ALSO save a .png or what-have-you were erased. I've never before used a program that didn't keep files of every type you saved it as! Well, extremely frustrating lesson learned, I guess. I'll be saving them under different names, on different drives -- everything I can think of to make it so they can't overwrite them! But in the meantime, I'll have to start from scratch with all too many of these covers.
When I was a kid dreaming of being an author, I thought making the covers would be the funnest part! Instead, once I've finished a book, I've just been so excited to publish it, bogged down by all these difficulties that I seem to encounter every time I try to make a cover. It's like trudging through sand, every step of the way -- not least because every time I release a book and make a cover, I always have to learn a bunch of stuff about the image-editing program I use, which is powerful but not intuitive, which I then forget by the next time I release a book, lol. Also because for some reason I always end up deciding I need to use some complex effect that requires hours of research, watching YouTube videos, and then accounting for more recent changes in the software that make the videos out of date, etc. etc. Maybe it can be fun, if I just stop being impatient to get the words out there and put the effort into delivering it in as appealing a cover as possible, because what's the point in publishing the book if you don't end up with a product that looks appealing enough to attract readers?
I remember in high school, I and everyone I knew who submitted stuff to the school literary magazine were always writing untitled poems and stories. Coming up with a title seemed kind of pretentious and like a lot of effort -- sometimes more effort than writing the poem! We felt like, the poem's good! Just read it. But the literary magazine required every submission to have a title, so we'd labor over what to call it, and usually just end up throwing some half-assed title on there. Now, though, I get it. Yes, the poem is good. The book is good. Good enough to deserve whatever must go into its presentation. It still seems kind of pretentious, or slick, to put so much effort into sales when you just want to think about art. A cover that's both commercially appealing and art is even more challenging. But it's worth it.
Fic: Murder, She Wrote/V (1983): One Good Hoax Deserves Another (Jessica & Julie; PG13)
Jun. 10th, 2025 09:26 amspikedluvAnother Jessica crossover! I hope you enjoy it.
Title: One Good Hoax Deserves Another
Author: Spikedluv
Fandom: Murder, She Wrote (tv)/V (1983) (tv)
Rating: PG13/Gen
Pairing/Characters: Jessica Fletcher & Juliet Parrish (appearances by Mike Donovan and Elias Taylor)
Length: 3,380 words
Spoilers: Takes place during ep 1.04 Hooray for Homicide of Murder, She Wrote and during the first V (1983) mini-series.
Summary: Jessica Fletcher’s trip to Los Angeles turns out very differently than she’d expected.
Author’s Notes: Written for Round 37 of![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
smallfandomfest for the prompt: Murder, She Wrote (tv)/V (1983), Jessica & Writer's Choice, Jessica happens to be in LA when the truth about the Visitors is revealed
Feedback: Would be greatly appreciated.
Disclaimer: None of these characters belong to me.
Posted: June 10, 2025
Read Fic @ AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/66375037
Title: One Good Hoax Deserves Another
Author: Spikedluv
Fandom: Murder, She Wrote (tv)/V (1983) (tv)
Rating: PG13/Gen
Pairing/Characters: Jessica Fletcher & Juliet Parrish (appearances by Mike Donovan and Elias Taylor)
Length: 3,380 words
Spoilers: Takes place during ep 1.04 Hooray for Homicide of Murder, She Wrote and during the first V (1983) mini-series.
Summary: Jessica Fletcher’s trip to Los Angeles turns out very differently than she’d expected.
Author’s Notes: Written for Round 37 of
smallfandomfest for the prompt: Murder, She Wrote (tv)/V (1983), Jessica & Writer's Choice, Jessica happens to be in LA when the truth about the Visitors is revealedFeedback: Would be greatly appreciated.
Disclaimer: None of these characters belong to me.
Posted: June 10, 2025
Read Fic @ AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/66375037
The Day in Spikedluv (Monday, June 9)
Jun. 10th, 2025 07:17 amspikedluvI spent most of the day at the hospital, which I talk about below if you want to skip it. I did some hand-washing of dishes and scooping of kitty litter when I got home. I finished the Amelia Peabody book while sitting in the waiting room. It felt weird when I was finally sitting on my bed, NOT to make my daily call to mom.
Temps started out at 59.2(F) and reached 75. It was weird coming out of the window-less waiting room (for trips to the cafeteria or restroom) to see that it was still light out.
Mom Update:
Thank you so much for all of your good wishes for mom's surgery yesterday! I really appreciate it.
( cutting for those who don’t want to read )
Temps started out at 59.2(F) and reached 75. It was weird coming out of the window-less waiting room (for trips to the cafeteria or restroom) to see that it was still light out.
Mom Update:
Thank you so much for all of your good wishes for mom's surgery yesterday! I really appreciate it.
( cutting for those who don’t want to read )
Restorative
Jun. 10th, 2025 05:32 pmredwolfSarah had spent her afternoon following up on their new arrival. Her concerns that the child could be suffering from a similar malady to that which had claimed her parents had been well founded. The healers had placed the little girl in statis while they worked to slowly purge her system of remaining toxins and to repair the damage they had caused.
While Sarah had hoped the healers could provide her with a list of the chemicals involved, that had unfortunately devolved into a circular discussion with neither party understanding the other’s terminology. Taking a different tack, Sarah had ended up calling Irene and, between the two of them, they had determined that the family had been the victims of a tainted water supply. It seemed that there was a high profile legal case for victim compensation in progress, which may help those families who had a chance of recovery, but there were enough people who were beyond medical intervention that Sarah suspected the child was the first of an influx.
Entering the library, Sarah smiled as she saw Jareth sprawled on a lounge chair. Having fallen asleep while reading, his head was thrown back, exposing a long column of neck and one hand was buried in the heavy pelt draped across his lap. As she watched, his rug moved and a very much alive wolf didn’t so much fall from the lounge as it did succumb to gravity in a slow ooze that eventually yawned, curled in a tight ball at Jareth’s feet and resumed its own sleep.
Stepping behind the chair, Sarah brushed Jareth’s hair aside before kissing him on the forehead.
With a dramatic full body stretch, Jareth reached up to return Sarah’s kiss. “How’s the patient?”
“She’ll recover fully, but they want to keep her in their care for a while yet.” Carefully avoiding treading on the sleeping wolf, Sarah joined Jareth on the lounge and curled into his side. “There’ll be more, won’t there?” She could feel an air of heavy expectation from the Labyrinth that made her suspect the next call would be soon.
“Quite a few, yes.” Sarah shuddered and Jareth tightened his arms around her.
“I’m feeling the urge to introduce the culprits to the bog.”
“Alas that is outside our remit, my love,” Jareth commiserated.
“Is there anything we can do?”
“We can ensure the children who are wished away find loving homes.”
“I meant Above.”
“I understand, but there are rules, and while you only want to intervene with the best of intentions, others may not be so altruistic.”
As frustrating as it was to hear, Sarah understood that it would be a slippery slope. While she knew the flip side was that there would soon be families Underground gaining a much wanted child, it was still difficult to only be able to step in under tightly defined conditions and even then it was in the aftermath of disaster.
“We provide a safety net for those who’ve lost all hope.”
labyfic — drabble #213: luxurious
Part of the Balance!verse
While Sarah had hoped the healers could provide her with a list of the chemicals involved, that had unfortunately devolved into a circular discussion with neither party understanding the other’s terminology. Taking a different tack, Sarah had ended up calling Irene and, between the two of them, they had determined that the family had been the victims of a tainted water supply. It seemed that there was a high profile legal case for victim compensation in progress, which may help those families who had a chance of recovery, but there were enough people who were beyond medical intervention that Sarah suspected the child was the first of an influx.
Entering the library, Sarah smiled as she saw Jareth sprawled on a lounge chair. Having fallen asleep while reading, his head was thrown back, exposing a long column of neck and one hand was buried in the heavy pelt draped across his lap. As she watched, his rug moved and a very much alive wolf didn’t so much fall from the lounge as it did succumb to gravity in a slow ooze that eventually yawned, curled in a tight ball at Jareth’s feet and resumed its own sleep.
Stepping behind the chair, Sarah brushed Jareth’s hair aside before kissing him on the forehead.
With a dramatic full body stretch, Jareth reached up to return Sarah’s kiss. “How’s the patient?”
“She’ll recover fully, but they want to keep her in their care for a while yet.” Carefully avoiding treading on the sleeping wolf, Sarah joined Jareth on the lounge and curled into his side. “There’ll be more, won’t there?” She could feel an air of heavy expectation from the Labyrinth that made her suspect the next call would be soon.
“Quite a few, yes.” Sarah shuddered and Jareth tightened his arms around her.
“I’m feeling the urge to introduce the culprits to the bog.”
“Alas that is outside our remit, my love,” Jareth commiserated.
“Is there anything we can do?”
“We can ensure the children who are wished away find loving homes.”
“I meant Above.”
“I understand, but there are rules, and while you only want to intervene with the best of intentions, others may not be so altruistic.”
As frustrating as it was to hear, Sarah understood that it would be a slippery slope. While she knew the flip side was that there would soon be families Underground gaining a much wanted child, it was still difficult to only be able to step in under tightly defined conditions and even then it was in the aftermath of disaster.
“We provide a safety net for those who’ve lost all hope.”
labyfic — drabble #213: luxuriousPart of the Balance!verse
Dial in the number.
Jun. 9th, 2025 10:31 pmhannahThe day's major accomplishment was getting some hand-holding for my hard drive problem and getting the man on the other end to laugh a bit when I said I knew enough to get myself into trouble but not how to get out of it. Hopefully I can get my act together enough to send it out for repairs in a day or two.
The secondary accomplishments were taking the stairs to the gym, and making an attempt to reach out when I felt myself going down a spiral.
The secondary accomplishments were taking the stairs to the gym, and making an attempt to reach out when I felt myself going down a spiral.
multifandom questionnaire pt 2
Jun. 9th, 2025 04:59 pmsvgurlThis is the second part of the questions from the 72 Multifandom questions to ask a fangirl.
Fandom Participation:
1. Do you keep up with any official or fan-authored wikis or encyclopedias about your fandom?
I don't think so. I've definitely used them as resources when I want to write fic and I don't remember specific details or if I want to find out more about, say, DC fandom/characters when I was writing Smallville fic.
2. How do you stay updated with the latest news and information concerning your fandom?
I follow people who share my fandom on Tumblr and figure out things from others who post what is going on. Also sometimes, I follow the cast on IG and see if they post anything. Before, I used to be more active in reading fansites and the like, and take more of an initiative in posting news I find as well, but now I tend to take more of a relaxed stance. If I get really curious, I will look into things myself.
3. Are there any forums, social media groups, or online communities you frequent to discuss your fandom?
Back with Smallville, it was Livejournal. There were a lot of ship and fandom specific communities but mainly my journal and the journal of friends. Also, I used to go to some sites, like Divine Intervention, which was a Clois fansite. I was mostly a lurker at Kryptonsite.
These days, it's mainly Tumblr. I'm active on here, but I don't know how much I actively discuss fandoms. Not a fraction as much as I used to do on LJ for sure. I'm on Discord as well, but I tend to prefer one on one conversations. With servers, I tend to lurk more than actively participate.
4. How would you describe the overall atmosphere and culture within the fan community?
Good, as long as you know how to curate your experience. There are ups and downs to every type of fandom. There's drama and fighting, no matter how big or small the fandom is - it's just the type of fighting feels differently and I imagine it's more frustrating when you start out with fewer people and you have to block or worry about cliques since there is a chance of more overlap. It just depends what you want out of fandom and fortunately, there a lot of tools to help make it more pleasant and fun (blocking/muting/etc), which it should be.
5. Have you attended any fan conventions or meet-ups? If so, what was your experience like?
No, I used to want to, but I didn't want to go alone and since I've always tried to keep my online and real life separate, I didn't have anyone to go with.
6. What’s the significance of fan art, fan fiction, or fan videos in your community?
Really significant. I came to be part of fandom because of fanfiction - I had been reading it for years and then I eventually started writing. I started out writing for a very small ship in a big fandom and over the years, I've shipped bigger ships in bigger fandoms (MCU namely and I was able to see Sam/Bucky really grow into something bigger, which was nice). Now my main fandom is pretty big/active and there is a lot of content of all the above. I love looking at fanart and fan videos, though I do feel like I used to watch the latter more in the past. It seems a bit harder to find these days, unless you specifically search it out but the one way the algorithm on YouTube was useful is that if I find one I like, it starts to give me more so I have found some great creators that I wouldn't have otherwise, since I wasn't sure where to look.
7. Are there any charity or social causes your fandom community supports?
Currently, I've seen people participate in the Fandom Trumps Hate, which is obviously multifandom, and also, I think there's a 911forGaza one too.
8. How do fan theories or headcanons contribute to your enjoyment of the fandom?
As with fandom as a whole, there's good and bad. I like reading about other people's theories and headcanons and I enjoy coming up with my own. It's a fun surprise when you can theorize and speculate and end up being right - it has happened a couple of times over the years. However it is frustrating when a certain headcanon or theory can spread and take over and gets treated like canon. Sometimes, it's just mildly annoying because it's hard to avoid and others, when the fans get entitled and throw tantrums when they're not getting what they feel like they "deserve" or something happens that goes against their theory, it's downright frustrating.
9. Are there any rituals or annual events that your fandom community participates in each year?
There were plenty of ship specific events - I remember there being exchanges and the like for Clark/Lois in Smallville (and other ships but I can't tell you about those), both on a now deleted community and the fansite. Also there were Smallville fanfic awards with ship and general categories but that was in the later years. With my current fandom, I've seen annual events on Tumblr. Character/ship/theme specific weeks and a summer ship event that people are into. I haven't actually made anything for them yet but I'm still fairly new to 9-1-1 and am not yet comfortable with doing more than lurking.
10. What is the craziest or most dedicated thing you’ve done for your fandom(s)?
I don't think I've done anything too crazy. Online, I've ran communities and an exchange. Ran to the store to get a copy of the TV Guide that had Tom Welling & Erica Durance on it. Did the whole midnight bookstore visit to get my copy of the 7th HP book. Just fun stuff like that. Nothing too wild, or at least nothing I can think of.
11. Have you created any content or resources that have contributed to the fan community?
I've written fic and in the past few years, made some icons. Earlier on, back in Smallville fandom, since the ship I was writing for was so small and didn't have many other people writing for it, I did make a list of Clark/Oliver ships that I could link people when they expressed interest in the ship and didn't know where to find fic. I hope it helped.
12. Are there any well-known fan community leaders or content creators that you admire?
There are lot of great writers and vidders whose worsk I enjoy and subscribe to but I can't say I'm aware these days of who is "big" in fandom. Obviously you can tell by AO3 stats and who does numbers on Tumblr but I don't pay attention to that.
Fandom Participation:
1. Do you keep up with any official or fan-authored wikis or encyclopedias about your fandom?
I don't think so. I've definitely used them as resources when I want to write fic and I don't remember specific details or if I want to find out more about, say, DC fandom/characters when I was writing Smallville fic.
#2-12
2. How do you stay updated with the latest news and information concerning your fandom?
I follow people who share my fandom on Tumblr and figure out things from others who post what is going on. Also sometimes, I follow the cast on IG and see if they post anything. Before, I used to be more active in reading fansites and the like, and take more of an initiative in posting news I find as well, but now I tend to take more of a relaxed stance. If I get really curious, I will look into things myself.
3. Are there any forums, social media groups, or online communities you frequent to discuss your fandom?
Back with Smallville, it was Livejournal. There were a lot of ship and fandom specific communities but mainly my journal and the journal of friends. Also, I used to go to some sites, like Divine Intervention, which was a Clois fansite. I was mostly a lurker at Kryptonsite.
These days, it's mainly Tumblr. I'm active on here, but I don't know how much I actively discuss fandoms. Not a fraction as much as I used to do on LJ for sure. I'm on Discord as well, but I tend to prefer one on one conversations. With servers, I tend to lurk more than actively participate.
4. How would you describe the overall atmosphere and culture within the fan community?
Good, as long as you know how to curate your experience. There are ups and downs to every type of fandom. There's drama and fighting, no matter how big or small the fandom is - it's just the type of fighting feels differently and I imagine it's more frustrating when you start out with fewer people and you have to block or worry about cliques since there is a chance of more overlap. It just depends what you want out of fandom and fortunately, there a lot of tools to help make it more pleasant and fun (blocking/muting/etc), which it should be.
5. Have you attended any fan conventions or meet-ups? If so, what was your experience like?
No, I used to want to, but I didn't want to go alone and since I've always tried to keep my online and real life separate, I didn't have anyone to go with.
6. What’s the significance of fan art, fan fiction, or fan videos in your community?
Really significant. I came to be part of fandom because of fanfiction - I had been reading it for years and then I eventually started writing. I started out writing for a very small ship in a big fandom and over the years, I've shipped bigger ships in bigger fandoms (MCU namely and I was able to see Sam/Bucky really grow into something bigger, which was nice). Now my main fandom is pretty big/active and there is a lot of content of all the above. I love looking at fanart and fan videos, though I do feel like I used to watch the latter more in the past. It seems a bit harder to find these days, unless you specifically search it out but the one way the algorithm on YouTube was useful is that if I find one I like, it starts to give me more so I have found some great creators that I wouldn't have otherwise, since I wasn't sure where to look.
7. Are there any charity or social causes your fandom community supports?
Currently, I've seen people participate in the Fandom Trumps Hate, which is obviously multifandom, and also, I think there's a 911forGaza one too.
8. How do fan theories or headcanons contribute to your enjoyment of the fandom?
As with fandom as a whole, there's good and bad. I like reading about other people's theories and headcanons and I enjoy coming up with my own. It's a fun surprise when you can theorize and speculate and end up being right - it has happened a couple of times over the years. However it is frustrating when a certain headcanon or theory can spread and take over and gets treated like canon. Sometimes, it's just mildly annoying because it's hard to avoid and others, when the fans get entitled and throw tantrums when they're not getting what they feel like they "deserve" or something happens that goes against their theory, it's downright frustrating.
9. Are there any rituals or annual events that your fandom community participates in each year?
There were plenty of ship specific events - I remember there being exchanges and the like for Clark/Lois in Smallville (and other ships but I can't tell you about those), both on a now deleted community and the fansite. Also there were Smallville fanfic awards with ship and general categories but that was in the later years. With my current fandom, I've seen annual events on Tumblr. Character/ship/theme specific weeks and a summer ship event that people are into. I haven't actually made anything for them yet but I'm still fairly new to 9-1-1 and am not yet comfortable with doing more than lurking.
10. What is the craziest or most dedicated thing you’ve done for your fandom(s)?
I don't think I've done anything too crazy. Online, I've ran communities and an exchange. Ran to the store to get a copy of the TV Guide that had Tom Welling & Erica Durance on it. Did the whole midnight bookstore visit to get my copy of the 7th HP book. Just fun stuff like that. Nothing too wild, or at least nothing I can think of.
11. Have you created any content or resources that have contributed to the fan community?
I've written fic and in the past few years, made some icons. Earlier on, back in Smallville fandom, since the ship I was writing for was so small and didn't have many other people writing for it, I did make a list of Clark/Oliver ships that I could link people when they expressed interest in the ship and didn't know where to find fic. I hope it helped.
12. Are there any well-known fan community leaders or content creators that you admire?
There are lot of great writers and vidders whose worsk I enjoy and subscribe to but I can't say I'm aware these days of who is "big" in fandom. Obviously you can tell by AO3 stats and who does numbers on Tumblr but I don't pay attention to that.
(no subject)
Jun. 9th, 2025 07:37 pmscifirenegadePut on Nazi Agent as background noise while doing some research (even if it breaks me every time), and wondered:
by![[tumblr.com profile]](https://www.tumblr.com/favicon.ico)
filmforfancy
*sob*
- Do we even know how Otto got that scar? Hmmm... plot bunnies...
- That ending speech... Oh, that American hypocrisy, right?
- Speaking of the ending, I keep thinking about how Otto will be sent to a concentration camp, and probably executed. Which is why it breaks my heart so much. Once again, Connie plays a character who sacrifices everything for what he thinks is right.
by
*sob*
Monday Drabble - Star Wars
Jun. 9th, 2025 10:04 ampebbleinalakeFandom: Star Wars
Characters: Luke Skywalker
Words: 100
Notes: Forstarwars100 Prompt #002a "Smoke".
( Read more... )
Characters: Luke Skywalker
Words: 100
Notes: For
starwars100 Prompt #002a "Smoke".( Read more... )
The Day in Spikedluv (Sunday, June 8)
Jun. 9th, 2025 07:07 amspikedluvI did a load of laundry, ran a load in the dishwasher and then emptied it (!!), did the usual amount of hand-washing dishes, and scooped kitty litter. I baked chicken for the dogs’ meals and made brownies. I mowed the lawn.
For fun stuff I watched the current ep (season finale *sniffle*) of Leverage: Redemption and an HGTV program, read more in Amelia Peabody, and talked with mom on the phone.
The water in the pond has gone down to normal levels, thankfully. Pip used the shop vac in the basement, but stirring up that water made the entire house stink. Not sure what else we’ll need to do.
Temps started out at 55.0(F) and reached 78.4. It was nice and sunny all day, with a slight breeze. Tomorrow: more rain. Ugh!
For fun stuff I watched the current ep (season finale *sniffle*) of Leverage: Redemption and an HGTV program, read more in Amelia Peabody, and talked with mom on the phone.
The water in the pond has gone down to normal levels, thankfully. Pip used the shop vac in the basement, but stirring up that water made the entire house stink. Not sure what else we’ll need to do.
Temps started out at 55.0(F) and reached 78.4. It was nice and sunny all day, with a slight breeze. Tomorrow: more rain. Ugh!
Murderbot reviews/meta, weather, fannish activity, and more
Jun. 9th, 2025 08:01 pmmificI've been reading reviews of the five Murderbot eps to date, by William Hughes. They gel with what I'd been thinking and give some interesting meta. Worth checking out, if you're into the show.
https://www.avclub.com/murderbot-premiere-recap-episodes-1-and-2
https://www.avclub.com/murderbot-recap-season-1-episode-3-risk-assessment
https://www.avclub.com/murderbot-recap-season-1-episode-4-escape-velocity-protocol
https://www.avclub.com/murderbot-recap-season-1-episode-5-rogue-war-tracker-infinite
We've had a cold snap here - temps down to 7C (45F) - which I know is nothing to you tough Northeners but it reminded me how much I prefer summer. I broke out my oodie (a massive hooded sweatshirt of velour fleece lined with fake sheepskin fleece - mine has slices of pepperoni pizza on it) which was amazingly warm and comforting for a while, then when I'd warmed up, rapidly became claustrophpbic. I'm keeping it in reserve for more wintry dips in temperature.
I'm working on a NSFW artwork of John Sheppard and Rodney McKay as "always a girl" lesbians, and managed to turn myself on! Unusual - it can happen when I write sex scenes, but never before with a high-rated pic I've been drawing. I really want the pic to work so will need to run it by at least one art beta when it's a bit more finished - John/Joan's hips are proving elusive. Meredith's looking nicely lush though.
Lots of podfic-related activity lately - the longer one I'm recording is going well, plus the regular Voiceteam festival had an archiving challenge so we've been hit with >600 podfics to archive, some in weird, tiny, Yuletidey fandoms that are a puzzle to categorise.
I had a brief brain melt and panicked that the due South Big Bang deadline was June 16th (it's August 16th), and having come to my senses, relievedly abandoned the punishing podficcing schedule I'd invented. But I do need to get onto my into-a-bar fic asap. Writing - so much harder for me these days, goddamnit.
The Mexican sunflower is still flowering up a storm, even in the cold and rain. It's a keeper! Not a lot of choice about that as with big ones like mine the roots can be several metres deep, and they come away again cheerfully when cut back.
I had a moment in a comment over onminoanmiss's journal, when I realized the phrase "trumped up" charges now has a horrible new meaning. So I've written an imaginary future entry in Etymology.com:
trump (v.2)
"fabricate, devise," 1690s, from earlier trump "deceive, cheat, impose upon" (late 14c.), from Old French tromper "to deceive," a word of uncertain origin.
Trumped up "fabricated out of nothing or deceitfully; forged; false; worthless" is recorded by 1728. Since 2025 the origin has become conflated, especially in the US, with the second Trump presidency (January 2025 to his September 2025 impeachment) in which Trump and his lackeys were notorious for illegal executive orders, false charges, and widespread abuse of power.
Hope you're all keeping warm, or cool, depending!
https://www.avclub.com/murderbot-premiere-recap-episodes-1-and-2
https://www.avclub.com/murderbot-recap-season-1-episode-3-risk-assessment
https://www.avclub.com/murderbot-recap-season-1-episode-4-escape-velocity-protocol
https://www.avclub.com/murderbot-recap-season-1-episode-5-rogue-war-tracker-infinite
We've had a cold snap here - temps down to 7C (45F) - which I know is nothing to you tough Northeners but it reminded me how much I prefer summer. I broke out my oodie (a massive hooded sweatshirt of velour fleece lined with fake sheepskin fleece - mine has slices of pepperoni pizza on it) which was amazingly warm and comforting for a while, then when I'd warmed up, rapidly became claustrophpbic. I'm keeping it in reserve for more wintry dips in temperature.
Discussion of an NSFW artwork and TMI
I'm working on a NSFW artwork of John Sheppard and Rodney McKay as "always a girl" lesbians, and managed to turn myself on! Unusual - it can happen when I write sex scenes, but never before with a high-rated pic I've been drawing. I really want the pic to work so will need to run it by at least one art beta when it's a bit more finished - John/Joan's hips are proving elusive. Meredith's looking nicely lush though.
Lots of podfic-related activity lately - the longer one I'm recording is going well, plus the regular Voiceteam festival had an archiving challenge so we've been hit with >600 podfics to archive, some in weird, tiny, Yuletidey fandoms that are a puzzle to categorise.
I had a brief brain melt and panicked that the due South Big Bang deadline was June 16th (it's August 16th), and having come to my senses, relievedly abandoned the punishing podficcing schedule I'd invented. But I do need to get onto my into-a-bar fic asap. Writing - so much harder for me these days, goddamnit.
The Mexican sunflower is still flowering up a storm, even in the cold and rain. It's a keeper! Not a lot of choice about that as with big ones like mine the roots can be several metres deep, and they come away again cheerfully when cut back.
I had a moment in a comment over on
minoanmiss's journal, when I realized the phrase "trumped up" charges now has a horrible new meaning. So I've written an imaginary future entry in Etymology.com:trump (v.2)
"fabricate, devise," 1690s, from earlier trump "deceive, cheat, impose upon" (late 14c.), from Old French tromper "to deceive," a word of uncertain origin.
Trumped up "fabricated out of nothing or deceitfully; forged; false; worthless" is recorded by 1728. Since 2025 the origin has become conflated, especially in the US, with the second Trump presidency (January 2025 to his September 2025 impeachment) in which Trump and his lackeys were notorious for illegal executive orders, false charges, and widespread abuse of power.
Hope you're all keeping warm, or cool, depending!
All go together.
Jun. 8th, 2025 10:12 pmhannahToday's luxurious disappointments are in the fields of scheduling issues and data preservation.
The latter is because a hard drive stopped working. I got a couple error messages about moving and deleting files - "Error 0x8007045D: the request could not be performed because of an I/O device error" - which was soon followed by Error code 43, then "Cannot open drive for direct access". At this point, I'm pretty secure in saying it's not going to get fixed by trying the hard drive on another computer, or that I can fix it myself. As such, I'm going to leave it alone in the hopes it doesn't get worse and look into local data recovery centers to see which one can best help me.
In the former's case, it's because Escapade is scheduled opposite a few movie screenings at the MOMI I'd very much like to see. I can probably juggle them around, pick which movies versus which panels, and it's more than a little annoying to have to choose between two fun things to look forward to. As I said, luxurious disappointments.
The latter is because a hard drive stopped working. I got a couple error messages about moving and deleting files - "Error 0x8007045D: the request could not be performed because of an I/O device error" - which was soon followed by Error code 43, then "Cannot open drive for direct access". At this point, I'm pretty secure in saying it's not going to get fixed by trying the hard drive on another computer, or that I can fix it myself. As such, I'm going to leave it alone in the hopes it doesn't get worse and look into local data recovery centers to see which one can best help me.
In the former's case, it's because Escapade is scheduled opposite a few movie screenings at the MOMI I'd very much like to see. I can probably juggle them around, pick which movies versus which panels, and it's more than a little annoying to have to choose between two fun things to look forward to. As I said, luxurious disappointments.
