Fandom snowflake: it's not too late to join!

Day 13: In your own space, talk about setting yourself a fannish goal. Big or small, it doesn't matter.

1) Finish uploading all my old stories onto AO3. I've been slowly doing this for about a month now, but I should finish it. Apologies to anyone watching my AO3 page getting annoyed by all the years-old fic. Or anyone watching the Yami no Matsuei fandom page, since that's where most of them go.

2) Update the Swordspoint fic list. OH GOD I AM SO BEHIND ON THIS I AM SO SORRY. There's enough stories now that I should find some new way of arranging the list, and I had actually started on figuring out the HTML I wanted and adding in all of the new stories since the last time I updated it, but then I read Benjamin January and got distracted. But I will do this! Soon! Really!

3) Sign up for my usual favorite fests. Of course Yuletide (2014 will be my eleventh year participating! Though to be fair, I did default in 2005.), and Remix if it runs again. Which I hope it will! I love Remix. I'm thinking about doing polybigbang again. Perhaps some others.

4) Continue posting regularly to LJ. I can't complain about no one posting if I don't do it myself, after all.

Day 11: Stretch yourself a little and try something new. Go play in a new fandom or with a new pairing or trope. Try creating a different kind of fanwork. Or check out some types of fanworks that are new to you.

egelantier gave me some recs recently for stories that were a) bandom, b) slavefic, and c) fairy AUs. None of which are the sort of story I usually read! But I have to admit all of them so far have been pretty awesome.

A Season Of Grace (27116 words) by fictionalaspect
Fandom: Bandom, Panic! at the Disco
Summary: In a world where humans and the three faerie slave races--huo, shui, and tua--depend on each other for survival, Brendon is pretty sure his luck is running out. At the last moment, he’s rescued from the traveling slave trader by Jon Walker, scion of the Walker family, now poor and dogged by scandal and suspicious rumors. But life at the Walker farm is better than anything Brendon’s ever experienced, even if Ryan, the Walker’s shui, is slowly dying. Brendon knows he has until Midwinter to save Ryan, or everything will be lost--but can he?

This is a really lovely story. I liked the world-building of the three types of fairies and their mythology and how magic worked; I liked the slow build of the relationship between the characters; I liked the ending a lot. Very sweet and well-done.

And Some You Do For (45051 words) by softlyforgotten
Fandom: Bandom, The Young Veins, Panic At The Disco
Summary: Brendon Urie is lonely, Spencer Smith and Jon Walker are bored, and life in Thornton Hill seems like it's never going to be anything but mundane. Then a mysterious stranger sets up shop on Main Street, and suddenly everything is a little more magical. (AU.)

This story is much longer, but I really liked it. I thought it did a great job of portraying two very distinct settings- a normal small town and Faerie. The characters are complex and likeable while still being realistic. I really liked how magic worked in small, strange ways here. I very much liked the plot, which is slow to start but ends up involving dramatic rescues and good vs evil and the power of music (and love).

The Uncharted Sea (118279 words) by mahoni
Fandom: My Chemical Romance, Panic At The Disco
Summary: Jon is a crook who tries using his shady skills to do good things for a change. Gerard is stuck on a pirate ship, looking for a way off. There are: magic, ray guns, magical creatures, robots, and various Dangerous and Evil Things that may stop both Jon and Gerard getting to where they want to be.

This one I've only just started to read, but come on: it has pirates in it! Of course it's going to be awesome.

Doing the fandom snowflake thing!

Day 9: In your own space, rec at least 3 fanworks you thought you wouldn't like (because they weren't your fandom or they pushed against your boundaries or you thought you just wouldn't be interested) but you ended up loving.

Thistledown by Violette_Royale. Merlin, Merlin/Arthur, Historical AU, E rated, 91k.
I don't read a lot of Merlin fic in the first place, and "Historical AU in which Merlin is always-a-girl" isn't the sort of summary to inspire me to give something a try. But I'm so glad I did, because this story is absolutely wonderful. It's beautifully written, the setting is a (mostly) non-magical Europe in which the 12th century is actually accurately portrayed (ie, nothing like the show), the sex scenes are very hot, and the relationship is complex and difficult and real. Also, there's an actual plot, which involves traveling from England to Jerusalem, and I love the descriptions of the places they pass along the way. But the best part really is the writing, which is just so gorgeous:

"I will miss the food, I think," Merlin says later, as they feast on fried fish from a vendor.

And of course Arthur takes that as some sort of challenge. While she is still licking the last of the fat from her fingers, he is dragging her towards the marketplace again, and buys her a pomegranate. It is a beautiful fruit, but with its hard outer shell, it does not look edible.

They find their way out of the city, down to the sea, before he pulls out his dagger and opens it for her. It is the most amazing spectacle she has ever seen, not only the fruit itself, but the way his hands work the sharp blade to cut into the peel of the thing before gently breaking the fruit in four parts.

The inside looks like clusters of garnets. When she breaks the little nibbles off and holds them against the afternoon sun, they shine deep red. Lovely, edible gems.

"Can you really eat them?" she asks, because they have none of the appearance of fruit.

Arthur smiles as he watches her. As if she, rather than the fruit, is the spectacle. He takes her raised hand, brings it to his own mouth. His lips are full and soft as he nuzzles her cupped palm, sucks the crimson arils into his mouth.

Just a random example, because I could pull nearly any scene out of this story, and it would have some lovely image or turn of phrase.

and i'm trying not to fall by surexit. Original fic, m/m, E rated, 27k.
I don't read much original fic either, but this story is perfect and wonderful and everyone should read it immediately. It's a romance between two teenage boys in modern Britain, and is an absolutely stunning take on class and race and sexuality. It's a serious look at those things- there's so much tension and awkwardness and people fucking up despite trying hard not to- and yet it's not a dark or depressing story at all. The main characters are adorable and lovely, and I just want so much for them to understand each other, and all of the side-characters are wonderful and real and complex. The dialogue is excellent and often funny, and things are hard but ultimately good. It's just a really, really amazing story, and I would read so much more of it.
There are also a few short sequels, but I recommend reading the long story first.

But Not the Song by ignipes and emilyray. Bandom RPF, slave AU, E rated, 200k.
First of all, I don't read much RPF (I actually don't even know who most of the characters in this fic are, and just read it as an original fic). Secondly, I am very iffy about most slavefic, and it's not a genre I enjoy as a whole. And yet I really liked this story! It's about the characters in slavery surviving, escaping, joining with an abolitionist movement, and trying to heal, and not at all about the sexiness of slaves and masters. There's a huge cast, an exciting plot, and lots and lots of h/c; there's characters on various ranges of "broken" to "unaffected", as well as "understanding" to "total dicks"; there's people trying to make the best choices they can given the circumstances; there's poly relationships and interesting female characters (though the main relationships are nearly all m/m) and no healing cock. It's just a great (and very long!) story.

Fandom snowflake!

Day 7: In your own space, create a fanwork. A drabble, a ficlet, a podfic, or an icon, art or meta or a rec list. A picspam. Something.

Stealing a meme for this from egelantier and somebraveapollo: I've randomized 10 songs and chose lyrics from each - your job is to pick a number and a character (or ship) (or friendship) (or assortment of characters) and receive a ficlet!

1. A dangerous daughter in a leopard print skirt / A Polaroid camera recording the dirt (Suede: Attitude) Fill: Jessica Campion for just_ann_now

2. Down the stairs the lady came thinking no harm / Lankin he stood ready to catch her in his arm (Steeleye Span: Long Lankin) Fill: Jude/Kit for egelantier

3. Momma once told me / You're already home where you feel loved (The Head and the Heart: Lost in My Mind) Fill: Gabriel Corbier for somebraveapollo

4. Steal home before sunset, cover up my tracks / Drive home with old dreams at play in my mind and the wind at my back (The Mountain Goats: Genesis 3:23)

5. Does it matter that our anchors / Couldn't even reach the bottom / Of a bath tub? (Regina Spektor: Sailor Song) Fill: Hisoka/Tatsumi/Tsuzuki for ranalore

6. I love you, I swear it, I would never lie / But I fear for our lives and I fear your closed eyes (Wakey!Wakey!: War Sweater) Fill: Night Vale for lady_ganesh

7. And even if the morning never comes / My hands are blessed to have touched the sun (Local Natives: Sun Hands) Fill: Hannibal/Ben/Rose for egelantier

8. Ever since you left I've thought of nothing else / Been a man possessed by the way your touch felt (Simone White: What the Devil Brings) Fill: Richard/Alec for just_ann_now

9. Now the hard times are behind us / So let's not be alone (Cherry Poppin' Daddies: Hi & Lo) Fill: Hakkai/Gojyo for veleda_k

10. Wind out of Oklahoma this morning smelled like blood and smoke (The Mountain Goats: Pink and Blue) Fill: The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug/Benjamin January mysteries crossover for lynndyre

Somehow I seem to be falling farther behind on this whole fandom snowflake thing.

Day 5: In your own space, talk about a creator. Show us why you think they are amazing.

IT'S REALLY HARD TO CHOOSE. So here are four of my favorites:

b_hallward: (Writes in Merlin, Merlin RPF, Supernatural, Starsky & Hutch, and Yami no Matsuei) Her writing is beautiful and subtle and elegant, and I love every single one of her stories.

ladysisyphus: (Writes mostly original fic these days, though also all sorts of fandoms) I very much admire her for organizing and editing Shousetsu Bang Bang, a bimonthly m/m romance webzine, which I should be better about reviewing than I actually am. I recently read her Murder Ballad (a conmen in the Wild West ghost story written for Shousetsu Bang Bang) and looooved it.

obsessive24 is my very favorite vid-maker. I don't have the technical vocabularly to really say what I love about her vids, so here are just some of my favorites:
"Devil Wouldn't Recognize You" - Elementary
"Bachelorette" - Buffy the Vampire Slayer
"Piece of Me" - Britney Spears

ranalore: (Writes in Yami no Matsuei, K-Pop, Saiyuki, Weiss Kreuz, Get Backers, and more). Rana is good at all sorts of writing- humor and angst, gen and porn, action and quiet reflection- and I very much admire that.

Fandom Snowflake! It's not too late to join!

Day 3: In your own space, post a rec for at least three fanworks that you did not create.

I recommend a lot of fanfiction (I have a whole tag for it!), so I figured for this post I'd do something different. Here are three of my favorite fanmixes:

Three Wishes by opheliahyde. Game of Thrones, Robb Stark/Jon Snow/Jeyne Westerling.
Musical genre: Indie-est of the indie. I'm not even ashamed.
Despite it being a fanmix for an AU that doesn't actually exist and for a pairing I don't particularly ship, I love this fanmix SO MUCH. I listen to it an embarrassing amount of the time. The music is just so delicate and lovely and angst-y and beautiful that I never tire of it.

The Red Mix by petronia. (The mix was originally posted here, but that post is locked to members of fst.) Swordspoint, Alec/Richard.
Musical genre: Electrohouse, dance pop.
As the creator put it, "For several years I've been making a (still-ongoing) series of character mix CDs I call "DJ mixes". Rather than straight-up "I think the lyrics of this song are about X" they're impressionistic sketches, or genre exercises - what the character might play on the radio in an alternate universe, perhaps." I love the idea of Alec as an AU DJ. And I love this fanmix. It is absolutely the music to listen to if you ever need to dance 'til dawn due to a combination of drugs and angst.

Heartbeat Radio by suchaprince. Zombies, Run!, Jack/Eugene.
Musical genre: Mostly Brit-pop.
Apparently Zombies, Run! is an exercise app? I don't even know. But this mix is delightful and makes me so happy. I could listen to it endlessly. suchaprince is a wonderful mix-maker in general, and everyone should check out her other mixes as well.

I've decided to participate in The Fandom Snowflake Challenge, a posting challenge for the first 15 days of January. Come and join! I'm already a day behind, so you can be as well.

Day One

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.

I've seen a lot of discussion over the last few days regarding drabbles (of the 'exactly 100 words' sort), and whether they're a worthwhile form of story. I love drabbles and have written quite a lot of them, and think a well-done drabble is just as hard to write and fun to read as any other sort of story. So here are some of my favorite drabbles by myself:

Every Happy Family - Yami no Matsuei, Hisoka backstory gen, G.
Dusk: LJ | AO3. Saiyuki, Goku+Sanzo, G. (Warning for major character death)
Blossom to Blossom: LJ | AO3. Swordspoint, Richard/Alec, PG-13. (Sort of cheating, since this is a set of five drabbles rather than a solitary drabble, but I figure it still counts.)

On the totally other hand, how about a rec for the longest thing I've ever written?
Nothing Better or More Delightful: LJ | Ao3. Benjamin January mysteries, Ben/Rose/Hannibal, NC-17. Ben and Rose have rescued Hannibal from unjust accusations and an untimely death, but they're not sure what to do next. The trip back from Mexico is a chance to figure out where everyone belongs. (Set in the aftermath of Days of the Dead.)
I only wrote this a little over a month ago, but I am still excessively fond of it, and not just because it's so (to me) impressively long! To other people 14k is probably not very much, but I felt very accomplished. I may also write a sequel to someday (next year's polybigbang?) since the plot I originally outlined was barely begun in what I ended up writing.

And finally a rec for something entirely different:
Music for Benjamin January. Yes, it is a fanmix! I really like to make fanmixes, but I spend far more time endlessly fidgeting with the 'perfect' song-call and the 'perfect' order to put them in than I do actually posting them. (Case in point: my nowhere-near-finished Ben/Rose/Hannibal threesome fanmix or my Ben January modern AU French rap mix, which is being delayed by the fact that I only know one French rapper.) But! This one I actually did finish, and which I like, even if I disappointed that I never could find a version of 'Fur Elise' performed by a violin, and had to go with piano.