This is my life

Hello my dwircle! Long time no see, I know. There are occasions when I see people that I feel bad because I simply do not have time to keep up with everyone in my life as closely as I would like (I have lost friends over this; I'm actually okay with it), and I get a twinge of that every time I come back to DW for the holiday season. But here I am, and while I spend most of my year on tumblr (because I am actually a strange little gremlin) and discord (because that's where my wife and bestest buddies are), I am always nostalgic for the things I love about DW - the amazing discussions and connection that tumblr (and even discord) are not really built for.

That said, if I kept in touch with everyone everywhere I would have time for nothing else and still wouldn't be able to keep up with everyone. There is a limited amount of time in the day after all.

So anyway, I am here! And I bring news of fun fannish holiday activities that are pretty much no pressure! I love things where I can browse people's wishes and just... grant some, if I have time/interest/energy/money. That's truly my favorite thing. I also put up posts because why not, it's not like I don't also like to get presents (and espectially for fannish things, I love to post prompts and ideas that might spark something for people).

The first is fandomtrees, where you can put up a fannish (and non-fannish) non-monetary wishlist. This is fannish things you'd like to receive, plus things like recipes or stories or transformative works statements (hint hint!). Here's my tree for an example if you want to see. I trawl the tags for fandoms or media I want to give (I try to give everyone who requests a podfic one, if I can). It's a great time, and I love to fill requests for this, it's always such a delight. :D

The second is holiday_wishes which is similar, in that you can ask for fannish stuff if you want (the list is limited to ten wishes of any type). I don't have an example on that one as I haven't posted one yet, but I probably will at some point in the next week.

Anyway, hallo! Good to be home!

fandomtrees signups are live until December 6! Basically, fandomtrees is a successor to fandom_stocking. You can sign up with 3-25 fandoms (including non-fandom asks like recipes or podcast recs or cat pics) and then you go around looking at the trees to see if you can put a gift under one of them.

So far I have one person in my current fandom, but I'll be checking out all the trees to see if there are gifts I can give. :D :D :D

The June Something prompts here!

Day 7: Who was the first villain you admired, even if only a little? Why?

I am so tired and brain dead. I cannot think of a villain. Maybe.... Todd the Wraith in SGA?

Mostly anti-heroes come to mind, people who are purposely meant to be sympathetic characters even if they're doing atrocious things. Wei Wuxian certainly. Crowley in Good Omens. Definitely not villains, but not heroes in any traditional sense.

Spike, maybe, in Buffy? The narrative did a good job of deepening his characterization and motives (his redemption arc is when he hooked me), so I don't feel like that was really what the question is getting after.

I think, honestly, I simply don't vibe with villains, normally. Once someone else has written some meta about them and made them sympathetic, maybe. But I'll still never love them the way I do my faves, who are almost always "the good guys". I've always just wanted to do good in the world, so characters whose motives or actions hurt people on a large scale will simply never be that interesting to me, nor be characters I find all that sympathetic. *shrug*

The June Something prompts!

Day 5: If you could go back in time and help create a foundational work (be it book, show, movie, etc.) what would it be and what would your role be?

Um. There are times that I think my brain just doesn't work like that, and this is one of those times. I mean, I would LOVE to be part of a foundational work. I'd love to write one, or be a PA on set of one, or be DP or writer's room gopher or whatever. To be part of something like that would be amazing, and I literally would take any part I can get. But not a particular one, and not one that exists, because inserting myself means it would change in some way, and I wouldn't want that.

I'd love to be a casting director, I think, broadly. Choosing the actors for things must be cool as shit. Of course there are schedules and politics and everything else that means it's not just finding the right person for the character but also the right circumstances, and that'd be less fun. But in a perfect world, I love the idea of casting people as my favorite characters.

What was I talking about? Nevermind, it's late. Calling it a night. :)

Here is this year's post!

And as I am terrible at regular posting, as we all know, I am going to attempt to do this but no promises! Especially since go-live is on June 26th and I expect to be running around like a chicken with my head cut off for the next two to three weeks.

Let's get on with it! Today's question is: What show or movie original cast would you like to see reunite for an update - where the intervening time has passed and we're getting a view of where they are now along with glimpses on how they got there?

Boy oh boy this is tough. My go to is generally Leverage, but they did actually do this themselves, so that's off the table. My next thought was a show that was thoroughly satisfying when it ended, so: The Good Place. But honestly, the end of that show was pretty much perfect? So I don't think that would work either.

My current fandoms are current, so I'm already reading all of the "what happened after?" fics, and the cast hasn't been separated long enough to have a big impact. That said, I would *love* to see The Untamed reunion at the 20 year mark or so. I love all those goobers and would like to see them together again.

Next up is old shows. Are there old shows I'd like to see where they might go with a current cast? Nothing is coming to mind. Supernatural JUST ended lol, don't need that. SGA? I guess. I'm not really invested anymore. :(

The Losers might be good. I love all those guys and it was set just before Chris Evans became Cap so could be some interesting stuff there. I want the sequel that was promised, damn it.

This is super hard for me, why is that? All right - college/high school shows. Buffy, maybe? Considering what the actors are doing these days, could be fun. Unfortunately James Marsters and David Boreanaz have definitely aged, so that would take some explaining. X Files? They did a reunion for that and I think it was disappointing (I don't honestly remember).

What this is telling me is that I truly prefer fic for this sort of thing so I can imagine it for myself, lol.

In your own space, create a quiz or a poll (or tell us your thoughts about answering quizzes/polls).

I haven't done one of these in so long, omg. Also, I had one of the weirdest dreams EVER last night, in which the snowflake challenge for the day was to create a longform work of some sort ("take your time" with your canon, so also, like, consume it slowly, or whatever) and I was like... that seems a little not-snowflakey, but cool. It was a wild adventure dream too, we went all over the place, but man. That snowflake thing really stuck with me - I was still thinking that's what it was when I woke up.

( So, anyway, here's a poll I just made up! :D )

In your own space, tell us who you would recast in a film, tv series or webseries, or maybe someone voicing a cartoon or videogame. Or who would you cast to play a character in a book, comic or maybe even your own fiction!

Oh, I do love a good casting. When I first started writing, it was basically only nominally fanfic, in that it took one minor character out of a movie I saw once and ended up with a cast of dozens from all over the place, and basically I just... cast actors in roles based on what I wanted. I knew what they looked like, but they were OCs so I wasn't concerned with their characterization. It was called Vampire Greg. It was actually, if I recall correctly, a crossover of two actors from two very old movies, and the original bit of it was written by a friend of mine, but it was then rapidly expanded to include all of our crushes from all of our fandoms and I ended up writing the bulk of it over the next several years. It survives, under lock and key (in this journal, lol), but it's probably not anything I'll take back up. If I can't get to Impromptu, which is a dozen years old, I'm not going to get back to Vampire Greg, which is almost twenty years old. But it was a blast to cast folks, and I now always cast OCs when I write them, just so I have a good idea of them in a scene.

I've seen some really brilliant recastings in my time, and I've done some mental castings of my favorite books, but it's been a while, and it doesn't really work for my current fandoms, so I'm going to opt out of doing a casting right now. I can't wait to see what other people come up with though!

In your own space, Create something.

This is all about unleashing your creative side. Work on that fan story/art/vid/meta/whatever else you can think of. Have something original you’ve wanted to noodle with? Go for it.

But it doesn’t have to just be the written word or a drawing. Creativity is much more inclusive. I enjoy making jewelry. Maybe you are into yarn/thread/fabric. Compose music? Create recipes? Planning your garden for this year?

I love all of those ideas and I definitely would do something more out of the box for me if I wasn't feeling uninspired. I couldn't even find a fic to cold read! But I finally found one so bad, I had to read it for a friend of mine and giggle about it. So I have created a cold read podfic of a fic I'm not going to reveal and not posted anywhere because I don't want anyone to feel bad. But I made a thing! Which is definitely something. I'm going to try and make a proper cold read later, but not right now.

From the ubiquitous coffee shop to traveling as a band, from Witchers fighting on spaceships to take-your-fandom-to-work day, alternate universes and fusions of multiple canons are a staple of fandom imagination! In your own space, put some favorite characters into an AU, fuse some favorite canons together, talk about your favorite AU/fusion tropes, or tell us why AU/fusions aren’t your cup of tea.

Oh. Oh my. I love all the AUs. Take your fandom to work day is literally one of my favorite things, and something I have done multiple times. My work now is too complex and boring to do it (though I imagine it is a bit what a chief cultivator might do, all bureaucracy and very little actual doing good in the world), but hopefully someday I will retire and do something stupid and fun that I can write my fandom into again. But I've written band camp, ER, research administration… I feel like there's another one but I can't remember it. OH SHIT, professional musicians, lol.

So yeah, I love them all so much. I am a sucker for coffee shop AUs (and my Sastiel big bang that never got done was kinda sorta one of those) and flower shop, bakery, all that kind of stuff. GIVE ME FLUFF AND MEET CUTES ALL DAY LONG. I do also like space, but I am not nearly as much of a sci fi nerd as I thought I was? I don't write it. I read it, though. I like historical romance, I love royalty AUs. Arranged marriage. GIVE THEM TO ME. ALL OF THEM.

I love fusions when they are the perfect blend of two canons and hinge on some weird but perfect thing. There is an SG-1/SPN crossover out there where the demon's yellow eyes means he is a goa'uld. Perfection.

Jelly and I just did a podcast about the sort of detailed occupation AUs you get from take your fandom to work day in MDZS. That was a lot of fun and full of so many awesome AUs.

So. Yeah. Love me an AU, fusion, crossover, you name it. Only thing is that it makes me want to go read them now, and it's already 4am, I need to get up for work in 4 hours.

Hello there, person who is glancing at my journal and seeing this sticky note for the first time! This is a first stop to kate/kisahawklin to let you know a bit about me.

In real life, I have a very stressful job managing an (perpetually understaffed) office (which I am nominally on leave from to assist with implementation of a number of new systems for the entire university system in my state - and even MORE stressful job). This means that my stress level is often very high and there is a hard limit to how much fannish interaction I can manage at any given time. If I don't respond to you immediately, please assume that my work life is flaring up and I do not have the brainpower or just plain time to answer your wonderful, thoughtful comment with the attention it deserves.

Fannishly, I've been hanging around fandom around 25ish years now, and in the LJ/DW sort of area since 2005ish. I'm a fandom old, but I adore young folks and wish to help basically everyone develop themselves in whatever ways they wish to do that. I love fandom generally and it is a wonderful part of my life I don't expect to ever give up. I'll be a 90 year old writing smut for fun, JUST WATCH ME.

Current fandoms:
* The Untamed (Chen Qing Ling (CQL))/Mo Dao Zu Shi (MDZS) + RPF of The Untamed actors (mainly a pairing with the delightful acronym BJYX): This was my gateway C drama fandom and I am still swimming in these waters, so unlikely to get out any time soon.
* Other Asian dramas to a greater or lesser degree: Guardian, TGCF/Heaven Official's Blessing, SHL/Word of Honor are faves; I have watched, and loved, Legend of Fei, S.C.I., Prince of Tennis, Cherry Magic (Japanese), The Yin-Yang Master (both versions), Hidden Blade, The One and Only, and several others, including several Korean and Japanese dramas and several Korean and Japanese movies. I haven't made it over to Thai dramas just yet but I'm sure it's just a matter of time.
* My old (and mostly still beloved) fandoms are, in reverse order: Supernatural, The Losers, Stargate: Atlantis, Alexander (2004, but also the Mary Renault stories), Lord of the Rings (LoTRPS, really), Buffy the Vampire Slayer (+ Angel)
* If you check my AO3 fandoms, I've got like, 100 fandoms listed there because I do a lot of crossovers and one-offs and there are a few fandoms I've flitted in and out of (like Criminal Minds), and a few long standing flirtations (like Leverage). Also Voiceteam is a thing, and often part of that is to podfic in small/new fandoms so that number just keeps going up!

My fannish activities are, at the moment, limited to writing (very very slowly – stress fucks this up for me) and podficcing. My podfic life has turned upside down a bit since I discovered that people actually enjoy me reading things with commentary and without editing. I call these cold reads, which is a bit of a misnomer but one that has stuck so I'm not actually planning on changing it at the moment. Someday I may try to figure out vidding but for now, it's off the table. I'm also veeery slowly trying to learn Chinese, which is only partially a fannish activity, but had its roots there, so I'm counting it.

I'm also at kisahawklin, I reblog stuff that interests me, positivity, and occasionally other stuff. It's pretty eclectic, but it's such a low bar to fandom participation that it's delightfully easy. I exist at kisahawklin but I don't go there often and don't have notifs set up. I come to dreamwidth like clockwork every winter vacation because of snowflake_challenge and I usually get both a burst of fannish energy for the beginning of the year and also a bit melancholy about how it doesn't last all year long. (It would burn me out if it did, but it's still sad to know how great it is to be that involved in fandom and then... not have that for a while.) Pretty much if there's a fannish site out there, I'm on it as kisahawklin, but my mains are tumblr, discord (kisahawklin, obviously), and AO3, with dreamwidth being like... my parents' home after I moved out. It will always be home. I come here often, I have many warm memories of it and I love it dearly, but I don't live here anymore.

I have a blanket permission statement on my AO3 profile, but I'm going to copy it here so you don't have to go looking around for it: Listen. I didn't ask permission to write this stuff. YOU DON'T HAVE TO ASK PERMISSION TO DO ANYTHING WITH IT. Podfic, art, re-write, crit, whatever you want. IT'S POSTED PUBLICLY. YOU DO WANT YOU WANT, FRIEND. Now, I am honored that you would even consider it, and I'd love to know about it, if you feel comfortable with that (including linking our works on the AO3), but again - NOT NECESSARY. You do what you like.

Welcome! I'm stressed right now, but fandom is still my home and I love it so much. Come on in and say hi!

Day 13: Squicks - What are some things that squick you in fandom - not necessarily "icky", though it can be. From anything involving blood, to bad grammar.

I have had to give up on one of the things that used to annoy me because I NOW DO IT AND CANNOT HELP IT. Homophones. Just. I used to be SUCH a hardass about there/their/they're and now I find WORK EMAILS where I got it wrong, and there are three replies in and my mistake is saved for posterity and I want to murder things.

Other than that, not much? Mpreg squicks me. I don't like pregnancy fics anyway, and mpreg is just like, but no, why. NOT FOR ME. I don't love A/B/O but it's not as strong as a squick. I just don't like it because I feel like the whole concept of secondary gender is bizarre and also generally done nonsensically, and there's so many worldbuilding things that would need to be thought through that it's like. UGH. SO MUCH WORK. And it's never done because basically most folks who like A/B/O just want knotting porn and I'm just… not interested in that.

Music can be a squick. Music is so rarely done correctly that I honestly just flinch when I see even trusted authors try to write a classical music AU. I've tried to offer my services but the only time I tried, basically I shredded the entire premise of the person's fic because professional symphonies don't work like that and just. UGH. I can't handle it. The Scheherezhad Job episode of LEVERAGE makes me cringe. I cannot stand it.

Similarly, medical things can be annoying, but they're not squick level. I can get past them if it's just a small mistake (like when House, M.D. listed a bunch of blood tests and put a fucking FECAL test in there), but when the whole premise is medical and clearly the person doesn't know anything about hospitals/med school/medical profession that will drive me batty.

Day 11: What would make you leave a fandom, or prevent you from getting into it in the first place?

Pretty much the canon gets me into and out of most fandoms? Or well. The canon gets me in and a new canon makes the old fandom fall away. Or boredom. The only fandom I remember leaving before I had a new one was Stargate: Atlantis. I just… ran out of interest in the stories I was telling, so... I just stopped. And didn't find The Losers for a couple of years, which was a long, uncomfortable slog. I would prefer NOT to ever be between fandoms ever again.

I would love to say that racism or misogyny or queerbaiting or other bigoted, hateful behavior would get me out, but it's been proven with Supernatural that it won't. So I just write stuff to mitigate it, and ignore the shitty parts of canon and fandom.

Those things will make me cooler toward things that aren't my fandom but that I enjoy. Harry Potter, for example, I have noticeably cooled on. I was never in the fandom, but I read stuff, I bought stuff, I saw the movies. I stopped all of that after Jo came out as a TERF. But I do not have any bad feelings about fans still in that fandom. She created something that touched a lot of people, and fans and fandom made it SO MUCH BETTER. And they can grieve and commiserate together about it. There's nothing wrong with that.

Day 3: What's a favorite, or at least memorable fandom meeting/interaction that you've had?

I have a lot of really great fandom meetings in my past. I think the very first one was my Buffy the Vampire slayer group. We all went out to California to hang out, it was a real blast. We stayed at Jenn's place and later Jo and I got together in London and just. There were a bunch of great people and I remember very little of it distinctly now (it's been 26 years holy shit), but I absolutely remember how right it felt.