marzipan77

Challenge #8

In your own space, create a wishlist. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

My wishlist is strange this year. You see, I've written an original fantasy novel. It may not be fandom, but, as some of my first readers will attest, there are many homages to my fandom favorites found within it. I've face-claimed many characters, basing physical characteristics and friendships on Jack and Daniel, for instance, and peppered side-characters with others.

I'd love for any of my talented artist friends to take a whack at artwork for my characters. I'd love to do a t-shirt, or a design for mugs or coasters based on my novel, but I'm not about to steal a real person's image for that.

It's definitely a pie-in-the-sky request, since I know art is a work of the heart and you all have no reason to love my characters yet. I just wish, that someday, Jonas and Matthias, Barca and Fabius, Deok and Naten, might inspire someone.

Thanks for listening to be drone on and on about my original novel yet again. (I'm pretty excited!)


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Snowflake Challenge #5

In your own space, promote a canon/talk about a part of canon that you love. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

Whether it is to fix-it, honor it, or expand upon it, canon is why we are all here. So, let's celebrate canon today and talk about our favorites. Nostalgic, new, problematic, or forever canons are all welcome to be loved, dissected, and discussed. Have a favorite scene? A much-loved character? A much-maligned character? Just love the whole thing epically? Talk about it all or as little as you want!

Look at my icon. Now back to the challenge. Then back to the icon. Then to the title. Okay, enough Old Spice commercials! I'm just saying that 'Odd Man Out' is the reason for my plunge into fanfic. It's the reason I dived into fandom and never want to surface. It is the part of canon that intrigues me, riles me up, and gets my defenses going into overdrive.

But, to have an Odd Man Out, you first need a team.

A good team. A team that works well together, solves the crimes, captures the aliens, saves the world, finds the answers. A team that is family, that has a bond, a close friendship. A team that stands for each other and holds each other up. That has gone through hell and, shoulder to shoulder, come out the other side.

That's why the Odd Man Out scenario pulls at my heartstrings. In almost all of my fandoms, there is - on occasion or as part of the backstory and make-up of the team - one member to bears the brunt of the jokes, gets put down, ignored, or treated with disdain. And that person? That's my person.

Ianto Jones in Torchwood. Face in The A-Team. Daniel Jackson in SG1. Tony DiNozzo in NCIS. Dr. Reid in Criminal Minds. Zack Addy in Bones. Ron Weasley in Harry Potter.

Ianto is just a coffee boy who gets the crap jobs. Face is OFTEN ridiculed and not believed for using his greatest gift for the team. Daniel has to explain himself endlessly for his theories to be considered. Tony is ... okay, just don't get me started on the head-slaps and disdain he deals with on a daily basis. Dr. Reid is an awkward, loveable genius. Zack is kept so outside the main group that he falls into the thrall of evil. And Ron - well, he's mostly insulted by the author herself.

These are my people. These situations got me so disgusted that I wrote fanfic to fix it. My first fanfic on ff.net was about Daniel proving, once and for all, that he is worth listening to. That's my jam.

Whether you can say you love it or hate it, the Odd Man Out formula works if only to engage the emotions of the viewer. These are always my favorite characters.

Challenge #2

In your own space (or their own space) interact with someone new. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. No need to leave a link for this one, but if you’d like to invite others to join the conversation, please do leave one.

Done! Left some comments, answered some replies. Fandom makes great friendships, doesn't it? If no one had reached out to me back when I introduced myself to fandom, I wouldn't have a set of women standing shoulder to shoulder with me during my darkest times.


Challenge #3: Guess Who's Coming to Dinner

In your own space, tell us who, from one of your fandoms, would you most want to have dinner with (or tea, or a random afternoon visit), And why? This could be a creator, an actor, a costumer, a set designer, a director, a character, a composer, anybody! What would you talk about? What are you dying to know? Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

There are so many characters that I want to meet. Artists, writers, all of them. To choose just one ...

I'd love to hang out at Hawkeye's farm, help him with some remodeling project, get some archery pointers, help Laura make dinner. Low key, relaxed on a lazy summer day. No life threatening situations or angst, just a chance to know his real backstory (so many versions!) and how he balances super heroing and family life. How life has changed since the Snap and he got his family back. And since this all sounds very Jeremy Renner-y as well, (home remodeling, low key, etc) why not add in checking out his Tahoe home?

I thought about living the high life with Tony Stank, but, seriously, right now? I'd rather be in the country than any big city.

It's almost time!!

 Too many caps? Sorry. I'm echoing a weird Star Wars card game that my kid and I played in a hotel in St. Lake City once upon a time. You had to shout CHALLENGE! about something, so we did that the entire trip. Of course.

Snowflake Challenge #15: Create your own challenge!

At first I thought, oh, heck, no. Why would people want to participate in my challenge? Thankfully I read a few that others posted and, yes, you should check them all out. Go to the Snowflake page, click on the comments, follow the links. These are good, I tell ya. (List 3 things you LIKE about your body. That one we should all do on a daily basis, my friends.)

So I thought, what would I like to have someone challenge me to do? And this is it:

1. Post THAT story. The one that's been rattling around on your hard drive/google docs/dropbox FOREVER. The one you were never sure about. The one you know needs a crap-ton more work. You know what? Channel Carrie Fisher, F-em, and post the dang story. Because, you know what? We need your story! We need it! If it's your soul on the page or a weird crack-fic or OOC or whatever. It's your creation and that creation should be given life! We want to spank its bottom and welcome it to the world!

2. Write THAT story. Wherever you are, with whatever you've got at hand, do it. Bic pen. Post its. Phone. Laptop. Napkins. Notebook. Fancy journal with a fancy pen. Please jot down your notes, your snippet of dialogue. Your big honking descriptive passage. Feed your soul on the words and images. Did I mention that the world needs stories? 

3. Leave Feedback on a story. Leave a smile or a heart if you don't have words. Leave a rambling, run-on sentence burbling about what you loved. Let a writer that put herself out on a limb and did 1 and 2 know that you love the fact that they did. Talk about your favorite scene or character. 

Yep, I'm doing it myself. Gotta do it. Doing it is a good thing. We need more good things.

Thankyou, Snowflake 2020!

snowflake-challenge.dreamwidth.org/49384.html

With two original novels written, and the third and fourth started, it's time to attend to the business of being an author. It's time to query agents and see if I can get representation which is the MOST stressful, confusing, daunting challenge I've faced during my writing career. So. Since there are so many naysayers out there, eager to tell new writers that "you have no chance" "Just self-publish" "you'll never get representation" and, best of all, "If you don't have this giant list of things already no one will even listen to you", I was thrilled to come across some great resources that are different. Encouraging, even!

These are the psyche-saving sites I've found:

How to Write a Query Letter - via the 'Mad-Libs' method. If you've been reading EVERYTHING on the Internet about how it must be perfect and unique - but not too unique - and follow all the rules except for when it doesn't and blah blah blah, then this site is for you!

blog.nathanbransford.com/how-to-write-a-query-letter

List of Agents Searchable by Genre - you still have to research, see who's open to queries and if you like the agency's website, etc, but you don't even have to join or sign up for anything to use this site!

aaronline.org/Find

Last but not least - Writer Beware. This blog warns of dishonest/disreputable "publishing" companies, pay-to-play companies, and agents who have reputations for not giving the writer her due. I'm checking every Agent I find on the previous site against the Beware List. It's so helpful.

www.sfwa.org/other-resources/for-authors/writer-beware/agents/

Let's try to build each other up instead of repeating all the negative rhetoric we hear about the "impossibility" of traditional publishing. Even JK Rowling started somewhere. 

snowflake-challenge.dreamwidth.org/48222.html

Challenge #9

In your own space, promote at least one canon that you adore (old, new, forever fandom). Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

My forever fandom, OG Stargate SG1.

It's team as family - dysfunctional family. It's heroes in this world without superpowers, people like me (only bet-ter!) who have to make horrible decisions and carry the weight of the world. It's many different people coming together to make it work. It's clever, commanding Jack O'Neill, questioning, sincere Daniel Jackson, brilliant, stubborn Samantha Carter, and strong, guarded Teal'c. It's Hammond of Texas and Master Bra'tac who calls earthlings footstools. It's a tale of human loss, grief, and how friendship can heal wounds. It's aliens and time travel and ingenuity. This show grew, it expanded, it told stories about slavery and trafficking, sacrifice, and standing your ground even in the face of your best-loved friend putting himself on the Other Side.

It's Jack and Daniel. At the heart of it - two very different men who argued and fought and laughed and always had each other's backs. They MADE IT WORK.

Stargate SG1 gave me my non-blood sisters in this world. My chosen family. We still do rewatches, we argue about the meanings behind words, the trivia that no one else notices. We love each other across the miles, over oceans, and pray for struggling children and aging parents. We are different and are anchored by love. Just like SG1.

Give some stories a try. Watch some episodes. For those of you who have lived within the Stargate fandom at one time, warmed by the virtual hugs and nourished by the cookies, come back! Read, leave kudos, send some encouraging feedback. And WRITE. Write a short piece that has been on your mind for years. A tag that you always wanted to see. A behind the scenes snippet. Give us the gift of your fannish heart - vid, art, anything you love.

We're still here. We're still watching and listening.

Challenge #6

In your own space, make a list — anything between one and ten things is a sweet spot, but don't feel constrained by that! - of things that you wish existed in fandom or elsewhere, or that you'd like someone to make for you. Are you dying for podfic of your writing? Do you need icons for a character that doesn't get much fanart? Is there a story you want to read? Are you looking for new canons to get into? Would you like a collaborator for a project?

I'd love to see:

More Bros
More Friendship fics
More Team as Family
Fewer Romances, stories that exist simply to get two MCs together with no other plot
More Plots

I'd love more Harry Potter fics that focus on his friendships, on the adults' teamwork and friendships, on getting the job done without sidetracking into any love life. I'd love more Harry and Severus interaction, more Harry and Draco interaction. If you know of these fics and where is the Gringott's vault in which they are hidden, please, please point the way!

I'd love more episode-like SG1 stories. Take the team through the wormhole and give us all a ride without goo-goo eyes of any type or flavor. I miss this show, the team, the characters and stories, so having that back would make me do a Snoopy dance.

Marvel stories wherein the MCs forbidden love is not the central issue. Give me smart-sh!t Barton dealing with Captain Honesty, leading Thor on wild rides through NY, and variously fighting/bonding with Stark over their distrust of authority.

Thank you to all the fanfic authors who have stoked my enthusiasm for great Bro stories in the past. It is my sweet-spot and it is harder and harder to find them.

Day #2: My Fannish History, or, A Crippling Home-life Leads to Wish-Fulfillment

Dark days. Long nights. Anger. Cursing. Hitting. Cutting words. Belittling. Which kid wouldn't want to live somewhere else, with other people. People who were heroes, who saved others, who put themselves in danger time after time to help the hurting. And who, so very often, were wonderfully, handsomely, heroically hurt themselves? (And looked exceptional doing it!)

Okay, yes, there were some hormones wrapped up in it as well.

My heroes:

Ilya Kuriakin, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., 1964 (David McCallum)
Spock, Star Trek, 1966 (Leonard Nimoy)
Steve Burton, Land of the Giants, 1968 (Gary Conway)
Pete Cochran, Mod Squad, 1968 (Michael Cole)
Paul Foster, UFO, 1970 (Michael Billington)
Johnny Gage, Emergency!, 1972 (Randolph Mantooth)
Gil Foley, Chopper One, 1974 (Dirk Benedict)
Ken Hutchinson, Starsky and Hutch, 1975 (David Soul)

Those were the foundation days of my fandom interest. Yes, I wrote fanfic. Mod Squad and Star Trek and S&H. I wrote with a blue bic pen in my school notebooks. I lay in bed at night and dreamed about what I would have written instead of the episodes I'd just seen. I wrote better endings, more meaningful conversations, deeper friendships. I wrote H/C, Angst, and team as family. That is what ties all those shows together. Team.

Because, as a child, that's what I wanted. I wanted a family that was closer, better, kinder, more loving than my own. And, more than hormones, more than pretty people doing daring things, I LOVED the team-as-family dynamic of my favorite shows. Ilya and Napoleon. Spock and Kirk and McCoy. Pete, Julie, and Linc. Johnny and Roy. Gil and Don. S&H. I hated the episodes that broke that friendship; that set up reasons for the men and women of these found families to betray each other, to hurt each other. Because I already knew that life - and I knew it wasn't The Way Things Were Supposed To Be.

College didn't leave a lot of time for fandom, but that was okay because I'd discovered a real-life found family. Escaping from home to live at school revealed all of life's colors, deeper and richer than I ever suspected. I found my soulmate. Learned about love (still learning) and started that family of my own.

After raising my daughter - the best fandom buddy of all - having various work families, church families, and neighborhood families, I found myself in a dark place again. Alone. Laid-off/retired. Daughter finding her own family at college. We were transferred to a new place without the comforting, loving presence of work or neighborhood or church families. Depression. Dark thoughts. Hopelessness.

And then I found fan fiction.

Surfing the net, lying in bed, refusing to get up, to live, I found fanfiction.net. I read stories about those friends and family I'd loved all those years ago. I cried. A lot. And, eventually, I started writing my own stories about them. One decision made the difference.

I hit "post."

And people sent me feedback. Other fans. Women - mostly around my age - who had found their childhood heroes again, just like me. And those people, those other fans, those strong, beautiful-souled women, saved my life. Literally.

C-san. OneofAradia. Sallye. iiiionly. Lyn. DebC. DennyJ. Holly. Jenn. Kelly. DebA. SamAntilles. Annejackdanny. Diana. So many others.

Heart-sisters. Fandom twins. Sharing on-line stories spread to physical meetings, to hugs, long discussions, strong shoulders to cry on and hands to hold. Giggling and drooling over our heroes? Of course! And stories.

Face, The A-Team, 1983. (Oh, look! It's Dirk Benedict again!)
Daniel Jackson, Stargate SG-1, 1997. (Michael Shanks)
Severus Snape, HP movies, 2001. (Alan Rickman)
Tony DiNozzo, NCIS, 2003. (Michael Weatherly)
Spencer Reid, Criminal Minds, 2005. (Matthew Gray Gubler)
Ianto Jones, Torchwood, 2006. (Gareth David-Lloyd)

Team-as-family is still my jam. Because, while I found lots of families over the years to supplant my dysfunctional one, I still crave that closeness. That sense of the deepest devotion. Being understood all the way to my center. And I have that with my fandom sisters, too.

Are you struggling? Doubting that life is worth the pain? Hopeless? Have you been abused, hurt, abandoned? Reach out. Hit "post." We are here. We are waiting, anxious to help. To tell you that you are NOT alone. We don't have answers, but we have hands to hold and shoulders to cry on. And we understand how much you ache for connection.

Fandom Heals.