Miss Cellaneous

Fannish things I love right now:

• the Archive Of Our Own's functions: Did you know you can add an Inspiration or Remix link to a story, just like this?
  
  Made for a veritable riffer like me. ;)

• my SGA Secret Santa assignment. I had been hoping for this wish, and I got it, also happening to adore the wish-er. Already got the big picture of my story - if not the details - mapped out in my mind. 's all good.

• SGA Big Bang, all live and in colour. No time right now, but boy, I foresee a few fantastic months of great Atlantis novelisations. (Y'all, keep reccin'!)
  
  Must also mention the artists: I cannot wait to check out what they created and would totally do it before reading the stories if only the images and vids weren't per se spoilery. I'm constantly in awe of some of my fellow fans' talent (and basically chanting, WE ARE NOT WORTHY in advance).
  
  Still, I contributed:
  
  
  

This entry was originally posted at DreamWidth and has comments. Feel free to comment there using OpenID.

In fannish news, my fellow Stargate Atlantis fans of that persuasion should check out

mcshep_match - to read, to feedback, and to vote on.

...or at least to guess the authors, one of which I am. & ;-) We like to believe our writing styles are distinctive, even unique! but objectively? Not necessarily, or at least: only to varying degrees. There are other factors at work, too, so this story - ah, I doubt anyone would recognise it as mine. ::obvious challenge is obvious::

If you check out mcshep_peace, you'll find an interview with me.

Yes, I'm crazy enough to post it even though I am dead on my feet after flying from Minneapolis to California after the WriterCon closing ceremonies and jotting it down at the airport. I'm safe and sound at thelastgoodname's now, though. ♥

I know that all of fandom has seen this vid, but honestly, it doesn't just spoil all other Kirk but pretty much all. Other. Fanvids for me: it's perfect. No, really.

This is exactly the kind of girl Kirk is:

Circus by Britney Spears, vidded by butterfly(Star Trek XI).

Diana, I hold you personally responsible for humming Britney all the time now. There's only two types of guys out there / Ones that can hang with me and ones that are scared. And oh, what a brilliant cut from McCoy to Spock right there. ♥

Light-years away from the above one in quality, but look, I like Kirk/McCoy, so do have a vid featuring them, too:

Star Trek - Give Me Novocaine (Kirk/McCoy) from SafetyTARDIS on Vimeo.

Speaking of that pairing, if I wade into the fic, ( I need tissues for my bleeding eyeballs )

I'm merely skimming the Warnings For Fanfic debate, but these contributions resonated with me:

"[...] community standards count for a lot in fandom, and it wouldn't take much to start shifting community standards towards more warnings. It certainly takes less effort for me, as a writer, to offer warnings (in a way that protects both survivors and spoilerphobes, even, as if the needs of those two groups should be considered equally), than it does for me, as a writer, to deal with my own privileges [...]."
- by thingswithwings, here in this post.

"I'm not sure people realize just how constraining it is to be disabled. To look at the world through a window and watch all the people outside, building snowmen and laughing while you are inside with your coloring book. And, don't get me wrong, you like coloring but right now you wish you could be outside making snow angels."
- by annaalamode here in this post

Basically, I'll be perfectly shallow and self-important by pointing towards my own maxim in fandom: Don't Be Any More Of An Asshole Than Necessary*. Jotting down a warning costs the author little, but it may cost a reader a whole damn lot.

* As you know, I sometimes do think it is, and will act accordingly. But not in this context.

Related, but not the discussion of the moment: don't do the slippery slope thing with me, okay? I am constantly baffled by otherwise sane people claiming to be incapable of drawing lines. At heart, this is about real life, where I assume all fans are able to differentiate and make informed judgement calls.

Practical advice is practical: flamencanyc has an excellent instruction post for the old Highlight to Read trick. If you're curious, just click; the OP explains it better than I ever could. Yes, any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

I'd love to participate in the McShep Match 2009 - War & Peace - see the invitation & outline post.

As I'll be gone for a work seminar in Frankfurt this weekend, however, starting tomorrow, I won't be able to sign up on the one day when this is possible: Friday June 12th, from 10pm GMT. (When is that?) Would anyone of you be willing to do it for me? ETA: Cheers, rheanna!


My team choice was very simple, not to mention visible in the fanart I made:



( 1 McShep Match - Team Peace - banner: full size )

( 3 icons off that banner. )

( 5 more icons, independent ones. )

To my...slowly dying shame, I had to drop out of The Little Bang. I'm really sorry, guys. But I haven't even managed a drabble in these last few months.

Fanart, though? That works even late at night. And as my flame for SGA is still burning brightly, I signed up for the SGA Big Bang - as an artist.

So hey. If the thought of your McShep or femslash story and my artwork makes you tingly? Head on over! *g*

In fannish news, I spent the time before hermine arrived not just baking and cleaning but also faffing around on the internets. Of course I did.

( Reading Comprehension & Race )

While I'm at it, have I already recommended busaikko's War Stories universe, with the latest story already linked above? Well, I do now. Yes, she is the author who gives Sheppard AIDS, a penis where it doesn't belong, and, in this 'verse, a disability, but trust me, it always Makes Sense, is always worth the read. ♥

You recall - or, of course, don't - that I never claimed I wrote fanfiction for myself, right? So help me decide which pairing to write for thelittlebang...which you should totally sign up for, too. & :-)

Poll #1357134 Mona's Little Bang Pairing
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 28

So, which girls should I tackle, i.e. have tackle each other?

Speaking of femslash, as the icon already implies, I loved loved loved Skins 3x06. That said, has the ongoing debate whether the non-canonical element is essential to the definition of fem/slash been resolved by now? I've been out of the meta loop (but stand by my no). In any case, it's awesome seeing on screen in mainstream series what we've had to write ourselves.

Much as I appreciate my job these days - I wouldn't mind NOT being at work for twelve hours, you know? & :-/

In other news, House these days is taking me on a roller-coaster ride. ( House M.D. spoilers for the latest arc up to 5x14 )

And yeah, the icon used here is indicative: I signed up for thelittlebang offering to write 15,000 words of Thirteen/Cameron...or, if no one else shows any interest in that* a nice (by which I of course mean properly naughty) SGA femslash pairing. Anything with Cadman goes, although that will have me ask the organisers if genderswitch is allowed. There's also that Allison Porter/Dusty Mehra story in the back of my head.

* I am so not a solitary man.

Two fannish things:

1. I just registered for WriterCon 2009, and you should too. & :-)

2. Have started writing a little post-ep for SGA 5x19 Vegas. (You knew I would, didn't you?)

In real life news, I'm dawdling but should be getting ready for a little New Year's Eve party next door. Still undecided whether to take the Italian 2007 San Marzano Primitivo Puglia, the South African 2007 Eagle Crest, or the French 2007 Château Castera, after all. Decisions, decisions.

Happy New Year, my friends! 2009 better be a blast.

I came home to find this in my lj:

He's hanging up his uniform shirts when he spots it in the closet.

The title gave it away, but the line above? I would have known what it meant immediately. Ard readers, girls and boys and all other friends, auburnnothenna gave me the Future Snippet we had been talking about since oh, God, 2006?

The red dress from Hermea, a material reminder of the six months he spent as a woman. He never wore it anywhere but when he tried it on to shut the saleswoman up.

Auburn still writes like a dream. A wet one. Share it? (Usual warnings apply: This is so, so not safe for work.)

The Red Dress


[Please don't link to this yet; I'll beta, and Auburn will put up the proper version in her lj, for communities, and the newsletter later, I'm sure. Just - I CAN'T HOLD IN THE JOY, OKAY?]

Tired after this first day of ambulatory rehab - not because of the 2 hours spent with physiotherapy but the 9 hours spent in taxicabs, hallways, and (always) plastic chairs - but I'm never to tired for this topic:

stultiloquentia responds to a friend's plea, "Explain to me how to 'get' the already/always kind of genderswap. How do you read it?" and shares some shiny, shiny thoughts.

Me, I'm still nodding happily, most of all at this:

For me, all fanfic is in dialogue with its canon—is, to some degree, commentary on its canon. It indulges all sorts of other wants as well, but that's my driving force. If I can't find that engaged relationship, I'm gone. For example, in the Buffyverse there were large numbers of Buffy/Spike romances that displaced the characters into—not technically AUs (Spike was still a vampire, etc.), but romance plots with so little investment in the canon 'verse and characterizations that you could have swapped their names for Elizabeth and Darcy, uploaded them to the Derbyshire Writers' Guild, and no one would have blinked. Even the crackiest AUs, if they're working right, say something wonderful and true about the characters' cores. I got a neat answer that compared genderswap to "5 Things" stories when I posed a similar question last year:

It defines the characters in canon by who they did not become.

Just got home from work. Woe.

And ( what pops up in the task bar, taunting me with the truth? )

ETA: The worst thing about a Friday night of working late is coming home to none of my tv delights -- got no cable, satellite, or digital German tv connection, can't abuse the wireless lent to me by the Nicest Neighbour in All the Land. & :-(

Took care of some finances, must now study s'more French, and will tackle applications this weekend again.

In the mean time, have a look at these fannish contributions:

- Barb C., on writing: "So there are several ways of doing it...."

- Icarus made a handy-dandy table of all McShep Match stories.

- I created a John-and-Rodney banner for anything_ucando.

Guys, I've been reading through this year's mcshep_match entries and noticed there aren't all that many comments to the stories, and almost no one ever tries to guess the writer. Which is half the fun!

Because I'm a participant, I haven't given feedback or made recommendations -- I'll do so after the end & the reveal, and also across the board, but really, friendsromanscountrymen, don't you perhaps want to take up the slack in the mean time?

Check out the Away Team stories especially. & ;-) Vote! (And do take a guess at which story is mine. It's so very obvious, anyway. *g* Here's a list of the Team Members.)

And now, off to work.

Oh, God, my heart is racing, people.

As for the German team? ROCK ON! ♥

In fannish, SGA-ish news, I also made this from the first part of Ardhanarishvara: ( an Ard wordle that says it all )

"This is, er, not a love meme. Not in the traditional livejournal sense of the word. Basically it's a Pep Talk Meme for writers/icon makers/vidders, whoever. You can put your username here or you can out someone else's username here and people drop little peptalks about your work in comments. For those of us who can do it, but just need a little pick-me-up now and then."

My name's here.