Hours Gone By

Nooo, it's over! :(

Day 15

In your own space, create your own challenge. What’s something you want to see more people doing in fandom? Is there something fun you’ve tried that you think other people would enjoy if they gave it a go? Dare your friends to try it out, and have fun with it. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

Find something you like but never sought out a fandom for, and look for fanworks for it. If there aren't any, or the fandom is small, help it along: create some fanworks of your own for it, or encourage the creators along by leaving feedback. (Hey, not everyone is going to be inspired to create for all their fandoms, and that's just fine.)

Keep being awesome! *blows kisses*

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. (The recs from Day 1, Day 3, and Day 9 might be a good place to start!) Leave a comment in this post saying you did it.

I've been in online fandom for...well, if it was a kid, it'd be in uni. So there's not a whole lot out there I haven't given a try. I ended up sticking with fanfic, because reading is pretty much my favorite thing ever, but in a fandom for a non-fantasy, non-SF book: L.M. Montgomery's The Blue Castle. No particular reason, it just happened to be what my brain came up with for random association. Found a dozen or so fics on A03 (what IS it with me and the teeny fandoms lately?) and these are the four that really stood out:

A Mouse Gnawing in Her Chest, by Thia
Summary: In a shameful, private little corner of her heart, Cecily raised up an altar to unbeautiful, skittish, kind Valancy Stirling.
A sweet and sad short fic about need and unrequited love.

Moonlight Shining, by Amyfortuna
Summary: Barney remembers a night long ago, the first night after his marriage to Valancy.
I like first-time fics, and this is a lovely one, reading like a real love story and not a Harlequin. Unusually, both parties are virgins and even more unusually, it's told from the man's point of view.

Muskegee Twilight, by Sangerin
Summary: Secrets fell from each girl's lips to float out on the grey summer air.
An absolute tearjerker about a canon death. How the artist managed that in only 100 words I don't know.

Nor Custom Stale, by slightlykylie
Summary: Another look at Olive Stirling.
This is an excellent behind-the-scenes look at a character who is intentionally one-dimensional in the book, where she serves as a foil to the protagonist. The protagonist was always harangued to be more like her cousin Olive: here we see the mirror of that her cousin experienced.

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. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

Oh, good, this is so much easier than yesterday's! My psyche needs a break from all that extroversion.

Dark Prince ~ The Darkness Has Its Own Light by Spiced Wine.
"A half-elven OC who's the son of Sauron, and has purple eyes. Really." That was my first, doubtful, thought when I encountered a description of Vanimórë, the protagonist of Spiced Wine's Dark Prince series and 'verse. I didn't read it the first few times I saw it referenced, because I've just seen so many OCs of this type and generally don't find them to be interesting or unique. Then one night I had a few minutes to kill before bed and thought 'why not?'.

I ended up going to work the next day on about three hours sleep. It was nothing like I'd expected, and I'm so very pleased to have been wrong! You can get started at the link up there, but please do heed the chapter warnings.

Nightfall in Middle Earth by Blind Guardian
A power metal concept album based on The Silmarillion that just blew me away the first time I heard it. I had some doubts about reccing it since it's done professionally and commercially available, but then realized that was silly because those things don't mean it's not a fannish labour of love. I first learned about it when I was surfing through TVTropes (can't remember which trope) and found a link to the song 'Time Stands Still (At the Iron HIll)', about Fingolfin's duel with Morgoth. Metal, concept albums, and Tolkien are certainly all things I enjoy, but...Tolkien's work explored through power metal? Well...why not? So I listened to it.

Then I listened to the rest of the album.

Then I bought it. (OK, I listened to the rest of the band's work, and bought a box set containing Blind Guardian's entire discography up to they changed labels. And I have not regretted it.)

The Call of Cthulu
A short film based on the work of H.P. Lovecraft by the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society. Now, films based on Lovecraft's work range from just bad, to entertainingly schlocky at best. Lovecraft's stories rarely describe the entirety of what the characters are seeing, and when they do it's something that would be difficult and/or expensive to include. His work is largely monologue, with very little dialogue making it hard to adapt to a modern film without lots and lots of rewriting - more, I think, than a major studio would be willing to put in to something they wouldn't expect to have much of an audience. With this in mind, I was not expecting great things.

BUT. It turns out that making a silent film eliminates a lot of the problems above! You watch the characters act and react, and what explanations and dialogue is needed goes on a title card. Adding to the feel that you're really watching an old silent movie are the scratches in the film, and a subtle hiss and pop to the soundtrack. It's surprisingly gripping, and does not feel like it's only 46 minutes long.

Day 5

In your own space, talk about a creator. Show us why you think they are amazing. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

Curiouswombat
Curiouswombat plays in both the Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Lord of the Rings fandoms and, amazingly, has managed a fusion between the two that works so well you won't believe it. Her Returnverse begins after the end of both BtVS and LotR stories, when Dawn Summers is transplanted from California to Middle-earth, home dimension of the Key, during the climactic battle of the Buffy series finale. I have to admit, I very nearly didn't read it given the premise, but she makes it work. She is also the author of one of my favorite Xander-centric stories, Half A Sky Of Stars, taking place after the end of BtVS.

Her work can be found at Twisting the Hellmouth and Faerie: Tolkien Fanfiction.