Got tagged by @fuckyeahisawthat to share my favorite fics I've written, thank you!
I'm following F'Yeah's lead plus one with six fics across all my fandoms. Which is hard when I've been writing fic for 23 years, across nine fandoms, not counting cross-overs. So hard. I confess that if a fic of mine is over 25,000 words, I'm attached to it. It feels like a place where I spent some time.
These fics were all uniquely satisfying to write and share. Revisiting them reminds me how awesome these fandoms were - and still are.
Elf Slash Sarcasm (Lord of the Rings, Aragorn/Legolas, Boromir/Elrond)
In The Legion of Angels (Terminator: Dark Fate, Dani Ramos/Grace)
Wasteland, Seize My Bones (Mad Max: Fury Road, genfic)
The Man of the Future (Timmy Strickland focus) and Deus Brânquia Is Merciful (Tammy Strickland focus) for Shape of Water
Magweth Pengolodh: The Story of Pengolod (The Silmarillion/Histories of Middle-Earth/Tolkien, genfic)
My thoughts and experiences around these stories below the cut. Tagging for this @kirkypet, @themummersfolly, @a-tehta, @sixth-light, and anyone else who wants to!
Elf Slash Sarcasm (Lord of the Rings, Aragorn/Legolas, Boromir/Elrond) - This was not just a ridiculous story, it was a whole fandom experience. And it was So. Much. Fun! In 2002, I dashed this off. I loved the elf slash genre, as it was in the lost ages of the LOTR fandom. But one day the unrelenting gorgeousness of it all got to me. When I posted this, I had to code it onto my own site. And people had to send me an individual email to give me feedback. And they did! Good times, good times. If you want to see it as it was originally published here is Elf Slash Sarcasm on my old Tolkien fan site.
In The Legion of Angels (Terminator: Dark Fate, Dani Ramos/Grace) - Young Grace's future-past as an apocalyptic survivor, political pawn, and Resistance fighter. This is a very yeah-Tyellas/Byrch-would-write-that story. There's a central queer passion. Plot. Worldbuilding. Absolutely batshit obscure canon (hi, Blythe, Danny, and Lanny!). The final part of chapter 4 is one of my personal favorites from my fan writing.
Wasteland, Seize My Bones (Mad Max: Fury Road, genfic) - I wrote this in 2016-2017 around Mad Max: Fury Road. But after Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, it's been haunting me again. Four short pieces around the theme of the Mad Max Wasteland. About colonialism and survival, folklore and guilt, fear and hope. Asking what the post-apocalyptic ground under Max's feet might be if it wasn't called a Wasteland. If you let it have its history - and its future.
The Man of the Future (Timmy Strickland focus) and Deus Brânquia Is Merciful (Tammy Strickland focus) for Shape of Water. Genfics with warnings! Both of Strickland's kids need to shake off their father's shadow. It takes each of them a lifetime to do it - and two ways of encountering the Asset. The Creature. Deus Brânquia.
Writing, I dug into the fun of tropes with each of these stories - The Man of the Future takes on cop dramas, procedurals, mysteries. Looking back, this has tidier writing and So Much Giles Dupont. So much! Deus Brânquia Is Merciful is a twist on classic explorer-adventure tales. As a read, it's a rockier ride: its beginning is abrupt and unusual, and its Horror warning is very serious. But it also had the central question, "So, what if Strickland in Shape of Water...was a lesbian? How would that have gone?"
Magweth Pengolodh: The Story of Pengolod (The Silmarillion/Histories of Middle-Earth/Tolkien, genfic) An elvish loremaster gets off the boat in the Second Age and spends a summer in Númenor because he's not quite ready to leave Middle-Earth.
Again, there's plot. Worldbuilding. Obscure canon. Drag queens. A fat man asking about the meaning of life for mortal Men in the world he lives in. And a very Tolkien eucatastrophe. Throughout, the loremaster Pengolod, between mirth and sorrow, tells tales of his life through two Ages in Middle-Earth. And there's friendship, most of all.
I wrote this between 2004 - 2005, long before the Rings of Power TV show - though because of when it's set, it's an OK read for fans of that show.
I remember finishing this one and then going to the Tolkien 2005 conference. So the fic is connected, to me, to the friends I saw in person there and the amazing time I had. All the different people connecting there in real life was like having the good parts of fic come true, oh so briefly.
My sole regret about this story is that I wrote it long before the canon notes about Númenorean pet squirrels were published. The hard part would have been deciding which character had a pet squirrel. Maybe all of them, by the end. Is not Númenor also Andor, the Land of Gift? YOU get a squirrel! And YOU get a squirrel!
Being a ...notsofamous... blog has its pros. I'm mostly away from fandom bullshit, wars and things I have an opinion about but I don't really want to be involved.
Sure, if asked i would take a side, but
1) I've already seen all these.. (yes being a fandom old is doing that)
2) people don't care about my opinion no matter what, if they believe they're right, they will be always against everyone.
But I saw so much bullshit these days that I asked myself why people have to be mean with others. Everyone is enjoying every fandom how they like and everyone has the right to be represented how they want and it's not anyone business to police that.
There is no fandom police, fandom should be an escape from reality, should be fun and enjoyable...we're living through a pandemic for fuck's sake, an historical event...it is already stressful
You could have your own opinion on thing until it doesn't harm someone else (and this concept should be used in real life too)
I don't like bullies and people who try to belittle others, saw too much of these in my life, so learn some manners and try and be gentle.
If you want or need somebody this Thanksgiving, my inbox is open.
I’ve opted out of hosting anything this year, planning to have a bit of turkey breast and some basic favorites after going to see Knives Out for a second time. Other than the movie, I’m all yours.
Whether you’re alone or feel alone even with family or friends, know you’ve got this fandom auntie in your corner.
I don’t tag often, primarily because I refuse to use Tumblr’s piece of shit app and tagging from a mobile browser is a fucking joke. I tag when I’m on a desktop/laptop, which might be a grand total of about 10% of the time I’m scrolling through.
Y’all can quit sending the hate mail. I haven’t ever consistently tagged on this blog, it has never been spoiler free, and I have never made any bones about that.
If I could give fandom babies of the year 2025 one piece of advice it is this: stop caring about being right. Just enjoy what you enjoy. You're not writing a paper about it, you're not getting credit for it, there's no prize for being "correct" - there may be no such thing as "correct!" - or agreeing with the popular anything. It. Doesn't. Matter.
Don't like it? Keep scrolling! There's almost certainly something better further down the page. Go find someone who likes the things you like and hang out with them. It really is that easy.
*appears two hours late with a Starbucks and a notebook* so... tell me about those Harry Potter ship wars??
lol
so the thing is, I was on the sidelines of most of the ship wars. even back circa 2003 I was a dirty harrymort/tommary shipper, and, well, you just didn’t talk about that. we had our couple of yahoo! groups, and I think there was like one livejournal community
so on the one hand, I never actually took part, because we all acknowledged that our ship would NEVER be canon. and was like probably really creepy and side-eyed post-Book 4
(despite snarry being so goddamn prominent then, lol)
so much fic written that immediately got dunked on by OotP
on the other hand, lol the ship to ship combat.
there were the harmony/ronmony/dramony flame wars (who ends up with Hermione? Who cares? Not Me! Hermione/Books was my hermy otp) like, people legit throwing online temper tantrums over whether she should end up with Ron or Harry, or go to the Dark Side with Draco
(oh my god, fandom!Draco. never a cooler, slicker dude would you meet. you’d think he was the god of smooth talk himself, and not the raging self-important dorkbag he really is)
then there was Cho Chang vs Ginny vs Hermione ship wars with Harry
you see, those were the bad old days, when it was not only fine to, but expected that you would dump all over your non-favorite female characters. girl power was seen as a Mary Sue thing, and everybody knew what happened to Mary Sues
(I am now convinced that My Immortal is a classic deconstructionist/absurdist commentary on the foibles of early-2000′s fandom)
so you had your chosen female character, and all others were man-eating sluts. unless, of course, you were in the slash side. then all women were man-eating sluts. except dead women like Lily, and old women like McGonnagal who never had any sex ever
(Imma include Harry/McGonnagal into my stupid Harry-born-in-TMR’s-era-tommary fic, because I can and because friendsex is awesome. and Tom is too busy being a douche off in Albania in the 50′s to comment)
and oh my god the snarry. the more rabid snarry shippers actually seemed to think that JKR might actually make the ship canon (whattafuck?) from what I could tell. idk, I stayed the hell away from snarry because it squicked me hard even then, let alone once we knew that he loved (in a rather unhealthy manner that he was never able to move past due to her death, but my opinions on why Severus Snape would have been a better person had Lily lived are for another post) Harry’s mom
like, the idea of replacing Lily with Harry is an outright *ollies out* for me.
but the voldy/harry and tom/harry side was chill in our depravity. we all knew we were going to hell, so why bother?
