Hello fandom

[sophinisba]

I have had a week. FRIDAY has not meant this much to me in a long time. Yes I am tipsy in the late afternoon okay.

Anyway here are some things:

-I have only finished one paperlegends fic, but it was awesome. Destiny That Darkly Hides Us by nympha_alba is a wonderful long Arthur/Merlin fic takes place before and during WWI but in an AU where magic exists and is illegal. The language in this is fancier than what I usually like to read but it won me over pretty quickly with the LONGING and the ACHING. It is great.

-I am in the middle of reading The Ivy Crown by briar_pipe and it is also great. It is the AU-from-the-end-of-season-one fic you've been waiting for, full of plot and characters from Arthurian legend and Morgana being the strong, intelligent, and flawed center of her own story.

-Speaking of ladies and fic, my fellow Merlin femslasher has convinced me to join pornspiration, a comm for getting better at writing porn that will be kicking off tomorrow. Membership is moderated but they welcome people from any fandom and level of experience, and the mods would especially like to invite femslash fans to join in. There will be lots of different kinds of posts but if you're like me and you don't want people to critique your writing then it's okay to sit out those rounds and just play along in other stuff. It looks like it will be a fun and upbeat place and I hope I can find time to participate and I wish it were on Dreamwidth but hey.



-When I woke up yesterday morning I checked my mail and I had kudos and a nice comment from a fic from a couple Yuletides ago, one for one of those seriously tiny fandoms that barely get any readers/comments even at Yuletide, and it made me so happy. Also last week I got kudos on my first ever fic from back in 2005. I just love how easy having the they make it for people to find old stuff like that. I get feedback on older fics at the AO3 far more often than I do on LJ or Dreamwidth.

So then I was surprised right after that to read an LJ post saying it's too bad that people don't really read or feedback on the AO3 and comments saying it's too bad that the AO3 cares more about writers than about readers and that's why it's so hard to find old fic there. Because for one thing I think the AO3 works really well as a way of finding old or new fic, and also I don't get the idea that writers' and readers' interests are opposed. I mean, writers want to be read, they want their fic to be easy to find, right? And also I think of how easy they make things especially for people who use e-readers, to the point where if I see a big bang fic that's isn't posted there I think, gosh, that writer's being kind of inconsiderate toward their readers. Anyway, xparrot has a nice post about browsing and reading on AO3 (mostly about using the sorting buttons and tags to narrow down a search).

-Last week I finally made a good start on my podfic project for ladiesbigbang! I made some big mistakes but I still got a significant chunk done and it felt good.

-I have filled twenty out of twenty-five squares on my first kink_bingo card!!! I have until the end of September to cross off "silk, velvet, feathers, furs", "prostitution/sex work", "whipping/flogging", "obedience", and "consent play". I think it's kind of funny that I haven't come up with anything for consent play yet, considering how excited I was to get that square and the fact that half of my fills have been dubcon or noncon. I just haven't found anything that quite fits it in the way I want. (I thought about trying to do Gwen/Vivian with enthusiastic consent for the Happy Endings challenge at summerpornathon but it didn't work out.) I had pornathon fics picked out that I wanted to podfic for both that and obedience, but the authors either never de-anoned or didn't answer my podfic permission requests, so I'm still looking. There's another piece I started writing for pornathon that involves prostitution, so I should try to sit down and make that work. Silk/velvet/feathers/furs is another one that seems like it should be easy but hasn't happened yet. And whipping/flogging is not really my kink and I don't have any ideas. So yeah, I would take suggestions for any of those five, particularly if you know of good, relatively short fics that ought to be podficced.

-I watched the first two episodes of Parks and Recreation last night and another this afternoon. I like the main character a lot and it often makes me laugh but more often just makes me very uncomfortable. If you would like to try to convince me to keep watching I will listen. I would also take recs for other shows that are streaming on Netflix or other places on the Internet, especially the half-hour funny kind that I can watch right before bed. What I would really like to watch is more Community. That's coming back soon, right?

I finished the first season of Mad Men a couple days ago and was going to try to hold off on diving in to the second, but I think I will probably cave tonight.

Comments

[netgirl_y2k]

Sometimes I will get a comment or kudos on an older fic and I have to fight the urge to ask "where did you find this fic from?" before I remember that they didn't have to find it, it's an archive, it's just sitting there, waiting to be read, that's the point. It's kind of the coolest thing about AO3. Like on LJ/DW, after a couple of months, if a story hadn't got much feedback, I'd assumed it was dead, on AO3 that's not the case.

I also don't think it's remotely unfair towards readers, like this morning I woke up with a desire to read Sansa Stark/Mya Stone femslash (not your fandom, I know, imagine any rare femslash pairing) I plugged it into the AO3 and there they were. Okay, not all of them, maybe even not the best ones, but it beats the hell out of trying to navigate LJ's search functions.

And, yes, I have spent vast portions of this week reading The Ivy Crown and it is indeed awesome. Sometime Merlin fandom confuses me by being so awesome that I forget that I'm not actually in Merlin fandom any more.

[sophinisba]

Merlin fandom continues to be surpring in its awesome, it's true. Did you get a chance to read this Morgana ficlet from the pornathon bb? No lie, when I read it I had this theory that you had decided to come back to the fandom and secretly anonymously joined the challenge because it hadn't had enough femslash so far.

This reminds me that another thing I mean to do in this post was to try to convince more people to repost their pornathon ficlets to the AO3 collection. You know, out of consideration for the readers!

[netgirl_y2k]

No lie, I did consider creating a sock and joining the pornathon, but then that seemed like too much work so I didn't bother, it's odd. really. It's weird with Merlin, it's like most of my fannish/fic writing energy is still directed that way, but I don't want to be that person who hates canon and brings everyone else down, you know? But I did see that fic due to the A03 and felt a proud moment of "Well done, young ficcer, well done indeed."

I'm all for a pornathon collection on the AO3. I'm sure I'm not the only non participant who wanted to read the entries but who was stymied by the big wall of porn, and who would read the hell out them if I could filter by character/pairing/kink.

[thingswithwings]

I do think Parks and Recreation gets a lot better in subsequent episodes, starting in the second season; it never stopped making me uncomfortable occasionally, but the frequency of incidents went down considerably. They gradually transition from doing a lot of embarrassment humour or ironic humour in the style of The Office to doing more "our team of adorable misfits, we love them, they are silly." They never get quite to the level that Community hits, but sometimes they come close. So, if you're not squicked out by it, I do think it's worth going on and watching further. If nothing else, Leslie Knope ONLY GETS MORE AWESOME.

I think Community is coming back the first or second week of September! I cannot wait.

[sophinisba]

Oh yay that is just what I was hoping to hear, less embarrassment and more teaminess woot! The first season is short and it's not like I've disliked it so far, so this should be fun.

BUT I WANT MORE COMMUNITY MORE.

[thingswithwings]

I KNOW BUDDY. I KNOW. I CAN ONLY REWATCH 1X17 PHYSICAL EDUCATION 2X06 EPIDEMIOLOGY 2X10 MIXOLOGY CERTIFICATION THE ENTIRE SERIES SO MANY TIMES.

. . . I just asked the internets, and apparently S3 premieres on the 22nd. Which is not as soon as I had hoped! Perhaps I should try to write some Community fic between now and then, to pass the time. I would prefer to read some, but I think I've read all the Community fic on the internet at least once.

[sophinisba]

I think I had asked the Internets about that a couple weeks ago and then was sad and then tried not to think about it for a while. But you should write some fic omg! Especially fic with Abed being awesome.

[chaila]

I will second thingswithwings and actually make a pretty strong case for skipping season 1 entirely. I started season 2 as it aired and couldn't figure out why nobody was talking about it, until I went back and saw season 1, which felt almost like a different show. It's not perfect in later seasons, but its humor is much more based on liking its characters and them liking each other, and the show and everyone clearly think Leslie Knope is amazing. From the second season on, it's just far more sincere and warm and much less Office-like ironic. But if season 2 still makes you uncomfortable, then yes, it's just not for you.

[sophinisba]

Thank you this is very encouraging! I think I am like halfway through the first season anyway so I will just breeze through the rest of that and look forward to it turning into more of my kind of show.

[chaila]

ALSO, if you want more recs, PONIES are pretty awesome. :D And widely available on Youtube. IJS. :D? It's obviously kind of silly, but it's often pretty clever for a kid's show and just shiny and sparkly and about girls being friends. <3

[sophinisba]

Ha ha okay that could be a thing for me too. Friendship IS magic, after all. I think of myself as someone who's not into cartoons but last year I watched Avatar: The Last Airbender on Netflix and that was great.

[fitz_y]

you are so close to your blackout, i'm in awe!!! i wish i had some suggestions for you, but i really don't. my only reaction is "oooh shiny" to all your awesome squares left. i feel like my actual fic reading has been not sufficient lately. i'm so focused on write write write in my free time to get my little bang done. and thanks so much for the pimping, dear! i greatly appreciate it. and again, i'm so glad you joined!! <33333333

[sophinisba]

rubnynye gave me some podfic suggestions over on the LJ side of this post so that is something! I haven't written any fic since the pornathon ended and I don't know if and when I'll do anymore so it is good that more and more challenges are accepting podfic and that that's something I've come to like doing too.

[msilverstar]

I really like The Ivy Crown, thanks for the rec!

[sophinisba]

Yay, glad to hear it!

[cereta]

Seriously, I have gotten more kudos and comments on old stuff that I've loaded on AO3 than I've ever gotten on LJ. And as a reader, AO3 is great for when I find a new fandom.

[sophinisba]

I know, whenever I watch a new movie or something now or start to wonder about a new fandom I know right where to look. And I know other people have found my old Yuletide fics the same way. They just make things so easy.

[cesare]

Joining the chorus to say Parks & Rec doesn't really get going until season 2. Treatment of Leslie shifts; it moves away from depicting her as sort of goofy and delusional, and instead makes the humor more about her overachieving hypercompetence in contrast to the clockwatchers around her.

One of my favorite things about Parks & Rec is that Ann and Leslie become best friends, and it's such a nice depiction of a positive female friendship. They talk about how they love each other, they recognize each others' foibles and support each other; they're so sweet, and I love them. As for embarrassment humor, take any scene where the character "Jerry" gets involved as an opportunity to take a bathroom break or check your email, and that will cut down on fair amount of your exposure to that. There's one episode that focuses on him; skip that one.

But in general everyone gets much more likable and fond in the second season. Aziz Ansari and Aubrey Plaza are both fantastic and get more of a chance to shine. And the show just gets even better once Adam Scott and Rob Lowe show up, their characters are great.

[sophinisba]

I am already liking the friendship between Ann and Leslie in the first season (I just watched the one where they go out to the dinner for Leslie's mom's award and Leslie's wearing the suit and the hair) so it is awesome to know that that will be developing more. :)