Sophinisba Solis

Happy Mayday! I feel bad that I didn't post more poetry during April. But then again I guess there's no rule against posting poetry at other times of the year.

I put up the sign-up posts for round 6 of remixthedrabble a couple hours ago! I meant to post links from here right away but I've been consumed by a Canadian TV fandom controversy I was previously unaware of. o_0 Hopefully that's been sorted out now. I'm actually terribly nervous about being the primary mod on this challenge for the first time, but I'm also really excited because I love the reading and writing part so much.

This is the Drabble Purist Round, where all the remixes will be exactly 100 words. Sign-ups are open until the 11th and are nonreciprocal again, so you can sign up as a remixee (giving permission for others to write drabbles of your stories) or as a remixer (you'll get four weeks to write a drabble!) or both, as you prefer. As usual, I am making sad puppy dog eyes at all you LotR writers hoping that you'll join in so I can mess with your stuff. :)

Remix Redux will also be happening again this year and will probably include rpf for the first time. If you're interested in the challenge and in particular if you're an rpf writer the mods would love it if you'd fill out this poll about the proposed changes.

Also earlier today I posted a new challenge at lotr_fic_recs, asking for fics with a memorable portrayal of Sean Astin, and mews1945 has already contributed a few recs. I'm hoping we'll get a lot on this one (which will be on for the whole month) since there are a lot of people still writing Sean/Elijah and there's overlap between that group and the hobbit fans who participate in the comm more often.

I have five Dreamwidth invite codes. Comment here with your e-mail address if you'd like me to send you one.

In non-fannish news, I've had a mysterious headache off and on since Wednesday night, just in a small area on the right side. Not too big a deal and if it had to happen I'm grateful it's this week and not last week, but it is annoying.

Here are two fic year in review memes (adapted from rubynye's version), plus commentary on my Yuletide stories.

Leitmotif of the year: Small fandoms, minor characters, and unusual crossovers. Sometimes I worry that this is a way of giving up or withdrawing from bigtime fandom, like saying, "I know my Frodo fic will never be as good or as popular as ***'s, so I'll just go over here in this corner and write some Pippin/Marigold, and if no one comes to read that's just because it's a rare pairing and not through any fault of mine." However, most of the time going with the new characters feels like the right thing to do, in order to say something that's new and interesting to me. When I try to write Casey/Zeke or Frodo/anyone these days I always feel like I'm repeating myself, as well as repeating all the other fics I've read about those characters. On the other hand, a few weeks ago I wrote a fic about a character who appears in just one chapter of a book that to my knowledge no one else has ficced before. I really loved doing this.

( Favorite stories etc. )

Story I haven't yet written, but intend to: There's an unused Yuletide prompt that I really love for one of my favorite movies, The Motorcycle Diaries. It makes me a little nervous because it's on the edge of RPS, being about historical characters and all, but I really want the fic to exist, so I'm going to try. Also, while putting this meme together I came across an unfinished genfic about Frodo visiting Lobelia post-Quest that I would like to try to finish.

( All the stories, listed by month )

Oh my goodness, I have a lot to say about my Yuletide stories. The thing is, I feel like I had about as good a Yuletide experience this year as a person can have (apart from having limited Internet access and reading time those first few days after the fics went up). I mean, I know my writer enjoyed her assignment and I loved the story she wrote. I got a great assignment and I wrote a lot of stories. All five of my recipients had really nice things to say. The fics that were in widely known fandoms got read by a lot of people, and the ones in more obscure fandoms got a few really appreciative comments from the few people who knew them, which I figure is more what Yuletide is really about. I didn't rush through anything like I did last year, and I am happy with all the things I wrote for the challenge. Whoo!!

( more on the Yuletide stories )

Hey you guys, round 5 of remixthedrabble is live!! It's the largest round yet, with 114 ficlets of between 100 and 1000 words in 47 different fandoms! (Yes, including LotR and The Faculty). We aren't doing anonymous posting this round, so I'll probably repost the fics I wrote here later today, but for now I'll just point you to their tag.

I had three different people remix me in three different fandoms! I'm so excited!
-emmademarais wrote Incense (The Honey Remix), a lovely sweet Kaylee/Inara off my first Firefly ficlet. (Did you hear that, gamerchick? OTP!)
-greenapple wrote Climate Change, a gorgeous poem in 100 words off a haiku series I did for haikuathon last year – the only Northern Exposure piece in the remix!
-were_lemur wrote Let No One Put Asunder -- the Other Sister remix, Padma's POV on my Parvati fic, quiet and achy and very sisterly.

Other remixees who might be on your f-lists include claudia603, rubynye and hyel. You can get to them through the Index post, tags, or memories (and to be updated soon: delicious), as you prefer. I'm sure all the authors would love to hear from you.

Um, in other news, I have caved and gone back to a paid LJ account. Eh, my displeasure with their policies is no longer as strong as my desire for more icons and notification subscriptions. I feel like I gave a IJ a good try and I'll continue to crosspost there so I can have a backup of my journal, but my community's here on LJ and I'm here every day, so I figure I might as well pay a little bit for the service and enjoy myself more.