Sophinisba Solis

Books! On a Wednesday!

Thu, 10 Mar 2022 01:57:06 GMT

My last books post was just over six months ago ahh! I think I could manage it more often if I didn't try to do it on a Wednesday but I have that Dreamwidth nostalgia idk. But in that post I dared to dream that I would finish 50 books in 2021 and that did happen, I got to 54!

So then I set my goal for 2022 at 50 again but that's looking unlikely. I finished my 8th book of the year today, so I'm about on track for my normal total around 30.

Some books I especially enjoyed since my last books post were
Free Food for Millionaires by Min Jin Lee
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
The Fourth Child by Jessica Winter
The Sentence by Louise Erdrich
Catfishing on CatNet by Naomi Kritzer

( Uzodinme Iweala, Angie Kim, Kathryn Schulz, etc )

comments

Fanworks and fannishness since July

Mon, 07 Mar 2022 23:15:08 GMT

Also it seems the last time I posted links to my fanworks from here was in July. I know most of my friends who still use this website don't read MCU or listen to podfics but it is nice to talk about things anyway, so.

I made or contributed to many small podfics that you can find on my AO3 page, but I posted one that was a bit more substantial for the Summer Podfic Swap last August:
-The Other Side of the Coin, Steve/Tony D/s AU, explicit, one hour and nine minutes.

And I wrote a fic, posted in January:
-Stardust, Tony-centric Potts-Stark family gen, 6000 words.

ETA: Wait and I also wrote another fic in October:
-live through this (and maybe prosper mix), Natasha-centric Endgame AU, rated teen, 1200 words.
/ETA

Still lots of Tony feels around here, can't say I've really moved on! I have two other Tony fics I've been trying to finish for ages, one currently at about 5K and the other at 8K. And another 3K that I mean to be Pepper/Natasha but I keep accidentally writing about Tony instead.

Another fannish New Year's Resolution I made but didn't post about here was that I'd write at least 100 words of fic at least once a week. I stuck to that until last week, and then I came back and did it again (just barely) last night. But I don't feel close to finishing anything, or confident that people will want to read them. For example, that 8K fic is for a request that a fannish aquaintance made at an exchange two years ago; that person continues to participate in exchanges but has stopped requesting these characters.

I was also doing okay at plugging away slowly at a large podfic project but have also fallen behind on that the last couple weeks, and again it's not like a lot of people are clamoring to hear it.

And as for myself I haven't much been consuming fanworks in recent months. I've left off my habit of reading fic before bed – for a while was reading published ebooks but the last couple weeks I've been trying to turn off all electronic devices a good hour before my bedtime. So I just read a paper book and it often sends me to sleep real quick. I haven't been finishing a lot of books either! (But I did finish one today! Maybe I will also make a books post this week!)

I'm doing fine though.

I haven't looked at the AO3 since seeing Spider-Man yesterday. To be honest I'm a bit afraid to, because if I know fandom there won't be a lot of engagement with how recent events have affected Ned and MJ, and that will make me sad. But also maybe I'll feel inspired to make something, and that can be a great feeling.

comments

Minimalist fannish resolutions

Sat, 01 Jan 2022 15:37:11 GMT

Hi Dreamwidth, I hope you had a nice New Year's Eve and are having a good first day of the year, and for that matter last three months since that's how long it's been since I updated um.

Anyway, I went to check last night and it looks like I did well with the fannish resolutions I'd made for each of the last few years:

Make ten Dreamwidth posts, of which

five are not fanworks posts, and
five are not in January or December, and

Make ten fanworks, of which

one is a fic, and
one is a podfic of more than an hour

I was doing pretty well at posting regularly this summer and then my job got busy but also SO BORING, I didn't feel like I had time to update or anything interesting to say.

Looking at my AO3 works page, I posted about 29 fanworks, including four MCU ficlets and one podfic that was a little over an hour. The other 24 were short podfics, and in addition there a bunch of other podfics to which I contributed some voice parts.

The fests and exchanges I participated in were Voiceteam Mystery Box in December/January, Voiceteam classic in May, Summer Podfic Swap June-August, Chromatic Characters Podfic Anthology in September, Remix Revival September/October, and Voiceteam Mystery Box currently in progress. I also signed up for MCU Kink Bingo in... the summer maybe? but then didn't make anything for it.

I'm setting the same goals for 2022 and I'm confident I can make them. The slightly challenging parts are always the fic and the longer podfic, but have specific plans to finish and post a fic later this week, and to start recording a podfic that will probably come out to around six hours. I intend to participate in whatever future rounds of Voiceteam the mods are generous enough to host, and maybe some other podfic fests, but no writing exchanges because they're too stressful.

Also for 2021 I set the goal of answering all new AO3 comments as I received them, and I didn't get anywhere close. This is a very nice aspiration but I'm not setting it up as a goal this year.

comments

Books including comic books

Thu, 05 Aug 2021 01:24:29 GMT

I have finished three books since my last books post two weeks ago, two of them just today. One was for work so I won't tell you about it. The other two were a Black Panther comic book and the novel Transcendent Kingdom.

( Black Panther )

( Transcendent Kingdom )

comments

Books!

Thu, 22 Jul 2021 01:59:29 GMT

Hello, Dreamwidth, it's been three weeks since my last books post and I have finished four more books, bringing me up to 20 for the year. Whoo! One of those books was for work but I will tell you about the other three: Your House Will Pay by Steph Cha, The Sun Is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon, and How the Word Is Passed by Clint Smith.

( books! )

comments

Another short fic and a podfic

Sun, 11 Jul 2021 17:39:43 GMT

I wrote another ficlet, this time in the form of five drabbles:
-See what's in front of you, MCU/Iron Man, Pepper/Tony/Rhodey, 500 words, general audiences (but kind of sad).

I also did another podfic:
-night shift, MCU/Captain America, Sam/Steve, 9 minutes, general audiences, fluffy AU written by my old friend glim.

I've been doing the old morning pages since July 1st and that's been fun. Actually writing in a notebook with a pen and without a goal. Since I haven't been working lately and I've had that as the first thing I do after brewing the coffee and feeding the cats, I've been feeling happier waking up than I had in months or possibly years.

comments

A short fic and many podfics

Mon, 05 Jul 2021 18:12:35 GMT

I posted a wee fic last week, my first once since Voiceteam Mystery Box around New Year's:
-What my friends call me, MCU/Spider-Man, warm and fuzzy MJ & Peter & Ned with MJ/Peter and gender stuff, 696 words, general audiences.

( I am writing )

And I'm still making podfic! Yesterday I made this to celebrate Steve Rogers's birthday:
-steady to the shore, MCU/Captain America, Bucky/Steve/Sam, 25 minutes, explicit

I also made the following podfics for Voiceteam in May (and trailing into June), all less than twenty minutes:
-feel something when I see you, MCU/Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Bucky/Sam, explicit
-Nonsense, MCU/Captain America, Bucky/Sam with Bucky/bad guys noncon flashbacks, explicit
-Who Taught You How to Fall, Saving Face, Wil/Vivian, explicit (an old fic of mine!)
-She, Brokeback Mountain, Alma Jr./OFC, mature (an old poem of mine!)
-The Roommate (A Gentlemen's Arrangement Remix), Merlin, Merlin/Elyan, mature, featuring many Voiceteam participants
-Wherever You'll Be Someone, MCU/Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Bucky/Sam, general audiences
-Rogue Two: A Star Wars Story, Rogue One, Jyn-centric, general audiences
-a glitch on the television screen, MCU/WandaVision, Wanda/Vision, teen, edited by my teammate
-Another Country, MCU/Avengers, Steve/Tony, teen, with cover art by a teammate
-yes your wings are beautiful. yes they shimmer. god., MCU/Iron Man, Tony/Rhodey, general audiences
-Capes, Star Wars sequels, Finn/Poe, teen, with three other Voiceteam participants

( Voiceteam thoughts )

I also participated in a few other projects organized by other Voiceteam folks:
-for goodness' bake!, The Good Place ensemble, general audiences
-Furry Artists vs. Doctors, a dramatic reading of the (I guess classic?) Furry Artists vs. Doctors Tumblr post
-Until we rise with open eyes, Patrick O'Brian - Aubrey-Maturin Series, Aubrey and Maturin, general audiences
-A Seed of Song: Fives Hymns The Muses Sing of Hades and Persephone, Greek mythology/Vienna Teng's Aims, Hades/Persephone, teen

Oh hey I used all my journal's genre tags on this post: boyslash, femslash, gen, het, multi, other, and poetry!

comments

Books on a Wednesday!

Thu, 01 Jul 2021 00:33:02 GMT

I read three good nonfiction books by Black American men in the last few weeks. ( Kiese Laymon, James Baldwin, Ta-Nehisi Coates, plus other current reading )

comments

Summer Podfic Swap letter

Wed, 16 Jun 2021 01:46:38 GMT

Dear Podficcer,

Thank you for signing up for one or more of my fandoms and thanks in advance for making something for me! I hope you will have a good time with this exchange. I like lots of different kinds of podfics and will have a good time listening to what you make!

( general )
( fandom-specific )

comments

Books on a Wednesday!

Wed, 17 Mar 2021 23:59:39 GMT

I have again gone seven weeks since my last book post but am managing to post on a Wednesday! I have finished just three books since then, one I won't talk about and also Educated by Tara Westover which was good and Pachinko by Min Jin Lee which was GREAT.

Books I have read parts of but may not finish include Crooked Hallelujah by Kelli Jo Ford, The Mothers by Brit Bennett, and an audiobook of Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison.

And now, a cut tag: ( Read more... )

comments

Books!

Thu, 28 Jan 2021 03:24:00 GMT

My last books post was, I guess, seven weeks ago! Today has not been a great day but I like posting about books on Wednesdays for old times' sake! ( Claudia Hernández, Rumaan Alam, Emma Donoghue, Brit Bennett, Min Jin Lee, Tara Westover )

Next on my list are Crooked Hallelujah by Kelli Jo Ford and an audiobook of Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison, which I've read twice, but both times were more than 20 years ago. o_0

Work just got busy again though so we'll see how that goes. It was nice to have a little more time to read this last month plus, even though my ability to concentrate is still garbage.

comments

Voiceteam Mystery Box Plus

Sun, 10 Jan 2021 21:33:24 GMT

I participated in voiceteam Mystery Box, which started on Dec. 26thish and ended a couple hours ago. I rejoined Team Red Out Loud, and we won! This was pretty awesome, as in May, with lots of collaboration both on multivoice podfics and on all kinds of other things. As in May, I got stressed out at times but also loved being on a team with other people who were focused on winning. These last two weeks I realized I was especially stressed out by challenges that involved making things other than podfic, so, idk, it was good that other people were up for it. ngl I really liked winning, even though I didn't contribute to the tiebreaker challenge we did the last few days.

Here are the podfics I made for the challenge, many of them in collaboration with teammates. They are all rated General Audiences or Teen and are less than 20 minutes. As in May/June, I'm not up for explaining and coding everybody else's names but you can see them on the AO3.
-she's waiting for me (just across the bar), MCU: Maria Hill/Natasha Romanov
-The Fear of Not Trying, MCU: Peter & Tony, written by a teammate for this challenge, with cover art by a teammate
-Tolls Paid, Elementary: Joan/Sherlock
-your quiet afternoon crush , MCU: Peter/MJ, with voices by several teammates and cover art by a rival
-Is that a cat in your pocket?, MCU: Tony & Rhodey, with another voice and cover art by teammates
-the winding path, MCU: Sam/Steve
-The Prompt Machine: IronFalcon podfics b, MCU: Tony/Sam, a set of three podficlets with covers by a teammate and two rivals, and with audio editing on one of them by a rival!

Also for Voiceteam, I wrote a Carol Danvers/Maria Rambeau ficlet, Follow Your Star, that a teammate recorded.

I also contributed voice parts to these other short podfics that my teammates organized!
-'My Drunk Kitchen' is Not a DIY Show, Texts from Last Night: original female characters
-Conversations with Carpenter, Alice (Syfy): Carpenter & various
-lightheaded, The Untamed: Yanli/Wen Qing (This one's super great!)
-An Invitation, Wonder Woman 1984: Diana/Barbara
-Where in the World is "Where in the World"?, Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego/Sesame Street: Elmo-centric
-The Snowstorm Variations, Leverage: Eliot/Parker/Hardison

Meanwhile, the Informal Twitter Podfic Exchange was exchanged and revealed! I decided not to participate in the exchange this year but I did make an extra treat:
-Hair is Everything , MCU: Tony & Natasha, 31 minutes.

And I tried to put a 2020 podfic year in review post in here but it is too much! I will try again soon. <3

comments

fannish year-in-review and resolutions without a lot of numbers or links

Mon, 28 Dec 2020 18:32:33 GMT

Let's see, in December 2018/January 2019 I was on a fandom/Dreamwidth/Twitter hiatus, and in December 2019/January 2020 I made a couple year-end posts, one about fandom and one about everything else. Idk if I will make an rl post this year because so little has happened to me that didn't happen to almost everybody else. Like, I've spent a lot of time at home, working from home, not traveling, barely seeing anyone except for my partner. And I've been posting more regularly so it's not news, idk.

But I think I'll split the fandom review in two. Since Voiceteam Mystery Box is happening right now I'll probably make and post a few fanworks in the next few days so I can't count them yet or link to them. Not sure how much counting I will do tbh and I think I won't even bother to link them all because, what with Voiceteam, there are a lot of them, and because of all the Voiceteam collaborations I'm much less clear than ever before about which fanworks I "made" or are "mine" or whatever. Will I do math? Will I check kudos and hit counts? Will there be a new spreadsheet, perhaps even the return of GRAPHS? Perhaps, but these are questions that 2021 Sophie will answer.

This is a post about fannish New Year's Resolutions!

( 2020 review )

So yeah, take out the Tumblr business and I am setting the same modest goals for 2021:

make ten Dreamwidth posts, of which
- five are not fanworks posts, and
- five are not in January or December
make ten fanworks, of which
- one is a fic, and
- one is a podfic of more than an hour

I also have a new goal!

Answer AO3 comments on my fanworks!

I'm so embarrassed that I don't always do this! I don't get a ton of comments! I'm grateful for the ones I get and enjoy answering them! But I am going to let myself let go of the past and just resolve to do it for new comments starting Friday! I won't worry about weird comments or comments on collabs that other people have led but I will do it for nice comments on my own stuff and that will feel good!

comments

return of Voiceteam

Sun, 13 Dec 2020 00:56:26 GMT

I mentioned in a post from two weeks ago that I hadn't made podfic in a few months. However, I did have a podfic that I'd made in May go public last week, hooray!

Back at the end of the Voiceteam challenge in May my team started a game of Podfic Broken Telephone, which is where one person records a podfic and passes it on to one other person, who records a podfic inspired by the first one, then passes it on to a third person and so on. My teammate blackglass recorded a soft dad feelings Mandalorian podfic and then I recorded a soft dad feelings Tony Stark podfic and then there were some different family feelings then it veered around to courting and marriage, passing through six different fandoms! There were some delays along the way but we did wrap it up and then make everything public last week and then I forward-dated mine in hopes people would see it, though really it doesn't make much difference because who listens to podfic. But anyway here is the collection:
-WhispeRED Out Loud: A Podfic Broken Telephone Challenge
-and my contribution Improvement, written by laireshi, Tony & Morgan, 9 minutes

That was a nice bit of Voiceteam nostalgia, though I hadn't really seen that it was happening because I hadn't been on Discord.

Then a couple hours ago the Voieceteam mods announced that they would run a shorter challenge around the end of the year, and you could sign up as a group or sign up individually and have the mods assign you. Since then thirteen people have signed up: one mod, five people signing up as individuals, and SEVEN MEMBERS OF TEAM RED OUT LOUD. I love us, yay!

Anyway, you should consider signing up, as voiceteam is very newbie friendly and a nice way of meeting new people and trying new things.

Meanwhile I have asked for and been granted permission to record a few things in the last two weeks. Tonight I started recording one of them and to be honest it's been rough going. Just hard to get sentences out! And some noises in my house and my neighborhood. But still fun to be giving it a try again, and I'm really looking forward to Voiceteam Mystery Box.

comments

Books!

Thu, 03 Dec 2020 03:12:56 GMT

It's a Wednesday and I've been less busy at work this past week! I have been reading books!

( Read more... )

I also checked out but haven't yet started reading Crooked Hallelujah by the Cherokee writer Kelli Jo Ford, which I found out about through the delightful NPR Book Concierge, which came out yesterday.

comments

Schitt's Creek and podfics

Sat, 28 Nov 2020 21:39:12 GMT

I was in two long Schitt's Creek podfics for pod_together, which posted, er, almost three months ago.

One I had helped to organize, asking thingswithwings if they would like to write something for me to record in the fest and then bringing in two other podfic friends, olive2read and growlery. It ended up being more than three and a half hours of Alexis/Stevie/Twyla, with each of us three readers doing a few chapters by a different POV character. I loved reading the Alexis ones and Ollie did a wonderful job editing and it is a fabulous project, which you can read or listen to as you prefer: Girl Boss Destiny.

I also pitched in a few lines as Twyla for an Alexis/Ted story/podfic written by DoubleL27 and podficced mainly by Amanita_Fierce, sunlightsymphony and ships_to_sail. This one came out to a little less than three hours and is called Something You Keep.

( Read more... )

IT WOULD BE GREAT IF MORE FANFIC AUTHORS WOULD POST PODFIC PERMISSION ON THEIR AO3 PROFILES. That would be really lovely.

comments

Wednesday reading meme-ish

Thu, 15 Oct 2020 00:06:36 GMT

What's this, I haven't read a lot of books this year but I did finish a good one this morning. Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid is a page-turning novel about a black woman in her twenties who's employed a a babysitter for a white mom in her thirties in Philadelphia. The chapters alternate between the two women's POVs and to me it felt like it was very well done and empathetic toward both of them despite big differences and lack of understanding between the characters. I found this to be engrossing and funny and touching. It had a light touch and a lot of focus on female friendships and feelings.

At times when reading I felt a great sense of dread, I was afraid terrible things would happen, so what the heck I am going to let you know if you click though the cut... ( spoilers? )

I enjoyed this book and hope Kiley Reid continues to write and publish.

Two other books I've enjoyed in recent years that look at similar themes of parenting and class and race are Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng (did not care for the Hulu adaptation alas) and That Kind of Mother by Rumaan Alam. Celeste Ng has another book available on Overdrive from my library so maybe I'll read that soon. Rumaan Alam has a new book that just came out last week, so I guess I'll go see if my library has that.

I did just check out The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel for the second time so I'll try reading that first. I couldn't get into it when I tried a few months ago but I did like it so who knows.

ETA I'm so out of practice making Dreamwidth posts it took me like five times to code the cut correctly, how embarrassing.

comments

TV and movies

Sat, 25 Jul 2020 20:10:28 GMT

So, in general, being a married person I usually end up watching shows my partner and I agree on, but we don't really agree on any shows at the moment, and also (as explained in locked entries) I've recently had occasion to spend a lot of time lying in bed/on the couch, so I've watched a little more TV on my own and that's been kind of fun.

( a bunch of TV shows )

( also movies )

comments

books

Thu, 16 Jul 2020 23:54:18 GMT

I made a post about reading and TV about two weeks ago so this is sort of an update to the books part, and maybe I'll write more about TV and movies another time.

( books by Jesmyn Ward, Colson Whitehead, Michelle Obama, Curtis Sittenfeld )

comments

June podfics

Wed, 01 Jul 2020 16:05:47 GMT

This past month I kept up some of my momentum from voiceteam and posted these seven podfics:

-The body heroic., MCU, Peter/Tony, 56 minutes, explicit.

-So Strong As Gentleness , Star Wars sequels, Finn/Rey, 7 minutes, mature.

-If The Bones Are Good (The Rest Don't Matter), MCU, Bucky/Shuri, 11, minutes, explicit.

-Five Times Bruce and Val Thought Maybe They Were Meant to Be , MCU, Bruce/Valkyrie, 5 minutes, teen. (Multivoice podfic featuring blackglass as Valkyrie.)

-Breaking Point, MCU, Peter/Tony, 2 hours 15 minutes, explicit.

-This I Know, Sugar , MCU, Sam/Steve, 26 minutes, teen. (Multivoice podfic featuring olive2read as Sam and Chantress as Natasha.)

-People Who Have Managed to Stay Alive, MCU, Sam/Steve, 2 hours 3 minutes, general audiences.

I posted the last two as part of SamSteve Vacation Week, a little no-commitment AU fest that's running this week leading up to Steve's birthday on the 4th of July. So if you're a fan of that ship, check out the collection and consider contributing to it!

I want to point out that the second Peter/Tony and the second Sam/Steve are each over two hours, putting them among the longest podfics I've ever made! I am really proud of both of them too, the Peter/Tony because I think my reading is pretty awesome, and the Sam/Steve because I put in a lot of extra effort with editing music and such. They are also both quite romantic! I've loved both fics since I read them last summer and am excited to have the podfics out in the world. \o/

With all that done, I'm thinking of taking a break from podfic for most of July and trying to write some fics, or maybe even read some books or something, idk. OTOH it might be fun to record something else for the Sam/Steve fest, or I might do some more F/M podfic because I like to keep something of a numerical balance between my F/F, F/M, M/M, and gen fanworks (even though my podfics skew overwhelmingly towards the dudes if we count by length). I will be working on a long femslash project for pod_together, but that's still being written and I probably won't start recording until toward the end of this month.

One more thing: yesterday Rhea314 posted Discredit & Sequel, a massively multivoice 30-minute Good Omens podfic for which I recorded a line or two at last October's podfication. Multivoice podfics are fun to listen to and you should give this a try!

comments

More Voiceteam podfics

Mon, 01 Jun 2020 23:33:58 GMT

While the world has continued to be awful, voiceteam has continued to be great. The competition wrapped up yesterday (my team won omg!) and will be back next year.

In the third week of May we made a lot of podfics for very small fandoms, and in the fourth week we made some multivoice stuff but mostly made plans! So I hope to have some bigger things in bigger fandoms to post soon. Also I will get to keep hanging out with other Voiceteam folks.

Podfics I Have Made since May 17th
-Just to Keep It, a six-minute podfic of a story I wrote for the book and movie The Hours back at Yuletide 2008. Editing this made me cry.

-Drabble Series, two drabbles for the series Noah's Arc, 2 minutes.

-The Dance of the Cranes, a six-minute podfic of an old Northern Exposure fic by our own trascendenza. Recorded outside!

-The Circle Game, an 11-minute podfic of another old Yuletide fic, for the 2008 movie Saved!

-Stumbling Towards Better, a 17-minute multivoice podfic for the Netflix series Russian Doll, narrated by me and featuring appearances by most of Team Red.

Don't Need No Credit Card To Ride This Train, a 7-minute multivoice Harry Potter podfic in which I don't do any speaking but which took me hours to edit so I'm claiming it as mine.

Multivoice Podfics in Which I Have Small Parts
-Special Providence, a five-minute podfic for the book Tam Lin.

-Wine and Cheese, a 20-minute Red vs. Blue podfic.

-The Little Red Yoshi, a 12-minute podfic for the video game Yoshi's Story, in which I play Birdo. (I love this one, gosh.)

-An Opening for a Sidekick, a nine-minute Disney princesses podfic.

-Whole New Worlds, another nine-minute Disney princesses podfic. Actually I have a bigger part in this one, I'm the narrator, but blackglass organized it and did the editing.

-Blanket Gift Policy, a delightful four-minute MCU Christmas podfic.

-A Study in the Soothing of Magical Hockey Babies, Conducted by Jacob Trouba, a ten-minute Hockey RPF podfic.

Another big podfic event coming up is the pod_together challenge, where writers and podficcers collaborate to make something new! Signups are open at the comm now through Saturday, June 6th.

comments

Commentary on my first two podfics

Mon, 25 May 2020 01:32:28 GMT

One of the challenges at voiceteam this week is to create a commentary on an old podfic and, as I mentioned in my last post, it's been about ten years since I started making podfic. So here is a commentary on my first two podfics!

Yes I'll Go with You, Merlin, Gwen/Morgana, written by sophinisba, one minute, general audiences, posted April 26, 2010

Now, the Matter, The Little Mermaid, Ariel/Ursula noncon, written by Rubynye five minutes, explicit, posted June 16, 2010

These are pretty different fics and podfic productions but it tickles me (and did back then) that they are both mermaid femslash! I also associate both of them with my good old friends from hobbit fandom even though neither fic is about hobbits. It makes me happy to see the continuity between these first two podfics and the things I'm still making these days.

( Yes I'll Go With You )

( Now, the Matter )

comments

Voiceteam fanworks

Sun, 17 May 2020 12:43:05 GMT

I've been having such a great time participating in voiceteam, which started on May 1st (well April 30th really). This is a little bit similar to summerpornathon, the Merlin writing challenge I used to do, in that players are sorted into a bunch of different teams that compete for points each week. I guess more people are familiar with these kinds of challenge as "land comms". Then I was going to have a sentence about the ways voiceteam is different from pthon but ... there are too many differences.

Anyway, this is a podfic-centered comm and every week has a theme but there are always lots of different ways of participating, so it's possible to get the maximum number of points for the week just by, say, commenting on others' podfics, or doing other kinds of creative work. There are also a lot of rewards for collaboration so it's been a great chance to interact with people. We are in Discord all the time. There are not a lot of rewards for making longer works and they take a lot more time, so most of us haven't been doing that. OTOH some people, including some members of my team, have been super ambitious and organized incredible projects even when they've already maxed out on points for the week.

Oh I should say another reason I'm enjoying it is that my team, the Red team, has been winning. I don't think my team ever won at summerpornathon! Team Gluttony used to win but then once I got on it we didn't. :D

As happens every time I make podfic, I marvel at how much easier and less stressful that is when authors have posted blanket permission to podfic on their AO3 profiles. There are a lot of tight deadlines in this challenge and we're often looking for very specific things. We find lots of things that would make great podfics but we don't know if we'll have time to hear back from the author and get the thing done. Thank you so much, friends and strangers who have posted BP!!!

Some of the stuff I've made is only posted at the Voiceteam Discord server (idk if that's what you call it lol) but here are the things that have been posted to the AO3 so far! I'm ... just going to refer to everyone as my teammates because this is already a lot of coding and I can't handle cross-platform usernames this morning. But you can see their names at the AO3!

Podfics I Have Made in the Last Two-and-a-Half Weeks
- Hearth and Home, a 9-minute Leverage podfic of a story written by my old Team Gluttony teammate lady_ragnell. Three of us from Team Red podficced the same story in week one! That's called repodding or in this case simulpodding and not something I'm usually into but it was for points this time so yay!

- Friendship Bracelet, a 5-minute Babysitters Club podfic. Two of us recorded this!

- a single heartbeat between your two, an 18-minute Rogue One, Jyn/Cassian podfic for our team's week-one anthology around the theme of secrets.

- so shake apart, a 13 minute explicit MCU (Steve/Bucky/Natasha) multivoice podfic also featuring two of my teammates.

- A Very Large Location of Something, an 8-minute gen podfic centered on Maria from The Sound of Music (in week 2 you could get more points for podfic about musicals).

- Valencia Shouldn't Get in a Car with Rebecca!, a 14-minute Crazy Ex-Girlfriend Valencia/Heather podfic.

- Pretty in Mink, a five-minute explicit Princess and the Frog podfic of a story by our own Rubynye.

- gettin' bi (reprise), a five-minute Crazy Ex-Girlfriend Heather/Rebecca multivoice podfic in which I play Heather. My teammates have more lines than I do in this but I'm calling it mine because I organized and edited it. Editing multivoice podfics is harder than you might think, considering how often people do it! They are super fun to listen to though.

- If It's Sewing, She Sews, a 22-minute gen podfic centered on Maria from West Side Story. (This might be my fave of the solo podfics I've made so far this month.)

- Life Doesn't Discriminate, a 21-minute Star Wars gen podfic about Leia after the end of The Last Jedi.

- Reaping the Whirlwind, a seven-minute Joel/Marilyn Northern Exposure podfic and my first experience recording and editing on my phone.

- under your boot-soles, a seven-minute gen podfic about young Adelaide from the movie Us.

Multivoice Podfics in Which I Have Small Parts
- 5 Times Parker Slept in Matt's Bed, +1 Time Matt Slept in Hers, a 23-minute Leverage/Daredevil crossover multivoice podfic. I play Foggy!

- let us sport us while we may, a 15-minute multivoice podfic of the first chapter of a Brooklyn Nine-Nine high school AU. I play Charles!

Also We Made Filks OMG
- My teammates wrote and performed a filk about podficcing based on a song from the musical Bonnie and Clyde, and I did the editing! How 'Bout a Pod?

- My teammate took an old Tumblr post that talks about reading fic with lyrics inspired by "Let It Be" and made it into an awesome filk with lots of people singing: AO3.

- The same teammate organized and edited a Harry Potter filk based on the song "Cell Block Tango" from Chicago, with nine different voices: Spell Block Tango.

- AND she organized and edited a Mandalorian filk based on the song "Belle" from Beauty and the Beast with an incredible 23 different voices, many of them from different voiceteam teams: The Mando and the Kid.

- I sang a filk about shipping written by one of my teammates, based on the song "Kiss the Girl" from The Little Mermaid: Kiss the Girl.

FRIENDS, the Us podfic I posted last night is my 500th work on the AO3!!!!! Also last month was my 10-year anniversary of starting to post podfic, and my 15-year anniversary of starting to write fic and interact with people on LJ. I've known some of you for 15 years and I'm so grateful for you!!

comments

Voiceteam and TV

Wed, 29 Apr 2020 23:35:35 GMT

Hello Dreamwidth friends! I intend to make another personal post soon (complain complain, I shall), but here's a quick and more fannish one:

1. I have signed up for a new team challenge called voiceteam! What is it? I am not super sure! But it involves creativity and social interaction and those sound like good things to me at this time (providing they don't run over Zoom because fuck that lol). Here is the first paragraph of the intro post:

Voiceteam is a Discord-based team scavenger hunt for the podfic community. Teams will earn points for making different voice-based or voice-adjacent creations. Each week in the month of May, teams will get a list of ten point-earning challenges and then will be set loose to strategize, create, and have fun!

Signups close tomorrow, April 30th. Please join me if that appeals to you at all! You do not have to be a person who makes podfic.

2. Here are three TV shows I am currently digging:
-Kim's Convenience, a nice Canadian sitcom about a family with two adult children. This has become our go-to low-stress show to put on during dinner. It is about good people who love each other but sometimes disagree about things or have misunderstandings. Some of these issues get resolved by the end of the episode and some do not.
-Mrs. America, a new drama on Hulu about women activists fighting for and against the Equal Rights Amendment in the 1970s. This is mostly what I want from TV, is smart women having different opinions. Also Cate Blanchett being scary and possibly secretly gay. I adore it (and my partner B likes it pretty well too).
-Big Little Lies, a drama that was on HBO a little while back. I don't have HBO and I had checked out the season 1 DVDs from the library, but right now both seasons are on Hulu and I'm enjoying catching up with season 2. Idek, it's about really beautiful rich women who have problems. The story's kind of dumb but all the actors are amazing. (Meryl Streep is in season 2 and she's amazing! Reese Witherspoon, oh my god!) B. has no interest in this so I watch it by myself.

Part of how I realized BLL was on Hulu was I was trying to watch Little Fires Everywhere, which is a new miniseries also with Reese Witherspoon and with Kerry Washington. I normally love both of them and I loved the Celeste Ng novel this was based on but eh, I watched like four episodes and decided I hated everyone (whereas I liked everyone in the book) so I stopped. But Hulu knew what I wanted and it was this! And also Mrs. America!

comments

a fic and four podfics

Sat, 11 Apr 2020 01:22:16 GMT

I posted back in January about a fic and four podfics I had made for year-end fests. Here is a post about another fic and four more podfics! All of them are Marvel Cinematic Universe fandom.

In fact I had already written this second fic when I made that other post, but it didn't go up until late February. It is called For Now (A Remix Before the War) and it was part of the Captain America/Iron Man Relay Remix, which seemed like an interesting but probably unwise idea even when I signed up for it and ended up being, well, difficult, as I was assigned to remix a fic based on comic books I'm not familiar with, and for some other reasons. Also for some reason the mods chose to use staggered posting with all the different remix chains going up in random order and not linked to each other and I haven't read most of the other ones and feel bad for being a bad community member. Anyway, it's a little Steve/Tony hurt/comfort (with hurt Steve and sad Tony), my first time writing Tony POV, and there are things about it that I like but I probably will not sign up for a similar challenge again.

Then in early March purimgifts happened and I was pleased to be assigned to flipflop_diva, who'd requested fic or podfic about ladies, but then frustrated at how hard it was to find fics to podfic that are actually about ladies. Like, if you click on the Natasha Romanov tag at the AO3 most of the works you get are actually m/m (mainly Steve/Bucky and Steve/Tony). But anyway I eventually founds some fun ones and enjoyed making these three podfics:
-Like A Creepy, Hairless Cat, written by VYCanisMajoris, Natasha/Tony, 7 minutes
-hope you don't mind, written by isawet, Natasha/Steve, 5 minutes
-An Uncommon Doctor , written by perpetfic, Natasha/Maria Hill, 4 minutes

More recently our friend lattice_frames had to cancel her birthday plans because of quarantine, so bessyboo organized an impromptu fanworks fest for her, and I made the tiniest piece of it: magic, a two-minute podfic of a Carol Danvers/Maria Rambeau double drabble that saiditallbefore had written for me last year.

I don't have anything in progress now but at some point I will make things again. :)

comments