![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
martasficI.
So a few weeks ago I read Good Omens for the first time. To be clear, this is entirely --and I do mean entirely--![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
vulgarweed's fault. It was my introduction to both Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman (*thumbs nose @ inner geek), and I keep meaning to respond properly to it. Mostly I want to read it again, and I think I need to do that before I can properly wrap my head around it.
The one thing I am sure about is that there needs to be more fannish involvement with that book. On the off-chance you agree, what serendipity! GO Holiday Exchange sign-ups are open. I'm not signing up myself beause I need another fandom like I need John Watson's magically migrating gunshot wound in my leg, but I'd love to read it. Go (or GO, as the case may be) and sign up. I'm sure V. would appreciate the show of support. Plus, you know, Gaiman/Pratchett fanworks. Do you really need more of an excuse?
II.
In other news, but every bit as much of a plug: one of my fave bloggers wrote a piece comparing fanfic to midrash. The gist is that we're not poachers or trespassers in another person's sandbox, we are instead valued interpreters that become part of the tradition. It's a really creative approach and one I want to reply to in more depth once I've had the time to think through it properly. GO does that on its own, re-purposing and working with Biblical elements and bringing in its own, but all fanfic really (or at least the best of fanfic, what I'm aiming for) seems to do that in one way or another. I suspect most literature does full-stop, since even original fic has to grow out of some soil or other.
Check it out: "Fan Fiction and Midrash: Making Meaning." You can also read her blog (which is about religion rather than fandom) here, if your'e so inclined.
III.
A few days ago I mentioned that HASA was closing down and I listed off a few of the people I most associated with that site. It was a quickly made list and I knew I'd leave a lot of people off. Basically if you know me from before I got involved in Sherlock, I almost certainly owe that site credit for making the introduction, and there's good odds we met in the trenches of volunteering with that particular site. Adding to the list is almost sure to make matters worse rather than better because there's so many, I'm sure to come up with an incomplete list. But some omissions are inexcusable:
celandineb, who was site manager for years before I took over briefly and, in one of the darkest periods of my life, took the reigns back up again when I had to step down.
dwimordene_2011, who took me under her wing when I was first getting involved as a volunteer and is in my humble opinion the best challenges manager I've come across in Tolkien fandom or out of it.
juno_magic, who not only worked tirelessly behind the scenes in many ways I'm sure I'm not even aware but also pretty much kickstarted the whole BMEM event that kept so many of us involved at HASA and the Henneth_Annun listserv over the years.
edrys, who was both a painstaking researcher and had a wicked sense of humor, and who devoted more hours than I want to even imagine to that site's resources section.
And, on a more personal note,tanaquilotr. We worked together more with the MEFAs than with HASA, I think, but it was HASA where we first met. Tanaqui is an incredibly talented author who really encouraged me creatively (she beta'd every story I wrote in that fandom for a long period, among other things) but she is also a wonderful friend, Frodo to my Sam in so many ways, and if HASA's only impact on me was introducing me to her, that alone would be worth a dirge or three.
... and here is where the list would get unworkably long very quickly if I let it. So if I haven't mentioned you, please don't take it as a slight. There are simply too many to mention by name. But the sad news about HASA has me thinking of all the work so many people contributed over the years. I know there were some people who didn't like the site, and I don't mean to whitewash its sites, but this news has me definitely appreciative of all the people who contributed to its upkeep.
IV.
And one last, utterly unrelated thing. Sherlockians, I commissioned Pocketsize People to create me a drawing of Molly and Sherlock doing science together, and I love it. Molly being the adventurous one, Sherlock just sitting there, the fact that of course the two of them would ignore the normal playground fun to poke a dead bird... I thought what she did with my idea was very cute. Tumblrites, feel free to like or reblog here where the artist will see it, but I'm also putting it behind the cut. (Perfectly SFW, but the image is a bit big, so...)
So a few weeks ago I read Good Omens for the first time. To be clear, this is entirely --and I do mean entirely--
vulgarweed's fault. It was my introduction to both Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman (*thumbs nose @ inner geek), and I keep meaning to respond properly to it. Mostly I want to read it again, and I think I need to do that before I can properly wrap my head around it.The one thing I am sure about is that there needs to be more fannish involvement with that book. On the off-chance you agree, what serendipity! GO Holiday Exchange sign-ups are open. I'm not signing up myself beause I need another fandom like I need John Watson's magically migrating gunshot wound in my leg, but I'd love to read it. Go (or GO, as the case may be) and sign up. I'm sure V. would appreciate the show of support. Plus, you know, Gaiman/Pratchett fanworks. Do you really need more of an excuse?
II.
In other news, but every bit as much of a plug: one of my fave bloggers wrote a piece comparing fanfic to midrash. The gist is that we're not poachers or trespassers in another person's sandbox, we are instead valued interpreters that become part of the tradition. It's a really creative approach and one I want to reply to in more depth once I've had the time to think through it properly. GO does that on its own, re-purposing and working with Biblical elements and bringing in its own, but all fanfic really (or at least the best of fanfic, what I'm aiming for) seems to do that in one way or another. I suspect most literature does full-stop, since even original fic has to grow out of some soil or other.
Check it out: "Fan Fiction and Midrash: Making Meaning." You can also read her blog (which is about religion rather than fandom) here, if your'e so inclined.
III.
A few days ago I mentioned that HASA was closing down and I listed off a few of the people I most associated with that site. It was a quickly made list and I knew I'd leave a lot of people off. Basically if you know me from before I got involved in Sherlock, I almost certainly owe that site credit for making the introduction, and there's good odds we met in the trenches of volunteering with that particular site. Adding to the list is almost sure to make matters worse rather than better because there's so many, I'm sure to come up with an incomplete list. But some omissions are inexcusable:
celandineb, who was site manager for years before I took over briefly and, in one of the darkest periods of my life, took the reigns back up again when I had to step down.dwimordene_2011, who took me under her wing when I was first getting involved as a volunteer and is in my humble opinion the best challenges manager I've come across in Tolkien fandom or out of it.juno_magic, who not only worked tirelessly behind the scenes in many ways I'm sure I'm not even aware but also pretty much kickstarted the whole BMEM event that kept so many of us involved at HASA and the Henneth_Annun listserv over the years. edrys, who was both a painstaking researcher and had a wicked sense of humor, and who devoted more hours than I want to even imagine to that site's resources section.And, on a more personal note,
tanaquilotr. We worked together more with the MEFAs than with HASA, I think, but it was HASA where we first met. Tanaqui is an incredibly talented author who really encouraged me creatively (she beta'd every story I wrote in that fandom for a long period, among other things) but she is also a wonderful friend, Frodo to my Sam in so many ways, and if HASA's only impact on me was introducing me to her, that alone would be worth a dirge or three.... and here is where the list would get unworkably long very quickly if I let it. So if I haven't mentioned you, please don't take it as a slight. There are simply too many to mention by name. But the sad news about HASA has me thinking of all the work so many people contributed over the years. I know there were some people who didn't like the site, and I don't mean to whitewash its sites, but this news has me definitely appreciative of all the people who contributed to its upkeep.
IV.
And one last, utterly unrelated thing. Sherlockians, I commissioned Pocketsize People to create me a drawing of Molly and Sherlock doing science together, and I love it. Molly being the adventurous one, Sherlock just sitting there, the fact that of course the two of them would ignore the normal playground fun to poke a dead bird... I thought what she did with my idea was very cute. Tumblrites, feel free to like or reblog here where the artist will see it, but I'm also putting it behind the cut. (Perfectly SFW, but the image is a bit big, so...)
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2014-09-17 12:44 pm (UTC)I am sure you discovered what awesome fanfic is out there but if you need some tips, ASK!!!
My introduction to GO is single-handedly owed to this crossover fanart. I mean, I saw the art, I fell in love, I bought the book and - I've got another fandom. :)
no subject
Date: 2014-09-17 12:58 pm (UTC)I finished the book maybe forty-eight hours ago and have read precisely zero GO fanfics. I really should poke around AO3 or something, but I need to digest the novel itself. Do you have any particular recommendations?
Damn, but that fanart is beautiful! And brilliant. It took my breath away, and I can see it landing you in this fandom.
no subject
Date: 2014-09-17 02:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-09-17 01:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-09-17 03:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-09-17 05:44 pm (UTC)Also, adorable fanart. I love little Molly poking at the dead bird!
no subject
Date: 2014-09-17 10:51 pm (UTC)I am so sad about HASA. It had a good long run, and there isn't really anything else in Tolkien fandom that's even close to taking its place.
no subject
Date: 2014-09-18 01:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-09-18 10:46 pm (UTC)