Snowflake Challenge #1

[pensnest]

I've introduced myself before, so I'm putting some of this under a cut to spare my regulars!

I'm a quiet sort of person, mostly, rather indolent, but irritated by things being done badly.

I'm older than I think, I'm a straight, white, cis woman, I'm a wife, I'm a mother (1F 1M). I'm very English indeed.

I'm a singer, formerly involved with amateur theatre, currently a member of two barbershop choruses.

I am a writer. I think I have to say that, for myself.

I'm artistic but untrained: I knit, I make cards and suncatchers, I do various visual crafts and get a lot of pleasure thereby. Used to make a lot of icons/userpics, and for a while ran an icon challenge called severalplums (also on LJ).

As a journaller, I'm erratic and usually trivial. If you want lots of thinky thoughts, this isn't a journal where you'll find them, or at least, not very often. There may be outrage, either over politicians or misuse of the English language; there will be delighted fawning over Lance Bass; there will be cat pictures. I have two beautiful little cats, Sable, and Princess Fluffykins.

I'm liberally inclined, which for me means that I think people are people, and it's wrong to herd people into definitions of Them. It also means I have been increasingly unhappy with politics local and global since June 2016. I've been donating to causes, and attending occasional marches and rallies, during the last two years.


My fannish history starts in the early 1990s, when I became addicted to Star Trek: The Next Generation, and a compulsive Dataphile. I discovered the IDIC newsletter, and soon after that, the existence of fanfic zines. I got onto the internet in about 1995 with the primary purpose of getting to read more about Star Trek, and I posted a few stories on the alt.startrek newsgroup. I created my own zine, focusing on Data, and also published a twice-yearly reviewzine for a while. It was called An Idiosyncratic Review, and contained ads as well as mini articles and zine reviews, and one of these ads, regularly, was for Redemption, a convention for Blake's 7 fans.

Well, I eventually fell out of ST:TNG fandom and wandered, lost, for a while—loved Buffy and Angel, couldn't write them, might well have written Firefly if it had gone on a bit longer; wrote a Harry Potter story (too racy for The Sugarquill, gracious me), but couldn't quite find a fandom to love. But I did go to at least one convention during that time, because I remember watching an awesome cosplay competition in which The Mudders' Statue of Jayne would have been a well-deserved winner… had it not been for the Wash-o-saurus which brought the house down. Alan Tudyk was *enchanted*.

It must, I think, have been at that convention that I picked up a flyer for a convention which rang a faint bell. Redemption in 2005 was going to be for Blake's 7, which I didn't really know, *and* Babylon 5, which I did know, and love. Slightly to my surprise, my Beast decided to come along to that. We had pretty much entirely separate conventions—he won the paper aeroplane competition and went to physics talks, I spent most of my time in the fanfic discussions. I also volunteered to do face painting at the Zocalo. Which is where I met nopseud, who explained to me that the fandom I needed to get into was something called popslash, inveigled me into giving her my email address, and sent me a carefully curated selection of story recs.

And that is how I got to the fandom of my heart. Popslash brought such a lot of fun and hilarity into my life. There were sparkly weekends with nopseud and other UK popslashers, which grew into the splendour that is Camp Sparkle, an annual get-together which still continues and will be in its 14th iteration next summer. There isn't much actual popslash left in Camp, although our boys in doll form do get into mischief throughout the week. There were trips to concerts, and even a trip to NYC when I wished to see Lance Bass on stage in 'Hairspray'—this didn't actually happen because of the stagehands' strike, but I did get to hug the lad, so. I've loved the creativity this fandom brought out in me, and the friendships, and the fabulous fiction I've been able to read.

Popslash doesn't seem to have been a 'thinky' fandom, though probably there was soul-searching about the evils of RPF before I arrived, but LJ was a great medium for fannish discussion, and I have learned so much from fandom about things that matter. I still miss MetaFandom.

Popslash has, of course, faded into not-quite-oblivion, which makes me sad. I read quite a lot of other stuff—generally restricting myself to things I have at least glanced at/through, but I don't consider myself part of a fandom unless I write in it (and sometimes not even then). I am still bereft at the demise of Shakesville, I read Pharyngula most days, and Tom & Lorenzo, and Captain Awkward….

So. Hi.

Comments

[karanguni]

Knitting high five! I'm doing my first bit of colourwork this year and ready for it to be a disaster.

[sperrywink]

I fell into Popslash through stories, of course, but it was right around the time they were all doing Broadway, so I managed to see Lance in Hairspray and Joey in Rent and Kevin in Chicago, but had to go alone to all of them because I was still a lurker and my RL friends just DID NOT UNDERSTAND.

*g*

I didn't know that was how you and nopseud met! Funny!

[pensnest]

Have courage! Dare I ask, intarsia or whatever the other option is called?

[pensnest]

I was Just Too Late arriving to see JC performing in London, which I regret greatly. Thought I would never get to see 5-boy-Backstreet, but that corrected itself after a few years!

[perspi]

Hello, it's so good to meet you! I will also give you a knitting high-five! :D

Also, I love your story of how you met nopseud -- isn't that how so many of us end up in unexpected fandoms?

[turlough]

Stranded!! (And I love them both :-)

[turlough]

Camp Sparkle continues to be the BEST!!

[wenchpixie]

I still miss MetaFandom Oh SO MUCH this. Yes.

[frausorge]

I didn't know you actually hugged Lance! Wow, that is an exciting brush with canon indeed.

[spikedluv]

*drive-by fist bump* Thanks for doing this. I'm learning so much about the people on my f-list through this challenge. (I should maybe pay more attention?)

[turps]

I love your journal and the content, cats and Lance are an excellent focus.

[semielliptical]

What a lovely introduction - hello from a fellow knitter!

I also first discovered fandom through ST:TNG. I was reading the published novels, with mixed satisfaction, and then stumbled on the Star Trek groups on usenet and learned there were FREE STORIES!! with all kind of different ideas and perspectives, what a treasure.

[pensnest]

It's very interesting, in retrospect, to see how the strands from my first fandom spread through to take me to the right place to meet nopseud. I painted her face twice, first with scales, which we both agreed Would Not Do, and the second time with a desert island scene which went much better.

Popslash brought me such joy. In combination, I suppose, with LiveJournal, which was *such* an excellent means of Doing Fandom.

Anyway - hi!

[pensnest]

It has proven amazingly long-lived, I must say!

[pensnest]

All that awesome discussion, which taught me so much and gave me access to so many points of view. I mean, there were some almighty rows, but overall I think good rows, rows that needed to be fought out. Not that I ever dared put a toe into the waters, but I did learn.

[pensnest]

https://pensnest.livejournal.com/2007/11/21/

and also

https://pensnest.livejournal.com/141210.html

and that Lance in the icon, that was the one I had just hugged.

My goodness, what a long time ago that was....

[pensnest]

It's really easy to forget which person has which history, isn't it? I tend to subscribe to new people at Snowflake time, and then forget which one is where and what it was about them that I thought would be interesting... so it can be rather useful to have these reminders.

[pensnest]

I'm basically a frivolous person, and it shows! But yes, cats are always good, and Lance has not yet let me down.

[pensnest]

A fellow-knitter and fellow-TNG-er, which is excellent! Yes, I remember very well the thrill of discovering fanzines (via the IDIC newsletter), knowing that other people had ideas about these characters like I did, and that if I wrote mine down I could share them! It was a whole new world.

I remember (vaguely) the days when I used to sneak into Smiths or Waterstones and sneak out with a Trek magazine or a book in a brown paper bag. I think I'd have been less embarrassed about buying a Playgirl. But I never really got into the profic. The Star Trek groups on newsnet were *great*!

[semielliptical]

I was embarrassed about buying the pro novels, too! I couldn't make myself ask to special order the books that weren't on the store's shelves, that felt even more shameful.

[pensnest]

Once I'd got well into fanfic, I went for the background books instead - ones that gave a synopsis of each episode, maybe, plus cast list, character names.... *so* useful. But still in brown paper bags, very probably.

It's hard to remember a time when Amazon was not a thing. *shakes cane* I remember when personal computers were not a thing, and I cannot for the life of me figure out how I managed to produce a newsletter when I was in college.

[spikedluv]

Yes! And I think it might be a good idea for me to check them out during the year sometimes as a reminder, lol!