10 snowflakes in the air

[cornerofmadness]

First day back was LONG. I'm in the worse classroom ever, built like a Viking Long House. All it's missing is a fire in the middle. I don't know how anyone can see the board. I got mystery packages, a huge back of christmas candy, hand sanitizer and a teaching charm from the Fellowship of Faith (whoever they are, maybe the Baptist church at the end of the road), a mailed package of candy and adorable magnets from some group I don't know telling me I'm a great pre-health teacher and I deserved this (I need to look them up) and the mystery deepens, someone donated massage chairs, one per building lobby. They are expensive so I'm hoping they're donated and not something we bought... There is more and it is bad so I'll save that for another time. I also do a good things round up every year and I'm a little late. Let's be honest not much happened good in 2020 but I do have some things so find them In not particularly order 1. Sold Homestead at the Start of the New World to the Fix the World anthology 2. My paranormal novella Cassadaga Nights has a great cover 3. Lou Diamond Phillips wished me a happy birthday 4. Prodigal Son was renewed (though right now I'm less thrilled) 5. Got to 'meet' Lou Diamond Phillips a couple of times on various Zoom things 6. Got Lucifer Season 4 dvds (though I wasn't as thrilled as I thought I'd be) 7. Abney Park held several virtual concerts and I went. Thrilled because they're usually west coast and I love them. I wouldn't have gotten to do that otherwise 8. Cassadaga Nights was given a contract 9. I found my Himalayan poppy seeds to try and grow...they're old but I have hope (been looking for them for years) 10 Mom found some of my Buffy the Vampire Slayer autographs 11. One of my student athletes asked me to be their most influential teacher at an awards ceremony 12. I got my classes online without losing my mind `13. attended two Dropkick Murphy concerts which I never would have been able to do if not virutal 14. Went to many many Boroughs of the Dead 'walking tours' in NYC virtually 15. Did a lot of virtual tours and saw things I wouldn't have been able to in the real world and I am grateful. In your own space, write a love letter to Fandom in general, to a particular fandom, to a trope, a relationship, a character, creator, episode, or it could be your fandom friends. Share your love and squee as loud as you want to. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so. I considered skipping this one because I've sort of done this at least one or twice a year for several years now in various challenges. And then here comes another author with the same tired bad hot take where someone obviously doesn't get fandom or the idea of live and let live. Love all the award winning best sellars who called her out. Honestly after AO3 won that Hugo I was hoping this shit would be over. So yes I love fandom and the people within. I started writing before I joined fandom proper in the early 80s with Elfquest and then Pern and I am still in touch with some of those people. Hell they're here with me on DW/LJ I've had fellow fans pick me up out of the dust. I've had them offering me their homes when I was all but homeless after my injury. They've cheered me on. They've nurtured my professional career. They come and go with their fandoms sometimes because that's all we had in common, others stay around even as we move on to new fandoms because we found other things we enjoy. I'm glad to have them in my life. Heck my new fandom has brought me back in touch with people i knew only tangentially from other fandoms and people completely new to fandom. One fandom discord I'm 'fandom mom' because they're literally young enough to be my kids and in some cases grand kid (yikes) I've new Prodigal Son fans I've jumped on Zoom with which is all new territory for me and it's been fun.

Comments

[sjh2009]

Wow, despite 2020 not being the greatest year it sounds like you did have some pretty good highlights.

Your classroom being like a Viking Long House, lol, sounds like it could be difficult but what an interesting array of things you came back to though!

It sounds like you've been having fun in fandom for a long time. It's great that we have fandom friends to stick with us, even when we're no longer in the same fandom any more. I've found myself coming across people I recognised the name of from previous fandoms, it really is a wonderful world, as long as we all show kindness to one another. If we all loved the same things it wouldn't be so interesting.

Thank you for sharing and for taking part in the challenge.

[spikedluv]

I liked the smackdown tweets in that article.

Yay for reconnecting and being 'fandom mom'. *bg*

[cornerofmadness]

Me too. That is SUCH a bad elitist and wrong take on fanfic and I love that published authors are out there saying fuck you. Also in many ways also smacks of jealous, I'm so much more literate but there's Twilight and 50 shades making their authors millionaires (okay I'm jealous of that too)


Kids today. No honestly they keep getting told they need to out grow this and I'm like why throw out something you love?

[cornerofmadness]

I did have some good highlights. I was determined to find some good in that year and seriously all the Zoom stuff? Gold. Where else would I get to sit down and talk to LDP?

It's been a strange semester and we're only on day 2

Exactly, honestly a lot of my best friends in fandoms don't like my ships and vice versa but we talk about everything else and don't act like jerks about it (granted you run into kerfluffles in every fandom but I usually come thru them fine). I've been at this for nearly 40 years. I've seen it all (watch someone come surprise me)

[silveradept]

Ugh, that take was trash and deserved to be dunked on as hard as it could be. Also, I'm really pleased that so many people, especially the trad published authors, came out to dunk on that idea and aren't ashamed of their own roots (and continued participation) in the fan community.

[cornerofmadness]

Yeah send that bad take back to 1993 where it belongs. I'm glad it's a lot less elitist these days