tielan: ant in a line diverges because: bookstore (books - shiny)
Wednesday, January 8th, 2020 07:20 am
Challenge #4

In your own space, set some goals for the coming year. They can be fannish or not, public or private. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

Land safely, don't melt )

No, I won't achieve them all, but having them here in front of me makes it easier to see what I wanted at the start of the year, and where I finished up at the end of it.
tielan: brown chicken looking at camera, white chicken in profile (garden 01 - pumpkin vine)
Sunday, January 5th, 2020 08:49 am
Challenge #3

Pimp Your Favorite Communities, Fests or Challenges!


This one doesn't take long; I'm not as active as I used to be...

Always Yuletide, both the yearly exchange and the discord group. Great people in the off-season, plenty of assistance during the panicky exchange-season.

I've been lately (in the last six months) posting in [community profile] gardening with pics of my garden, and am looking to revive the [community profile] permaculture comm in 2020 because I've been elected president of my permaculture gardening group.

[community profile] localweather is a reminder that not all the world is on fire like we are here down in Australia, and it showcases a different part of the world to the northern hemispherites.

I don't really follow any fannish communities anymore. I'd be more into personal interests, etc.
tielan: (AVG - agents)
Sunday, January 5th, 2020 08:19 am
Challenge #2

In your own space, talk about your fannish history.


a brief history of my fannishness )

A small thing that I still find amusing is that I never thought of myself as fannish until the 2000s. And even then I'm an odd duck among my family. My mum is the kind who watches a non-procedural TV show and asks "who's that?" and "what's happening?" and "why did they do that thing?" and then spends the five minutes after the episode finishes saying "I don't understand" even after someone explains it to her. My sisters avoid anything that could suck them in, because they have lives to live (although B2 has lately started watching the DC movies and all associated things). My stepdad and stepbrothers aren't interested in fannish/geeky/nerdy things beyond a generalised public interest.

Then, a few years ago, I went to visit my father in Vietnam. Apart from visits, we haven't lived in the same household for thirty years. And I came down one morning to find him binge-watching the latest episode of Supergirl and getting really worked up about Alex's boyfriend/colleague finding out about Kara.

As it turns out, I inherited my fannishness. :)
tielan: (Default)
Saturday, January 4th, 2020 11:22 am
Going to make this short, because I don't really have time but I think it's important to develop communities in these really awful times.

Challenge #1

In your own space, introduce yourself! Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.


Hi, I'm Tielan!

probably way more than people wanted to know about me )

I'm het, female, non-white, feminist, Christian, activist, Slytherin, INTJ, Choleric, and either an Enneagram 3 or 6 depending on whether the wind is in the nor-norwest.

*shrugs*
tielan: SG1 team at the Stargate in Window of Opportunity (SG1 - team)
Friday, January 13th, 2017 11:32 pm
Day 13 - In your own space, write about a moment in fandom that meant a lot to you. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it.

It's October 2001. I've just spent 3 months bingewatching Stargate SG1 on VCR. (Yes, videotapes!) I've run out of episodes to watch - the video store only has up to just before the end of Season 3 - and I'm desperate for more about the adventures of Sam, Jack, Teal'c, and Daniel. (And Hammond. Of Texas.)

change of direction )
tielan: (Elementary - Holmes&Watson)
Thursday, January 12th, 2017 12:13 am
(Yes, I did Day 11 before I did Day 10. This is a longish one.)

[community profile] snowflake_challenge Day 10: In your own space, share your love for a trope, cliché, kink, motif, or theme. (More than one is okay, too.) Tell us about it, tell us why you love it, give us some examples and recs.

troperrific )

I could probably go on: soul-mates (inverted or subverted), negotiation, kickass chicks... So many tropes that I enjoy reading and writing!
tielan: (MCU - Maria/Steve)
Wednesday, January 11th, 2017 11:03 pm
Day 11: In your own space, talk about a creator. Show us why you think they are amazing. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

making friends in fandom through pairings )
tielan: (SGA - Teyla 2)
Monday, January 9th, 2017 04:56 pm
Day 8: In your own space, make a list of at least 3 things that you like about yourself. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

This is a difficult one to answer. I don't know. Everything?

I like my writing - even my mediocre fics are pretty good (once I've gotten a bit of distance from them).

I like the way I see the world - a blend of conflicting ideas: that Christianity is best when it's not the official religion, that women and what they do are worthy of being celebrated even when men and other women don't see that or can't celebrate that, that a good society both gives the individual the ability to achieve and excel and be marked out for it, but also requires community and social capital to keep everything running smoothly.

I like myself.

It's not the done thing to like yourself. We're supposed to pick at our faults, expose our weaknesses, be self-deprecating.

The truth is...most of the time, I think I'm pretty hot stuff. Okay, maybe not hot stuff but I'm someone that people like being around. I'm someone that people like talking to. That people like listening to. I hope I'm a good listener (truthfully, that's probably something I'm bad at - I struggle to remember distinct things about people, particularly on social media when I haven't met them or interacted much with them).

I like myself. And I like that I like myself. It's a good position from which to start: the assumption that you are the good stuff and that people want to know you and will be enriched by knowing you.

Does it need to be leavened with humility? Well, yes. Yes, it does. :)

And yes, a lot of this is because I've had good fortune to be among people who gave value to others - as the challenge post for Day 8 says, "children have such great self-confidence, because they have people in their lives that tell them that they are great, that they have value." And I have had people in my life tell me that I am great, and that I have value - from the God who became incarnate in Jesus Christ, to the parents who - while being entirely human and flawed themselves - have never let me doubt that I am loved, to friends who want to spend time with me, to a cat who is sitting on my mousepad looking adoringly up at me right as I type this.

The truth is that I have been taught that I have value and I have never unlearned it; God willing, I never will.

You have worth, too; you are valuable.
tielan: (Default)
Monday, January 9th, 2017 10:32 am
Day 06

In your own space, create a list of at least three fannish things you'd love to receive, something you've wanted but were afraid to ask for - a fannish wish-list of sorts. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your wish-list if you feel comfortable doing so. Maybe someone will grant a wish. Check out other people's posts. Maybe you will grant a wish. If any wishes are granted, we'd love it if you link them to this post.


1. Star Wars original trilogy fic.

"There is another...Sky...walker..."

An AU where Luke falls to the Dark Side in Palpatine's throne room, and Leia just manages to escape Endor with her life. She then has to train up in her Jedi skills while evading Luke (who's now hunting her), and bring him back to the light side, all the while trying to keep the last fragments of the Rebellion alive.

I want this LIKE BURNING. I have wanted it for many many years, but now I'm thinking, DAMN IF THIS ISN'T A TIME TO ASK FOR IT, THEN WHEN WILL BE?

Also, I'd take a Rogue One 'everyone survives' background AU for this - they're part of the lingering Rebellion (for some reason they weren't at Endor, perhaps scooting around trying to hold other little bastions) and they know Luke and Leia and Han and Chewie, and the hope they had is gone...


2. Maria Hill-centric fic with Maria/Steve

I always want this fic - always always always - but with Civil War in the rearview mirror, I want the story of Maria Hill, unenhanced non-Avenger human, making the Avengers and their associated peoples see reason because she is the one who knows them, who they trust, who they're friends with, who they love, and she is the representative of humanity - the ones that need the protection of the Avengers, yes, but also who need the protection against the Avengers...

She knows the game of politics and how it's played. She knows the intelligence world and how to survive in it. She knows the Avengers and is known to them - is friends with them in canon as no other character with her background and her understanding of what they do is.

This is important!

I want MCU Maria Hill in Civil War, walking the fine and difficult middle line with friends and found family all around her, arguing, fighting, falling apart. I want a story about her perspective, her world, her utterly unique view on the world and how she makes it work with all the resources she has - soft power as well as hard.


3. Steve/Maria/[female]/[male] Sedoretu fic

I don't care if the other pairing is Natasha/Bucky or Pepper/Tony (or Jane/Thor, or Natasha/Clint) but I'd like to see a take on a four-person marriage with a Steve/Maria pairing.

(I'm already doing it with sharp evening stars and bright morning flame, but I'd like to see someone else do it.)
tielan: (Default)
Wednesday, January 4th, 2017 08:48 am
Day 3

In your own space, set some goals for the coming year. They can be fannish or not, public or private. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.


1. Fannish
a. finish sedoretu
b. finish the 30 Days of OTP
c. finish a practical acquaintance with bees
d. finish Sokovia, Suburbia, and the Senate

2. Quilting
a. get 5 tops quilted
b. complete 4 WIPs
c. make the pattern for 'Swarm by Sel'.

3. Gardening and house
a. get water tanks and water barrels installed
b. switch to gardening with rainwater instead of mains water
c. work out a pattern for crop rotation

4. Writing
a. complete one original manuscript

5. Spiritual
a. read through the Psalms

6. Activist
a. regularly support 1 Australian refugee organisation
b. get involved with a local political group to counteract local government leanings
c. write more letters to the NSW senators
tielan: (24 - Renee2)
Monday, January 2nd, 2017 11:35 pm
Day 2

In your own space, share a book/song/movie/tv show/fanwork/etc that changed your life. Something that impacted on your consciousness in a way that left its mark on your soul. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.


Tempting as it might be to go with the MCU or Stargate, X-Men, Star Wars, or even He-Man and She-Ra, or novel series such as David Eddings or Patricia Keneally, I might have to go back to the first books I remember consciously reading as the sci-fi/fantasy genre - the Dragonriders of Pern by Anne McCaffrey.

a tale of a teenaged girl who wanted to see herself in the heroine )
tielan: (IM - pepper)
Sunday, January 1st, 2017 09:58 pm
[community profile] snowflake_challenge is running again in 2017, and I'm one of the people helping run it.

Basically, I'm doing the tumblr stuff. If you'd like to reblog it (the other mods/helpers should also be reblogging it), we would appreciate the promotion!

The introduction to the snowflake challenge is here at tumblr and here at DW.

Day 1 however, is self-reccing:

In your own space, post a rec for at least three fanworks that you have created. It can be your favorite fanworks that you've created, or fanworks you feel no one ever saw, or fanworks you say would define you as a creator.

I'm going with three in 2016, which was a fairly prolific year - some 89 fics, although not all of them are complete. I'll try for three different fandoms.


1. MCU: Carter's Eleven

So, take one heist movie line, rewrite it to fit a seminal action movie in the MCU, and change all the major hero characters to women, led by Peggy Carter with Maria Hill as the enabler of it all.

I had so much fun conceiving this story and writing it. The original title was "Alexander Pierce's No Good Very Bad Extremely Shitty Day" but I felt that assigned rather too much notice to him. "Carter's Eleven" embodied the situation rather more accurately and matched the tone of the story, which is both lighthearted and serious both.


2. Persuasion - Jane Austen: any port in a storm but only one place to call home

This was written for a fic exchange, and while we get a lot of Anne's thoughts on Frederick in the book, we only get the summation of Frederick's thoughts on Anne at the point of his declaration. But even in the text, everything we see of Frederick in Bath is that of a man drowning in tides he can't control - first Louisa Musgrove, then Mr. Elliot, then the fear that she can't possibly want him... I wanted to tease that out, bring it a little more to the fore.


3. Star Wars - The Force Awakens: Interconnected Loops Of The Universe

I feel that this story didn't quite achieve the...completeness? that I wanted to depict, although I suppose it's really just a sliver of the huge universe that is seen in Star Wars. Maz Kanata is not a character I'd have thought to find myself writing - she's very much a cipher - and so I had to do a bit of reading up on her history to get a feel for who she is and what she might want.

But the thing that really kicked this story off was a wiki entry that listed one of Maz's hobbies as knitting. And being the crafty person that I am, that was something I just couldn't let pass by!