So this article, In Defense of Fan-fiction (courtesy of the metafandom del.icio.us feed), which is kind of hilarious coming in on the heels of the whole OTW thing and the discussions about fan works and how fandom is becoming more public.

So I think I need to check my biases here, because my first reaction is to say, "who the fuck are you to represent fandom? You post on ff.net" Which of course is silly to say, because ff.net is part of fandom, and it has its own fannish communities, and to say that her fannish experience is invalid is totally a douchey thing to do. So I won't do that.

What I will say is this:

1. There are a lot of reasons to write fanfic.


2. No reason for writing fanfic is more valid than the others.


3. This paragraph:
   

   
   Some people think that fan-fiction is purely voyeristic (spelling?!) – in that people like to imagine their favourite fictional couples together, and that’s the end of that one… and on some levels, yes; I agree. A lot of if is voyeristic. But, to counter that, a lot of it isn’t. True, “romance” is probably the most popular genre on fanfiction.net, for example, but I have to say that probably has a lot to do with the people writing and reading it. Sadly, I fall firmly into this category – teenage girls who can’t really help themselves but let their daydreams carry them away.
   

   
   
   makes me flinch, because I believe that we should not be ashamed of writing fanfic. Yeah, I write romance. Yeah, I even write porn. Yeah, I did this as a teenage girl. And yeah, I sometimes daydream about characters. None of this should mean that my writing -- our writing -- is automatically worth less than that of some fanboy who daydreams about being Paul Atreides and about things blowing up and writes a script about his daydreams and then gets it turned into a movie. I am looking at you, James Cameron.
   


4. Fuck the need for outside validation. If other people want to pretend that we are all stupid and giggly and can't write for shit, then it is not my job to educate them or convince them they are wrong. (And, of course, they are.)


5. I haaaaaate the "Why don't you write original stuff?" question, because my answer is, "I don't want to." I love taking things that already exist and turning them inside out and playing with them to see what they do. I love mashups. I love remixes. I love fan films. And I love fan fiction as a means of reclaiming stories and turning them into stories that are written for us. I have better things to do with my time than to write stories I don't really care about, kthnx.


6. Kirk/Spock is hot, and I think Kirk totally loves to bottom.


7. I think I could give a list of fics that I think define fandom to me, what it is, what it can do, how it operates, how it can be transcendent. But I don't trust my motives in doing so, so I won't.


8. I love fandom, you guys. I love what we do. <3
   
   No shame.

This entry was originally posted at http://thedeadparrot.dreamwidth.org/456891.html. You can comment there using OpenID.

This year, I wrote a lot less in terms of number of fics, but I wrote a lot more in number of words than usual. My average fic length shot up by a lot, and I did, in fact, manage to reach my target of 50,000 words per year.

Overall, I have spent a lot of time feeling like I'm between fandoms, like I need something to really catch my attention and sink my teeth into it. We'll see what the new year brings. :)

Anyway, organized by fandom and with a bit of commentary:

I'll start with my yuletide stories, because they were just revealed.

Wire in the Blood/The Mentalist

wreathed with seaweed red and brown - This was my main assignment, and it kind of shows. So basically, before I received my assignment, I had no idea what The Mentalist was about let alone seen an episode of it. I got confused as to who "Jane" was in the assignment.

So obviously, when I got my assignment (which asked for a crossover), I freaked out a bit and flailed until I sat down and put the entire first season of The Mentalist in my Netflix queue. Because never let it be said that I would back down from a crossover. :p

Anyway, I ended up working on this thing non-stop from when I got the assignment. It turned into a case file monster, with me trying to make Red John into a coherent character and make Tony sound like Tony instead of some random American chick channeling Tony. There were suspects! And witnesses! And lots of dead bodies!

I ended up working on this story right up until the last day, and I'm really proud of it as an accomplishment of sheer will, and I got some very lovely comments on the story as well.

Much love to roga and M for the handholding in the early days, when I was still figuring out the plot, and with special love for M for betaing and being the crime drama whiz that she is. zulu helped out quite a bit on beta and cheerleading duty, for which I will always be grateful.


Star Trek RPF (which, yeah, duplicated below. SUE ME.)

Best Man - A Yuletide Madness ficlet about George Takei and Walter Koenig. Short and fluffy. It received exactly one comment this year, which just goes to show that yuletide popularity is such a crapshoot. :p


Harold and Kumar movies

It's The Thought That Counts - Written entirely on the 24th without a lot of time left, and with me going OMG WHY ISN'T THIS ENDING? and OMG IS THIS TOO MEAN FOR HAROLD? IT IS NOT TOO MEAN FOR HAROLD, RIGHT? Uh, my only justification for this was that at the time, some of the Harold and Kumar stories were not wrangled in time for me to see that that there were actually some other ones written for yuletide. (And they are all awesome, go read them.)


( and the rest of the year as well! )

Now for the superlatives!

( my favs, the most fun, etc. )

So what about next year, huh?

I'll try to be more active in fandom, more feedback, more discussion. I learned a lot this year, especially in terms of race and identity, and I want to keep learning, keep growing. I'm glad for the new ways I've learned to express myself this year, for things like Remyth and the Asian Women Blog Carnival. I'm looking forward to seeing how else I can express myself in the future.

This entry was originally posted at http://thedeadparrot.dreamwidth.org/456414.html. You can comment there using OpenID.

So, the Yuletide Madness stories are now up, and I have two shiny new stories!

Latika and the Flat World - A Slumdog Millionaire story that gives us a look at Latika post-movie as a person, someone with her own wants and desires, and it is heartbreaking in what she remembers and in what she tries to pass on. I needed a story like this, and I'm so glad I received one.

Let's Go - Harold and Kumar being snarky and horrible to one another! In ways that don't entirely hide how much they like each other! The voices are great, and it made me sigh happily.


And now that all the stories are up, you can attempt to guess which stories I wrote! Which, of course, is very hard if you don't know where they are. Mwahahahahaha. Well, if anyone wants to take a shot, I wrote two full-length stories and one shorter piece.

Yaaaaay, more stories to enjoy!

This entry was originally posted at http://thedeadparrot.dreamwidth.org/456094.html. You can comment there using OpenID.

For Yuletide, I received Grift Sense, which is Hustle fic, and it is excellent Hustle fic, all about the early days between Albert and Mickey, and it is exactly what I wanted and omg, I want to hug it and feed it cookies. The voices are excellent, and the slick, cool attitude is just perfect.

I also have Yuletide Madness treats which I am impatiently expecting. Hmpf. But in the meantime, there is plenty of fic to swim through! Yay!

(Also, um, Merry Christmas to everyone who celebrates it!)

This entry was originally posted at http://thedeadparrot.dreamwidth.org/455866.html. You can comment there using OpenID.

Dear House fandom,

Do I have to fire you all from the internet?

Jesus fucking Christ,
me

P.S. Obviously, not those of you calling her out on this bullshit.

P.P.S. Obviously, I am late to the party.

This entry was originally posted at http://thedeadparrot.dreamwidth.org/455582.html. You can comment there using OpenID.

HOME SWEET HOME.

This entry was originally posted at http://thedeadparrot.dreamwidth.org/455242.html. You can comment there using OpenID.

I think I should just fucking shoot myself at this point.

Thanks a lot for giving me someone else's ticket, ticketing guy.

This entry was originally posted at http://thedeadparrot.dreamwidth.org/455130.html. You can comment there using OpenID.

Okay, so I have been on an epic journey. Seriously, this is like one of those tests where you get let loose in the jungle, and you only have a paper clip, a hat, and a map scribbled on a napkin to get yourself back out.

So my story begins like this. I fly out to Seattle for an interview on Thursday. This goes smoothly enough. I show up, talk for half a day, get rejected, hang out with some friends. I am supposed to fly home on Saturday.

Then, the East Coast gets attacked by the Blizzard Monster. When I show up at the airport the next day, I find out my flight is canceled. Fun! The airline says I can't get a flight until Tuesday due to the number of canceled flights and people traveling for the holidays. I can't get in touch with my recruiter to see if they'll cover things or take care of housing-type things. Thankfully, my mom is like, a super-elite airplane traveler and therefore works her black magic to fly out on Sunday, when things are supposed to be nicer. Yay!

It's an extra day in Seattle, so this means I can hang out with friends some more and eat Dim Sum and make fun of The Avengers movie. Which is excellent. Yay.

The next day, I get up, go to the airport, and my flight is delayed by 20 minutes. This is worrying, because my layover is only about 35 minutes long. The people assure me that this is okay. There's a tailwind and the gates are very close together and they'll probably hold the plane for connections.

In theory, that's what was supposed to happen. What actually happened was that they delay ended up being an hour long, and of course, I managed to miss my connection. The next flight out? Not until tomorrow. So I am FUCKING STRANDED AGAIN FOR THE SECOND TIME, AND I HAVE BEEN WEARING THE SAME CLOTHES FOR THE LAST TWO DAYS ALREADY, AND I THINK I'VE BROKEN OUT IN TEARS MORE TIMES THAN I CAN COUNT DUE TO FRUSTRATION AND STRESS, AND GODDAMNIT, I WANT TO BE HOME.

Plus, I lost my hair tie, so now my hair just keeps annoying me. Fuck.

This entry was originally posted at http://thedeadparrot.dreamwidth.org/454814.html. You can comment there using OpenID.

I am currently still not-home due to weather issues, but now I have interwebs!

Also, in a fit of paranoia, I uploaded my Yuletide story right now even though it's not fully betaed yet, just in case I end up stranded without internet again. Well, at least editing is now fixed? :D

This entry was originally posted at http://thedeadparrot.dreamwidth.org/454501.html. You can comment there using OpenID.

You just had to shit snow all over the East coast today didn't you?

*refreshes United website again*

This entry was originally posted at http://thedeadparrot.dreamwidth.org/454202.html. You can comment there using OpenID.

Hi everyone! I am in the process of NOT DYING of finals.

If I say it enough times, I think it might actually become true.

This entry was originally posted at http://thedeadparrot.dreamwidth.org/454063.html. You can comment there using OpenID.

YULETIDE FIC IS TYPED UP, AND I DON'T ENTIRELY HATE IT ANYMORE.

Editing/betaing needs to occur before I am comfortable posting it, but I have sworn off working on it until after I am done with my finals. Still, I have something to post you guys! *Snoopy dances some more*

I HAVE A FIRST DRAFT OF YULETIDE FIC.

*Snoopy dances*

Uh, now just to type it up and make it not suck while desperately trying not to fail my finals and also obtain this strange new concept called "a job."

I am mildly fucked, in that my first draft is not really near done, but I think I'm at least 65% of the way through. At this point, everything I'm writing is almost entirely plot, because pesky things like characterization and like, description, would just slow me down.

Anyway, how about you guys? How much have you done? Are you all finished? Have you yet to start? Are you chugging along just fine? Are you stuck? Tell me! Commiserate!


(Also, as a coder for AO3, I've been seeing some of the behind-the-scenes stuff for collections, and it is SO EXCITING OMG.)

Gandalf, Dumbledore, and Spock Prime on a roadtrip.

DISCUSS.



(P.S. Obi-Wan can come too.)

Yuletide fic progress: Am working on typing up the first half as I figure out what happens in the second half. Hopefully, I will not be contradicted by the parts of canon I have not seen yet.

Also! Thanksgiving break has been good. I've needed the chance to get away for a bit, and this was a good way for it to happen. The parental units are being sort of obnoxious on the job front, but I'll survive, I think.

On a completely unrelated note, I am kind of digging NCIS:LA and the slashy, slashy goodness of it all. I don't know if it's possible to wish it out of thin air, but I want lots of undercover cases that go light on G's emo manpain and go heavy on how married G and Sam are. Can you do that for me fandom? Please?

So I managed to stumble on a story on trek_rpf_kink about George Takei that is making me want to kill things.

( Okay, I'll spare you from most of the stabbity pain )

Okay, that's now off my chest. 'Scuse me while I go find a bucket to vomit in.

So, as some of you may know, the AO3 is going into open beta! *confettis*

And! I have one invite to give away.

First person to link me to pictures of adorable baby animals gets an invite.

There's also an invite queue here, if you're interested and can't get an invite any other way.

Dear Yule Goat,

I hope you do not hate me forever and ever for my requests! My preferences are pretty flexible. If you write me something in these fandoms with these characters, I will be happy.

General likes/dislikes: I like: joy in small pleasures; things that can be left unsaid; baking; quiet, understated friendships; palatable absences; clever dialogue; crack; magical realism; identity issues; competence; cursing; affectionate insults; near-incomprehensible, domain-specific slang; sunlight in the mornings; rainy afternoons; bittersweet moments; hard-won happiness; good advice.

I dislike: really intense hurt/comfort; easily solved miscommunication problems; soul bonds; first-person POV; being unable to live on after your significant other has died; obsessions with virginity; character bashing.

Anyway, I am sure I will love you for whatever you write in these fandoms, and I hope you get great joy out of writing them as well!

( Specific requests! )

Anyway, I hope this helps! If you want to get a sense of the fic I write, you can look up what I've recently written on parrotfic.

Love,
me

First off: Fourth Asian Women Blog Carnival is up! Go read awesome things!

---

As you may know, I've been kind of broken up with House (the show) for a while, but after watching 6x1, we're kind of on our way to being friends again.

( Spoilers for a few more episodes of season 6 )