Anniversary Answers!
THREE YEARS ON LJ TODAY!!! This is post #507. Holy crap, I didn’t even realize that I had hit 500! Wait…apparently this post about my monthly word count was #500!
So here are the answers for my fandom questions. You guys asked some really good ones, thank you!
1) I know about the A-Team being your first fandom - but what were the second and third ones, and why?
2) Who is the best sidekick ever, and why?
3) If you were only allowed to write about one specific fandom for the rest of your life, what would it be?
4) How did you first get into Lord of the Rings' fandom?
5) Who was the person you were most excited about meeting?
I know about the A-Team being your first fandom - but what were the second and third ones, and why?
I was seven when I wrote that A-Team fic, but I definitely think all the time I spent thinking about it does indeed qualify it as my first fandom. After that, but still pre-internet for me, was Star Wars. Which I'd obviously been into since I was a kid - (still have my action figures!) - but the re-releases fueled that fire up again and it was something that my little brother was into as well, so we shared that passion together. Bought the various board games, went to the opening premieres, made daily references to it in some sort of bizarre secret code. I also started writing a little bit, though I can't remember what inspired me to say, "Hey, I should write stories about these characters," but I have at least one Star Wars fic as well as various songs and poems and oddities.
I would like to say I jumped right from that to Lord of the Rings and The West Wing, but the truth is, I think I have to give due credit to ER. Because without it I never would have discovered fandom on the internet, which means there would be no ‘Dodger’ now. Within days of getting the internet, I accidentally stumbled across something that seemed to be a romantic story about Dr. Ross and Nurse Carol and I was like, “Wait…what?” and read it and went, “Holy crap! These are stories about the characters on the show!” and read the rest of the fics on the page and then searched for more! In my great quest to find all the stories about Doug Ross, I came across a fic that said ‘Ross/Carter’ and I was like, “Huh, in those other romance stories about Carol and Doug it was written like that as well. Could this be…” My mind was blown. I read that fic so many times, you guys. I couldn’t get past it. Like to this day, still probably my most read fic ever. (Look, I found it!). That fic was posted on a place called Carter Does County and well, I fell into that hole and stayed there for at least a month. I spent about two months reading ER fanfic before one day my brain said, “I wonder if there are fics about Frodo/Samwise or Josh/Sam out there as well?” and the rest is history.
Who is the best sidekick ever, and why?
I’m going to go traditional and say Robin. First of all, I relate to each of the Robins for different reasons and all of them for one very specific reason. (Daddy-issues, we have them). Jason Todd was always my favorite because oh, the man-pain, but I was in high school in the 90s so Tim Drake was the Robin I knew the best. I collected all of his different miniseries. Mostly, Robin is the best sidekick because he doesn’t have any super powers, like Batman, and he is just a teenager, still growing and gangly and awkward, and yet he keeps up with The Mother-Fucking Batman. He hasn’t had years of practice - (well, okay, Dick had some training to fall back on) - and yet he keeps up with The Dark Knight himself. And puts up with all of Bruce’s bullshit, cuz lets face it, that man has issues. And Robin is a persistent, stubborn little shit - (hell, Tim Drake was basically stalking Batman) - that won’t be pushed to the sidelines and I admire that. Yeah, definitely Robin. Just don’t make me pick between them!
If you were only allowed to write about one specific fandom for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Why do you hate me?! Oh god! Uh, shit, okay, literally I was about to type ‘Supernatural’ and in my head this voice yelled, “You’ll never be able to write Danny/Martin again!” It was a scary voice. Eep. I think I am going to say Supernatural though, because there are a shitload of characters you can use and a million and one hundred Dean/Cas ideas and you can always go AU or fusion - (just not crossover, right?). It pains me to think about it though. Even in the beginning of my internet days, I was never just a one fandom girl.
How did you first get into Lord of the Rings' fandom?
I had read The Hobbit but never The Lord of the Rings. And the movies were coming out and my sister, a huge Tolkien fan, forbid me to see the movie until I had read the books. And then bribed me with a DVD player. Now I really wanted a DVD player, so I started the books. This was about two months into my discovery of fanfic, while I was still reading all that ER stuff, and I got to the end of the Fellowship and my brain literally went, “Huh, I wonder if there are any fics out there about Frodo and Samwise being in love? They kind of seem like they are.” And there were! Then I decided to look for Josh/Sam from The West Wing and then Ocean’s 11 came out and that seemed widely slashable as well. But I kept going back to hobbit-fic, in particular Merry/Pippin - (because by then the movie had come out and I had stupid crushes on them both). So while the first fic I wrote during this time period was for The West Wing, the first thing I ever actually posted anywhere on the internet was a 7 chapter Fellowship orgy fic. To this day, IDEK, you guys. I jumped off the high dive. So, yeah, I guess the answer to the question about how I first got into the Lord of the Rings fandom is…I fell in face first from really high up.
Who was the person you were most excited about meeting?
This was actually asked as a real life question but I have two very different answers based on Fandom vs. Real Life, so I have decided to answer this in both posts. For a fandom answer, I would really like to say ‘Misha Collins’, because my Misha stories are awesome, but the truth is it was Nicholas Brendon. I wasn’t even going to go to the convention until I heard he was coming and then it was a mad scramble to get the money together in time to go. (Thanks, Dad!) I had already met Sean Astin at a con once, so I had a little bit of experience under my belt as to not be so nervous, but I wasn’t yet completely comfortable like I was by the time Misha came along, I was at that stage of the excitement buzzing through me and still trying to make myself look Nicky in the eye when he spoke to me and you guys, come on, it’s mother-fucking Xander, okay! I didn’t even watch Buffy when it was originally on, but if I flipped past and he was on screen, I always stopped to watch. I loved him before I even knew who he was. And I had made a music mix for the road trip and one of the pictures it had on it was from The Zeppo, which he said during his Q&A was his favorite episode. So when I got his autograph, I gave him a copy of the CD as a gift. He was very polite but I didn’t really think much about him listening to it. The next day my sister and our friend, hiyacynth, got in the elevator and Nicky was in there with a buddy of his. He was holding my CD and telling his friend how he had listened to it and how cool it was and how awesome it was that some fan gave it to him and my friend shouted out, “Holy shit, ‘Dodger’ made that CD! That’s my friend!” He told her to tell me ‘thank you’ and that he loved the CD and then gave her a hug. So my Nicholas Brendon story is pretty fucking awesome!
That’s it, folks! Thanks for the awesome questions!
So here are the answers for my fandom questions. You guys asked some really good ones, thank you!
1) I know about the A-Team being your first fandom - but what were the second and third ones, and why?
2) Who is the best sidekick ever, and why?
3) If you were only allowed to write about one specific fandom for the rest of your life, what would it be?
4) How did you first get into Lord of the Rings' fandom?
5) Who was the person you were most excited about meeting?
I know about the A-Team being your first fandom - but what were the second and third ones, and why?
I was seven when I wrote that A-Team fic, but I definitely think all the time I spent thinking about it does indeed qualify it as my first fandom. After that, but still pre-internet for me, was Star Wars. Which I'd obviously been into since I was a kid - (still have my action figures!) - but the re-releases fueled that fire up again and it was something that my little brother was into as well, so we shared that passion together. Bought the various board games, went to the opening premieres, made daily references to it in some sort of bizarre secret code. I also started writing a little bit, though I can't remember what inspired me to say, "Hey, I should write stories about these characters," but I have at least one Star Wars fic as well as various songs and poems and oddities.
I would like to say I jumped right from that to Lord of the Rings and The West Wing, but the truth is, I think I have to give due credit to ER. Because without it I never would have discovered fandom on the internet, which means there would be no ‘Dodger’ now. Within days of getting the internet, I accidentally stumbled across something that seemed to be a romantic story about Dr. Ross and Nurse Carol and I was like, “Wait…what?” and read it and went, “Holy crap! These are stories about the characters on the show!” and read the rest of the fics on the page and then searched for more! In my great quest to find all the stories about Doug Ross, I came across a fic that said ‘Ross/Carter’ and I was like, “Huh, in those other romance stories about Carol and Doug it was written like that as well. Could this be…” My mind was blown. I read that fic so many times, you guys. I couldn’t get past it. Like to this day, still probably my most read fic ever. (Look, I found it!). That fic was posted on a place called Carter Does County and well, I fell into that hole and stayed there for at least a month. I spent about two months reading ER fanfic before one day my brain said, “I wonder if there are fics about Frodo/Samwise or Josh/Sam out there as well?” and the rest is history.
Who is the best sidekick ever, and why?
I’m going to go traditional and say Robin. First of all, I relate to each of the Robins for different reasons and all of them for one very specific reason. (Daddy-issues, we have them). Jason Todd was always my favorite because oh, the man-pain, but I was in high school in the 90s so Tim Drake was the Robin I knew the best. I collected all of his different miniseries. Mostly, Robin is the best sidekick because he doesn’t have any super powers, like Batman, and he is just a teenager, still growing and gangly and awkward, and yet he keeps up with The Mother-Fucking Batman. He hasn’t had years of practice - (well, okay, Dick had some training to fall back on) - and yet he keeps up with The Dark Knight himself. And puts up with all of Bruce’s bullshit, cuz lets face it, that man has issues. And Robin is a persistent, stubborn little shit - (hell, Tim Drake was basically stalking Batman) - that won’t be pushed to the sidelines and I admire that. Yeah, definitely Robin. Just don’t make me pick between them!
If you were only allowed to write about one specific fandom for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Why do you hate me?! Oh god! Uh, shit, okay, literally I was about to type ‘Supernatural’ and in my head this voice yelled, “You’ll never be able to write Danny/Martin again!” It was a scary voice. Eep. I think I am going to say Supernatural though, because there are a shitload of characters you can use and a million and one hundred Dean/Cas ideas and you can always go AU or fusion - (just not crossover, right?). It pains me to think about it though. Even in the beginning of my internet days, I was never just a one fandom girl.
How did you first get into Lord of the Rings' fandom?
I had read The Hobbit but never The Lord of the Rings. And the movies were coming out and my sister, a huge Tolkien fan, forbid me to see the movie until I had read the books. And then bribed me with a DVD player. Now I really wanted a DVD player, so I started the books. This was about two months into my discovery of fanfic, while I was still reading all that ER stuff, and I got to the end of the Fellowship and my brain literally went, “Huh, I wonder if there are any fics out there about Frodo and Samwise being in love? They kind of seem like they are.” And there were! Then I decided to look for Josh/Sam from The West Wing and then Ocean’s 11 came out and that seemed widely slashable as well. But I kept going back to hobbit-fic, in particular Merry/Pippin - (because by then the movie had come out and I had stupid crushes on them both). So while the first fic I wrote during this time period was for The West Wing, the first thing I ever actually posted anywhere on the internet was a 7 chapter Fellowship orgy fic. To this day, IDEK, you guys. I jumped off the high dive. So, yeah, I guess the answer to the question about how I first got into the Lord of the Rings fandom is…I fell in face first from really high up.
Who was the person you were most excited about meeting?
This was actually asked as a real life question but I have two very different answers based on Fandom vs. Real Life, so I have decided to answer this in both posts. For a fandom answer, I would really like to say ‘Misha Collins’, because my Misha stories are awesome, but the truth is it was Nicholas Brendon. I wasn’t even going to go to the convention until I heard he was coming and then it was a mad scramble to get the money together in time to go. (Thanks, Dad!) I had already met Sean Astin at a con once, so I had a little bit of experience under my belt as to not be so nervous, but I wasn’t yet completely comfortable like I was by the time Misha came along, I was at that stage of the excitement buzzing through me and still trying to make myself look Nicky in the eye when he spoke to me and you guys, come on, it’s mother-fucking Xander, okay! I didn’t even watch Buffy when it was originally on, but if I flipped past and he was on screen, I always stopped to watch. I loved him before I even knew who he was. And I had made a music mix for the road trip and one of the pictures it had on it was from The Zeppo, which he said during his Q&A was his favorite episode. So when I got his autograph, I gave him a copy of the CD as a gift. He was very polite but I didn’t really think much about him listening to it. The next day my sister and our friend, hiyacynth, got in the elevator and Nicky was in there with a buddy of his. He was holding my CD and telling his friend how he had listened to it and how cool it was and how awesome it was that some fan gave it to him and my friend shouted out, “Holy shit, ‘Dodger’ made that CD! That’s my friend!” He told her to tell me ‘thank you’ and that he loved the CD and then gave her a hug. So my Nicholas Brendon story is pretty fucking awesome!
That’s it, folks! Thanks for the awesome questions!