The Following Sea Review of 2013!
Apologies for the delay in bringing you the Following_Sea review of 2013. Better late than never I hope!
First of all I have to apologise for being a rather slack mod over the course of the year. RL, or rather work, has been a right bugger! So I’d also like to say a huge thank you to each and every one of you who kept the comm ticking over throughout the year :)
I don’t keep tabs on the number of new members but it was a great pleasure to welcome back to the fandom lady_latimer and sarah_lynn_b, who maintains the legendary HHFic archive.
I'd also like to say a particular thank you to all those who posted challenges. We had a grand total of five challenges this year, all run by members of the comm.
First up in we had the fabulous Letter From Hell Challenge, run by sarah_lynn_b, which resulted in replies written from Horatio, Archie, Lady Kennedy, Jacques Bergeret, the Sixth Doctor, and...erm... Evan Nepean Esq, Secretary to the Admiralty.
sarah_lynn_b ran a second challenge, The Day Before, in February which some enthusiastic members managed to write two entries for!
In April, nodbear discovered that the 1796 muster of HMS Indefatigable is missing from The National Archives at Kew, and launched the Missing Muster Challenge to find out what happened to it. Suggestions ranged from Archie borrowing it to jot down a " terrific idea for a story", which was later nicked by an unscrupulous so and so on the coach to Chawton, Pellew keeping it and leaving it as a bequest to Hornblower in his will, and Bartholomew eating it :} The challenge also led Pellew and Jacques Bergeret to create an entirely new rating system and prompted katriona_s to create this beautiful art work.
In October mylodon launched the Shore Boat Ahoy! Challenge, which resulted in several fics, both old and new, and the following lovely art works from vespican and katriona_s
nodbear rounded off the year with the Reverse Caption Competition which I do believe is still running! So if you haven't entered yet, but would like to do so, now's your chance.
The more traditional Caption Competition continued to run, though rather more sporadically than usual. As with previous years, comm members never missed an opportunity to plumb the depths. Once again, the undisputed queen of the Caption Competition was naomi1642.
Wellard had often secretly wanted to head-butt Hornblower, but he'd never guessed Bush would be the one to actually try it.
We had plenty to celebrate this year; Horatio's birthday was celebrated in fine style in July and, lest they felt left out, I arbitrarily decided we should celebrate Archie's birthday on the 12th of Feburary and Mr Bush's Birthday on the 5th of November.
Horatio Ioan gruffudd and Archie Jamie Bamber were reunited several times during 2013; on a golf course in Wales, in an episode of Monday Morning (though sadly they didn't share any scenes) and at the pre-Golden Globes Art of Elysium gala in LA....
Picture courtesy of the utterly wonderful Ms Kerry Norton.
However Paul McGann despaired of ever getting the crew back together, owing to " that pretty boy" being stuck over in California.
The Hornblower actors participated in a number of conventions this year and ioanite very kindly shared her amazing experience of meeting Ioan at Comic Con in May.
As if we need encouragement to misbehave, asthenie_vd shared her Age of Sail Literary Fiction Trope Drinking Game. Still on the subject of literary tropes, asthenie_vd also shared her thoughts on the phenomena of the Shirtless Hero in Age of Sail novels. It's a tough job but someone's got to do it ;)
nodbear contined to share the fruits of her historical research with us including this fascinating post on Sir Edward Pellew's Houses, and this touching letter from Pellew to his dear friend Jacques Bergeret.
Once again we've been very lucky to be able to enjoy the works of several truly talented artists, including katriona_s, vespican, leffel_s and cyntosis.
vespican also came up with the idea of an animated Hornblower series drawn by katriona_s. It's a wonderful idea to be sure, but one that left Hornblower with a bit of a dilema...
Fanvids were few and far between this year, but what we lacked in quantity we more than made up for in quality, as this charming vid by marine_lapwing shows.
These are just a few highlights from the fantastically creative outputs of the comm over the last year, there were many, many more highly entertaining posts that you can find using the tags or archive links. So it just remains for me to say a huge THANK YOU once again to everyone who makes this such a fabulous comm. Here's looking forward to another year of following_sea fun!
First of all I have to apologise for being a rather slack mod over the course of the year. RL, or rather work, has been a right bugger! So I’d also like to say a huge thank you to each and every one of you who kept the comm ticking over throughout the year :)
I don’t keep tabs on the number of new members but it was a great pleasure to welcome back to the fandom lady_latimer and sarah_lynn_b, who maintains the legendary HHFic archive.
I'd also like to say a particular thank you to all those who posted challenges. We had a grand total of five challenges this year, all run by members of the comm.
First up in we had the fabulous Letter From Hell Challenge, run by sarah_lynn_b, which resulted in replies written from Horatio, Archie, Lady Kennedy, Jacques Bergeret, the Sixth Doctor, and...erm... Evan Nepean Esq, Secretary to the Admiralty.
sarah_lynn_b ran a second challenge, The Day Before, in February which some enthusiastic members managed to write two entries for!
In April, nodbear discovered that the 1796 muster of HMS Indefatigable is missing from The National Archives at Kew, and launched the Missing Muster Challenge to find out what happened to it. Suggestions ranged from Archie borrowing it to jot down a " terrific idea for a story", which was later nicked by an unscrupulous so and so on the coach to Chawton, Pellew keeping it and leaving it as a bequest to Hornblower in his will, and Bartholomew eating it :} The challenge also led Pellew and Jacques Bergeret to create an entirely new rating system and prompted katriona_s to create this beautiful art work.
In October mylodon launched the Shore Boat Ahoy! Challenge, which resulted in several fics, both old and new, and the following lovely art works from vespican and katriona_s
nodbear rounded off the year with the Reverse Caption Competition which I do believe is still running! So if you haven't entered yet, but would like to do so, now's your chance.
The more traditional Caption Competition continued to run, though rather more sporadically than usual. As with previous years, comm members never missed an opportunity to plumb the depths. Once again, the undisputed queen of the Caption Competition was naomi1642.
Wellard had often secretly wanted to head-butt Hornblower, but he'd never guessed Bush would be the one to actually try it.
We had plenty to celebrate this year; Horatio's birthday was celebrated in fine style in July and, lest they felt left out, I arbitrarily decided we should celebrate Archie's birthday on the 12th of Feburary and Mr Bush's Birthday on the 5th of November.
Horatio Ioan gruffudd and Archie Jamie Bamber were reunited several times during 2013; on a golf course in Wales, in an episode of Monday Morning (though sadly they didn't share any scenes) and at the pre-Golden Globes Art of Elysium gala in LA....
Picture courtesy of the utterly wonderful Ms Kerry Norton.
However Paul McGann despaired of ever getting the crew back together, owing to " that pretty boy" being stuck over in California.
The Hornblower actors participated in a number of conventions this year and ioanite very kindly shared her amazing experience of meeting Ioan at Comic Con in May.
As if we need encouragement to misbehave, asthenie_vd shared her Age of Sail Literary Fiction Trope Drinking Game. Still on the subject of literary tropes, asthenie_vd also shared her thoughts on the phenomena of the Shirtless Hero in Age of Sail novels. It's a tough job but someone's got to do it ;)
nodbear contined to share the fruits of her historical research with us including this fascinating post on Sir Edward Pellew's Houses, and this touching letter from Pellew to his dear friend Jacques Bergeret.
Once again we've been very lucky to be able to enjoy the works of several truly talented artists, including katriona_s, vespican, leffel_s and cyntosis.
vespican also came up with the idea of an animated Hornblower series drawn by katriona_s. It's a wonderful idea to be sure, but one that left Hornblower with a bit of a dilema...
Fanvids were few and far between this year, but what we lacked in quantity we more than made up for in quality, as this charming vid by marine_lapwing shows.
Click to viewThese are just a few highlights from the fantastically creative outputs of the comm over the last year, there were many, many more highly entertaining posts that you can find using the tags or archive links. So it just remains for me to say a huge THANK YOU once again to everyone who makes this such a fabulous comm. Here's looking forward to another year of following_sea fun!