Snowflake (challenges #4-5) + fandom meme
Challenge #4: Set some goals for the coming year. They can be fannish or not, public or private.
This is my favorite Snowflake Day, and the one that stays with me through the rest of the year, because I kind of keep track of how I'm doing against these goals and then tally up my success rate as part of the end-of-year meme. My fannish goals stay largely the same from year to year, with tweaks as needed to both goals and the lists they draw from. So, first, my 2019 fannish goals scorecard:
- Read at least 52 books. -- I could've had a final push and beaten this, but tbh didn't feel like bothering, so came in just under the goal (51 books), for the first time in ages. I'll give myself a 0.5/1 here.
- Read/watch at least 3 things from the updated "to try" list -- I read A Conspiracy of Truths and got a ways into Farscape from my original list, but I would have added A Memory Called Empire to it, so I will count it as done. -- 1/1
- Make progress on at least 3 "in progress" backburner book series -- thanks to Hugo homwork, I caught up on Wayfarers, Seraphina, Saga, and the Interdependency, so this one can be safely checked off. Yay! -- 1/1
- Finish at least 5 books I've been stalled in the middle of -- my stalled books on the list at the time I made it, which I've subsequently finished, were Zero Sum Game, Tess of the Road, the Epic Crush of Genie Lo, and The Good Guys. I subsequently stalled on but finished The Wicked King (and I think A Close and Common Orbit, too), so I can count this one as met. -- 1/1
- Read at least 5 books in my "books I own" TBR pile -- I read The Flowers of Vashnoi and A Close and Common Orbit of the ones on the TBR list, which is very not great XD Especially as I picked up a lot more books this year, through gifts and such. -- 0.33/1
- Read at least 5 Hugo-nominated things I have not yet read -- I read way more than 5 for this year's ballot, but nothing for the old Hugo nominees/winners, which I'd been hoping this goal would help with. I'm going to keep this goal for next year even though I'm going to take a break from Hugo homework, I think, and hopefully this will help me read some of the older Hugo-nominated stuff -- 1/1
- Successfully complete at least one syncread -- completed with Zero Sum Game, A Conspiracy of Truths, and A Memory Called Empire, though kind of chaotically in all cases. -- 1/1
- Read at least 1 book in Russian -- I read a third of "Vereteno Vasilisy", which was not the sort of Russian book I had in mind. But let's call it -- 0.33/1
- Read at least 1 non-genre book; non-fiction counts for this -- beaten handily with several non-fiction titles for the Hugos, Because Internet, and a poetry anthology -- 1/1
- Finish off Random Reading Bingo from 2015 -- -- reread of childhood favorite, book written by friend/rival/contemporary of favorite writer. Challenge mode: non-fiction book written 50 years ago. -- surprisingly 0.33/1, because I did read something by C.S.Lewis (poems, courtesy of
perpetual talking about them).
- Finish out a season of at least one show I'm mid-season on or where I'm an already completed season behind -- ahaha, barely met courtesy of finishing off The Good Place season 3 -- 1/1
- Post at least one new thing to AO3 -- posted my Yuletide fic -- 1/1
- Actually comment on AO3 -- I commented on most of what I read, although I read very little this year, so I guess -- 1/1
- Post at least 3 more posts for the Kairos 30 days meme -- the only complete failure on the list, as I didn't even make a single post this year, despite haing several half-completed entires -- 0/1
- Special Worldcon/Hugo related goals: Nominate for the Hugos in every category -- I did exactly that -- and then also voted in every category, too, which I hadn't planned on doing, so I would give myself 1.5/1 on that one.
So, that's actually 12/15 = 80%, which is right around the target I aim for, and is honestly better than I was expecting.
And now, for 2020:
- Read at least 52 books -- I said last year that this is generally easy, and it is! but I fell just short of it in 2019 even with all the graphic novels and novellas I read. We'll see if taking a break from Hugo homework will help in this regard.
- Read/watch at least 3 things from the updated "to try" list below (which should be kept updated as I keep forgetting things I want to read).
- Make progress on at least 3 "in progress" backburner book series.
- Finish at least 5 books I've been stalled in the middle of -- this was a new goal last year, and actually helped me clear some backlog, although not as much of it as I would have liked.
- Read at least 5 books in my "books I own" TBR pile -- this was a modified attempt at "Mount TBR" and worked only marginally better than the real Mount TBR challenge, but I want to make progress here, so I want to try again. Maybe if I'm not having to keep up with new books for Hugo homework, I'll be better at this.
- Read at least 5 Hugo-nominated things I have not yet read (from any year and of any length; see list of interest below; I may or may not add 2019 nominees to it...)
- Successfully complete at least one syncread (however chaotically... :P)
- Read at least 1 book in Russian (finishing 'Vereteno' will count for this)
- Read at least 1 non-genre book; non-fiction counts for this
- Finish off Random Reading Bingo from 2015 -- Challenge mode: non-fiction book written 50 years ago.
- Finish out a season of at least one show I'm mid-season on or where I'm an already completed season behind (list below) -- with a stretch goal of 2, as this list keeps growing now that I have Netflix.
- Post at least one new thing to AO3.
- Actually comment on AO3 -- I haven't been reading much fic the last couple of years, but should at least comment on the fic I do read, including some Yuletide fic I've been catching up on and still haven't gotten around to commenting on. And I might be dipping into fandoms with a lot of fic to read, so maybe there's opportunity there.
- Post at least 3 more posts for the Kairos 30 days meme (I have two half-written entries but have not posted in almost two years... Hell, at this point I need to revisit some of my lists :P
- Special Hugo related goals: submit a nomination ballot -- like I said, I'm taking the year off Hugo homework (or at least that's the plan), but am still eligible to nominate, and I want to make use of that. I thought of setting a "nominate in X categories" goal, but to be honest... I'm not really sure what of the eligible stuff I've consumed or attempted I feel is worth nominating (besides Endgame, I mean, which isn't going to need my help), so I'm going to leave it open-ended and just nominate the things I actually care about. Once I figure out what they are.
To "try" list:
Books:
- Child of a Hidden Sea (Dellamonica)
- Fire and Hemlock (DWJ) -- or Archer's Goon, now that I have a copy
- The Coldfire Trilogy (C.S.Friedman)
- Daniel Abraham's novels, probably The Long Price quartet -- or The Expanse books
- Jim Butcher's steampunk thing
- Sorcerer to the Crown
- Neal Asher Polity novels
- The Night Circus
- The Power (or something else by Naomi Alderman)
- Starglass (Poebe North)
- See Under -- love
- The Prey of Gods (or something else by Nicky Drayden)
- something by Octavia Butler
- Scorpion Rules (or something else by Erin Bow)
- Cyteen (or something else by Cherryh)
- something by Daryl Gregory
- Invisible Library
- Emma Newman Split Worlds
- something by Heinlein
TV:
- The Expanse
- Almost Human
- Witcher
Backburner book series:
- Magnus Chase*
- Sapkowski's Witcher*
- Alex Verus*
- Three Body Problem*
- Oxford Time-Travel Universe*
- Iskyrne
- Guy Gavriel Kay books
- Mercy Thompson
- Kate Daniels (something else by Ilona Andrews also counts)
- Philosopher Kings* (something else by Jo Walton also counts)
- Matthew Swift-verse* (something else by any of her aliases also counts)
- Elemental Logic*
- The Magicians
- Cloud Roads*
- Craft Sequence*
- Elantra*
- Volha
- Toby Daye*
- Inda*
- Attolia*
- Murderbot*
- The Bear and the Nightingale*
- Lady Astronauts
- Gilded Cage*
- Penric*
- Six of Crows books
- Philosopher's War
- Whyborne & Griffin*
- Cruel Prince trilogy
- The Poppy War
- Infomocracy*
- Daevabad
- Machineries of Empire (Hexarchate Stories)
- Grasshopper Jungle sequel
- not really a series, but more Hardinge
* = I'm more than 1 volume behind
Books I'm in the middle of pile (defined as books I've started over a month ago, have not finished, but plan to keep reading -- OK to add to this over the course of the year)
- My Real Children*
- Rogue Protocol*
- Ruin of Angels*
- The King of Elfland's Daughter
- The Girl in the Tower*
- The Good Guys
- Agyar
- Flex
- Crooked Kingdom*
- Spin State
- Semiosis
- Le Ton beau de Marot
- Under the Pendulum Sun
- The Tarnished City*
- The Way the Future Was**
- The Dragon Republic*
- The Traitor Baru Cormorant
- Kingdom of Copper*
- Alchemy of Masks and Mirrors
- Vereteno Vasilisy**
* = counts for backburner book series
** = counts for a different (main) goal
TBR pile list -- same rules as Mount TBR (own by Jan 1, have not read more than half, except Im not committing to the whole list, as that doesn't work for me)
- Sorcerer to the Crown, Zen Cho**
- Autoboyography
- Ruin of Angels, Max Gladstone*
- Last First Snow, Max Gladstone*
- My Real Children, Jo Walton*
- Lexicon (Max Barry)
- Empress Game (Rhonda Mason)
- Anathem (Neal Stephenson)
- Hammered (Elizabeth Bear)
- The Last Dragon
- Among the Nameless Stars, Diana Peterfreund (oldest unread book on my Kindle)
- Invisible Library, Genevieve Cogman
- Prisoner of Limnos*
- Deeplight and Fly by Night, Frances Hardinge*
- Archer's Goon, DWJ**
- something from the Octavia Butler omnibus**
- Between Two Thorns**
- Ten Thousand Doors of January
*counts for the catching up on backburner series goal
** counts for "to try" goal
Hugo nominated list of interest (but other Hugo nominated things also count)
- The Darfsteller (novellette)
- "Allamagoosa"
- "The Star" (Clarke)
- Double Star (Heinlein novel)**
- "Or All the Seas with Oysters" (Davidson)
- "The Men Who Murdered Mohammed" (Bester)
- "The Man Who Lost the Sea" (Sturgeon)
- "Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-Precious Stones" (Delany)
- "Nobody's Home" by Joanna Russ
- Dying Inside (Silverberg)
- "Air Raid" by John Varley under pen name
- Cyteen**
- Metropolitan (Walter Jon Williams)
** = counts for "to try"
Mid-season (or full season behind) TV shows
- Angel, season 2
- Korra, season 4
- Killjoys, season 3
- Grace and Frankie, season 2
- The Good Place, season 4
- Leverage, season 1
- Person of Interest, season 2
- Lewis, season 9
- Sherlock, season 4
- White Collar, it's complicated, but let's say season 5
- Dragon Prince, season 2
**
Challenge #5: Comment to someone you haven't ever interacted with before or introduce yourself to someone you've briefly interacted with and friend/follow them.
I've actually been doing some of this already, over the course of Snowflake, and then did it some more. But I like the idea (stolen from
teigh_corvus, in my case) of having a post with the welcome mat put out, inviting fellow Snowflake folk to stop by and say hello if they feel like it as part of this challenge.
And then I saw
madeline_gwydion's post (I guess this is my month for reconnecting with old westerosorting friends, heh) and realized that I haven't done a fannish meme in a long time, and that a fannish meme would be a good way to a) reconnect with old fannish friends, b) compare preferences with newer fannish friends or in my newer fandoms, and c) potentially serve as ice-breaker with passing Snowflake folk.
So I cobbled one together from a couple of similar "name a fandom" memes that I've done over the years. Please have at it! (and feel free to steal or shout out to shared fandoms as well as/instead of prompting :D)
Name one of my fandoms [or a couple!], and I will give you these answers.
* How I entered that fandom
* Favorite character
* Least favorite character
* First character I fell in love with
* The character who is the most like me
* OTP(s)
* Favorite friendship/family relationship
* Favorite quote
* Favorite location
* Favorite scene (or episode, or book)
* Favorite thing about the fandom
* Unpopular opinion
* Something I would change about the canon
* Random thought about this canon [note: high likelihood of this being cracky crossover ideas]
For reference, fandoms of note: ASOIAF, AtLA/Korra, Babylon 5, Buffy (through s6), Chronicles of Amber, Curseworkers, Demon's Lexicon, Discworld, Dragaera/Vlad Taltos, Dresden Files, Farscape (2.5 seasons), Firefly, The Good Place (through s3), Harry Potter, Hunger Games, Killjoys (first two seasons), Kingkiller Chronicles, Kushiel's Legacy, Lord of the Rings, Machineries of Empire, MCU, Rivers of London, Saga, Seraphina-verse, Sherlock BBC (through s3), Terra Ignota, Temeraire, Tortall, Vorkosigan Saga, Warchild, White Collar (through s4), Whyborne & Griffin, and anything else you know I'm into.
This entry was originally posted at https://hamsterwoman.dreamwidth.org/1119323.html. Comment wherever you prefer (I prefer LJ).