Why Fangirls Are Awesome, Part Eleventy Million
I had a wonderful afternoon in Toronto on Sunday. rosemary_green, a dS reader/lurker, contacted me last week and mentioned that she and her partner were in Toronto. She asked if I wanted to meet for coffee, and because I am a) always looking for an excuse to go to Toronto, for I love it so and b) have never, ever disappointed by real-life fangirl meetups (newsflash: fangirls are awesome!) I agreed.
For the record? rosemary_green and her wife are easily the sweetest and most adorable people I've ever met. We had a nice dinner at Fresh (former site of many fangirl dinners during can_con2008) and then went for coffee, and it was great just to sit around and talk to them. They'd come to Toronto to participate in a civil wedding ceremony, as their home state doesn't sanction same-sex marriage, and we talked wedding plans and politics over a cup of ubiquitous Second Cup coffee.
Rosemary said something really interesting about my story Price of Distance as we were walking over to the coffee shop. We were talking about same-sex marriage and the differences between Canada and the US. I'd used marriage between Fraser and Kowalski as a plot point in Distance, and Rosemary mentioned how much it saddened and frustrated her to know that, in the wake of anti-marriage equality initiatives, that magical happy ending just isn't possible for so many Americans. That really broke my heart. I hadn't considered how fanciful or escapist the ending of Price of Distance is for thousands of couples living in states that don't support their right to marry. And the fact that these two women had to cross an international border to find a place that will recognize their love for and commitment to one another is both a testament to the strength of their relationship, and a bitter pill that, hopefully, will not continue to be forced down the throat of same-sex couples in the US for very much longer.
I'm a bisexual woman living with a man; we're planning to marry next year, and I've struggled a lot with how I can reconcile my sexuality with what I feel for scarfe, and if it's morally right to participate in the institution of marriage when it's not available to everyone.
Anyway, Serious Business aside, dinner was a lot of fun, and I'm so very glad Rosemary was brave and contacted me. I ♥ them both!
Speaking of fannish awesomeness, I haven't done recs in forever, but if you get a chance you really should check out belmanoir's new fic Bad Cop. It's a sequel to her 2007 dSSS story Good Cop, and Bel dives right into who - and what - Vecchio is post-Vegas. I really love Bel's narrative voice and how careful she is to make her characters' actions seem as complicated (and their reactions as unexpected) as they would be in real life. Bel doesn't offer any easy answers in this story: her Rays are pretty fucked up, but she handles the whole issue of lies, secrets and non-con with a lot of compassion, and I adore the sweetness of the resolution after all the pain of Vecchio's "interrogation" of Kowalski.
And two new podfics have gone up! luzula recorded her wonderful story Civilization and justbreathe80 made a podfic of brynnmck's Just Geography. I love Brynn's story beyond all measure (I think it's one of my very favourite F/K/V fics) and Justbreathe has done a terrific job on the 2hrs+ recording of the story. I haven't listened to Luzula's podfic yet, but she's a great reader too, and I hope you check out both podfics. I miss listening to new stuff, guys!
And because I love non-sequiturs almost as much as I love fangirls, I must say that having now watched "Exit Wounds," the series 2 finale of Torchwood... now I get it. Brilliant.
For the record? rosemary_green and her wife are easily the sweetest and most adorable people I've ever met. We had a nice dinner at Fresh (former site of many fangirl dinners during can_con2008) and then went for coffee, and it was great just to sit around and talk to them. They'd come to Toronto to participate in a civil wedding ceremony, as their home state doesn't sanction same-sex marriage, and we talked wedding plans and politics over a cup of ubiquitous Second Cup coffee.
Rosemary said something really interesting about my story Price of Distance as we were walking over to the coffee shop. We were talking about same-sex marriage and the differences between Canada and the US. I'd used marriage between Fraser and Kowalski as a plot point in Distance, and Rosemary mentioned how much it saddened and frustrated her to know that, in the wake of anti-marriage equality initiatives, that magical happy ending just isn't possible for so many Americans. That really broke my heart. I hadn't considered how fanciful or escapist the ending of Price of Distance is for thousands of couples living in states that don't support their right to marry. And the fact that these two women had to cross an international border to find a place that will recognize their love for and commitment to one another is both a testament to the strength of their relationship, and a bitter pill that, hopefully, will not continue to be forced down the throat of same-sex couples in the US for very much longer.
I'm a bisexual woman living with a man; we're planning to marry next year, and I've struggled a lot with how I can reconcile my sexuality with what I feel for scarfe, and if it's morally right to participate in the institution of marriage when it's not available to everyone.
Anyway, Serious Business aside, dinner was a lot of fun, and I'm so very glad Rosemary was brave and contacted me. I ♥ them both!
Speaking of fannish awesomeness, I haven't done recs in forever, but if you get a chance you really should check out belmanoir's new fic Bad Cop. It's a sequel to her 2007 dSSS story Good Cop, and Bel dives right into who - and what - Vecchio is post-Vegas. I really love Bel's narrative voice and how careful she is to make her characters' actions seem as complicated (and their reactions as unexpected) as they would be in real life. Bel doesn't offer any easy answers in this story: her Rays are pretty fucked up, but she handles the whole issue of lies, secrets and non-con with a lot of compassion, and I adore the sweetness of the resolution after all the pain of Vecchio's "interrogation" of Kowalski.
And two new podfics have gone up! luzula recorded her wonderful story Civilization and justbreathe80 made a podfic of brynnmck's Just Geography. I love Brynn's story beyond all measure (I think it's one of my very favourite F/K/V fics) and Justbreathe has done a terrific job on the 2hrs+ recording of the story. I haven't listened to Luzula's podfic yet, but she's a great reader too, and I hope you check out both podfics. I miss listening to new stuff, guys!
And because I love non-sequiturs almost as much as I love fangirls, I must say that having now watched "Exit Wounds," the series 2 finale of Torchwood... now I get it. Brilliant.