Been a long time
Where do I begin summarizing my Real Life? I left Afghanistan, and the Army, in 2013. Ditching the top secret clearance was like losing a ball and chain around my ankle. During 2013 I worked at NASA in Silicon Valley, and really enjoyed living in California, but unfortunately mostly disliked the people I worked with. And then like a miracle, a job opened up at FEMA in New York City, my hometown. I applied, got an interview and got the job. So in 2014 I moved back home to NYC, and I bought my first home, an apartment in south Brooklyn. I worked at FEMA for 4 years, and then, in a sudden fit of madness, I quit my job in 2017 to go to graduate school full-time on the GI Bill, and live off my GI Bill living stipend. And I've managed it. I'm doing 3 classes per semester and have just completed my third semester. I'll graduate in June 2019. So I'll need to start job-hunting in January 2019.
Last month I was suddenly seized by an urge to re-read some of my favorite X-Men fanfic. I spent hours re-reading and enjoying. Afterwards I was suddenly overwhelmed with an idea for an X1 story to write. I got to 12 chapters and 20,000 words and realized I was only halfway finished. I went ahead and posted what I have to Archive of Our Own: "The Wily Odysseus," about Scott, naturally, at https://archiveofourown.org/works/15657291 It felt very good to be writing fiction again. Stopped writing for years under pressure from the Real Life; just sapped all the creativity out of me.
I have found the Archive of Our Own to be a great resource, although I avoided it for quite a while initially, due to bad memories of one of the women involved in establishing that archive -- she and her cronies sundered The Sentinel fandom back in the mailing list days. I remember the X-Men Movieverse Fan Fiction archive, http://www.xmmff.com/ and the WRFA archive, http://www.wolverineandrogue.com/fic/ and was surprised to find they still exist, although it seems no one has uploaded fic to them in many years. I've been trying to download some of my favorite fics since archives and websites go offline; people go off offline and take their fic offline too. I have been storing my own finished and unfinished fic on LJ or Dreamwidth, and have always been meaning to make it public, but I think I will copy it over to Archive of Our Own, even the unfinished stories.
I have to say that my participation in fandom brought much happiness to my life. Started with Yahoo News Groups back around 1995, I think. I enjoyed The Sentinel, X-Men and Supernatural in particular. I know I am going to sound like the stereotypical old fart, but I'm glad I was around in 2000 when X1 came out and the movieverse fandom was shiny and new and exploding with interest, discussions and stories. Fandom was a welcome relief from the stress of my Real Life. Fandom also gave me the impetus to try my hand at writing fiction. When you think the only outlet for your fiction-writing is trying to sell it on Amazon or to a publishing house, you just stop cold. Fandom was a place where I could publish work without concern for logistics.
What has always impressed me the most about fandom is how generous fans are with their time. The fans who beta stories; in the Real World, editors charge hundreds of dollars for such service, and yet here were fans spending unpaid hours beta'ing fannish work. The really excellent writers, professional-quality writers, devoting many many hours to writing fanfic that makes people happy, many hours writing fic from which they can't make a financial profit. I feel very grateful to the fans who wrote all the stories that gave me many hours of reading pleasure.
I haven't stopped by LiveJournal (or Dreamwidth) in a very long time. I visited today, and checked some X-Men community journals, to see that they haven't been updated in years. Has interest waned in the X-Men movieverse, or has the fandom just moved off LJ to another platform?
I have to be honest that I haven't even watched all the X-movies. I'm a Cyke fan and haven't liked the shabby way my favorite character got treated, although the worst was seeing the movieverse morph into "Wolverine and the X-Men," like, what, Diana Ross and the Supremes, like the X-Men were back-up singers to the only character who mattered, Wolverine. I do mean to watch the movies featuring a young Erik and Charles. I have heard that yet another Dark Phoenix will be released in early 2019, this time with the girl who played Jean in one X-Men: Apocalypse. And I can only find myself cynically thinking, wow, how are they going to do this without Scott, again?
I also visited some friends' journals, to see that they also had not been updated in years, and some fannish friends (Opera, Violet, dolimir_k) have deleted their journals and there's no way to reach them. I'm sad I didn't try to get their Real Life emails before they left fandom. I always had this idea in the back of my mind that someday I'd get to actually meet some of these folks that I'd met online in fannish spaces.
Perhaps this is just the natural order of things. Life happens, and takes over, and as the responsibilities pile up, people don't have the time or the interest to play in fandom anymore. But I do cherish the good memories.
Last month I was suddenly seized by an urge to re-read some of my favorite X-Men fanfic. I spent hours re-reading and enjoying. Afterwards I was suddenly overwhelmed with an idea for an X1 story to write. I got to 12 chapters and 20,000 words and realized I was only halfway finished. I went ahead and posted what I have to Archive of Our Own: "The Wily Odysseus," about Scott, naturally, at https://archiveofourown.org/works/15657291 It felt very good to be writing fiction again. Stopped writing for years under pressure from the Real Life; just sapped all the creativity out of me.
I have found the Archive of Our Own to be a great resource, although I avoided it for quite a while initially, due to bad memories of one of the women involved in establishing that archive -- she and her cronies sundered The Sentinel fandom back in the mailing list days. I remember the X-Men Movieverse Fan Fiction archive, http://www.xmmff.com/ and the WRFA archive, http://www.wolverineandrogue.com/fic/ and was surprised to find they still exist, although it seems no one has uploaded fic to them in many years. I've been trying to download some of my favorite fics since archives and websites go offline; people go off offline and take their fic offline too. I have been storing my own finished and unfinished fic on LJ or Dreamwidth, and have always been meaning to make it public, but I think I will copy it over to Archive of Our Own, even the unfinished stories.
I have to say that my participation in fandom brought much happiness to my life. Started with Yahoo News Groups back around 1995, I think. I enjoyed The Sentinel, X-Men and Supernatural in particular. I know I am going to sound like the stereotypical old fart, but I'm glad I was around in 2000 when X1 came out and the movieverse fandom was shiny and new and exploding with interest, discussions and stories. Fandom was a welcome relief from the stress of my Real Life. Fandom also gave me the impetus to try my hand at writing fiction. When you think the only outlet for your fiction-writing is trying to sell it on Amazon or to a publishing house, you just stop cold. Fandom was a place where I could publish work without concern for logistics.
What has always impressed me the most about fandom is how generous fans are with their time. The fans who beta stories; in the Real World, editors charge hundreds of dollars for such service, and yet here were fans spending unpaid hours beta'ing fannish work. The really excellent writers, professional-quality writers, devoting many many hours to writing fanfic that makes people happy, many hours writing fic from which they can't make a financial profit. I feel very grateful to the fans who wrote all the stories that gave me many hours of reading pleasure.
I haven't stopped by LiveJournal (or Dreamwidth) in a very long time. I visited today, and checked some X-Men community journals, to see that they haven't been updated in years. Has interest waned in the X-Men movieverse, or has the fandom just moved off LJ to another platform?
I have to be honest that I haven't even watched all the X-movies. I'm a Cyke fan and haven't liked the shabby way my favorite character got treated, although the worst was seeing the movieverse morph into "Wolverine and the X-Men," like, what, Diana Ross and the Supremes, like the X-Men were back-up singers to the only character who mattered, Wolverine. I do mean to watch the movies featuring a young Erik and Charles. I have heard that yet another Dark Phoenix will be released in early 2019, this time with the girl who played Jean in one X-Men: Apocalypse. And I can only find myself cynically thinking, wow, how are they going to do this without Scott, again?
I also visited some friends' journals, to see that they also had not been updated in years, and some fannish friends (Opera, Violet, dolimir_k) have deleted their journals and there's no way to reach them. I'm sad I didn't try to get their Real Life emails before they left fandom. I always had this idea in the back of my mind that someday I'd get to actually meet some of these folks that I'd met online in fannish spaces.
Perhaps this is just the natural order of things. Life happens, and takes over, and as the responsibilities pile up, people don't have the time or the interest to play in fandom anymore. But I do cherish the good memories.