testing, testing...is this thing still on?

[tenaya]

I kinda got away from fannish stuff for a while. I blame my kindle. I started reading a lot more books. I read all the Dresden books, and the Longmire books, along with a few other series. I finally hit an annoying book the same time Escapade happened. Hanging out with fans and going to panels of shows I like really jazzed me up again. I found

Comments

[margec01]

Hi there! I have fallen in love with my Nook and I've been spending a LOT of time reading on it myself. I finally bought one about a year and a half ago when I found out I could download fanfic from AO3 onto it. It's fantastic! I also have been reading some of the Person of Interest fanfic from there. Sure it's no Stargate, but the show and the fanfic are interesting, and new.

From some of our favorite fanfic authors getting published, I've also discovered the wonders of the m/m romance genre, since with e-readers the books are much less expensive to get. And with Goodreads, I've found a place where people rate the books, so you aren't just buying them blindly. (Sure, some ratings are "off" but if 30 people have rated something, you can get an idea of whether a book is worth buying.)

I'm glad you're going to be able to cut back at work somewhat. If I could have cut back, I probably would have waited longer to retire, but I also was so annoyed with everything going on there. I had planned to work a few more years, but the very week I was eligible I decided I couldn't stand it any longer and put in my papers. I still don't regret it at all.

[tenaya]

So good to hear from you! I saw your name as a giver of Kudos for PoI fanfic in AO3, and I was, "yay! Marge is still in fandom." :)

So, who else is being published besides Astolat? And I shall have to investigate Goodreads. I'm on a few daily mailing lists that list free or discounted books. Anything that sounds interesting I look up the reviews in Amazon. But yeah, the kindle has got me back into reading pro fiction (and having said that, the current book would count as a flawed fanfic in style/content.

I will love not having to work that third night. It's hard now. Even the younger people are exhausted after a busy night. Someone younger can have my job--I just need health benefits.

BBT. I, too, started watching a couple of years ago and have caught up on the past eps. I had two different sets of fannish friends that kept pushing me to watch the show and they were right. Very funny, and I usually dislike sitcoms.

SPN has sort of set up a reset with their new bat cave and the brothers not going at each other for a change.

I felt sorry for Robert Carlysle on SG:U so I'm very happy to see him on OUAT. He's actually my favorite character on that show and I keep watching just because of him when the show gets draggy.

Aside from POI, are you reading fanfic for other shows? Any particular stories you liked in POI you could rec? It's a small enough fandom at the moment I'll probably catch up and read it all in the next few months.

Glad to hear you're enjoying your retirement. :) I miss meeting up with everyone at the SG cons. It was fun while it lasted.

[margec01]

Most of the fanfic authors have been picked up by some small presses, most notably Dreamspinners Press (DSP). They were at the last couple MediaWestcons, and I bought some of their books there. Some are great, some are good, some are so-so.

sga_madison is writing as Sarah Madison. Scroll down to see her books. I hope it will work if you're not a member:
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4057853.Sarah_Madison

All of her books are good, but the best ones are Crying for the Moon and Raincheck. Unspeakable Words is excellent as well, but it was a fanfic at one time. If you don't remember it, then I highly recommend it, too. Her lj page is at: http://sarah-madison.livejournal.com/

lamardeuse is writing as G.N. Chevalier. She only has one book out so far, but I liked it. http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13265990-bonds-of-earth

taste_is_sweet is Aundrea Singer. She just published her first book--good PTSD one. I liked it a lot:
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16282303-black-hawk-tattoo

There are others who say they used to write fanfic, but I don't know who they are in fandom. When I find out, it's usually Harry Potter or Brokeback Mountain or something. LOL

An EXCELLENT mystery writer is Josh Lanyon. If you want to start out with one of his best standalone stories (rather than a series), I recommend Fair Game.
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8531376-fair-game

I am buying many of these as ebooks, directly from the publisher. DSP regularly has 20-25% off sales every month. Then I download the books to my computer, copy them to my Nook (you can get Kindle version, too) and then I get a bargain and the authors generally get more royalties that way.

I'm not reading much fanfic for other shows now. Still a bit of SGA, but there's not much out there. A few from the Sherlock TV show. I've read a few Hawaii Five O. As for POI writers, estefee and cesperanza are writing some good ones. They are lj friends who used to write SGA and now write POI.

I misss seeing people at the cons, too, but I simply don't feel like spending the money to see any of the remaining Creation cons. I guess I could go to a SPN one, but I'm not fond of all the little girls. LOL

Take care!

[tenaya]

Thanks for the recs. I see that many of these authors were SGA writers; that's probably why I didn't know about them. I will read Fair Game. It certainly has good reviews.

It was one thing to go to the Creation Cons when the show was still on because there was new stuff to hear the guests talk about. Nothing new lately...except for that new SG1 tablet/phone game that's suppose to be out this month. It looked cool:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jf4iyw9eIv0

Are you going to MWC this year? I have a room and no roommate.... :)

[margec01]

When you said you had a room and no roomie, I actually gave some consideration to going to the con this year. I guess I'm already glad I decided I simply don't have much to do or see there anymore, before I read cannelfan's discussion about the con this year.

http://cannellfan.livejournal.com/285707.html#comments

So I feel my decision is for the best anyway. The organizers got way too big for their britches years ago and apparently they're just getting worse.

Not sure if you're familiar with cannelfan or not. He and his wife ran the Improv panel every year, and he always did the video montage of all the actors we had lost in the previous year since the prior con.

I hope the convention ends up being worth your trip there and that you have a good time. Even though it's apparently at a different hotel, and the comments weren't that happy about it, my attitude is that the hotel has sucked for years, so anything else couldn't be much worse. Just watch out for bedbugs, though. You know they are around--I certainly do!

[tenaya]

The Best Western clearly did not want the con this year and they got their wish. I think it's stupid to have the lottery still and the con com has major control issues. I'm in the Hampton Inn across the street, but I like the HI so actually, I'm okay with that.

Thank you for the link to that blog--I hope he's wrong for the most part (but I'm sure he's right for some!) I did find the list of panels and it could stand some weeding (13 Starsky and Hutch panel? NO!) There are some Grimm, Haven, POI and Hobbit panels, along with others I'd like to catch, so that's good--so far. The vid show has shrank alarmingly.

I've pretty much decided this is my last one. I'm going to see my East Coast friends one last time and say a proper goodbye. We'll see. I do understand completely about your decision. I will always see you on the net, though. :)

I meant to add this:
http://www.mediawestcon.org/2013mwc-topics-round1.pdf