2014 Master List

melsheartsthings: Talk to me about your convention experiences and what worked and what didn't.

Conventions aren't a big part of my fannish life. I went to Wiscon for a few years (30, 31, and 32), and to the WriterCon that took place in 2009. (I actually had to go back to nikitangel's archive to even get the convention name right.) I also worked a few smaller local conventions back in the early 2000s, when I was a part of a start up gaming company.

I like the idea of conventions a lot; I like shared experiences and the joy of discussing things I love with people who love them, too. I had a wonderful time at Wiscon and WriterCon. But I'm not much of a people person. I dislike crowds, I am bad at networking, and I know I come across as cold and standoffish with new people a lot of the time.

The three years I went to Wiscon, I stayed off site with friends (cabell the first year and nikitangel the other two years). When I go back, I'll be staying in the host hotel. I think that will help a lot; staying off site meant I didn't easily have a quiet place to go when I needed a break. (No, the quiet room doesn't work for me. It still has people.) My plan is to go back next year, for Wiscon 40, and have a reunion with my writing group, but if the job situation doesn't work out soon, that will have to come off the table.

I like being on panels a lot, and I mostly attend panels, very few paper readings or book readings. I like the parties to the extent that I like to hang out with my friends, but as I said, I'm not great at working a room, and I often feel like I'm penalized for that, even at Wiscon. I love things like the karaoke party and the new people dinner. I like being able to take a break to explore the city, or simply lounge around the pool or hang out in someone's room while we decompress a bit. I love talking to people about their projects, and meeting small press representatives, and all the media available. I love taking the physical schedule and highlighting all the places I want to be, and second choices, and figuring out when and where to meet people. I love random games in the con suite, and fun conversations in the hallways, and the energy that fills the place. There are shitty parts to conventions just like everywhere else (I've personally run into fat hate, racism, and homophobia), but there's also that feeling of being surrounded by my people, and I miss that. I hope I get to go back soon.

In short: best convention would be packed full of activities and people, and involve a private room where I can go be alone at the point where everything is too much and I'm about to snap. Then back to chaos.

I have not yet quite finished December 2014's topics, though it is still a work in progress, but if you want to leave topics for December 2015, I will write about them as much as possible this December, and continue them well into 2016, obviously.

You can also (or instead) leave fandom and prompts for December drabbles. I am making excellent progress on Yuletide (finished the first draft of my assignment and one treat, and the other stories are shaping up nicely), but everything is so long that sometimes I want breaks to write little one-off pieces.

Fandoms in which I've previously written below the cut.

( Fandoms )

Prompts below this cut.

( Prompts )

December Talking Meme Master List

I'm going to bump the rest of the topics into January. Since I've been enjoying the (semi-)regular posting, please feel free to comment with any other topics you'd like me to address. I may also pull prompts from other people's posts, as I've seen a ton that are really interesting.

Day 18 prompted by littledust: tattoos.

I love tattoos. I currently have two, one on my upper back from when I used to do SCA stuff (my clan sister and I got matching tattoos for the first war I ever attended, Lilies War back in the early 2000s), and one on my calf. It is the constellation canis major, and I got it before grad school as a reminder that there was so much more to life than what I was doing, and that it's okay to be the hound, not the hunter. (We are not those wielding the tool, we are the weapons being wielded.) (There's also a bit of fannishness to it, because Sirius, the brightest star, is in canis major.) Eventually, I will get more. Not entirely sure what I will get yet, but one thing I've been considering is Orion's belt on the inside of my wrist, because I am both hound and hunter. I haven't figured out the design yet, but I will at some point create one around "the stars, then, must contain us somehow in their burning" from Jessica Piazza's "The Astronomer and the Poet". There are so many other tattoos lurking. They'll mark my skin eventually.

I love the feeling of getting tattooed. To me, there's no pain, just pressure, maybe a little burning. (I don't actually feel things much when in contact with my skin, including electricity and heat, but that's really a different topic.) I love the sound of the machine, the way the artist (at least my favorite artist) understands I don't want to talk, I just want quiet. I breathe in, I breathe out, and needles bring beauty and blood to the surface of my skin.

I love tattoos on people. I find well-done tattoos incredibly attractive, and yes, I'm aware that tattoos are highly subjective. I love full sleeves, covered thighs, skin peeking out through stark ink. I love the traditions that different cultures have with tattoos. I love the stories in tattoos, often so personal, and how even when I put mine into words, no matter how much I say, it will never capture everything that rides in the ink decorating my skin.

If I was a better artist, if I could create more than just abstract art, if I could draw a straight line, I might have become a tattoo artist myself. It involves talking to people, touching them, and I'm not okay with that so much, but then there are those moments of peace between artist and living, breathing creation. Those moments I love.

December Talking Meme Master List

(There are still some days left open in the meme, if you want to suggest a(nother) topic.)

Day 15 suggested by osprey_archer: femslash in general.

Oh, femslash. I love femslash. I love stories about girls and women, I find women seriously sexy (especially competent, tough, smart women), and two (or more) women falling into love or lust together is the best. The best. Part of why I love femslash so much is that there is still a dearth of female characters getting to be awesome together in the same source material. It's getting better, but it's still not great. (Joss Whedon's take on the Avengers is but one example of this.) So taking the women in the source material and telling their stories together, sexual, romantic, friendly, whatever, is important to me.

I am flailing. I don't know why, but it's such a broad topic, I can't seem to find any words. I love stories about girls and women falling in love and how that fits into their canons. Letty and Mia in Fast and the Furious, the way they each carve out a place in a world made up mostly of men, where women are love interests or sex symbols. Faith from BTVS and basically everyone ever as she eyefucks them as seduction. D.E.B.S. and it's adorable queer girl romance. (Mia as the jewel thief lesbian, A MILLION TIMES YES.) Surf girls in love. Dancers in love. Gymnasts in love.

Just give me all the stories about girls and women, in love, in lust, having adventures, heroes and villains, princesses and knights, thieves and doctors. I just -- tell me all their stories, please. Poly stories. Family stories. Everything. Give it to me.

December Talking Meme Master List

Day 11 suggested by kate: Can I get thoughts about pets? Your own, your fictional characters, other people's fictional characters... anything.

OMG PETS. I love pets. I currently have a dog I adopted from a rescue shelter in summer 2013. They knew nothing about her history; she basically turned up in their yard (the shelter has an amazing facility, lots of space for the dogs to run). Izzy is about four years old now; she's an Australia cattle dog and beagle mix. Her face is pretty much all beagle, and she has her beagle moments, but mostly she's cattle dog all the way.

I wanted a beagle. I had one growing up, Scooter, who my siblings found as a tiny puppy in the barn. We had his mother for awhile, too, but he was the only puppy who ended up surviving, and she wasn't around long either. He was floppy and ridiculous and he was with us from when I was young until I went off to university, and then he got sick and had to be put down while I was away.

Anyway, I'd been looking at this particular shelter for a few years, checking out their online dog listings, but I'd never been out there before. That summer I had to take a month of medical leave because of the bipolar (and the crash I had after all the deaths in the family), but by the end of the summer, I was feeling healthy enough I thought I might be able to take care of another living thing. I went out to the shelter to look at two dogs in particular, both older beagles. One had been adopted already, and the other had quite a bit of health problems. I wasn't sure I could handle the death of a pet in the next couple years (I mean, it's always possible, yes, but far more likely with that dog), so I went looking at all the other dogs in the facility, and I found this ridiculous, adorable little girl.

When we did our meet and great, the volunteer tried to get her to run and play a little, but she crawled right into my lap and wouldn't move. There was zero percent chance I wasn't adopting her after that, and the only reason I didn't take her home that night was because she hadn't been fixed yet, and they had to do that first. The timing on all this was amazing. I just randomly decided to finally go out after work and take a look, I didn't plan on adopting a dog that day, and literally the next person on the list after me for meet and greets had her listed as their first choice (and, funny enough, my second choice was also their second choice, a male beagle who was super fun too). If I'd been a minute later in signing up, I wouldn't have got her, because they took their second choice home. (We were filling out our paperwork at the same time.)

Here's a picture of Izzy the day we met:

( please take me home )

Since then, she's gained about 15 pounds (vet recommended), and she's become so much better socialized. Still, she's still very protective of me (and of Nephew), and while she likes other dogs at the dog park or at our homes (except when they try to mount her), she does not like other dogs when she's "working," which is basically any time she's leash walking, hanging out in the yard, or in the car. (Other things she doesn't like, possibly because she thinks they're giant dogs: cows, horses, busses, concrete sculptures of bigfoot).

Cattle dogs are known for bonding with their person and being very loyal. Owners often call them shadow dogs because they always want to be RIGHTTHERENEXTTOYOU, and Izzy is no different. She's asleep against my thigh as I type this. Her favorite spot is near me wherever I go. She sleeps pressed up against my back. She follows me everywhere. She loves road trips and hanging out while I write and running around the yard with giant branches in her mouth. She's fifty pounds, and both thinks she's a lap dog (and, to be fair to her, J's a giant, so she is a lap dog for him) and big enough to take on dogs two or three times her size. (Or cows. Or horses. Or busses.) I'm hoping I can find a friend with cows, because I'm curious to know exactly what she thinks she'll do with them if she gets them. (How ingrained is that herding instinct anyway?)

I think pets are wonderful. She absolutely is the best thing ever for my mental health, even more than my meds, because the meds lose effectiveness, but Izzy is a delight forever. (Even when she's trying to kill other dogs or protecting Nephew from his BFF who is trying to rough house with him or shitting in the house.) There are plenty of days where the only thing that's kept me alive is the fact she needs me.

My family has had dogs, horses, goldfish, and a guinea pig before, plus after I'd gone off to university, a basement cat (because my dad doesn't really like cats -- and neither do I, plus I'm allergic -- but they didn't want to just leave it outside when it turned up). Right now, Dad has a tiny little poodle who bosses around all the other animals, I have Izzy, and all my siblings have pets, generally cats and/or dogs (with a couple other pets running around, like a turtle who has gone from one sibling to another).

A+ for pets.

I like pets in fiction, too, but because I love horror stories and mysteries, pets are not always a great idea, so I don't usually see them much.

December Talking Meme Master List

(There are still some days left open in the meme, if you want to suggest a(nother) topic.)

No prompt for today, so I'm going to talk about where I am with my Yuletide writing. Because there is less than two weeks until the deadline. It feels like there are still weeks and weeks less, but nope. The deadline approaches, and I have not finished a single fic. I've worked on three today, so a status update.

Assignment: 1300 words, beginning and end, but the middle. Oh, man, the middle. COME ON, STORY. I KNOW WHAT'S HAPPENING. WHY CAN'T WE GET IT DOWN?

Treat #1: 8700 words, two and a half scenes left, this is the fun idea that started out small and normal and then blew up. This is not my fault, but I can't explain why it's not my fault until later, so. Just know, it's not my fault.

Treat #2: 800 words, all of the scenes are started, but none are finished. Reviewing source material again now, but I need to break to do other things soon.

Treats #3, 4, and 5: Nonexistent at the moment, but I still have hope.

I need to go run errands and then sit down and finish a draft of my assignment. Just the middle left, come on. This can be done soon. It can.

December Talking Meme Master List

(There are still some days left open in the meme, if you want to suggest a(nother) topic.)

Day 7 suggested by alasse_irena: A crossover you want to read that you've never seen...

An epic crossover of women from werewolf movies and tv shows, both women who are werewolves and women who are werewolf hunters. I'd love to see characters from Never Cry Werewolf, Ginger Snaps, Cursed, Dog Soldiers, Supernatural, BtVS/AtS, early Teen Wolf and on and on. Toss in characters from fandoms that don't have werewolves to make it an epic werewolf crossover AU: Gemma and Tara and Donna from Sons of Anarchy are werewolves. So are the women of the Fast and the Furious series. Danny from the Carmilla web series. The Blue Crush surfers. Basically, I just want all sorts of awesome women tossed into a story with monsters and magic, and boom. Crossover werewolf AU of my heart.

I never nearly wrote this one time, but it would take thousands and thousands of words, probably hundreds of thousands, and I just don't have the writing time to create an epic fanfic like that anymore.

So tell me, what are your favorite crossovers? I'd love recommendations. I read even if I don't know one (or all) of the fandoms.

(Between this and comments on yesterday's werewolf post, I'm going to do a follow-up post where I talk about specific werewolves in fiction. So excited.)

December Talking Meme Master List

(There are still some days left open in the meme, if you want to suggest a(nother) topic.)

Day 5 was suggested by isis, tell me about your Harry Potter Mary Sue. What house are you sorted into? Which class are you best at?

This topic made me grin so big. According to Pottermore, I'd be sorted into Gryffindor, though I expected Slytherin or Ravenclaw, depending on whether my creativity and love of learning trumped my cunning ambition on any given day. Carla Sue would be BFF with Hermione, in a real love/hate relationship where we fight over who's the greatest witch of our age. She's better at reading and remembering things, I'm better at doing whatever it takes to prove I'm the best. (See? So not Gryffindor.) I'm really good at dueling club. (It'd be my magical boxing, I've decided, though only if I could remember not to actually hit people. Hitting is fun.)

Carla Sue would be best at potions. I may hate cooking, but I fucking loved chemistry. What is potions but chemistry + magic? And the part of cooking I love is the precision of ingredients. I don't like cooking in the having to shop for ingredients and having to decide what to eat, omg food who cares, and prepping for one person. (I'm getting better at all of this.) I'd be demanding alchemy by sixth and seventh year. I'd also be pretty damn great at Care of Magical Creatures, right up until Hagrid wanted us to care for a giant spider, and then I'm out.

Carla Sue would suck at History of Magic if it required a lot of date memorization, because I sucked at history classes which required a lot of date memorization and regurgitation. (Even though I love history classes and podcasts and documentaries and books.)

The thing that might go awesome or might suck is flying. It could be the greatest thing ever, flying and speed and it's like taking my sports car into the sky YAY. On the other hand, it's possible that it would kick off my vertigo. (Or maybe Carla Sue has been cured of vertigo. Go Carla Sue.) I'm hoping it wouldn't, because, you know, driving doesn't trigger it, but who knows.

So there you go. Reluctant Gryffindor who should have been in Slytherin, great at potions, sucky at History of Magic. Probably dating a werewolf, let's be real.

December Talking Meme Master List

Day three is from marginalia, the thing you most want to do in your life that you think is impossible for whatever reason (financial, laws of physics, etc.).

This is an amazing question. I have no idea. I have too many ideas.

I've been thinking about this since it was suggested, and I've finally settled on an answer. I would love to have a simple, open to the sunlight home big enough for my people to all live together and still have our own spaces for introvert alone time. It would be on a beach with the Pacific stretched out warm and blue as far as the eye could see. There would be big glass windows that open, and a lanai encircling the entire house. Bonfire pits, great twisty roads for motorcycle riding, room for dogs and horses to run. It would be a writing retreat for the girl and me, who write together a lot. There would be a giant room for our writing and brainstorming, with white boards and lots of light. Heating in the floors. Leather furniture. A room set up for arting, lots of storage. A library of books. A library of DVDs. It wouldn't matter that not all of us have the same citizenship, we can live there without worrying about crap like that.

We'd support ourselves each doing the things we love, mostly writing and arting and cooking.

I want a safe space for us all. A place we can be queer and fat and crazy and biracial and introverted and angry and and and.

What's interesting to me is that there are already pieces of this in place. Yeah, there's not one big home by the sea where we all live in happiness, but other than that, we have holidays together, and arting days, and writing adventures. J's family fills his house and we find love and laughter and peace (and stress and fighting and drama, but that comes with family). I hang out at my dad's almost every evening I'm in town, and our dogs play together. Sister J and brother in law welcome us into their home and we marvel at their library of books and DVDs and video games.

Mostly, I just want the people I care about and trust in the same space, a geographic location I love.

I love living in cities, but I think I'm ready for isolation and ocean and peace.

There are still some open spaces in my December Talking Meme, so feel free to hit me up with more requests.

Today's prompt came from lyryk, and is about which genres I like, in fanfic or otherwise.

Oh, dudes, this was a difficult question to answer. I like all sorts of things. I like to watch mysteries and contemporary and action adventure and horror. I like to read supernatural adventures and paranormal and horror, all most in young adult. I like to play tabletop games that involve monsters and letting me roll a character that kicks a lot of ass. I love horror video games, except that they're mostly first person, and I can't play those (or generally watch shaky cam movies or tv) because it triggers my vertigo, so that sucks. I like logic puzzles and solving things.

My favorite genre ever is werewolves, because werewolves are awesome. Every fandom needs more werewolves, and therefore werewolf AUs are things I will read the hell out of forever. More on werewolves later this month, though.

I love young adult fiction, particularly supernatural adventure (werewolves and vampires and ghosts and zombies, oh yeah), dystopia, and contemporary that isn't about straight white characters. I love books about road trips and girls kissing and flirtations. I love stories about families, particularly siblings who fight and snarl and still protect each other no matter what.

I really enjoy horror stories, other than torture porn and where rape is used as the best thing to use to scare women. I like mysteries and suspense, though over the past decade or so, I've been more interested in this genre in tv and movies, rather than books. (Let me know if you have any book recs, though. I'd like to get back into reading.) I like sexy stories with a bit of violence, and violence with plot.

In fanfic, I particularly enjoy crossovers, especially where very disparate fandoms are brought together in a storm of AWESOME through excellent characterization. I love poly family stories in fandoms where the source material is all about teams and teamwork.

Across everything, I like action and monsters, and stories that combine them and mix with a dash of romance and a good helping of wit. I like created family stories. I feel strongly that family is not just blood, and I want to see that reflected everywhere.

I just love stories, man. Tell me your tales.