The Whatnot of TJ

 Challenge #3

Challenge #12

In your own space, tell us who you would recast in a film, tv series or webseries, or maybe someone voicing a cartoon or videogame. Or who would you cast to play a character in a book, comic or maybe even your own fiction!

( The Sparrow )

( Harry Potter OF course )

As for my own fiction. For my novel, I had this guy cast as the main character.

Challenge Two: Origin Story

Gather around the fire as I regale you with tales of days of yore. The year was aught six and my life was about to change A LOT.

Before that, I was weird and obsessive about things, but only in my mind because I was the only one who thought like I did about the things I thought them about, right? I mean, obviously. As a wee one, while everyone was talking about Star Wars and Jedi and the Empire, light and dark and the politics and world building, no one was talking about the only thing that mattered to me. Han and Chewie.

Then when I was 12, I found The Outsiders and that changed my life and I had no outlet to pour into, no community to share stories and feelings and it all just sat in my heart for a very long time. When I think what I would have done if I'd known about fandom back then... if there had been a fandom for things back then.

I was a bit like that with My Own Private Idaho too... and River Phoenix in general. In fact, one of the first things I ever wrote before I even knew what fanfic was, before I ever knew what RPF was, a Mary Sue-ish, dream like thing that I embarrassingly gifted to a friend who I hope never read it. Years later, I'd change it up a bit here for my only RPF that I'll claim as my own.

There was music and musicians I obsessed with too--Dylan, Pearl Jam and some other bands that never made it out of Seattle proper.

Then I started reading Harry Potter to the littles in my care. I resisted--we resisted, but peer pressure is real and it truly was perfect timing as the oldest was herself 11. We started after Goblet of Fire and we actually tried to start with that one. Didn't work. It was half way through PoA that I started reading it while the littles were at school and at night in my room. I remember finishing that one and sneaking down stairs for the next one and reading it all throughout the night. That was NOT a short book. I just couldn't stop.

And I had no one to talk to it about. Well, the littles of course, and we did, as we listened to the audio books--after I've finished reading them--every day to and from school. We talked about theories and what we supposed would happen when the next one, the one after that and finally the last one came out.

It was when the third movie came out that I found out about fandom by meeting a woman who was in it. At first, I thought that I couldn't really get into sharing my thoughts and feelings with others because mine were ~unique~ and I was weird. HAHAHAHA! Don't we all feel that way? And isn't it amazing to realize we are just as weird--and oddly still unique--as everyone else? She talked me into going to a Harry Potter con in New Orleans. I wasn't sure, I didn't know anyone, didn't know any of the lingo--what's your lj username? Who is your OTP? I had no idea. But, I met a lot of people who actually thought like I did about the things I thought about.

Life was never the same.

There's more, of course, much more. But that's where it all began. And that's where I'll stop for now.

Day 5

In your own space, promote three communities, challenges, blogs, pages, Twitters, Tumblrs or platforms and explain why you love them.

Firstly, above the cut because I want to make sure everyone sees it--homemade2homemade is now open for sign ups for a Geeky Craft Exchange!!


homemade2homemade is a community for geeky crafters to share their obsessions and talents!

Come join us for the second round of our gift exchange!
All levels of geeks and crafters are welcome!
Sign up between January 9-31, 2019
WELCOME!

( More Communities )

In your own space, post recs for at least three fanworks that you did not create.

'Tis the season to be humbled and honored that people wrote amazing things based on my wild rambling prompts and suggestions. I'm always awed when people can decipher my whatnot and make beautiful sense of it. These two were so very perfect:

First from Yuletide:

Balance Point (3352 words) by valderys
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Philadelphia Story (1940)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Macaulay Connor/C.K. Dexter Haven, Macaulay Connor/Tracy Lord, C.K. Dexter Haven/Tracy Lord
Characters: Macaulay Connor, C.K. Dexter Haven, Tracy Lord
Additional Tags: Negotiations, Slow Burn
Summary:

TRACY: I have the most wonderful little house in Unionville. It's up on a hill with a view that would knock you silly. I'm never there except in the hunting season, and not much then, and I'd be so happy to know that it was of some real use to someone...

Mike becomes a real author while Dexter and Red figure out if the pieces still fit - or if they ever did.

I love these characters so much and they are played by such amazingly iconic actors (Hepburn, Grant, Stewart) that I would be terrified to get it right. But this author does it so freakin' well. Reminds you the characters have substance with or without the actors saying their words, but still... you can see them there...

---

Constancy Remus and Minerva Gen REMUS AND MINERVA GEN Shut up and take my money!!! I love them so much and have such a strong and strange headcanon for them that this story fit so amazingly...but it didn't read as Ridiculous-To-Anyone-Not-Me. Everyone will love this soft and beautiful relationship expertly rendered.

This last one wasn't technically a gift for me, but seriously, it's pretty much a gift for anyone who loves well told stories about characters rife with possibility that you wouldn't have thought or imagined if you had the world of time to create it. It's a gift for anyone who's love of books and libraries is only reviled by your love of language and the human condition. ♥

Bibliomancy Irma Pince was called as Librarian to fulfil the vision of the Hogwarts Library. She's spent her life turning that vision into reality with the complicated magic of books. People are no less complicated.

Day 5

In your own space, post recs for at least three fanworks that you did not create.

Okay, this is going to get long and probably take me forever, because I don't make things easy for myself and bookmark hardly ever but here goes.

Firstly, I've been incredibly remiss to gush publicly with the bounty that has been my fest season. I know recs for gift fic are taken with a grain of salt, I mean, how could I not love something written for me specifically, right? But firstly, recs are always subjective and secondly, a fic shouldn't be punished just because it was written for me, yes?

( Fics written for me, but you'll enjoy too... probably: )

( Non-Gift fic From HP Fests: )

( And finally, two random fics from the 1st day of the Snowflake Challenge: )

---

See? I told you that was going to be ridiculously long. But you know what I always say: Go Big or Go Home. (Actually never said that before in my life.) ♥

What have I been doing to get over my post-election funk? Reading of course. I had gone to my comfort-read file (just kidding, I don't have one of those, because that's what smart, well put together people have. All I have are vague recollections of fics that made me happy and other smart, well put together people's rec lists). But then interhouse_fest began posting and since I try really hard to participate as much as I can in fests I write for, I started reading.

There are some delightful things over there getting little to no love and so I thought, if people are like me and leery about pairings and stories from unknown writers and are looking for someone to bite the bullet for them first and report back whether it is worth their time, I would take it upon myself to be that person. So here I am, reporting back with the ones I've read so far that I think a lot more people would enjoy. I'm about a week in a half behind, so there are others that I'll have to report back on later (and if you have read anything from there in that time that are good, please let me know, cool?)

The Road to Nowhere (Fred/Pansy) 12.6k, R, War A/U.
A Beautiful Kind of Strange (Ron/Luna) 4.5k, NC-17
Crashing Into Place (George/Luna) 5.8k, R
In the Public Interest (Pansy/Neville) 3.3K, NC-17
Snakes and Ladders (Astoria/Ginny) 4.1k, NC-17
The Strange Case of the Missing Twins, the Black Kneazle, and the Sepia Photograph (Padma and Pavarti and a whole slew of secondary characters) 8k, PG-13

And that's it for now. I'll try to catch up with both this fest (and my Nano) by the end of the holiday weekend. ♥♥

Day 13

In your own space, post a rec for at least three fanworks that you did not create.

Yes! This gives me an opportunity to share my lovely good fortune from Day 2's bounty. See, karma, it's a ~thing~. ♥

( Icons, art and a fic rec under here )

Day 14

In your own space, share your love for something fannish: a trope, cliché, kink, motif, theme, format, or fandom.

So many choices. But, let's talk about fanvids.

( Vids for ALL THE FANDOMS under here )

Day 15

In your own space, talk about what you're taking away from this challenge. Did you learn something? Did you interact with new people? Or did you try out different fandoms or formats or relationships? What's changed between Day 1 and Day 15 of this challenge?

It's said, that it takes 3 weeks to turn a behavior into a habit, so this was a great start to make a few things habits. The habit to be here and participate in fandom in many different ways, the habit to think about things in new ways, to reach out to new people and the habit to not take things to overly serious all the time. To take time to concentrate on the positive, to tell people that you love them while you still can and to cherish the little things.

I LOVE YOU GUYS SOOOO MUCH!

♥

Day 03

In your own space, post a rec for at least three fanworks that you have created. It can be your favorite fanworks that you've created, or fanworks you feel no one ever saw, or fanworks you say would define you as a creator.

This is perfect actually. I had a lot of different posts I wanted to make today: A rec list, a post about the things I've recently written, and whatever the Snowflake challenge was today. So yay, two birds in one stone. The first two aren't the best I've ever written, but they are the most recent I've ever written (and I do like them a lot).

From Yuletide
Magic Mike XXL

The Zen of Losing Everything (4239 words) by tjs_whatnot
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Magic Mike (Movies)
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Big Dick Richie/Ken (Magic Mike)
Characters: Ken (Magic Mike), Big Dick Richie
Additional Tags: Blow Jobs, Hand Jobs, Yuleporn, Porn with Feelings
Summary:

Losing everything has never been this freeing.

&hearts♥♥ KEN ♥♥♥

---

For akatnamedeaster who at yesterday's Snowflake Challenge requested fic, and since her OTP is Snape/Black and she had mentioned having a shaving kink... mmmmm... shaving...

Close Shave (1467 words) by tjs_whatnot
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Sirius Black/Severus Snape
Characters: Sirius Black, Severus Snape
Additional Tags: Shaving Kink, Hurt/Comfort, Plot What Plot/Porn Without Plot, Hand Jobs, Established Relationship
Summary:

Severus likes when Sirius has a little bit of the animal in him, he's just not a fan of the scruff.

---

And this third one is just something short I wrote this year that I really sort of like a lot, but I don't know many people who read Doctor Who stuff, so it didn't really get too many reads. It was written for May's Merry Month of Masturbation... so there is that... ;)

None More Than Me (784 words) by tjs_whatnot
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Doctor Who (2005)
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Eleventh Doctor/River Song
Characters: Eleventh Doctor
Additional Tags: Merry Month of Masturbation Challenge
Summary:

The Doctor spends some ~quality~ time with his TARDIS and his imagination.

---

Now on to a rec post. ♥♥

banner by capitu

There are things that happen every year that I forget about until they are upon us and then I scramble to make them work. Things like Fandom Snowflake Challenge and Rectober, that I love the idea of and try and participate, but don't get done half the things I wanted.

Then there are things that have become habit and have helped me mark time in fandom for so long that I start gearing up for months (and sometimes up to almost a year before) like Yuletide.

This year is no different. It is October 2nd and I am just now reminded that Rectober is a thing that exists in the world and that it is an awesome thing that I totally want to do.

This time, unlike other times, I actually have the time and ability to really do it right. I even have built in things happening that will help me organize themes.

Week One: Random Fandom

As Yuletide noms are upon us and I am once again getting that Yuletide frenzy that washes over me from the moment noms open, I will devote the first weeks recs to stories that were written for the fest. I have a lot of things bookmarked to read from the years I've participated that I will devour this week. Also, I'll probably rec things that I already have, if there things that even now I go back and revisit. Chances are the people who visit my journal now aren't the same that were here last time. The ones who are will forgive me this, yes?

Week Two: White Collar

Columbus Day weekend I will be at the White Collar Meet Up here in the D.C. area hanging out with other fans, writers and artists and we will be writing and squeeing like mad, and I will be reading ALL THE FIC! I'm super excited about this! I will be back at the end of the week with recs of the best of what I read.

Week Three: Harry Potter

By the end of the month I will be (hopefully) done with my HoggyWarty Thinger Bobber fest fic and will be ready to read all the HP fics I've missed, or (lets be honest) go back and re-read some of my very favorites. And so I will be back here giving you a (hopefully) huge list of HP stories of many pairings and genres that you should probably just take my word for and read. ♥

Week Four: MishMash

Because, lets be honest, the chances that I make it to the fourth week are extremely slim, but on the occasion that I do, I'll keep it open to what I rec... what I read and fall in love with. Maybe some Sherlock, maybe some Doctor Who... who knows.

This shall be fun, yes?

Who else is doing this? Anyone?