Yuletide Treat #1: "Face of the Moon" [Twin Peaks, Diane & ensemble]

Title: Face of the Moon
Fandom: Twin Peaks
Characters: Diane, Audrey Horne, Albert Rosenfield, Gordon Cole, Harry Truman, Denise Bryson, Dale Cooper.
Summary: Diane doesn't work in the spotlights. If Dale is the bright face of the moon, then let her be the other face, the one people don't see. That doesn't mean she's not part of the story.
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 2600 words

( Face of the Moon )

Yuletide Treat #2: "Fake Plastic Life" [Galaxy Quest, Alexander Dane & ensemble]

Title: Fake Plastic Life
Fandom: Galaxy Quest
Characters: Alexander Dane, Gwen DeMarco, Jason Nesmith.
Summary: Sometimes all you need ends up being right in front of you. Alexander should know.
Rating: PG
Word Count: 1600 words

( Fake Plastic Life )

Yuletide treat #3: Be My Homeward Dove [Twin Peaks, ensemble]

Title: Be My Homeward Dove
Fandom: Twin Peaks
Characters: Sarah Palmer, Albert Rosenfield, Harry Truman, Audrey Horne, Dale Cooper.
Summary: Five goodbyes in Twin Peaks which really aren't goodbyes at all.
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 2100 words

( Be My Homeward Dove )

That Good Ole Year in Fandom meme

( But first, let's talk New Year's resolutions. )

New Year's time is meme time, so here goes:

Your main fandom of the year? 2011 was a very mixed bag. Not a very productive year, fic-wise, but still a year in which I fell head over heels for some new fandoms and rediscovered my love for old ones. I don't think there was a 'main' fandom that jumped out, though. I've always been multifannish, this year just more so than usual. My writing, too, has been all over the place.

Your favorite film watched this year? A tie between Deathly Hallows Part II and X-Men First Class. Neither of which I would call the best film I've seen this year, but they were definitely favorites, each for their own reason. DH because I went into the theater with pretty huge expectations that I never expected to be met, and walked out feeling entirely satisfied; XMFC for the opposite reason, in that I hardly knew the fandom and had no idea what to expect, and found the film a glorious and hugely entertaining surprise.

Your favorite book read this year? Night Watch, by Terry Pratchett. For a long time I just wasn't into Discworld at all, having read one of the books (in an admittedly crappy Dutch translation) several years ago and being fairly underwhelmed by it. I gave it another try this year and picked up Night Watch at the library - and was very impressed. I've been steadily working my way through the series for the better part of this year now.

Your favorite TV show of the year? Merlin, which turned out to be just the mix of charm, wit and moral dilemmas that I needed, sort of like what Stargate: Atlantis was for me last year. Thanks, selenak, for tempting me into it!

Your favorite DW/LJ community of the year? Discovering the abundance of B5 comms at Tumblr was a very pleasant surprise, as was the twinpeaks comm at DW, new since this year.

Your best new fandom discovery of the year? Tumblr. Even though I barely post myself, it's fun to watch all the fannish stuff roll by!

Your biggest fandom disappointment of the year? A colleague recommended Stargate: Universe to me, but so far I'm pretty 'meh' about it. Some of the characters have potential, but in all honestly I'm finding it all rather dark and tedious and a bit depressing; also, it doesn't feel much like Stargate to me. Unless that's just the early episodes and I should just press on to where it gets better?

Your fandom boyfriend of the year? I'm more or less over him now, but I'd have to say Charles Xavier. I had it pretty bad for him. :)

Your fandom girlfriend of the year? Gwen from Merlin or Gwen from Torchwood, depending on what mood you caught me in.

Your biggest squee moment of the year? This exchange between Gwen and Jack in TW: Miracle Day. "I'll kill you if it means saving my daughter." "I'll kill you if it means saving my life." Brutal honesty and perfect understanding, and I loved how this showcased Jack and Gwen as equals in a way they've never been before.

The most missed of your old fandoms? In retrospect, I wish 2011 had had more Star Trek in it. I didn't even write any fic in the fandom! But we have Sci-Fi channel now, and they're going to be showing Enterprise, which I'm actually looking forward to. I know it's not the most popular of Treks, but I figure it will still be a nice reunion with the fandom.

The fandom you haven't tried yet, but want to? I'd love to get more into Santuary. I've caught a few errant episodes, but they were rather generic ones that didn't really pull me in. Lots of my flisties seem to love the show, though, so I really want to try to get invested. If only because Amanda Tapping seems amazing in the role!

Your biggest fan anticipations for the New Year? I'm really looking forward to seeing The Hobbit. Not an original answer, I know. Also, I really hope I'll be able to go a convention this year. It's been some time since my last one, and the lineup for Fedcon in Germany is starting to look quite tempting, so... *ponders*
 

This and that, and also: your prompts, give me them?

I'm curious: how many of those of you who've done Yuletide, either now or in the past, have made it a point to request and offer entirely different fandoms? Because on one of the Yuletide comms I spotted a comment that surprised me. Basically someone was stating "I would never request fics for fandoms that I offer; what's the point? If you can write in that fandom, why bother asking someone else to write for you? Just write it yourself!" Which... wait, what?

Now I can see where it makes sense to request the kind of fic you couldn't possibly pull off yourself. But the inverse, i.e. to consciously refrain from requesting fic you could write yourself? Really pings me as strange. To me, a huge part of the fun is exactly in getting to see others tackle those fandoms that I'd be tempted to write in, or have already written in, myself. Even if I do re-read my own stuff occasionally (if rarely, and only those stories that don't make me cringe in retrospect), comparing that to the joy of having something written for you... To me, at least, in terms of sheer reading pleasure, a self-written fic can never compete with a well-crafted fic written by someone else. And that's not even talking about different writing styles and takes on canon, and how being able to write in a certain fandom doesn't guarantee you can write that precise situation in that precise way.

So, yeah, the question of requesting and offering, and writing your own fannish desires as opposed to seeing them get written by someone else? I'm really interested in hearing others' opninions on this.

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In other news: I'm really in the mood for having some prompts bounced off me! Anybody game?

Yuletide has definitely helped me slip back into my regular writing routine, but inspiration remains a bit of a sore point. If any of you have a prompt or theme or a type of story that you'd like to see me tackle, please let me know! I'm thinking of familiar fandoms (Star Trek, Babylon 5, Twin Peaks) primarily, but if there's something in another fandom that you think I could manage, feel free to hop in and talk about what you'd like. It doesn't have to be smack in my comfort zone, a bit of a challenge is always nice as well; I trust most of you know me well enough by now to have a pretty good idea of what would or wouldn't be realistic for me to pull off in terms of pairings, themes, genre, etc.

In short: go wild, flist (but not too wild, okay? :) )!

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Also, I have a new Cooper icon! Shall I tell you how I love it? *happy Dale makes flappy hands*

*

Back to work tomorrow - dang. And just when I was getting the hang of this holiday business. Forgive me if I pout for a bit. (Still: flappy hands Dale! Makes everything better!)