About firecat

[firecat]

Here I am rambling about myself, because Snowflake Challenge invited me to. https://snowflake-challenge.dreamwidth.org/51456.html

Basic facts, mostly cribbed from my DW profile:

Name: firecat or stef
Birth year: 1961
Sign: Scorpio
Physical location: SF Bay Area, California, USA
Cyber locations: At the moment, mostly Dreamwidth, especially ffa; also AO3

Relationship status: Several long-standing poly relationships. Currently no other humans live with me.
Pets: Tomoe, an orange tabby cat
Labels: 60ish, fat, white, poly, queer, bi/pansexual, disabled, nonbinary, butch kitty.
Pronouns: ze/zir, they/them (whichever offends your sense of grammar least).
Politics: Black Lives Matter. Pink and green. Feminist. Fat activist.
Religion: Pagan agnostic Buddhist ("and laughing about it," as OKCupid would put it).
Work: Wordsmith (nonfiction/technical writing/editing), mostly retired.
Hobbies: Right now I am all about writing fanfic. I have also been known to play with beads and wire, knit and crochet, volunteer for the local animal shelter.
Mood: Frequently cranky. Frequently charmed.
Opinions: I used to have deep ambivalence about Hello Kitty; now I have deep ambivalence about steampunk.
Fannish interests include: Lucifer, Sherlock Holmes, Star Trek, Babylon 5, the Loki-centric portions of MCU.

For journal policies, posting habits, subscription habits, commenting preferences, and general interests, see my profile.

Me and fandom:

Here's a post of mine about trying to answer the question "when did you join fandom?" My reaction: "what does it mean to join fandom anyway? I didn't join it so much as soak in it for decades until I became increasingly saturated." (Making up stories about my faves: started around age seven. Writing drawerfic (of the kind currently called "bandom") with my friends: started around age fourteen. Connecting with (feminist science fiction and fantasy) fandom as a community: started around age thirty. Posting fanfic for others to read, in earnest: started in the spring of 2020—thank you, Covid muse.)

Me and fanfic:

Since it's new to me, I'm expecting it to evolve, but here's where I'm at now:

• Writing in a lot of different fandoms (taking a sort of a "collect them all" attitude).
  
• Participating in a lot of exchanges.
  
• Not involved in communities around specific fandoms (don't like Discord or Twitter or Tumblr; also I have Unpopular Opinions about my favorite fandom and I don't want to argue about them)
  
• I like coming across kindred spirits who share my interest in one or more fandoms and in fandom in general.
  
• What appliance do you get for recruiting someone to your fandom? I have a few for Babylon 5, a few for The Expanse, and I'm working on my collection for Lucifer.
  
• Important lesson learned early in my career as a fanfic writer: If you have an itch to scratch and you're thinking of writing fanfic for it, don't figure on picking a fandom you're only mildly interested in and writing a light, smutty fic and getting it out of your system. You might just end up madly, obsessively in love. And it might be one of the best experiences of your life, and in fact save what remains of your sanity.

If you have any questions, bring them on.

Comments

[reinadefuego]

I honestly can't believe you've been involved in fandom this long and only just started writing fanfiction now, but I'm glad you jumped on the train and joined us!

What would you say your favourite Sherlock Holmes adaptation is?

[firecat]

I'm glad to be on the train too!

I like Jeremy Brett. None of the other Sherlocks have felt Sherlockian enough for me.

Of the modern AUs, I like Elementary. I wanted to like Sherlock, I think Cumberbatch does a good job with the character, but I didn't like the writing.

[alexcat]

RR: Sherlock - that is my problem with it too1 Cumberbatch is good but the story sucked on every level. I like RDJ's Sherlock but mostly because I want to lick him. Elementary did a decent job with the characters.

[firecat]

I like RDJ's Sherlock but mostly because I want to lick him.

LOL!!!

I like writing shippy crossovers between two characters played by the same actor. I don't know Stark or RDJ Sherlock well enough to write them, but if I did, I would write one for you.

[alexcat]

I think I might five that one a try, given that Stark can time travel!

[firecat]

Yay!

[paulamcg]

What an excellent, informative and fascinating intro! I'm almost exactly your age, but I found fandom a lot later, only online and only a month before I also started writing and immediately sharing fanfic (in 2003, and I still do it only in the Harry Potter fandom, because that's where I ended up madly, obsessively in love). The last lines of this really resonate. I trust DW and Snowflake will help you find the kind of community you enjoy!

[firecat]

Thanks for stopping by! I love all the different ways we find fandom. And I'm glad for the reminder that I'm not the only person of a certain age hanging out in the community. :D

[paulamcg]

:)I found fandom when I, after reading the fifth HP book, desperately wanted to talk about it with someone, and instead, decided to just google for more info on HP - and happened upon a small fan forum. And I've noticed that here in the journals there are quite a few of us of a certain age :)

[firecat]

That's one reason I like it here, yes...

[sjh2009]

Thanks for joining in! I love your description of soaking in fandom for years. Looking back I think that's exactly what I did for years. Of course we didn't have the internet when we were young and hasn't it been such a revelation to find all of these people out there loving fandom like us.

I spent years reading fandom before I tried my hand at writing but I really enjoy it. I will openly admit I'm not one of the best writers out there but some people seem to enjoy my writing and I enjoy the writing process so I write a few things each year, mostly challenges or exchanges.

Hi to Tomoe from 17 year old black panther Plum. I don't know whether its fandom itself or just Snowflake but we seem to be a community of cat people 😻

I took early retirement last year to better care for my 87 year old mother, one of my plans was to volunteer for my local shelter, where I adopted Plum and my two vocals befire her. Coved out pay to that though but hopefully in the future that will still happen, although it won't be any time soon as we've just been put into Lockdown#3!

Enjoy Snowflake and have fun taking part!

[firecat]

*shakes stick* Fandom kids these days have it so easy, with the Internet! :D

Having fun with writing is what it's all about, whatever the skill level. (And your writing is good. I'm a professional editor, so that's the absolute truth!)

I wish you joy with your mother, and Plum, and writing, and the local shelter once Covid allows.

[sjh2009]

Aw, thank you *sends virtual hug*!

We've just locked ourselves in so we can stay safe for the time being, it's not good here at the moment.

[firecat]

(virtual hug back) Yeah, pretty locked up over here too.

[spikedluv]

Hi! Dropping in from Snowflake. I also have a cat, though mine is black (and aptly named Midnight by my aunt). His acquisition was unplanned, but I have discovered that I love being a cat mom.

I'm a beginner at knitting and I let it slide this past year. I may be starting over with learning my knit and purl stitches. And how to cast on. o_O *g*

Interesting story about how long you've been in fandom. I like the image of becoming saturated in it.

[firecat]

Thanks for stopping by!

Unplanned cats are the best!

Casting on is hard! If I ever pick up my knitting again, I'll have to refresh myself with some YouTube tutorials, for sure.

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

Ah ha! A scorpio! :)

The last bullet--ha, ha, ha!

[firecat]

Does Scorpio have special meaning to you? Aren't our signs supposed to be at odds or something? The person I used to live with had a birthday close to the one you say is yours on your profile. I put it that way because I have an Internet birthday and a real birthday. I am an Internet Capricorn.

Ha, ha, ha. Indeed. :)

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

I am not an astrological follower by any means. I just always thought there was a popular stereotype that Scorpios were passionate and wild and reckless. That they had strong, charismatic personalities. Beware the Scorpio, etc.

I am a real Taurus. That's my real birthday. I think Scorpio and Taurus are somewhat compatible. But, you know, fire sign vs. earth sign, so not as compatible as another earth sign would be.

But, yeah, I'm not super into it, but at some point in my dust-covered youth, I probably read one of those Linda Goodman Sun Signs books.

[firecat]

Scorpio is actually a water sign, and I'm embarrassed that I know that. In my dust-covered youth I was really into astrology.

Most of the Scorpios I know are more "quietly menacing" than wild and reckless and charismatic. We leave all that to the Leos. :D

[alexcat]

I'm a Scorpio as well.

[firecat]

*high five*

I seem to collect a lot of Scorpios in my life. I don't think I know anyone else with your birthday though.

[dreamersdare]

Haha, I think this is an excellent approach to a bio (also, did laugh out loud at "whichever offends your sense of grammar least").

Loki is one of the best things about the MCU, in my opinion. Because, you know, power dynmics, darkfic and unhealthy relationships. He falls right up my alley.

I do wonder if any of us actually join fandom, or if we were all already there and we just happened to find other people who were in the same headspace. Someone wrote somewhere in Smowflake about making up self-insert stories about the worlds they liked in their head as a child and... yeah, right there with you, honey. Which makes me speculate on whether there a particular mindset that people live in, that draws them to fandom? Like your saturation decription of it, though :)

[firecat]

Thanks for stopping by! I had a look at your AO3 (tried last night but AO3 was down). I like the 100 fandoms concept! I just counted mine and I've done 48–50 so far, depending on if you count "multifandom" and "original work" as fandoms in their own right.

Yes, I've had so many conversations (consensual and non-) about non-gendered pronouns over the years that I decided to head off one of the typical ones at the pass.

I like your theory that we don't join fandom, we just naturally have the mindset of telling stories and then find each other somewhere along the line. Before I really knew there was a thing called fandom to join, I sometimes found people who felt like kindred spirits in that way.

[dreamersdare]

Apparently AO3 was down because someone posted on Twitter that they had updated their RPF fic and their 40k odd followers all tried to check it out at the same time! The 100 fandoms thing seemed like a fun idea and a good self challenge to encourage me to write in fandoms as well as read them; I count crossover fic as two fandoms (or more if they involve more) provided that characters from both fandoms play an integral role in the fic.

I think there's something fascinating in discovering that other people do think that way; as a kid, I just assumed it was one of the things that made me a weird little outsider!

[firecat]

Yes, we were weird little outsiders. But there turned out to be several of us! Even enough to swamp AO3!

[greghousesgf]

I love the Jeremy Brett version of Sherlock Holmes too.
(I'm also from the SF bay area! what town do you live in?)

[firecat]

I live in Redwood City. You?

[greghousesgf]

Oakland! maybe we could hang out once all this covid insanity is over and we can actually have social lives?

[firecat]

Yeah! Now I have something to look forward to!

[moongoddex]

The 'What does it mean to join a fandom' question is one I always wonder about. Never know whether to count my childhood (single-digits) 'fics' and playground make-believe centred around shows or if I had to be 'consciously' fandoming!

And some of my biggest fandom loves came from a single 'get it out your system' fic hahaha. Totally worth it!

[firecat]

Maybe we all start out telling ourselves stories as children, and some of us never grow out of it, and then meet other similar folks...

Absolutely worth it.

[lirazel]

It's wonderful to read more about you! Thank you for sharing!

[firecat]

Thanks for saying so!