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

[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...