RL and Fannish Ramblings

[kelly_chambliss]

Now that I have a few free hours to spend at the computer (and packing to procrastinate over), I'll treat you all to some riveting minutiae from my action-packed life.

But first, some sad but not unexpected news: Remember my partner's great aunt, whose 100th birthday party in the UK she (partner) almost missed because of the ash cloud? Well, that fabulous great aunt died yesterday, "fairly peacefully," according to the nursing home. We're not inquiring too deeply into what "fairly" means in this context; at least it was quick. It's a shame, but she had told several people that she was ready to go, and she had her sharp mind until the end. I feel privileged to have known her.


My RL Trivia...

--All quiet on the ant front; no new scenes of slaughter required.
--Half the home repairs have been completed, and the rest will be done tomorrow (or so the workers assured me as they left after half a day).
--Two seconds ago, two blue jays staged a screaming fight on my deck, and the surprise of it caused me totally and completely to scald my tongue on fresh coffee. Ow.
--Tonight I'm going out to dinner with my two closest friends here at home, whom I won't be seeing for a few months.
--On one of the bookstore excursions with the family, I found UK hardback editions of HBP and DH. I was sorely tempted by a book called Guide to Gracious Lesbian Living (from just a quick glance, I think it was a satire), but I restrained myself. I have too many books as it is. Thousands. Literally.

--Beholder reveals are up and are really fun. As soon as I saw some of the authors, I thought, "Oh, of course; I should have known that." Others astonished me completely.

I was right on four out of the six authors I thought I knew: atdelphi wrote the great Snape/Filch; synn, an author I hadn't read before, wrote that lyrical Hooch/Sprout, "Zinnia and Marigold." (I guessed her because "Zinnia" is the only entry in the entire fest on which she didn't comment. She's obviously not the sneaky Slytherin that miss_morland is /g/). femmequixotic wrote the Millicent/Viktor with background H/D; everything she writes is unique and excellent. magnetic_pole wrote "Air Heart"; its cleverness and skillful political dimension were the tip-offs there. (Although earlier in the fest, I mis-guessed Maggie and Delphi as the authors of other fics. Once I saw their real ones, though, there was no question.) And I was right on all my guesses about the art; those styles are almost impossible to conceal.

cranky__crocus, I never thought of you for the fine Iris/Rita, but I definitely should have. It's quirky and clever, just like you. I'll love you forever for giving the world Auntie Muriel in a threesome.

My favorite, the fantabulous Muriel/Ollivander story, was written by featherxquill, at whose feet I now lie.

My own gift came from odogoddess, who runs the excellent snapelyholidays fest and writes such a fine Minerva.

You'll be shocked to learn that the story I wrote pairs Snape and McGonagall: Witness. Now I can publicly thank my patient and perceptive betas, therealsnape and tetleythesecond, who saved me from story suicide more than once. And thank you, pale_moonlite, for the lovely rec! (and for that grand McGonagall/Sinistra pairing. There's another one I should have guessed.)

Well, I hate to see Beholder end, but the good thing about fandom is that there are always new fests to look forward to. Delirious with the promise of summer freedom, I've signed up for FIVE. To wit,

hp_femsmut: Due in July; my prompt is "Minerva/open; a day in the life"

femgenficathon Also due in July; I'm toying with some Jane Austen ideas (and HP, of course)

hp_scc_fest: I don't even know when this deadline is (suppose I should check that), but who can resist writing old-woman bdsm? Certainly not I.

minerva_fest: Due Sept. 1. I simply can't wait for this one.

snapecase This one isn't due until October 31. I couldn't resist it. Some of you will remember that wonderful severus_shorts birthday fest from last year; this fest runs on the same premise of stories dedicated to specific decades of Snape's life (only this time, without the birthday theme). Sign-ups were closed after 30 participants. In quality, the birthday fest was up there in the Beholder-level stratosphere, so I'm hopeful that this new one will be, too.

And now, let me promote two DW sites: circes_circle, a new comm devoted to discussion of HP adults, and femslash_kink (where you submit fun, femslash porn prompts and then choose one (or more) to write a very short ficlet about.

Comments

[delphi]

First of all, I'm sorry to hear about your family's loss. *hugs*

On the Beholder front, I have to say again how much I enjoyed your story. I love outside POVs in shippy fic, and yours was one of the best I've read. And you know, you were actually one of three people to think I wrote "Never Hearts and Flowers," which really interested me because the real author is my long-time roleplaying partner.

[kelly_chambliss]

Thanks! We're sorry about our aunt, but a fairly quick death after 100 mostly-good years is not such a bad thing.

I've seen several HP role-playing games, and they look intriguing. But I'm not quite sure how they work: -- they feature continuing stories with different people playing the roles of the characters? Is each person assigned a task, or do you just get to make up the plot as you go along?

You and Chaos Rose must think alike /g/ -- I thought her story had several of the sorts of insights and fine lines that I associate with yours.

[delphi]

Games vary, but generally there's a moderator or two who directs the overarching plot (usually with behind-the-scenes input from everyone) and gives the players things to react to, while the players are free to make their own subplots within that framework.

For instance, I briefly ran a game that involved Ministry employees during the first war with Voldemort. Each player had an LJ for their chosen character(s) in which they could post private diary entries or letters to non-player characters (which everyone could read but no one could comment on or explicitly act like they'd read), letters to other characters (viewable to all, but only the recipient could reply), or write-ups of private RP sessions with other characters (conducted in IM chat or by email, then put together into a vignette).

As the mod, I put together a public timeline of the war that everyone could access, and once a week I would post something like a departmental memo that everyone could comment on, or a newspaper article describing some event that would incite response. It's a tricky balance for a mod, keeping everyone interested and engaged while respecting their autonomy over their characters.

Anyhow, it's been a while since I joined a proper game, but I've been doing private one-on-one RPing on IM for years, and it's great fun.

[kelly_chambliss]

Thanks for the explanation; it sounds like fun -- but a lot of work for the mod(s).