Leta Blake

author. human. working hard to become stellar at life.

Fanwork Friday

Fanwork Friday: The Starring Role #dero #awz

by

Another fantastic fanvid about Deniz and Roman from Alles was zählt (All That Matters). This one is a Roman character study from the early days of their relationship. I hated Deniz during this time period, but Roman wasn’t an easy person to deal with either. He wasn’t a delicate flower. Anyway, yeah, this was lovely to see.

[youtube=http://youtu.be/btXHn-bUrzc]

*

Oh, Roman,  you were such a brat and such a darling. I loved you.

cover-web-copy
Training Season can be purchased at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, ARe, and Smashwords. And also on iBooks.
Unquestionably talented figure skater Matty Marcus is willing to sacrifice everything for his Olympic dream, but his lack of discipline cost him the gold once before. Now the pressure’s on. He needs a coach who can keep him in line, but top coaches don’t come cheap, and Matty can’t afford to stay in the game no matter how badly he wants to win.
When a lucrative house-sitting gig brings him to rural Montana, Matty does his best to maintain his training regimen. Local residents turn out to be surprisingly tolerant of his flamboyant style, especially handsome young rancher Rob Lovely, who proves to be much more than a cowboy stereotype. Just as Matty requires a firm hand to perform his best on the ice, Rob shows him how strong he can be when he relinquishes control in the bedroom. With new-found self-assurance, he drives himself harder to go straight to the top.
But competition has a timetable, and to achieve his Olympic dream, Matty will have to join his new coach in New York City, leaving Rob behind. Now he must face the ultimate test. Has he truly learned how to win—on and off the ice—during his training season?

Fanwork Friday: Back to the Beginning – Deniz & Roman, Alles was zählt #awz #fandom #video

by

Wow. Why do the Germans make me cry with their gay soap couples? Okay, fine, why do all soaps make me cry about their gay couples, regardless of nationality? Oh, Roman. My heart.

[youtube=http://youtu.be/Bwq-TggaPK4]

This is such a good, good, good, good video.

cover-web-copy
Training Season can be purchased at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, ARe, and Smashwords. And also on iBooks.
Unquestionably talented figure skater Matty Marcus is willing to sacrifice everything for his Olympic dream, but his lack of discipline cost him the gold once before. Now the pressure’s on. He needs a coach who can keep him in line, but top coaches don’t come cheap, and Matty can’t afford to stay in the game no matter how badly he wants to win.
When a lucrative house-sitting gig brings him to rural Montana, Matty does his best to maintain his training regimen. Local residents turn out to be surprisingly tolerant of his flamboyant style, especially handsome young rancher Rob Lovely, who proves to be much more than a cowboy stereotype. Just as Matty requires a firm hand to perform his best on the ice, Rob shows him how strong he can be when he relinquishes control in the bedroom. With new-found self-assurance, he drives himself harder to go straight to the top.
But competition has a timetable, and to achieve his Olympic dream, Matty will have to join his new coach in New York City, leaving Rob behind. Now he must face the ultimate test. Has he truly learned how to win—on and off the ice—during his training season?

Fanworks Friday: Icons on LJ — A Soon To Be Lost Art?

by

Now that Tumblr is taking over fandom, the small 100×100 pictures known as icons or avatars on LiveJournal seem to be losing importance. There was a time when icons were an art in and of themselves with entire communities dedicated to them. Now it seems they’ve fallen prey to Tumlbr, too.

Icon Addicts
Fandom Icons

A few samples:

000008_zps0d304ed3_by_atoms_vibrating

by atoms_vibrating

18jBXzrby_booshsploosh

by booshsploosh

34760_original_by_winterfel

by winterfel

azuremonkey_actor02_by_thefixedfoot

by thefixedfoot

FKWxYRd_by_tricksterings

by tricksterings

pd19_by_ever_maedhros

by ever_maedhros

pd21_by_ever_maedhros

by ever_maedhros

sjPfzDPbytricsterings

by tricksterings

Fanworks Friday: Meta from Ladyw1nter, Incorporates Film Theory

by

LadyW1inter has posted a fantastic meta piece exploring why one particular character/story interpretation can, in her opinion, be backed up by meta analysis of the filming choices made during certain key scenes.

Warning! Spoilers for the finale of season two of Teen Wolf! READ IT HERE!

Check out her commentary here. Whether or not you agree with her, it’s clear that fans give a lot more thought to every single piece of the media they consume and use it to draw conclusions about the characters and the show itself.

Fanwork Friday: Pause for Zokka Flailing

by

So, last night I had a migraine, but that’s not the important part of this post. I put the kiddo to bed, but I could hear her reading in her room. I wanted to wait to go to sleep until she was out, too, so I decided to while away the time by going down the rabbit hole of the internet. I honestly have no idea how I even clicked my way to this story, but I ended up opening an Avatar: The Last Airbender slash story with very little intent to actually read it.

But then, holy crap, I fell.

The rabbit hole sucked me down.

I found that I was wrong this whole time about my Avatar OTPs. I thought they were Aang/Katara, Sokka/Suki, and Zuko/Mai. But guess what? This was incorrect. I am still all for Aang/Katara, but my new shiny OTP is Sokka/Zuko! Oh, man, it is delish. Who knew? Whoooo knewwww???

fjlkajflkdjflkfjljfaldjf;asfj

photo byrabby_zpsdb1ac009.jpg
By Rabby at DeviantArt

***

photo zuko1_zps80b7405d.gif photo zuko2_zps8467aa30.gif
Sokka: So we came all this way for nothing. I failed. Again.
Zuko: Err, what would Uncle say‌? Sometimes clouds have two sides, a dark and light. And a silver lining in between. It’s like a silver sandwich! So…when life seems hard…take a bite out of the silver sandwich!
Sokka: Maybe we haven’t failed after all!
Zuko: That’s the spirit! I can’t believe that worked. I didn’t even know what I was saying!
Sokka: No, what you said made no sense at all.

photo zukkaturnedtomoon_zps97477084.gif photo zukoroughbuddy_zps525c4680.gif
Sokka: My first girlfriend turned into the moon.
Zuko: That’s rough buddy.

***

Oh, and the story, which is kind of crack-fiction and chock-full of epithets and kind of over the top with unrealistic sex, but who cares, is Volatile by squirrellysemantics. Just so you know.

FANWORK FRIDAY: THE HAWKEYE INITIATIVE (& Hayley!)

by

One of the things I love about Fanwork Friday is showing off how smart fans can be as well as talented. My pal Hayley is here today to talk about an awesome fan initiative to expose misogyny and misrepresentation in comics

***

“How to fix every Strong Female Character pose in superhero comics: replace the character with Hawkeye doing the same thing.” Gingerhaze 

I love comics. Marvel’s my main bag, but my affection for the medium stretches from The Avengers and Batman to Scott Pilgrim by way of Adventure Time and Hark! A Vagrant! I tend to eschew the major titles for the most part, preferring X-Factor to X-Men (I’m sorry, but a mutant-run film noir detective agency > Wolverine’s numerous dead ex-girlfriends.) Likewise, my favourite Avenger is not Iron Man or Thor, but dear old Hawkeye.

But I’m also a woman, and as a comic-reading woman, it’s pretty hard to ignore the blatant misogyny inherent in the depiction of women in superhero comic art. I’m not the only one. A group of tumblr artists have decided to illustrate this issue in the most hilariously excellent way possible: with the Hawkeye Initiative.

Hawkey1_tumblr_mef5inbiiW1rmx3kqo1_1280

Started up by a bunch of amazing tumblr artists, all of whom you can find out about on the Initiative’s Origins page,  the purpose of the Initiative is a simple one:  “A blog with Clint “Hawkeye” Barton being placed in the same provocative, female poses that are featured in superhero comics.” As a Hawkeye fan, it’s hilarious, but as a woman and a feminist, it’s also pretty horrifying to see. What is wrong with these women’s spines? I have a curved spine and some days it hurts just to get out of bed, never mind fight crime provocatively in a thong.

One of the major targets for ridicule is Rob Liefeld, whose art is so horrendous that there have been entire articles dedicated to how awful he is. (It also makes me sad that he invented my favourite superhero after Hawkeye, Shatterstar, now one of the highlights of Peter David’s X-Factor but once the height of 90s ridiculousness.)

Hawk_2_tumblr_meg9ydn3Y41qd1yw5o2_500tumblr_meg9ydn3Y41qd1yw5o3_500

Check out this contribution to the Initiative. What are those legs I can’t even.


 .

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Sometimes artists make the misogyny extra-obvious by drawing the Black Widow in the “masculine” pose. This one made me choke with laughter.

(The other Avengers get involved too. Any appearances by the Hulk or Captain America are highlights.)
2oNGa

GcJlE

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

You could spend hours laughing at the fantastic contributions, but good art can change the world and the Initiative started making waves within hours of its inception. Here’s hoping that this and projects like it will eventually stamp out these sexist images, or at least lead to male superheroes fighting crime in just their y-fronts too. It would make The Avengers 2 very interesting indeed.

While I’m on the subject of Hawkeye, a recommendation: Matt Fraction’s Hawkeye series, which began in 2012, is one of the best comic books you will ever read. It’s hilarious, with awesome art, great dialogue, and the female Hawkeye, Kate Bishop, presented as an actual person! Clint also owns a dog who eats pizza, leading to this final, disturbing contribution from the Initiative.

tumblr_mefqii6R3R1r0ujm9o2_500 tumblr_mefqii6R3R1r0ujm9o1_500

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Hayley works in children’s literature by day, and is a freelance writer and photographer by night. When she’s not reading comics. You can find her at hazzachaz.wordpress.com. 

***

Speaking of being smart, apparently I’m not because the coding on this just about did my head in. I’m sorry, Hayley, that it looks such a wreck!

Fanworks Friday: Podfic (What is it? Why listen? And more!)

by

Favim.com-4147
Electronic Love by Thaneda Siridhab

One of my favorite things about Fanwork Friday is highlighting all the many super cool things that fans do. I usually focus on visual things like vids or fanart because they’re easy to digest. I haven’t really gone into fanfiction too much, but I plan to do that more. In the meantime, though, I wanted to talk about Podfic.

According to Urban Dictionary: FanFiction that is read aloud and then made available for download. Sometimes the author reads, other times friends or fans of the fic. Great while driving or in meetings! Often popular whilst tread-milling, jogging, etc. Lose pounds to podfic!

A friend of mine, superstitiousme, has always urged me to try podfic but, quite frankly, I’ve never really understood the appeal. At my request, however, she’s generously agreed to educate me and you on the awesomeness of Podfic.

So, take it away, my friend!

***

Leta asked me to write about podfic and why I listen. For those unfamiliar with the term, podfic is an audio recording of a fanfic, also known to some as audiofic. A fan written story that is read aloud by another fan (or by the author themselves) and recorded for other fans to enjoy. podfic has become a major part of fandom for me over the last 5 years. In fact, podfic is my fandom in a lot of ways.

A podfic performer shares their relationship with a fanfic with other fans. Their unique perspective and their passion comes through in the performance and it creates something that I personally find very compelling.

There you are, listening to the story and you can hear the sound of rain, gently falling outside. The performer begins to describe your favorite scene from the story–Merlin and Arthur are having a lie-in on a rainy Sunday morning. Suddenly you hear a text alert, but no it’s not your IPhone; it’s Arthur’s! The lie-in has been interrupted and the performer’s Arthur is pissed but you are smiling like a loon because this performer is ‘nailing it’ on the dialogue and you can really hear him! When this happens to me, it can be a sunny, 120 degrees outside but I’m totally in a London flat with rain-splattered window glass and snuggled boys in bed. Glorious! And all this while I’m doing the dishes!

For me as a listener, podfic can provide me with a totally new perspective on a scene I’ve read silently before, which just adds to my enjoyment of the fic.  I read really fast and as a result I tend to sometimes miss a lot of the little details in fanfic, so when a performance brings out some little nuance I’d previously missed when reading, it’s such a wonderful new depth to the story for me!

Podfic also allows me to keep up with my fanfic obsession when I’m on the go, performers sharing completely new stories with me that I probably wouldn’t have had time to experience without podfic. It makes traffic jams and housework seem like the best parts of my day at times!

So where do you find podfic? The Audiofic Archive contains the most comprehensive archive of podfic online, across all fandoms. In journaling fandom the archive is represented by Amplificaton (or  at LiveJournal). All stories cross-posted to the journal community on LJ or DW are automatically saved to the Audiofic Archive. Amplificathon is also the main hub of the Podfic Fandom in journaling fandom and runs three podfic challenges annually.

Here are just a few of the things happening in Podfic Fandom that excite me:

Amplificathon 2013 – A points-based podfic-creating challenge. So much podfic will be posted for the next six weeks!

Theatripod – Theatripod is a challenge to create multivoice podfics in the style of theatre productions, with a director, auditions, rehearsals, and a final recorded performance with minimal editing. Posting begins April 1, 2013.

Pod_Together (or at Dreamwidth) – An annual collaborative project challenge where authors, readers and artists work in partnership to create fanworks. This challenge has produced some truly amazing fanworks. It also provides fen a place to explore different ways in which writing, performance, sound effects, music and art can be used in storytelling.

PodficBigBang – An annual challenge aiming to increase the number of long podfics available to the fannish community. Posting begins on August 12, 2013.

Pod_Aware – An annual one-week challenge to help fans that have never heard of podfic before find out what it’s all about.

The Podfic Fandom has grown a lot in the last 5 years since I first discovered it, but it’s still one of the most inclusive and just plain fun fandoms I’ve ever had the pleasure to be a part of. Even if all you want to do is listen and maybe give the occasional feedback, you are such a valued part of this fandom! If you can’t find much podfic in your fandom or pairing, even better; JOIN US!! Become a performer and share your favorite pairings with us! I promise we do not bite and we’ll LOVE having you here!

Fanworks Friday: The King of Anything

by

This vid. Oh, wow. I love it still. So much. Thank you, Amelia, for making it. Soaps are awful evil things that are ridiculous and melodramatic, but I guess I love that somtimes, because, gosh, I loved Luke and Reid. The less I say about the character of Noah, though, the better.

The song can be found HERE.

Fanwork Friday: Character Inspired Shopping

by

I think this might be one of the most awesome things I’ve ever seen: Character Inspired Shopping by ja_vy. If I had money to burn, I would absolutely buy most of these outfits and commit my life to wearing one character inspired outfit a day until the end of time.

Examples of the awesome:

Greed-ler

***

Éponine

Éponine by ja-vy featuring a news boy hat

***

Merlin

***

Eleventh Doctor

***

The Little Prince

***

Kara Thrace

***

Babar the Elephant

***

Derek Hale

***

Jane Bennet

***

Sauron

I probably should have limited my examples, but there are just too many cool ones and in such diversity that I couldn’t resist!

Fanwork Friday: Cosmic Love = Fandom Love

by

Photobucket

Festivids is an annual fanvidding festival which always delivers a variety of fun, thought provoking, entertaining, intense, emotional vids. Today I’d like to highlight my favorite one of the year. This multifandom feat by Anonymous. (Names are revealed later in the process after everyone has the chance to view the vids without preconceived notions based on past associations with the vidders.)

This particular vid is multifandom and, more importantly, meta–which are always my favorite kind of vids. In this case, Florence is a representational stand-in for fans, and that is used to great effect to show the power that good storytelling via movies and television can drive fans into frenzies of emotion.

I think it is absolutely work the small difficulties of having to click through to the link–here have it again–and type in the password to view. It’s absolutely lovely and features a wide variety of shows and movies.

Fanwork Friday: Dancers

by

I’m not sure if this counts as a fanwork, necessarily, but I figure I might as well claim that it is. If I am a fan of Casey Stratton’s, then I’m going to assume that two girls who put so much time, effort, and passion into choreographing a dance to one of his more obscure songs are fans, too.

http://youtu.be/MxT5jOkqkM8