2018 Fannish year in review

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I will remember four things about this year:

1. Finished the most ambitious vid I've ever attempted, The Greatest, and, by taking the risk to invite further donations, raised an extra $1,000 beyond the initial bid for U.S. & international charities. It couldn't have been done without friends and the wider fannish community.

2. Dove into the Zahn McClarnon project and fell hard for Longmire.

3. Put forth my most sustained effort to date in consuming Native-centric and Native-produced books, movies, poems, podcasts and documentaries/nonfiction. Simultaneously enjoyed the art (or critiqued it, depending) and tried to evolve my understanding of what it means to live as colonizer and colonized in what we call the U.S. and Canada. To be continued in 2019.

4. Participated in the local friend group's BookIt!-style autumn reading challenge, modded by disgruntled_owl. Read a ton of books, shared reactions with the other readers, blacked out the Bingo card, went to an excellent wrap party.

Well, and 5. Attended the final Vividcon.


Vids

I posted three vids this year: two Festivids, followed by the gigantic project that was "The Greatest." The break it was necessary to take after that vid lasted longer than expected, but I'm getting back into the groove now, and besides, some of that creative energy went to fic writing, which I'm not going to complain about.

( Vid links )

Fic

The year Zahn McClarnon characters revitalized my fic writing! I also wrote a story for the Trick or Treat Exchange for the first time.

( Fic links & WIP notes )

2018 fanwork goals

( How did we do? )

2019 fanwork goals

Vidding:

• Write some posts about vidding for the 10th anniversary of making my first one
• There are several vids I'd like to make, most notably The One with All My Longmire Feelings, deelaundry's belated #FandomTrumpsHate vid, and, if I still feel like it, a small multivid based on Zahn characters. Plus the above-mentioned one expressing my Mary Sue vampire feelings, but no rush on that. And something for FanWorksCon? Maybe the sports multivid I tabled a couple of years back? Eh, we'll see.
• Caption remaining uncaptioned vids
• ✔ Upgrade to a paid Spotify account so I can be exposed to more new music and generate vid ideas
• Actually use AfterEffects before I forget the training from last year

Writing:

• Finish the Zahn stories, or at least the Red Road one
• Finish that stubborn Jinni/Dustfinger crossover before the new Helene Wecker book comes out!
• Continue to experiment with adjusting day-to-day habits to facilitate writing

General:

• Go to the new FanWorksCon in August
• Go to Longmire Days in Wyoming if Zahn will be in attendance??
• Choose a cloud backup service

ETA: Whoops, and people too, of course! This year we acquired a toft & a J., which has been great. Synn and I got to spend a whole afternoon with xenakis & lunarflares when we visited Montreal in the spring. I met one of my vidding role models, sol_se, at Vividcon. On Twitter, I've especially enjoyed the added company of mk_york_books and glassesojustice, who, among other things, share the Longmire love. Locally, a couple of core fan-friend groups continued to strengthen; I enjoyed spending a little more time than usual with unfinishedidea; and in the new year, I'd like to see more of linaerys now that she's closer to town, as well as some people whom I only seem to run into at cons in other states, such as inkjunket. It's also long past time to visit friends in D.C. for its own sake, not attached to a business trip or whatnot. In the words of Karloff's creature: Friiiiiieeeeeeennnnnds goooooooooddddd.

1st of the year

Travel

I just returned from a week in rural Tennessee, where my mom's boyfriend bought a house for them to retire to in a few years. It's perched on the side of a mountain abutting Cherokee National Forest. It felt like vacation as soon as I heard running water and smelled wood smoke. Beautiful land,* spacious home, largely off the grid, although the steep slope made me nervous. We saw turkeys and Carolina chickadees along with many neighbors' pets and livestock. Went for easy hikes, ate venison steaks, played games, sang along with my mom's guitar on Christmas Eve—she has adopted the bf's Italian-American Catholic traditions—and discussed the ups and downs of their relationship. I fired a gun for the first time; took out some bottles with buckshot. When in Rome...

*stolen, sigh

Festivids

Hauling my desktop (vidding) computer 800 miles proved worthwhile, as I squeezed in two productive editing sessions. The draft is nearly complete. I'd like to send that out for beta soon and try for a treat. It would be sad to break the streak of making at least two Festivids per round.

Vidding anniversary

May will mark the tenth anniversary of posting my first vid. I'm planning some short write-ups for the occasion that can be spaced throughout 2019, like "favorite opening credits" and "vids that never made it." Is there anything you'd like to know?

In memoriam

I was saddened to hear about the recent passing of stardreamer. I had only just begun to get to know her here on Dreamwidth, where she was an engaged, insightful, compassionate commenter. It took longer than it should have for me to subscribe to her journal, which is when I learned that she had been struggling with pancreatic cancer for a while. It finally got the better of her in November. A real loss. Among other things, I'm sad I didn't finish the Midnight, Texas fic in time for her to read it; it's a tiny fandom and she'd said she was looking forward to it.

May her memory be a blessing.