Countdown to Small Gifts 1/3: Introductions

[smallgiftsmods]

Welcome, folks! Every year at small gifts, we start off the holiday season with a series of discussion posts. It's a chance to get to know other participants (or say hi to old friends), meet our readers (hi, readers! we love you!), and while away the hours before the fest begins. We'll have three topics this week, posted Monday, November 25; Wednesday, November 27; and Friday, November 29. Posting begins Sunday, December 1.

Discussion is not limited to participants! Please introduce yourself if you're a reader, too.

Today: introductions.

1) Leave a comment letting us know who you are as a fan. (Leave your Tumblr name/AO3 name as well as your DW name, if they're different.) How long have been in HP fandom? How long have you shipped R/S? Are you a reader? Writer? Artist? Crafter? Do you participate in any other parts of HP fandom? Are you active in any other fandoms right now?

2) Say hi to someone else! We're friendly around here like that.

Comments

[maraudersaffair]

I'm Maraudersaffair on all platforms! I'm trying to be more active on Tumblr so new friends would be great! Also, does anyone regularly update their dreamwidth? If so, I want to follow you!

I've been in fandom since like 2005 oh lord lol. I've shipped R/S just as long. I also ship Remus/Severus, Severus/Sirius ... I've been meaning to write a Sirius/Remus/Severus fic! I'm a writer and a reader, but my fic reading has plummeted lately. I've been reading a TON of published books this year ... Let me know if you've read some good books lately!

I'm also a big Drarry shipper. I also really like Harry/Severus, Harry/Teddy, Pansy/Hermione ... okay, I ship a lot of pairings! I've been getting into writing more het pairings since I think HP female characters need more love! And of course I've been writing femslash ;D Ginny/Pansy and Ginny/Cho and ALL the femslash pairings are criminally underrated.

[magnetic_pole]

Hi, M! Welcome back! I love to find other folks who read Snape pairings (do you remember there was a time when Snupin and Remus/Sirius folks didn't mix)? And femslash, hurrah!

What blogs do you follow over on Tumblr? I'm also trying to get some more fannish content over there (Tumblr is currently my main source of cute animals). I've really enjoyed femslashrevolution, which has given a sense of femslash fandom outside HP.

Glad to have you at the party again! M.

[coriaria]

Cool - I'm another one who loves Remus/ Sirius and Remus/ Severus. And I love to have the other S as a friend, which gives some great awkward dynamics with Sirius and Severus being assholes to each other because canon.

[maraudersaffair]

lmao yes I remember that time (though I'm sure it still goes on to this day)

The difficult thing is that I have a non fandom tumblr I've had for 10+ years and I refuse to give it up, but Tumblr only lets you have one "main" blog at a time so it's hard to really be involved in fandom on there without converting my non-fandom tumblr.

Concerning HP, I mostly follow only fest tumblrs, which is a bumper :(

But I do love me some femslashrevolution!

[mindabbles]

Hiya, M! Ah, tumblr. I can’t seem to manage new platforms. I don’t know what it is but you’re inspiring me to try again.

I’m currently reading The Overstory by Richard Powers and it’s pretty amazing. Also read and enjoyed Where the Crawdads Sing, but that’s probably not news.

What have you read you’d recommend? I’m always looking for new books. :)

[maraudersaffair]

I tried reading the Overstory last January! I kinda liked how the family men took pictures of the tree ... I just remember not liking it enough to read on when we switched POVs.

I also tried to read where the crawdads sing ... also another DNF lolol. I wasn't in the mood for a sprawling generational drama but I did like all the descriptions of Florida.

Okay lemme see *pulls up goodreads*

Have you read Madeline Miller??? Song of Achilles BROKE ME. Also Circe is great! Do you read YA? If so, you gotta read the cruel prince and the grace year. I loved those books so much this year.

[paulamcg]

Hello, good to meet you here! Your name’s familiar but I doubt we ever commented on each other’s fic in the old days. Perhaps you wrote higher ratings? My R/S was rather subtle, my fic often close to gen, and only this year, after finally returning to fanfic, have I started including somehow proper sex scenes.

I’ve always found Severus fascinating. Perhaps he’s my favourite character of Rowling’s if I think about the series as a whole. While I wouldn’t pair him with Remus or Sirius when writing, because it doesn’t fit my head canon, why not read it… Yes, I’ve enjoyed some Remus/Severus. And femslash, yes!

Printed books… Recently I’ve read Kazuo Ishiguro, Ian McEwan, Pajtim Statovci… Last summer I was strangely fascinated by A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara.

I’d like to start updating my Dreamwidth regularly, if I found others who do it. Don’t people post fic on their accounts in the way they used to on lj? And I’ve just registered on tumblr so as to check out Fireside stories, but it looks very strange to me, as I’m slow with these things.

[maraudersaffair]

Hello!! I didn't write higher ratings back in the day but I sure write them now lol

What's your head canon of Snape? Like strictly obsessed with Lily?

It's funny - I keep talking about books I didn't finish on this page. I also read some Kazuo Ishiguro recently - I got about halfway through The Remains of the Day and I couldn't continue! I just hated the narrator so much.

I also read some Hanya Yanagihara recently. I read The People in the Trees. Her prose is absolutely breathtaking but the main character was an absolute monster. I still really enjoyed the book.

I don't really like Tumblr for fanfic stuff. I miss the intimacy of journaling and having friends only posts. Tumblr is a bit too chaotic for fandom stuff imo. And yeah, people post their fics on DW like on LJ but I want to build a friends group on here too.

[secretsolitaire]

*waves* I've followed you (or subscribed/granted access/whatever it's called here). I read a lot of published books and post about them every few months or so -- feel free to take a look. :) I also ship Harry/Draco and will occasionally read Remus/Severus as well.

[maraudersaffair]

Whoo! Thanks! I've followed you back too

What has been your favorite book of the year?

[secretsolitaire]

Oof, tough to narrow it down to just one, so have three that I really liked. :)

The Heart's Invisible Furies (rec here)
The Great Believers (rec here)
The Immortalists (rec here)

[maraudersaffair]

Noooo I hated hearts invisible furies!!

[secretsolitaire]

Oh no, really? What didn't you like about it?

[maraudersaffair]

The first 200 pages were so good! I loved Cyril and Julian and omg that opening scene with Cyril's mum heading to the big city after getting pregnant and living with the adorable couple <3

But I quickly lost interest when Cyril moved to ... Amsterdam? And I just felt like there was no resolution between Cyril and Julian. There was the scene where Cyril kissed him and Julian freaked out but I dunno ... it made me dislike Cyril more than anything.

Then Julian fucking dies of AIDs and like 10 pages after that Cyril's love gets murdered in a hate crime ... I just had enough!! There was just a lot of stereotypical things happening to Cyril all at once and none of it had the nuance that the beginning of the book had.

I've also tried to read Boyne's other novel A Ladder to the Sky and it suffered from the same issues. There was some great nuanced depictions of gay characters but there was also a ton of melodramatic bullshit as well. Have you read a ladder to the sky? because holy god some crazy shit goes down in that book!

[secretsolitaire]

Cyril's love gets murdered in a hate crime

That part did bum me out. The lover was a bit too perfect anyway, wasn't he?

I haven't read anything else by Boyne -- will approach that other one with caution. :)

[maraudersaffair]

Did you like Julian?

And you might like his other works!

[secretsolitaire]

Not much, tbh. It's been a while so I don't recall all the details, but I think he was a little much for me, LOL. I think my favorite character was Cyril's mom.

I definitely liked this one, so I'm willing to try some of Boyne's others!