Thirty Days of Blogging -- Day 18 -- Ten in Ten: 7

15/9/13 23:45
aprilvalentine: (Reese and Finch outside)
I had a great weekend... though I got up on Saturday much earlier than I get up for work. We had a jewelry flea market at my church to make money for some of our projects in the community. Tons of gorgeous stuff was donated, from cheapo stuff we sold for 25 or 50 cents to nice silver jewelry and some leather handbangs and silk scarves. I helped out during the week by doing some organizing and then came to help sell on Saturday. It was chilly and I'd forgotten a jacket but eventually it got a little warmer when the sun finally came out all the way. We didn't seem to have many customers but we managed to take in nearly two thousand dollars anyway. I think a lot of the spending was by those of us there who came to help out. I got a pair of little grape earrings for my DIL, a tie tack for my son, a couple of things for gifts for others, a pair of CZ stud earrings for only $5 -- and they are really nice with good posts, not cheap nickle/base metal ones so they don't bother my ears, a lovely heart shaped purse mirror with a hand made case and a gorgeous feather ladies hat. It is in brand new condition, the close to the head type of hat from the fifites, with a tag from a now closed store here in town, Hutzlers It was donated by a 90 year old man in choir; it belonged to his late wife, and when I found out it was hers, I eagerly bought it. I will possibly use it with a steampunk outfit at some point, but right now it's sitting on dislpay on my entertainment center! I went to church today and since choir has started again, we sang. We're trying to get more people to join and we had a few come up with us to help us do a lovely arrangement of "Amazing Grace" -- which of course has Star Trek connotations.

Speaking of Trek, I got my copy of Into Darkness this week, but since I have my Amazon deliveries go to my DIL's office now, I didn't get it til Saturday. I watched the special features on the blu ray that night and started the movie but fell asleep before it ended -- I did see it in the theater at least and will watch again later.

After church, I did lunch with some friends -- and I wasn't the oldest this time. That was fun and it's good to get out socially, even if it's with people who aren't fans, lol.

I decided to use a fic I've been working on as my Ten in Ten, and post the next chapters/parts of it in the coming few days. I'm not sure if it will be complete by then but as I'm having no trouble rocking along with these fics every night, it shouldn't be long.

I've titled it "Turning Like the Sky" which will make sense eventually. In this first chapter, Reese takes Zoe up to the penthouse in the hotel, but things don't go as planned. This is going to be an agnsty fic, folks. Hope you enjoy.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/968828
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Thirty Days of Blogging -- Day 11 -- Star Trek Anniversary

8/9/13 08:32
aprilvalentine: (Phasers set to fabulous)
On this date, 47 years ago, Star Trek the classic series premiered. I didn't get into Star Trek fandom until 1976, or even start watching the show until it went into syndication while I was in college, but the show changed my life and the lives of many of the people who are closest to me.

Fandom existed before Star Trek, but it was Star Trek that started fandom on the path that made it into what we understand it to be today. Fans wrote meta essays in those days, drew simple line art and published them with letters of comment in fanzines, but it was Trek fans who began publishing fanfiction so profusely that fanfic took over zines and became one of the main areas of fannish expression. We wanted more of the show we loved and so, in the absence of new episodes, we created more ourselves, taking the Enterprise crew to places our television sets, even with the imagination of Gene Roddenberry, couldn't or wouldn't take us. Into situations that they might not recover from by next week's show, into their bedrooms and of course, not just into the bedrooms occupied by the opposite sex.

I heard about slash on one of the first visits I paid to my fannish mentor, Bev Volker, who became my best friend and along with her sister, Nancy Kippax a collaborator in writing and exploring the then uncharted waters of fan publication, putting on conventions and all things fannish. Bev showed me a "drawer fic" as we called them in those days -- an unpublished story written by "the Austrailian fan" that had been sent through the mail from fan to fan but was hidden and secret. I remember exactly where I sat in Bev's basement office as I read it... no names were given in the fic, but it was clear who was Spock and who was Kirk. It involved a lot of touching, a sensual backrub with oiled fingers that brought completion. Bev and Nancy's zine, Contact, celebrated the friendship between Kirk and Spock and it took off like gangbusters, tapping into the one theme that so many Trek fans found the most interesting, or should I say, fascinating aspect of the show. The all slash zines came later but the pioneering influence of "Contact" cannot be denied. I did not write K/S, preferring back then to write about the deep emotional bond between Kirk and Spock. It was only later when I got into Starsky & Hutch that I became a slasher. Still, even now, when I look at the relationship between Reese and Finch in Person of Interest, I can not only enjoy the slashability of them, I can enjoy, read and write them as pair bond who don't necessarily have to have a sexual component to their relationship. And their love, their slash relationship, is predicated on their deep emotional bond. That's still what turns me on, what attracts me to a fandom and at this point, I'm pretty sure it always will.

ETA: Bev and Nancy, God rest their souls, used to sign their editorials in "Contact" and their fannish letters in a way that signified that they understood how others felt about the Kirk/Spock relationship and I think that applies today when we meet others who are like-minded in fandom and make online friends with those who love the relationships we also love. "We are one; we reach."

So Happy Star Trek Anniversary and may fandom always be my way of life! FIAWOL, everybody! Star Trek Lives!
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