Snowflake Challenge 1: Introduce Yourself

[ysabetwordsmith]

Challenge #1

In your own space, update your fandom information! Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

• Transformative Works Policy: My transformative works policy is here. My friending policy is here.


• Current Passion: I do a lot of gardening for mutual human-wildlife benefit, which is perhaps best described as laissez-faire permaculture. I enjoy birdfeeding and nature photography. I invent recipes; my latest big success was Kelewele Molasses Cookies. I do followfriday posts to help folks find active communities on Dreamwidth. I've also been active in twitter_refugees for the last few months, helping new folks get involved in Dreamwidth.  I post New Year's resolution information and support.


• Where to Find Me: Most of my activity is here on Dreamwidth. I'm also still on LiveJournal. My AO3 account is here.


• Master List: [for fic, for art, for recs, or anything else] * Books Written. *Crowdfunding tips. * Nonfiction Articles. Serial Poetry. Shared Worlds, of which Schrodinger's Heroes is designed for fanfic crossovers. My coven website is here.


• Anything Else: I live in central Illinois with my partner. I am a gender scholar. I'm Pagan.
  
  Fandoms of interest include the Avengers, Gargoyles, Harry Potter, Jurassic Park, Lucifer, The Sandman, The Sentinel, Sherlock Holmes, Star Trek, Star Wars, Supernatural, Tolkien, and the X-Men. Plus a ton of other stuff; we have pretty much wallpapered our house with books and videos.
  
  I am a wordsmith by talent, profession, and vocation. I write how to posts fairly often. I enjoy a wide variety of speculative fiction, poetry, and other entertainment. My most popular fannish series is Love Is For Children.
  
  I did Lexember in 2021. You can see a display of my xenolinguistics there. It contains a small addition to my now-substantial (currently 125 pages) glossary for my superhero fantasy series Polychrome Heroics, including some original words and slang terms, mostly in English with a few other languages thrown in.
  
  I will be doing a live writing Poetry Fishbowl on Tuesday, January 3 with a theme of "short forms." Please drop by then and give me prompts or just watch the fun. You can ask for any topic that will fit in a poem of 60 lines or less. Other sessions, I do the longer plottier stuff.
  
  See my recurring posts for Good News, Hard Things, Cuddle Party (alternating Wednesdays), Landrace Gardening (Thursdays), or Philosophical Questions (Saturdays). I also do Monday Updates.
  
  Are you looking for fannish or original inspiration, networking, etc.? I run the community allbingo for monthly and other fests, for which January is Fresh Starts Bingo. All fandoms welcome, and if yours is rare, by all means volunteer to host a fest. Our 2023 Community Calendar still has some open slots, and it's okay to double up. We'd love to get more specific-fandom themes, so if you want to feature your favorite fandom, please drop by! I also run crowdfunding which has a Creative Jam on the third weekend of every month. The Rose & Bay Awards are currently running to recognize excellence in cyberfunded creativity. Come nominate your favorite crowdfunded Art, Fiction, Poetry, Webcomics, Other Projects, and Patrons!
  
  If you scroll through the January 1 posts here in my blog, you will find a bunch of other stuff about me, like My Bingo Fests for 2023 and Goals for 2023.
  
  I have updated the more detailed bio in my Dreamwidth profile.

Comments

[seleneheart]

It's been really great of you to take the lead in helping people coming here from Twitter. Maybe some of them are old journaling people and don't know how DW works, or maybe some of them have never been exposed to the workings of this kind of platform. Either way, it's doing good work for the sake of fandom.

[narya_flame]

Yes, this!

Thank you!

[ysabetwordsmith]

>>It's been really great of you to take the lead in helping people coming here from Twitter. <<

I appreciate that. I've been around long enough to have seen many diaspora online, so every time some other venue screws up, I just see it as an opportunity for other venues to scoop users.

>>Maybe some of them are old journaling people and don't know how DW works, or maybe some of them have never been exposed to the workings of this kind of platform. <<

The main divisions I see include:

* People who already had a DW but hadn't used it for a while, then decided to reactivate it. They largely know how DW works but are in need of current resources as to what's active here.

* People who are new to DW but pretty sure they want to participate, because some of their friends are on here. They need some support on learning the site but they have other folks they can ask too, and would benefit from more friends.

* People who are frobbing multiple new venues to see which they like best. They need help learning the basics of how DW works as well as help finding friends and communities.

So I have tried to compile resources on the mechanics of using DW and how to do things here, ways to find new friends, and the most active communities and events. Snowflake was actually among the first I mentioned back when the Twitter exodus started; the timing was really felicitous.

>>Either way, it's doing good work for the sake of fandom.<<

I'm happy to hear that. :D

Re: Thank you!

[sisterdivinium]

As someone in the coming-back-to-DW crowd and slowly, very slowly catching up as per our previously exchanged messages, I have to chime in and say thanks for all the effort in providing that much-needed help some of us need. I'm still taking a look at all the resources and links when there's time but be sure that they are all VERY appreciated! <3

Re: Thank you!

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> As someone in the coming-back-to-DW crowd and slowly, very slowly catching up as per our previously exchanged messages, I have to chime in and say thanks for all the effort in providing that much-needed help some of us need.<<

I'm so happy I could help.

>> I'm still taking a look at all the resources and links when there's time but be sure that they are all VERY appreciated! <3

Yay!

snowflake_challenge just opened today. If you get in on that, I bet you can find some other fans of Warrior Nun to squee with. And maybe even Merlin fans up your alley. Some of the oldfen still hang out here; it's the younger folks who are more fond of things like Twitter or Instagram.

Re: Thank you!

[sisterdivinium]

I think there's probably a good deal of people who use the resources you link to and who forget to say anything about it, so I'd wager you end up helping out even more than you know! :)

And yeah, I'm on the lookout for people in nearby fandoms while trying my hand at Snowflake for the first time. I do love how the age range skews upwards rather than down, as I find it pretty refreshing! Let's see where it goes.

Re: Thank you!

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> I think there's probably a good deal of people who use the resources you link to and who forget to say anything about it, so I'd wager you end up helping out even more than you know! :)

That's what I figure, but it's nice when someone does comment.

>> And yeah, I'm on the lookout for people in nearby fandoms while trying my hand at Snowflake for the first time. I do love how the age range skews upwards rather than down, as I find it pretty refreshing! Let's see where it goes.<<

There are a couple of relevant communities that are dormant but revivable:

addme40s - A community for those 40 & over!
Community Description: add a friend 40+

doesanyoneelse - Does Anyone Else...?
Community Description: Just me? No? Yes? Find out here.

[dragonyphoenix]

Hello, nice to see you here again.

I've recently read a couple of fanfic authors who mentioned allbingo. And I was thinking I need to find prompts because back when I was writing BtVS I found it really expanded the story to work them in.

[pronker]

It's good to see you here - I'm anticipating making the shortbread cookies recipe, tweaked with minced juniper leaves (are those things leaves?? *ponders*) and subbing Gammel Dansk, possibly Unicum, for the pine bitters. I'll let you know how the batch turns out!

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> It's good to see you here <<

And you!

>> I'm anticipating making the shortbread cookies recipe, tweaked with minced juniper leaves (are those things leaves?? <<

Juniper has mostly needle-type foliage, sometimes scaly. Its "berries" are really fleshy cones.

>> and subbing Gammel Dansk, possibly Unicum, for the pine bitters.<<

I had to look those up. Gammel Dansk sounds like a good bet.

>> I'll let you know how the batch turns out! <<

I would love to hear that.