#|| waaaaaay back in like. 2014 2015.

[revvnant]

seeing the preview for the novelisation and um. um. um. i could cry. that's my baby he's real and on the page and he's exactly what i wanted him to be. a sensory-driven, deeply angry person with a Haunting. i've been writing mike for so long he's so important to me and i never thought he'd be real. fnaf movie has been such a blessing and the book looks so good. i'm gonna fucking cry. he's perfect.

[homestuck-fanauthor-coalition]

Coalition Pinned Post: About Us, How to Join, Important Links.

What is the Coalition?

This is the home of the Homestuck Fanauthor Coalition, a discord-based writing club for fanauthors of all things Homestuck! Any current or aspiring author of Homestuck fanfic is encouraged to join, with the caveat that they understand this is a place for those who have a commitment to bolstering creativity in the Homestuck fandom. We provide a space for brainstorming, proofreading, beta-reading, co-writing, and all other forms of collaboration you can think of! We uplift each-other's works and encourage each-other to keep creating. We are mostly AO3-based authors, but several of us also write MSPFAs, and a few of us even write fangames! So whatever your homestuck writing project, you can find a place among us.

As part of this, we have two AO3 Collections.

Homestuck FanAuthor Coalition Fic and Recommendations is broken into two sub-collections: Our Stuff, which attempts to catalog ever member's works, and Our Recommendations, through which we suggest fic we've read to each-other, mostly written by those not in the Coalition.

Homestuck Fanauthor Coalition Writing Competitions is where we host our competition fics! We all vote together on a prompt, then write our works anonymously, submitting them to a hidden subcollection. Once the works are due, they are revealed, and everyone (not just the participants) gets to read the fics. We then vote on a series of "best in" genres, leave a compliment, and try to guess the identity of the author. At the end, everyone gets a digital medal! It's good fun.

Our Identities, with Ao3 & Tumblr links [below the cut for length]:

Since it's pretty darn hard for the layman to find at a glance, here is our member list. We'll try to keep this up-to-date. This section is under construction, members will likely want to edit their blurbs. Right now we are trying to re-order in the order of joining us!

@thegoodthebadthealternative @madam-melon-meow / Madam_Melon_Meow on Ao3: the founder of the Coalition, M^3 has been a Homestuck fan since 2014, but only started writing fic herself in 2023, alongside her fiance Celery! It is her firm belief that fanfic is the lifeblood of fandom, and she wanted to create a space where authors and editors could meet on equal footing, rather than gather in servers dedicated to one author's fanfic, or servers generally dedicated to Homestuck itself. She saw an empty niche and decided to fill it.

@thegoodthebadthealternative @arealpeople / sarcasticcelery on Ao3: an admin of the Coalition, Celery has been in fandom since late 2018, and was 75% through Homestuck proper when the epilogues came out, so he had an interesting introduction to the community. He is of the opinion that no work of media should be left deconstructed, and that all art should be shared- especially the ugly stuff. He hopes the coalition will facilitate this in the rich seedbed that is Homestuck.

@taglineguerrillawriter @orangestorapples / orangestorapples on Ao3: Orange is one of the bot wranglers for the Coalition discord, and they started writing fic WAAAAAAY back in 2015 on WATTPAD of all things! (I know, they're old 💀) They didn't join the homestuck fandom until 2019. Orange shares the same belief as M^3, about fanfic being an important facet of keeping fandom alive, and come hell or high water they're gonna contribute.

Mykros: [pending]

@unda-dsk / Unda on Ao3: They/them. Writing homestuck stuff since 2014 but properly committed to it with my first big work MC Escher That's My Favourite MC, and currently working on the multi-art work in the same universe: EMC2. Currently getting into art, music, animation and more, as well as writing far too many words. Has zero concept of doing things in moderation, is a rainbow menace.

rko on Ao3: Unda's beta, a writer and editor of many things, synthesizer enthusist, and professional copy wrangler.

@classpectpokerap / EtchJetty on Ao3: Cowriter of the fanventure Nepetaquest 2022 and author of A Bunch Of Shit On Ao3 And Also Mspfa, EtchJetty has been most recently occupied writing Pesterquest Rewritten (@pesterquestrewritten on Tumblr). catch her stuff whenever she makes More Things!!!

@thegodshavehorns @wmb-salticidae / Callmesalticidae on Ao3: [pending]

@thegodshavehorns @shadow-wasser / shadow_wasserson on Ao3 / Shadow Wasserson on FFN : Shadow has written fanfiction since 2004, first read Homestuck in 2013, and has been co-writing *The Gods Have Horns* since 2015. Gen. Darkfic. Plotting.

Atralux @astralix13 / Astralic on Ao3: they also like MLP. Fun fact, they have 15 animals!

Ponderskeletons: [pending]

@ocean-stars-mspfa @horsesbones / GlubbyGlub on MSPFA / timaeusTestifying & HorseFingers on Ao3: Ocean Man first read Homestuck in 2011. Terminally ill about Dirk Strider. Squiddle obsession. Favorite type of fanfictions to write are cognitohazards; peruse at your own risk.

reticulating Attorney aka @diddleydont / Diddleydont on Ao3: [pending]

@utopianparadoxist / optimisticDuelist (lasciviousWildheart) on Ao3: author of the Pumpkin Path [bio pending]

silvenainRose: [pending]

kolbietheninja: [pending]

@sylvris / ryuo_zen on Ao3 : [pending]

@mostlycyanide / mostlycyanide on Ao3: [pending]

gues / larceny: [pending]

@meowloudly15 @the-hs-etaverse / meowloudly15 on Ao3: meowloudly15 first started writing fanfiction in 2018. She first read Homestuck in 2019. Her favorite fic subgenres to write about include Women's Wrongs, throwaway lines and characters taken far too seriously, highly self-indulgent meta BS, absurdism (both flavors), and Apocalypse Yuri.

@askaniritual / tasteoflemons on Ao3: Jordan writes meta on her tumblr blog! [more bio pending].

@disgustedorite / disgustedorite on MSPFA / disgustedorite on Ao3 : also a big fan of Saigon 4, [more bio pending]

@manifestmerlin / ManifestMerlin on Ao3: author of a fairystuck fic! [more bio pending]

vapor: [pending]

@vriskabot / araneae_cobalti on Ao3: a big fan of DaVris, [bio pending]

CeramicOrange: a beta reader / editer, [bio pending]

Kimi / quixxotique aka crownlessliestheking on Ao3: she is a Dirk Strider and Midnight Crew enjoyer! [more bio pending]

@greg-is-cool / gregiscool on MSPFA / gregiscool on Ao3: one of our younger members, he got into hoemstuck through XKCD. [more bio pending]

Siben @teamsieben / StarlightSieben on Ao3: Sieben has been writing fanfic on-and-off since they were too young to be on the internet, and recently got into Homestuck in 2023. They write for themselves and they most enjoy exploring what makes characters tick. They also love classpecting, and their classpect is Page of Blood.

Autumn1185 / @aspen1185 / AspenDrake on ao3 : [pending]

The Lukemeister @herestoanotherweirdo / terminalLoquacity on ao3: Luke writes fanfic and mspfas, and is one of Tetra's collaborators on pesterquest re-written! [more bio pending]

wes / fae / peri: [pending]

@timelessambivalence / Eris_Luuvan on Ao3 : 'She/Her, known as Timeless, TA, or Dez. Big time Ancestor enjoyer, Godstuck advocate, scifi consumer, and an infinite abyss of headcanons. Constantly has a pile of things to finish on her desk, an amount of caffine in her blood somewhere between 'not enough' and 'discovering new colours', and is trying her best. Been in and out of homestuck for a couple years but has come back around to try and leave her mark with vague angst, ancestors, and gross overstatements of trolls' inhuman nature.'

Flora @pr0atcrastination / ProAtCrastination on Ao3: author of Appearification, a Dirk Strider fanfic! [more bio pending]

@dave2olkat / ToBurnAllTheEmpires on Ao3: a writer and an artist, he is a big fan of... well, I'm sure you can guess! Author of Gold Pilot, a timeloop fanfic!

@ambrosianlullaby / ambrosianLullaby on Ao3: they are the head of animation of Guidestuck^2 . They/Them and known as Ambrosia, Al, or infectious, is an author who's been writing since they were able to read. Boasting a nearly full Google drive of fanfiction, they joined the Homestuck fandom in early 2020 only to leave before the summer of the same year; but you can't fight the Homestuck, so they're back for round 2.

@june-egbert-official / GinAndJuniper on Ao3 : she loves writing homestuck, and is a big june fan! she also writes stuff involving her and her wife's OCs, which is super cute! [more bio / ao3 link pending].

T4Tavros / CatBoyGhost on Ao3 : he is an aspiring storyboard and comics artist who writes on the side. current projects include a spideman fancomic called "The Magical Spider Man" and a hs au fic called "Oh Hello".

@bralsradoesfanfiction / Bralsra on Ao3 : a new fanauthor and an aspiring fangame coder, she only read homestuck last year but is super excited to get involved in fandom! [more pending]

@rose-icosahedron / Rose_Icosahedron : a fanfic and mspfa author new to homestuck but old to fanfiction, she is writing a homestuck horror fic that she hopes to release soon!

Topher / smellydotcom on wattpad / smellydotcom on Ao3: [bio pending]

@eridan-amporaa / auspiciousAuthor on Ao3: currently writting a johndave fic and planning an mspfa. has many ideas!

Thingy / egregiousBass on Ao3: got into homestuck in 2010 and is now writing fanfic!

@davekatgnocchi / Davekatgnocchi on Ao3: a bit Davekat obsessed, she considers homestuck to be very near and dear to her heart. current cowriting a fic with ambrosian lullaby!

@glubtier / glubtier on Ao3 : "i like to write smooching and I also play a lot of Minecraft"

@jonayariley / JonayaRiley on Ao3 /Jonaya's personal website : Jonaya has been in the fandom since 2019 and writing fic in the fandom since January 2020. You might know her as the director and lead writer for Friendsim 2; as the director for Stuck at Home Con; or as a producer for What Pumpkin's Hiveswap: Act 3!

@sg-s3c / sg on MSPFA : this individual got into homestuck way back in 2011 and has been getting sucked back into it every few years ever since. Sg is currently working on the fandaventure John Ruins a Wedding, and would like to get involved in more stuff!

@tehstripe / Stripe on Ao3 : Stripe has been writing homestuck fanfiction since 2011. She is a nerd and a teacher, and is currently trying to get back into writing her davejade superhero AU, The Thrilling Adventures of Coolkid and Kiddo Eclipse

parrotintexas on Ao3 : [pending]

MysticDreamer aka PHDreamer on Ao3: [pending]

absent architect aka Insipid on Ao3: [pending]

@theartvoid / theartvoid on MSPFA: Ellie is a fancomic autor who is also into various games like undertale, stardew valley, and fallen london.

@starlit-bawka / StarlitBawka on Ao3: this author is just getting back into writing homestuck fanfic, but also writes for a scattering of other fandoms. Fun fact, he also makes puppets!

Asche aka 2uriiviing on Ao3 : He's into book binding! [more bio pending]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Legacy Members [list of former members. assume they left the server in good will, and we are still proud to promote their works]:

tHunkdt on Ao3: [pending]

Bre / BreezefulSkies on Ao3: author of Reallocated, a time travel fix-it fic featuring Hal!

@flaringk / FlaringK on Ao3 / FlaringK on MSPFA / FlaringK's personal website : the creator of the HS5+ formating and the website designer of SAHcon !

Virgil / Danny: a homestuck fan who is in the process of co-writing a not-yet-released project with orangestorapples

Appearing in our header image [left to right]:

@myusernameisstolen, @greg-is-cool, tHunkdt, @taglineguerrillawriter, @arealpeople, @madam-melon-meow, Bre, rko, @unda-dsk, @shadow-wasser

[patricia-von-arundel]

Well, I'm back at my shit again...

So waaaaaay back (in 2014 and 2015), I was lead organizer for Frozen Fandom Month. For the entire month of July (when Frozen was set), we had themed weeks, each with a list of prompts. You guys know how this works; you've all done fandom weeks, right?: this is identical, just stretch it like taffy into an entire month.

And July just happens to be one year since a certain game released.

And everyone seemed enthusiastic about the Secret Santa.

So July 2020, come what may in the world we currently live in, is now

Fódlan Fandom Month

But this is more than I can handle alone.

I need some help.

FROM ANYONE: suggest themes for each of the four weeks (as many as you can think of)! I'll then combine as many of them as I can into the four broad categories we'll work from (and ask for prompts for each category - that will come later).

FROM THOSE WITH TIME AND ORGANIZATIONAL SKILLS: I need volunteers to help with the official sideblog (which I've already nabbed). You can be a general volunteer, or a volunteer for one week/category. Your job will be to monitor tags for the week/month, reblog to the official sideblog, and answer questions from participants. I'll be helping out as well, of course.

FROM THOSE WITH GRAPHICS SKILLS: Anyone with the time and inclination to make banners (a general banner, then banners for each week), I would be forever in your debt. An icon and help with a theme for the sideblog would also be great! I have absolutely no skill when it comes to those kinds of thing. You would, of course, be credited, both in the masterpost for the month, and on the sideblog itself.

FROM TRADITIONAL CREATIVE TYPES: I would love to do some giveaways of traditional-media art/writing/sculpture/whatever you do at the end of the month, as a bonus for participants. If you do traditional media, are over 18, and would be willing to make something for a giveaway, please let me know! (I'm also going to attempt to contact some of the voice actors to see if I can nab some signatures, but no promises on that one.)

I think that's enough to get going - my rough timeline is to have broad themes established by the end of the month, spend May working on prompts and giveaway stuff, and then June organizing the sideblog and getting volunteers slotted into place for a July 1 start.

This event is open to any side of the fandom, any ships, any favorite route(s) - everyone! It's a time to share our creativity and love.

So - what do you say?

Send themes, and let me know if you'd be able to help out in any of the above categories!

[scruffyplayssonic]

My favourite movies of all the years I’ve been alive.

Back in August 2015, I watched a Youtube video by Jeremy of @cinema-sins, where he was answering fan questions. One question that he addressed was, “What is the best movie of every year that you’ve been alive?” While Jeremy thought this was a great question, he didn’t think one video would be long enough to explore it fully, and he wanted to find another way to answer it. This eventually was done through the Cinema Sins podcast, SinCast. Each week, the cast would discuss the movies of a certain year and then vote on which one they thought was the best, starting with 1975 in episode 14, and then working their way through another year each episode right up until episode 54, where they voted on the best movie for 2015. They then took a break for a few weeks to get caught up on some of last year’s movies that they hadn’t seen yet before finally tackling 2016 in this week’s podcast, episode 58. 

I did my own picks for my favourite movie of each year back in August 2015, when I first saw Jeremy’s Q and A video. I really liked that question and was inspired to try and name my own favourites from each year. So to celebrate the SinCast crew finally completing this task, I thought that I’d re-post my list, which is now updated to include 2015 and 2016. I hope you enjoy it. Feel free to comment and/or argue about my choices. And thanks again to @cinema-sins, for providing me with laughs every week in the podcasts and videos they release. :)

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1982: E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial This might be a bit of a cheat, since the film came out in June and I wasn’t born until October, but oh well. It’s still the same year.

1983: Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi The first Star Wars movie I was around to see the cinematic release of, although I wouldn’t see it in cinemas (or at all, shamefully) for another 14 years.

1984: The Terminator The original was pretty chilling. This still gets me every time. “Listen, and understand! That Terminator is out there! It can’t be bargained with! It can’t be reasoned with! It doesn’t feel pity, or remorse, or fear! And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead!”

1985: Back to the Future The beginning of what I still believe is the greatest movie trilogy of all time.

1986: Aliens More awesome from James Cameron.

1987: Spaceballs Well, it’s pretty funny. Plus I haven’t seen much else from this year, other than Lethal Weapon.

1988: Die Hard The original and quite possibly the best. More on that later.

1989: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade This was a tough one to pick, as Michael Keaton’s first Batman film, Licence to Kill, AND Back to the Future: Part II all came out this year. But it really has to be the onscreen chemistry of Harrison Ford and Sean Connery!

1990: Back to the Future: Part III At the time, I probably would have picked DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp. Ahhh, nostalgia.

1991: Terminator 2: Judgement Day I’m sure most of you who know me saw this one coming. To this day it’s still my favourite movie of all time. Silence of the Lambs would probably get second place for this year.

1992: Batman Returns It was a hard choice between this and Aladdin, which was my favourite Disney cartoon for a very long time. But since it’s not in my dvd collection and Batman is… Honourable mention goes to A Muppet Christmas Carol, my favourite of the Muppet movies.

1993: The Fugitive Another tough choice, considering that Jurassic Park also came out in 1993. But I just love the battle of wits between Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones.

1994: The Lion King Another of Disney’s finest. No contest, although True Lies, Speed, and The Mask were all excellent films too.

1995: Goldeneye (007) This was another tough choice, and Die Hard with a Vengeance came very, VERY close. It’s hard to live up to the awesomeness of that first film, but the partnership with Samuel L. Jackson definitely pays off here. But Goldeneye was the first Bond film I saw in the cinema, and I remember that experience vividly. Pierce Brosnan remains my favourite Bond, even though the next three films he starred in didn’t quite live up to this one.

1996: Scream The Rock and Independence Day were my other main picks from this year, but Wes Craven made an instant classic with Scream, which inspired so many other movies and spoofs. If only they’d stopped after the first Scary Movie…

1997: Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (Special Edition) It’s a bit of a cheat, but technically the original Star Wars trilogy was re-released in cinemas that year with new “special edition” footage, which is when I first fell in love with the series. From original movies that came out in ‘97, it’s a toss up between Men in Black, Air Force One, and The Fifth Element.

1998: Rush Hour Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker were hilarious in this one. The Mask of Zorro was another great movie, and Deep Impact, which was waaaaaay better than Armageddon. Of course, a Michael Bay film will be obsessed with making things go ka-boom. :P Yes, yes, I know The Rock was a Bay film too. So sue me.

1999: The Matrix Another of my very favourite movies. The effects, the plot, the action… it was just sensational. The Sixth Sense was another very clever movie, and Austin Powers: The Spy who Shagged Me was hilarious! But… c'mon, The Matrix, man!

2000: The Whole Nine Yards I was still a big Friends fan at the time, so I loved Matthew Perry starring alongside Bruce Willis. There was also Gone in 60 Seconds, which is one of my favourite Nick Cage films, The Emperor’s New Groove, and of course, X-Men. And then there’s Mission: Impossible 2… hey, be nice. I watched this a lot when I was in Virginia and homesick for Australia :P

2001: Ocean’s Eleven Such a clever film with a great cast!

2002: The Bourne Identity Spider-Man came pretty close, but Matt Damon was amazing as Jason Bourne. ...well, that most recent movie was kind of hit or miss...

2003: Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl Who would have ever guessed that a movie based on a Disneyland ride could be so good?

2004: The Incredibles It was a good year for animation - there was this one, Shrek 2, and Team America: World Police. National Treasure came out too, which I quite like.

2005: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire There was also The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (a huge improvement on the previous two movies), Batman Begins, and of course, Serenity; the movie that had Firefly fans screaming, “NOOOOOOOOO!!!” near the climax. :P

2006: V for Vendetta I just LOVE this film. Top performances from Hugo Weaving, Natalie Portman and John Hurt. The Da Vinci Code was my second choice. Controversial it may be, and people tend to poo-poo Dan Brown a lot, but I loved this movie too. Tom Hanks was the perfect choice for Robert Langdon, and Ian McKellan was brilliant as always. Casino Royale also came out this year, which brought the 007 franchise back from oblivion.

2007: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix I had to find a cinema playing this in English in Nanjing - no easy feat! But at least they didn’t butcher it like they did with Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End (my second pick, after I saw the uncut movie on DVD). Ocean’s Thirteen was pretty good too, if not as good as the original. And of course, The Bourne Ultimatum. I was on the edge of my seat for that one.

2008: The Dark Knight A no-brainer. One of the best films of the decade, let alone the year. Iron Man was a surprise hit too. Taken was great. Oh, and I quite liked Steve Carrell’s take on Get Smart, even if he didn’t quite capture the original magic of Don Adams.

2009: Up My favourite of all the Pixars. Angels & Demons was pretty good too, although not as good as the first movie. Plus Tom Hanks cut his hair - I thought his shaggy do in the first movie suited Robert Langdon better. :P Strange that I liked Angels & Demons better of the books but The Da Vinci Code better of the movies. Robert Downey Jr. as Sherlock Holmes was great too.

2010: Kick-Ass This one was a surprise, but I loved the deconstruction of the traditional superhero movie they did here. And when I read the original comic, I loved the film even more for the improvements they made. Nicolas Cage was hilariously hammy, but the major star of this one was undoubtedly Chloe Grace Moretz as the tiny killing machine, Hit-Girl. After that, there was Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, and Toy Story 3.

2011: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 A fantastic end to a fantastic series. There was also Rise of the Planet of the Apes, which really surprised me. Excellent stuff there. The Adventures of Tintin - an amazing film that tricked me into forgetting it was animated and not live-action several times. Finally, The Muppets, which was such a fantastic return for some of my favourite childhood icons.

2012: The Avengers No surprise there. Honourable mentions go to The Cabin in the Woods, which is a delightfully insane deconstruction of horror movies, Looper, a film I still occasionally stay up late at night scratching my head in confusion over, and Skyfall, which is possibly Daniel Craig’s best Bond film so far. I also loved Wreck-It Ralph.

2013: White House Down This one was definitely the film I liked best from 2013 - and yes, that includes Frozen. You may charge with your flaming torches and pitchforks when ready. But what can I say? I love Die Hard, and this was basically Die Hard in the White House, yet it felt original enough to not just be a knock-off. The other ones I liked best would be the Marvels (Iron Man 3, the Wolverine and Thor: The Dark World), Kick-Ass 2, and Gravity, which was absolutely terrifying.

2014: Guardians of the Galaxy Marvel sure knows how to get my bum into the cinema - X-Men: Days of Future Past and Captain America: The Winter Soldier are up there, but Guardians wins out for pure fun (and the delightful company I had in the cinema <3). There was also The LEGO Movie, which I thought was very clever, and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.

2015: The Martian When I first made this list in August 2015, my prediction was that Jurassic World would be my favourite of the year. Nope, not by a long shot. The Martian was absolutely amazing - Matt Damon’s ability to keep the audience on the edge of their seats when he’s completely alone on the screen (and on the planet) is a major credit to him as an actor. Then of course we have Avengers: Age of Ultron, Mission: Impossible: Rogue Nation, and Terminator: Genisys. …no, really. Stop laughing, I really enjoyed it. :P And then there was Ex Machina, which was a really intriguing film that kept me guessing the entire time.

2016: Captain America: Civil War It’s no secret that I love my comic book movies, and this was definitely my favourite of last year. Civil War (the comic) was the first instance that got me intrigued enough to actually pick up and read a Marvel comic. It really raised an interesting question for me - just how accountable should superheroes be for what they do when fighting crime? Granted, the comic really went too far and made both Cap AND Iron Man look like total dicks, and I was relieved when the film managed to not use some of the more ridiculous ideas, such as a homocidal Robo-Thor-clone or a prison for superheroes in an alternate dimension that literally saps your will to live. On top of that, the film also introduced a fantastic Black Panther, and Tom Holland really nailed what Spider-Man should be. And that airport scene was worth the price of admission all by itself.

2017 (so far - I’ll update this at the end of the year): Passengers I’ve only seen two films so far this year, and Resident Evil: The Final Chapter was okay, but not great. I really enjoyed Passengers though, despite all the controversy it has surrounding it. It’s definitely not the same movie the trailers made it look like it was going to be though.

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I challenge any of my friends out there who are avid movie lovers to give this challenge a try - it’s not as easy as you’d think. Wikipedia is your friend though - just browse by “(insert year here) in film.” Comments telling me, “Yes, I love that film!” or, “Are you nuts? How could you forget THIS film?” are quite welcome. :)

[myyearofgivingdaily]

Calamity Jane turns a page

I can state with certainty that if asked to describe me in one word, no one, and I mean no one, would use the term “athlete.”

As a shy, bookish, asthmatic who favored the library and piano over softball or soccer, I never gained the coordination or confidence required to excel at sport. Known affectionately to some as “Calamity Jane,” I prefer to sit still, on the porch and in the sun, with a good book and a cold drink.

So imagine my surprise when a book – a romantic, adventure/fantasy enriched by historical drama – inspired me to change my ways.

It was eight books, actually, in a series called Outlander by the prolific writer Diana Gabaldon. 

The series hits all my buttons: Scrappy, brilliant heroine who fears nothing falls through a wrinkle in time and winds up in the lair of some rough-and-tumble Scottish Highlanders. It’s 1743 and the Jacobite rebellion is just beginning to percolate. As our very-married World War II army nurse attempts to find her way back to her own time, she is thrown off course by, you guessed it, a strapping, sensitive warrior in a kilt. And not just any strapping, sensitive warrior in a kilt. No, this is James Alexander Malcolm MacKenzie Fraser: King of Men. And he’s waaaaaay hotter than her husband back in 1945.

Author Gabaldon really knows how to create a man. In Jamie Fraser she delivers a universally irresistible object of desire: He’s a feminist, a modernist, a scholar, a lover, a brute, and, most importantly, a man of honor.  

Gabaldon hooked up with STARZ a few years back to bring the first four books to television. The series has bedazzled viewers with gorgeous scenery and costumes, not to mention some very hot love scenes between its talented and charismatic lead actors. Irish super model Caitriona Balfe and Scottish actor Sam Heughan embody their characters so seamlessly it’s tough to separate one from the other.

An exhaustive (er, obsessive) search of the Interwebs revealed that Sam Heughan is not Jamie Fraser at all. On red carpets and in interviews the actor smiles more openly than his character. He’s ever-so-awkward and he seems quite unaffected and sweet. And unlike Jamie, who hones his physical prowess wielding swords and scaling castle walls, Heughan is an ATHLETE who likes to climb mountains, run marathons, and push himself to virtual exhaustion in the gym.

I also learned he is not just a narcissistic pretty boy with bulging biceps. He’s a socially motivated artist who embraced his burgeoning fame to found a charity in 2016 called My Peak Challenge (MPC).

Just set a personal challenge and join MPC, Heughan says in his soft Scottish burr. He’ll “coach” you through the program and half of your membership fee will support Bloodwise, a U.K. charity founded to end blood cancer. 

Working with trainers and nutritionists, Heughan helped design an eating and workout regimen, complete with recipes and demo videos. (How to do a proper squat is one of my favorites, though I do like him in the kitchen holding an avocado and waxing poetic about “healthy fats.”)

It’s a pretty ingenious scheme on his part. Crazy old birds like myself who’ve never once touched a kettle bell have thrown cash at MPC in droves, mostly just to be “closer” to this freak of genetic perfection. In 2016, Heughan’s “peakers” raised $299,000 to support blood cancer research projects. And now, as president of Scotland Bloodwise, Heughan plans to directly fund a clinical trial to treat acute myeloid leukemia.

Honestly, I joined MPC in 2016 (and re-joined in 2017) simply to get the t-shirt and a generic email “from” Heughan. I didn’t have a peak challenge in mind, but I did embrace the cause with passion: My sister had died of cancer in October 2015.

The summer before she passed, I joined Orange Theory Fitness (shout out to #otfaa), which follows a circuit-based, interval training format. It’s surprisingly fun and doable. (That’s me down there at the gym with sales associate Brooke.) And thanks to Sam Heughan and MPC, I finally determined that “my peak challenge” simply would be to keep going, for my sister, who no longer could move the way I did.

Over time I came to see Heughan less as "hot guy” and more as finely tuned human specimen with a kind heart. I began to think of exercise as a benefit, not a punishment. It’s a sacred privilege, actually. A joy. (At least I tell myself that when I’m about to keel over.) It’s something the victims of cancer can no longer do. I owe it to them to respect my body, to care for it, and to love it for as long as I can.

“Help yourself while helping others,” the MPC web copy states. “Build a healthier life, get stronger physically and emotionally, gain a support system, reach new heights and see new horizons. All while helping to change lives.”

I am no body builder and I will never run a marathon. (Seriously, I won’t.) In fact this Calamity Jane has a hard time letting go of the handlebars on the treadmill. But I do feel better, physically and emotionally. And I can still eat burritos and drink beer without becoming a big fat slob. Plus I helped fund a critical clinical trial that might save someone’s life.

Meanwhile, MPC and Orange Theory have helped me transform an unhealthy obsession with two characters – one fictional, one real – into a healthy lifestyle that honors my body and my beloved sister, who left this world on Halloween, midway through the third book of Outlander.

About this blog: Causes and Effect: My Year of Giving Daily, was started in 2013 by entertainment and culture journalist Melinda Newman, who made daily donations to a wide variety of nonprofits and wrote about her experience. USA Today music writer, Brian Mansfield, took on this monumental task in 2014. This year, 12 individuals will contribute, each taking over the blog for one month.  

About Deborah Holdship: Deborah Holdship is the editor of Michigan Today, a digital alumni magazine distributed monthly to some 300,000 alumni of the University of Michigan. For many years, she worked as an entertainment journalist in Los Angeles (with the byline Deborah Russell) at Billboard, LAUNCH, and Yahoo. After 20 years in sunny So-Cal, Holdship returned “home” to Michigan, where she lives happily with her husband/musician, Barry; their dog, Charles; and a kooky cat named Brando.