#fanauthor spotlight

[fanauthorworkshop]

better know a fic author: Vaysh

in appreciation of our beloved fanauthors and all the great work they do for us, i’d like to spotlight our workshop participants!

today we’re talking to Vaysh!

find her at...

tumblr : @vaysh11 | ao3 : Vaysh | dreamwidth : Vaysh11

tell us a bit about yourself!

I'm from Berlin, Germany, where I've been living and working as an editor and translator for more than 20 years. (I moved to Berlin in 1991, pretty much right after the Wende.) Movies, tv-series, books and creative writing is pretty much my life. I have an M.A. in American History but even for historical research, I used novels and diaries as my source material. I teach creative writing and coach both published and aspiring authors. I've co-written professional (het) romances and I wrote four political crime novels as a ghost-writer.

when did you join fandom, and what were your first experiences with fanfiction?

I joined Lord of the Rings fandom in 2003, when Fellowship came out. I had not heard of slash or fanfiction before, and it was a life-changing revelation. I spent entire months reading Sam/Frodo and LotR fic. It was one of the best times in my life. :) One of my first experiences was contacting a fan author and finding out she lives in Berlin. We've become very good RL friends.

what fandom are you in now and what brought you here?

These days, Captain America fandom is my main fandom, and it's all Chantefable's fault, who insisted I watch the Winter Soldier. Stucky fulfils all my hurt/comfort needs, and I love the amount of historical stuff that is woven into so much fanfic.

what's your favorite fic of all time and what do you love about it?

Unanswerable. My favorite fic changes all the time. Right now it is cascades. by orange_crushed (@robotmango). It's an amazing AU-canon divergent novel with Steve returning from the ice in the fifties at its center. The writing is brilliant, the plot-twists intense and wholly surprising, and there is such a philosophical depth to the world that orange_crushed created. It's both deeply embedded in CA canon, and yet reads like an original fic. I've been reading it and listening to the brilliant 15 hours podfic for - literally - months.

what's your favorite fic you've written?

It's one of my oldest fics, from 2008, a Darry fanfic, called "We Are Legend".

what's a fic you've written that doesn't get the love it deserves?

This one, I think: "Agent Hopkirk Says I Love You", Drarry, as well.

what projects are you working on right now?

I am currently writing a Winter Soldier series, focusing on Bucky's time under Pierce, from Alexander Pierce's pov. And I have started writing seriously plotting and writing original fic, a steampunk novel.

what are your aspirations as a writer, big picture or small?

I want to write more, period. As for original fic: I want to finish writing a novel and sell it.

fanauthor spotlights | our ao3 collection | twitter

[duckprintspress]

Celebrate Pride by Learning About Ten Queer Independent Publishers!

This week, we’re spotlighting other queer, independent presses out there – some queer-owned, some focusing on publishing queer stories, some both. Take a look below - and if you know another press that’s not on the list, add it in the reblogs! The more queer publishers, the better. :D

Brown Recluse Zine Distro is a collectively run organization created to support and center zines by queer and trans people of color. Check out their shop for zines on dozens of topics, from personal reflection to political organizing.

Zombies Need Brains has been publishing themed anthologies for 10 years, and, this summer, they’re expanding to publish two short stories per month through their Patreon. Their next anthology’s theme will be announced in July; in the meantime, you can also pick up their previous anthologies and other ebooks in their store. 

Interlude Press and their YA imprint, Duet Books, have published more than 90 works of LGBTQ+ fiction across genres. Their catalog is full of award-winners, and with the plethora of genres, they offer something for everyone.

All Worlds Wayfarer, a quarterly speculative literary magazine, has recently started producing themed anthologies as well. Their latest, Prismatic Dreams, contains 30 sci-fi, fantasy, and horror short stories with queer protagonists

Speculatively Queer “publishes speculative stories about queer hope, joy, love, affirmation, and community.” It Gets Even Better: Stories About Queer Possibility is available now, and Xenocultivars: Stories of Queer Growth is available for preorder.

Renaissance Press publishes diverse Canadian voices across genres. Their latest release is AfriCANthology: Perspectives of Black Canadian Poets. 

Microcosm Publishing is a Portland-based publisher founded in 1996 to focus “on … the experiences of what it is like to be a marginalized person.” They especially focus on publishing work by women. They’ve currently got a Kickstarter running for their next title, “Unf*ck Your Grief.”

OFIC Mag is a small, new press focused on publishing a quarterly anthology featuring original stories and art by fanauthors and fanartists. They recently opened their third edition to submissions.

Ylva Publishing focusing on stories about women loving women, with an emphasis on diversity. They’re woman-owned and cross-genre, releasing everything from mysteries to romance to historical to erotica. They also publish YA titles!

Atthis Arts Indie Publishing is a small press named after a character from Sappho's poetry. They are especially interested in publishing works by members of underrepresented groups.

Bonus! An 11th Press

Space Wizard Science Fantasy, an indie press focused on queer sci-fi and fantasy, is just getting started. They've launched a Year 1 Kickstarter, featuring a number of titles they are working on, and they could really use more support. Back their current Kickstarter to purchase individual books or subscribe to the whole Year 1 slate of fiction!

[bettsfic]

socknography: the importance of preserving fan creator biographical data

i wrote earlier on utilizing collections and bookmarks to boost the archival power of ao3, and in that post mentioned how i wish authors would fill out their bios so we can preserve fanauthor information as well as we preserve the fics themselves. so, here is my rant about WHY WE ARE SO IMPORTANT.

for my masters thesis i wrote about the layered pseudonymity of fanfiction authors, and after doing a ton of research, i find myself still thinking of the pseudonymous/anonymous divide as it pertains to fic. we have authors we consider “famous” and ones whose followings eclipse that of traditionally published authors, but unlike traditionally published authors, we don’t put a handy bio at the end of our fics. in fact, if you want to find out about the author, you have to hope they’ve linked somewhere to their tumblr or twitter or dreamwidth, or they have consistent pseuds across platforms. and from there, you have to hope they have an ‘about me.’ but most, myself included, don’t.

unlike traditional publication -- where amazon and goodreads and even the back of the book contains biographical info -- and even unlike the rest of fandom archival etiquette -- which, despite having virtually no committed rules still maintains its organizational structure -- there is no standard etiquette on fanauthor biographical data. 

i speculate the reasons fanauthors are hesitant to write their own biographies is very complicated: 

there is no “ask” for it or existing standard. when i publish stories under my real name, i’m required to provide my bio, which contains my accomplishments, where i got my degree, where else i’m published, and my website. all literary author bios follow this formula, so they’re pretty easy to write. other than this post, i have never seen a request for fanauthor bios. so without an editor demanding it, and without a standard formula or platform to draw from, a total lack of information becomes the norm, and almost any info other than the standard “name. age. pronouns. ao3 name. list of fandoms and/or pithy one-liner” of tumblr or occasional ask game is seen as a deviation from the norm. even ask games get a bad rep sometimes, and they’re transitory, a post you see as you’re scrolling through to somewhere else, not static, like a dedicated profile page.

pseudonymity veers too close to anonymity. an anonymous author cannot have a biography. a pseudonymous author can, but biographies may be seen as defeating the purpose of writing under a pseudonym, or multiple pseuds. a sock account is a sock for a reason -- you don’t want it associated with your main. moreover, i believe fandom creates an environment in which to acknowledge your accomplishments and promote your own content is seen as narcissistic. fanfiction can sometimes be seen as a genre of selflessness, donating time and energy into a community centered around a shared canon, not personal gain. to acknowledge the self publicly is to invite attention, and attention is contradictory to anonymity.

shame and humility. the more information you have on the internet, the easier you are to find. very few fanauthors use their real names, or feel comfortable connecting their fan identity to their real one. i hear pretty constantly how often fanauthors hide their fannishness from their coworkers and loved ones, how only the people closest to them know they write/read fanfic. moreover, you might think “my most popular fic only has 10 kudos and 1 comment, nobody wants to know about me” (which is so not true, but i’ll get to that in a minute).

fandom is constantly changing. with a central archive for fanfiction in place, it’s easier now to be in multiple fandoms at once than it ever has been. if you want to read all sugar daddy fics, there’s a tag for that, and if you’re not picky about canon, you have an entire buffet of fandoms to choose from. communities are growing and shifting and changing shape. i move fandoms, and i keep my friends and readers from previous fandoms. i get dragged to new fandoms frequently. my interests and inspirations change, but i don’t erase my history or identity every time i move, i only add to it. i am always betts whether i’m in star wars or the 100 or game of thrones. but if you only read my fic, you don’t know the stories behind it. many people don’t know i entered fandom in the brony convention community in 2012, or that i was sadrobots before i was betty days before i was betts, or how fandom changed my life and led me through a path of personal trauma recovery, or that i co-founded wayward daughters, or ran the fanauthor workshop, or all these other things about fanfic that is not fanfic itself. 

if you are a fan creator, your fannish personal narrative matters. telling your story helps preserve the metatextual history of our genre.

i think constantly about what our genre will look like in 30 or 50 years, if it will be like other genres that began as subversions of the mainstream: comic books, beat literature, science fiction. genres that, at the time involved groups of friends creating stories for each other, bouncing ideas off of one another, experimenting with or distorting other genres, and which became, over time, well-regarded forms with rich histories. 

maybe one day, like the MCU, we’ll have a dedicated production company that churns out adaptations of longform coffee shop aus written between 2009 and 2015. maybe “BNFs” will be read in high school literature curriculums. maybe our work will end up on the real or virtual shelves of our great grandchildren. and if that happens, if fanfic goes entirely mainstream, how will fanfic authorship be perceived? how will fanpeople in 2080, if humanity is still around by then, interact with the lexicon we’ve created and preserved? what would you do if you found out Jane Austen wrote under five different sock accounts across three platforms over the span of twenty years? how would you, a fan of Pride & Prejudice, even begin to find all of her work?

we have so many social constraints pushing against us. there’s purity culture, which encourages further division of identity -- fanauthors may write fluff on their main and have various sock accounts for underage/noncon fics. if you’re a scarecrow, you’re much harder for a mob to attack. there’s misogyny, which dictates women/queer ppl shouldn’t be writing about or indulging in or exploring their sexuality at all. there’s intellectual property and a history of DMCAs, which, although kept at bay by the OTW, may still have influence on the “illegal” mentality of our work. with social armies against us, it’s easier to exist in the shadows, on the fringe. we change URLs based on our moving interests, and split our identities a million different ways, and keep sarcastic “me” tags full of self-deprecating text posts. we are difficult beasts to catch, because we have not been allowed to exist.

i spent a lot of time today googling the word for “pseudonymous biography” and came up empty-handed (if someone knows of an existing word, pls let me know. “pseudography” is apparently a fancy word for a typo; “pseudobiography” is a fake biography), so for lack of anything better, i’ve come up with the term “socknography” because 1) it’s funny and doesn’t sound intimidating, and 2) it encapsulates the sensitive and complicated way fanauthor identifying conventions work. and also i think “fanauthor biography,” “bibliography,” and “profile” just doesn’t cut it for the actual work of these pieces. they don’t necessarily include IRL biographical data, they include more historical/community context than a bibliography, and the words “profile” and “about me” don’t really inspire interaction, or acknowledge the archival importance of this work.

astolat’s fanlore page is my go-to example. astolat writes under multiple pseuds and has major influence in the history of fandom. she’s also a traditionally published author, but you notice, her ofic novels are not mentioned, nor any other real-life identifying information. fanlore has a really good policy on this in place, for those concerned about doxxing. 

(moreover, i am not suggesting you centralize your socks. they’re socks for a reason. but most everyone has a main, and that main identity has a story.)

there are 2 existing spaces to preserve socknographies. 

fanlore, a wiki owned by the OTW, you can make an account and create a user page (which is different than a “person” page) using a user profile template

ao3′s “profile” page, which is a big blank box in which anything goes

(i’m not including tumblr on this list because i don’t think it’s a stable platform.) 

fanlore’s template is straight to the point and minimal, which doesn’t really invite narrative the same way a literary bio would. ao3′s big blank box leaves us with the question -- wtf do i say about myself? how do i say it? how much is too much? and because of that, most profiles are either blank or only include a policy on translations/podfic/fanart, and maybe links to tumblr and twitter. but let me tell you, if i have read your fic and taken the time to move over to your profile, you better believe i am a fan. and as a fan, i want to Know Things.

here are the things i want to know, or

a potential template:

introduction (name/alias, age, location, pronouns, occupation)

accomplishments (degrees, personal history)

fan history (fandoms you’ve been in, timeline as a fan, how you were introduced to fandom/fanfiction, what does fandom mean to you -- this is where your fan narrative goes)

fandom participation (popular fics/posts, involvement in fan events/communities, side blogs, interviews, etc. 3 & 4 might be one and the same for you)

spotlight (which of your fics are most important to you/would you like others to read and why? what are the stories behind your favorite fics you’ve written?)

find me elsewhere* (links to tumblr, twitter, insta, etc.)

policies on fanart, fanfic of fic, podfics, and translations

*you cannot link to ko-fi, paypal, patreon, or amazon on ao3/fanlore per the non-commercial terms of service

i’ll be working on filling this out for my own profile as an example, but you can also see how my @fanauthorworkshop participants filled out their fanauthor spotlights, and the information they provided. obviously, you should only share that which you feel comfortable sharing, and as your fandom life changes, your narrative will change too. it’s not much different than updating a CV or resume.

tl;dr the goal is to provide a self-narrative of your fan life/identity for posterity. who are you and why are you a fanperson? why do you create fan content? what are you proud of and what do you want to highlight to others? who are you in this space?

[jess-the-vampire]

J K N

J - Name a fandom you didn’t care/think about until you saw it all over tumblr

Star vs, the fandom got me to watch the show tbh.

K - How do you feel about the other people in your current fandom

Sometimes i love them, sometimes i’m sick of them.

You have very talented and wonderful people in the star fandom who i love dearly and i want the best for. And then you got people who treat other fans like garbage, promote bad messages, and attack people who don’t agree to whatever ship you’re linked to.

And some of them act like they’re above other shippers, when they’re just as bad if not worse then them.

Newsflash, none of us are above each other, we’re all on the level. Some of us just branch out to different sides of the map and some of those sides get more spotlight then others.

The fandom is capable of great good, but also a lot of great evil as well. I’ve been both impressed, and horrified by it and the things it’s done at times.

N - Your favorite fanfiction or fanauthor

Like i said, i’m bad at making choices, worse when it comes to fanauthors cause i still lean more to art.

So no answer really.

[fanauthorworkshop]

better know a fic author: xyai

in appreciation of our beloved fanauthors and all the great work they do for us, i’d like to spotlight our workshop participants!

today we’re talking to xyai!

find her at...

tumblr : @xyai | ao3 : xyai | twitter : xyai_

tell us a bit about yourself!

I am a human residing in San Francisco with scattered interests: I write fiction + nonfiction, draw illustrations + comics, and work in nonprofit strategy. I identify as queer, ace, androgynous, and Asian American.

when did you join fandom, and what were your first experiences with fanfiction?

I got into fandom around 2000 or so, though I've been fannish since early elementary school. I recall roleplaying Yu-Gi-Oh and Digimon with friends without knowing that was what we were doing. For a few years, I wrote terrible dialogue crack!fic and posted it on fanfiction.net. I didn't stumble upon my first slash fic (Good Omens!) until 2003. Since then, I've gone through a spate of fandoms, the main ones being Hetalia, Star Trek AOS, Captive Prince, and Yuri!!! On Ice. 

I'm more active as a fanartist than a fic writer. Since 2013 or so, I've averaged 1 fic per year. Writing is always a laborious production, but I fucking love that sense of immersion.

what fandom are you in now and what brought you here?

I am adrift in fandom right now; my last two were Yuri!!! On Ice (I was induced to watch the pilot bc my dash provided scintillating preview gifs) and Captive Prince (a friend sent me the self-published PDFs, knowing how dearly I love court intrigue). I still think about CP a great deal (and probably will forever), but I'm not as involved in fandom anymore. Seeking next major attachment, though not actively.

what's your favorite fic of all time and what do you love about it?

"changes in sea level", a gen Kirk/McCoy drabble. It's quiet and meditative, illuminating a tiny sliver of life against the magnificent backdrop of space exploration.

what's your favorite fic you've written?

"Unmasked", a plotty Captive Prince adventure fic. Mostly because I can't believe I managed to write something SO LONG in so short a time, with an actual coherent plot AND a sex scene.

what's a fic you've written that doesn't get the love it deserves?

"For the Long Haul", a gen ensemble action/adventure Star Trek AOS fic, and the first real fic I ever wrote.

what projects are you working on right now?

I have a bunch of Captive Prince WIPs lying around, but who knows whether I'll ever finish them. I'm working on original short stories (literary and sci-fi/fantasy) to use in applications for grad school and workshops. I'm also going to take on NaNoWriMo! Probably! That'll either be a YA fantasy novel or a queer romcom.

what are your aspirations as a writer, big picture or small?

My ultimate goal is to work interstitially across genre (literary, fantasy, sci-fi, romance) and medium (short stories, essays, comics, illustration, audio, video). I am interested in narrative, text, visuals, and design... and I want to Frankenstein all that stuff together to make something new and fearsome and exciting that makes people feel and think.

fanauthor spotlights | our ao3 collection | twitter

[fanauthorworkshop]

better know a fic author: agent-nemesis

in appreciation of our beloved fanauthors and all the great work they do for us, i’d like to spotlight our workshop participants!

today we’re talking to agent-nemesis!

find her at...

tumblr : @agent-nemesis | ao3 : gundamoocow

tell us a bit about yourself!

I've lived in a few places around the world and currently reside in the UK. I'm an experimental physicist by day and smut writer by night. I enjoy doing martial arts and have a 3rd degree black belt in Taekwon-Do, which used to take up all of my spare time before I picked up writing.

when did you join fandom, and what were your first experiences with fanfiction?

I don't know what counts officially as "joining" fandom, but my first interactions with fandom were roleplaying on tumblr in the Gundam fandom in 2014. I only started reading fanfic for the first time the year before, after I finished reading the Rurouni Kenshin manga and really wanted to fill in some crucial missing scenes for my emotional satisfaction.

what fandom are you in now and what brought you here?

Star Wars! I've loved Star Wars since I was a child. With The Force Awakens came kylux, and I've been completely caught up in it since then.

what's your favorite fic of all time and what do you love about it?

Oh my. This is a tough choice. I'm mainly in the kylux fandom in Star Wars, and there is so much quality fic there. I'm going to be cheesy and say the Children, Wake Up series, which is basically a fandom phenomenon. I followed it from the beginning as it developed from a canon post-TFA setting featuring my favourite tropes to an absolute epic that ruined me emotionally.

what's your favorite fic you've written?

It has to be Letting Down. With some trepidation, I set out to write a deep-seated kink of mine, and somehow accidentally ended up writing something that affected me and other people in a weirdly profound way. Do mind the tags on this one!

what's a fic you've written that doesn't get the love it deserves?

I'm pretty happy with how most of my fics have done. I often write quite specific kinks that I think won't appeal to many people, but they generally fly high. What gets less love is the softer stuff! An example would be See a Man About a Dog, a 1920s prohibition era kylux AU.

what projects are you working on right now?

Too many! I always have a queue of fanfic I want to write, though often I impulse-write a prompt fill. I have several original projects on the go. The primary one is a BDSM-laced gay high school romance novel that has two more chapters to go. There's a sci-fi story that we workshopped here that's actually a part of a bigger story, though I'd like it to stand alone! I'm planning to start writing the main novel in this verse when the romance novel is done. The basic premise is that most humans on Earth are wiped out in an unnatural disaster and the story follows a group of survivors in space. If all that's not enough, I've started a collaboration with my husband (who loves detailed world-building but has no idea about character creation) on a magical historical fantasy.

what are your aspirations as a writer, big picture or small?

Honestly, I want to quit my job as a scientist and write original stories full time. If I could somehow make that financially viable, that would be great.

fanauthor spotlights | our ao3 collection | twitter

[fanauthorworkshop]

better know a fic author: emdee

in appreciation of our beloved fanauthors and all the great work they do for us, i’d like to spotlight our workshop participants!

today we’re talking to emdee!

find her at...

tumblr : @oh-emdee | ao3 : ohemdee | twitter : oh_emdee

tell us a bit about yourself!

I am scientist by day, and a horseback rider in my "spare time". I'm Canadian! From Edmonton, the land of two seasons (winter and construction). I love to read anything and everything- I worked in a library for close to ten years through most of my schooling. And now I've decided to apply back to school to become a librarian, based on everything I've learned both in my previous schooling, and in my current job.

when did you join fandom, and what were your first experiences with fanfiction?

Oh gosh, well it's been a while, and I was definitely "joining fandom" before I had a word for it. I started getting quite a bit more active in 2014, and started writing last year. My first experiences were almost certainly stumbling through different forums, reading Harry Potter fanfic that was probably far too mature for me.

what fandom are you in now and what brought you here?

Umm... bit of Star Wars, but I'm moving away. The reylux fam kind of took me in, and they are all lovely. I'm definitely leaning more towards Overwatch, now that I've played the game too much, and read more fic that I thought I could possibly have time to consume

what's your favorite fic of all time and what do you love about it?

I very nearly chickened out on this question, but anyways, it's definitely this one: "Sweet as Honey” by Sougishiki 

I've read it far too many times, and I keep clicking the kudos button, even though I know it won't work. Ever had a fic that pushes on all your buttons like they are bruises? That's this fic to me. Moving on.

what's your favorite fic you've written? 

"Just One Night”  -- I wrote it for a friend's birthday and she loved it, and that makes it perfect to me (Avengers, Samnat fluffiness).

what's a fic you've written that doesn't get the love it deserves? 

Astrolabe if I had to pick one. Mostly because I think Damerey is the ship Star Wars deserves. I also really struggle with titles, and I really liked that word, which fit the fic quite well.

what projects are you working on right now? 

Some Overwatch fics. I apparently skew towards Mercykill as my ship for that fandom, based on my WIP folder. I'm trying to plan out something longer in more detail so I have something to work on for NaNo. I'm going to try and go for a single work this year, rather than a bunch of shorter stuff

what are your aspirations as a writer, big picture or small?

I think, for now, it's mostly shifting back to writing fiction. I've spent a lot of years on scientific writing, which can be less than forgiving, and I noticed a steady decline in my flow and creativity. The more fic I write, the more it comes back, which is very rewarding on its own. Getting some long fic out there. Gaining more confidence, which I think pairs well with getting a little more shameless in my writing. Growing, always growing.

fanauthor spotlights | our ao3 collection | twitter