TELL ME ABOUT YOUR FANDOM JOURNEYS

[featherxquill]

So, my big print media project for the semester is going to be 'investigation of a contemporary subculture', and, at present, my main idea is to use the theme from earlier in the semester -journeys- and write my piece on that. The end product will be 2000 words.

I plan on writing about my own fandom journey, from seeing PS and CoS and then busting an ankle and reading all four HP books, to... well, where I am today. Drinks in Snape's Pub, Patronus, all the amazing people I've met, online and off. The fact that I feel I've grown as a person and as a writer through fandom. Before I started reading femslash, I thought I was completely heterosexual, for a start :).

I'm interested in all of your fandom journeys, as well. They don't have to Harry Potter, or only Harry Potter. Tell me how you started being a fan, the places you moved through, how it's affected you or even changed your life. What you got out of fandom when you started, and what you get out of it now. How it's changed, and why, if you know :)

So, anyone who is interested and willing, please tell me, in as many words as you like, about your fandom journeys. Note that I will, in all likelihood, quote you in my finished work. Once it's handed in, I will publish it online for you all to see. If my teacher thinks it is worth publishing anywhere else, I'll seek out your permission again.

Also, if anyone wants to contribute but doesn't feel they can write about their fandom journeys just like that, tell me so, give me an IM contact, and I'll interview you. Both ways would work well for me. The guide about the paper stresses the need for 'real world research', which is rather difficult to define when one is talking about something like fandom, but I believe that interviews and collecting stories is the same online (in a fandom context) as it is in person (for a different subculture).

Thanks to everyone who contributes.

ETA: Also, if you'd rather be refferred to by a name other than your LJ sn when I quote you, please let me know in your comment.

Comments

[princesslucia.livejournal.com]

Before I started reading femslash, I thought I was completely heterosexual, for a start :).

Is it all right if I have a really good laugh about that?

[featherxquill.livejournal.com]

*chuckle* Be my guest. I'm rather amused by it myself, really :)

[moogle62.livejournal.com]

Oooh, I'll help if I can! That paper sounds so many different kinds of brilliant to write.

I'd probably be of more help if you either emailed me with questions if you can't grab me on IM anywhere or, you know, did the IM thing.

I'm on Yahoo thingy and msn, IM wise - Yahoo sees me as 'moogleheart', email address 'moogleheart@yahoo.com'.

Msn has me as choccygirlmeg@hotmail.com - that's also my main email address, if you need that for anything.

...quote me as much as you like!

[featherxquill.livejournal.com]

Thanks! And hehe yes it should be fun to write which is more than I can say for at least one of my other subjects :)

I've emailed you some questions. Thanks again, and do feel free to say anything that the questions don't cover if you feel the desire to.

[mabs-consort.livejournal.com]

Sure, you can quote me if you want- my fandom is likely to be Merlin- I don't know if I can just write about it, though. I think you have my email address, though, so if you email me a list of questions I'll try and get the answers back ASAP.

[featherxquill.livejournal.com]

Thanks for helping! I have emailed you a list of questions. I hope they help :)

[arfies.livejournal.com]

I'll do it! (I actually considered writing a similar paper in the past).

My obessession with "Bewitched" was indirectly an offshoot from being a Beatlemaniac since I was 8 and in 4th grade, which, in turn, got me fascinated in all that is the 1960s. A chat with my friend Emily in 7th grade (also a huge Beatles fan) got me interested in "The Monkees," which was showing on a local non-cable channel at the time of summer 2000 (I was one of the few who didn't have cable, which irked me to no end) as part of the Screen Gems Network. SGN rotated their shows, so when they replaced "The Monkees" with "Charlie's Angels," I was quite ticked off and quit watching. Sometime during the summer when I was actually getting up in the morning (a rare feat), I saw my younger brother and sister watching "I Dream of Jeannie," a show I had liked when I watched it at my grandparents' house on Nick at Nite (they had cable). SGN had rotated to that.

Well, the appeal of it was sort of lost to me by then (and I kept thinking, "Aren't there any SMART blondes on TV?!"), but I watched it anyway because it was '60s-y. Once I got up even earlier and managed to catch the end of a "Bewitched" episode that aired right before it (all I remember is "How now brown HORSE!"- later I found it was "Samantha, the Bard.") I found it funny, clever, romantic (the earlier episodes, anyway), and lo and behold, Samantha was actually INTELLIGENT!

I watched it more and more, and I got out books from the library about the show ("Bewitched Forever" by Herbie J. Pilato, "The Bewitched Cookbook" by the late Kasey Rogers and Mark Wood), visited any website I could find about it (www.bewitched.net and Vic's Bewitched Page, mostly), and tried to catch snippets of whatever I could on TV and from random book passages about the history of TV. I even set the VCR when school started so I could tape it. Sometimes during the hell that was my middle school experience (I was bullied, my previous friends had left me, and I was beset with depression and depersonalization disorder), watching an episode of "Bewitched" at the end of the day was the only thing I had to look forward to. For some reason, it always cheered me up, whether it was Samantha's kindness, Darrin's funny faces, Endora's sly bitchiness, or Tabitha's ability to get rid of any problem she had just by twitching her nose with her finger.

I know it sounds pathetic, but honestly, I have learned so many things from being a fan of this show, directly or indirectly. Of course, there are the usual biographies of the actors and crew, the social commentaries written about it, production, and the like. But through those, I've watched movies I might never seen this early in my life that are part of the cultural heritage, such as "Citizen Kane" (Agnes Moorehead was in it) or "Inherit the Wind" (Dick York was in it). Then I researched those movies, the actors in them, the historical contexts, watched additional movies, etc., etc. The whole thing snowballed until I became very good at trivia and everything "vintage," which landed me in the tryouts for "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire...")

Just because I felt like doing a song that eventually became "Witch Doctor Bombay," I learned about sound editing. Because I wanted to make a font that resembled the opening credits of "Bewitched," I learned fontmaking (and through that, have had something I made at age 15 end up in a Nicole Kidman movie... without my permission, but still, unbelievable.) Because I wanted to make a website about Bewitched fan fiction as well as write some, I learned HTML (and how to properly format a script). Because I enjoyed the background music used in the show, I wanted to find out if I could interview the songwriters and learn more about them. (It worked, incredibly, and they turned out to be world-renowned composers. And they talked to little ol' me!) Craaaaazy. The list goes on and on.

[arfies.livejournal.com]

There are some degrees of obsession that I don't "get," such as listing every single episode Samantha wore a certain dress in (http://www.harpiesbizarre.com/frock.htm) or the like, since you don't really learn much from that. However, seemingly ridiculous things like "What paintings did the Stephens have on their wall?" (http://www.harpiesbizarre.com/art.htm) or "What was meant by that pop culture reference?" (http://www.harpiesbizarre.com/reversereferences.htm) leads to some fascinating history that gets me interested in other things. It's sort of like a treasure hunt with a good sense of humor, since I'm fully aware of how silly it is. :p But educational.

I know people make fun of fandoms (and goodness knows I do for the ones I don't "get," like Star Trek), but really, everyone's obsessed with SOMETHING. If it takes over your life and distracts you from truly important things, like, you know, feeding your kids, it's obviously unhealthy. However, if it makes you happy and leads as a "springboard" to other things and new people, being in a fandom can be an invaluable experience.


~fin~

(hopefully this will give you enough material... otherwise, my AIM is JennyArfies)

[egyptian-moon.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm interested. Though, I think I will have to sit down and actually think everything out and write it up. Would it be ok to email you with said info???

[featherxquill.livejournal.com]

Thankyou! Email is fine. If it would be easier for you, I can send you some questions to answer/help structure it?

[minerva-fan.livejournal.com]

I will do this, but am at work--can you remind me (probably through Fey) the next time the two of you are IMing? I've been actively (more or less) in some form of fandom since 1984, so I may have some stories to tell. Just not sure exactly what you'd like to know. Or you could email me at minerva_fan AT livejournal DOT com.

[featherxquill.livejournal.com]

Hey! Thankyou so much! I bet you do have some interesting stories and I can't WAIT to hear them! I've sent you an email with some questions, but if there's anything else you think of that you'd like to include do feel free to go off on tangents because I love those :D

[dancing-salome.livejournal.com]

I'll answer, I just need to think it though a bit first.

[featherxquill.livejournal.com]

Thanks! If you'd like some questions to answer/help you structure your response, I can email you the ones I've written if you like :)

[lexie-b.livejournal.com]

Sounds interesting :D I'm happy to help out, I've been in fandom since I was 11, so I've got a few fandoms. My email address is lexie_b at livejournal.com; is it too hard to do interviews via email? (My laptop can't handle IM programs.)

[featherxquill.livejournal.com]

Thankyou! I've emailed a list of questions. Feel free to elaborate on anything I haven't asked, though, if the mood takes you :)

[beatricepeabody.livejournal.com]

Okay, I'll go for it....

My first fandom was actually Star Trek The Next Generation. I used to watch it with my mom when I was a little kid. I used to think it was SO COOL that LeVar Burton was on BOTH Reading Rainbow and Star Trek. (TNG also had my first ship (P/C), though I didn't call it that. I had a HUGE thing for Picard and Crusher, even though they were old enough to be my grandfather/mother, respectively.) I've watched at least part of every Star Trek since, and I can relate anything and everything to it (see icon. Yes, that is a Rent/TNG crossover.)

I got into Harry Potter in high school, but I've started to get out of that in the last two books. There's too much plot for me to be able to write fanfiction anymore. Harry Potter was where I started reading slash (Remus/Sirus), and where I got the concept of rarepairs and stuff. I then went back to Star Trek and looked up all sorts of ships I hadn't thought of before.

I'm not really as into fanfiction as much as I was in high school, but that's because I would like to find a higher quality of story than a lot of what is put on the internet, and while I know high quality things are out there, I don't have time to look for them. About the only things I read anymore are what authors I used to read post on their livejournals.

Reading fanfiction changed the way I look at new things though. I learned to watch TV shows or read books with an eye for what wasn't actually said. I discovered a lot of things that weren't discussed in my midwestern conservative christian household growing up, and I learned that what my parents thought was normal wasn't the only thing that was okay. Because I lived in a small rural town, there was nowhere else for me to experience things that were outside a very conservative viewpoint. It helped me make friends with people who lived all over the world.

Okay, this is starting to get a bit long, so I'll stop. I think this is a really good idea for your paper. Good Luck!

[featherxquill.livejournal.com]

Thanks for your input :). I love the way fandom makes it possible to interact with people everywhere, and you definitely sound like you have gotten a lot of it, as far as ideas about life etc are concerned.

Hope this isn't too long... :/

[3goodtimes.livejournal.com]

I’d love to help you out! I rarely get to talk about fandom to anyone unfortunately.

Let’s see…

Well, I first started reading Harry Potter when I was about thirteen by accident. I was babysitting for a kid who asked me to read a chapter of the third book to him before bedtime. I remember it was the Patronus lessons scene and I immediately fell in love with these characters who essential, meant nothing to me and had no back story at all. I figured I oughta give the books a try. I think I read them all within two or three weeks (at this point the fourth one was out) and I was instantly obsessed. Mainly, it was the characters that did me in. The plot was great of course, but I always went back to the little character moments: Sirius’s hand tightening on Harry’s shoulder after Cedric’s death, Snape’s flashes of humorous and bitter anger, Remus almost reaching out to Harry in the third book, Dumbledore’s candy obsession, etc… It was such a rich experience, to immerse myself in all these little back stories and personality traits. I loved creating dramas and fake relatives and tying up loose ends in my imagination. I remember daydreaming in class about Remus’s mother and what nationality she would be and how she might comfort her mutilated son. Or I might have Draco as Snape’s godson, and imagine how Snape would be torn about Draco’s future as the heir of a death eater. I would make Harry a girl or Hermione a boy and play out the scenario. JK just gave her readers much room to play in. It was wonderful.

Fan fiction came into the picture a little after I had read the books. I knew about its existence already having dabbled in reading Buffy the Vampire Slayer fanfic, but I figured Harry Potter wouldn’t much dedicated to it considering it was a children’s book. Boy was I wrong! I found so much it was almost overwhelming. I started by finding fics (and art) about my favorite character, Severus Snape. Honestly, at the beginning of my experience I felt like a kid in a candy store. There was so much good stuff! Some of it I hesitated about. The idea of underage sex for instance, frightened me a bit. I was a good Catholic girl after all! But out of curiosity (and I admit, a bit of a sexual interest) I read a Hermione/Snape story. It was incredibly hot. I believe it was about him “teaching” her about sexual pleasure. I wished so badly to be Hermione in that story. Still, I didn’t touch slash for a long time. It just… made me a bit nervous. Eventually, my curiosity got the best of me again, and after initial shock (I had very little clue about the mechanics of gay sex) I was pleasantly intrigued by it all. Soon, my interests shifted from Snape/Other Male Character to Sirius/Remus. I delved into that and also explored some other pairings. It was all great fun if a bit of a guilty pleasure. Like letting my imagination out to play in a safe but public place.

(continued in my reply)

Re: Hope this isn't too long... :/

[3goodtimes.livejournal.com]

After the fifth book, I wrote my first fanic. It was a story about the abrupt nature of Sirius’s death called “Cut.” And I wrote it shortly after my cousin had died in a car accident. I posted it hesitantly to a community of Sirius/Remus shippers and was incredibly surprised to find that people actually liked the story. I had been writing all my life but I had never gotten this kind of feedback. It was a wonderful, almost addictive feeling. I began to write a bit more, using my fic as a sort of catharsis. When I started realizing I was bisexual, I wrote a story about Sirius’s sexuality and his parent’s reaction.

I honestly believe I would have never written something like that unless I was able to use JKR’s characters. It’s almost as if seeing it written there in the eyes of a character you love makes it easier to accept about yourself. I see my ideals, my desires, my fears, and my hopes in every one of the fanfics I write. It’s not amazing stuff, but it’s important to me that I can write it and put it out there.

As for fandom at large, I love reading other people’s stuff and I’ve got a lot of favored artists and authors, but I’m not all that involved in the social aspects of it. I wish I could be more involved. It would be lovely to discuss my love of Harry Potter with someone who understands the effect characters can have on you. Today I am 18 and I continue to write and (hopefully) improve. I’m majoring in writing and starting to create some of my own memorable characters. I thank JK and the fandom world for that. It’s been a strange but ultimately rewarding experience. <3

(You can list me as Melissa in your paper if it suits you. I like it better than 3goodtimes :)

[jadarene.livejournal.com]

How I got started in fandom, generally: A friend asked me to write her an X-Files fic; I did, we posted, and I got sucked into the X-Files fandom where I wrote numerous fics. How I got started in the Harry Potter fandom: Right after Goblet of Fire was published, I read all four books at once. There is a scene in GoF where Draco pops up in the woods. It gave me a plot bunny for a Draco/Hermione story. I wrote, I posted, and after I posted Arabian Knight (which you can find at: http://colouredgrey.contraveritas.com/viewstory.php?sid=243 ), I continued reading fic, scouring all the archives for anything good. It was a short list at the time. I found a lot of good Harry/Draco stuff, though, which ended up giving me a plot bunny for one of those. So then I wrote a H/D fic which I posted to Fiction Alley ( http://www.fictionalley.org/authors/jada_rene/DLG01a.html ).There I found another author, dementordelta, who writes Snarry. She and I emailed back and forth and she read my H/D and liked it. She gave me codes for an lj, and this was back in the day when you had to have codes to get one. At that point, I started writing daily HP limericks, and have been doing that for the past three years. I also continue to write fic, primarily H/D, D/Hr, Sn/H, or H/Weasley. My pairings actually vary a great deal.
From this fandom, I finally understood yaoi, and came to really love slash fic because the fandom embraced it and there actually was enough of it to go around. There may be a huge shortage of slash fiction in the bookstores, but in fandom, you can find somethig to satisfy the readers' craving. I've also been privileged to meet so many great people, several of whom I've forged close friendships with, and whom I have taken as friends in my regular life and not just my online life. I would have to say that the very best thing I've gotten from the fandom is the freedom to form friendships outside the basis of geographical constraints. Meeting people who actually share my specific geeky interests has enabled me to really be myself and not have to hold back parts of my personality for fear of shunning. It's a relief, it's a joy, and I'm grateful for my fandom experiences. In the beginning, I posted in X Files for the joy of writing and to improve my craft in an informal setting. With HP, I just went nuts. I've almost written one thousand dirty HP limericks, and a ton of fics because they were all scenes I would have loved to see, were the characters able to play out the situations I set before them. Now I feel like I really am here to play, and to entertain myself and my friends with very similar interests. I haven't really seen a lot of changes in the fandom, and I think that's probably because I came to HP only a few years ago, so I missed a lot of the fandom formation. I'm just grateful to be a part of it now.

Please let me know if I've been unclear or if you have further questions. You can email me if you like, jadarene@gmail.com. I wish you the best of luck with your research!

[featherxquill.livejournal.com]

It's a relief, it's a joy - Oh, I most definitely hear you there. Finding poeple who don't, I don't know, sigh and tolerate ones fannishness but actively enjoy your thoughts and ideas with you is one of the most amazing things about fandom.

Thankyou for the wishes, and thanks for contributing! :)

[e-chan-21.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a cool idea. Sure, I'm up for it. What fandom do you want? I'm into Star Wars, anime and Harry Potter, although I suppose my anime fandom is where I am the most active ^^
Should be fun.

[featherxquill.livejournal.com]

Any or all would be wonderful. Or whichever you feel you've gotten the most out of.

If you'd like some questions to structure your thought, I can email you some if you'd like.

Btw, your icon is awesome. :D

[danii-ellie.livejournal.com]

Wow, this sounds like a really cool topic to write a paper on.
So, I'm going to write a bit here about my fandom journey, but please, if you have any questions you can contact me on my e-mail at danii_885@hotmail.com

I'm a fandom switcher, bit of a traitor really. I started out as a die hard Lord of The Rings fan, which started with my dad reading me The Hobbit when I was 5 years old. I loved the book straight away and it remained a firm favourite of mine throughout my childhood. For my 12th Christmas, my dad bought me the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I finished the books within a couple of weeks, and I was hooked. However, living as I did at the time, in a small German town I never met anyone who had read the books, or enjoyed them quite as much as I did. I reread the books constantly, and I quickly developed my first crush on a fictional character. After all, it's impossible not to have a crush on Aragorn! When the movies came out I was so excited, although quite nervous, as I had no idea if they would be anything like how I imagined them to be. Fortunately, they were all that and more.
Shortly after the release of the second movie, The Two Towers I decided to do an internet search and see if I could find some interesting sites.
I stumbled across The Council of Elrond (www.councilofelrond.com) and my introduction to fandom began.
It was on this site that I met, for the first time, people who were interested in the same things as I was. People who lived relatively near me as well! I was amazed. By this time I was living in a small town in Scotland.

Whilst all of this was going on another fandom was on the back burner. I've always been a bit of a bookworm, and at High School I lived in the library. By half way through my first year I'd read the majority of the library books available (and that I wanted to) and so, in desperation, I took out a book my roomate (for I was at a boarding school) had been begging me to read for the longest time - Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. I digested the book by that evening, and so the following day returned and booked out the other two books - Chamber of Secrets and Prisoner of Azkaban. I soon discovered my second crush on a fictional character, one Sirius Black. Have you cottoned onto what kind of guys I go for yet?
A couple of weeks later I bought all three books at the local bookshop and began counting down the days until the fourth was released. I remember the day it was released vividly. I cycled to the shop, for it's opening and cycled back immediately. I then spent all day lieing on my bedroom floor reading the book. I had finished it by the time Monday, and school, rolled around. Of course, when I arrived at school on Monday, everyone had it with them. It was such a fantastic atmosphere.
A couple of weeks later I moved back to Scotland, and suddenly Harry Potter wasn't so cool. I was 14 at the time. That November I went to the cinema to see the first movie, and I remember feeling disappointed. It wasn't what I imagined at all. Now, however, I've learnt to love that movie.
When the fifth book came out, I was in my fifth year at High School, it soon became my favourite of the series. I fell in love with Sirius Black once again, and cried for hours when he died, I still do.
And now, this is too long so I'll continue on the next post...

[danii-ellie.livejournal.com]

After my fifth year I started University, and suddenly it was acceptable to be a Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings geek, it was great. Someone mentioned LiveJournal to me in my Fresher's week, after a drunken conversation about Harry Potter, as a great place to meet other fanatics. I signed up immediately. I soon discovered all those people I'd met on The Council Of Elrond, and The Unspeakables (the Harry Potter sister site) and I had an instant group of fandom friends.
I've been on LJ now for three years (in fact my 3 year anniversary was only last week!) and I can't see myself leaving anytime soon. It was here I discovered the joy of fanfiction and fanart. I started off reading the basic gen fics and then progressed into slash (generally Remus/Sirius but now I'll give pretty much anything a shot) and eventually femmeslash.

I was drawn in by a ridiculously hot Hermione/Fleur fic that inell wrote and now I'm a femmeslash junkie. After a period, I started writing myself, posting my fics in various communities that I've joined here and there. After a while, I realised that I had no where to keep all my fics, as I wanted to keep that and RL seperate and so I created a fics journal ellie_fics where I keep my fics (and pr0n).
Apart from the fics I was also moderator of thegoldenseeker a newsletter focussed on the female members of the Harry Potter 'verse.
Like you, it took an interest in femmeslash to make me realise that I wasn't as straight as I thought I was...and also that I was ok with that!
In the past year I've become obsessed with ficathons and regularly take part. I've loved some of the gifts I've received and the ones I've made have generally been well received. I'm currently taking part in three for the Christmas Season.
I also discovered the joys of RPGs, I started on LJ but have since moved over to GJ, where I currently play in two different RPs. I play Pansy in a post-War, post-Hogwarts RP, where she is engaged to Draco and attempting to renew the Wizarding World's faith in the Malfoy name. The second one I play in is a pet favourite, called Riddikulus. It is also a post-war game, but the kids have returned to Hogwarts to finish their educations. Again, I play Pansy, with a somewhat interest in Greg. I also play Charlie Weasley, with Tonks as a love interest, and Dean, attempting to get over Ginny.

Next Tuesday I am meeting up with another Harry Potter fan, I met online. This will be my first meeting, something I'm feeling extremely nervous about but also looking forward to quite a lot.

I hope this helps, and feel free to quote me. :)

[taziamalfoy.livejournal.com]

Found this link on DS, so you don't know me, but I'd like to help. I can't go into it right now, both of my babies are awake and clamoring for my attention, but if you'd like to send me an e-mail with your questions or a more in-depth description of what you're looking for, I'd be happy to tell you anything you want to know. My two main fandoms are HP and popslash, yes the dreaded RPS. My e-mail is lilbit19932002@yahoo.com and my real name is Libby.

[featherxquill.livejournal.com]

I have emailed questions. Thankyou so much!

[wingdance.livejournal.com]

I don't think anything about my fandom journeys has been terribly interesting except for this, which still amuses me:

My parents never commented on anything about homosexuality when I was younger, mostly because they don't have a very strong opinion about gay rights, so the subject never came up at home. When I was in sixth grade, I didn't even think about it in reference to my life, it was just another word I happened to know the meaning of.

Around that same time, I started watching Sailor Moon, and got interested in the differences between the editted version that was shown in America and the original in Japan. At some point, I discovered that two of the characters, Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune, were lesbians in the original story. My thought at the time was something like, "Well, I like Sailor Moon and want to keep watching it, so I guess I have to accept homosexuality as something that's okay."

Later on, I developed stronger reasoning, of coure, but I always thought it was funny that my original acceptance of gays and lesbians came from my determination to keep watching Sailor Moon.

I hope that helps somewhat. ^^ (Ah, does it count as fandom since it doesn't really have anything to do with other fans or the internet? Er... well, whatever. ^^;)

[featherxquill.livejournal.com]

Hey, yeah, it definitely does count! And little golden nuggets of story/experience are something I'm very much after, so thankyou! :)

[ariadne1.livejournal.com]

Happy to answer interview questions; my email is ariadne dot snape at gmail dot com - I teach English, write HP fan-fic, am one of the staff on the On-line Wizarding Library archive - anything I can do to help, just let me know :) Good luck with your project.

[featherxquill.livejournal.com]

Thankyou! I have sent questions! :)

[lotuseyes.livejournal.com]

Well this doesn't just stand for Harry Potter, but I seem to always just 'fall into' fandoms. Sailor Moon I was obsessed with long before I hit the internet and was busy writing extremely long winded and often convoluted fanfics based upon Sailor Moon before I had my own computer even. Inu-Yasha I became involved in because I thought Inu-Yasha was an idiot and that Sesshoumaru was obviously better for Kagome.

The Best example would be how I fell into the Stargate fandoms. I HATED Stargate SG1 for years. I thought it ruined the movie and RDA was a complete and utter fool (who thinks of food when the world is about to explode? RDA does.). I had grudging respect for Carter until I learned she was in love with RDA.

I heard 'Ben Browder' (of Farscape, a show I adore) would be on the show, come season 9 and suddenly I couldn't get enough. I literally had more then 20 episodes taped at one time on my DVR schedule so I could catch up in two months the entire series before Season 9 started.

Learned that Claudia black would be a main star (also from Farscape) and fell over myself to find the episode she was in season 8. Then I heard MOrena Baccrin (from Firefly) would be the bad guy in Season 10 and suddenly I'm saying 'omg best show EVER'. I read so much SG fics its not funny. I also have a need for the ten seasons of stargate to be on dvd in my collection. I join discussions and I was wailing at the end of this season.

But like the Draco/hermione craze this too will pass until I only occasionally look and even then only if its an author I really enjoy. The only real fandom that I have stuck with is Sailor Moon.

[featherxquill.livejournal.com]

Thankyou for replying! And wow yes I know all about being obsessed with things because of the actors/actresses involved. That's probably how I became so obsessed with Rita Skeeter ;)

Thanks again!

[nellie-darlin.livejournal.com]

I'll happily help! IM would probably work best, although equally I could answer questions by email. Just let me know. My details are on my user info page.

[featherxquill.livejournal.com]

Thankyou! I'd love to have your input.

I've just looked over your userinfo page, though (w00t for Queenie and Green Wing an Monty Python!), and I don't see your IM/email listed :-/. It is entirely possible that I'm blind, though, if they're not listed at the top of the page.

Thanks again :)

[mneiai.livejournal.com]

I'm not exactly sure what you're looking for, but I started out in fandom around 6th grade (was writing fanfiction since 3rd) and am now in my third year of college, so I basically grew up in it, a lot of my relationships and friends have revolved around it, and I consider it a significant part of my life. If you'd like to interview me, I'd love to help.

My AIM SN is mneiai and I'm on quite a bit, since it's college and procrastination is key ^.^

[featherxquill.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I've added you. My own sn is severusyesohyes :)

[chicafrom3.livejournal.com]

Sure, I'll help if you like! I'm a longtime member of many fandoms, rooted strongly in sci-fi but with a couple other genres mixed in, and any interview questions can be sent to chickadee _ from _ 3 [at] yahoo [dot] com and I'll get back to you as soon as I can.

[featherxquill.livejournal.com]

Thankyou! I've sent you an email with some questions.

[bluerosefairy.livejournal.com]

Count me in on the email train. My addy's on my info page, and I'd be more than happy to ramble about any topic you like. I've got a bunch of different fandoms, so if you're looking for something specific (HP, SPN, etc), I'm flexible.

[featherxquill.livejournal.com]

Feel free to talk about any or all of your fandoms. Whatever had the most impact, the best moments, etc :)

I've sent you an email with some questions. Thanks!! :D

[roachspit.livejournal.com]

Hi. I'm here via metafandom. I'm Roach, and my e-mail address is roachspit [at] hotmail [dot] com, if you want to reach me.

I discovered fandom when I was was a freshman in high school. Dragonball Z fandom, specifically, because all of my (predominantly male) friends were watching the show and I wanted to learn more about it. Then I discovered the sexually explicit sort of fanfiction. That was a shocker. I moved on to Gundam Wing when Toonami began to air it. Before GW, I had been brought up in a very homophobic environment. All of the really well-written fics I could find were yaoi, so I got over that quickly.

I didn't start writing fanfiction until the year after high school graduation. By that time, I'd moved on from anime into Buffy the Vampire Slayer to Harry Potter to Smallville and the Justice League cartoon, and finally into DC comics. I took a few detours along the way, but those are the major fandoms I lurked through. I was peripherally involved in Dragonlance fandom, because I had been reading the books since I was eleven. I discovered the Raistland (http://www.raistland.com/) forums and was issued a writing challenge by another Raistlander. That's when I got my livejournal. I've been writing DC and Dragonlance ever since.

Does that help?

[featherxquill.livejournal.com]

It does! Many thanks!

You know, I'm actually rather surprised (pleasantly, of course) at how many people seem to have become more open-minded about sexuality through fanfic.

[dine.livejournal.com]

here via metafandom - I'd love to babble about my years in fandom; the "journey" focus is an interesting one for the paper. please e-mail me at dine@livejournal.com with questions

[featherxquill.livejournal.com]

:D Thanks!

I just handed in my 'research report' thingy today and part of what I focussed on within was the way this woman talks about fans in her article (http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,1837941,00.html). I think a lot of her surprise in this case had to do with just being thrown in the deep end of fandom (I think a con is most definitely the deep end) without having any prior context whatsoever. I don't think this makes her opinions invalid (although I'm rather annoyed by her condescending tone), but I think the 'journey' focus will be a useful way to explain how it is that people come to BE fandom fans, rather than just 'hello I write gay porn on the internet', or whatever. :)

Anyway, I've sent you some questions. Thanks again! :)

[lord-dingsi.livejournal.com]

I'd like to contribute. My contact info's listed in my user profile, just pick what suits you best. :)

[featherxquill.livejournal.com]

I have added you to my AIM buddies. My sn is severusohyesohyes. I tried to email you some questions, but my hotmail apparently dislikes the .de at the end of your email *kicks hotmail*

[supersyncspaz7.livejournal.com]

I'd be up for interviewing via e-mail--supersyncspaz7 @gmail.com.

[featherxquill.livejournal.com]

I sent some questions off now. Many thanks! :)