SpaceGypsies

When it comes to letting go and geeking out over things I am ergodic in my choices. Like a spinning bottle that stops one day, or week, or month and points emphatically to something I love.

I can geek out on Claudia Black! My all time favorite female actor or any gender actor. Aeryn Sun and Vala Mal Doran are my all time favorite characters. Wow, now that’s something I can totally geek out on! The woman is so profoundly brilliant she amazes me.

Randomly, I do the max out geek on Farscape, Firefly, Stargate SG1, Mardi Gras, costumes and just about any character driven science fiction. The very first time I was cognizant of being passion driven by something was watching Star Trek TOS when it first started and then taking a leap of faith and falling in love with Star Trek: The Next Generation.

I have a passion for scifi/fantasy conventions, writing fanfiction and costumes, Mardi Gras day in New Orleans (in costume) and Dragon*Con (in or out of costume).

I find joy in all the insanity of the people milling about at Dragon*Con and during Mardi Gras. Wandering around in costume and having my eyes whirling in delight at the throngs of costumed participants only fuels my need to geek out more often.

SpaceGypsyMama-Spacegypsy1 Mardi Gras

And I enjoy explaining my passions to acquaintances as they question me because in their tiny brains I’m too old to be a geeking out. “What’s fanfiction? Who the hell are Daniel and Vala? What’s with all your costumes? Why are you so crazy about Dragon*Con? Can I borrow your silver and black wig? And the most common question those acquaintances ask, as a fellow geek reminded me, “can you help me with my Halloween costume?”

I mostly had geek friends in high school. And talking about geeking out with passionate effusion!!! I was nuts about the Beatles. I actually screamed – not squeeeee – but screamed when I saw them live. Really.

My passion runs deep for Daniel and Vala of Stargate SG-1 fanfiction. Way deep. Geek deep. I never tire of writing them. I have no concern if someone is reading it. I love it when they do, but really, it is going to be written anyway. Actually, I never tire of writing at all. Writing is not really a sit down and ‘gee’ what will I write. Apparently my brain is on go write for all but six or seven hours a day!! Often it’s crying out to write Daniel and Vala fanfiction.

Fanfiction exists for just about anything you love. Any movie, any book, any TV show. You can google it. If you google Daniel and Vala Fanfiction you’ll find tons of it. So go google your favorite couple, or TV show. It’s not all ships(relationships). There’s action/adventure and things unimaginable. Or try Fanfiction.net or LiveJournal.com to search for something fun.

And while I am on the subject of loves and passions let me just add…I adore geeks. I totally seek out geeks and geek out over geeks. They enliven my life. They guide me to more profound geekdom.

Then there’s my other passion: blogging, reporting and interviewing.

Because of following certain geeky flag flying I’ve came together with two awesome and real live geeks to co-found www.SpaceGypsies.com where we can express passion, fly geek flags, rant, honor, respect, fangirl, report, interview and genuinely enjoy our passions.

 Spacegypsy1/SpaceGypsyMama

Hello fellow travelers!

This is a very special week for the SpaceGypsies. We recently discovered Operation Speak Out with your Geek Out and it was something that really spoke to us. We’re proud to be geeks and we’re proud to be fans. And we’re not afraid to show it!

Geeks have spent far too long being teased and stereotyped. But instead of combating negativity with harsh words, Operation Speak Out with your Geek Out proposes that we invite those that pick on us to “sit at our table and share our interests.”

“Let us combat being used as pawns for internet gaffes with the reasons why we’re awesome, why we love what we love, and why it’s good to be a geek.” -Operation Speak Out with your Geek Out

SpaceGypsies is proud to join Operation Speak Out with your Geek Out this week, September 12th- 16th by posting about the things we geek out for and why we’re proud to be geeks.

Do you want to join the revolution and geek out too? Post your geeky story in our comments section this week and let us know what you geek out for!

Never be afraid to let your geek flag fly!

SpaceGypsies

I hosted a panel at MobiCon 2011 on Fanfiction. Fanfiction, in case you don’t know, consists of stories written by fans based on plot lines and/or characters from another source like Stargate SG-1, Farscape, Star Wars, Harry Potter, Anime, Twilight, Castle, games, movies, etc, etc, etc.  

While many fanfiction writers fancy themselves as experts, I’m not one of those!  I have been writing fiction for many years – probably forty. I’ve been to several writers workshops, was a member of Romance Writer’s of America for about five years – still, not an expert. I love the craft!  There are plenty of ‘guides’ out there and opinions for fanfiction writers to use.

The panel was a question and answer scenario and I wanted to share some things I’ve learned. Surprisingly, there were twenty-five or so in the audience, one third of which were young Anime enthusiasts. 

A few of the young people were eager to let everyone know they wrote anime fanfiction. There’s nothing wrong with that and I love the fact that they are learning their craft as they go, but only one in that group actually wanted to be a writer or seemed to truly want to learn more about writing.

As I answered general questions the subject found its way to erotica in fanfiction…I have no problem with good erotica or adult situations in a story.  Some, but not all, fanfiction is about ‘Shipping” as in relationships between two characters – romance and erotica, simple and graphic sexual situations, and adult themes included! Due to the younger audience I simply pointed out there’s a vast difference in writing erotica versus the prevalence of the over use of silly words for body parts and the not so interesting graphic, play by play, ‘ho hum’ sex in many fanfiction stories.

Funny thing, when I tried to steer the discussion to other topics a young woman  (maybe 15 years old) raised her hand excitedly and announced quite proudly that she wrote erotica. My first thought? How much experience could she have had to base it on… and was she sure she wrote erotica and not graphic/play by play sex learned from some manual or book? And did she write from experience at such a young age, or had she read a ton of it on other fanfiction? I refrained from asking those questions.

I moved on to the use of words and the joy of a Thesaurus. One of the younger crowd raised her hand, and like her compatriot, shook it wildly. I acknowledged her and she asked: “What’s a Thesaurus?” After drawing a deep breath, I sighed, but before I could answer another of her group had pulled it up on her iPhone and read the definition for all of us. So with that settled we were able to move forward.  

Pointing out the frequent use of an actual Thesaurus or online database and not just a word document ‘pick and choose’ was paramount to me in speaking about any kind of writing. I made a point to get my two cents in about how repetitive words give a monotonous cadence to any story and I for one, no matter how much I’m interested in the plot will stop reading.  I reiterated often: writing is hard work.  

I myself can be guilty of getting lazy when writing fanfiction so I have one or more people who edit my work so as to hopefully catch the glaringly obvious overuse of a particular word, any slip out of character, way off canon, and general clerical errors.  In some fanfiction circles the word for the person who is editing, checking up on your facts – or lack there of – is called a Beta.  

Fanfiction IS for fans who want to write stories for their genre. And whoever doesn’t like the genre, or possibly doesn’t appreciate the young peoples’ or a new writer’s budding craft should not be reading it. I must confess, I tried Anime, but found I was unable to slog my way through what I found. Though, I am positive there are some awesome stories written by these young men and women, I’ve given up on finding them.

Often during the panel I found I had to draw people into asking questions.  In particular, several twenty-something men.  I just pointed to one of them at at time and asked, “What do you write?”  I found myself genuinely surprised by there fanfiction set in the gaming world. Admittedly, it sounds incredible. I had never delved deep into other fandoms for fanfiction. Although I had looked around, I wasn’t aware of this genre in my fanfiction world. Gaming is so popular, I’m not sure why I didn’t figure that one out myself.  

Some of these gaming writers post on a game forum, another posts on a friend’s blog site. I encouraged them to seek out a larger audiences including fanfiction.net or Live Journal where they can search their favorite fandom/Game/TV Show/Movie, Book, etc. 

One member of the audience had never read, written, or even heard of fanfiction. He said he was curious. When he left he came by to say he enjoyed the panel and would be checking out some fanfiction!  

Personally, I write fanfiction because I want to share it with those who, like me, enjoy a particular fandom, pairing or genre and I don’t worry about those who don’t because they are (or should be) reading from writers who write what they want to read.

Mobicon was delightful and I thoroughly enjoyed hosting a panel.

You can read some of my fanfiction  (and comment on repetitive words if you must)  at any one of these, though most are on fanfiction.net :    Spacgypsy1 on Fanfiction.net   or  Spacegypys1 on Live Journal

“…Nothing is best, nothing is worst. Each thing, seen in its own light, stands out in its own way…” Thomas Merton 

GateFic is a Stargate community site that offers a large fan fiction archive, video and photo galleries, art gallery and discussion forum. It’s a great place for Stargate fans to meet and mingle! Every year GateFic gives out awards to recognize the fantastic writers and artists who help contribute to the fandom.

SpaceGypsies is proud to announce that our very own SpaceGypsyMama has been nominated for several awards for her outstanding Daniel/Vala fan fiction! Starting July 4th, viewers can head on over to GateFic and vote for their favorites.

Want to check out SpaceGypsyMama’s amazing fan fiction? The pieces below were nominated for GateFic awards. Click on the titles below to check them out!

Double Jeopardy

Halloween: It’s All About the Costume

How to Get an Archeologist to Ask You on a Date 1

Intervention

Lemon Drops

What Part of Non Interference Don’t You Understand

If you like her fic, please take a moment to cast your vote for SpaceGypsyMama!

SpaceGypsyMama’s Review – Fanfiction Author Eilidh17

One of my all time favorite Stargate SG-1 fanfiction authors is Eilidh17.  I found her on the Fanfiction.net site years ago.

An amazing writer in any category; part of Eilidh17′s stories are what is referred to as KidFic (downsized SciFi characters – usually by some alien interference!).  And although I don’t usually read ‘kidfic’ I found her’s to be very funny and entertaining. Hysterical in fact!

And her Daniel and Vala fics make me sigh with joy. She populates many Stargate fiction genres, not just kidfic or Daniel and Vala.

Eilidh17 started her ‘Kidfic’ version of stories about two years ago. My favorites are the series with Stargate SG-1′s Jack O’Neill who’s raising the downsized Daniel Jackson and the wonder and joy of the Isis tales. Isis being Daniel’s kitten and Jack’s nemesis! Very funny and quite magical.  Be sure to read them all, they remain hilarious throughout!

The chemistry between Jack O’Neill and Daniel Jackson is displayed with genius in Eilidh17′s Isis stories, even though those two are out of their normal realm.  From “Isis” a Stargate SG-1 Fan Fiction:  (Jack O’Neill)  ”Danny calls her Isis, I call her Mikta, and the grey bundle of fur currently perched atop my lounge room drapes calls herself queen of the felines.”

The thing I most like about Eilidh17′s stories is how she keeps these two characters in character. She passed on her vision of the characters, Jack O’Neill and Daniel Jackson (in any size).  Quoted below.

“There are two things though that I really do try to keep in mind when I write these two guys up – Jack is a hardened soldier with an undercurrent of emotion that he displays sparingly.  Daniel is not a whimpish person.  My teeth hurt at stories that have him dependent on Jack for everything or way over the top on the emotional sliding scale.  He is a well balanced and brilliant person, we all know it… so to write him any differently is a slap in the face to the character.  Just my opinion there.”

Find Eilidh17 fictions here and here and here.