Fortress Of Good Fortune

Happy Canada Day to all of our friends up North! :)

My paternal grandmother was born on Prince Edward Island, so I've got some Canadian in me! ;)

I've also been on a Canadian kick since the Due South Archive was transferred to AO3 and I've been going through 154 records to reformat where I can, add tags, and break up the stories into chapters. I've been rereading the old stories and poems (I wrote a LOT of DS poetry!) and remembering the friends I made in that fandom, many of whom I'm still in contact with today.

The show aired on American TV from 1994-1996 and was revived for a 1998-1999 run. The show was quirky with subtle humor in the first two seasons, poking fun at Canadian and American stereotypes, and it became a hot fandom with the Benton Fraser/Ray Vecchio slash pairing. The show's subtext sometimes was more text! Ray bringing Benny home to meet his mother in the Pilot? Ray the only one to call him 'Benny'? Meeting in a closet at the Chicago Precinct to discuss strategy? Riiiight! Saving each other's lives? Dief (short for Diefenbaker), a deaf wolf who had saved Benny in the Yukon, welcoming Ray into the pack right away? I could go on and on! :)

The revival went on without David Marciano (Ray Vecchio), who was no longer available, so Callum Keith Rennie played Ray Kowalski as the new partner. Paul Gross (Benton Fraser) was given complete control (never give an actor complete control!). He wrote the scripts, starred in the show, and produced. The show's humor went from subtle to broad, and the tone was completely different. Kind of reminded me of the old '70s British SF series, Space: 1999, with Seasons 1 and 2 drastically different. Anyway, there are a lot of Fraser/Kowalski fans out there, but there are still Benny/Ray V. fans carrying the torch. The episodes, including the Pilot, can be found on YouTube.

Due South was one of the first fandoms to successfully straddle zines and on-line archives. During the show's first run, dozens of zines were published, not only in the U.S. but also Canada, the U.K., Australia, and New Zealand. Hundreds of stories were being uploaded to Hexwood (the old name for the DS Archive), and the show stayed hot for several years. I wrote the first Benny/Ray V. slash story (as Jeannie Marie) that appeared in a zine, The Straight And Narrow (the story title, not the zine title). :) In addition to the 154 stories and poems that I uploaded to Hexwood, I wrote dozens more for zines. A great creative time! :)

I also went to the DS con, RCW 139, in Toronto in '97, '98, and '99. I was the DMOB (David Marciano Oestregen Brigade) liaison to David Marciano in '98, and let me tell you, I've never seen more gorgeous green eyes! :) I continued DMOB duties in '99, but David was not a guest that year. I did bring Ray Doll in '98 and David got a big kick out of the knitted doll. :)

In '98, the Toronto Daily Mail published a story on slash fiction with Benny and Ray V. excerpts. I can only imagine what David thought reading the paper with his morning eggs! ;) But he's a very cool guy. Very courteous to the fans and a good sport, too.

I've finished 140 records and have 14 more to go! Whoo hoo! :)

Oh, gosh, you guys! I am SO excited about my story for the 2013 Bruce/Dick Ficathon! The test with the art went well with LJ and should be good on A03 when the time comes. The art is GORGEOUS! Giallodih is a fantastic artist. This is my first time working with her and I'm very pleased. :)

And for my dcu_bang, what more can I say about the incomparable ctbn60? She showed me some pieces and I love them! They capture the essence of the story so well. She and I have worked together many times and she's one of the sweetest people I know. Her talent is amazing, too. Her eye for color and detail really makes her work stand out.

I hope you guys will enjoy the stories and art. Posting dates should be in the next few months.

I also had an idea for a Bruce/Dick story, or actually, have had the idea for quite awhile and now I'm thinking of writing it. I'm excited about the theme and the research should be fun. I may just take my time with it and if it reaches Big Bang length, maybe I will enter it into the dcu_bang next year. It will be my pet project for the next several months with no stress. I think that's the only way I'll be able to write Big Bangs in the future, LOL!

For you Natasha/Pepper fans, I have another story in the works! Thanks for your feedback on LJ and A03. The only way I know you enjoy them is to tell me, after all.

Now for our sister community, Marvel Comics:


marvel_bang

Sign-ups for authors begin on May 30th. Here is the Prompting Post.

Did I tell you guys I got to see The Avengers movie again a few nights ago? I sure needed that after last week! Even if you're a DC girl or guy through-and-through and know nothing about the Marvel characters, see this movie! As a superhero fan you will enjoy it. :) And if you're all fired up about writing Marvel after seeing the movie, this is a good place to do it! :)

Also, imagine my delight when I posted The Soldier And The Scientist I: Man Out Of Time to A03 and in less than two hours received almost 200 hits and six kudos and a comment, up to eight kudos this morning and 278 hits. Wow, after getting only a handful of comments on DC work lately, this is heady stuff! :)

Hi, luvs! Rainbow's Freedom (Project K Arc) is now uploaded at A03. Two more arcs to go! :)

Quick reminder as May gets closer: the 2012 DCU Fic/Art Dick Grayson Challenge runs until May 31st, and the 2012 DCU Fic/Art Angels Challenge is a year-long Challenge, ending on December 31st. Both Challenges have already received some great entries, and cross-Challenging is welcome! :)

Dick Grayson Challenge Master List

Angels Challenge Master List

Not sure if I'll be doing a Challenge during the summer months this year, but you KNOW that I'll be hosting Halloween Challenges for DC and PE fandoms in the fall! ;)

Hi, luvs! Rainbow's Freedom The Dark Knight Of The Soul Arc is now uploaded at A03.

I'm taking a short break from uploading RF while I upload last week's LJ entries for dark_fest and the history_bigbang. I hope you'll enjoy the stories and comment if you feel the urge! :)

Hi, luvs! Rainbow's Freedom (RobinSong Arc) is now uploaded here at A03.

I hope everyone is doing well. The weather is beautiful here though it's going to get colder soon. Still, I planted daisies and bleeding hearts today and they should be fine as long as we don't get frost.

Expect some fics from me in April! I've got a bunch of stuff for various Fests and Big Bangs that you'll be seeing. I hope you'll enjoy them and make sure to comment if you're so inclined. :)

Good evening, luvs! Rainbow's Freedom (Sanctuary Arc) is now completely uploaded to A03 here. Every time I complete an arc, I'll let you know. :)

Also, some people requested to know when Bleeding Kansas (my smallvillebbang entry) was uploaded, and it's available here.

I should get Waves Upon The Shore, my superbat_bb entry, up soon and will let you know when that's done. :)

Uploading work is coming along slowly but surely! Thanks for your interest! :)

The SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) boycott is on! Wikipedia, Google, and fandom's own A03 are all blacked out today, just to name a few sites.

Thanks to dark_weezing for more info and links on the issue with up-to-date news here.

Please make your voice heard! Tell/write your Congressperson! Don't assume someone else will do it. If this bill passes, fandom will feel its effects and not in a good way, and all of the Internet will, too.

Hi, luvs! I've got all my banners uploaded now except for the banner for the 2011 Clexmas Bingo Card. I haven't received it yet. Otherwise everything's there. I know that I said last year that I was going to archive the previous years and leave up the latest year while gathering new banners, but I didn't get around to it and decided to just enjoy the pretties and do the archiving after New Year's. Like my A03 uploading, I'm finally going to do this task! I've decided that I'll leave one banner up with the link to the archive entry for that year underneath, and maybe even rotate the sample banners. I'll leave 2011 up while I slowly gather 2012 banners to add.

So, if you'd like to see all the pretties in one place, check out my Profile Page. Most of the banners are from my Challenges but quite a few are not. Enjoy! :)

Hi, luvs! If you’re uploading your works (or have already done so) to A03 and would like to add the works you’ve written for my various Challenges, there are now collections created for you to do so. It’s easy to do; just go into editing mode if you’ve already uploaded or while you’re putting in your work for the first time and go to the Collections line. There are three collections for your works:

BradyGirl_12 DCU Challenges

http://archiveofourown.org/collections/BradyGirl_12_DCU_Challenges

Wonder Woman Love Challenges

http://archiveofourown.org/collections/WonderWomanLove_Challenges

Guns_Fedoras Public Enemies Challenges

http://archiveofourown.org/collections/Guns_Fedoras_Public_Enemies_Challenges

Each collection also has subcollections, where you can submit a work at the same time you put it in the main collection. All subcollections are sorted by year. For example, my DCU Challenges have the following subcollections: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011 (with 2012 waiting in the wings). So when you place your work in the main collection, you will also find choices of subcollections and can choose the year of the particular Challenge in which you submitted your work. Since I host so many Challenges, it made sense to sort them by year instead of individual Challenges.

You’ll find my works in there as I’ve started uploading stories. The Archive accepts other fanworks beside stories, BTW.

The subcollections are sorted the same way for wonderwomanlove and guns_fedoras.

For the Additional Tags field, I’m using the following:

Community: BradyGirl_12 DCU Challenges

Community: Wonder Woman Love Challenges

Community: Guns_Fedoras Public Enemies Challenges

These tags have not been wrangled so if you would like to add those to your work, you have to type out the whole thing. I’m hoping they will become ‘official’ soon. ;)

You will also see Collection: BradyGirl_12 Fic Prompt/Request Fills pop up in the Collections field since I created that for all the stories I’ve written in response to my Fic Prompt Requests. That collection will contain only my stories.