Virtual Birthday Party, Day 01

[wiseheart]

Hi folks! *waves" I know I'm late kicking off my virtual birthday party of 2013, but considering that I worked almost 11 hours today, I think I can be forgiven, right?

It's that time of a year again - I'm getting older. In this case, I'm turning 57 on October 9, so let's party!

Last years virtual birthday party yielded 1328 comments on 6 pages, before LJ crashed the whole thing, and 617 additional ones on 3 pages at the second coming. Which won't be easy to top, but we're good, aren't we? WE CAN DO IT! WE CAN BREAK THE 2000-COMMENT-BARRIER! Let's give it a try! In the recent years, it has always been great fun, so let's have fun again!

You're all cordially invited to help yourself to a slice of virtual cake of your choice. If you want to post your favourite recipe in a comment, be my guest. If not, just drop by and say hello.

Cheers!

Note: The party will be closed on October 9, at midnight, sharp. However, to avoid the same mishap that occurred last year, there will be a separate post for each day until the 9th. We will count all pages and comments together when the party is closed.

Join us and have fun! Feel free to start any thread, any topic you want; we can discuss it, mock the general stupidity of life and laugh at it. I tentatively started two topics, just to begin the fun somehow, but you may add anything you want.

Comments

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. What exactly are Yuletide recs? Do they include fics that have been written for the Yuletide challenge exclusively?

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

Yes, it's just stories from Yuletide 2012 (and the associated Madness collection). There were 2753 works in the main collection (& 457 in Madness), but I seem to know fewer & fewer of the sexy new fandoms. I do try to read all the works in fandoms I have even the vaguest notion about.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

I dunno, I'm trying to keep up with the new shows and stuff but haven't found anything I'd really enjoy since Sherlock BBC. Everything else is either too brutal or too hipper, aimed at inane teenage girls, and from that I get more than enough at work.

I think the fact that Glee has the most stories on FF.Net shows clearly where the tendency goes. *shudders*

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

I feel older every new juggernaut fandom that leaves me cold. I fear I didn't even like the new The Hobbit film very much (even though I'm a huge fan of Richard Armitage), and I find the genderswapped Bilbo & the M-Preg Bilbo & the omega Bilbo that are filling AO3 literally impossible to read.

I generally jump on fandoms a couple of years after everyone else went somewhere else. Sigh.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Yes, those stories are rather horrible. But I found a small handful of interesting ones (and no, I'm not advertising my own stuff here, hehehe) that are worth reading. I think I ought to update telekis_vendiak, my multifandom rec comm and add those.

Mind you many of them are crossovers with LOTR, and some are fairly AU, but I did enjoy reading them. I liked the film, too, mostly, but it was perhaps because I'd feared much worse. IMO, Martin Freeman is a fantastic Bilbo, and Armitage is fairly good, too. The rest of the Dwarves are utterly forgettable, and Radagast a bit too silly, but I enjoyed him nonetheless.

In the end, I think it's just another form of fanfiction. I'm looking forward to the extended edition with more Hobbitses (unfortunately, also more scenes in Goblin Town, which was horrible) and to the next parts. Especially the Cumberworm Smaug. I always loved Smaug. *ducks*

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

Recs would be good -- I think I at least read the summary of all the AO3 stories back in Feb/March and subscribed to quite a few promising WiPs, nearly all of which seem to have been abandoned.

Freeman makes a decent Bilbo, but I couldn't get over Thorin being too young. Not Armitage's fault, but he'd have been better cast as someone else.

I'm looking forward to Smaug too -- whatever his faults, Cumberbatch is an excellent voice actor, and I too adore Smaug. (Though Smaug/Bilbo is another AO3 trend I'd gladly see stomped on.)

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Take a look at Page 2, I've posted 7 Hobbit fic recs. Granted, they are but a handful, but they're above the usual drivel.

And if I may be so shameless as blowing my own horn, I've got "Elf Root", "If You Wish Upon a Dwobbit" and "The Book of Mazarbul" myself, all very in-canon. Or so I hope...

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

I'll bookmark them for when I've finished churning through the Yuletide stuff... And if you can't toot your own horn at your own birthday party in your own journal, I'm not sure where you can :)

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Especially as I'm in desperate need of a little support.Those wee stories get very few reviews - too much world-building and too little smut (=not at all) for the average reader's taste.

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

I'm a very bad reviewer these days, I fear. I just about get up the energy to click the kudos button on AO3, but coming up with words in response to things... (Are you on AO3, by the way?)

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Just with my one-shots. Last time I tried, FF.Net didn't allow to import stuff to AO3, and I haven't figured out the way to post multichapter stuff yet. Not to mention that I don't feel up to posting every single chapter individually. I've got to work for a living. *sighs*

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

It's a pity no-one will pay one a salary to write fanfiction :(

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

And I've long given up hope to ever get any of my original stuff published. So much so that I've even given up on my original stuff.

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

I don't think many people actually make a real living out of writing original fiction.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

I never expected to do so. I just would have liked to see my writing published, but there was no chance. And then I got hooked up on fanfiction and, well, that was it.