The Omnivorous Geek

Last week, I recorded a podcast with my good friends Nick and Tim, and when I came back from a night of playing geeky games, I found that it's been posted!

Derailed Trains of Thought Episode 14

Their podcast, Derailed Trains of Thought, is all about stories, and they asked me to be a guest to talk about fandom. It was a really fun talk, extremely geeky. I talked about all my fandoms, but mostly Supernatural. The guys talked about Muppets and Lost and other stuff. Great fun. Give it a listen and let me know if you think I did it justice. I even read a little crossover commentfic at one point, if you want to check that out.

One thing I do want to clarify... At one point I said, in response to a question, that if you want to be a serious writer you have to be careful with fandom because of how involved in it you can get, to the point of neglecting your original work. I should have said "commercial writer," not "serious writer," because I know there are plenty of serious writers who don't want to write anything but fanfic, and there's nothing wrong with that. (I think I was pretty clear about that, in another part of the discussion.)

I've met so many truly fantastic writers through fandom, so many wonderful people, and I really wouldn't have it any other way. This interview was really off the cuff, just a talk between friends, and there are things I wish I could add and clarify, but I hope that my feelings of appreciation and love for fandom came across, anyway.

(And if any of you want to do some art of Kermit and a pirate captain and send it to them, that would be great. :D)

I really like MC Frontalot, and this is quite the adorable fan-made music video for one of his first songs. Plus, some convention love thrown in there. ♥


http://www.youtube.com/v/3WEoP2c74ro&hl

I still haven't seen 4.21 and I probably won't get to until tomorrow, and I am exhausted and depressed and I won't be going home for awhile and, you know, all sorts of good stuff, so, well, here's a meme.

Comment to this entry and I'll pick up to three of your fandoms. You must then update your journal and answer the following questions:

1. What got you into this fandom in the first place?
2. Do you think you'll stay in this fandom or eventually move on?
3. Favorite episodes/books/movies, etc?
4. Do you participate in this fandom (fanfiction, graphics, discussions)?
5. Do you think more people should get into this fandom?

kalquessa gave me Doctor Who, Star Wars, and Numb3rs.

( Interesting choices, my cheesy friend... )

Me: I just had something in my throat.
Gabe: But you sounded so evil.

(I had a little trouble clearing some phlegm out of my throat before I offered Jill some advice, and it came out sounding very menacing.)

Aaron: So, has an aura of fear descended on the DMV yet?

(We were in the middle of a rather complicated strategy that involved changing the title of a ship in the SW equivalent of the Department of Motor Vehicles, complete with a staged fight in the waiting room.)

And goodness, why can't I remember any more? We always make so many jokes and laugh so hard....

Also, John bought Josh a Star Wars GM screen as a kind of gift for GMing, and it had this marvelous collage of character art on it, and I asked for stuff on the table to be rearranged so I could stare at Han more easily. It made Josh very uncomfortable, because it looked like I was staring at him, but as I told him, he wasn't exposing bits of his chest, and was therefore a bit less magnifying to the female eye.

::sigh:: Oh, Han.....

( cut for extreme geekiness and bad puns )

Oh, and incidentally? Second day on anti-depressants, and this crap really works. I am impressed.

1. Stop talking about politics for a moment or two.
2. Post a reasonably-sized picture in your LJ, NOT under a cut tag, of something pleasant, such as an adorable kitten, or a fluffy white cloud, or a bottle of booze. Something that has NOTHING TO DO WITH POLITICS.
3. Include these instructions, and share the love.

I had a really hard time picking. I have lots of pretty pics in my photobucket, and I go gloat over them every once in a while. But here's some fanart that never fails to make me feel all warm and happy. Qui-Gon and baby Obi! Awww. Totally not!canon, but I don't care.



Ed: Holy cupcakes, that's huge! Gimme a second, I'll figure out how to make it littler.

Ed2: Okay, that's better. Here's a link to the big version, so you may roll around in the cuteness: http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y153/maychorian/sleep.jpg.

And here's a link to the AU this comes from, in case you would like to explore the lovely fics. http://www.geocities.com/elementaryjedi/

Repost time! Here are two for the price of one. I wrote the second of these little one-shots first, actually, but they’re a matching set.

WARNING: Contains gen man cuddles. (As I said in a comment elsewhere, it's a curious addiction, but very strong. The Altoids of fic kinks.) Realistic or no? You tell me.

Fandom: Star Wars
Title: The Sun Shall Not Smite Thee
Author: Maychorian
Characters: Obi-Wan Kenobi, Qui-Gon Jinn
Category: Hurt/Comfort, Gen (Original notes: Angst/Drama . . . oh, who am I kidding. It’s pure unadulterated mush. That’s all it is.)
Rating: PG/K+ (imagery)
Timeframe: Pre-TPM, Jedi Apprentice era. Obi-Wan is 15 or so.
Spoilers: None
Summary: “It had taken the Jedi far too long to effect a rescue—over a week. By that time Obi-Wan was nearly delirious, on the edge of madness from loneliness and fear caused by his inability to touch the Force.” The mission to Glatier.
Word Count: 3786
Disclaimer: Crazily enough, I don’t own these people. So sad. I could really use a good masseuse, and someone to feed me chocolates while I read and write fanfic.
Author’s Note: We had a power outage the other night, which got me to thinking about poor Obi-Wan in “Nor the Moon by Night.” A reviewer asked me for a prequel to that vig, and I have to admit that I was quite willing to write one. So here it is.

( The Sun Shall Not Smite Thee )

Fandom: Star Wars
Title: Nor the Moon by Night
Author: Maychorian
Characters: Obi-Wan Kenobi, Qui-Gon Jinn
Category: Hurt/Comfort, Gen
Rating: PG/K+ (imagery)
Timeframe: Pre-TPM, Jedi Apprentice era. Obi-Wan is 15 or so.
Spoilers: None
Summary: The night may pass, but sometimes it lingers, hiding out in deep shadows and waiting to pounce on the unwary. Once again Qui-Gon realizes this lesson, and tries to show Obi-Wan how to carry a light.
Word Count: 2704
Disclaimer: Mine mine mine! All mine! Not yours! . . . Whoops, there goes my crazy voice again. Pay no attention to that little fibber.
Author’s Note: I’m stealing bunnies. This was just one in a long list dianethx gave LuvEwan. It wouldn’t leave me alone. Blame the bunny for begging to be snitched. I’m sure LE’s version is quite different, and I’m very much looking forward to reading it. (And I hope she forgives me for writing this first.)

( Nor the Moon by Night )

I seem to be on an h/c kick right now, probably because I am feeling so lousy myself. So here is an old one of mine, one of the Qui and Obi fics I mentioned. It's interesting to look over this and see how much my writing style has changed in the intervening years. (This was first posted in '05.) My life, too. No more parents' basement and Honda Civic. Dang, I miss that car. It got awesome mileage. Poor Blue Raspberry.

Fandom: Star Wars/Jedi Apprentice Series
Title: Priorities
Author: Maychorian
Rating: G/K
Timeframe: JA (Obi-Wan is 14)
Category: Random Mush . . . er, Angst/Drama, Hurt/Comfort
Characters: Obi-Wan Kenobi, Qui-Gon Jinn, Mace Windu
Spoilers: Minor ones for JA books.
Word Count: ~10,000
Summary: Qui-Gon takes on a big, important project, and is soon completely absorbed and stressed out. Obi-Wan, dealing with a problem of his own, has a very hard time catching his attention.
Author’s Notes: I needed to write something a bit fluffier between all the angst and drama. The plot’s been done, I’m sure—this is just my particular flavor.
Disclaimer: Yes, I own Star Wars, as evidenced by my million-dollar home and eight cars . . . which bear a striking resemblance to a room in my parents’ basement and an ’89 Honda Civic. Go figure.

( Priorities )

This is one of my favorite SW one-shots, and I felt like posting it here. It's a simple little thing, and you only really need a little bit of familiarity with The Phantom Menace to enjoy it. Eventually I'll probably post all of my old fanfic on Livejournal, at least the ones I still like. It's nice to have everything in one place and sortable.

In other news, I'm working on "Familiar Strangers" again. Two new paragraphs so far, in Teal'c's POV, which I've never done before. So that's cool.

Also, there's a pineapple in the break room and I don't know why.

Fandom: Star Wars
Title: Too Far Inside
Author: Maychorian
Category: Vignette
Characters: Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker
Rating: K+/PG (for imagery)
Word Count: 900+
Summary: Obi-Wan dreams.
Author’s Notes: For the “Obi dreams” challenge on the JC forums.
Disclaimer: Yeah, I own Obi . . . in my dreams. –sigh–

( Too Far Inside )

I know I haven't posted forever, and I'm sorry. I'm still here, still writing, still alive. In the past couple of months I finally moved out of my parents' house and got my own place, so I've been very busy unpacking and organizing and all. Plus I don't have internet there. My work has also picked up, with both of my part-time jobs becoming progressively more stressful and energy-consuming. I'm busy, but mostly happy. And I'm still working on Familiar Strangers, and here's some proof!



The shiny white and black whorls of hyperspace elongated, stretched thin to the point that it seemed that the fabric of reality must tear at any moment, then snapped into the pinpoint stars and ethereal radiation of normal space-time. They were . . . they were . . . hmm. They were somewhere.

“Where are we, Carter?” Jack asked, glancing at his team.

Carter blinked, still gazing fixedly out the front windshield or porthole or whatever. “We’re . . . we’re . . .”

“We’re approaching a planet,” Daniel said.

The major nodded. “Yeah, that.”

As usual, Teal’c just stood there, disregarding the silly, uncultured Tau’ri. No doubt he had approached hundreds of planets from space. The cockpit was just a tad crowded with the six of them jammed in here (Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan were still in the ship’s lounge, the Padawan asleep, the Master not), but the team from the Milky Way wouldn’t have missed this for anything.

“This is Coruscant,” Nik’lai Hayde said, grinning affably up at them from his seat. Beside him, Lindle bounced irrepressibly in his own chair, occasionally stretching over the console (obviously not built for the use of a ten-year-old) to punch a button or adjust a lever. Each time Jack hoped that he wasn’t going to kill them all.

“It’s . . . pretty.”

It was all Jack could offer. On the dayside the planet glowed metallic in the sunlight, and on the nightside a billion lights twinkled and burned in golden rivers. Not really an Emerald City. More like a Ruby and Jet and Tiger’s Eye City. Oh, and a white-gray one, with all that metal, turned molten by sunshine. Moonstone City? Probably. All of ‘em together.

“Some say that the name ‘Coruscant’ comes from the Corusca gem,” Nik’lai said, “referring, I suppose, to the way light shines both on the gem and on the planet, and flares across it as across the multi-faceted planes of a well-cut jewel. But millennia ago the planet must have had a different name, for how could a pre-space culture have known that the entire planet glittered like a jewel? The older name has been lost, of course, perhaps before the Republic was founded, years and years and years ago, beyond the reach of even our most ancient histories.”

Daniel nodded thoughtfully, blue eyes gleaming deep with scholarly joy. The kid was right at home, here. “And in future millennia, perhaps it will have another name yet.”

But Nik’lai frowned at this. “I hope not. For that would mean that the entire galaxy has been re-ordered, and the Republic lost irretrievably. I cannot see how that could be a good thing.”

“All civilizations fall,” Daniel murmured, so lowly that the Jedi Master might have missed it. Or at least could pretend that he had.



Eh, that's all you get for now. Stay tuned!