Hello!

[epithalamium]

Yes, this is epithalamium. I decided after some thought not to delete my LJ. It's going to remain as is because I was an embarrassing young adult and I guess it's good to remind myself that I used to be an embarrassing young adult as I go about my cranky old man life.

All my entries--fanart and fanfic alike--are going to remain in that old account. For my dreamwidth, I decided to delete all posts I've already made (which were just test-run html coding for the fests I've signed up for anyway) and start over.

どうぞよろしく! And for people I've known since the LJ days, ただいま!

Comments

[paulamcg]

a Rip van Winkle moment? Oh, yes! It took me some time to realise that the HP fandom had not completely died, just gone through some changes (not even a revolution) and spread over different platforms and collected fanworks somewhere away from where small corners of community could be developed.

I'm glad to hear you can work from home – and that you're glad about it! As a (special) kindergarten teacher I continue to work as if there were no pandemic (just wearing a mask), and my life hasn't been affected much, as my son and I wouldn't go much anywhere in any case. In turn, I could say, to be honest that I am actually old, unfortunately still about seven years too young for retirement. :)

I hardly ever make any but fic-related posts, never any friends-locked posts so far, and I've had the habit of granting access to everyone I subscribe to. Yet, just before I found you, I started considering doing a personal meme – after revoking access from those with whom I've had very little interaction. Stay tuned... And, of course, I'll be glad if you're still interested in having a look at my fic. (The 90 stories I have on AO3 are all rather short, and I don't even know how much I'd need to edit Revolt if I decided to post it there.)

Do you do anything in the HP fandom any more? I'm afraid I don't know your other fandoms at all.

(Oh, I realised I friended nerakrose only in February, on the basis of a comment on a HP writer's entry.)

[epithalamium]

The HP fandom is definitely still around and strong! I'm still glad there are communities that are still active in LJ, although the activity has really spread out.

Oh man, I hope there's not a lot of risk when you go to work!! Please stay safe! 😭 It's a good thing that the vaccines are getting rolled out, but it seems like it would be a while before I can get them myself. Haha, I definitely long for a time when I can retire from work and maybe have some rest. 😅 (Actually, I did retire from my previous job! Apparently we had this option to file for an optional retirement if we've worked there for 10+ years and I decided to take the chance.)

Yay! I'm a big fan of memes, so I look forward to it! ☺
I have to say I'm really glad you posted some of your older work at AO3. It's such a convenient site and there's less worries about getting deleted. (Revising old fics for posting can definitely be therapeutic haha! I've done it to some of my fics.)

I haven't really done anything for the HP fandom in a long while. I still read fic, but I haven't done anything myself. 😭 I'm in a video game fandom now (surprising myself, I didn't think I'd end up here), but I'm always still up for HP talk! Especially since K is also active in the HP fandom still. ☺

[paulamcg]

Yay! I'm so glad that not only the HP fandom is still strong, but you have not completely left it. <3 I've turned out to be still (again) addicted to writing fic based on the first five HP books and to looking for interaction with others who make HP fanwork, and I haven't managed to make myself interested in writing on the basis of other canons.

I've posted on AO3 all my fic except the novel and the very first two short stories. And I'm in the slow process of completely rewriting the less old one of those two, a Lost Years fic written in 2004. I love how easy it is to manage my fic on AO3, but when I make friends on DW, I wish the fic weren't so separated from any conversation we have here. I've still got the best community feel at some journal fests, both here and on LJ. A lot of the fests are only on Tumblr and AO3, and I don't think I want to even try to learn to really use Tumblr, even though it seems to me that particularly Remus/Sirius fans get to know each other mainly on that platform. In 2020 I branched out – so as to participate in more fests – and I've written about several other characters (including my ace Amelia Bones and ace Cho Chang) besides the Marauders, even though all the fics are set in the same ficverse as my Remus's story.

Oh, it somehow comforts me that younger people, too, look for retirement. :) I'm not old enough to get the vaccination yet, but I'm not very much worried about getting ill. The children need to stay absent if they have any flu-like symptoms, and the parents are not allowed to come inside.

[epithalamium]

I'm back!! ;__; Speaking of pandemic, my brother had an anxiety attack yesterday because our neighbour (who had been exposed to Covid) talked to him briefly and he had no time to put on a mask. I'd be glad once all of this is over. But it's good to hear that schools are taking a lot of precautions!! ;__;

I feel HP is one of my forever fandoms, where even if I wander around I still come back and get excited whenever I see something interesting. 😅 I don't think it's something that would ever leave us, is it?

I need to read more of your fics when I have time! 👀 Ace Cho Chang sounds like right up my alley!! I'm glad you're writing ace characters. ☺

Even now it seems a lot more fans are talking in discord servers (which I can't do because I don't like chatting in real time with strangers 😭), I hope the communities in places like DW never die out. But you're right, I don't think I've ever made a connection with people in AO3. It's definitely more of an archive. 🤔

[paulamcg]

I guess it comforts my son a bit that while his anxiety stops him from meeting people, nobody is supposed to gather in groups. And a mask helps a bit against the chemicals I'm sensitive to, so that maybe I'll continue to wear a mask in a lot places, including the stairwell of my own building. In any case, I'm looking forward to this being over and most people feeling less anxious!

I'm so glad that the HP fandom can still give you joy. After my return from hiatus it's clear that the HP fandom or rather my ficverse will never leave me. I just have to be reconciled that I can really share these stories with very few people. I'm also happy that (after I'd probably figured out (my) asexuality even later or not at all, if I hadn't been in fandom) I can use HP characters for my ace stories, although most of them are perhaps too much of issue fics and also historical, set in the years when these characters were young adults, mainly B.C. (before cake, and before the term ace).

This past winter I tried a bit of chatting in a couple of Discord channels (for some Wolfstar fests). And last summer someone who found my fic on AO3 continued discussion on comment threads of several of my fics. But I still hope for small corners of fandom on journals where people would be interested in each other as creators of fanwork.

[epithalamium]

Aah, I'm sorry I've been so spotty! ;__;

But I'm really glad you decided to share your stories again Before Cake is such a cute term 🤭 and this is true, the word 'asexual' wasn't a thing before. It's strange how people experience things before there's a proper word for them, isn't it? There's not a lot of asexual characters in stories so I really do like seeing them, 'issue fics' or not.

Ooh! How are the discord servers you've seen? I've never been on an HP Discord, aside from a brief moment during the final RS Games... 🤔

[paulamcg]

Before Cake is such a cute term <3 Yes, and even when there was the word and the definition of asexual, asexuals first (before ace) called themselves (human) amoebas. :)

It's wonderful how the awareness and the representation of asexuality have developed. And that's just one of the changes in the contents that people now want in fic, and perhaps the spreading on new, different platforms isn't the biggest change, after all. After my hiatus I must have tried to write something closer to what was more popular ten years earlier than my fic was, but now it seems to me that I really should have written these stories ten or fifteen years ago.

As for Discord, besides those channels for particular fests, I've been to The Quibbler, which is for any HP fanfic writers, but I don't think it's very active.