wandering

Talk about what has improved in your life thanks to fandom.

This list could be very long but there are two things that really stand out: the people and the words.

I met my person in fandom, 17 years and 11 months ago. I met some of my closest and longest lasting friends in fandom, including some I see routinely. My book club is fandom people. My travel buddies are fandom people. My current partner in fandom crime is someone I met...17 years ago. The friends who give me advice when my cats are sick are fandom people. The friends who write me monster porn when I'm sick are fandom people.

The thing about fandom is that you get an open door: this person also loves your blorbo. It doesn't guarantee a thing--I meet a lot of people I don't click with who also love my blorbo. But if you love the same characters or the same shows in the same way, man it's such a great place to start.

I also learned to write in fandom. I learned to edit in fandom. I get better at both regularly by being in fandom, and it turns out I use those skills in my real job almost every day. And even if I didn't, I love to write, and I love that people love my writing, and I love getting to tell stories about my favorite characters.

Challenge #4

IceBreaker Challenge! Tell us about yourself.

Hello! I am gabolange but if that is a mouthful, you can call me fish. I have been in fandom, in some shape or form, since about 1997. I started on AOL boards and independent sites, graduated to Geocities and archives, found my way to LiveJournal, and have been playing platform roulette ever since. I can be found under this pseud on all the things, but am most active on Tumblr and Discord.

In my fannish life, I write fanfic. I write it slowly and infrequently, but I pride myself that when I do write, I take the time to make it really fucking good. I have been writing with the same beta since 2007, and we still do the old school tear it apart and build it back up thing, at least when warranted. My fic is all housed at AO3.

My first fandom before I knew what fandom was was Star Wars. I first read fanfic for X-Files, the first show that I consider having been in fandom for is Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and the first show I ever wrote for was Star Trek: Voyager. I have along the way covered many bases, but the most meaningful have been Battlestar Galactica, Stargate SG-1, Leverage, Call the Midwife, The Doctor Blake Mysteries, Babylon 5, and Wheel of Time (TV). Babylon 5 is the show of my heart.

I am a lifelong Star Trek fan currently head over heels in love with everything Strange New Worlds chooses to be, and I adored each and every season of Star Trek: Picard (Seven is my captain). I have never written fic for Farscape, but I lurked back in the puppy pile days and consider it my first LJ fandom even though I was too scared to actually join the fandom. (What can I say, being 20 is weird.) At the moment, I've just started watching For All Mankind and have fallen hard and fast (but will never, ever forgive Ron Moore for BSG). I co-mod a queer Wheel of Time discord, where I occasionally LARP as a talking fish.

I love space opera and strong women. I am a lifetime shipper and a canon whore. I am more of a lurker than not, mostly because in my real life I have a corporate job that takes up too much time, to which I add chronic illness (EDS/POTS and related complications and management), fitness to help offset the chronic illness, attempts to read books (literary fiction primarily), a very serious travel habit, an equally serious theatre problem, occasional interactions with other human beings, and a cat.

I met my person and many of my closest friends in LJ comments, and so I'm trying to get back to DW and this community just a bit. Most of my journal is f'locked, but I welcome any friends who want to talk about any of all of this. Hi!