Fandom Snowflake Challenge #12

[aadler]

Taking on the meme/challenge here.

Fandom Snowflake Challenge #12

Tell us about a personal win (can be fanfic, personal, job, whatever you count as good). Leave a comment here saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

I’ll do three.

One is fanfic. It isn’t recent, but I ran the Circle of Friends Remix — at Livejournal and at Dreamwidth — for ten years, from 2011 through 2020. It was always intended to be fairly small, mainly because I knew I couldn’t handle something the size of the old RemixRedux (which was still running when I started Circle of Friends, I just wanted to do more than one remix per year). I would have been happy with a steady eight contributors per round, but we never got that big; I think we had seven members our best year. Even so, most participants took part in multiple rounds, so that over time we had something that brought continuing pleasure to the people who most enjoyed it.

One is current life. My wife and I started a new round of our retirement travels; we live and move in a 24-foot motorhome (of which I’ve spoken before), and we recently got OUT of the icy weather that came with the polar vortex that hit most of the country; we’re currently just outside Birmingham, AL to visit with more of Susan’s family, and after that we’ll head over to the former Fort Benning (now Fort Moore), so she can visit with one of the Army wives she got friendly with while she was in the Family Readiness Group. Not sure where after that, but that’s kind of the point; we don’t have to be anywhere, so we can go wherever we feel like. There are ups and downs in the life, but this is something we dreamed about for years — separately, because neither of us knew the other wanted it — and now we’re trying it out. Probably another year, maybe two. (Would be longer, but now we have retiring to Spain as an eventual goal.)

The last is … not exactly something I have yet, but after a long time of preparation I’m ready to finish out the list of stories I proposed in this post. I’ve done about two dozen stories since that post — more, counting drabbles and drabble collections — including eight fics from the original list, but this is the year I can close it out. The BIG one, #9 on the list (SaM), is one that I’ve had in the planning stages for possibly twenty years now, and the stars are currently aligned to get it done: as in, all the preliminary tasks that had to be done first, including stories needed to lay the groundwork for SaM, have already been completed. I’m actually working on something else at this exact moment, but I could start writing SaM right now if I wanted. Even if I haven’t yet, getting to this point is something I count as a win.

And that should do for now.

Comments

[wendelah1]

1. I know from personal experience that running any kind of an exchange, even a small one, can be a headache and half. Ten years is a long time to do that successfully. Well done.

2. Travelling in a motorhome after retirement was my dream, not my husband's, but in any case, his health was poor, so that wasn't an option for us. I wish for you many healthy and happy years together, wherever you may roam. ♥

3. I hope you get that long-planned fic completed. What is SaM? Sorry, I don't recognize the abbreviation.

[aadler]

My wife had the same thing happen to her mother (wanted to travel, was too unwell by the time she retired). My wife herself has developed some mobility issues, so we did well not to wait another year. It’s a process.

SaM is just an abbreviation for the title. The post where I listed the fics I planned to do, just used abbreviations; I don’t write out the actual title till I've posted the story. (In the most extreme example, “the Other Night I Dreamt of Knives” was initially listed as tONIDoK.)

[musyc]

we don’t have to be anywhere, so we can go wherever we feel like

That does sound lovely. If you get somewhere and you don't like it, you can go elsewhere; if you do like it, you can stay as long as you want.

[cornerofmadness]

Great wins and I had fun with Circle of friends the times I participated

[aadler]

That’s it exactly. I’ve caught up with extended family I hadn’t seen in decades, and also hope to look up old friends. That’s in addition to just checking out places for the sake of the places.

[aadler]

I never planned to do it forever. Ten years was a good mark, and we got some good stories out of that.

[cornerofmadness]

Yes, even things that are fun can get a little long in the tooth. I agree, ten years is a good place to exit on a high note