mijan | Aug. 1st, 2005

So, August is here. Another year has come and passed. Another year older. New friends, old friends, new books, new fics, new art, new horse. Oh, and an awesome birthday card that my neighbour just handed me. Squee!

First, the canon. HBP has come into our lives, bringing revelations we could only dream of, twists to leave us shaking and screaming, and a Draco the fandom (and I) have wanted for years. Harry still needs to realize that he's really gay, but I'm patient. ;)

Second, the fandom. Ah, the fandom. So many wonderful things. I've met awesome people, online and offline. Seen incredible art. Read wonderful stories. Shared theories, laughed, cried, and squee'd together. Has been great. The fandom has thrilled me, but it's also pissed me off. Months ago, a copycat convention was scheduled to take place in Salem, MA, just before The Witching Hour. It's called "Cauldron Con", and it's a cheesy, second-hand-Hollywood-style sci-fi/fantasy convention, barging into the little New England town of Salem like a raging troll. Suffice to say, I wasn't pleased. Being from a small New England town myself, and having been born not far from Salem, I wouldn't want a thing like that in my community.

I'm also part of a small, local HP fangroup. Recently, the entire mailing list was gacked off the group by none other than the mighty BK of The Leaky Cauldron. He didn't even bother to ask the administrator. He must have felt that he was so "big" he could do whatever he wanted without regard for common courtesy. I have also come to feel that it's sites like TLC that feed the misconceptions about the fandom -- misconceptions such as the idea that we're all just a bunch of screaming, squealing Tom Felton fangirls. If WE are the fandom, why do we have some bloody heirarchy, and have to find ourselves represented (or misrepresented) by people like that?

But in the meantime, the wonderful aspects of the fandom are not lost. Last night, I got together with eight other local HP fandom die-hards in my area for a post-HBP book discussion, a Dumbledore memorial, and Harry's birthday. We talked for 6 hours. It was wonderful. I'd really like to add to the New England HP fandom. There are a TON of slashers around here. In fact, I met one almost randomly at the Barnes and Nobles in my area, and dragged her along to the get-together. Seriously, the more the merrier, and I'd be thrilled to find some more local people who'd be interested in joining us for line parties, discussion groups, and other fun stuff.

And finally, fanfiction. I learned a lesson. Never post a chapter immediately before (or after, for that matter) the release of a canon book. I think people were so preoccupied with HBP that nobody really noticed, or paid attention to, the update. Regardless, chapter 15 is now at the beta, and hopefully, people will notice both chapters now! I'm not sure when the chapter will actually be posted, but it shouldn't be long. With only two more chapters to go after this one, the story is really heating up. I'm hoping to have the whole thing done within the next two months. I'm extremely excited. I'm actually going to start work on chapter 16 tonight.

To add to the excitement, there's a particular scene coming up that my miserable artistic skills would not be able to do justice. I was talking with the esteemed red_rahl the other day (you probably know her as one of the incredibly talented artists of the H/D corner of the fandom), and asked her if she might be interested in doing a piece of art for a poor author. Well, she's interested, and now, not only am I extremely excited about this scene (which will be emotionally intense, probably more so than any other part of the story), but also excited to see it illustrated by an extremely talented artist too! *huggles and fangirls red_rahl*