brightknightie | Fannish options & enthusiasms

Here are some recent fannish things I've happened to see and would like to share!

Spotlight: I went to Dickens Fair again this year and had a lovely time. As a fan of nineteenth-century literature and history, I find it immensely fun! It's certainly also delightful for a much broader circle than just those interests, though, and I'd like you all to know that it is a thing! The shortest description is: Dickens Fair is like a Renaissance Faire, except it's Victorian London at Christmastime. Imagine walking into the pages of A Christmas Carol, and, among the crowd, potentially running into not only the characters of that novel, but all Dickens novels and many other novels of that vintage, plus real historical folks, from Dickens himself to the members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood to Charlotte Bronte and Oscar Wilde. And, of course, Father Christmas.

Ficathons, fests & communities

Create & engage
- hlh_shortcuts, the annual Highlander exchange, released 20 new stories, and is currently in its "author guessing game phase," with reveals planned for January 5.
- snowflake_challenge, the annual challenge to highlight what we love about fandom and our fellow fans, with prompts but no deadlines, is up and running for '26.
- purimgifts, the annual exchange featuring characters "who are at least one of: women, Jewish, or persecuted (preferably by evil viziers)," has nominations and sign-ups 1/02-08; due 2/23.
- candyheartsex, an exchange focused on relationships (both platonic and not), has sign-ups through January 7.
- beagoldfish, a low-stakes "make-a-thon," runs through February 28.
- crackthewip, a fest encouraging finishing works-in-progress (WIPs), has both sign-ups and posting through June 30.
- inkingitout, an annual challenge to write 75K+ words, has sign-ups through January 3.
- rewrite_a_fic, a challenge to rewrite one of your own stories, runs through November 30.
- goals_on_dw is hosting a '26 "Fannish 50" blogging challenge.
- comment_bingo, a challenge to comment on others' works, runs its current round until March 31.
- allbingo's January theme is "Public Domain Day."
- trope_of_the_month's January theme is an amnesty (wild card for any previous month).
- whenisitdue tracks many more events than I note here!
Enjoy & share
- fancake (themed fanfic recs); January theme: "crack [that is, bonkers story concepts] treated seriously"
- gensplosion (gen fanfic recs)
- het_reccers (m/f fanfic recs)
- fanart_recs (fanart recs)
- recthething (fanwork recs)

Sidelight: I've realized that as much as I enjoy Jed McKay's comic-book writing -- I picked up his Nova: Centurian series sight-unseen and will give it a fair shot, though I've never been interested in Nova -- the eighteen-issues-a-year release schedule for his X-Men run is wearing me out, and I don't even read any of the other gazillion X-titles. Money-grubbing, much, Marvel? Or just bitterly regretting what you did to the line to poison 20th-Century Fox's movie well? I may drop the series when this current storyline ends in a few months if they don't cut it out. (I hope they don't wear McKay out!)

Fannish options & enthusiasms | January 2026

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