I love good guys

For the month of January, in my corners of social journaling, here are the Forever Knight items that I happened to see:

Ficathons, fests & communities that welcome FK

• waybackexchange is an exchange game for canons that ended 10+ years ago. Nominations run 2/13-2/20, and sign-ups 2/23-3/02, with works due on 5/10.
• halfamoon, the annual 2-week fest celebrating female characters, is in progress.
• fandom_stocking revealed. See its AO3 collection or FK tags.
• whatif_au is a themed challenge community for AUs.
• recsrainbow is a "noticeboard community for reccers," which has migrated from LJ.
• fluffbingo is a new bingo-style challenge community "on the softer side."
• sunshine_challenge will be a July equivalent of January's snowflake_challenge. They're seeking ideas.
• vid_bingo is a new bingo-style challenge community for fanvids.
• unusual_bearings is an exchange game for pregnancy stories.
• 4 multifandom writing communities with weekly challenges: semidrabbles (50 words), sesquidrabbles (150 words), doubledrabbles (200 words), tripledrabbles (300 words).

FK fanfiction & other fanworks
Archive of our Own (AO3) Summary: 11 of the 966 FK works on the AO3 show a posting date in this period.

• "Filling the Void" by PJ1228 (R, m/f, ~13K words)
• "Twins" by Merfilly (G, m/f, 100 words)
• "Arabian Knight" by MacFran2018 (WIP) (PG, gen, ~7K words)
• "An Instrument of Change" by dlyt (G, gen, 440 words)
• "Holiday Festivities" by Wendymypooh (unrated, gen, 352 words)
• "A Woman's Wisdom" by PJ1228 (PG, gen, 996 words)
• "Blue Eyes" by PJ1228 (G, m/f, 633 words)
• "Stranded" by PJ1228 (G, m/f, ~3K words)
• "Moving Forward by Purselover2 (PG, m/f, 741 words)
• "The Penalty" by Nicholas_Lucien (#7 in a series) (PG-13, gen, ~2K words)
• "Not Lost to Me" by Merfilly (G, m/m, 100 words)

FK news & conversation

• 2/10: senmut listed 16 Fandom Stocking drabbles, including 1 FK. Read more.
• 2/03: pj1228 shared that Nigel Bennett currently has recurring roles in 2 TV series. Read more.
• 2/01: nicholas_lucien relayed John Kapelos's announcement that he'll be performing his album live in California in March. Read more.
• 1/20: pj1228 listed Fandom Stocking gifts given and received, including FK icons and 5 FK stories. Read more.
• 1/09: pj1228 listed 7 FK stories written in 2018, plus thoughts on future projects. Read more.
• 1/05: nicholas_lucien reflected on 8 FK stories written and received across 2018, and also thoughts for the new year. Read more.

Today, pj1228 generously gifted me a new Forever Knight story! It's "Old Customs Reinstated" (~800 words, Nick/Janette, G). Making a veritable gift sampler of things I enjoy, she included a lesser-known holiday, a touch of history, an early first-season setting, canon references, and, of course, Nick/Janette.

(Technically, this is a FandomStocking fill, a la Yuletide amnesty. But FandomStocking is free! No penalty, no amnesty, just delight.)

Thank you, PJ!

Here are the Forever Knight-related goodies that I saw stuffed into Fandom Stockings this year:

In PJ1228's:

• Nick/Lacroix drabble (post-LK) by Sharpest_asp
• Nick/Lacroix collage by Mific
• FK squee by Twinsarein
• Links to 2016 FK holiday cards by Falcon_horus
• FK fanfic gift certificate from me

In Skieswideopen's:

• Nick/Janette ficlet ("undercover as a couple") by PJ, as teaser for longer story in progress
• Nick/Janette drabble (humor) by Sharpest_asp
• FK fanfic gift certificate from me

In Blueteak's:

• Nick&Lacroix ficlet (Solstice) by Sharpest_asp
• Nick&Lacroix New Year's card (second-season promo still) by FalconHorus
• Nick&Lacroix screenshot ("A More Permanent Hell") by PJ, as placeholder for new Nick/Lacoix story
• FK fanfic gift certificate from me

In Lightbird's:

• Nick/Janette New Year's card (first-season promo still) by FalconHorus
• Nick & Reese screenshot ("Games Vampires Play") by PJ, as placeholder for new FK story
• FK fanfic gift certificate from me

In Wendymypooh's:

• Nick&Schanke screenshot ("Partners of the Month") by PJ, as placeholder for new Nick and Schanke story
• FK fanfic gift certificate from me

In Falcon_horus's:

• FK reminiscence by Lightbird
• Lacroix/Fleur screenshot ("Be My Valentine") by PJ
• Fleur fanfic gift certificate from me

In mine:

• A highly thoughtful discussion of the series finales of FK and Quantum Leap by Lightbird, incredibly generously referencing an FK essay I wrote all the way back in '99!
• A hope-filled Nick&Natalie screenshot ("The Fix") by PJ, plus a very kind intention to write a new story with my preferences (so often different from hers!) in mind.
• A happy FK reminiscence by Twinsarein, which continued through a few chatty exchanges as Twinsarein hunted up FK DVDs and rewatched "Dark Knight" for the first time in a long time.
• A lovely Nick/Janette New Year's card (first-season promo still) by FalconHorus, featuring my favorite Nick/Janette pose, here with a subtle suggestion that the Raven's lights are holiday lights, plus a sweet promise of a ficlet yet to come. Hmmm, of all FK's characters, whomever might this ficlet feature? ;-)
  Addendum January 24: "Girl With A Book by Johannes Vermeer (c. 1665)" by falconhorus

Did I miss any?

fandom_stocking released on Wednesday night. I haven't yet had a chance to look through other people's stockings, see all the goodies, and discover recommendations worth making, but I can tell you what wonderful things people generously gave me in my stocking, and what few things I managed to create myself.

Gifts I received

• From senmut, a delightfully solemn and determined untitled Highlander ficlet from Duncan's perspective. After Tessa's death, he coincidentally finds a lost earring that had belonged to her. (<1K words, G)



• From lastscorpion, an exciting and impressively structured untitled Forever Knight ficlet from Nick's perspective. Vachon seeks Nick's help preventing Urs from killing herself. (<1K words, PG)



• From pj1228, a deeply generous and attentive Forever Knight short story titled "Progress," from Nick's perspective. A new computer system at work makes Nick feel that time is passing him by; he's offered a vampiric way to cope, and a human way. (~1K words, PG)



• From falcon_horus, a classic Forever Knight Nick/Janette wallpaper and a tremendously fun Battlestar Galactica (1978) Starbuck greeting card.



• From bererjs, sjh2009, tarlanx, twinsarein, dunderklumpen, trobadora and juliet316, assorted friendly greetings and neat illustrations!

Gifts I gave

• To falcon_horus, who requested Fleur, a medieval Forever Knight ficlet titled "Ad Festivum Ignem," from Fleur's perspective. Fleur encounters a different midwinter tradition in her new husband's demesne. (<1K words, G)



• To wendymypooh, who requested Nick/Natalie, a fluffy Forever Knight ficlet titled "When the Nat's Away," from Sydney's perspective. Sydney decides that he's had enough of Nick. (<1K words, G)



• To bethskink, who requested Lacroix & Schanke, a simple Forever Knight drabble titled "The Real Thing," from Lacroix's perspective. Lacroix bumps into Schanke at the DMV. (100 words, G)



• To pj1228, who requested Nick/Janette, a genre-muddled (romance/angst/humor) Forever Knight short story titled "Designed to be Seen," from Nick's perspective. Nick finds Janette's very fashionable dress very difficult to remove. (>1K words, PG-13)



• To skieswideopen, a pledge to write a Janette + "outsider perspective" OC story this year.



• To all the nice people who requested Duncan/Tessa, Richie or Angie from Highlander, expressions of agreement with their excellent taste, and solidarity in wishing for more stories exploring these characters! Maybe next year... maybe this year.

Thank you, everyone!

Happy Saint Nicholas Day! :-)

The stockings are going up over at fandom_stocking. They'll continue appearing through December 15.

My own isn't up yet, but here are the tag-filter links for wishes in Forever Knight and Highlander. At the moment, the elves seem to have the original Battlestar Galactica mixed up with the new one as both battlestar+galactica and bsg tags; I'm sure they'll untangle them (and if they don't, we BSG78 fans can figure it out).

(Speaking of BSG78, have you heard about the new "definitive collection" recently listed for pre-order? 3 hours of deleted scenes!!! I, uh, may have pre-ordered it for myself already to take advantage of the huge markdown in price on Amazon today. It won't be available until May. Thank you, Santa... um, Easter Bunny... um, my employer!)

As you know, you don't have to "hang a stocking" yourself in order to gift someone a recommendation, story, illustration, warm greeting, and so on (or vice versa!). This is a completely no-obligation opportunity to do some small nice thing, whatever your talents and interests.