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

Spotlight: Volume 1 of the fantasy webcomic Aurora by Red of Overly Sarcastic Productions comes out from Andrews McMeel on July 29. New to you? A band of diverse misfits thrown together by circumstances try to save first themselves, then each other, and eventually their magic-ridden world, journeying much like a D&D party, interacting much like a superhero team, with many of the self-sacrifice, power of friendship, and metaphysical/moral themes I love. Already enjoy? Pre-orders can get an exclusive sticker sheet. Check it out.

Ficathons, fests & communities

• Create & engage
  • fkficfest, the annual Forever Knight fanfic challenge, finished revealing its stories in June.
  • sunshine_revival, a summertime sibling of snowflake_challenge, is in progress. No commitments, no deadlines, yes friending-meme. Let's engage with each other here on DW!
  • julybreakbingopresents, a month-long bingo-prompt fanwork game, has sign-ups through July 7.
  • fallingforyoufallexchange is a fanwork exchange celebrating falling in love in fall. Nominations through July 21; sign-ups through July 31; due September 15.
  • no_true_pair, a "Mad Libs"-style challenge community, is hosting a "No True Crossover" mini-event through July (with amnesty thereafter).
  • beauty-beast-week is an open celebration of Disney's Beauty and the Beast with posting August 18-24.
  • trope_of_the_month's July theme is an amnesty (create works for any previous theme).
  • pinchhits is a forum for pinch-hits in exchanges. For example, fandom5k is seeking pinch hitters.
  • whenisitdue tracks many more events than I note here!
• Enjoy & share
  • fancake (themed fanfic recs); July theme: "working together"
  • gensplosion (gen fanfic recs)
  • het_reccers (m/f fanfic recs)
  • fanart_recs (fanart recs)
  • recthething (fanwork recs)

Sidelight: I've preordered tickets for Superman (2025) and The Fantastic Four (2025), fingers crossed for both (be good be good be good), but I also want to support original and non-genre films. I looked for what to see this holiday weekend and found... nothing? I hadn't known what The Life of Chuck might possibly be until its run ended, only that it had famous people in it, so I unfortunately missed that. I'm not into horror. The reviews of Pixar's latest are poor. Are there no dramas, historicals, comedies? Just the Nth Jurassic Park and Mission Impossible sequels? To be fair, there is a men-race-cars movie. Still. Eeek, Hollywood.

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

Spotlight: No, I didn't manage to snag a Switch 2 pre-order
( I did try... )

Ficathons, fests & communities

• Create & engage
  • fkficfest, the Forever Knight challenge, comes due May 24. (I'm the mod!)
  • saturdaymorningex, the cartoon/anime exchange, has sign-ups through May 9, with works due June 20. (I'm signed up!)
  • earlybirdgetstheword, an exchange for small, inactive fandoms, has sign-ups through May 14, with works due June 22. (If it didn't overlap with others, I'd like to do it!)
  • allbutromance, focused on platonic relationships, has nominations through May 5 and sign-ups through May 24.
  • sholio is running a May Multifandom Commentfic Promptfest. Check it out!
  • genprompt_bingo's 28th round has sign-ups through June 30, with indefinite posting.
  • rewrite_a_fic, a challenge to rewrite one of your own works, comes due November 30.
  • lyricaltitles's "album challenge" asks participants to write a story for each song on an album of their choice.
  • summerofhorrorexchange, multifandom and multimedia, has nominations through May 5 and sign-ups through May 14.
  • monstersmashexchange, focused on relationships with monsters, has nominations through May 5 and sign-ups through May 17.
  • justunrequitedex, focused on unrequited feelings, has sign-ups through May 9.
  • domaystic, a promptfest for domestic themes, runs through May 31.
  • fic_promptly is an ongoing promptfest community.
  • trope_of_the_month's May theme is "gender or sex swap."
  • allbingo's May theme is "colors."
  • pinchhits is a forum for pinch-hits in exchanges. For example, sakuraexchange is seeking pinch hitters.
  • whenisitdue tracks many more events than I note here!
• Enjoy & share
  • fancake (themed fanfic recs); May theme: "angst (with a happy ending)"
  • gensplosion (gen fanfic recs)
  • het_reccers (m/f fanfic recs)
  • fanart_recs (fanart recs)
  • recthething (fanwork recs)

Sidelight: The MCU is on an upswing (no spoilers)

• I'm happy to say that Thunderbolts*, seen in a theater last night, was much better and more appealing to me, personally, than I'd expected, with strong theming, a coherent plot, no visible executive notes, and the best post-credits scene in years.
• Daredevil: Born Again is still much too violent for me, personally, so I hide my eyes a lot, but it is also still well-written and getting better and better as it leans away from its [mis]conception under the previous Disney leadership and back into being a direct continuation of the original series. I love/hate its current relevance.
• The trailer for Fantastic Four: First Steps makes me feel all the feelings that the best of the MCU ever brought me, including tearing up a little at the end. Edge of my seat. Fingers crossed.

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

Spotlight: Captain America: Brave New World
I saw Captain America: Brave New World in a theater on opening night, and... ( Non-spoiler personal opinion with vague allusions to real events )

Ficathons, fests & communities

• Create & engage
  • fkficfest, the annual FK ficathon, has prompt nominations 3/08-3/14, with voting 3/15-3/21.
  • marchmetamatterschallenge is an annual March-long project to preserve fannish non-fiction of all kinds (not just essays).
  • womansplace is a March-long call for fanwork meta and recommendations celebrating characters who identify as or align with women.
  • bethefirst, the annual challenge to write the first fanfiction on the AO3 for a fandom, has no sign-up deadline this year. Stories come due 4/20.
  • hurtcomfortex, the annual exchange for hurt/comfort stories, has sign-ups 3/01-3/16.
  • unsent_letters_exchange, the epistolary fanfic exchange, has sign-ups through 3/08.
  • trope_of_the_month's March theme is [not yet posted].
  • allbingo's March theme is "Tolkien."
  • pinchhits is a forum for pinch-hits in fannish exchanges. For example, fffx is still seeking a pinch hitter.
  • whenisitdue lists many more events than I note here!
• Enjoy & share
  • fancake (themed fanfic recs); March theme: "non-sexual intimacy"
  • gensplosion (gen fanfic recs)
  • het_reccers (m/f fanfic recs)
  • fanart_recs (fanart recs)
  • recthething (fanwork recs)

Sidelight: Pokémon GO's rumored sale
I still play rather a lot of Pokémon GO. PvP has been my niche; I ran local meet-ups for Silph Road tournaments before Niantic started Go Battle League and the pandemic came. That said, I don't know whether or not I will stop playing if Niantic succeeds in selling its games division, as is currently rumored, to a subsidiary of a company known for aggressive micro-transactions and funded by Saudi Arabia's government. I am thinking about it. If this potential sale is news to you and you play, check out this concise, pointed article from The Verge.

(FYI, we can move our GO Pokémon into Pokémon Home, owned by The Pokémon Company, not Niantic, if we want to "take them with us" for future use in other Pokémon games while leaving GO.)

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

Spotlight: OSP's JttW
December brought Overly Sarcastic Productions's annual new "Journey to the West Kai" installment! To explain my joy: ( Read more... )

Ficathons, fests & communities

• Create & engage
  • fanart_recs no longer requires sign-ups to post recommendations! (It does still require using its template and following its rules.)
  • hlh_shortcuts has released all its '24 stories and is now in its annual author-guessing game phase.
  • snowflake_challenge '25 has begun! They post a modest challenge every second day to help build fannish community. Challenge #1 is to update your fannish info and post to say you did so.
  • whenisitdue is a running list of deadlines for assorted writing communities, challenges, and fests.
  • inkingitout is a challenge community for writing >75K words in 2025, though they also welcome lower wordcount goals.
  • sweetandshort is a weekly challenge community for fics up to 500 words, tiny poems, userpic icons, and small banners.
  • goals_on_dw is running Fannish 50 in 2025, a challenge to make 50 fandom-related posts by the end of the year, among other assorted challenges.
  • lyricaltitles is an event community that uses song lyrics as fic titles.
  • candyheartsex is an exchange with emphases on relationships, both gen and otherwise.
  • trope_of_the_month's January theme is an amnesty (that is, fill any previous theme).
  • allbingo's January theme is "Public Domain Day."
  • pinchhits is a forum for pinch-hits in fannish exchanges. For example, heroexchange is currently seeking pinch hitters.
• Enjoy & share
  • fancake (themed fanfic recs); January theme: "(not really) unrequited love"
  • het_reccers (m/f fanfic recs)
  • gensplosion (gen fanfic recs)
  • recthething (fanwork recs)
  • fanart_recs (fanart recs)

Sidelight: MCU's What If? season three
All episodes in order of how much I personally, subjectively enjoyed them on first viewing:

1. 0304: "What If... Howard the Duck Got Hitched?"
2. 0303: "What If... the Red Guardian Stopped the Winter Soldier?"
3. 0307-08: "What If... the Watcher Disappeared?" + "What If... What If?"
4. 0302: "What If... Agatha Went to Hollywood?"
5. 0306: "What If... 1872?"
6. 0305: "What If... the Emergence Destroyed the Earth?"
7. 0301: "What If... the Hulk Fought the Mech Avengers?"

(I appreciate the insight -- credit YouTuber TheNandoCut -- that this series, all three seasons, has actually been trying to simultaneously embody both What If? and The Exiles comics; that really explains its series structure for me.)

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

Spotlight: "Sacred Realms: A Zelda Retrospective Podcast" is my new and by far favorite Zelda podcast. Some of the Zelda podcasts I'd tried earlier flunked quickly by knowing the story canon conspicuously less well than I do (which really shouldn't be possible). This weekly podcast explores the series "one little slice at a time" as the two hosts play slowly through one game in discrete story units and analyze them, frequently with guests who run Zelda fansites or otherwise have credibility in the space.

Ficathons, fests & communities

• Create & engage
  • fanart_recs is changing its recommendations approach from a sign-up system to an any-time system.
  • ushobwri offers a November "social" for community encouragement and commiseration around writing.
  • trope_of_the_month's November theme is "epistolary."
  • allbingo's November theme is "Sleepytime Bear."
  • pinchhits is a forum for pinch-hits in fannish exchanges. For example, seasonsofdrabbles and multifandomtropefest are currently seeking pinch hitters.
• Enjoy & share
  • fancake (themed fanfic recs); November theme: "magic"
  • het_reccers (m/f fanfic recs)
  • gensplosion (gen fanfic recs)
  • recthething (fanwork recs)
  • fanart_recs (fanart recs)

Two slightly under-the-radar constructions that I particularly enjoy for The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess:

• Ordon Province is not part of Hyrule. It's beyond the borders, perhaps an imperial possession. Check not only what Rusl says to Link about going to Hyrule and Link never having been to Hyrule, but also the existence of the fourth light spirit, the one who doesn't match up with one of the three golden goddesses and their sacred realm; Ordona is an ally, not an integral part of Hyrule. Also, note who has round ears and who has pointed ears. The Hero of Twilight is descended from Hylians (specifically, from the Hero of Time) but is not himself a resident of Hyrule.
• Zelda's family and retainers were killed in Zant's invasion. And she wasn't the reigning monarch at the time of the invasion. Check what Rusl said to Link about presenting the gift to the royal family of Hyrule, not to a lone individual (granted, that could be pro forma from tradition). The mayor and Rusl (and Link), way over in Ordona, clearly haven't yet heard of the invasion and its fallout. And Zelda being princess rather than queen helps support this contention, I think. Imprisoned in that tower, clutching that dark Sheikah cloak around her, she's not only worried about her people, and perhaps her own life, she's mourning.

Note: "Recently:FK" is now "Recently:Enthusiasms."

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

Spotlight: Comics author Jed MacKay concluded his magnificent 3.5-year run on Doctor Strange. His storytelling there was so deft, warm, and human -- and so rich in genuine comics heritage -- that, when I bumped into it by accident, it pulled me back to monthly comics after decades away. I so regret losing him from this book. But I don't want him to burn out! He's currently writing 4 others, including Avengers and X-Men (not Uncanny X-Men; Gail Simone has that).

Ficathons, fests & communities

• Create & engage
  • trickortreatex is an exchange themed on stories that are "tricks" or "treats." Nominations close 9/08 and sign-ups 9/18. Due 10/24.
  • flashbackfest is a challenge celebrating early fandoms that are special to folks, however each participant wishes to define "early" and "special." Due 11/30.
  • smashthechampagnebottle is a challenge to write the first fic for a 'ship in a fandom. (It's stepping in as a temporary stopgap for launchtheship, which seems to be MIA this year.) Due 11/15.
  • communal_creators is a low-key challenge to create works of all kinds and support creators, inspired by NaNoWriMo. Sign-ups close 9/14. Due 10/15.
  • drabbleonficathon is a prompt-fill challenge. Prompting closes 10/01.
  • mdzsexchangehub is an exchange for AUs inspired by global fairy tales, folktales, legends, and mythology. Nominations close 9/16 and sign-ups 9/30. Due 11/16.
  • au_challenge is an AU challenge community with bingo cards and prompt tables.
  • trope_of_the_month's September theme is "role reversal."
  • allbingo's September theme is "pirates."
  • story_works's September challenge is "secret."
  • pinchhits is a forum for back-up fills in fannish exchanges. For example, wipbigbang and enemiestoloversex are currently seeking pinch hitters.
• Enjoy & share
  • fancake (themed fanfic recs); September theme: "missing scenes"
  • het_reccers (m/f fanfic recs)
  • gensplosion (gen fanfic recs)
  • recthething (fanwork recs)
  • fanart_recs (fanart recs)

Some new things coming this fall that I'm looking forward to:

• Games
  09/26: The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom for Nintendo Switch
• TV
  09/15: Moonflower Murders, S1, PBS, 6 episodes
  09/18: Agatha All Along, S1, Disney+, 9 episodes
  
• Movies
  09/18: Transformers One (Paramount/Hasbro/New Republic)
  09/27: The Wild Robot (Dreamworks/Universal)
• Books
  10/22: The Wood at Midwinter (set in the world of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell) by Susanna Clark
  10/29: The Grey Wolf (Chief Inspector Gamache #19) by Louise Penny

Note: "Recently:FK" is now "Recently:Enthusiasms."

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

Highlights

• So many fkficfest readers have been awesome, generously sharing comments and kudos across many stories! What a great community!
• I also participated in saturdaymorningex, which hasn't revealed yet.
• And I finally (finally!) updated my journal's banner and look.

Ficathons, fests & communities

• Create & engage
  • fandomgiftbasket, a gifting fest (like FandomTrees, FandomStocking, etc.), has sign-ups through July 14 and gifting through September 14.
  • threewordapocalypsefest, a themed challenge fest, has sign-ups through August 25 and reveals on September 1.
  • classicfilmex, an exchange for movies released before 1980, has nominations through July 15 and stories due September 15.
  • julybreakbingo, a highly customizable bingo challenge, will close sign-ups on July 7.
  • minutia_r is hosting a poetry prompt fest throughout July (or for as long as interest lasts).
  • nuh_s is running Minor League Exchange, a flash event for minor and one-off characters, with sign-ups closing later today, July 4, and works due on July 18.
  • iddyiddybangbang, the "idfic" challenge, has sign-ups July 10-17, with works due September 12.
  • trope_of_the_month's July theme is an "amnesty." (Write for any of the previous themes.)
  • allbingo's July themes (concurrent) are "Winter Fest" (beat the heat) and "Games and Entertainment."
  • pinchhits is a forum for pinch-hits in fannish exchanges. For example, everywoman is currently seeking pinch-hitters for fandoms including Hazbin Hotel, Hunger Games trilogy, Fullmetal Alchemist, and Final Fantasy.
• Enjoy & share
  • fancake (themed fanfic recs); July theme: "stranded"
  • het_reccers (m/f fanfic recs)
  • gensplosion (gen fanfic recs)
  • recthething (fanwork recs)
  • fanart_recs (fanart recs)

FKFicFest 2024 stories released in June

• “Noblesse Oblige” by Calliope24 (G, gen; ~10K words; comedy, drama)
• “To Say Goodbye” by Sharpest_asp (G, gen; ~500 words; reflection, post-LK)
• “Visiting Room C” by Switchbladeeyes (G, gen; ~2K words; policework, drama)
• “Past and Future” by LittleBlackaPony (G, gen; ~7K words; drama)
• “Early Nights” by TheFruitBat (T, m/m; ~600K words; pwp, romance)
• “An Unexpected Visitor” by WaltD (G, uncategorized; ~1K words; drama)
• “By Any Other Name” by PJ1228 (T, gen; ~5K words; policework, mystery)
• “Mortal Bonds” by SwitchbladeEyes (T, gen; ~10K words; historical, horror)
• “Picking up the Pieces” by GreerWatson (G, gen; ~3K words; reflection, post-LK)
• “Day 17” by Calliope24 (G, gen; ~3K words; pre-canon, policework)

Note: "Recently:FK" is now "Recently:Enthusiasms."

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

Highlight
Our 15^th annual fkficfest is in progress! No sign-ups. Pick from the elected prompts. Post stories by May 25. Get the details.

Ficathons, fests & communities

• Create & engage
  • saturdaymorningex is an exchange for cartoons and other animated fandoms. Nominations through April 12; sign-ups through May 3; due June 14.
  • a-different-stroke is a multilingual gift exchange, matching on non-English language and fandom. Sign-ups through April 11; matches April 18; due May 30.
  • latetreatbonanza is an event to motivate finishing old gifts. Sign-ups through and due on June 23.
  • bitesizedfandomsex is an exchange for fandoms whose canons can be experienced in ≤8 hours. Signups through April 8; assignments April 12; due May 25.
  • domaystic is a prompt challenge for the "domestic" trope. Runs May 1-31.
  • whatif_au's April challenge is an AU bingo.
  • trope_of_the_month's April theme is "bonding over trauma."
  • allbingo's April theme is "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" (not necessarily the IP!).
  • pinchhits is a forum for pinch-hits in fannish exchanges. Pick up a pinch-hit to help out an event!
• Enjoy & share
  • fancake (themed fanfic recs); April theme: "competence"
  • het_reccers (m/f fanfic recs)
  • gensplosion (gen fanfic recs)
  • recthething (fanwork recs)
  • fanart_recs (fanart recs)

Some April Fools Day fun that I enjoyed

• NYT Connections: The New York Times "Connections" word game replaced its usual words with emojis for April Fools Day. I found the gentle switcheroo completely unexpected and cheerfully delightful. Nice one, NYT Puzzles team!
• Pokémon GO: This mobile game (website) has a history of mild April Fools Day pranks, my favorite of which is still the year they switched all the current Pokédex sprites for vintage Gameboy Color sprites. This year, they rigged the game so that all Nice and Great throws registered as Excellent throws, and they put the rare, notorious, five-in-a-row Spinda research task into most Pokéstops. Generous! But then there was the spice: They gave a timed research task for twenty-five such excellent throws in a row. I could not do it, and felt perfectly well pranked for even trying. Twenty-five in a row...
• ScreenCrush: This YouTube channel made the prank video, "Why MADAME WEB Is the BEST MARVEL Movie of All Time and Saved the MCU!" They got me to laugh pretty hard. Some of it is in-jokes for their own channel; some is parody of this genre of YouTube videos in general; and of course most is mocking the relentless product placement, studio notes, Sony-is-not-MCU, and general poor craftsmanship of this sad movie.

Note: My monthly FK recap ("Recently:FK") is now general fannishness ("Recently:Enthusiasms").

Reminder: I've converted my FK monthly recap ("Recently:FK" tag) into general fannish engagement ("Recently:Enthusiasms" tag). This may often include FK; it won't always.

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

Ficathons, fests & communities

• Create & engage
  • halfamoon is an annual challenge over the first 2 weeks of February, celebrating female characters in fandom.
  • comment_bingo is a bingo challenge for commenting on other people's works. The current round runs through May.
  • alexcat hosts "Fandom 50," a challenge to make 50 fandom posts by the end of the year.
  • small_fandoms hosts miscellaneous events welcoming all small fandoms. Its February event is a "drabbleathon."
  • whatif_au hosts AU fanwork challenges. Its February-March challenge is "immortal AU."
  • trope_of_the_month is a themed fanwork community. Its February theme is "marriage & engagement."
  • allbingo is a very general bingo community: card generation, fan and original works, promos of other bingo events, etc. Its February theme is "Valentines." It's also hosting a complementary Valentines "thematic meet-and-greet."
  • pinchhits is a forum for advertising pinch-hits in fannish exchanges. Pick up an assignment and help out a fest!
• Enjoy & share
  • recthething is a general fanwork recs comm with open reccing.
  • fanart_recs is a general fanart recs comm with both signed-up and open recs.
  • fancake is a themed fanfic recs comm. Its February theme is "trans & non-binary characters."
  • het_reccers is a m/f fanfic recs comm with open reccing.
  • gensplosion is a gen fanfic recs comm with open reccing.

My current favorite PokéTubers

• MandJTVPlays
  Michael uniquely, delightfully fuses Pokémon fanfiction with abridged playthroughs. He's created his own "cinematic universe" of vivid original characters (all played by him), including most recently Orange (supposedly the previous champion who lost to Blue in the original Kanto games; an affectionate parody of a stereotypical "Genwunner"); most often the Team Sky Leader (originally a third evil team beside the canonical Teams Aqua and Magma, but now, after many stories, a redeemed defender of the sky); and most famously Grunty Boy (a clueless but ambitious Team Rocket grunt originally created to host in-video commercials).
• BirdKeeperToby
  Toby (currently on sabbatical) is a worldbuilding specialist. He shares fantastic theories and analyses of how the Pokémon world works (or would, you know, if it were real). He's best known for his "evolutionary tree of Pokémon life" but has also looked at the geography, history, culture, and especially legends of the Pokémon world. And he creates assorted fanstories, most recently a full fangame mock-playthrough, with commissioned fanart, of a region based on ancient Greece.
• SwagTips
  Ryan is hands-down the best Pokémon GO PvP IVs expert sharing in English. He also sometimes does quick breakdowns and opinions of new pokémon and new moves, but his bread-and-butter is IV math for hard-core PvPers only. (Everyone else, just use the CalcyIV app and don't worry about it. I do, myself, since I stopped organizing and playing tournaments (RIP Silph Road). But when there's a rare pokémon rising in the meta and I must invest my candy cautiously, SwagTips is my guru! The Rank 1 is not always the optimal choice at higher levels of play.)