Fandom Promos

[galerian-ash.livejournal.com]

This post is a place for you to promote your chosen fandom. By pimping it you may be able to convince someone else to give it a try — or perhaps you'll even run into a fellow fan, who can't wait to read your coming fic.

Your promo can be long or short, and contain whatever you feel like. Want to post a couple of intriguing screencaps from a movie? Quote a few paragraphs from a book? Rec the best episode of a TV series? Talk about why you love your favorite character/pairing from your fandom? Anything goes!

Most importantly, please don't be shy. I'm really excited to see what everyone will be writing for, and — if at all possible — I'll do my best to check out your fandoms. And I'm sure I'm not the only one! So go for it :Db

Comments

[primeideal (from livejournal.com)]

There may be another later, but for now; I'm writing about a kids' book series called "Outernet," by Steve Barlow and Steve Skidmore.

Outernet was a very funny science fiction series, revolving around the adventures of three teenagers who have to protect a super-powerful alien computer. There's a war going on between the Friends and the FOEs (Forces of Evil), and Jack, Merle, and Loaf are the Friends' last hope to keep this computer and its sarcastic help program safe. Together with a talking dog and cat (who are actually aliens that got trapped shape-shifting), they bounce around the galaxy searching for a mysterious Weaver who can help them defeat The Tyrant.

For being so silly, I found it to be very well-plotted; there were lots of funny callbacks that got introduced early on and then referenced later, like the loan sharks Twista, Grifta, Sharpie, and Bent, or the planet Aaaaaargh! (it's the first word you say when you get there. also your last word). The time-travel mechanisms, when they showed up, were really elaborate, and the final reveals felt like the groundwork had been laid well (even though the authors admitted they were doing some of it on the fly).

Some of it didn't hold up as well for me, even the first time around; one book is set mostly on Earth, and consists of them using a rudimentary form of teleportation to visit ancient sites. The "ooh, ancient Earth monuments could be aliens!" rhetoric does have some tie-ins to themes elsewhere in the series (there really are other pyramids in the galaxy, Earth isn't special!) but it felt kind of boring...not even in a issue-fic way, just in a "I'd rather be in space!" way. YMMV. On the other hand, there are funny allusions to Earth literature, everything from an extended book riffing on The Odyssey to a Moby Dick parody.

In 2002 when the series was released, there was a website where you could explore along with the in-universe "Outernet." Sadly it is no more, but if you ever run across a copy of the books, I encourage you to give them a try!

Oh, and we didn't mention the "Trigger" warnings... ("Trigger" is the name of a spaceship.)

[primeideal (from livejournal.com)]

And my second fic will be for In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson, a stand-alone middle-grade book by Bette Bao Lord. This is historical fiction (based somewhat on the author's own childhood), about a Chinese girl (Shirley Temple Wong--she picked her American name) who moves to Brooklyn, New York. It's hard for Shirley to make friends at first, but baseball eventually becomes a way for her to connect with her classmates. It's also a watershed year for the city as a whole, because Jackie Robinson of the Brooklyn Dodgers is also becoming the first black player in the modern major leagues.

While not quite as all-humor, all-the-time as Outernet, it's still very funny in places; the teacher, Mrs. Rappoport, tries to get students to talk about civics and no one is interested in answering her questions. The description of the awkward silence in the classroom is a very familiar moment; "The ticking of the big clock became so loud that President Washington and President Lincoln, who occupied the wall space to either side of it, exchanged a look of shared displeasure."