Fandom Promos
2025-02-28 05:05![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
galerian_ash posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
bethefirstHave you already decided what fandom(s) to write for? If so, how about doing a little promoting? :D
We've all chosen tiny obscure canons, needless to say. But by posting here you might be able to entice 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 an anime or a TV series? Talk about why you love your favorite character and/or pairing from your fandom? It's all good; anything goes!
We've all chosen tiny obscure canons, needless to say. But by posting here you might be able to entice 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 an anime or a TV series? Talk about why you love your favorite character and/or pairing from your fandom? It's all good; anything goes!
Damn Them All
Date: 2025-02-28 22:05 (UTC)Damn Them All (vol. 1 and vol.2) is a 12-issue comic series written by Si Spurrier and illustrated by Charlie Adlard, with colours by Sofie Dodgson and lettering by Jim Campbell.
The protagonist is Ellie "Bloody El" Hawthorne, a woman involved in the London underworld in more ways than one. She's a magical fixer for the mob, and she's the only one with a chance of saving the day when 72 demons are summoned from Hell under what should have been impossible circumstances and bound in service to summoners who are trying to exploit their power.
Si Spurrier wrote this right on the heels of having his Hellblazer run prematurely cancelled due to the pandemic, and in my opinion it's a series that makes an excellent beverage out of those particular lemons. It's an homage to Hellblazer (with Ellie's Uncle Alfie, whose death kicks of the series, being a winking stand-in for John Constantine) and incorporates what I assume are ideas he'd have otherwise had to scrap post-cancellation, but its freedom to go completely original in terms of characters and worldbuilding makes for an even richer and more creative story, especially in its take on the nature of demons.
If you're interested in text-heavy dark urban fantasy with a messy bastard of a main character who faces her own demons while dealing creatively with real ones, some great art and design (the colours and lettering on this are especially fantastic), and a satisfying story arc that explores the nature of power and belief, you might enjoy Damn Them All.
Below are the characters I'm considering writing about.
Ellie Hawthorne: Orphaned as a child and having spent time in an abusive foster care situation before being taken in by her Uncle Alfie, Ellie is carrying a lot of old wounds and cold practicality when it comes to the meaning of life. All of which is challenged in the wake of her uncle's death and the potentially apocalyptic situation that upends everything she thought she knew about demons and humanity.
Dora Lafon: A former New Orleans police officer, Dora comes to London to investigate the death of Alfie, her one-time lover. Still struggling with PTSD after her involvement in stopping a school shooting, discovering the existence of the supernatural forces Dora to reassess her place in the world and the influence she wields on it.
Abshir Sinimo: A young doctor forced to flee persecution for his sexuality in Somalia, Abshir is living on the streets in London when he crosses paths with the demon Gusion. He proves to be one of the few humans who rejects the opportunity to enslave a demon for personal benefit.
Gusion: A demon of uncertain form, whose specialty is the ability to reconcile friendships, and who unexpectedly finds himself treated kindly by the human he's bound to.
Glasya-Labolas: A demon in the form of a giant murderous fiery dog (or a Yellow Labrador in its earthbound disguise) who, unlike most of the other demons, becomes interested in life on earth.
no subject
Date: 2025-02-28 22:22 (UTC)This movie was billed as a black comedy/mystery, but it's honestly so sweet? Murphy and Boone spend a lot of the time before Murphy's murder bickering, but there's a scene afterwards where the gang views Murphy's video dating tape (this movie came out in 1998, can you tell?) and Murphy explains to the women he's trying to date how much he loves his buddy Boone. Boone himself is a sweetie who can't hang onto money—he's always giving it away to people he thinks are in need. Wilt and AJ try for a while to hang onto their journalistic integrity but are eventually like, "Shit, we've grown attached. Guess we'd better start investigating cases so Boone's business doesn't go under."
I'm hoping to write about Boone and Murphy's relationship. It's one of my very favorite parts of the movie, and of course Boone is the usual Miguel Ferrer character I can project upon.
If you're interested in this movie, I got a copy of it for twenty bucks on Amazon, or you can rent it from google play, apple tv, fandango, and amazon prime for $4 each. You'll notice it has some low ratings on Rotten Tomatoes, but what's a few rotten tomatoes between friends?
Re: Damn Them All
Date: 2025-02-28 22:27 (UTC)Re: Damn Them All
Date: 2025-02-28 22:56 (UTC)Race the Sands
Date: 2025-02-28 22:58 (UTC)The Celebrant
Date: 2025-02-28 23:04 (UTC)For whatever reason, this non-speculative historical fiction book is calling out to me for absurd, over-the-top fannish tropes. I'm not sure if I'll have time to do something for this event, but I'm hoping to write an AU with unreliable narrator Jackie dealing with plot devices that definitely weren't in canon. (Also, probably not for this event, but the Mathewsons and McGraws would be a great sedoretu foursome.)
A lot more thoughts here.
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Date: 2025-02-28 23:19 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-02-28 23:20 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-03-01 01:36 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-03-01 02:39 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-03-01 05:57 (UTC)Re: Race the Sands
Date: 2025-03-01 16:14 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-03-01 19:26 (UTC)AO3 and a cursory google search have not turned up anything so... If I manage from a timeline perspective, that's my target fandom. Probably a short one! But I've had an idea since I read the book.
Re: Race the Sands
Date: 2025-03-01 19:26 (UTC)spoiler title
And a beetle who might or might not be the reincarnated Augur Yorbel ;)
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Date: 2025-03-01 23:20 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-03-01 23:25 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-03-01 23:28 (UTC)Papa and Daddy's Home Cooking (manga)
Date: 2025-03-02 00:55 (UTC)Cooking manga is a fave genre, and this has some sweet co-parenting + chosen family plotlines as well. It's perfectly lovely slice-of-life, but the premise of 'two friends and single dads of preschool kids decide to live together to make the daily life of parenting easier' is also too enticing a shipping setup to pass up.
I love the quiet, low-stakes atmosphere, cute family dynamics, and the sincere moments when characters deepen their understanding of each other. The art is lovely and expressive, too, and the two main characters have wonderful odd-couple chemistry - Sengoku used to be a delinquent and still has a rough, aggressive demeanor, while Harumi is an easy-going, soft-spoken manga editor.
If anyone wants to check it out, there are 4 volumes (20 chapters) currently released in English, available on MangaPlanet (paid access).
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Date: 2025-03-02 00:57 (UTC)Re: The Celebrant
Date: 2025-03-02 01:05 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-03-02 03:30 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-03-02 13:07 (UTC)I'm going to write for one of these 15 seconds Instagram Reels/short video stories. Think of a movie short that's only a few lines/20 seconds long. Previously I had nommed it under Dialogue scenes - iphilgood & timothylinnik (Instagram Reels) as a fanom, but I think for Be The First I will use a specific clip, which means if you're looking for something you can use a clip too! ;)
For clarification, this is fiction, not RPF
Where to find it:
https://www.instagram.com/iphilgood/ or https://www.instagram.com/timothylinnik/
Here are some of my favorites:
- tired https://www.instagram.com/iphilgood/reel/C1r64cRgqzy/
- meant to be https://www.instagram.com/iphilgood/reel/C3VfjlAA6dh/
- to the sun https://www.instagram.com/iphilgood/reel/C2VD8NAABcC/
- there is no answer https://www.instagram.com/iphilgood/reel/C0b8ZbzAoxk/
You know when you feel poetry in your guts? What if it came in video form and it had a dark academia/dead poet society aesthetic?
These are videos around 20 seconds with a main speaker, set in some fictional world saying some hard hitting words.
For example from tired: "I'm sick. I wasn't born to live a dying life"
I'll probably write for Tired or Meant To Be and I'm excited!!
no subject
Date: 2025-03-02 15:51 (UTC)But it's good.
See, the game was made by a person who was actually homeless for two years, and it shows. The survival mechanics, the visuals, the crafting etc. - all of that is good, but you can get that in other RPGs. What really makes this game stand out is the people. Every single named character (homeless or not) has a story. You might not learn it (and you won’t, in most cases, because it's none of your business), but you know they have it. And, yeah, a lot of these people aren’t very nice, but the game doesn't judge or decide what's "good" and "wrong" - in a way, it's like an interactive documentary. It's raw and realistic and it might be fictional but you know there are places, people with stories like this.
There are so many characters that one could write about. In the end, I picked the old lady who sometimes fixes your hobo's clothes if you're polite and friendly. She has maybe eight lines in the game, but you know there is more to her story. Just like everybody else.
Re: Race the Sands
Date: 2025-03-02 20:32 (UTC)Just Like Home
Date: 2025-03-06 16:07 (UTC)“Come home.” Vera’s mother called and Vera obeyed. In spite of their long estrangement, in spite of the memories -- she's come back to the home of a serial killer. Back to face the love she had for her father and the bodies he buried there.
Coming home is hard enough for Vera, and to make things worse, she and her mother aren’t alone. A parasitic artist has moved into the guest house out back, and is slowly stripping Vera’s childhood for spare parts. He insists that he isn’t the one leaving notes around the house in her father’s handwriting… but who else could it possibly be?
There are secrets yet undiscovered in the foundations of the notorious Crowder House. Vera must face them, and find out for herself just how deep the rot goes.
This is a classic gothic haunted house story in the guise of a true crime thriller. It's a story about family and how love can haunt you years later even though (or perhaps because!) it is monstrous. It asks the questions "Who are the real monsters?" and "What terrible, beautiful things can love create?" I will admit that it's a pretty slow read for the majority, but the end more than makes up for that for me. Sarah Gailey's writing is full of fantastically visceral imagery, and this book really reflects that.
CW: blood, gore, toxic/abusive relationships, character death, torture, presumed hallucinations, possession (highlight to read)
Feel free to hit me up if you're interested and would like more detail on anything!
no subject
Date: 2025-03-10 15:10 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-03-13 06:33 (UTC)The plot is basically Eat Pray Love without the globe-hopping and with bonus kink! A bestselling therapist watches her life fall apart just before she's about to take a vacation in Tuscany. She ends up meeting the owner of the villa she rented, a hot Italian-American actor, who she has a no strings attached affair with while solving a mystery, eating a ton of great food and discovering more about what really makes her happy. It's pretty standard women's fiction/chicklit/romance, but I just found it very fun and breezy, with lots of delicious description of the Italian countryside, fun chemistry between the characters and a surprising amount of kink.
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Date: 2025-03-15 22:37 (UTC)Manga is available free here: https://bato.to/series/67620
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Date: 2025-04-12 09:31 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-04-20 16:09 (UTC)It’s a fourteen-minute feature about a lonely grandfather (played by Colin Baker) and his history-loving grandson who team up and dig for Richard III relics in their neighborhood. It’s a pretty heartwarming story about friendship and familial bonds.
It can be watched officially through Vimeo
EDIT: I have also decided to write for Rhino Wants a Wife, a short children’s picture book written by Lucy Baker (completely related to the Baker mentioned above). It’s a cute tale about Rhino, a…rhino…who treks about his habitat, asking his friends about what qualities he should look for in a potential partner. Of course, every animal says something different, leaving him stumped!
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Date: 2025-04-22 23:19 (UTC)Re: Just Like Home
Date: 2025-04-29 00:49 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-04-29 20:11 (UTC)It was officially translated once before, but there's a brand new English translation available to read on MangaPlaza!
Summary from MangaPlaza:
I saw the manga recommended online around the time I really got into age-gap ships, and I enjoyed it! The MC is much younger than the love interest, but she's in a better financial position than him, and has an unorthodox job which subverts the trope in an interesting way. The characters are compelling, and I enjoyed watching them struggle to hide their accidental marriage from people while slowly falling in love.
Sadly, I don't see many people talking about the manga. I really hope one day it gets more popular and the series can get a physical English release!
Re: Just Like Home
Date: 2025-05-01 13:41 (UTC)