icarusinflight | Recent Entries

One of the fun things about going back and answering a bunch of comments in a row is that you start to see a theme.

A lot my themes are based on emotions and feelings - which I expect, I'm a very 'in the head' writer which is definitely something I am aware of (I don'tr think it's an issue? I like reading quite deep pov fics - but if you've read my stuff and want to give feedback on that please do!)

But a theme I have started to see a bit repeated is that my fics are 'quiet'. Which is... I am not sure what it is really. I definitely think it is meant as a compliment by everyone, and this is not trying to dispute that but... how am I so quiet in my writing?

What is my quietness?

And should I try to be louder?

I honestly have no idea. I am probably overthinking this. But yeah, putting this out there - what makes a fic quiet or loud? And should one try to be louder?

My car is always messy. It’s always got a tissue here, something I bought and meant to bring into my house later but just haven't got around to yet, at least one jumper, and a lip balm rolling around on the floor.

There are lots of things in my car. And at the moment it really needs a clean out.

But when I do, there are things I will be leaving in it.

One of these things is a laminated copy of a music festival line up.

The music festival was years ago. It was a two day festival. On the first day I arrived with three of my friends. Throughout the day we ran into friends of theirs, friends of mine, friends of ours. We drank, we danced, we got sunburnt. One of the friends we ran into squealed with joy, and I can still remember how she dropped the canvas bag on her shoulder to the ground, searching through it while I stood in front of her, before shoving something into my hands, and then each of my friends.

It was the laminated copy of the festival line up.

She’d printed them out at work, printed so they were no bigger than an a5 size, but still readable. It had the festival line up for each day. No two were the same. You could tell they’d been cut out of a sheet, then laminated in a bigger piece, before being cut down to size, and it fit perfectly in my back pocket. Over the weekend I used that cut out more times than I could tell you. It got sweaty in my back pocket, and some of the laminate pulled away from itself. But it held together.

At the end of the two days I had the longest shower, and laid on the couch for a whole day. I didn’t want to move.

It was amazing.

There are things I hold onto well past their use. The Turkish Delight someone left taped to my car door with ‘here is a random act of kindness for you stranger’ the Chomp bar my friend left behind for me in my house when I was going through my break up. The lollipop the nurse gave me when I got my vaccination, laughing as she handed it over.

They’re things that I hang onto, not because I want them still, but because they do still bring me joy. I never ate that chocolate, or the one my friend gave me, and maybe that was a waste, but to me it wasn’t. Every time I saw them when I opened up my bag to see the random Turkish Delight, or my fridge to see where my friend had left the Chomp for me, I was reminded of the happiness I felt when I found them, reminded that someone left them behind with nothing more than a thought to make me happy.

The chocolates are gone now, and the lollipop has been thrown out today.

Their moments don’t last forever to me, but they do last on. I still think of them. Eventually that laminated festival lineup will be thrown out too.

But until then, I find happiness in it every time I see it.

And I’ll keep hanging onto it until it’s time passes.

A little while ago I was listening to one of my podcasts and they discussed a thing called ‘letter of recommendation’.

Which is basically just an excuse to talk about something you enjoy. I liked the format so much that I decided I was going to borrow it.

So this is going to be a thing I do. My letters of recommendation.

So since this is inspired by a podcast in particular, I am going to talk about podcasts.

I started listening to podcasts a long time ago. I think it was when I was nineteen, working in a comic book store, and I started listening to a little podcast called The Watchtower Podcast. They were Canadian, they talked about comics and various comic related things, and it was hilarious. It introduced me to podcasts, and I’ve been listening ever since. Over the years I have listened to many podcasts, with so many varied topics.

One of the things I love so much about podcasts is that they are a fantastic place to learn things. It can be hard to learn, and not a lot of people have time to take out of their busy lives to learn. Add to that, these things can be hard to learn. Science does not make itself accessible. Information is locked behind paywalls and even if you can access them, journal articles are not easily understood. It’s the modern day equivalent of medical information being written in Latin so that only permitted people can learn the information. Podcasts do so much to make that information accessible to people that wouldn’t be able to access it. Podcasts like This Podcast Will Kill You which educates about diseases, infectious and otherwise. They do such a brilliant job of explaining very complex diseases - I’ve never fully understood Mad Cow Disease until they explained it. Podcasts like Science Vs which breaks down scientific research, and examines issues that are of concern to all people. Sawbones which deals with medical history - educating people about how far we’ve come, and helping to make people more health literate.

There are other podcasts that bring attention to areas that might have been forgotten. There have been investigative podcasts that bring attention to things that slip through the cracks. I’ve listened to crime podcasts, news podcasts. There is a case that has gone to trial in Australia because of an Investigative journalism podcast. The Daily is a wonderful podcast for news, and while it will often do things which are relevant to the current situation (mostly in USA, but also in the world) they also deal with big issues - the issues that brought me into it were about Ethics in using DNA in the criminal justice system, and the state of Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis. The First Degree and The Murder Squad are both podcasts that deal with murder, and give a voice to crimes that otherwise might not get attention. In the case of The Murder Squad this also includes ways to have people get involved and hopefully help solve crimes - some crimes that have had people looking for answers for years.

And then there are podcasts that are just for fun, for amusement and to spend some of our time, and that is just as valid as anything else. For me No Such Thing As A Fish is one of these - it’s from the team behind the QI TV show, and they share facts, but at the end of the day, this is a podcast that at the heart of it, is for entertainment for me.

Podcasts serve many purposes, to educate, to promote, to entertain, and sometimes a blur of all of these, but one of the things I truly love is that they are accessible. You don’t need to pay for these podcasts, you don’t need to pay for an application to access them.

Anyway, I love podcasts, and these ones in particular.

Are there any you love?

Wow these snowflake challenges really sneak up on you don't they??

Challenge #3 for the snowflake challenge is to list your favourite fests/communites.

Since I'm new to dreamwidth, I think I'll stick to fests for now. So I'm going to give a quick rundown of my faves (and why). These are listed in no particular order.

Femmefest - A Harry Potter Femslash exchange fest!! what more is there to say? I participated in this in 2019, and even though my recipient ended up dropping, I had a lovely time with the whole fest. I'm trying to limit my fest participation this year, but I am stlll going to sign up for Femmefest
HP WLW Big Bang - a big bang born from the love of femslash, and the desire for more long!fics that showcase it! This was my very first Big Bang and is my longest (by quite a bit) fic. The fest gave us the wonderful gift of fics and art, and I am so grateful for it!
HP Femslash Minifest - this might seem a bit biased, as I am a mod for this fest, but I was a fan and participant before I was a mod (and that's why! I signed up as a mod). I love that this fest encourages HP femslash creations. It's such a low key fun fest, and I aim to get back to creating for it again this year.
H/D Erised - this fest is just such a gift to the Drarry fandom. It gave me one of my favourite drarry fics of all time (Azoth) and it's just like.. the defining fest of Drarry I feel. It is such a gift to the Drarry fandom in general
My Bloody Valentine - run via the HP Dark Arts tumblr. This fest is just... it gives such an opportunity for a unique type of fic. Dark fics are not always the most popular, but this is just such a unique and kind of fun fest... it's not for everyone, but I think that's part of why I like it so much. I wrote a fic for it in 2019, and it's one of my favourite fics still.
Tomlinshaw Fic Exchange - this is a little fest, but it's such a gift for the tiny ship of tomlinshaw. I took part in 2018 as a pinch hitter, and 2019 as a full participant. It's given us so many wonderful fic gifts.

Well that's enough from me I think. It's obviously quite hp and femslash centric, but I'm okay with that.

I can't wait to read everyone else's fests and communities they recommend

So following on from my very first intro post, the next snowflake challenge is to detail your fandom history.

My fandom history is long and varied, and it went through some times where things were not good for me, so my memory is not necessarily the best. I'm telling it as well as I can.

I am also quite bad at knowing times - dates and years elude me, so while this is chronological, I don't remember the specifics.

The discovery:

I first discovered fanfic when I was rewatching Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I was doing my final year of my BPsych, and I was also under a lot of stress at the time. So I found a bit of an outlet - fanfic.

I devoured a lot of fanfic, primarily Faith/Buffy, but also Buffy/Spike, and I did read the occasional Buffy/Angel. I remember being on fanfiction.net(FFN), and other various websites. I remember going to Elysian Fields.

I daydreamed a lot about writing my own Faith/Buffy/Spike fic. I tried to write a Faith/Buffy fic. I remember very specifically getting a comment which told me Americans eat fries not chips.

When I felt like I was running out of that, I remember searching by femslash, and going to the next ship that I was familiar with the fandom - I just wanted more femslash to read. That just so happened to be Ginny/Hermione (this was still on FFN mind).

At some stage I discovered ao3, and that was such a gift.

The immersion:

I hadn't really given up on fanfic in the time between, but it had taken a bit of a backseat. But at the beginning of 2017 I realised I needed an outlet once again, and fanfic was there for me.

I discovered Drarry, and I think everyone has that one fic they read which stands out and just feels like everything shifts a bit for them. For me that Azoth by Zietgestic. Reading that honestly changed my life, and never looked back. Harry Potter has been one of my main fandoms ever since. and Drarry has been one of my otp's.

That year I read a lot of fic, I tried my hand at writing fic, and more importantly I started finding fandom spaces. I joined a few discords, I followed creators, and most importantly I have made friends!

Since 2017 I've drifted around many fandoms. These include:

JayRoy

JayTim

Drarry

Wolfstar

Sheith

Klance

Sterek

DeanCas

Tomlinshaw

There are definitely ships and fandoms along the way. Occasionally I dip my toe into things, but these are the ones I have really rolled around in.

Now

Now it's 2020, and fandom is definitely a primary part of my life. I make time to write most days.

I've made friends, some I've even had the pleasure of meeting in person, many more I wish i could meet. Fandom changed my life, very literally, and my life is richer for finding it.

Hello and welcome!

This is my very first post on dreamwidth, and I'm trying to be a bit more active on here so I thought it would be a good one to do.

I'm icarusinflight, also known as le. You can find me as icarusinflight on ao3, and candybarrnerd on tumblr.

I like to say I'm poly-fandom and multiship. That is to say my interests are varied and many.

At current my main fandom is probably Harry Potter. Within Harry Potter, I ship draco/harry, but also a variety of femslash ships(I tend to focus on either Hermione or Ginny with those), and next gen ships.

However, I tend to go wherever I feel like going, and that has resulted in me having a variety of interests, and creations.

At the moment that means I'm loving Stranger Things, Lord of the Rings, and The Witcher (netflix).

I moderate for the Drarry Discord Server, HP Fests Tumblr Page, H/D Wireless (and it's off-shoot Wireless Festive Minifest), and the HP femslash minifest.

I probably like spreadsheets more than the average user.

I'm not sure there's much more to be said.

Please say hi if you want to!