Fandom Snowflake 2020 - Day 1

[elrhiarhodan]

In your own space, introduce yourself! Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

I am Elrhiarhodan. Or Elr. Sometime El, but rarely.

Some fannish folk may consider me as old a Methuselah (I am over 50, after all), and there are too many days of late that I feel like I'm just that old. But I've only been involved in fandom for a decade, so on the other hand, I am a veritable youngster.

My fannish interests have always been particularly narrow - I tend to focus on one fandom at a time, the first was White Collar (and I still miss that show and the fandom that was so amazing), the second (for a brief time) was The Flash. Now, I am in The Kingsman fandom (an ever-shrinking one that I hope will revive soon with the new movie coming out). I have a few tangential fannish interests, mostly the Morse'Verse, which I've written for a few times over the past decade. I've also dipped a toe into A Discovery of Witches, but mostly for reading, not creating.

I am a shipper and my ship preferences focus on a younger/older slash pairing - Neal/Peter, Barry/Eobard, Eggsy/Harry (and Eggsy/Merlin), but once I get the feel of a fandom, I can ship almost anyone with anyone (provided I like the character). Hell, I've written Mozzie/Clinton and Elizabeth/Reese and I may be the only person who's done so.

Writing has given me a tremendous amount of pleasure over the years - both the act of creation and the fandom friends I've made through my writing. While I think that AO3 is amazing, I do miss the days of journal-based fandom where you could more easily connect with people. (I make this same comment almost every year on the FSC, and vow to do better in keeping up with my DW journal, but by mid-year, I mostly default back to endless scrolling through Tumblr for stupid cat gifs.)

I have other interests outside of fandom - I make jewelry. I like weaving tiny little beads the size of a grain of sand into great big pieces using needle and thread barely thicker than a strand of hair. If you want to see a few examples of my work, you can find them here (link to a Dropbox folder).

That's pretty much about it for me - I tend not to share a lot in spaces like this, but if you want to get to know me a bit more, reach out here or on my journal's Welcome Post and we can get to know each other a bit better.

One more thing.

I was just about to hit the Post button when I realized that I probably should explain the "Obscene Circus Ponies" bit on my Journal header. Way back when, in my earliest days in the White Collar fandom, when I wrote A LOT of porn, I had this expression, "they fucked like a pair of obscene circus ponies". I have no idea where that came from, but either someone pointed it out or I realized that I used it in three or four (or more) stories, so it kind of became my tag line. I eventually retired it with this story, Out to Pasture.

Comments

[seleneheart]

Oh wow, I didn't know where your journal tag line came from!

[elrhiarhodan]

Yeah, it was one of those things. Bad porn writing memorialized...

[enemytosleep]

Your fandom activities have been an inspiration for me, and I thank you for that!

[elrhiarhodan]

Thank you!

Happy New Year.

[tjs_whatnot]

Silly question, but how would you phonetically pronounce Elrhiarhodan or Elr? I think I've asked this IRL once, but I'm curious to if I've been pronouncing it in my head all these years. ♥

You are a shining light in any fandom lucky enough to have you. I am SLOOOOOOOWLY getting my way through A Discovery of Witches! Enjoying it so far, but have only just discovered that I'm sort of turned off on vampires, which is a new thing... that maybe means the scarring of having to endure the Twilight books might have broken me irrecoverably. :(

Haha, I never knew that's where your journal's tagline came from!

[elrhiarhodan]

How do you pronounce the name???

I always tell people that the "r" is silent in "Elr", but not when you're saying the full name. I always go with EL-rhe-heyer-HO-din. And ironically, in the book from whence the name comes from, the character has a very notable encounter with a set of books written by a wizard known as "Iff of the Unpronounceable Name".

Please do stick with ADOW - the vampires are actually kind of awesome and not really Twilight-y at all.

And happy new year - hopefully 2020 will be a lot better for everyone than the last few.

[tjs_whatnot]

Haha, yes, I must have asked you before, because the moment I saw it written out like that, I remembered exactly how it was done. ♥

Oh, I don't think they're Twilighty at all, but I just have developed low tolerance for the tropes of vampires now because of them--like when he's tall and beautiful and ridiculously wealthy I find myself rolling my eyes because of course he is--but I've started treating it as a prejudice I have developed that I need to get over. I'm working on it.

♥ ♥

[elrhiarhodan]

As you get into the series, the vampires get a lot more interesting. And anyone who is 1500 years old better damn well be ridiculously wealthy - what with compounded interest!

[spikedluv]

*fist pump of over 50 solidarity*

I also found fandom late (I was in my 30s), which makes me laugh myself silly when I see the Tumblr posts about how people in their 20s should already be over (and out of) fandom.

I love White Collar and miss it tremendously! My first (default) ship was Peter/Neal, but this was one of the few fandoms where I was also happy with the OT3.

[elrhiarhodan]

I know all about those insane Tumblr posts. And I think, what are these children doing in fandom! They don't belong here.

Happy New Year to you.

[scripsi]

Love your Madame X icon!

[elrhiarhodan]

Thank you! It was my first icon when I hopped onto LJ a decade ago and I'd resisted going with something more fannish for a default. She's followed me to AO3 and Tumblr, too. I've had other default icons over the years, but when I fully migrated over to DW and made my site a lot more fandom neutral, I decided that she's still my best reflection.

It's a sad thing but there have been times when enough people thought that it was a selfie (oh, I wish!) that I would do a double take when someone actually recognized it for what it is!

Happy New Year!

[scripsi]

Happy New Year!

I'm a fan of both Sargent and fashion history, so not so difficult for me. :)

[tozka]

Happy New Year! A moment of silence for favorite fandoms that were once robust, and have since gone silent... (aka basically all of my childhood fandoms, lol)

[elrhiarhodan]

Happy new year to you, too!

And yes, a moment of silence - for the fandom and the happiness they provided.

[shipperslist]

Your header pic and tagline are both amazing!

[elrhiarhodan]

Thank you! I took the picture during a memorable trip driving the Northern Cascades Highway in 2006, It's the Early Morning Spires peaks, and maybe the best photo I've ever captured.

[buggyfiction]

It wasn't bad porn... just sayin'...

(I'm toomuchfandom on livejournal, but moved on to a new nickname :))

[elrhiarhodan]

Thank you! The porn wasn't bad, and the first time I'd used the phrase it was interesting. But it got to the point of being a tag line by the fifth or sixth time, ykwim?

Happy New Year and good to see you.

[buggyfiction]

Oh yeah, I totally know what you mean. My beta once coined the phrase "squeeze them dry like a capri-sun pouch" and I found myself using that phrase a few times in different stories. I mean... it's fun.. but repetative haha.

And a Happy New Year to you :) <3