Lost In Translation

Things have been so busy lately, I feel like I'm just trying to hold on and not fall off the ride.

My parents went on a trip and asked me to do a bunch of errands for them, and now that they're back I'm trying to get a bunch of errands done for myself, and also keep up with work and some semblance of a social life, and also go to rehearsals every weekend for about 8 hours, for a play that may or may not happen because you know, it'll be elections season and there's nothing like a nice little war to shuffle those cards.

Anyway, I keep seeing info about the heatwave in Europe and sending best wishes for all the friends currently having to deal with it. I love heat, but I have the luxury of A/C pretty much everywhere, so it's a very different experience.

(I did have fun though showing locals the news headline about Paris banning the sale of alcohol in public places for a certain time "because the hospitals were overloaded", and watching local friends try to figure out the logic that made those words go together. I don't think anyone around here has ever heard of any kind of restriction on alcohol - even just a recommendation not to drink it - due to heat, and we get major heatwaves every year, so it was just a total mystery. Figuring out the cultural differences that lead to those, well, differences, is really fascinating.)

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In shows that I'm watching that I wouldn't necessarily recommend but are content that I'm consuming? Is Animal Kingdom. Yes, I've finally fallen into the fandom bandwagon that takes you directly from The Pitt to that show, where Abbot's actor worked for 6 years.

Look, it's a crime/action show from TNT, I am a very good audience for it. I love fast paced crime shows, I'm used to them having 10000% dudes in the cast (as this one does) and writing women poorly (as this one does). But at the same time it's weird to think this show ran for 6 seasons, had a cast of endless hot white dudes who are all semi-related to each other, was essentially about found family, has a main protagonist who is gay, and was not in any way on fandom's radar, lol.

I mean I know why! There are SO many TNT shows that are essentially this lol they are not ~meant~ for you and me, we are absolutely not the target audience. Still, it's so interesting to see in retrospect.

Abbot's actor is really good in it! And his character is ( spoilers )

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In other news, a friend of a friend asked if she could give my number to a local journalist who's writing an article about fanfic for a national newspaper (connected to a new book that's coming in translation and started out as fanfic). I said sure, I'll talk to her. I've been sort of slowly contributing to fanfic ~education~ in the local lit scene in various ways, so. It's up my alley.

So we had an hour long conversation, and she seemed fairly knowledgeable already, not totally spot on with her information but not cringe-y either. Just someone who's probably read some fanfics but was never part of any kind of community aspect.

Anyway, she asked me if anyone I know who writes fic would be willing to answer a few question (in English) over email, so she can get a few more perspectives.

The email address and your name can be as anonymous as you want to make it. You can be from any country, and of course can decide which questions you want to answer, etc. The only condition is that you've posted fanfic publicly before, preferably at least 5 stories.

So, if you're interested in that, leave a comment either with your email address, or send the address to me privately on DW (let me know if you're not sure how to do that) and I'll pass it along. If you know of friends who'd want to do this and contribute to fanfic education in mainstream publications, feel free to point them my way.