[where's my hoverboard?]

Fandom this year: not enough fic-writing. My AO3 stats say I've written just over 23,000 words. On the other hand, that's better than last year, and my god this was a shit year all around. Plus, frankly, the amount of texting Soph and I have done probably brings that up a lot. I mean. A LOT. As always, though, next year, more writing, I hope!

Your main fandom of the year?
Let's call it the Sally Wainwright-verse: the not-actually-interconnected tv trilogy of Scott & Bailey, Last Tango in Halifax, and Happy Valley. I haven't been particularly fannishly productive about Happy Valley, I suppose, largely because it is kind of traumatising, but in terms of mental investment these three occupy a definitely very high position in my list of fannish loves. I've only posted fic in S&B, but I have spent a... significant... amount of time building headcanons for all three. (There was a Catherine Cawood cameo in the first draft of one of my Yuletide fics, but I had to trash that, sigh.)

Your favourite film watched this year?
I didn't watch many films this year, it feels like, and I missed out on a LOT of the really big ones. That said, however, how can I give this to anything but Maleficent? It wasn't perfect, and I didn't end up as fannish about it as I'd expected, but god it made me happy. It made me happy and it didn't disappoint me. Honourable mention to Pride, which made me bawl, but yeah, Maleficent by a country mile.

Your favourite book read this year?
I hate these, because I never remember what I read from one month to the next! That said, I spent the latter half of November and first week or so of December powering through the ten volumes of Louise Penny's Three Pines series, which I could not put down. I keep meaning to read more Canadian literature, and these books really left me longing to return to Montreal and Quebec in general, plus they were excellent mysteries in a year where I rediscovered my love of the crime genre.

Your favourite album or song to listen to this year?
Hmmm. The Imelda May album "Mayhem" has barely left my car CD player since August (so disappointed that I was just too ill to watch her mainstage show at Folkfest). Taylor Swift's "1989" has been delightful. Various of Bear's Den's songs have been in heavy rotation at home. But I think 2014 has to be a year of Fleetwood Mac: "Rumours," "The Dance," "Live," and "Greatest Hits" have been in heavy rotation because – the Mac is back!

Your favourite TV show of the year?
It's so hard to pick from that trilogy listed above! Technically, Happy Valley is probably the best, and has certainly appeared on numerous best-of lists: it's tightly plotted, brilliantly acted, gut-wrenching, and very well shot and edited. But favourite? Hm. Last Tango is currently airing, which puts it front of mind, and its characters are some of the most well-rounded, fully realized around. But it is a liiittle bit soapy. Okay a lot soapy. I mean, it transcends! But. Plus I'm already angry at it for what it'll do next year. And Scott & Bailey – well, there are things I'd change, things I wish it'd done better, but as a discrete unit it may be one of my favourite shows ever. We still don't know if it'll get a fifth season, but if it doesn't, I am absolutely content with that, as the way it ended was just marvellous. So. S&B it is.

Your best new fandom discovery of the year?
Sally Wainwright and her giant evil cat and their commitment to a postfeminist genre discourse on British telly.

Your biggest fandom disappointment of the year?
We do not fucking speak of Warehouse 13. Go outside, turn around three times, and spit. Ptui.

Your fandom boyfriend of the year?
Did I... consume... texts... with boys in them???

Your fandom girlfriend of the year?
UGH, no! Gill Murray, with her nails and her impossible jawline? Rachel Bailey, with her smile and her recklessness? Gillian Greenwood, with her inability to keep her fingers away from her mouth? Caroline Elliot, with her DPhil and her hips and her freckles and her gorgeous kissing? Erm, yes.

Your biggest squee moment of the year?
I think probably when Maleficent queered true love's kiss. You could've knocked me over with a feather. Boom. Runners up: Scott & Bailey and past!Gill with hair down to her bum dressed all in leather; Last Tango and Caroline and Gillian and "They think I'm one of your women"; so much of Alicia's ascendance in The Good Wife; Stella and Reed kissing in The Fall.

The most missed of your old fandoms?
I miss being fannish about comics. A lot of people have really gotten into comics in my vicinity this year, and I am just... I'm reading more of them, and I'm enjoying a lot of them, but fannishly I just don't have the investment right now.

The fandom you haven't tried yet, but want to?
I find this question a bit funny because it assumes fannishness about the texts I plan to try. I am looking forward to watching Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries, Mapp and Lucia and Manhattan.

Your biggest fan anticipations for the coming year?
Dreading the continuation of Last Tango, but anticipating fic, my own and that of anyone I can drag in kicking and screaming! A little worried about what s2 of Happy Valley might be like, but looking forward to more of Catherine and Clare (I think this is meant to be in 2015?)! More superhero movies (I'm not really invested, but I enjoy dipping in and out of the fic)! And, of course, AGENT CARTER. :D :D :D Oh, and I need to catch up on Strange Empire... and prep for X Company.

[yuletide reveals]

Yuletide this year was surprisingly difficult! It took a lot of to-ing and fro-ing and reworking - I scrapped a good 4000 words and restarted at one point, quite late, and I'm a little bitter about that, though I have hopes that some of those ideas may make it into another fic at some point.

I was assigned to write Scott & Bailey fic for featherxquill, and though she gave a wide range of prompts for all of the nominated characters, I knew that what she'd love most was some Gill/Julie:

at least we can hold each other (1561 words) by kathryne
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Julie Dodson/Gill Murray
Summary: Two people who've known each other as long and as well as Julie and Gill have many ways to communicate.

...which is a little porny story riffing on both Julie's wardrobe and the way that Julie and Gill balance a personal and working relationships.

But the reason I was having trouble was because apparently what I really wanted to write was all the trauma that ensued following s3 and through s4. And, well, soupytwist had also requested S&B, and she is a lovely person who deserves a little treat, and who wouldn't be horribly put off by angst, so I thought I would just... write the angst and get it out of my system and gift it to someone who would appreciate it. And she did. :P And she guessed I'd written it for her, too, which means she gets to prompt a ficlet off me if she wants... :D?

Pictures of Strangers Always Looking Down on You (1874 words) by kathryne
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Julie Dodson, Gill Murray, Helen Bartlett
Summary: Like Helen Bartlett, Gill finds herself fighting to break free of others' perceptions - even those who are meant to be in her corner.

After the struggle to get these written, I'm fairly happy with both of them - there are some things I would change, but overall I think they turned out pretty okay. :D