Snowflake Day 10

Talk About A Creator/Someone Who Inspired You.

Ohhh, I do love today's challenge. I want to talk about people who lead me to fandom and who inspired me enough to stay there.

First of all, Sean Astin. Of course, I don't know him (well, I've met him once at a convention, but I guess this doesn't count), but without him, I would probably never have made the way into fandom. The first movie I watched with him in a leading role was Lord of the Rings. And his performance of Sam was so great that I wanted to watch more movies with Sean. Okay, I will admit, there are a lot of cheap B-movies, I don't like, but also some very great performances. Like Mr. Smith from Jeremiah. Rudy from Touchdown. Harrison Bergeron. Old, unknown movies and I started to wonder if anyone else besides me had ever heard about them ;) So I ended up surfing through the net and it was unavoidable that I finally discovered fanfiction.

I guess most of you will have already noticed it, that English is not my native language. I was pretty unsure at first if I would be able to make friends at Livejournal. But it was pretty easy; 'with the help of Sean' I soon found a group of people who shared my interests. And who did write the most interesting fanfiction.

First of all honeyandvingar. She used to write the most wonderful 'The Faculty' stories, and I learned to love this fandom before I even watched the movie. At least since that moment, I am hopelessly addicted to fandom and fanfiction. Honey, you will always be the queen of The Faculty for me.

Sometime later, I dared to write my first Jeremiah ficlets, written in horrible English, as I know today. Nevertheless, I got nice, encouraging comments, and it felt sooo great to be a part of a community that loved the same stuff as I did. I would like to say thank you to everyone who was there for me back then (and who is still around). Sadly not so many anymore; a lot of people did move on to other interests or left their journals behind. But that's a different story.

Another one I need to mention here is Mews. Sadly she passed away about two years ago, but I am so thankful that I have met her (even if only online). She was one of the most kind, encouraging people I have ever met. A brilliant writer, too; I am glad that I have saved all her stories at my PC so that I can re-read them when I want.

She was the one who let me dare it to write my very first The Faculty story. Short backstory: One time, she posted about a group named 'Celtic Thunder,' and because I was curious, I followed her links. And I fall in love with the group and their music (today I own almost every CD they have ever published, and even after about ten years I'm still listening to them).

As a 'thank you,' I decided to write a little something for her. And because the Jeremiah Fandom doesn't seem to fit, I finally choose The Faculty. This was the result: Like a bird without wings, based on a song of Celtic Thunder. Now, after re-reading it, I am sitting here, with tears in my eyes (and the song in my head); this was the beginning of an exhilarating trip that still lasts, and I know without Mews (and all the other wonderful people around) I would probably never have made this step.