Prisca's Home

In your space, create your own fandom challenge.

There are so many great (challenge) communities out there, many of which can need a bit more attention. There are some big communities almost everyone has already heard about, but the admins of smaller / new ones also put a lot of work and love into them.

Every community can only stay alive when at least some people risk a look now and then to post, read the fills, and comment. So, why not make it a challenge to check out a new community (if you don't know where to look for them, fandomcalendar or fandom_on_dw might be a good start). It can be that you will find your new passion for the year 2025.

Or revisit an old community you have left behind one day. Maybe it will still be active and welcome you back with open arms.

In your own space, create a list of at least three things you'd love to receive, something you've wanted but were afraid to ask for - a wishlist of sorts. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it.

Only two wishes this time:

1. To complete my audiobook bingo card (link)I can need some ideas for (audio)books fitting the prompts.

I already know what to hear for Dystopian and Humor.
I am not into 'hardcore horror' but something like Stephen King is acceptable.
Audio Books available on Audible would be great.


2. Recs / icons / any kind of art / maybe even a drabble or a poem for the movie 'Conclave'

Thank you for reading :)

Since this is the start of a new year, this challenge will be e to set your own goals! Of course, we can all make large or ambitious goals, but remember that small and/or short goals are also good!

Goals: Oh yes, I made some fannish goals. Many of them. Maybe too many?

Participating in getyourwordsout = Habit 120 days of writing in 2025
Participating in inkingitout = Write 75K of words in 2025
Participating in 100fandomicons = Create 100 icons in 100 fandoms for 100 prompts

These are my primary goals. There are others, too.
- my bingo card for audible books
- my fannish bingo card
- complete the 'Fannish 50' Challenge = make 50 fannish-related posts over the year (I decided to go with mixed posts)

- keep my three challenge communities running (Two of them are low-pressure, and the third one is a competition community that asks for sign-ups. If you are curious and/or looking for some fannish challenges, check out my Hello and Welcome post)

- write more regularly again
- comment more

All of these sound very intimidating? Too much to stay on track with all the goals? Maybe. But I have decided that this is not the problem. Not for me. It will only get discouraging when I expect too much from myself.

Goals give me a reason to stay active during the year, but it is okay not to finish all of them!

I will be happy if I can finally make the call 'Challenge finished!' But there is no reason to be angry or disappointed when some of them are not completed at the end of the year. I tried! I have had fun trying! I have created more than I would have without this challenge. This is a lot, isn't it?

Challenge #12 - Tell Us about a Personal Win.
My personal win in 2023: I finally retired.

My fandom wins in 2023: I created two new fandom challenge communities, open for everyone, which are still active.
While you can join at sweetandshort at any time because it is a low-pressure community, fandom_empire is closed for new participants at the moment because the first challenge of 2024 is already running. But you are welcome to check out the community and return for the new challenge in April.


Challenge #13 - Make a rec list (of fanworks)!
Because I did read lots of small fandom works over the year, and it's just too hard to decide, I will not rec something here.

But I will leave you three TV series which are worth checking out.

- Jeremiah (TV)
It was a series from J. Michael Straczynski (2002-2004); sadly, it only ran for two seasons and ended with a cliffhanger. If you don't mind this, you might want to check it out if you are interested in a dystopian setting.

All adults died because of a virus about 15 years ago, and the young survivors are still looking for a way to save their future.

I know this sounds not new (but remember, back then, viruses, vampires, and zombies were not so overused themes). The cast is great: Malcolm-Jamal Warner, Luke Perry, and Sean Astin; the story is intriguing.

- Coroner (TV)
It's a series of four seasons I only discovered some time ago. The series tells about a middle-aged doctor who has given up her job in the emergency room to work as a coroner after she lost her husband in a tragic incident. He died in front of her (and her son's) eyes in a swimming pool, leaving both of them with a heavy trauma.

The series mixes up private life with the job, and yes, I will admit, sometimes the private stuff seems to be a bit too much drama, but the cases at her job are interesting enough to continue watching.

It's nothing entirely new, but I recommend looking if you want to spend some relaxing time with a new TV series.

- The Good Doctor (TV)
The series tells the story of a young, brilliant, autistic surgeon. Though it is 'only' one more Doctor series, it is very interesting because of the autistic aspect. I admit, I don't know how accurately the series treats the autistic clinical picture, but the acting is brilliant; very touching, sometimes a bit funny.

Five Things! The five things are totally up to you.

My five favorite roles of Sean Astin:
- Samwise Gamgee (Lord of the Rings)
- Mr. Smith (Jeremiah TV)
- Rudy (Touchdown)
- Lynn McGill (24)
- Harrison Bergeron (IQ Runner)

My five most loved actors I met at Ring Con/Magic Con (it's the same convention, just a different name)
- Sean Astin (Lord of the Rings)
- Billy Boyd (Lord of the Rings)
- Tom Ellis (Lucifer)
- Rachel Harris (Lucifer)
- Kyle Schmid (Blood ties)

My five always and forever movies I have already rewatched umpteen times:
- Gone with the Wind
- The Godfather Part 1
- Lord of the Rings
- Miss Marple: Murder she said (only the old one with Margaret Rutherford)
- Some like it hot

Make a list of fannish and/or creative resources

Well, of course, I often use the usual sites like Wikipedia or Google when I am looking for help. Besides this, there are some other resources that make my fandom life easier.

Writing
general sites:
Grammarly - a digital writing assistant that helps you to improve the spelling, grammar, tone, and style of your writing. There is a free and a full version which needs to be paid.
Check out here.

Leo - a dictionary for various languages
Check out here.

Various sites that offer writing prompts:
Random Word Generator
Writing Exercises
1800+ Writing Prompts

Diverse:
Bingo Generator

Icons and more
Images for free:
Pexels
Pixabay

Photoediting
Gimp (for free)
Pixlr(free version + a payed extended version)
Canvas (for free + two pro versions to pay)
Image Color Picker (for free)

Diverse:
Icon Table Generator

Search in your current space, whether brick-and-mortar or digital. Post a picture or description of something that is or represents:

- Something that makes you laugh smile
My pinboard at the wall over my desk. It's stuffed with little memories, like a convention wristband, a golden star an online friend sent me for Christmas, a card I got from my best friend when I didn't feel well with the text 'Everything could be so easy..." and a card, showing a beach chair at sunset.

- A fandom place you would like to visit
That's an easy question. Middle-earth - The Shire. Having breakfast with Merry and Pippin. Sitting in the garden together with Sam.

- Something from a favorite TV series or movie from your childhood.
This is sooo long ago, and I was more a teenage girl than a child when I watched 'Gone with the Wind' for the first time. It's still one of my favorite movies. I own a special edition with lots of extras, cards, and a small infobook on Blu-Ray. And the Scarlett Barbie, wearing the green dress, Mammy made for her when she went to visit Rhett in prison to ask him for some money. My precious (grins... wrong movie, I know)

Create a wish list of fandom things (podfic, graphics, playlists, canon recs translations, research help, vids, sky's the limit!) that you'd like to receive.

This challenge is always tricky because I don't like to ask others to create something for me. So, why not choose a different way?

1. My first wish is not for myself but for a community, I mod for a while already. fffc. The community started on 21 February 2011 at Livejournal as a small Lord of the Rings/Frodo Community. Over the years, there were some changes, and we opened a sister-community at Dreamwidth.

Today we are open to all kinds of fandoms/fanworks. We also appreciate real-person work and original work. But sadly, the LJ Community is on a hiatus because of the lack of activity.

Also activity at Dreamwidth is gradually decreasing during the last one/two years. While I can understand that people start to move on after a while, it still feels sad. I don't want to give up a community which already exists for 13 years.

So I ask you: If you are looking for a low-pressure community that offers 4 (sometimes 5) challenges throughout a month, come and check us out here. If you decide to stay (for a while), even better :)

:::

2. I am always looking for interesting TV series/movies and audiobooks. Everything but hardcore horror; and without animals getting tormented.

So, tell me about your favorite TV series, movies, and audiobooks. What did you enjoy most during the last months/year?

Some notes at the beginning:
Tons of pictures!
All pictures are minimalized - to see all the details and the original size, please click.
Autographs are faked and created by using my photo program.
All pictures (except the actors) are AI-created by myself with the help of my photo program.

( Let the fun begin )

In your own space, share a favorite memory about fandom: the first time you got into fandom, the last time a fanwork touched your heart, wild times with fellow fans (whether online or off-line), a lovely comment you’ve received or have left for someone.

Another easy challenge. Or maybe not, because there are so many memories I don't want to miss. But because here it is asked for a favorite one, I will go with Ring Con, because this is the first one that came into my mind.

Ring Con is a german convention that, in the beginning, was based on the Lord of The Ring fandom. I guess I mentioned before already that I usually am a more introverted, shy person, and visiting an event like that was new and exciting for me. But to my own surprise, it never felt like being at the wrong place.

Meeting people I had met online before and watching some actors of my beloved movie on stage was sooo great. Fun fact: for some of the actors (like Sarah McLeod or Craig Parker), this con was a new experience, too, but they all were so lovely and interesting. The most well-known actor at this con was Brad Dourif, and we all hadn't even seen him on-screen back then, because Two Towers was not even out. But it was so exciting to stand vis-a-vis him during the autograph session.

Over the following years, I visited the con every time, and I got to meet more popular actors like Billy Boyd (what a nice guy), John Rys Davis (when he starts talking, there is no end ... laughs ... he's driven the poor stuff crazy during the autograph session because he wanted to chat with every fan), David Wenham, Miranda Otto, Andy Serkis and lots more. The highlight for me was meeting Sean Astin. Only for him, I stepped over my lines and went to a photo session - no, I won't show the photo because I am looking like a dork, but I love it and even more the memory of this particular moment.

Later, Ring Con started to change, other fandoms found their way to the con, when the interest in Lord of the Rings began to fade away step by step; finally, it got renamed into Magic Con. And I started to lose interest.

Until in 2019, the Lucifer cast (Tom Ellis, Rachel Harris, Kevin Alejandro, D.B. Woodside, and Lesley-Ann Brandt) was announced. I knew I had to go and see them. And even if it was not the same anymore, most old friends had long stopped visiting the con, but nevertheless, it was a great convention I did enjoy so much.