venus in the night

snowflake_challenge, Day 1: Introduce yourself

I don't post a lot on here these days. Most fannish things are unlocked, though.

Snowflake Challenge is something I still look forward to.

On with the intro.

I've participated in fandoms to varying degrees since 1999. I've run fansites (both connected to Road to Avonlea; neither are online anymore), written fanfic (venusinthenight; my transformative works statement is on my profile there and re-iterated here), modded fannish communities (I was a topgearslash + discuss_tgs mod for a few years, and still have the inactive top_gear_usa), made LJ/DW icons (venusresources), read and commented on fannish stuff. At this point I'm generally more content as a reader/consumer of fannish content than as a creator.

Currently enjoying (UPDATED JAN. 1, 2025): Mostly music! In spring 2020, I really got into Underworld. I blame National Theatre for streaming their 2011 production of Frankenstein on their Youtube channel, which featured an original score by Underworld, for this. ;) Other acts I've gotten into more recently include boygenius (and, from there, Julien Baker's and Lucy Dacus' solo efforts), Caroline Polachek, TORRES (who's releasing a collab album with JB in 2025), Bartees Strange, Touché Amoré, Arlo Parks, Maggie Rogers, Clairo, and I'd love to dig more into Ethel Cain's music but cannot bring myself to listen to Preacher's Daughter on its own without experiencing it through an album reaction video (I am looking forward to her upcoming album, though). Some long-time faves include The Weather Station, Metric, Broken Social Scene, Stars, Feist, Sarah Harmer, Bruce Cockburn, Neutral Milk Hotel, Creeping Myrtle, Sufjan Stevens.

Some other things: The Blue Castle, Emma (canon + 2009 BBC miniseries); Pride and Prejudice (canon + 1995 BBC miniseries); The Janet Watson Chronicles, though I've read only A Study in Honor so far. (JWC are set in a near future where the US is in a second Civil War. Both Holmes and Watson are queer/lesbian Black women -- Holmes is a government agent; Watson worked as a medic during the war and became disabled on the front.)

In the past I've been into: Orphan Black, various branches of Sherlock Holmes fandom (mainly Elementary, the comic Watson and Holmes, and the Russian film My Dearly Beloved Detective), Ashes to Ashes, Road to Avonlea, Anne of Green Gables (books + 1985 and 1987 miniseries), Top Gear (2002), Top Gear USA, Blackadder, The Borgias (2011), Murdoch Mysteries, and Frankie Drake Mysteries.

My pronouns are she/her.

Fannish posts on here are public. I don't post a ton of personal stuff on here; if I do, it's generally private. I do have a handful of much older friends-only posts, however.

New friends are more than welcome, though. Following back will be at my own discretion.

If you have recently friended me, I have a more in-depth, friends-/access list-only (because it has some stuff in there that I don't want out there in the open at this time) post here.

(January to March, in case you missed it.)

Quarter total: 14 albums, only one of which was a relisten! A few of these were new releases from favourite bands, a couple of these were albums in someone's discography that I hadn't listened to yet.

(★ indicates a favourite)

• ★ Arlo Parks - Ambiguous Desire (released April 3; listened to same day)


• ★ Ethel Cain - Preacher's Daughter (released May 11, 2022; listened to April 14


• Clairo - Sling (released July 15, 2021; listened to April 15)


• Clairo - Immunity (released August 1, 2019; listened to April 15)


• Puma Blue - Croak Dream (released February 6, 2026; listened to April 16)


• Metric - Romanticize the Dive (released April 24; listened to same day)


• Jazzi Bobbi - Crush (released August 7, 2024; listened to May 3)


• President - King of Terrors (released September 25, 2025; listened to May 5


• ★ Broken Social Scene - Remember the Humans (released May 8; listened to same day)


• Hannah Georgas - The Beat Stuff (released January 9, 2009; listened to May 13)


• Hannah Georgas - This Is Good (released April 27, 2010; listened to May 15)


• ★ Broken Social Scene - Feel Good Lost (released March 6, 2001; listened to June 8. The only relisten for the quarter.)


• Eloise - My Man & Me (released June 18; listened to same day)


• ★ PJ Harvey - Rid of Me (released April 26, 1993; listened to June 24)

Saw Kim Gordon's latest album, PLAY ME, on my Qobuz front page and decided to check it out... and it's so good.

Like, I've never listened to Sonic Youth or any of her previous solo albums, but daaaaammmnnn.

snowflake_challenge Day 9 prompt: Talk about your favorite tropes in media or transformative works. (Feel free to substitute in theme/motif/cliche if "trope" doesn't resonate with you.)

Like a number of others who've already participated and shared their entries, I'm a sucker for Found/Chosen Family, which I talked about in 2016, 2020, and gave additional examples of in 2025.

Another one I love but didn't talk about last year is Femdom. Here's what I wrote back in 2016:

OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG! This is a thing I'm so here for but I don't really see all that much.

According to the TV Tropes page for All Women Are Doms, All Men Are Subs, this is slightly more common in F/M than I've seen.

I've yet to encounter this in canonical F/F. :(

I've also noted in the past that it goes with my love of seeing strong (yet also vulnerable) women characters who don't tolerate other peoples' bullshit.

(Side note: if you've encountered some examples of femdom in a canonical F/F relationship, I would love to know about it!)

Other tropes and motifs I've liked over the years in fics I've read...
* Hurt/Comfort, but I prefer emphasis on the comfort part of it versus the hurt
* Missing Scenes
* AUs that put characters in a different time period from their canonical one
* Canon Divergence
* Fix-It
* Five (fill in the blank)...; +1 optional
* Crack fic. Some fandoms tend to lend themselves better to this than others, I think, but yeah.
* The occasional Dark Fic.

snowflake_challenge Day 3 prompt: Write a love letter to fandom. It might be to fandom in general, to a particular fandom, favourite character, anything at all.

To those of you, like me, who have made fannish content in the past but don't as much -- or at all -- now, a little reminder just in case you (or I) need one:

There is nothing wrong with us.

There is nothing wrong with cheering on those who are still writing the fics, creating the art, putting together fanmixes or fanvids for whatever thing you're into.

There is nothing wrong with consuming the thing you enjoy and holding it close to the chest and not wanting to make anything based on it.

You're still a fan. I'm still a fan.

Can it feel weird not being a voraciously active fan at times? Sure. Does it make your fannishness less valid? Absolutely not.

Also: even if you feel compelled to make a thing and do so, and no one responds to it, it's okay. You still made the thing!

♥ ♥ ♥

(2025 listening tag gives you the other three posts!)

I had to push during December to reach my 50 albums goal but I did it! I haven't worked out what my 2026 music listening goal will be just yet, but I imagine it'll be similar.

Album count for this quarter: 13 (five were relistens)

(★ indicates a favourite)

* ★ English Teacher - This Could be Texas (originally released April 12, 2024; listened to October 4. A relisten.)

* English Teacher - This Could be a Remix Album (originally released October 10, 2025; listened to same day)

* Jay Som - Belong (originally released October 10, 2025; listened to October 16)

* Underworld - Strawberry Hotel (originally released November 15, 2024; listened to November 24. A relisten.)

* ★ Stars - Set Yourself on Fire (20th anniversary edition) (originally released September 30, 2024; listened to December 7)

* ★ Stars - Set Yourself on Fire (Live) (originally released December 4, 2025; listened to December 8)

* ★ Loreena McKennitt - To Drive the Cold Winter Away (originally released January 11, 1987; listened to December 12. A seasonal relisten.)

* Bartees Strange - Shy Bairns Get Nowt (originally released October 24, 2025; listened to December 24)

* Bartees Strange - Farm to Table (originally released June 16, 2022; listened to December 24)

* Turnstile - NEVER ENOUGH (originally released June 6, 2025; listened to December 29)

* ★ Caroline Polachek - Desire, I Want To Turn into You: Everasking Edition (originally released February 13, 2024; listened to December 29. A relisten.)

* ★ Alabama Shakes - Sound & Color (Deluxe Edition) (originally released October 29, 2021; listened to December 31. I think I listened to the original 2016 release of the album previously, but not the deluxe version.)

* ★ La Force - XO SKELETON (originally released September 28, 2023; listened to December 31. A relisten.)

Catch up with why I'm doing this, plus my listens for the first quarter of the year, here.

I hit the halfway point of my new goal of fifty albums today, but to end the first half of the year, I listened to a total of 24 albums.

three more months, eleven more albums

(★ indicates a favourite)

* ★ The Ophelias - Spring Grove (released April 4, 2025; listened to same day)
* ★ The Star Killers (later known as Forrister) - American Blues (released March 30, 2013; listened to April 7. A relisten from late 2024.)
* TORRES - What an enormous room (released January 26, 2024; listened to April 17)
* Julien Baker and TORRES - Send a Prayer My Way (released April 18, 2025; listened to same day. My first listen of this was during an online listening party on Bandcamp, which was a very cool experience!)
* Tracy Bonham - Jumping Bean EP (released April 25, 2025; listened to April 28)
* Touché Amoré - Is Survived By (released September 24, 2013; listened to May 6)
* Touché Amoré - Lament (released October 9, 2020; listened to May 16)
* ★ Amy Millan - I Went To Find You (released May 30, 2025; listened to same day)
* Little Moses - self-titled demo EP (released December 30, 2012; listened to May 31)
* Medium Build - Falling Apart (released November 24, 2016; listened to June 2)
* Various Artists - Anthems: A Celebration of Broken Social Scene's You Forgot It in People (released June 6, 2025; listened to June 18)

I mean...damn. Way to press my buttons, Lucy Dacus. A bunch of stunning butches and mascs in one video being stunning and joyful? Cara Delevigne in on the action? Sweet cheeses.

snowflake_challenge, Day 11: In your own space, share your love for a trope, cliché, kink, motif, or theme.

I still love me some Found/Chosen Family, still think it's a powerful thing to determine who Your People are (see my 2020 response to the same prompt, which also references my 2016 challenge response). A few more examples of it, mainly from books this time...

- Jess + the various people she welcomes into her life in Leslie Feinberg's novel Stone Butch Blues (broad warning if you choose to read the book)

- Mr. (George) Knightley + Emma Woodhouse and her father in Emma, both the Jane Austen novel and the 2009 BBC miniseries.

- Valancy Stirling + Cissy Gay, and later Valancy + Barney Snaith in The Blue Castle by Lucy Maud Montgomery. Even though she has genetic family still alive, she eschews them -- first to care for Cissy, and then to be with Barney.