enchantedsleeper

It seems like I tend to get my act together enough to make a post around the end of every month xD I've got some post ideas that you'll hopefully see in July, but before that, here's a few things I've been up to...

At the end of May I wrote a Starship Iris fanfic for the Small Fandoms Surprise Scramble, the old stars are of no importance, which is on Dreamwidth at that link there or on AO3 (or even Tumblr if you're so inclined xD). This was the first non-drabble fic that I'd written for Starship Iris this year (and since 2022), so it was really nice to write and post, not least because it centres on one of my favourite characters from the podcast, RJ McCabe.

The Small Fandoms Surprise Scramble gave me a great incentive to think up and work on this little idea, with a deadline to make sure I got my finger out to finish it. I was originally going to write some drabble ideas I didn't get around to during the Small Fandoms Drabblethon (same comm, different event!), and technically I still could, because kalloway has mentioned that the Scramble is still quietly open for new works between now and the next event in August. So, if anyone sees this and thinks they'd like to make something, you're in time! Here's a link to the event details.

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I'm a little behind on my 3W4D posting - I had planned to have a proper post up today, but it's the last day of April and thus the last day for pimping my small fandom over at smallfandomfest, where I had signed up to write about my favourite podcast, The Strange Case of Starship Iris. I was determined to make the deadline, and so my blogging energy tonight went towards writing my pimp post!

So, I'm including part of that below, with a link where you can read the full thing if you're interested. Pimping my fandom-pimping ;D

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My favourite way to sum up TSCOSI in a nutshell is to say that it's "be gay, do crime in space". Like many excellent podcasts, it's very queer, and has a diverse cast of characters (and voice actors, as the creator made a point of casting VAs who match the race and gender of their characters as closely as possible) with a heavy dose of found family. It's also very funny: the writer and creator, Jessica Best, has a real flair for humour, but the emotional beats also really hit home. There's a reason that Starship Iris has won an Audioverse Award three times (in 2017, 2019 and 2021) for its writing - as well as a number of other awards for production, vocal direction, original compositions and voice actor performances.

But enough accolades - what is the podcast about?

The show page for The Strange Case of Starship Iris at Procyon Podcast Network (a production group that produces TSCOSI along with several other podcasts) summarises the premise as follows:

"In 2189, Earth narrowly won a war against extraterrestrials, but at a tremendous price. Two years later, in a distant patch of space, a mysterious explosion kills nearly the entire crew of the science vessel Starship Iris. The only survivor is Violet Liu, an intrepid, sarcastic, terrified biologist. But as Violet struggles to readjust to life after the Iris, questions abound. Was that explosion really an accident? If not, just what is going on? And why does every answer seem to get more bizarre and more dangerous? If Violet and her newfound allies want to untangle the truth, they'll need courage, brilliance, and luck - and honestly, a couple of drinks."

As the name implies, there's a healthy mystery element to the podcast, which is what first got me interested - I had vowed to start Listening to Podcasts and was working my way through some recs in a group chat, the first of which was Arden, a satirical take on true crime podcasts. After that, I had the urge to listen to another mystery podcast, and TSCOSI was my next pick. Season one has a really clever premise where the episodes are framed as "reports" read by a mysterious government operative, and what starts out as a simple framing device evolves into a central element of the mystery. Little clues to what's going on are scattered throughout the report narration, and we follow the core cast's attempt to unravel the mystery with juuust a little bit more information than they have.

Read on at smallfandomfest...

What small fandom would you get more people into if you could? Small fandom promoing has been a bit of a theme lately, as over on Pillowfort, monsterhugger created a rallying point for small fandoms where people could post about the smaller fandoms they'd like to see content of on PF - or anywhere. After enjoying the Small Fandoms Drabblethon so much in February, I'm really getting into small fandom initiatives...