Welcome!

It took me a while, but I managed to finish my Marvel Trumps Hate offering (auction 1051) from last year this September. K. LeCrone won my fanbinding auction and asked me to bind what is to become the 7th volume of her epic MCU fic “Winter of the White Wolf”.

I had basically free reign on the design and since this particular part of the story focusses on Bucky’s fracturing mind, I decided to run with a darker Winter Soldier theme.

  

The colours were a no-brainer - grey, black, blue, and red as an accent colour seemed like the way to go. I decided early on that I wanted the red star on the cover, and I really liked the idea of having the paper be somewhat transparent, with a picture of the Winter Soldier underneath.
It’s easier to see in real life - I struggled with the transparent paper, and of course the glue made it a bit wavy, but overall I think the effect worked well enough.

( Click for more pics etc. )

This year's FTH event was insanely successful! The mods put up their round up post with the donation totals (in sum and split among the different organisations). All in all, we brought in


I was floored by this! Last year we had over 66k, which was already hugely successful, but we almost doubled it this year! It was really heartening to see how fandom came together to really take a stand against all the shit that's going on in the world and turned it into something positive. We had more sign-ups this year than ever, and obviously a huge jump in donations.

The post I linked goes into details which organisations got how much. There were three organisations that got over $10k each: Middle East Children's Alliance, Hope for Ukraine, Young Center for Immigrant Children's Rights, which shows clearly the issues that are currently foremost on people's minds. Also, the umbrella LGTBQ+ orgs got over 10k, which is amazing! It means that a lot of auction winners decided to support their local organisations. (I did this too - I split my donation among 5 orgs, two of which are German LTBQ+ orgs.)

I think we can be very proud of us! Everyone who offered something, everyone who bid on something, everyone who did both of these things even - we achieved something great. Even if an auction "only" brought in the minimum bid of $5 - it was still a contribution to this incredible total! Fandom is amazing and it shows that as a group we can achieve fantastic things!


For me personally, this year went super well and I'm very pleased!

Both my offerings got bids - small ones, but they found takers and that's what's most important. After all, I'm not a popular fic writer with a big following where excited readers outbid each other again and again. XD
My fan labour auction went for the minimum bid and I'm waiting to hear back from the winner about what I can help them with.
My fic auction was won with $12 and I've already been in contact with the winner. They want a Sunshot AU where Wei Wuxian gets assassinated which then leads to Yunmeng siblings feels, golden core reveal, and Wangxian confession. I've started writing and think I've got a good direction worked out.

I also won the fanfic auction I'd set my eyes on so yay for that! My limit got bid like three days or so before auction end and I was a bit bummed out. But I kept an eye on it because bidding like $5 more wouldn't hurt me. And indeed, nothing happened on this auction anymore for the next days, so I set my alarm to 1.40am to actually see the end of an auction for once. XD I kept on refreshing to see if someone bid more but again, no-one did, and so I put in my bid a few seconds before auction end. I felt a bid bad because getting outbid this close to the end is always unfortunate, but it's the nature of this auction model and I really wanted this auction. So I won with a $105 bid this year. XD I had planned a higher limit for this year and I'm glad it worked out like this. I sent over several prompts and they chose the one that was the least detailed. XD Dammit I'm never getting these kinkmeme prompts done, do I? XD XD I'm looking forward to their take on my silly little prompt, because the ideas for how the first part goes already sound great! <3
I'd also kept a low-key eye on another fic auction, but I wasn't that serious about it. That one went a bit crazy in the last few minutes, as two bidders got into a bidding war and the auction ended at $275. O_O So yeah, no way I was winning that one. XD

Since I couldn't bid on a beta this year (the one I wanted didn't offer this year), I donated an additional $10 to ROFL.

Well, and my fanbinding offers went crazy well! I got 27 raffle entries, yay for that! And my auction book went for $700!!! Like, wow, that's incredible! The winner is the same as in my Marvel Trumps Hate auction and she got a bit panicky that someone might outbid her in the last few seconds so she outbid herself. XD Great for the donations, especially because her employer matches donations, so that was a great total to add to this year's donations!
The auction book will be the next volume in her series - for MTH, I'm doing volume 7 and so the FTH book will be volume 8. I'll have to wait a bit because not all chapters for that book are written yet, so this is set for the summer.
I'm waiting on the raffle winner to let me know what fic they want me to bind.

Dea had been bidding on my auction book as well, but got outbid early on. Because I really wanted to do another book for her (and because I wanted to do more CQL fic...) I offered to bind her a book anyway, if she donated the amount she'd bid. She happily agreed! A win-win for everyone: she gets a book, I can do a CQL fic, and more donations! XD I know what fic she wants me to do and I've started the typeset.

So yeah, a quite successful year for me and for FTH in general!

You can now place your bids in my fanbinding auction!

Please read this post carefully before entering!
Make sure that the fic you have in mind for this event fits the specifications stated in that post!


The book on offer:

• Minimum bid: $ 60,-
• Word count range: up to ~ 120k (~ 300 pages), willing to go up to ~ 130k for a CQL/MDZS fic.
• Title page in colour
• Additional coloured pages if applicable (for example: official art, fanart by artists who give blanket permission for non-commercial use or art made explicitly for the fic and the artist gives permission to include the art, or other kinds of illustrations)

Auction Rules:

• You must be at least 18 years old to participate!
• The auction will run until March 1st, 10.00 p.m. UTC. Any entries after this time stamp will not be considered.
• To enter the auction, please fill in this Google Form. You can see the current winning bid in this bidding spreadsheet.The email address you enter must be checked by you regularly, as it will be the primary way for me to contact you in case of winning.
• If the winner of the auction has entered the raffle as well, their name will be taken out of the running for the raffle.
• I will contact the winner through the email provided. Please give me 24 hrs to do so.
• Upon winning the auction, you pledge to donate the stated price for the fanbinding offer to any of Fandom Trumps Hate’s listed non-profits.
• You have until March 12th 2024 to send in your proof of donation to my email address (the one I will use to contact you about being one of the winners).
• After receiving your proof of donation, I will contact you about the fic you want to have bound. We can then hash out further details about the project.


Good luck! 🍀

🎇You can now enter your name for the fanbinding raffle!🎇

Please read this post carefully before entering!
Make sure that the fic you have in mind for this event fits the specifications stated in that post!


The book on offer:

• Donation amount: $ 50,-
• Word count range: ~ 45k – ~ 80k (~ 130 – 200 pages)
• Handbound; hardcover case
• title page in colour; might do additional colour accents


Raffle Rules:

• You must be at least 18 years old to participate!
• The raffle will run until March 1st, 10.00 p.m. UTC. This means it ends earlier than the regular FTH auctions! Any entries after this time stamp will not be considered.
• To enter the raffle, please fill out this Google form. You can see the entries in this spreadsheet. Names will be added to the list in the order of sign-up. The email address you enter must be checked by you regularly, as it will be the primary way for me to contact you in case of winning.
• The winner will be determined by a random number generator.
• I will contact the winner through the email provided. Please give me 24 hrs to do so.
• Upon winning the raffle, you pledge to donate the stated price for the fanbinding offer to any of Fandom Trumps Hate’s listed non-profits.
• You have until March 12th 2025 to send in your proof of donation to my email address (the one I will use to contact you about being one of the winners).
• After receiving your proof of donation, I will contact you about the fic you want to have bound. We can then hash out further details about the project.

Good luck! 🍀

I've signed up for this year's fandomtrumpshate again! Sign-ups are open until February 2nd - if you want to participate, you can do that here. They're already seeing an amazing number of sign-ups this year, which is not surprising with the political shitshow going on everywhere. But of course, there can always be more people to join! ;D

This year, I'll be offering:

• fanfiction for The Untamed/MDZS
• special expertise/culture picking for anything German and horses

It'll be the first time for me offering fanfiction and I'm really nervous but also excited to see how it goes!

Of course, I'll also be offering two fanbindings in the Crafts Bazaar!
Like last year, there'll be an auction and a raffle. I'm sure many other fanbinders will offer something, too - it's a great way to get a good amount of donations and it's such a nice craft to receive!

I'm considering doing a "special offer" for the auction book: Generally, the limitations are the same like last year, up to 120k wordcount, any fandom with two exceptions. But I've thought about adding the offer that I'll bind a longer work (wordcount to be determined, perhaps up to 150k) if it's a CQL/MDZS fic and - here's where it gets a bit iffy - one that I'm particularly interested in. Because there are pairings or themes/topics I'm not vibing with, and doing such a long fic on a special offer should be something I really enjoy working on.
I'm struggling with how to word it because I don't want it to come across as hating on fics that aren't my cup of tea - you know, a bidder asks if I'd consider binding their fic and I'm like, uhhh no. XD Hmpf. I could just list the pairings and favourite tropes, I guess, and anything that doesn't fit that would be excluded from the special offer. And the auction itself for the 120k book is open to any pairing so there's that option still. *ponders and rgumbles*


*

A friend will offer fanfiction, too. She'd originally not wanted to participate again this year, but she's so pissed about the orange cheeto and Muskrat that she signed up again. XD

She'll definitely be offering an auction for Stray Kids SKZ and thai drama Between Us, so if anyone of you is interested in that, perhaps check her auction out!

Reveals were yesterday and I got some lovely gifts!

shipperslist wrote me a wonderful fic about Lan Qiren warming up to Wei Wuxian! You can find it here! 💗

but_can_i_be_trusted, sarajayechan and spiralicious told me about their beautiful cats! You can read their stories under my tree!


I made several things: two fics and lots of icons! XD

For shipperslist, I wrote "Progress", a fic about Wei Wuxian dealing with chronic pain post-canon. It's 2.5k and mostly MDZS canon.

For stultiloquentia, I wrote "Hanguang-Jun's Mysterious Crush", a fic of 5.3k from Lan Jingyi's PoV in which the Juniors find an unsent letter of Wei Wuxian that shakes their worldvie. *g* It's CQL canon and basically a companion piece / alternate version of my fic "Secrets Kept".


The icons!

( Click for all the icons! )

Meme taken from kingstoken .

Your main fandom this year?
Still The Untamed/MDZS. I don't see this changing any time soon, to be honest. The fandom is slowing down and some of my favourite authors sadly have moved on, but there's still quite a good bit of activity and I#ve still got ideas for fics to write, so I guess I'm stuck here! XD

Your favourite movie watched this year?
If I go by my ratings, three movies got full stars from me this year: The Wild Robot, Wicked, and Challengers. Wicked might get half a point deducted for its weird lighting issues that made some scenes look quite bland, but eh. The other two might have their issues, too, but I don't care, I loved them both so much!  I also really loved The Fall Guy and Furiosa.

Your favourite book read this year?
A Taste of Gold and Iron by Alexandra Rowland. Which was one of the 2.5 books I read this year (all by Rowland). XD I hope to read more this year, perhaps try to take on the Book Bingo challenge, though IDK if I can actually fill all of them, timewise. But it's at least something I can use to motivate me and also to determine what kind of book to read. We'll see how it goes.

Your favourite TV show of the year?
I... didn't watch any TV shows. I think. (*/ω＼*) At least I don't remember anything. Uhh yeah, I want to change that this year, too, obviously. XD This is embarassing! If we're talking non-fiction, I really enjoyed this season of Let's Dance - the celebrity cast was good and they had one or two new pro dancers that were super likeable.

Your favourite video game of the year?
I don't play video games.

Your favourite song, album, or artist to listen to this year?
I really enjoyed "Taste" and "Espresso" by Sabrina Carpenter, really good poppy summer vibes. Same with "Pink Pony Club" by Chappell Roan, though I have to admit that many of her hit songs just don't do it for me, I'm sad to say. Really vibed with Yungblud's "I was made for loving you" cover and Tenacious D's "Baby One More Time" (mainly because I've been waiting for a version like this since Billy Boyd's gorgeous guitar cover that only exists in bad quality and is much too short). There also was "Sea of Embers" 烬海 from the 烈火浇愁 audio drama that I was super into (drums!).
I don't think I had a favourite album, though I did like several of Xiao Zhan's "WM" album.

( rest of the meme )

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas to everyone who celebrates! I’m not all that much in a Christmas-y mood, but I managed to decorate my front window a bit and also put up some lights in the living room. Exchanging presents with my parents later, though there are no surprises. XD

I watched several movies during the last month or so, so here goes:

( Moana 2 )



( Wicked )


( Emilia Perez )

Hopefully, I can keep up posting here a bit more now. It's slowing down overall and I don't feel so stressed anymore, so yay for that. Still a bit meh overall, but that is mostly the typical November blues - it's turned very cold and we even had a bit of snow this week. It's grey and wet and turning dark early so my motivation for almost anything (especially leaving the house...) is at an all-time low. Like every year. XD

Anyway!

• Sign-ups for fandomtrees are currently underway! My 🎄 is here. I'm looking forward to going through the wishes and seeing what I might be able to fulfill. Not sure about fic this year but I'm hoping that something might strike a chord and wake the muse.
• My second book for FTH has been finished. I've sent it off this week and hope that it'll arrive quickly. So both of my books are done and I'm pleased with how both of them turned out even though I had to make a few concessions along the way. (Yes I still need to post the first book here, I want to get it done this weekend!)
• Fanbinding-wise, I've still got one unfinished project lying around. The textblock is done but I put it aside to concentrate on the FTh books. Perhaps I'll start on the case next week if fancy strikes. I might also start typesetting one or two other books, as I'm low-key in the mood for tackling some of my favs.
• My fanfic progress: I've been posting my latest fic, "Best (Getting) Laid Plans" (the slutera!WWX fic), since Oct 31st. It was my pledge for the wwxfans  comm's pledge event and I'm very happy that i managed to finish the fic and also post the first chapter punctually. XD The beta I won in the FTH auction is also a huge help and has given me lots of useful feedback. They're still going through the fic and are on ch 4 now (of 6) - unfortunately, I've chosen the most horrible time for needing the beta service because they're completely swamped with RL stuff. XD Well, it's not like I'm in a hurry to post this and we've tried to get one chapter/week out. I'll post the fic in full here when it's done - I tried posting the first chapter and adding to the post but DW keeps fucking up the formatting in a really bad way and so it'll have to wait whenever I try to edit. :/
• I've booked tickets for the tour of the Elisabeth musical next year. A friend asked me if I was interested and since I really like the music I figured this is a good opportunity. It's a semi-staged production with the orchestra prominently featured on the stage. No idea on who will be the cast as it seems they'll exchange it depending on where they're playing? I'm hoping for a reprise of at least some of the cast from last year's Schönbrunn show because that would be really great.