A Post of Love for LolaWaldorf – My FAVORITE FanVidder EVER #florence+themachine #sherlock #glee #borgias #supernatural

I’m a fangirl. Anyone who has known me long must know this fact about me. I love my favorite media quite violently. As it turns out, I’m also a fangirl of fellow fangirls. LolaWaldorf makes my all-time favorite fanvideos because:

a) They are never common.

b) They are always intelligent and are saying something much bigger than just the surface.

c) They are surprising, beautifully edited, and always, always, always hers. You can detect a Lola vid just by her vidding style alone.

d) They take me out of the words in my head and just fill me with feeling. I can’t even really talk about the vids. They just stand entirely on their own.

My top five favorite vids of hers.

1) Glee: Kurt – My love’s too big for you my love.

2) This multifandom piece of brilliance that makes me just flail. Incorporating pieces of other fanvids made to the same song, it’s Florence as the fangirl/boy being devastated by media.

3) Borgias: I walked because you walked

4) Supernatural: Vesuvius – My ALL-TIME favorite video. No one but Lola would’ve made something this brilliant.

5) Sherlock: Rococo – They seem wild but they are so deep.

 

Fanwork Friday: The Starring Role #dero #awz

Another fantastic fanvid about Deniz and Roman from Alles was zählt (All That Matters). This one is a Roman character study from the early days of their relationship. I hated Deniz during this time period, but Roman wasn’t an easy person to deal with either. He wasn’t a delicate flower. Anyway, yeah, this was lovely to see.

*

Oh, Roman,  you were such a brat and such a darling. I loved you.

Training Season can be purchased at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, ARe, and Smashwords. And also on iBooks.
Unquestionably talented figure skater Matty Marcus is willing to sacrifice everything for his Olympic dream, but his lack of discipline cost him the gold once before. Now the pressure’s on. He needs a coach who can keep him in line, but top coaches don’t come cheap, and Matty can’t afford to stay in the game no matter how badly he wants to win.
When a lucrative house-sitting gig brings him to rural Montana, Matty does his best to maintain his training regimen. Local residents turn out to be surprisingly tolerant of his flamboyant style, especially handsome young rancher Rob Lovely, who proves to be much more than a cowboy stereotype. Just as Matty requires a firm hand to perform his best on the ice, Rob shows him how strong he can be when he relinquishes control in the bedroom. With new-found self-assurance, he drives himself harder to go straight to the top.
But competition has a timetable, and to achieve his Olympic dream, Matty will have to join his new coach in New York City, leaving Rob behind. Now he must face the ultimate test. Has he truly learned how to win—on and off the ice—during his training season?

Fanwork Friday: Back to the Beginning – Deniz & Roman, Alles was zählt #awz #fandom #video

Wow. Why do the Germans make me cry with their gay soap couples? Okay, fine, why do all soaps make me cry about their gay couples, regardless of nationality? Oh, Roman. My heart.

This is such a good, good, good, good video.

Training Season can be purchased at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, ARe, and Smashwords. And also on iBooks.
Unquestionably talented figure skater Matty Marcus is willing to sacrifice everything for his Olympic dream, but his lack of discipline cost him the gold once before. Now the pressure’s on. He needs a coach who can keep him in line, but top coaches don’t come cheap, and Matty can’t afford to stay in the game no matter how badly he wants to win.
When a lucrative house-sitting gig brings him to rural Montana, Matty does his best to maintain his training regimen. Local residents turn out to be surprisingly tolerant of his flamboyant style, especially handsome young rancher Rob Lovely, who proves to be much more than a cowboy stereotype. Just as Matty requires a firm hand to perform his best on the ice, Rob shows him how strong he can be when he relinquishes control in the bedroom. With new-found self-assurance, he drives himself harder to go straight to the top.
But competition has a timetable, and to achieve his Olympic dream, Matty will have to join his new coach in New York City, leaving Rob behind. Now he must face the ultimate test. Has he truly learned how to win—on and off the ice—during his training season?

Fanwork Friday: We Didn’t Start the Fire: Fifty Years of Fandom #fandom #fanvid

Password: fandom! (<–with the exclamation point)

You know, the immensity of this one is pretty huge. There’s a lot of emotion for any fan in watching these images flash by. When one of “your” fandoms comes up, the swell of joy is so sweet, and then the wonder of seeing the little glimpses of how passionate fans are–like the Avatar: The Last Airbender movie protests. Oh, fandom, I love you!

I strongly recommend this vid for a shot of feels in the morning. Also, check out the vidders’ comments HERE.

Fanwork Friday: My Life Would Suck Without You #dero #awz

I was looking up some YouTube fanvids for Roman Wild from the German Soap, Alles was zählt and found this amazing ‘shipper vid for Roman and his main love interest, Deniz. I admit that the color fades at the end were a bit much, but it doesn’t negate the otherwise awesome presentation of the truly fucked up, hot, and tender love between Deniz and Roman. Jeez, I’d forgotten how hot their kisses were. American soaps? Take note. This is how hot man-on-man kisses should be, not that dreary, cardboard you give us!

Also, the perv in me would like to point out the perfect placement of the shower scene to the line “you’ve got a piece of me”. Nicely done, vidder. Nicely done.

One used to be able to view all of Deniz and Roman’s story translated by some wonderful fan volunteers. I’m not sure that’s still available. If a fan knows and reads this post, feel free to enlighten me and others as to where that can be found! 🙂

FWIW, their romance ends tragically, but it’s a German soap, so what were you expecting? Hell, it is a soap, so what were you expecting? 😉 Let’s not talk about trains, okay? I’m still not over it.

Fanworks Friday: Pandora’s Aquarium #elementary #toriamos

An elementary fanvid set to Tori Amos’ Pandora’s Aquarium. I would embed the video but it’s not set up in a way to do that, alas, so you’ll have to go to the fanvidder’s blog to watch. If you like the song or the show or both, I recommend it!

Any Other World: Training Season #johnnyweir #mm #romance

My upcoming novel, Training Season, is a romance featuring a male figure skater and a rancher. The story has existed in various stages and forms for a few years now, but it has only come into its own in my latest sweep of edits and additions. It is turning into something that I feel rather pleased with, if I do say so myself, and I look forward to sharing more information on it soon, including a lovely cover designed by the always wonderful Dar Albert. Expect that cover reveal soon.

In the meantime, I wanted to talk a bit about the initial moment of inspiration for this novel. The spark originated from watching the following video. It is a fanvideo, a montage of Johnny Weir’s performances over some of his earlier years, set to the absolute perfect song. It was the combination, and the impeccable editing, that really engaged my mind and made me start to ask some really important questions. Such as, what does it look like when you work hard at something with no guarantee that the outcome of years and years of work will pay off? (Hello, I am a writer, I think I understand this quite well, actually.) Or what does it look like when someone keeps screwing themselves over because they just don’t believe, deep down, that they deserve it? What happens when they meet someone from outside of their world who gets them, sees them, and loves them anyway?

Other questions came up, too, but those were the very first ones, and they were all due to this little fanvid right here. Oh, Johnny Weir, you are a divine mess at times, aren’t you? And, yes, he is, in part, along with some other skaters and some people I know in my day-to-day life, the inspiration for the character of Matty Marcus–God’s gift to figure skating, and victim of his own worst impulses.

Enjoy the video. The way it makes you feel is pretty much what this book is about. The emotional base of it stemmed from this video.

Fanworks Friday: Embers #hungergames #katniss

A fantastic Hunger Games fanvid by gigglemonster.

PASSWORD: katniss

music: maggie rogers
fandom: the hunger games, katniss character study [contains spoilers for the first movie]
notes: 58mb avi, 3:28

All Missing Mama #peterpan #metric #fanvid

 

“You know that place between sleep and awake, the place where you can still remember dreaming? That’s where I’ll always love you, Peter Pan. That’s where I’ll be waiting.” – J.M. Barrie. Visual Source: Peter Pan (1924) Vividcon 2013 Premiere. Music by Metric.

Fanvid by the always awesome lolawaldorf.

 

Fanworks Friday: I’m Not A Hero by Gabi #teenwolf #stiles #allison

I am not certain because Tumblr is sometimes confusing with attributions, but I think this art is by drragons.

Allison has really become one of my favorites and a truly kick-ass heroine in so many ways. Any flaws she has I attribute to Jeff Davis and his lack of skills in storytelling, not to the character herself. I don’t usually do that, but when it comes to Jeff Davis, I do. The guy can’t write his way out of a paperbag…that he wrote himself into. But I still love the show. Though Jeff thinks emotional continuity (or continuity of any kind) is for losers, apparently. Whatever, whatever, watch this gorgeous vid below by Gabbi. If Allison isn’t enough of a draw for you, it’s also got Stiles. And who doesn’t love Stiles? The end.

I’m Not a Hero by Gabi
(Stiles + Allison, but not Stiles/Allison)

Don’t forget! Today is the last day to comment to win for a free copy of Love’s Nest!