emmagrant01 | Happy Birthday, Viki! (Plus thoughts on exchanges...)

Today is

geoviki's birthday, and I hope she has a great one! I was honored to meet Viki at The Witching Hour years ago, and it was so great to get a chance to sit across from her and talk. There's nothing quite like meeting a favorite author in person, you know? It's like, wow, all of those fics I loved came from the brain of this actual person sitting in front of me! She's funny and smart, and an all-around lovely person -- one we're incredibly lucky to have in fandom. Happy Birthday, darling!

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On a completely unrelated note, I've really been enjoying reading holiday exchange fics. I've carved out time for it this year, and though I have no hope of reading everything, I tend to look for intriguing pairings and summaries and just click and see how it goes. I used to pick fics to read by comment counts, but I don't any more. They can be pretty misleading, honestly. There are some real gems this year with comment counts only in the teens, and after reading them I wonder why there are so few comments. In many cases, I think it's the pairing that might be turning people off. People have their faves, and there's nothing wrong with that. I've always found holiday exchanges to be a great opportunity to read outside of your comfort zone, though.

Another thing I love about fic exchanges is the spirit in which (most) people participate in them. Most of these fics were written by people who worked really hard to create a fic tailored to their recipient's request -- not an easy thing to do for someone you don't know well, or when the request is off the beaten path of what you usually write. But the whole point of exchanges is to create GIFTS for others, and I love that aspect of it. I'm sure some people approach writing for exchanges in a very selfish way, thinking it's going to be their "big break" and being disappointed when their fic doesn't get the attention they think it deserves, but whatever. Bah, humbug on them. ;-)

So part of the fun of reading these fics is to read the comment left by the recipient, to see how they reacted. Very often their reaction helps me appreciate aspects of the fic that may not have worked so perfectly for me, and I appreciate getting that perspective. After all, it doesn't matter what *I* think of the gift. That fic wasn't written to please me, or you, or anyone else but the recipient. And there's something really cool about seeing that unfold. :-)