Evai is one of our newer members, but she’s tearing up the forums and is an avid reader, writer, and commenter. Time to face the 5 Q’s!

What character in your favorite fandom do you most identify with?

Ah, ye gods this is a tough one. I’d have to say Rangiku Masumoto from Bleach. She typically seems like a happy, mildly hyper, friendly person but knows when it’s time to get the job done. She seems to be very serious in her loyalties, and that’s something that is really important to me. I stick by my family and friends. I am extremely protective over the people I love. Masumoto is also very deep in her own right. She’s hurt badly when Ichimaru betrays her, but she’s strong and gets through it. I prefer to keep going no matter how bad it gets and stay strong.

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Greetings, all! I hope the FanLib moms all had a lovely weekend and got in some writing and/or reading time. I did a little of both, so I’m good. I also dedicated this week’s carousel to the joys of motherhood — from naming the baby to watching them grow.

On the contest front, Speed Racer’s first round comes to a halt tomorrow at 3 pm, so put the pedal to the metal and finish that submission in time! Finalists will be announced on Friday, and then we need you to help us choose the winner.

For those of you (like me) not gifted in the area of drawing, check out DGTrekker’s Drawing Classes on the FanLib Forum. The step-by-step instructions will have you dashing to the art store for new pencils before long (or at least a new eraser!).

If you’re looking to sharpen your writing skills instead of your pencil, stop by our Critique Group for an in-depth look at what makes your stories tick. To have your story critiqued by the group, simply join in and leave your thoughts on the current story. It’s a hands-on process, so you only get as good as you give.

Now all we need is a tutorial on making fannish videos. Any takers? Get it going, and we’ll be there!

Sunday is Mother’s Day, so SciFi Saturday is all for the gals.

TV

Ladies, did you know that BSG could save your marriage? I didn’t either. According to the folks at MSN Entertainment News, the dual personality of the show can save us some of those “snuggle-less” nights in front of a separate TV in a separate room. We get a sexy thriller, and our fellas can enjoy an explosive space opera. So this week, give him what he really wants - a night on the couch with Battlestar and you.

Movies

Her mother would be proud. Georgie Henley is back to play Lucy in Narnia’s Prince Caspian, and she’s bringing a new level of maturity with her. The thirteen-year-old told SciFi Wire that she found it slightly easier to play the youngest Pevensie this time around. “I felt, because I’ve grown, Lucy has grown…” Looking forward to seeing the older you (and Lucy) in action, Georgie!

Random Fandom News

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Summer is almost here, and that means planning to spend at least one Saturday every weekend in a nice air-conditioned movie theater from now until September.

This weekend, it’s Speed Racer. This live-action take on the classic cartoon will have you saying, wow! All done with digital backgrounds and green screen work, there’s nothing Speed and his pals can’t do. Colorful, action packed and loads of fun — it’s the definitive “popcorn” flick.

Come May 16, it’s The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. The Prince (Ben Barnes) sets out on a quest to defeat the king and claim his rightful place on the throne, but you can bet it won’t be an easy task. Great storytelling, a strong fantasy tie-in, and gorgeous visuals will makes this one worth seeing (and ficcing about afterward!)

The last week of May goes to that adventurer for all-time, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Okay, so it’s been awhile since Indy donned his hat and went off in search of. . . but he hasn’t lost any of his charm. I predict a flurry of fics exploring the relationship between Indy and Mutt (Shia La Beouf), and then there’s the charming but deadly Agent Irina Spalko (Cate Blanchett). I can see the romantic entanglements now. Indy, my boy, we’ve missed you.

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Howdy y’all! It’s Thursday, and my computer’s still working (thanks great thunderin’ tarnation), so let’s palaver about member contests. These here fellas are open for submission until next week:

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I got up early Sunday morning and went to a meditation class. Before I left the house I checked my emails, had a little tea, etc., and I put the computer to sleep. When I returned, it would not wake up. I wrapped it warmly in swaddling clothes and rushed it to the emergency room — The Apple Store. I love Apple; I’m two weeks out of service plan, and they gave me a new motherboard free. But for two and a half days I was without computer, jonesing like a junkie, and my poor little computer was so ill and distressed. You might say there was major Schinders Whumping going on, as our Glossary defines the term: to put your characters through literary torture. I feel my torture was literary, because it precluded my writing. No fear, my computer and I are all better; otherwise I wouldn’t be writing this.

Are there characters you love to Whump? That you feel deserve Whumping? Do you feel like you’ve been Whumped?

Allura99 takes on the soul-searching FanLib 5 Q’s!

What character in your favorite fandom do you most identify with?

I would have to say Simon Tam from Firefly. Like him, I’m a young doctor. Also social situations can confound me. But thankfully, I’m not on the run from the government. No comment on the crazy sister thing, though.

Who is your favorite creator?

Joss Whedon, hands down. Everything he has done has just blown me away. I can’t wait to see Dollhouse.

What was YOUR first fannish creation?

I didn’t discover fanfiction until I was in high school. After months of reading it, I decided to try my hand at writing. A Voltron fanfic called “The Heart of a Lion” was the very first fanfic I wrote. But my Sailor Moon story “Jupiter’s Gone” was the first I shared with the rest of the world. And the rest, as they say, is history.

What talent would you like to have that you don’t have?

I would love to be able to draw. But anything beyond stick figures is just horrible.

What’s something people would never guess about you?

I’m usually reserved and quiet. However, when it’s time for karaoke, I’m a diva. It’s just so much fun.

Happy Cinco de Mayo! Not a holiday I ever celebrated back in New Jersey, but here in California it’s a real party day! It’s all about freedom and cultural recognition; just like everyone is Irish on St. Patrick’s Day, in Southern California, everyone is Mexican on Cinco de Mayo! So have some Mexican food for dinner and break a pinata if you get the can.

We’re also celebrating the start of the summer movie season. Our carousel is themed with fics from some of the blockbusters that will be gracing the big screen in the next few months. And keep watching No Hiatus for our look at the summer movies.

Have a little spare time? There’s still one more week left to enter our Speed Racer contest. Grand Prize is a trip for two to LA! We’d also like to know what you think of the excerpt from the LJ Smith Night World book, Secret Vampire.

And if that’s not enough to keep you busy, we’re still looking for writers to take on our Fandom 411s. Leave your interests in the comments below, and if we haven’t covered it already, we’ll look you up.

This week we’re going across the pond and down under for SciFi Saturday.

TV

British actress Sophia Myles said recently in an interview with the folks at SCIFI Wire that a second season of the CBS hit Moonlight is “all but confirmed.” (Moonlight fans say “Yay!”) Myles plays the troubled love interest, Beth Turner, to Alex O’Loughlin’s troubled vampire, Mick St. John. Myles went on to say that the mostly female fan base could draw in more men by sharing in the sexy nature of the show. “So, guys, tune in, because you’re going to get lucky.” Whatdya say, boys? Watch party?

Movies

Narnia Sweepstakes! Most of you probably know about Prince Caspian coming to theaters May 16th. You may not know that until May 26th, the official movie site offers the opportunity to win a trip for two to the New Zealand set during the filming of the third Narnia flick, Voyage of the Dawn Treader. I don’t know about you, but I couldn’t resist a chance at such a juicy fannish experience. My entry’s in! How about yours? Read more »

Is there a doctor in the house? Miss Kitten takes us on a tour of Grey’s Anatomy.

With a mother diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and living in a nursing home, and a seven year long surgical residency at Seattle Grace Hospital ahead of her, Meredith Grey already has enough on her plate to deal with. But what happens when her drunken one-night-stand the night before her first shift turns out to be her new boss? Will she fall for his charm or manage to maintain a strictly professional relationship?
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Iron Man, this season’s hottest superhero flick, opens in theaters around the US this weekend, but can the movie live up to the hype?

To get the goods on this lesser known comic hero, I called upon SFUniverse’s sultan of superheroes, the swami of summer movies, Mr. Brian Allen, and here’s what he had to say:

“A caricature of Howard Hughes, Tony Stark is a hero in the classic Marvel tradition: supremely flawed. His Iron Man armor is not only the source of his super powers but a life support system that keeps his damaged heart working. Stark also battles alcoholism, the kind of issue not dealt with in most comics during his origin period in the 1960s. It’s alluded to in this movie but reportedly won’t become a big problem until later in the series.
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Here we are again, thank you all for coming. Member contests abound, so if you haven’t participated in one yet, get off the stick and get creating!

These contests are open for submission, but only until next Thurday:

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There’s a bunch of flap going on, with parents’ groups and the morals police, over the ad campaign for the new season of Gossip Girl. The print ads show sexy photos with the letters OMFG over the image, and the TV ads cut between shots of the characters having sexy time and the letters OMFG. Parents’ groups are outraged by a bunch of letters, stating there’s only one meaning for the letters and that it’s offensive. A rep from the CW says the letters are open to interpretation. CNN has a mini-vid covering the “controversy.”

I think both points of view are silly. The rep is being disingenuous, and the parents are being hypersensitive. It’s just letters in an ad campaign. Personally this is one of those moments where I think parents should spend more time with their kids, if they’re so concerned, and less time going on media junkets.

Oh yeah, and I was really bothered by the assertion that OMFG is an acronym; it’s an initialization. Only initializations that we say as words are acronyms, eg: POSH, SNAFU, NAFTA, etc, not FBI, CIA, or OMFG. Sorry, but you all know I’m pedantic by now. (Editor’s note: I believe the term is abbreviation, as I can’t find “initialization” in my dictionary.)

Besides, what’s the big deal? Obviously OMFG only stands for one thing, Oh My Favorite Giraffe.

Post Script: How ironic that I use the wrong word while being pedantic about word use.  I meant initialism.

Hi ho, all! Thanks for weighing in last week, got some very usable suggestions; in fact, here’s one of them: -verse. No not, let’s sing another -verse, and no, not spy -verse spy, but as a suffix, as in movie-verse. So, I’m thinking the definition of -verse would be: a suffix added to let readers (viewers, etc.) know in which version of canon we’re writing (vidding, making art, etc.). There’s movie-verse, book-verse, comic-verse, tele-verse, and of course candy-verse, where all the characters are made of delicious chocolate and gooey caramel; mmm, I love you, Taffy Potter.

What do you think? Is this the proper definition? Does a suffix deserve its own place in the Glossary? Do you have a favorite -verse to write in, or does it depend on the story/property? As usual, I await your responses with bated breath.

You may know cvalin as the winner of KvP: Round Three. For those of you in the tiny universe of newspaper readers in Los Angeles, you may now know him as one of the winning authors of the LA Times Novel Contest.

LA Times staff members selected Chris’s entry, titled “Hit man has no time to be nursed back to health, as their Chapter 14 winner.

Chris, we are impressed! You were one of our KvP winners with your screenplay, and now you are one of the LA Times’ winners with your story. How do you do it?