Wow. That was a stunning book. I'm really sorry to hear about that.

Wow. That was a stunning book. I'm really sorry to hear about that.

'Cause I feel the same way.

Oh man...(goes off to find news articles on Iris Chang's death in sea of articles on Arafat's).

Nobody remembers the purple states.

Oddly, I just received a graphic of the purple states.

Hey all, if you wouldn't mind distributing this to your lists...

This is the book signing/book release party for Suz Brockmann Maya and I have been planning.

I realized in the elevator that I've been in three book-oriented fandoms. That is to say, I joined dedicated mailing lists to discuss these books; I never wrote (or considered writing) fanfic. (Okay, there was that one Patrick O'Brian zombie piece, but that was for Consuela.)

So. I was on a Dorothy Dunnett mailing list, a Patrick O'Brian mailing list, and right now I'm on the Jennifer Crusie mailing list. The first two wrote long twisty insanely complicated series, and it helped to have other fans explain to you what exactly catharpings were and how a hackbut differed from a sackbut. The Jennifer Crusie thing I fell into; I found the books, joined the list, discovered that JC herself posted there, and was hooked. (She's a very kind woman. I'm pretty much inactive there because it's become so high-volume.)

What about y'all? What did you become so obsessive about that you needed help obsessing?

What about y'all? What did you become so obsessive about that you needed help obsessing?

You mean, aside from Buffy?

Hmm.

Doctor Who. Board games. Freak-Ass Christianity. Calligraphy. Astrology. Dungeons & Dragons. Evolution. Animals generally. Religion generally. Origami. Dungeons & Dragons, v3.5. Ancient history. Card games. Public speaking. Public housing. Wittgenstein. Dungeons & Dragons miniatures. Rugby league. Diplomacy. Debating. Photography.

Wait. When you say help obsessing, do you mean like enabling, or "Dude, you need help"?

Hmm. My various participatory fandoms have included The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, The X-Files, Ani Difranco, The Nields, Dar Williams, the Jossverse(s), and then the whole fandom morass that I've been sucked into over the past few years, of which the highlights are probably LOTR (book and movies), Smallville slash, and now Lost. I think I was briefly part of a couple more folk-fan lists, but I can't even remember which ones they might have been.

ETA: Only one book on the list, and even then, the emphasis (in my little corner of fandom) was on the movies.

I was on a Lois McMaster Bujold mailing list for a long time. LMB posts on it occasionally, and we even got sample pages from a couple of books before they were released. It was fun.

I was on the Sith Academy mailing list, and I'm still on the "daughter list" that came about after the SA webmistress decided to stop doing SA stuff so she could concentrate on her original fic writing.

I was on a West Wing mailing list for a while.

I was on a Lois McMaster Bujold mailing list for a long time.

Oops, I forgot. So was I. I'm even in the FAQ.

My first ever internet community was a Tom Robbins list that attracted people, like, well, Buffistas. But there the comparison ends...that list broke up. Then I made the rounds at Table Talk for a while and learned "Dead Guy On A Stick." and "warm/cool glass of Shut the Hell Up," and well, five million other weird things, but weirdly not Buffy. Since Buffy, there have been so many. Writing lists, that Homicide thing, which led to the L&O fandom...and, just so much...Um, did you know Arizona has a death row website? Well, now you do.