Challenge #2:  In your own space, talk about your fannish origin story.

I suppose, in a way, this is a three-part story: discovering my fannish inclinations (though I wouldn't have put it like that at the time), learning of the existence of fandom and fannish activities, and actually joining.

Once upon a time, long long ago when I was a kid, I absolutely adored certain specific canons—different ones at different times—and did a lot of thinking about them, telling myself stories (of a self-insert sort), and then extrapolating from there to the creation of new characters and plots more or less related to the original. When I was ten or eleven, for example, I was very keen on Andre Norton's science fiction; a few years later it was the original Star Trek. I figure a lot of fans started this way in pre-internet days when—unless you had a best friend into the same things—you were pretty well on your own, in your own head.

Then I discovered that there were books about Star Trek (and other TV series); and some of these mentioned fan activities, such as conventions and fanzines. I'd never before tried writing. (No patience! When telling myself stories, I wanted to get to the exciting bits straight off.) However, reading about fans writing fiction—not to be confused with reading any actual fanfic—did inspire me to start writing my own. No one I knew was into any of this; so it was all drawerfic: never saw the light of day. I started with a Star Trek novel, went on to Next Gen scripts, and then to a full virtual season of Forever Knight.

When I got a new computer in 2004, I went on line for the first time. Of course, I made a beeline for FK fandom and discovered that there was a whole archive of fanfic. I read copiously, joined the FORKNI-L mailing list, and learned HTML so I could make a website to showcase my virtual season. That eventually led to other mailing lists and lurking around a message board or two; then I discovered LiveJournal in 2007. My first venture into gift exchanges was Yuletide in 2011; and I haven't looked back since.