Matching is complete, and assignments have been sent!

I hit the button five minutes ago, but as far as I can tell, emails haven't been sent. Hopefully there's just a short delay. To see your assignment without the email, you can go to the collection profile on AO3, then click the My Assignments link.

I encourage you to get in touch at fandom5kmod@gmail.com if you have any questions or concerns about your match.

If your recipient included a link to a letter but that letter is unfinished, please give it a couple of days before asking me to contact them--I was able to get assignments out early this year, and your recipient may have expected to have a little more time.

I'll be posting pinch hits soon! As last year, I will offer the option for you to request a swap from your current assignment to any open pinch hit.

I keep forgetting to post about this: we've been troubleshooting the "missing notifications" problem for the past few days. (Well, I say "we", really I mean Mark and Robby; I'm just the amanuensis.) It's been one of those annoying loops of "find a logical explanation for what could be causing the problem, fix that thing, observe that the problem gets better for some people but doesn't go away completely, go back to step one and start again", sigh.

Mark is hauling out the heavy debugging ordinance to try to find the root cause. Once he's done building all the extra logging tools he needs, he'll comment to this entry. After he does, if you find a comment that should have gone to your inbox and sent an email notification but didn't, leave him a link to the comment that should have sent the notification, as long as the comment itself was made after Mark says he's collecting them. (I'd wait and post this after he gets the debug code in but I need to go to sleep and he's not sure how long it will take!)

We're sorry about the hassle! Irregular/sporadic issues like this are really hard to troubleshoot because it's impossible to know if they're fixed or if they're just not happening while you're looking. With luck, this will give us enough information to figure out the root cause for real this time.

Signups are closed, and with 145 users, the final round of Fandom5K is shaping up to be our largest yet!

I'm running the matching logic and am checking signups to make sure everyone has 3 unique fandom tags in their requests and 4 unique fandom tags in their offers. We also have at least one person who has no possible recipients. Emails will go out to you soon if there's an issue with your signup, and you'll have 24 hours to reply.

In the meantime, feel free to look over the requests to see if something intriguing has shown up since you last checked! If you'd like to add any offers, or add tags to existing offers, send me an email with the details, and I'm happy to add those.

This afternoon, I went to see Glitch, a co-production between the local Rabble Theatre and the University of Reading, which is coming to the end of its national tour. It's the story of Pam, a Berkshire subpostmaster caught up in the Horizon computer issues, resulting in weird, unexplainable shortfalls. Like other subpostmasters facing similar issues, she feels alone but is determined to fight it. Unlike many others, she was never prosecuted although she lost her post office, because her bookkeeping showed the Horizon numbers were incorrect. Not that the Post Office admitted that. So going to see it after seeing the ITV drama, and reading about the public inquiry, it was a familiar story, but it still managed to hit hard with the feelings and anguish.

We have a little under 23 hours to go for signups! Here's a countdown.

As a reminder, your signup requests must include at least 3 different unique fandom tags, and your offers must include at least 4 different unique fandom tags. You can repeat fandoms if you want to select different tag combinations in multiple signups slots, but you do still need to make that uniqueness minimum. I've reached out to a couple of people as a heads-up and will check again after signups close.

To help matching go smoothly, you might want to check the requests and see if your offers can match to at least one recipient.

Finally, I've approved all submitted tags to this point except for Twilight Series - All Media Types, as mentioned last post. Nominator, please specify whether you want the books or the movies. We do have some book relationships already in the tagset.

If you're still thinking of nominations, make sure you submit them right away! I'll be checking in occasionally until signups close, but I may not get to them in time for you to add to your signup.

I finished 2 more ornament gifts for friends.

Previously I needlepointed the owl design and finished it with ecru cording for the edge. This time I did brown cording and I also tried out long stitch to make the feathers look more feathery.

Owl!


( second ornament under cut )

Just under 3 days to sign up!

In the meantime, I've been approving new fandom and character nominations. You may want to check the fandoms you're requesting or offering to see if something new and interesting has been added to the tag set. I'm also including a list of the newly-approved fandoms at the bottom of this post, in case that helps anyone find additional requests or offers.

I do have one clarification!

We already have the books as a specific fandom in the tag set. Nominator, please specify whether you're interested in the books or the movies.

------------------

New fandoms added since signups opened:

• 16th Century CE RPF
• 18th Century CE RPF
• 30歳まで童貞だと魔法使いになれるらしい | Cherry Magic! Thirty Years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard?! (Anime)
• Alan Wake (Video Games)
• Alien (Original Movies 1979-1997)
• Arsène Lupin - Maurice Leblanc
• Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng - Kylie Lee Baker
• Cerulean Chronicles Series - TJ Klune
• Dexter (TV)
• Dominion of the Fallen - Aliette de Bodard
• Dungeon Crawler Carl Series - Matt Dinniman
• Eureka (TV 2006)
• Fairy Tail
• From a Knight to a Lady (Webcomic)
• Hooper (1978)
• Horizon (Video Games)
• Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger
• Kamisama Hajimemashita | Kamisama Kiss
• Legally Blonde - Hach/O'Keefe/Benjamin
• Literary Writer RPF
• Lord Peter Wimsey - Dorothy L. Sayers
• Mean Girls (2024)
• Midnight Scenes: From the Woods (Video Game)
• Natsume Yuujinchou | Natsume's Book of Friends
• Nightwalker Mayonaka no Tantei | Nightwalker: The Midnight Detective
• Nirvana (US Band)
• Poker Face (TV 2023)
• Raffles - E. W. Hornung
• Smokey and the Bandit (1977)
• Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen (TV)
• Sometimes a Great Notion - Ken Kesey
• Tess of the d'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
• The Cranberries - Dreams (music video dir: Nico Soultanakis)
• The Incandescent - Emily Tesh
• The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (TV 2022)
• The Penumbra Podcast
• Transformers - All Media Types
• Trigun (Anime & Manga 1995-2008)
• Twilight Series - All Media Types
• Untitled Goose Game (Video Game)
• Warehouse 13
• Wicked - Schwartz/Holzman
• Wild Cards (Canada TV 2024)
• Wind Breaker - にいさとる | Nii Satoru (Manga)
• Winning (1969)
• Winslow Boy (1999)
• 구미호뎐 | Tale of the Nine Tailed (TV)
• 九龍ジェネリックロマンス | Kowloon Generic Romance (Anime)
• 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia (Anime & Manga)
• 凸变英雄X | To Be Hero X (Cartoon)
• 名探偵コナン | Detective Conan | Case Closed
• 大逆転裁判 | Dai Gyakuten Saiban | The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles (Video Games)
• 小蘑菇 - 一十四洲 | Little Mushroom - Yī Shí Sì Zhōu
• 恋与深空 | Love and Deepspace (Video Game)
• 文豪ストレイドッグス | Bungou Stray Dogs

The office book club got moved from Thursday to today, and six of us sat outside in the sun for about half an hour talking about books, which was nice.

Finished since the last reading post
At the weekend, I picked up where I'd left off some time ago with Pohjoinen tanssi, a novel that took its Athenian wrestler protagonist to Philip's Macedon, getting him involved in all the wars and intrigues, including apparently fathering Alexander. So it wasn't really a novel that I could take seriously, but at least I'm now finished. And it's really a novel about Philip's Macedon, not Alexander's, but the Finnish blurbs certainly mention the latter, not the former.

Currently reading
Still reading In a Dark Wood Wondering and enjoying it, although it's not always that easy to keep up. Still reading Run Away with Me. Still reading Red Closet. Also started reading The Sutton Hoo Story by Martin Carver (who's been leading some of the archaeological work there), which I bought at Sutton Hoo.

Reading next
No idea

Here are some recent fannish things I've happened to see and would like to share!

Spotlight: I went to see Stand By Me on the big screen during its fortieth-anniversary return to theaters in March. I'd actually never seen it before, though I knew almost everything about it through cultural osmosis and felt, watching, almost as if I had seen it before. It's an excellent movie, of course. Well-crafted, well-acted, challenging, and satisfying. At this end of history, it was sometimes difficult to see the characters through their famous actors, like when the character played by River Phoenix vanishes as the narrative switches from past to present and the moment packs a doubled punch. It would not be made the same way today, and I think it would be the less for that. (Everyone knows the Pokémon Stand by Me trivia, right?) ( Read more... )

Ficathons, fests & communities

• Create & engage
  • fkficfest, the annual Forever Knight event, has prompting 5/03-16, with stories due 7/18.
  • 3weeks4dreamwidth, an annual celebration of DW, runs 4/25-5/15.
  • allbutromance, a gen exchange, has nominations through 4/16, signups 4/20-5/03, and works due 8/14.
  • bitesizedfandomsex, an exchange for canons that can be consumed in 8 or fewer hours, has sign-ups through 4/12 and works due 5/30.
  • whumpex, an exchange for stories in which characters hurt, has nominations through 4/18, sign-ups 4/21-5/04, with works due 6/02.
  • seasonalremix, a match-by-trope remix event, has sign-ups through 4/11, with the original story due 4/18, and a matched remix due 6/20.
  • whatif_au is hosting its annual AU bingo through 7/31.
  • seasonsofdrabbles, a quarterly drabble exchange, has nominations and sign-ups through 4/12.
  • spring_renewal, an open promptfest (panfandom + original works), has fills 4/10-30.
  • bookclub_dw is a monthly reading club (one month to read the elected book, one to discuss it).
  • allbingo's April theme is "flower fest."
  • trope_of_the_month's April theme is "fake dating."
  • pinchhits is a community for posting needed fills for exchanges. For example, goreswap is currently seeking pinch hitters.
  • whenisitdue tracks many more events than I note here!
• Enjoy & share
  • fancake (themed fanfic recs); April theme: "arranged marriage"
  • gensplosion (gen fanfic recs)
  • het_reccers (m/f fanfic recs)
  • fanart_recs (fanart recs)
  • recthething (fanwork recs)

Sidelight: Last year was my year of re-reading Lois McMaster Bujold. This year, I think, will be Rex Stout.

FK Fic Fest 2026

fkficfest is on for 2026! As usual, we're playing challenge-style, minimum 500 words, minimum 51% FK for crossovers, 2 months to write, etc. But we're experimenting with a new prompting scheme: every FKFicFest community member may submit one (1) prompt, anonymously, for writers to use, combine, or ignore as they please. No claiming (multiple people may use the same prompt). And no reveals (the prompts stay anonymous).

Schedule:

• May 3-16: Prompts nominated (one per person)
• May 17 (Sunday): Prompts finalized and posted
• July 18 (Saturday): Stories due in queue on AO3
• July 20 (Monday): Stories begin releasing

About prompts:

• Definition: For our game, a prompt is a word, set of words, phrase, sentence, question, stanza, lyric, canon reference, etc. meant to inspire an FK story.
• Success: We'll likely get the most from prompts that can flex across different interpretations, while also being specific enough to spark reactions.
• Limits: One (1) nomination per community member (any Dreamwidth account may join the community). 1-30 words. If a prompt is a quotation, include a citation (not part of the word count). No exact re-run prompts from previous years, but paraphrases of unused past nominations (yours or others) are fine. And, of course, please, no vulgarity, incivility, that kind of thing.

Questions? Advice? Please share! Again, every community member may submit one (1) anonymous prompt this year; prompting is not a pledge to write or read. Thank you very much for your generous support of this community and for sharing in our enjoyment of Forever Knight!

This morning I set out to visit Sutton Hoo, by train and on foot. First up, train to Melton, changing at Ipswich, then the last 2k or so on foot. There, I spent some time looking at the High Hall exhibits, heard a talk about the Mound 1 ship by the true-to-size sculpture and then ambled over to the burial mounds for a guided tour. The weather had been pretty gorgeous if very breezy until then, but the burial mounds tour saw a couple of showers that came and went quickly. I knew how close to the river Deben the site was supposed to be, but I hadn't really realised how much higher than the river it was. Certainly lots of gorgeous views. The exhibition at Tranmere House was about the 1930s excavations but I struggled to take it in.

I had lunch there and then spent some time in the shops before walking back to Melton for the train back. I didn't realise how tidal river Deben is until crossing the bridge near the Melton station and seeing how much higher the water was than it had been in the morning.

Tomorrow it's all about getting back home.

Happy Easter to those who celebrate religiously and/or culturally.

The spouse and I are going to a screening of the 1970s Jesus Christ Superstar movie today, a movie of Andrew Lloyd Webber's rock opera. The movie is kind of a trip if you haven't seen it.

The fun part is that Ted Neeley, who played Jesus in the movie, will be there in person introducing the movie and doing a meet and greet after the show.

It's one of my favorite musicals (I love musicals!) and I saw Ted Neeley perform the role on stage a couple of times in the 90s, including once with Carl Anderson, who played Judas in the movie.

I have seen the stage musical many, MANY times. But not so much the movie. I think this will be fun!



Edited to add: It was AWESOME. I'm putting a few addition remarks and pictures in the comments.

I'm making the most of the long weekend to get away from home for a little while, so I'm spending the weekend in Colchester. I've never been before, and that's a good enough reason to choose it. Yesterday, I spent the morning doing some tidying up at home before heading out around midday. The train journeys and the Cross-London transfer on the Elizabeth line went smoothly. After checking in to my hotel I went for an aimless stroll in the town centre. This morning I did some parkrun tourism (my first parkrun of 2026) and after getting back, showering and changing I went to explore the Castle Park and then the castle, including a guided tour that took us in the vaults. Apparently it usually takes you up to the roof level as well, but because of works up there, we could not do that. Afterwards, I had lunch at the Minories art gallery cafe and also did some exploring at Firstsite. Then some more aimless walking and browsing in shops. It was really mostly browsing, but I did buy a couple of books.

Signups are open here! Go forth and request fanworks! They will close on 11 April.

As you do, please take a moment to familiarize yourself with the rules and the FAQ. Please let us know if they need any clarification. You can comment here or shoot us an email if you have any questions.

As an important reminder, Fandom5K does not allow the use of generative AI for the creation of text or images.

In the meantime, there's still some tagset cleanup in progress--please double-check all your tags, and see if I have questions about your nominations here.

I have cleared all existing nominations and reopened the tagset. You may nominate an additional 3 fandoms with 4 relationships for each fandom, but I'd ask that you please only do so for tags that you are planning to offer or request.

Please note that this year I am allowing you to repeat fandoms in multiple requests and offers, but you must still have at least 3 unique fandoms in your requests and 4 unique offers. AO3 doesn't support those exact requirements, so it's up to you to make sure you have enough unique fandoms. I'll be checking regularly and getting in touch with anyone who needs to add fandoms, but at the point that signups close, you'll have a limited time to fix the problem, so please make sure you only submit your signup once it meets the minimum!

There are more details at the FAQ, but here are the basics:

( Read more... )

Here is the list of Additional Tags available for genres.

Here is the full tag set. You can also view tags and signup information on the app.

Signups are about to open! As previously announced, I'll be clearing all nominations to allow everyone to nominate an additional 3 fandoms with up to 4 relationships each.

I have saved off details of all pending nominations where I have questions below. I'll add those to the tagset myself once I've clarified with the nominator.

Please also use this post to let me know if anything in the tagset looks incorrect, especially if you see duplicates.

*******

All Media Types:

I'm generally happy to approve this type of fandom if the various adaptations or spinoffs are in continuity with one another. However, there are cases where adaptations are different enough that it could lead to disappointment if a creator familiar with one version gets matched to recipient interested the other. To the best of my knowledge, that applies to the following fandoms--if you're the nominator, please pick a version or explain why this doesn't apply:

• The Lord of the Rings - All Media Types
• Teen Titans - All Media Types
• Transformers - All Media Types

16th Century CE RPF
Along with the 19th and 20th Century US Politics RPF nominations, I have decided I am not prepared to handle the implied real-life subject matter in an exchange context and will not approve this fandom. (ETA due to questions--RPF is generally fine! Historical RPF subjects I will not approve include people known primarily for committing things like war crimes, genocide, or slavery. Please feel free to ask if you're not sure.)


A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin
It doesn't look like these characters are part of the main ASoIaF series. Are you looking for Fire and Blood - George R. R. Martin or House of the Dragon (TV)?

• Alicent Hightower/Mysaria | Lady Misery/Rhaenyra Targaryen (ASoIaF)
• Alicent Hightower/Rhaenyra Targaryen (ASoIaF)
• Alicent Hightower/Rhaenyra Targaryen//Rhaenys Targaryen Velaryon (ASoIaF)
• Alys Rivers of House Strong/Aemond "One-Eye" Targaryen/Rhaenyra Targaryen (AsoIaF)

Doctor Who & Related Fandoms
I've moved these tags under Crossover Fandom, Doctor Who (1963), Doctor Who (2005), and Torchwood. Please let me know if any look incorrect.


Star Trek: The Original Series (Movies)
We do have Star Trek: The Original Series (TV) already in the tagset. I don't think I've ever seen the original films nominated separately--can the nominator please comment so we can discuss what you're looking for?

Time sure does fly when you're having fun! We have four weeks until assignments are due! [ In your timezone + Countdown ]

Please email gumshoeagency@gmail.com with your AO3 username and your recipient's AO3 username for any questions.

As we enter the deadline phase of our exchange, I wanted to post a few reminders:

Extensions

If you need an extension, you have until Friday 1 May 11:59pm Eastern to request it. The deadline for assignments with extensions is Friday 15 May. No further extension dates will be given. Extenuating circumstances will be treated on a case-by-case basis.

Please provide your AO3 username and the AO3 username of your recipient when requesting an extension.

If you default on your extension, you will be required to complete a make-up gift to participate in the next round. (These are due before the next round's sign-ups.)

Guaranteed gifts

Participants who choose to sign up with less than 3 unique fandoms and who are pinch hits have until Friday 15 May to add additional fandoms to their request. I will not be updating any requests after this date. This is so I can manage pinch hits in the post-deadline phase of the exchange.

These fandoms need to be unique and not subfandoms to qualify, i.e., if your request is Doctor Who 2005, Doctor Who 1963 and WandaVision, you do not meet the minimum unique fandom requirements.

Post-deadline pinch hits will be posted after Friday 1 May, so you will have time to decide whether you want to be guaranteed a gift. If you do not complete your assignment, I will not update your request to meet the minimum of 3 unique fandoms and you will not be a pinch hit.

This is a new aspect of the exchange that I'm trialling.

Defaults

If you cannot complete your assignment, please default before Friday 1 May. I will be defaulting anyone who is a no-show and you may be banned from participating in the next round.

How's it going?

Feel free to let me know how your assignment is going! This is not mandatory. Comments are screened. :)

In case you missed it:

• Our available pinch hits.
  
• Treats for pinch hitters.
  
• Beta post where you can find and offer to beta.

Good luck investigating and causing criminal mayhem!

- Commissioner Clawseau

FRANK SIDNEY WATSON

Born in 1911, he died in 1999, just short of his 88th birthday. Unremembered now by anyone except family; most of his contemporaries died before him and all the rest have died since. He was an exceptional person, who knew many other exceptional people, all better known than he was.

( Read )

Masterpiece Mystery posted a preview for the new, and final (le sob!), season of Grantchester coming in June.



I'm excited for it because this brief glimpse is a very pleasant one. I mean, there are going to be murders because there have to be. But this is the sweet and charming side of my emotional support murder show.

Glad to see Meg back and I fervently hope she and Alphy get together because (1) I really like both of them, and (2) I am petty and know this would just chap the bishop's hide. I can't stand the man. (Maybe the show will redeem him with some kind of self-reflection or something. But if he's just steamed and having to hold it in, I will be fine with that lol.)

No plot points revealed here so no knowing how things turned out with Alphy's season 10 cliffhanger knocking on the door at an address that may belong to his mother.

No guest stars shown either. I am crossing my fingers that Sidney and/or Will make an appearance. One can dream! (And, TBH, also Amanda. She's out there somewhere. I always hoped things turned out okay for her though her prospects seemed bleak at the time. Though this seems like the most unlikely possible guest return.)

Also, I need us to check in with Cathy and Mrs. C's boutique. My personal wish is that it is wildly successful and Geordie retires so Cathy can devote more time to thrive as a business owner.

Meanwhile, Larry hanging out socially with Leonard and Daniel... what is happening? I'm not sure I buy that. The show has certainly given Larry a ton of personal growth in the past few seasons (shockingly, I now like him), but those three chilling out in the same space at an outdoor event just not something I entirely buy. We'll see if the show makes it make sense.

I only realised last night that tonight's concert would begin at seven rather than seven thirty, but at least I did realise it early enough and could plan my day accordingly. It was Jess Gillam, the saxophonist, The Gesualdo Six (who I've previously seen at the Brighton Early Music Festival) and National Youth Choir (the one with singers aged from 18 to 25), and it was wonderful. The music was a mix of early music and contemporary choral music, with the theme lighten our darkness, very appropriate just before Easter and for the state of the world in general. I really enjoyed it.

Finished since the last reading post
The Indian Clerk, which was an interesting book on the whole, but like I've said before, not quite what I was expecting. And that's really the contradiction in this novel that kept bothering me: it's about an intriguing Indian man, but the narrative is framed so that we never get to see his inner life, like he's really just an unknowable Other.

Also finished If This Gets Out, which was OK as a YA novel that I read as light bedtime reading.

Also read Liberated, the sixth book in Joanna Chambers's Enlightenment series. I didn't like it as much as I do the Scottish novels in the series, but it was OK. Had to go back and skim-read some of the previous book while I was reading this to remind me what happened, as it clearly hadn't left that clear an impression.

Currently reading
Still reading Red Closet. Also reading In a Dark Wood Wondering by Hella S. Haasse in Lewis C. Kaplan's English translation.

Started reading Run Away with Me by Brian Selznick, a YA novel.

Reading next
Not sure