Star Wars my first true fannish experience. I'd been a fan of the space opera quality of the films since they first came out in 1977 and had lots of heated discussion in high school regarding whether Leia would get together with Han or Luke. It really hit my romance/romantic genre button and I'll never forget the feeling for the first time of hearing the star destroy rumble overhead in the opening sequence or seeing the Falcon jump to hyperspace. In college, I fell in with D&D geeks and we were all SW fans and so saw ESB and then caught the (it was very unusual then) midnight show of ROTJ. Whenever I was down over the years, I'd get the videos from Blockbuster and watch them and finally, when I was about 30, my husband found me my very own set.
Then, in 1991, I was in a bookstore in my office building and saw Tim Zahn's Heir to the Empire, which picked up the story 5 years after ROTJ. I would sneak into the bookstore during lunch and read it because I was too embarrassed to admit that I liked Star Wars, much less a book about SW with such a cheesy cover. I LOVED the book. Tim is a terrific writer and his character of Mara Jade was just fabulous and she sooo belonged with Luke. The second book was even better than the last and its final lines chilled me to the bone. My one SW friend who Knew The Truth sent me the final in the trilogy, The Last Command, via diplomatic bag when I was in Eastern Europe. Except.... Luke and Mara did not get together at the end, even though it was like soooo obvious, so I shipped them hard, even if I didn't know there was anything I could do about it.
I got on line in 1994 with a new Compaq computer after the release of the book and discovered this AOL community of SW fans, centered around Who Luke Should Marry, horrendous fic, and a lot of women like myself who were older and hung out in chat -- the then called Star Ladies. And we ALL shipped Luke and Mara! The women were funny, plugged in, collected toys, and very creative. We'd stay up late in chat on Friday nights, drinking wine and talking dirty. And then, I started writing Luke and Mara fic and found out just how bonding that experience is. I met a lot of my friends of today through that first fic.
The creativity of that group was just incredible --- lots of cosplay and games and t shirts, filking and buttons and lots of interaction with the authors who were expanding the 'verse. I got confused last night over Ana's filking because I thought she was doing "Pretty Fly for a Jedi" which is in my SW filk song book somewhere, along with songs like Mon Calamari ship (Yellow Submarine) and Naboo Queen (Dancing Queen) and Livin la Vida Lucas. Over the years, we've moved through different fandoms -- anything with Ewan McGregor, Harry Potter, LOTR, and others. You meet other women through the fandom, but you stay for the friendships you find there.
Re: I'm doing them all, because that is the way I am.
Then, in 1991, I was in a bookstore in my office building and saw Tim Zahn's Heir to the Empire, which picked up the story 5 years after ROTJ. I would sneak into the bookstore during lunch and read it because I was too embarrassed to admit that I liked Star Wars, much less a book about SW with such a cheesy cover. I LOVED the book. Tim is a terrific writer and his character of Mara Jade was just fabulous and she sooo belonged with Luke. The second book was even better than the last and its final lines chilled me to the bone. My one SW friend who Knew The Truth sent me the final in the trilogy, The Last Command, via diplomatic bag when I was in Eastern Europe. Except.... Luke and Mara did not get together at the end, even though it was like soooo obvious, so I shipped them hard, even if I didn't know there was anything I could do about it.
I got on line in 1994 with a new Compaq computer after the release of the book and discovered this AOL community of SW fans, centered around Who Luke Should Marry, horrendous fic, and a lot of women like myself who were older and hung out in chat -- the then called Star Ladies. And we ALL shipped Luke and Mara! The women were funny, plugged in, collected toys, and very creative. We'd stay up late in chat on Friday nights, drinking wine and talking dirty. And then, I started writing Luke and Mara fic and found out just how bonding that experience is. I met a lot of my friends of today through that first fic.
The creativity of that group was just incredible --- lots of cosplay and games and t shirts, filking and buttons and lots of interaction with the authors who were expanding the 'verse. I got confused last night over Ana's filking because I thought she was doing "Pretty Fly for a Jedi" which is in my SW filk song book somewhere, along with songs like Mon Calamari ship (Yellow Submarine) and Naboo Queen (Dancing Queen) and Livin la Vida Lucas. Over the years, we've moved through different fandoms -- anything with Ewan McGregor, Harry Potter, LOTR, and others. You meet other women through the fandom, but you stay for the friendships you find there.