So the North and South watch is behind us and I think we can call it a success thanks to excellent moderating skills of @ArmitageWatch no doubt we started a yearly tradition, hopefully if you missed it this year you can catch it next year or you can join us for future watching.
This whole idea came out of a conversation on twitter and since, this mantra occasionally pops into my cRAzy head:
I hope you find the opportunity to join any of the coming RAwatches! Check out the Armitage Watch Calendar, look for a time that suits you and if uncertain how we go about: check this out. Note: take advantage of the Google feature to import each calendar into your personal one. For your convenience you can follow and LIKE our posts on Facebook
In case the word watch throws you off a bit I included the listed definition:
watch ———>>>
verb (used without object)
1. to be alertly on the lookout, look attentively, or observe, as to see what comes, is done, or happens: to watch while an experiment is performed.
2. to look or wait attentively and expectantly (usually followed by for ): to watch for a signal; to watch for an opportunity.
3. to be careful or cautious: Watch when you cross the street.
4. to keep awake, especially for a purpose; remain vigilant, asfor protection or safekeeping: to watch with a sick person.
5. to keep vigil, as for devotional purposes.
6. to keep guard: She was assigned to watch at the door.
LOOK WHO”S KNOCKING ON YOUR DOOR?
Fridays I’ll be looking forward to #GuyWatch : 2 episodes every friday starting on the hour.
Once Spooks has finished in the fall #GuyWatch will double up ; meaning 2 episodes each Friday AND Saturday!
Guy of Gisborne
Saturdays we have #LucasWatch : meaning Spooks from Season 7 down to the 9 : 2 episodes each Saturday.
Lucas North
But that is not all we plan to have more weekend events: if you check out the calendar they are already there: #HarryWatch #MonetWatch and more!!
When finally Caty appeared on Wattpad I was very pleased, I had read her Ricky Deeming story two years ago on livejournal ; a character from George Gently first episode. Fanfiction is for me a way to explore a character that is least shown and developed on screen, Ricky is where I started.
I’m too sexy for my gloves, too sexy for my bike, too sexy for the screen by far!
I had previously asked and explained the technically benefits which straight away went over her head. Of course was I tickled pink reading her commentary when she discovered she could be downloading a story via the application on her phone instead of the mobile browser!
LOL Kudos to Wattpad, recently a pop-up appears on your mobile screen with the option to open the story in the app, it can’t get anymore easy (sometimes it doesn’t link the first time)
What that means is that one doesn’t need internet access beyond the initial download of the story. And for those unfamiliar with how Wattpad works. Once you make an account and fan an author you will get notified when a new chapter has been posted. All that is needed is hit the update button on top of your library list and WOOSH you watch a new chapter streaming into your story. That singular moment one needs internet access.
When I contact her for a little chat she checked out my blog posts from last year, I almost forgot the most important question and discover some surprises!
whatcatydidnext: Hello sweetie, just been laughing at the vids. At the mo I’m sort of caught up in work stuff and quite exhausted by RL. I had an accident about six months ago and broke a couple of vertebra, still causing a bit of a problem. I can’t sit for very long, stupid really. And I don’t mind having a chat, but remember I do talk far too much.
Fanny: hope laughing is not painful with your injury 😦 I’m guilty of talking too much myself so no fear! Maybe we need to spike our coffee! How DO you like your coffee?
whatcatydidnext: It’s my firm belief that laughter cures ills, brings down tyrants, and if you’re really lucky, makes not winning the lottery easier to live with. It’s included in my physio therapy…
Ooooh, spiked coffee, delicious. At this point I should prob say clever things about ‘Arabica beans’, ‘slow roasting’ and the like, but in all honesty it’s two teaspoons of whatever instant you’ve got, a dash of milk, no sugar, thank you. Oh, have we started? I can do ‘sensible’?
Fanny: We have! And please leave sensible at the door & keep your madcap on!
whatcatydidnext: Good, because sensible can be a bit of a strain…
Fanny: LOL good thing me and sensible don’t get along very well either! Perhaps that’s why I loved The Road so much? If my memory doesn’t fail me (which it does often these days) it was my first fanfic .
WhatCatydidnext: Really, oooh, sorry. It was a wee bit umm…rude.
Fanny: LOL I’d call it straightforward 🙂
whatcatydidnext: Ricky is possibly my favourite RA character. We actually see so very little of him, but his personality is writ large, there’s just a feast of possibilities with him. I did go a bit OTT with the Russian thing, but it was meant to be a lot longer. Hari, Ricky, and Piri were supposed to go into a Cold War spy thing. Complete with daring escape over the Berlin Wall. But it became obvious that it was really a dysfunctional love story.
Fanny: I certainly wouldn’t mind reading a follow up on Ricky’s adventures LOL what a tease you are! I’m so glad you finally figured the app out on your phone! Can I feature you as my techy guinea pig? That was my main motivation for spreading the news in the RA fanfic world ; Wattpad’s mobile’s reading convenience .. meanwhile you have found your way around the community on Wattpad.
whatcatydidnext: Wattpad, what can I say? Interesting.
I do think they need to sort out their categories; the historical one is more hysterical than historical!
It’s my bugbear with this site, maybe I’m just too anal, but I do like things where they ought to be. It’s not history just because the women wear long frocks and all the men are knights. I think ‘The Tudors’ has a lot to answer for!
There is some excellent work on Dreamer fiction, so many really good stories that you don’t see anywhere else, it’s a shame. I can never fathom out how it works. Some writers are so good, professional quality in fact, but they don’t get mentioned in the blogs. Bookishy for instance, brilliant stuff…
Fanny:I remember the historical fiction category was created fall 2010 not long after Charlotte and other RA fic writers started posting. But as you say it’s not strictly monitored – not enough Wattpad ambassadors for that. How do other sites monitor those things?
whatcatydidnext: Lots of people put in stuff on willy-nilly though. It worries me, anything that’s as unregulated as it seems to be, is heading for something unfortunate. Copyright laws have ignored fanfics because no money is made, but once people are getting paid, however little, accountants will come out of the woodwork. Could spell the end of a very pleasurable activity.
Fanny: Anyway to get back on topic you choose to write RA characters with a dark slant versus a soft romantic one – particularly John Thornton in “Master of the Mill” was shocking! *note the hysteria in my voice* LOL
WhatCatydidnext: Oh, yes, John. I heard recently that it upset a few people. I’m so sorry about that, I just saw him as a man of the world. He kept his family inviolate, didn’t use his factory girls as a sexual resource, as some did. John was an honourable man, but he was very much a man. I just gave him an ongoing and fairly commitment free affair with the more than willing Ann. I possibly loosened him up a wee bit, in the book, he’s proud of his self discipline, but not self-righteous. I reasoned that it meant he had an outlet. I also thought a 30 plus male virgin living with his mum, with the weight of the world on his shoulders, would be more a candidate for a breakdown, than a romantic hero. As I remember Mrs G didn’t specifically make him a virgin, nor did the writers of the TV version. And darling do you think an inexperienced man could have kissed Margaret that way…Hmmm?
Fanny: LOL no that was not just a peck!!
whatcatydidnext:It was not! Took a lot of work to get just right if the interview was anything to go by.
Fanny: Yes! “that was a bit of fun” if I recall well, is what Danielle said 🙂 Actually I liked how you fleshed out Ann a bit – made her a perfect opposite of Margaret.
WhatCatydidnext: From the look on her face at the meeting on the street, the party, and then clinging to John’s arm outside the church? I just thought, she likes to be seen. Fanny with more umph! (If you’ll pardon the comparison dear?)
its whats under those pettycoats that matters
Fanny: btw I embarasingly discovered she’s not in the book while at a bookclub meeting – I obviously hadn’t made it to the end of the book then – though I had finished the book a year before – typical confusion between book & adaptation .. Anyway you’ve been writing a long time now I think and have been hoping to get yourself published. Best of luck for the future!
whatcatydidnext: An embarrassingly long time actually, I might get good sometime soon…Might have another go at the publishing thing. Might try Kindle, I do have a completed contemporary romance sitting in my dump file. Funnily, it’s not at all dark, rather fluffy in fact, and it ends happily. Now there’s a thing!
Fanny: self-publishing is the thing these days and with social media at your hand you would be iressistable not to buy 🙂 FLUFFY and funny you say? I don’t believe it!! LOL
I have 2 more questions I’m asking everyone: what’s your preferred mode of writing: Pen & Paper or wordprocessing
What’s your preferred time of writing?
whatcatydidnext: Ummm, well, I write longhand in little notebooks first, then type it up, about four or five times till it sounds right. As I work early, late and night shifts, there really isn’t a preferred time, it’s just a matter of my head and the time being in conjunction.
Fanny:Sure! In hindsight I almost forgot one important question : what got you started with writing and is RA based characters your first foray into fan fiction ?
whatcatydidnext: I was talking to my sister about this a while ago; she said she could remember me writing a story for ‘The legend Jesse James’. It was a TV series starring Christopher Jones, in the early 1960’s I think. As I’m 59 now, I would have been in my early teens then. Took my time with that fanfic!
So, Christopher Jones actually started it, but it’s RA’s interpretation of the characters he plays that has fuelled my imagination. It wasn’t North and South that got me hooked, I had seen Robin Hood, thought his double act with Keith Allan was the most interesting thing in it.
GiZ, you’re gonna pay for that tooth!
Then I was off work with a cold and stuck being miserable in front of afternoon telly. ‘Moving On’ came on, and that last speech was a stunner. That was it, watched everything I could find. Then I came across Bookishy’s ‘Fallout’ on the net and discovered fanfics, it was all downhill from there…
take me with you
Romana55: John Mulligan : You’re heart is as black as night
Fanny: Wow! I had to sit on that info for awhile .. Mulligan was the drop that spilled your literary bucket .. again! Have to say that twinkle in his eye that completely died at that last scene … stunned me too. Would it be fair to say you are very skilled honing in to the dark side of things?
Have to say I’m not holding my breath for my youngest sister who entertained us with pages of storyboard about princes Gwendoline 🙂
whatcatydidnext:Keep your eyes on Princess Gwendoline, she might turn into something else!!! Don’t know about skilled, but I’m fascinated by what draws people together. Sometimes it’s not pretty, but these people fit, they don’t make each other happy, they make each other whole. And no bad boy is going to become a ‘new man’ for the love of a good woman. That’s a concept that has kept women marrying the wrong men for centuries. You can’t change a person, but they can grow. New experiences bring new insights, new understanding. I like to think my characters grow up as their story goes on. And I don’t think you can have a happy ending, as nothing actually ends. Personally, I want to know they’ll go on loving, having fun, building their lives, fighting fortune for their little bit of heaven, that’s not an end. I want to look through their eyes and see a future.
For some reason Harry Kennedy and John Standring, although they are utterly charming men, don’t ring my bells, too nice I suspect. I can remember someone once asking why Harry left London when he did, was he an accountant for a crime boss or something???? Sorry got carried away again…
Liked the vid, there’s a Nine Inch Nails one that I think says it all about Guy.
warning: explicit lyrics
Principessa55: Guy of Gisborne Closer Season 3 (Robin Hood BBC)
Fanny: Amen to that! I’ve heard some speculating about that too though in VoD he was still working in London on the weekends. The kindle project could easily get started after fanstRA – but what tickled me pink is witnessing when you discovered the use of the Wattpad app! LOL Finally the reason why I invited you and others before – how long have you been reading on your phone now?
whatcatydidnext:Seem like forever now. I remember you trying to explain it to me…I am such a technophobe. when I got the smartphone my son laughed and posted photos on Facebook of me using it! Mind you he did that when I shaved my head. I think they may have a book running on what MrsT will do next, where the pen. name comes from ;))
Fanny:Thanks for a great chat, look forward to spreading the news about your publication whether its wicked OR fluffy! I”m usually very sweet and nice but I can’t resist ending with a wicked fanvid 🙂
Kitsunify: No Regrets – Guy of Gisborne
Sunday, March 18th
Last, but definitely not least! Freeform: Agzyshares with us her favorite Armitage paper doll •Ana Cris examines Lucas North’s tattoos through Maori tattoo culture • Jas Rangoon premieres her new John Bateman fanvid • In fandom, jazzbaby1thinks RA fandom is just groovy! • C.S. Winchester asks “naughty or nice?” in a picspam • Mrs. E.B. Darcy thinks about Armitage’s future after TH to wrap up the Hobbit chain • Jo Ann offers the last King Richard Armitage post, on Richard III and the Tudors • Infanfic, Maria Grazia reviews and compares works by the authors she’s interviewed • Gratiana Lovelace wraps up the event with a guest post by Melissa the Mouse! • Links to all FanstRA 3 posts appear here at the end of each day
Happy FanstRAvaganza!! Sit down and relax! warning: NSFW : Richard Armitage in motion!
I’m picking up a thread from last year when encouraged by Frenz who’s fanvid love I share. It was a last minute thing, I noticed one or two are not even up on YouTube any longer, neither is one I wanted to include today. I’d like to update those but likely won’t have time by this posting!
Crossover perhaps describes it better; it simply is picking fictional characters from different “universes” or settings and putting them together. But I DO promise NO slash in these listings. (My favorite is no longer listed on YouTube)
Enjoy !
One could argue that so many Guy of Gisborne and Lucas North videos are AU fanvideos as they choose different endings than the original characters.
Its with much gratitude and admiration I link to these talented vidders, hopefully you find a moment to hit thumbs UP
7. 19bt80 : The evolution of Sir Guy : this expresses what we are in anticipation for!
6. TheTeucner : Evil – Sheriff/Guy of Gisborne/Marian : not for the faint-hearted but for Sheriff lovers 😉
5. Blackcousins4life : Crossover (Guy/Marian/Henry/Anne) – Fight for Glory : Guy kills again but someone else!
4. MissDaydreamer101 : Someone Like You : I only came recently upon this pairing & i can’t help wondering how Arthur’s looks would have changed the dynamics in Robin Hood tremendously!
3: Georgette : Wait for me & I’ll be back (Guy & Marian in XXI) : a brilliant told story!
2: Fairykingdom86 : Soulmates Never Die : my first AU fanvid; the song a perfect match to the scenes
1:Summersparkle :
LOVE her style!! It was hard picking ONE : first I was so sure this was #1: I mean he IS all we need at times? 😉 or this : he would make us “Howl” 🙂 but who can deny Adam Lambert as a PERFECT singing voice for Guy: here “For your entertainment” 🙂
Too Rough for You – Anne & Guy :
Do you have any favorites? Feel free to add in the commentary & don’t forget to enjoy any, all of the blogtagteamers!
Monday, March 12th
In the beginning, Richard Armitage made scores of fans — and he keeps on making them! To kick off the fandom chain, Didion converts friends to Armitage love • Phylly3 reports on her fandom experiences • In the Hobbit chain, Ana Cris writes on her recent film location visit • Mrs. E.B. Darcy speculates about what our hero will do in An Unexpected Journey (spoilers!) • King Richard Armitage chain begins with Maria Grazia on a film adaptation of Richard III •Beginning the fanfic chain, fedoralady explains fanfic’s mainstream appeal • In the freeform chain, Fabo files an eyewitness report on Richard Armitage’s visit to U.S. accent school • jazzbaby1 wonders “what were they thinking?” re: Lucas North’s women • and ChrisB opens the Armitage Alphabet, with “A is for Action” • Links to all FanstRA 3 posts appear here at the end of each day
Planning is not my thing: except when it comes to travel. I know when and how NOT to miss any opportunities when I have them. Like that time in Paris where I had every whole day planned out included metro stops and packed in as many tourist stops in a few days because precious time is not to be wasted.
But even though I knew that I was going to make a list of my fave Spoof fan video’s shortly after I started this blog, it didn’t occur to me to plan this with a day like today until the wee hours this morning. As usual all credit goes to the vidders; my uttermost gratitude and respect to the entertainment they bring!
Laughter is the best medicine!!
5. You can’t Hurry Love by MissHale78 – Monet is not an evident character to spoof but he’s so adorably funny!!
4. Striking Porter – by Bccmee – this lady has the wickest sense of humor!
3. Spooks (Parody or Disaster) by JulietD001 – it’s tough picking from her Spoofs as she has some priceless Robin Hood one’s too but this song is perfectly interpreted!!
2. F.U.N. Song by GiztheGunslinger – Warning – major SPOOF alert!!
It is difficult to just pick one but it seems many agree it truly is a number ONE!
What makes these fanvids so fabulous is the fact that by pulling and editing clips together to music and the occasional use of audiotrack your perception of the characters portrayed in BBC’s Robin Hood becomes different or enhanced depending on the take of the vidder of each fanvid. The tone of a song sets a mood and if the song doesn’s speak to you there is no way of liking the subject matter. On the other hand sometimes the subject matter makes a song likeable!! LOL It explains a lot of the content on my iPod!!
I don’t think I’m done with my lists; there are too many sexy Guy vids, too many storyline vids; too many unknown vidders who then make this ONE brilliant vid!
DistRActed in ReAlity 