A look back at some good things that happened in 2019, because life is a pile of good things and bad things but a record of the good stuff is what I want to be able to look back on :)

( Authors, Shows, Films, Books, Comics... )

Fics posted in 2019: I completed more fics and posted more words than last year, definitely taking that as a productivity win!

1) High-Risk Manoeuvre - Clint/Natasha/Bucky
2) Trust Exercise - Goose (Captain Marvel); this became my most kudos-ed fic teaching me never to underestimate how much the internet loves cats
3) Natasha - Clint & Natasha; demon!au part 3
4) tangled webs we weave - Clint & Natasha; demon!au part 4
5) unconventional tokens of affection - Clint & Natasha; demon!au part 5, based on a long-ago valentine's promptathon prompt for crazy4orcas
6) Box of Tricks - Clint/Natasha/Bucky
7) Smile For The Living - Clint/Natasha/Laura; for quietlyimplode, a pinch hit for Fix-It Fest that taught me writing post-Endgame fic is hard
8) A Kissing Story - Clint/Natasha; for sandy79, a Secret Santa pinch hit (I keep saying I don't have time to write in the exchanges I help to run and yet...)
9) Must Be Tuesday - Clint genfic; a Halloween Party ficlet for crazy4orcas
10) First Date Protocol - Clint/Natasha; a belated promptathon fill for gsparkle

What good things did everyone else get up to in 2019? Any recs of things you discovered?

Or specifically a recap of good things from 2018:

Author Events: Holly Black, Chris Riddell, and Marcus Zusak - not many this year, but all excellent.

Shows/Theatre: The Band, Hamilton (!!!), Happy Days, The Play That Goes Wrong, Queens of the Coal Age, Cirque du Soleil: Ovo, Othello, King Lear (with Ian McKellen!), and Matilda.

Concerts/Gigs: Amanda Palmer, Postmodern Jukebox, and Hozier (ridiculously good live).

Trips: Budapest (!!!) with alphaflyer and franztastisch in January, which was freezing and fantastic, and the Netherlands with the family to visit family friends. Conventions were YALC at LFCC and Thought Bubble in Leeds, which are my two favourite cons and I’m hoping/planning to do both again in 2019. I had a few day trips, including to a Terracotta Warriors exhibition and Bletchley Park. I also went on a weekend writing course, where I met some good people, and on a reunion day for a previous writing course, where I got to re-meet some good people. (How productive and useful I find writing courses, groups, group exercises, and so on varies - the weekend one was actually really good - but I love going to them regardless. I find spending time writing with other people, and chatting about writing and books with other people, to be a really good self care type break.)

Films seen at the cinema: Greatest Showman (is it a good film, I have no idea but I enjoy the hell out of it), Black Panther (SO GOOD), The Shape of Water, Coco, Tomb Raider, Infinity War (ARGH), a Deaf Shorts cinema event that was really interesting, Ant Man and the Wasp, Into The Spiderverse (which I didn’t have any expectations about; it was good fun and I love what they did with the art), and Mary Poppins Returns (on December 31st, squeezing that in there *grins*).

Some Comics Enjoyed in 2018: Runaways, The Wicked and The Divine, West Coast Avengers, Giant Days, Skyward...

Books in 2018: Goodreads tells me I managed to read 108 books. A lot of it was poetry - 22 books - which is unusual for me, but I was doing some exploring and I discovered while there’s a lot out there people say is good that just isn’t my cup of tea, there’s also a bunch that I really do like and it was fun finding out. (Some favourites: You Took The Last Bus Home by Brian Bilston, Don’t Call Us Dead by Danez Smith, Running Upon The Wires by Kate Tempest, and Poems To Live Your Life By chosen and illustrated by Chris Riddell). I read a bunch of fiction about musicians or featuring the music industry (of which my favourites were: Greatest Hits by Laura Barnett, Five Flavours Of Dumb by Antony John, and I Was Born For This by Alice Oseman), because I was in that mood (and there may be a fanfic idea percolating). Others I loved this year: record of a spaceborn few by Becky Chambers, Bygone Badass Broads by Mckenzi Lee, and Giant Days by Non Pratt.

Fics Posted in 2018:

A Funny Thing Happened On The Way Back From The Hospital which is Hawkeye and Deadpool. This one owes a lot to the fun Hawkeye vs Deadpool comics run.

In Deed is Bucky having a bad day, and Clint, Natasha, Lucky, and Liho making it better, for meatball42.

i carry your heart and Welcome To The Neighbourhood were for prompts left by franztastisch and gsparkle in the be_compromised Valentine’s mini-promptathon, both Clint/Natasha.

State Your Emergency was my post-post credit Clint Barton scene for Infinity War (because Infinity War, argh).

The Strike Team Delta Method of Brainwashing Recovery is Clint, Natasha, and Bucky for a franztastisch prompt. (I didn’t have time to write anything for the be_compromised summer promptathon, but then I had a hellish travel day where I was stuck on trains for over 8 hours. I’ve managed to squeeze in a fair bit of writing on transport with the help of google docs.)

Not super productive, but I did manage to post more finished words than in 2017 and I’ll aim to top that again in 2019!

( And to finish, a couple of photos... )

What good things did everyone else get up to in 2018? Any recs of books/films/comics you discovered?

Non-spoilery review: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child reads like fanfiction - which, essentially, it is. Don't get me wrong, I like fanfiction, but if you've read a bunch of fics then there's not really anything special or unique here. Some parts I liked, some parts I was less keen on, and much of it was predictable. I did like some of the lovely magical details, there's some amusing dialogue, and some fun moments. However, this is a playscript and I imagine that there's a lot more to it - more emotions and the exposition that we miss in a script - and that it's visually spectacular. Overall I enjoyed it well enough and I won't be judging the play on just reading its script.

( TO EXPAND ON THAT, WITH SPOILERS )

I've spoken to a few people now who've managed to see the play - who going in were in kind of the same place as me, who used to write fanfic and love the books, but are no longer hugely invested if a touch nostalgic - and they rate the play really highly, so there's that :)