New intro post

[dolorosa_12]

Hello to all the new people now following me as a result of the friending meme (and for those of you who haven't seen the meme yet, it's here).

I thought I'd introduce myself to all of you. Feel free to ask me questions about anything.


My name is Ronni, and I'm a library assistant at one of the academic libraries within the University of Cambridge in the UK. I'm an immigrant — I moved to Cambridge from Australia about seven years ago to do an MPhil in medieval Irish literature. I followed the MPhil with a PhD in the same subject area (my thesis was on literary representations of authority, dispossession, land and history, and the interaction thereof, in five eleventh/twelfth-century Irish texts), which I finished just over a year ago. Academia left me intellectually and emotionally exhausted, and I knew it wasn't for me, so I didn't pursue it beyond the PhD.

I began working in libraries as a weekend job as a way to make some extra money during my PhD. The first library job I took I normally call Original Library Job. I worked there for five years and only recently handed in my notice. In January of last year I began working part-time in another library (New Library Job), and added to this with an evening job in a third library (Newer Library Job). (Cambridge has A LOT of academic libraries.) Since January this year I've been working in pretty much my dream job (Newest Library Job). It's in reader support in yet another academic library in Cambridge, and mainly involves providing teaching and training in information literacy for the library users. I really love it.

Before my postgraduate studies, I worked as a book-reviewer and subeditor at a newspaper in Australia.

My partner is Matthias, and he also did a PhD in an area of medieval studies (in his case, Old English philology, hence my occasional reference to him online as My Favourite Philologist) before moving on to work in libraries. Last academic year he worked in four different libraries, but this year he's full-time in one, also an academic library within the University of Cambridge. He's working on a library and information studies MA via distance learning.

I'm the oldest of five sisters (the next sister down has the same mother and father as me, the other three share a father with us but have a different mother), and talk about them from time to time. Other people I mention here from time to time:

Sraffies are friends I met originally on a His Dark Materials fan forum. Most of us have met in real life now, and our friendship is based more on shared online/real-life experiences than HDM fandom.

Obernetters are friends I met originally on a forum for fans of the Australian YA series Obernewtyn. Again, most of us have met in real life now.

ASNCs are friends I made through the department in Cambridge where I studied for my MPhil and PhD.

I tend to talk about a mixture of fannish and real-life stuff, with a slight preference towards discussing fannish things. I'm interested in people's reviews and reactions to stuff, and finding out why they like (or dislike) the stories they do. I love discovering new books and TV shows with other people.

Forever fandoms: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, His Dark Materials, a huge number of books which I will outline in another category.

Current more well-known active fandoms: Mad Max: Fury Road, Orphan Black, Sens8, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell (book and TV show), Orange Is The New Black, Pretty Little Liars (although the most recent season finale is making me question my desire to stick with it), The Raven Cycle, Jane The Virgin, The 100, Peaky Blinders, and, for want of a better description, folklore and mythology with a focus on female characters, particularly those that don't get much narrative attention in the source material (a representative example being Briseis and Chryseis from the Iliad).

Tiny fandoms-of-one that are really what I want to talk about: The Romanitas trilogy by Sophia McDougall, The Pagan Chronicles series by Catherine Jinks, Galax Arena, and the Space Demons trilogy by Gillian Rubinstein, The Bone Season series by Samantha Shannon, The Demon's Lexicon trilogy by Sarah Rees Brennan, The Troy Game series by Sara Douglass, the Legendsong series by Isobelle Carmody, the Tomorrow series by John Marsden, basically the entire output of Victor Kelleher, the Crossroads trilogy by Kate Elliott, and Juniper and Wise Child by Monica Furlong.

In other words, if you're a fan of any of these books, or might like to be, let me know!

I also post quite a bit about fannish culture and community issues, within both the pro-SFF and transformative works sides of fandom.

As well as Dreamwidth, you can find me at:
dolorosa_12 (a mirror of my Dreamwidth blog, and if you have accounts in both places, I'd really prefer to be added on Dreamwidth)
ronnidolorosa
dolorosa
Dolorosa

I also have a Wordpress blog where I post reviews and essays; I'm a contributing reviewer at Those Who Run With Wolves, and I've recently got really into making and listening to playlists and fanmixes at 8tracks (where you can find me here).

Feel free to add me at any of these places, although if your username is really different to your Dreamwidth handle, could you let me know, so that I know who you are.

I rarely post under lock. You are welcome to link, share, mention, or reblog any public post I make in any of the places I've listed (so, for example, I have no problem with a fic on Ao3 being shared on Tumblr, a Dreamwidth post referenced on Twitter, a tweet linked on LJ, and so on).

I think that's enough to start with. I look forward to getting to know you all.

Comments

[dolorosa_12]

Lovely to meet you too!