The book Family Don't End With Blood by Lynn Zubernis is a book that has chapters written by many of the cast of the show Supernatural, including Jared Padalecki, Jensen Ackles, and Misha Collins, and a few chapters by some of the fans of Supernatural. Everyone who wrote a chapter in the book write about their experiences in the fandom and at Supernatural conventions run and the Supernatural fandom has helped or impacted them.
Each chapter either written by an actor or a fan of the show, Supernatural, is filled with love and appreciation for it and how the fandom that we call the SPNFamily has helped them and changed them. Not only has the fandom helped people who wrote chapters in the book, but a lot of people who have read the book has been helped or changed because of all the amazing stories told by either a fan or an actor of Supernatural.
I want to talk about some of the chapters in the book that were written by the fans and cast of the show, but before I do that I want to talk about the editor of Family Don't End With Blood who also happen to write a chapter in the book. Lynn Zubernis is a clinical psychologist and also an author who helped with the writing process of each chapter in the book. Family Don't End With Blood is Lynn's fifth book about the show Supernatural, she has also written a book called Fangasm with Katherine Larsen, and others called Fan Phenomena: Supernatural, Fandom at the Crossroads, and Fan Culture: Theory/Practice, also written by Katherine Larsen as well as Lynn Zubernis; and she wrote Supernatural Psychology with Travis Langley.
In Lynn's chapter she talks about her experiences in the fandom and about getting to meet and talk with the actors, the creator of Supernatural, Eric Kripke, and some of the crew of the show, like writer and producer Sera Gamble and writer Robbie Thompson. Lynn wrote an amazing chapter in the book just like everyone else and made this and so many other fabulous books about Supernatural. So if you are a fan of the show I would highly, highly, recommend checking out her work and you should go follow all of her social media accounts because she does great convention coverage for Creation Entertainment, San Diego Comic-Con recently, stuff like that, so go check her out because she is awesome and super sweet and nice.
There are a lot of wonderful chapters, by everyone, in Family Don't End With Blood, and there was some that I wanted to highlight upon because there stories inspired me a lot. First, I want to start with Jared Padalecki's chapter "What Does The Fandom Mean To Me?". Now you have seen any publicity or people talking or posting about reading or finishing the book online or in person, you may have seen some people talk about how much they liked Jared's chapter in the book, and to me it is a very beautiful chapter.
In it he talks about his experiences in being a fan, when he was a kid he was a big fan of Star Wars. He also talks about the "Always Keep Fighting" movement and how it has helped him, especially when he is dealing with his anxiety and depression. The AKF movement does not only help Jared but because of it and what he has done with it, it has helped many, many other people either going through the same or similar things as he is.
In the chapter, he talks about a time at San Diego Comic-Con during the Supernatural panel where everyone in the audience was holding up a little tea light in honour of Jared and Always Keep Fighting and it looked like a sea of lights because of how many there were. One of the many reasons why I like Jared's chapter is because it not only talks about his experiences in fandom but he also talks about how he deals with his anxiety and depression. One specific way that he talked about in his chapter was that he wrote the letters "AKF" over and over again on his arm until there wasn't any room left to write anymore; and to me that may help some people by having the reminder to Always Keep Fighting by having it somewhere to read over and over again instead of only repeating it to yourself in your head or out loud. Another way that Jared talked about how he deals with his anxiety and depression is talking with friends and family and taking some time to yourself. I very much enjoyed reading Jared's chapter and it was very inspiring for me and I hope it helps and inspires others as well.
Another chapter in Family Don't End With Blood is Rob Benedict's chapter "Stroke of Luck", in his chapter Rob talks about the time when he had a stroke. Rob was saying in the chapter that he had a lot of help and support from the volunteers at the Creation Entertainment Supernatural Convention in Toronto and a very good friend and co-worker of his Richard Speight Jr. Rich was there for a while helping Rob throughout recovery and supporting him. After he got the treatment for the stroke everyone one from the cast and crew was trying to help and get Rob's wife up to Toronto.
Not only did the cast and crew of Supernatural support Rob throughout his recovery but over friends and family outside of supernatural and the fans were sending messages of love and support online during his recovery as well. The reason I like Rob's chapter so much is because it shows strength and persistence and teaches people to never give up no matter how hard things became, and also shows the love and support in the SPNFamily.
The next chapter that inspired me a lot was one written by a fan, it is Hallie Bingaman's chapter "Sober for Sam". In her chapter, she talks about her experiences in being a recovering alcoholic and how the show and specifically the character Sam Winchester saved her life. Hallie posted about her progress throughout recovery and used tags on it to easily find the posts and that's how she made the tag "Sober for Sam". Because of the show she was able to make a lot of new friends and had tons of support online throughout her recovery and was able to connect with people who had similar or the same experiences to hers. Something I want to quote from Hallie's chapter is something that she learned when going through recovery and that was "It is absolutely okay to find hope through a fictional character, and it is absolutely okay to ask for help", and I related to this because when I want to escape from stress and problems in real life I turn to Supernatural and immerse myself into the show and the story.
Hallie not only received love and support from people online, but also from Jared during her autograph at a Supernatural convention, which goes into more depth in her chapter in Family Don't End With Blood. I really enjoyed reading this chapter because similar to Rob's, she showed strength and resilience throughout her recovery of being an alcoholic and she never gave up, others she knew relapsed and she chose to fight and to not let that break her and continued on and her strength and will power inspired me then and will continue to inspire me.
Hallie's chapter wasn't the only chapter written by a fan to inspire me, another chapter written by a fan also inspired me and that was Burner Cade's chapter "Choosing Life". Now, Burner didn't start off as a fan of Supernatural, her friend that she met online got her into the show and she immediately got sucked into it. She, like Hallie, felt a connection towards the character Sam Winchester. After catching up on all the seasons that were available on Netflix at the time, her friend found out that there was a Supernatural convention in Burbank. She wanted to go but couldn't afford it because of health and homing finances. But her friend online helped her got to a convention to go meet the boys and have a fun weekend for there birthday.
It was harder for her to enjoy herself as much at the con because of health reasons, and she couldn't get very much extra tickets to things like photo ops and autographs, but Jared was very kind and supportive towards her during her photo op. One of the many reasons why I a lot of pleasure in reading this chapter was the friendship and family she got to make because of this show and the support she got not only online and from friends, but from Jared as well; and that made me really happy to read about that she found this family because it's similar to how I found the SPNFamily and started to make friends with people online and her strength throughout everything she's been through inspires me a great deal.
Another chapter that I want to highlight on is Osric Chau's chapter "The Opposite Of Fanfiction: The Extroverted Adventures of an Introvert". In his chapter, Osric talks about how he started to step out of his comfort zone, and he started to perform live at Supernatural conventions during the concert on Saturday night because he knew that he had the support of the fans behind him to go out and perform. After that Osric started to talk about his experiences in cosplaying as different characters from different shows, movies, or fandoms and how elaborate some of them got but the fans loved it because to me it makes them more like us, rather than them being on a higher level compared to us.
Some of the cosplays that I've seen online and that he talked about was, one time he dressed up as Ash Ketchum from Pokemon, Princess Bubblegum from Adventure Time, and Castiel form Supernatural obviously. There really good looking cosplays and it's fun to make them and wear them. Another thing that Osric talked about is always saying yes to doing things, not anything illegal, but like going to a party with a friend; and he said that this mindset has led to a lot of his best adventures. I really liked Osric's chapter because I don't do a lot of socializing and tend to be very quite and shy and stay home watching t.v. So hearing about his experiences in trying to go out more and do things that he's never don before shows me that I can try and do that as well and make my own adventures and hopefully, shows other people the same thing.
The last chapter that I want to highlight on is one written by a fan, and that is Stacey Anderson's chapter "The Power of a Picture". In her chapter she talks about her J2M photo op experience with Jared Padalecki, Jensen Ackles, and Jeffrey Dean Morgan, and how the show helped her and the character Dean Winchester helped her after her mother passed away. She wanted to have a picture of her mother in the photo op with the boys and the photographer, Chris Schmelke, helped her by answering her questions about if it was okay to bring in a photo to have in the picture. Lynn Zubernis, the author of Family Don't End With Blood, helped her as well by calming her down, chatting with her in line, and introducing her to Jared, Jensen, and Jeffrey.
As well as help from Chris and Lynn, the volunteers at the convention helped her by making sure she was the latest possible person in line because she wanted to tell them her story and why she had a picture of her mom with her. Everyone was very helpful and supportive towards Stacey, especially the boys, she said they listened to her and were very compassionate towards her. I felt very connected to this chapter because I have a strong connection and relationship with my mother, and reading about how kind and supportive everyone was to her makes me really happy.
I was inspired and very touched by many of the chapters in Family Don't End With Blood. Everyone wrote wonderfully, beautifully chapters, Lynn did an amazing job and so did everyone else. I really, really, enjoyed this book and would highly recommend it to anyone who is a fan of Supernatural or even if you're not, check it out, check out the show Supernatural if you like sci-fi and mythology. To conclude, this was a fabulous book I absolutely adored it and everyone should go check it out and go check out Lynn Zubernis' other books which are amazing as well.