Yuletide Letter 2015
Dear Yuletide Writer,
Hello there, and thank you so much for offering to write for one of my teeeeeeny tiny fandoms! I can tell you have fabulous taste.
I'm going to go into a lot of detail here about my requests. It may, just possibly, be construed as too much detail. If you hit your limit on my blathering by the time you read the sign up form, already have a story in mind, and/or don't need prompts and such, feel free to backbutton out of here and go about writing that idea you already have. All the ideas and prompts in this letter are meant to help you if you need it; you are free to ignore them if you think of something you like better. I'm firmly in the ODAO camp, and I love a (good) surprise. As someone who's into Yuletide first and foremost for the chance to write something fun that I might not otherwise, what I want most of all is to receive a gift that someone truly enjoyed writing.
I'm akamarykate on LJ, DW, AO3, and tumblr (
akamarykate). I don't do a good job of bookmarking fic on AO3, but my Tumblr posts and likes might give you an idea of who I am as a fan, if you're looking for that kind of thing. (I have to say, though, I don't have a lot of posts for most of these fandoms-not because I don't love them, but because they are so very small.)
A Random, Non-Inclusive List of Story Stuff I Love: Deep, abiding friendships, both the platonic kind and the kind that turns into something more romantic; banter, pining, and bantering while pining; screwball romantic comedies; competence; teamwork; found families; reunions after long or desperate separations; spies; witches; capers; quirky magical elements; reluctant (or confused) heroes; leaps of faith; vivid settings; kidfic (if the kids are messy and real); flickers of light in dark places; and consequences.
While I adore plotty fic and case files, I realize that's not always doable in 1000 words. Which is fine, because I've also fallen in love with vignettes and character sketches and retellings and the wide, wide variety of possibilities inherent in the act of storytelling. Romance and sexytimes of any variety (het, f/f, m/m, 3-ways, etc.) are good with me if it makes sense for the characters as you're writing them (though I'm more interested in the emotional aspects of sex scenes than in the mechanics). I really do love gen stories just as much, though, and would be just as happy with friendship fic if that's what you want to write.
As far as tropes, for the most part: bring 'em on! Road trips, fake relationships, time travel, time loops, parallel universes, "Ooops! We've been handcuffed together/accidentally married/assigned to a task even though we're frenemies/trapped in a freezer/given a baby to take care of/forced to take a vacation even though trouble will follow us!"? That kind of thing is catnip to me. I like lots of AUs (especially historical, apocalyptic, fairy tale/fantasy, noir, and space), though I'm not as thrilled with AUs that slide the narrative to something more mundane than it already is, like coffee shop and high school AUs.
DNWs: Rape and nonconsentual sex, child abuse or death (can't tell you how many hospital shows I've quite over this), gratuitous torture or angst (I am thrilled with non-gratuitous torture and angst!) and, at least for Yuletide, major character death (unless it's a fakeout and you "resurrect" them, in which case yes, please!).
On a plot/trope level, I'd appreciate it if you can avoid plots that hinge on characters being stupid, obtuse, humiliated, or embarrassed (so many shows I could have watched if I didn't have such an embarrassment squick. Sooooooo many), and romantic or sexual relationships that involve power imbalances (teacher/student, worker/supervisor, etc.).
Okay, on to the fandoms!
Request: Cupid (TV 1998)
Characters: Claire Allen, Trevor Hale
Sign-up Details: Claire and Trevor! I loved that this show was a basically a screwball romcom with possibly supernatural elements, so anything that brings back that flavor, along with their amazing banter, would be fantastic. Claire and Trevor cooperating/competing to help the lovelorn is always good; so is the use of tropes like forced togetherness or fake marriage. If you want to go AU, a noir or apocalyptic story would be fun. And of course, if you want to tell me the story of when, why, and how they finally get together I would be thrilled. (I loved Champ, too, so feel free to include him or any of the other regular/recurring characters.)
DNWs are rape and noncon situations, abuse or serious harm of children, and major character death.
More details and prompts in my DYW letter.
Why I love this show: Cupid gave me so many things I crave; it has lots of traditional romantic comedy elements and beats, along with amazing banter (oh, the banter. I could roll around in it for weeks), and it also has that almost-magical element of Trevor maybe, maybe, being a disgraced Greek god who really does have oddly limited superpowers. Or maybe not? I like that the show's setup let them weave together episodic one-shot stories and the show's broader mytharc. Trevor could so easily be a jerk, and he sometimes is, but his intentions are good and he has a core of sweetness that the show never forgets. I adore Claire and how smart and educated she is, and the fact that, despite her protestations and professional stance, she becomes more and more open to the idea that there's something more than just a delusion going on with this guy. Bonus points for filming in Chicago, which always looks amazing on screen. I was always a fan of Champ, too, and the way Trevor bounced off him; I'd be happy to see him or any of the other recurring characters in your story if you want to include them.
AFAIK, and this is a theme with too many of my adored 90s shows, Cupid was never released on DVD or Netflix, Hulu, or the like. There are so-so copies available on YouTube, which is where I go for my fix when I need one.
Possible prompts:
-- Steal a plot from a classic romcom or screwball comedy and overlay it on the show (they did this all the time, like in "A Truly Fractured Fairy Tale"). How fun would it be to play out a Roman Holiday scenario with these two? Or some kind of Nick and Nora detective plot where they end up revealing the true criminal at a big fancy dinner? A noir AU? Or Claire and Trevor having to fake being married for some ridiculous reason.
--These two characters forced into a small space (bottle episode!) or handcuffed together (make that happen however you wish ☺ ) would be hilarious. How long before they either try to kill each other or start making out?
--If you want to go a little darker, I do like apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic stories. How would Claire and Trevor find each other at the end of the world, so to speak, and what would they do to save themselves and/or others? Or maybe one of Trevor's old buddies from Mount Olympus shows up and threatens all kinds of destruction for some reason-how would they respond to that?
--I would not object at all to you answering the question of how and when Trevor and Claire finally get together, and what they do (ahem!) once they realize they are one of Trevor's beads. Maybe the final bead? (The joys of a long-dead fandom-you don't have to worry about being Jossed.) As long as they still snark and spark and banter, you can go as far as you want with this one.
Request: Early Edition
Characters: Gary Hobson, Marissa Clark, Toni Brigatti
Sign-up Details: I'd love to see these three interacting amid the chaos Gary's paper creates. The friendship between Gary and Marissa is why I have a "Beautiful Platonic Friendships FTW" tag on Tumblr, and Gary/Toni = OTP of my 14-year-old heart. The fact that the show never had Toni and Marissa interact for more than five seconds kind of breaks my heart. I'm always down for a story in which Gary and Marissa negotiate how to take care of the paper and run the bar and have personal lives while being occasionally exasperated BFFs; I'm totally down for romance and/or sexytimes between Gary and Toni. Give them all a paper-based problem or one of Toni's cases to tackle if you want to go with something plotty; episode followups and vignettes and PWPs are great as well. You are welcome to include any of the other characters; I chose just these three because they're my non-negotiables. I'm especially fond of the cops (Armstrong, Crumb, Winslow) and the interaction of Toni's career with Gary's magic paper.
DNWs are rape and noncon situations, abuse or serious harm of children, and major character death.
More details and prompts in my DYW letter.
Why I love this show: You know, at this point I've probably been marked down on some panfandom list of People We Look at Sideways, because I cannot let go of this show. I know its flaws, and I realize how very very 90s it is, but none of that makes me love it any less. I adore Gary's love/hate relationship with the paper and his need to do something to make other people's lives better, even though he resents being led around by the nose in order to do it; I love that often what looks like a chaotic series of events around the paper can end up being connected; I love the adult friendships, especially the one between Gary and Marissa; I weep for the epic Gary/Toni episodes and fic and vids that could have been. As far as specific characters go, I love Gary for being a sometimes grumpy but always goodhearted hero who makes mistakes (especially with his friends) and owns up to them; I love Marissa because she's her own person and not just a sidekick, while remaining unfailingly loyal, even when she's exasperated; I love Toni for being such a competent Marshal/Detective who always puts the people she's protecting first. Then there's Chicago. And the plaid. And the cat.
The first two seasons are out on DVD and as of this writing you can find the cut-for-syndication versions of most of the eps from all 4 seasons on YouTube.
Possible prompts:
--Time travel! Travel all the times! You could go with any historical time period, in or out of Chicago. Or if you don't want to mess with time travel mechanics, do an AU-how would Gary get news about what was going to happen in some other time and place?
-- Marissa and Toni SAVING THE DAMN WORLD because you know they could, anything from dragging Gary's butt out of the fire to averting an apocalypse. I'd just love to see these two being BFFs while they make Gary worry about what, exactly, they say to each other about him.
-- Toni working a case, before or after she finds out about the paper (or maybe when she finds out about the paper? I've written her finding out in at least two different stories and I can't imagine ever getting tired of different iterations of that scenario), and needing the paper's help to solve it, whether she likes it (or knows about it) or not.
--This show lends itself to all kinds of tropes, so feel free to play with them, especially the ones we never got to see. Maybe Gary reads a story in the paper that necessitates a road trip? What if one of the three is missing/presumed dead and the other two have to find him/her? (Okay, maybe Gary went missing once or twice. Maaayyyybe I like that kind of stuff.) Or handcuffs, or hostages, or fake relationships, or whatever, just have a ball.
Request: Flavia de Luce Series - Alan Bradley
Characters: Flavia de Luce, Harriet de Luce, Haviland de Luce, Arthur Wellesley Dogger
Sign-up Details: These books have so much depth and range in terms of tone and subject matter; don't feel you have to hit every possible note in your fic. You can go in a dark direction by exploring what happened to the adults in Flavia's life during the war and how that's affected her unorthodox upbringing, or keep it light by having Flavia solve a crime with her mad chemistry skills. If you want to explore the found family aspect of Dogger's relationship with the characters, that would be wonderful as well. Feel free to include Flavia's sisters or the people of Bishop's Lacey if you want/need them in the story.
Obviously all four characters won't be interacting at the same time; if you want to set the story in Flavia's present or future and just mention Harriet and her legacy, that's fine; so is setting a story in the family's past and including Flavia as a baby, or even as a promise or part of a frame story.
DNWs are rape and noncon situations, abuse or serious harm of children, and major character death.
More details and prompts in my DYW letter.
Why I love this series: I owe
serrico big time for introducing me to this series of books. Flavia's love of learning and science, her passion for justice (so often thwarted in her interactions with her sisters) and sense of the dramatic, and the gothic overlay on an unlikely setting (Britain post-WWII) grabbed me from the start. I love the way Bradley never lets the war go, because Haviland and Dogger can't, and how the biggest questions in Flavia's life surround the unfolding mystery of what happened to them, and to Flavia's mother, during that time.
I should say, too, that I haven't read The Copper Corpse or As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust, though I hope to do so in the next month.
Possible prompts: As I said in my sign-up, the beauty of this series is the sheer range of it; you can go in so many different directions with fic and just about any of them would make me happy. A few ideas:
--Flavia stumbles across a situation that seems shady to her (in other words, it's a typical day at Buckshaw). Mystery shenanigans FTW! You could also have her solving a mystery in her future as a young adult, and reflecting back on her days in Bishop's Lacey.
-- Harriet and Haviland and Dogger during the war. Spy shenanigans, either of the fun caper or super-angsty kind (Harriet and Haviland had children, after all; what were they risking for their country and why?). How did the three of them work together and connect, and how deep did their relationship(s) go? If you think it was sexual, that would be awesome to explore as well; for a set of characters who we've never seen together in the stories, they make an intriguing OT3.
--Flavia and a chemistry experiment gone wrong. In the end it could come around and go right in a way she doesn't expect, of course; that's how science often works. Maybe she's trying to make some kind of potion to use against her sisters, or to help her father or Dogger out of one of their black moods? (Though I am a science teacher, I'm by no means a chemistry expert, so don't feel as though you have to get super detailed with that aspect.)
--It's a little odd to think of TV tropes in terms of this book series, but some of them could work: a road trip to London? Flavia and Haviland or Dogger locked in somewhere and forced to interact? And of course the mystery plots are full of trope possibilities.
Whatever you've signed up to write, I hope you have as much fun creating your story as I've had building this letter! Happy Yuletide, and again, thanks so much for writing for me!
This entry was originally posted at http://akamarykate.dreamwidth.org/407572.html. You may comment either here or there.
Hello there, and thank you so much for offering to write for one of my teeeeeeny tiny fandoms! I can tell you have fabulous taste.
I'm going to go into a lot of detail here about my requests. It may, just possibly, be construed as too much detail. If you hit your limit on my blathering by the time you read the sign up form, already have a story in mind, and/or don't need prompts and such, feel free to backbutton out of here and go about writing that idea you already have. All the ideas and prompts in this letter are meant to help you if you need it; you are free to ignore them if you think of something you like better. I'm firmly in the ODAO camp, and I love a (good) surprise. As someone who's into Yuletide first and foremost for the chance to write something fun that I might not otherwise, what I want most of all is to receive a gift that someone truly enjoyed writing.
I'm akamarykate on LJ, DW, AO3, and tumblr (
akamarykate). I don't do a good job of bookmarking fic on AO3, but my Tumblr posts and likes might give you an idea of who I am as a fan, if you're looking for that kind of thing. (I have to say, though, I don't have a lot of posts for most of these fandoms-not because I don't love them, but because they are so very small.)
A Random, Non-Inclusive List of Story Stuff I Love: Deep, abiding friendships, both the platonic kind and the kind that turns into something more romantic; banter, pining, and bantering while pining; screwball romantic comedies; competence; teamwork; found families; reunions after long or desperate separations; spies; witches; capers; quirky magical elements; reluctant (or confused) heroes; leaps of faith; vivid settings; kidfic (if the kids are messy and real); flickers of light in dark places; and consequences.
While I adore plotty fic and case files, I realize that's not always doable in 1000 words. Which is fine, because I've also fallen in love with vignettes and character sketches and retellings and the wide, wide variety of possibilities inherent in the act of storytelling. Romance and sexytimes of any variety (het, f/f, m/m, 3-ways, etc.) are good with me if it makes sense for the characters as you're writing them (though I'm more interested in the emotional aspects of sex scenes than in the mechanics). I really do love gen stories just as much, though, and would be just as happy with friendship fic if that's what you want to write.
As far as tropes, for the most part: bring 'em on! Road trips, fake relationships, time travel, time loops, parallel universes, "Ooops! We've been handcuffed together/accidentally married/assigned to a task even though we're frenemies/trapped in a freezer/given a baby to take care of/forced to take a vacation even though trouble will follow us!"? That kind of thing is catnip to me. I like lots of AUs (especially historical, apocalyptic, fairy tale/fantasy, noir, and space), though I'm not as thrilled with AUs that slide the narrative to something more mundane than it already is, like coffee shop and high school AUs.
DNWs: Rape and nonconsentual sex, child abuse or death (can't tell you how many hospital shows I've quite over this), gratuitous torture or angst (I am thrilled with non-gratuitous torture and angst!) and, at least for Yuletide, major character death (unless it's a fakeout and you "resurrect" them, in which case yes, please!).
On a plot/trope level, I'd appreciate it if you can avoid plots that hinge on characters being stupid, obtuse, humiliated, or embarrassed (so many shows I could have watched if I didn't have such an embarrassment squick. Sooooooo many), and romantic or sexual relationships that involve power imbalances (teacher/student, worker/supervisor, etc.).
Okay, on to the fandoms!
Request: Cupid (TV 1998)
Characters: Claire Allen, Trevor Hale
Sign-up Details: Claire and Trevor! I loved that this show was a basically a screwball romcom with possibly supernatural elements, so anything that brings back that flavor, along with their amazing banter, would be fantastic. Claire and Trevor cooperating/competing to help the lovelorn is always good; so is the use of tropes like forced togetherness or fake marriage. If you want to go AU, a noir or apocalyptic story would be fun. And of course, if you want to tell me the story of when, why, and how they finally get together I would be thrilled. (I loved Champ, too, so feel free to include him or any of the other regular/recurring characters.)
DNWs are rape and noncon situations, abuse or serious harm of children, and major character death.
More details and prompts in my DYW letter.
Why I love this show: Cupid gave me so many things I crave; it has lots of traditional romantic comedy elements and beats, along with amazing banter (oh, the banter. I could roll around in it for weeks), and it also has that almost-magical element of Trevor maybe, maybe, being a disgraced Greek god who really does have oddly limited superpowers. Or maybe not? I like that the show's setup let them weave together episodic one-shot stories and the show's broader mytharc. Trevor could so easily be a jerk, and he sometimes is, but his intentions are good and he has a core of sweetness that the show never forgets. I adore Claire and how smart and educated she is, and the fact that, despite her protestations and professional stance, she becomes more and more open to the idea that there's something more than just a delusion going on with this guy. Bonus points for filming in Chicago, which always looks amazing on screen. I was always a fan of Champ, too, and the way Trevor bounced off him; I'd be happy to see him or any of the other recurring characters in your story if you want to include them.
AFAIK, and this is a theme with too many of my adored 90s shows, Cupid was never released on DVD or Netflix, Hulu, or the like. There are so-so copies available on YouTube, which is where I go for my fix when I need one.
Possible prompts:
-- Steal a plot from a classic romcom or screwball comedy and overlay it on the show (they did this all the time, like in "A Truly Fractured Fairy Tale"). How fun would it be to play out a Roman Holiday scenario with these two? Or some kind of Nick and Nora detective plot where they end up revealing the true criminal at a big fancy dinner? A noir AU? Or Claire and Trevor having to fake being married for some ridiculous reason.
--These two characters forced into a small space (bottle episode!) or handcuffed together (make that happen however you wish ☺ ) would be hilarious. How long before they either try to kill each other or start making out?
--If you want to go a little darker, I do like apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic stories. How would Claire and Trevor find each other at the end of the world, so to speak, and what would they do to save themselves and/or others? Or maybe one of Trevor's old buddies from Mount Olympus shows up and threatens all kinds of destruction for some reason-how would they respond to that?
--I would not object at all to you answering the question of how and when Trevor and Claire finally get together, and what they do (ahem!) once they realize they are one of Trevor's beads. Maybe the final bead? (The joys of a long-dead fandom-you don't have to worry about being Jossed.) As long as they still snark and spark and banter, you can go as far as you want with this one.
Request: Early Edition
Characters: Gary Hobson, Marissa Clark, Toni Brigatti
Sign-up Details: I'd love to see these three interacting amid the chaos Gary's paper creates. The friendship between Gary and Marissa is why I have a "Beautiful Platonic Friendships FTW" tag on Tumblr, and Gary/Toni = OTP of my 14-year-old heart. The fact that the show never had Toni and Marissa interact for more than five seconds kind of breaks my heart. I'm always down for a story in which Gary and Marissa negotiate how to take care of the paper and run the bar and have personal lives while being occasionally exasperated BFFs; I'm totally down for romance and/or sexytimes between Gary and Toni. Give them all a paper-based problem or one of Toni's cases to tackle if you want to go with something plotty; episode followups and vignettes and PWPs are great as well. You are welcome to include any of the other characters; I chose just these three because they're my non-negotiables. I'm especially fond of the cops (Armstrong, Crumb, Winslow) and the interaction of Toni's career with Gary's magic paper.
DNWs are rape and noncon situations, abuse or serious harm of children, and major character death.
More details and prompts in my DYW letter.
Why I love this show: You know, at this point I've probably been marked down on some panfandom list of People We Look at Sideways, because I cannot let go of this show. I know its flaws, and I realize how very very 90s it is, but none of that makes me love it any less. I adore Gary's love/hate relationship with the paper and his need to do something to make other people's lives better, even though he resents being led around by the nose in order to do it; I love that often what looks like a chaotic series of events around the paper can end up being connected; I love the adult friendships, especially the one between Gary and Marissa; I weep for the epic Gary/Toni episodes and fic and vids that could have been. As far as specific characters go, I love Gary for being a sometimes grumpy but always goodhearted hero who makes mistakes (especially with his friends) and owns up to them; I love Marissa because she's her own person and not just a sidekick, while remaining unfailingly loyal, even when she's exasperated; I love Toni for being such a competent Marshal/Detective who always puts the people she's protecting first. Then there's Chicago. And the plaid. And the cat.
The first two seasons are out on DVD and as of this writing you can find the cut-for-syndication versions of most of the eps from all 4 seasons on YouTube.
Possible prompts:
--Time travel! Travel all the times! You could go with any historical time period, in or out of Chicago. Or if you don't want to mess with time travel mechanics, do an AU-how would Gary get news about what was going to happen in some other time and place?
-- Marissa and Toni SAVING THE DAMN WORLD because you know they could, anything from dragging Gary's butt out of the fire to averting an apocalypse. I'd just love to see these two being BFFs while they make Gary worry about what, exactly, they say to each other about him.
-- Toni working a case, before or after she finds out about the paper (or maybe when she finds out about the paper? I've written her finding out in at least two different stories and I can't imagine ever getting tired of different iterations of that scenario), and needing the paper's help to solve it, whether she likes it (or knows about it) or not.
--This show lends itself to all kinds of tropes, so feel free to play with them, especially the ones we never got to see. Maybe Gary reads a story in the paper that necessitates a road trip? What if one of the three is missing/presumed dead and the other two have to find him/her? (Okay, maybe Gary went missing once or twice. Maaayyyybe I like that kind of stuff.) Or handcuffs, or hostages, or fake relationships, or whatever, just have a ball.
Request: Flavia de Luce Series - Alan Bradley
Characters: Flavia de Luce, Harriet de Luce, Haviland de Luce, Arthur Wellesley Dogger
Sign-up Details: These books have so much depth and range in terms of tone and subject matter; don't feel you have to hit every possible note in your fic. You can go in a dark direction by exploring what happened to the adults in Flavia's life during the war and how that's affected her unorthodox upbringing, or keep it light by having Flavia solve a crime with her mad chemistry skills. If you want to explore the found family aspect of Dogger's relationship with the characters, that would be wonderful as well. Feel free to include Flavia's sisters or the people of Bishop's Lacey if you want/need them in the story.
Obviously all four characters won't be interacting at the same time; if you want to set the story in Flavia's present or future and just mention Harriet and her legacy, that's fine; so is setting a story in the family's past and including Flavia as a baby, or even as a promise or part of a frame story.
DNWs are rape and noncon situations, abuse or serious harm of children, and major character death.
More details and prompts in my DYW letter.
Why I love this series: I owe
serrico big time for introducing me to this series of books. Flavia's love of learning and science, her passion for justice (so often thwarted in her interactions with her sisters) and sense of the dramatic, and the gothic overlay on an unlikely setting (Britain post-WWII) grabbed me from the start. I love the way Bradley never lets the war go, because Haviland and Dogger can't, and how the biggest questions in Flavia's life surround the unfolding mystery of what happened to them, and to Flavia's mother, during that time.
I should say, too, that I haven't read The Copper Corpse or As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust, though I hope to do so in the next month.
Possible prompts: As I said in my sign-up, the beauty of this series is the sheer range of it; you can go in so many different directions with fic and just about any of them would make me happy. A few ideas:
--Flavia stumbles across a situation that seems shady to her (in other words, it's a typical day at Buckshaw). Mystery shenanigans FTW! You could also have her solving a mystery in her future as a young adult, and reflecting back on her days in Bishop's Lacey.
-- Harriet and Haviland and Dogger during the war. Spy shenanigans, either of the fun caper or super-angsty kind (Harriet and Haviland had children, after all; what were they risking for their country and why?). How did the three of them work together and connect, and how deep did their relationship(s) go? If you think it was sexual, that would be awesome to explore as well; for a set of characters who we've never seen together in the stories, they make an intriguing OT3.
--Flavia and a chemistry experiment gone wrong. In the end it could come around and go right in a way she doesn't expect, of course; that's how science often works. Maybe she's trying to make some kind of potion to use against her sisters, or to help her father or Dogger out of one of their black moods? (Though I am a science teacher, I'm by no means a chemistry expert, so don't feel as though you have to get super detailed with that aspect.)
--It's a little odd to think of TV tropes in terms of this book series, but some of them could work: a road trip to London? Flavia and Haviland or Dogger locked in somewhere and forced to interact? And of course the mystery plots are full of trope possibilities.
Whatever you've signed up to write, I hope you have as much fun creating your story as I've had building this letter! Happy Yuletide, and again, thanks so much for writing for me!
This entry was originally posted at http://akamarykate.dreamwidth.org/407572.html. You may comment either here or there.