Dear Yulegoat
Dear Yulegoat,
Thank you for writing for me! I love all three of these shows, and although I've babbled at greater length about one, that doesn't mean I wouldn't equally love a story for one of the others. I love canon compliant fic. I prefer stories that focus on female characters and/or are told from a female character's POV.
Some theme/story elements I particularly enjoy: emotionally complex relationships between difficult/different people, found family, identity issues, grief and coping with loss, positioning oneself with regard to conflict with family, and snarky dialogue.
Do Not Wants: AUs of the "What if they were all high school students/baristas/circus performers/etc?" variety, A/B/O or other "soulmate" tropes, supernatural stuff in canons where supernatural stuff is not canon.
Cagney and Lacey
Christine Cagney, Mary Beth Lacey
I've been rewatching this entire show this summer and fall and...I'm just in love. I love these two. I love their dynamic. I love their loyalty. I love how they work together. I love how they fight, how they make up...I even love the reunion movies. I love that they surprise me. I love that Christine's reactions just...I can't predict if she'll laugh or yell or get quiet or turn on a dime or which way she'll turn. I love the moments when Mary Beth just dissolves into giggles *just* as things were getting really heavy and, instead of getting more angry, she sees the absurdity of it and the tension just dissolves with the laughter...and I love when she manages to carry Chris along with her that way. I love the characters at the precinct. I love Petrie, I love Samuels, I love Coleman. I love their home lives: I love Christine's relationship with Charlie; I love Harvey, I love Michael (Harve, Jr. actually gets on my nerves, and Alice is mostly a non-entity).
I love Mary Beth and her doggedness and the way that she is entirely ethical and her commitment to fairness and how her family is her religion. I love her relationship with Harvey. I love how she loves her kids. I love that she is flawed and, as Tyne Daly commented in an interview, is a better mom to Michael to Harvey, Jr. because she's human and imperfect (TD also commented that Harvey is the love of Mary Beth's life because he "made her not an orphan anymore"). I love her pragmatism, her compassion, her willingness to question her own motives.
I love how flawed Christine is. I love that she barks and stomps and acts and speaks long before she thinks and says exactly what she means...but is still, under all the crusty, in-charge, independent Cop Attitude, she's still a little girl, wanting approval. I think it's fascinating to see her mask slip, to see her go all soft-spoken Please Love Me with men. I find her admission to Dory in "Insubordination" that she can't quite relax or connect with someone without the chemical effects of sex to be an interesting self-reflection about how distant she keeps her feelings even from herself.
I love the way that Mary Beth has daddy issues and Christine has mommy issues...and neither can see why the other feels how she does about the gender parent who was their own favorite differently...Christine never stops trying to get Mary Beth to be excited to have her father back. Mary Beth never understands Christine's absolute devotion to Charlie.
I love how both of them cannot tolerate feeling helpless or being seen when too vulnerable:
-in "Heat" when Christine first gets to Mary Beth after the hostage-taker is neutralized and Mary Beth's first comment is, "Don't look at me."
-Christine's anger at Stokes in "Stress" and how he has no right to invade her life and make her afraid, how that same theme returns when she tells Mary Beth in "Don't I Know You" that she has to learn to feel safe in her own home again
-I was actually surprised they didn't revisit that theme further in "The Gimp" when Chris talks about how people looked right through her when she was using the wheelchair, but didn't talk about the vulnerability of having strangers lift her in and out of the chair...that was something I was curious about.
I'd love casefic. I'd love a character study. I'd love hurt/comfort, gritty stories, grappling with ethics, them struggling with their differing ideologies, good dialogue, a good stake-out...almost anything! I'm interested in Chris and Mary Beth as friends and partners...at any age, at any stage of their interaction, older, during the show...just about anything (except slash for them...not my ship here, though I could imagine it when they're both much, much older, perhaps).
Early Edition
Toni Brigatti, Marissa Clark
Optional Details: I'd most love to see the ladies solve the problems of the day...if Gary weren't available and Marissa and Brigatti had to deal with the paper, that would be fun.
If Gary's in the story too...or if it's a Gary&Toni story, that's also entirely fine.
I also love to read typical 80s story dice/trope plots (pretending to be married in the suburbs OR The Hostage Situation OR handcuffed-together-and-running-for-their-lives).
Gary's parents are always fun. Up to you if it's set when Brigatti does or doesn't know about the paper. Brigatti finding out is always fun. I just love seeing competent women solve weird problems that are confusing, but, well, they're competent and they can do it.
Even though I don't have as much babbling to do about this one, I really do love this show, and I adore both Toni and Marissa...and I love Gary's interactions with both of them. And Cat. I love Cat.
Silk Stalkings
Rita Lee Lance, Chris Lorenzo
Optional Tags: Gen or pairing, Women Being Awesome
Optional Details: I love reading typical 80s story dice/trope plot (pretending to be married in the suburbs OR temporarily blind/paralyzed OR The Hostage Situation OR chained together and running for their lives, OR stranded far from civilization and have to find a way home, or the like) attached to a story with Chris and Rita on a case out of touch with the department.
Any other characters as desired or needed are fine. I love the Lipschitzes...and I love how Rita has Donnie Dogs wrapped around her little finger.
This show did gender-role swap better than anything I'd seen up till then, and I loved them for it. I love that Rita was The Smart One and Chris was The Pretty One. I loved that it was Chris who wanted to settle down and Rita who wanted space to play the field. I loved that Rita got to do the voiceovers. And although I loved watching them fall in love (though I deny the show's version of how that ended), I'd have been fine if they'd always only been best friends and partners. It's just a fun, fluffy show that I still quite enjoy.
My largest focus is always, always, always on the characters, with the plot just there (even as a wisp) to get us to the next character moment. I am a relentless canon whore and love to see references to the details from the show and stories that are embedded in the timeline of the show that they can slip tidily into canon. I hope this gives you some idea of what I enjoy, and I hope you have fun writing!
Thank you again for writing for me!
Thank you for writing for me! I love all three of these shows, and although I've babbled at greater length about one, that doesn't mean I wouldn't equally love a story for one of the others. I love canon compliant fic. I prefer stories that focus on female characters and/or are told from a female character's POV.
Some theme/story elements I particularly enjoy: emotionally complex relationships between difficult/different people, found family, identity issues, grief and coping with loss, positioning oneself with regard to conflict with family, and snarky dialogue.
Do Not Wants: AUs of the "What if they were all high school students/baristas/circus performers/etc?" variety, A/B/O or other "soulmate" tropes, supernatural stuff in canons where supernatural stuff is not canon.
Cagney and Lacey
Christine Cagney, Mary Beth Lacey
I've been rewatching this entire show this summer and fall and...I'm just in love. I love these two. I love their dynamic. I love their loyalty. I love how they work together. I love how they fight, how they make up...I even love the reunion movies. I love that they surprise me. I love that Christine's reactions just...I can't predict if she'll laugh or yell or get quiet or turn on a dime or which way she'll turn. I love the moments when Mary Beth just dissolves into giggles *just* as things were getting really heavy and, instead of getting more angry, she sees the absurdity of it and the tension just dissolves with the laughter...and I love when she manages to carry Chris along with her that way. I love the characters at the precinct. I love Petrie, I love Samuels, I love Coleman. I love their home lives: I love Christine's relationship with Charlie; I love Harvey, I love Michael (Harve, Jr. actually gets on my nerves, and Alice is mostly a non-entity).
I love Mary Beth and her doggedness and the way that she is entirely ethical and her commitment to fairness and how her family is her religion. I love her relationship with Harvey. I love how she loves her kids. I love that she is flawed and, as Tyne Daly commented in an interview, is a better mom to Michael to Harvey, Jr. because she's human and imperfect (TD also commented that Harvey is the love of Mary Beth's life because he "made her not an orphan anymore"). I love her pragmatism, her compassion, her willingness to question her own motives.
I love how flawed Christine is. I love that she barks and stomps and acts and speaks long before she thinks and says exactly what she means...but is still, under all the crusty, in-charge, independent Cop Attitude, she's still a little girl, wanting approval. I think it's fascinating to see her mask slip, to see her go all soft-spoken Please Love Me with men. I find her admission to Dory in "Insubordination" that she can't quite relax or connect with someone without the chemical effects of sex to be an interesting self-reflection about how distant she keeps her feelings even from herself.
I love the way that Mary Beth has daddy issues and Christine has mommy issues...and neither can see why the other feels how she does about the gender parent who was their own favorite differently...Christine never stops trying to get Mary Beth to be excited to have her father back. Mary Beth never understands Christine's absolute devotion to Charlie.
I love how both of them cannot tolerate feeling helpless or being seen when too vulnerable:
-in "Heat" when Christine first gets to Mary Beth after the hostage-taker is neutralized and Mary Beth's first comment is, "Don't look at me."
-Christine's anger at Stokes in "Stress" and how he has no right to invade her life and make her afraid, how that same theme returns when she tells Mary Beth in "Don't I Know You" that she has to learn to feel safe in her own home again
-I was actually surprised they didn't revisit that theme further in "The Gimp" when Chris talks about how people looked right through her when she was using the wheelchair, but didn't talk about the vulnerability of having strangers lift her in and out of the chair...that was something I was curious about.
I'd love casefic. I'd love a character study. I'd love hurt/comfort, gritty stories, grappling with ethics, them struggling with their differing ideologies, good dialogue, a good stake-out...almost anything! I'm interested in Chris and Mary Beth as friends and partners...at any age, at any stage of their interaction, older, during the show...just about anything (except slash for them...not my ship here, though I could imagine it when they're both much, much older, perhaps).
Early Edition
Toni Brigatti, Marissa Clark
Optional Details: I'd most love to see the ladies solve the problems of the day...if Gary weren't available and Marissa and Brigatti had to deal with the paper, that would be fun.
If Gary's in the story too...or if it's a Gary&Toni story, that's also entirely fine.
I also love to read typical 80s story dice/trope plots (pretending to be married in the suburbs OR The Hostage Situation OR handcuffed-together-and-running-for-their-lives).
Gary's parents are always fun. Up to you if it's set when Brigatti does or doesn't know about the paper. Brigatti finding out is always fun. I just love seeing competent women solve weird problems that are confusing, but, well, they're competent and they can do it.
Even though I don't have as much babbling to do about this one, I really do love this show, and I adore both Toni and Marissa...and I love Gary's interactions with both of them. And Cat. I love Cat.
Silk Stalkings
Rita Lee Lance, Chris Lorenzo
Optional Tags: Gen or pairing, Women Being Awesome
Optional Details: I love reading typical 80s story dice/trope plot (pretending to be married in the suburbs OR temporarily blind/paralyzed OR The Hostage Situation OR chained together and running for their lives, OR stranded far from civilization and have to find a way home, or the like) attached to a story with Chris and Rita on a case out of touch with the department.
Any other characters as desired or needed are fine. I love the Lipschitzes...and I love how Rita has Donnie Dogs wrapped around her little finger.
This show did gender-role swap better than anything I'd seen up till then, and I loved them for it. I love that Rita was The Smart One and Chris was The Pretty One. I loved that it was Chris who wanted to settle down and Rita who wanted space to play the field. I loved that Rita got to do the voiceovers. And although I loved watching them fall in love (though I deny the show's version of how that ended), I'd have been fine if they'd always only been best friends and partners. It's just a fun, fluffy show that I still quite enjoy.
My largest focus is always, always, always on the characters, with the plot just there (even as a wisp) to get us to the next character moment. I am a relentless canon whore and love to see references to the details from the show and stories that are embedded in the timeline of the show that they can slip tidily into canon. I hope this gives you some idea of what I enjoy, and I hope you have fun writing!
Thank you again for writing for me!