Yuletide Letter 2010
Dearest Yuletide Person,
*air kisses* Daaaaahling! How delightful to see you!
Except I can’t, because you’re anonymous and this is the Internet and you’re effectively stalking me at this point. Hmmm.
Yuletide, as you have probably guessed by the complete sparsity of this Livejournal, is essentially my only “fannish” activity all year. Normally my interaction with fandom is a very typical blokey geek way of looking at things - discussions exclusively about the source material and out-nerding each other. Most of the fandoms I’m in don’t lend themselves to “fan discourse” as I tend to think of it - less creativity, more analysis. That, however, is what’s so wonderful about Yuletide - breaking me out of my comfort zone AND getting the chance to read wonderful fic where there was none before.
So first of all - you rock. You’ve offered one of the four fandoms listed below, and that means you have taste, dude. Whatever you write is going to be brilliant by virtue of being in these fandoms and I will be delighted to see what you come up with. Please don’t feel the optional details are an absolute must as a result (for two of my fandoms I requested “Any” because I will be so genuinely thrilled by anything you can write for them). Above all I hope you really enjoy whatever you write, and I know that will shine through in your fic!
So:
What I Like
• I lurve me some plot, I do, although I appreciate that with pressures of time etc. you really shouldn’t feel you have to produce some sprawling epic to keep me happy. I just like things with plot in.
• Canon relationships. Not into the slash or other kinds of pairings so much unless you have an incredibly plausible way of manufacturing it or (in the case of Black Books) it’s hilariously wrong.
• Bittersweet stories.
• Friendship.
• Weird goings on. I know that sounds remarkably broad, but I think in all four fandoms stuff happens that is creepy and unexplained. In the case of Black Books it may just be an unidentified bookshop creatures snuffling around or a hypnotically attractive cardboard cutout, but you know what I mean...
• Humour! Of various different kinds! i.e. please don’t make every joke be about sex if you are writing the funnies! But some of them can be because I’m down with that kind of thing! Too many exclamation marks!
• Post-series fic where appropriate. I love “what happened next” SO MUCH, and I’d love to see your interpretation of that kind of thing.
What I’d Prefer You Didn’t Write
• Porn and nothing but porn. Sex is fine if it’s where your story takes you, but it’s not what I get out of Yuletide I’m afraid.
• Utter unrelenting angstfests. I would prefer to get catharsis elsewhere.
• A “silly” AU story. Alternate universes are fascinating and although I do love cracky AU stories there’s one fandom out of my nominations that really suits AU stories and I would rather see something serious out of that.
So, as for the fandoms themselves:
Kaiba
My original request was:
“Any fic for this fandom would be great, but I'm particularly interested in either just another planet that Kaiba visits on his travels (from any point of view you like - Hyo-Hyo, Neiro in another body, an OC, whatever) or how you interpret the series ending and what may follow.”
This is essentially what I requested last year for Kaiba, but the same thing stands - I loved the whole world of Kaiba, the emotional atmosphere of it, and the standalone episodes worked really well. Anything that captures the same complicated balance between the sadness of the transience of memory and personality on these planets and the slightly wacky moments in between would be lovely.
I really don’t know how to take the ending, though - is it really “everyone, in the cloud” as the final episode title says? How do they rebuild their lives from there? What do you think, oh marvellous author?
Alternatively if you want to look into the pasts of the more minor characters like Kichi and Sate go right ahead. Seriously, Kaiba fic would be delightful whatever.
Black Books
My original request:
“I love Fran, whether as the seeming voice of drunken sanity or the complete madwoman she sometimes is. The boys would be nice to read about too but something Fran-centric would be great - does she EVER get a job, perhaps, or is there a reason she always seems to have time to be round at the shop while Nifty Gifty is long gone?”
So, Fran is theoretically the most normal of the trio in Black Books I think. Bernard is a misanthropic fantasist, Manny lives with said misanthropic fantasist for little to no reason after the first series, and Fran at least has a semblance of normality about her - one that frequently involves her getting roaring drunk, true, but I suspect she could function in normal society.
BUT WHY DOES SHE NOT HAVE A JOB, DEAR YULETIDE AUTHOR? This is a question that vexes me, and I would love to see what you think she does all the time. Or anything about her, really. She’s awesome.
(I have a bit of a thing for Tamsin Greig. Sorry.)
Noein
My original request:
“OMG NOEIN IS NOMINATED *flails* Fic about any of the characters at all, no matter how minor, would thrill me quite genuinely. If you can tie up the loose end about Haruka's phone call from her other self that would be amazing, but the list of things I love about this show is too long so I'll have to expand on it in my Yuletide letter...”
I was probably The Internet’s Biggest Noein Fanboy in 2005 (I now know more quantum physics-related vocabulary in Japanese than any sane person needs) and just the very idea of fanfic for the show is enough to make me gleeful.
The only thing I would say is I’m not super-into fic that’s about what characters are thinking about events in the show. I’d love an exploration of some alternate universe takes on what happens, or post-show fic that can be as introspective as you like - but Noein is so good at showing and telling us exactly what the characters think that I’m not really interested in further exploration of that sort of thing.
My favourite characters are Haruka, Yuu and Kosagi, but please feel free to write about absolutely anyone you want to and I’m genuinely super excited about the possibility of someone writing this request.
The City And The City
My original request:
“I really liked Corwi in the novel but feel she gets a little bit of short thrift compared to the Ul Qoman side of things later on. How does she adjust to Borlu's departure? Or even just look at her running a case on her own - if you can think of another ambiguous situation where Breach wouldn't step in that might be interesting.”
So basically The City And The City is the book that I have had in my head for years until China Mieville STOLE IT AND WROTE IT DOWN DAMN HIM. I now spend far too much of my time trying to work out if you could have two cities grosstopically separate but otherwise identical, although I have yet to manage to solve this particular conundrum...
So, yeah, Corwi. I liked her a lot, because she’s basically the “moderate” between Borlu’s slightly stilted character and Dhatt’s... well, Dhatt’s uncouthness. I kind of feel she gets a little shafted by the novel once Borlu crosses to Ul Qoma, perhaps somewhat out of necessity, but nonetheless I’d like to know more about her. I don’t ship her with anyone - it’s not that kind of novel - but anything you’d like to write about Corwi would be interesting. You could even take her out of Besz entirely - how does someone with such an ingrained ability to unsee adjust to normal cities and countries?
*air kisses* Daaaaahling! How delightful to see you!
Except I can’t, because you’re anonymous and this is the Internet and you’re effectively stalking me at this point. Hmmm.
Yuletide, as you have probably guessed by the complete sparsity of this Livejournal, is essentially my only “fannish” activity all year. Normally my interaction with fandom is a very typical blokey geek way of looking at things - discussions exclusively about the source material and out-nerding each other. Most of the fandoms I’m in don’t lend themselves to “fan discourse” as I tend to think of it - less creativity, more analysis. That, however, is what’s so wonderful about Yuletide - breaking me out of my comfort zone AND getting the chance to read wonderful fic where there was none before.
So first of all - you rock. You’ve offered one of the four fandoms listed below, and that means you have taste, dude. Whatever you write is going to be brilliant by virtue of being in these fandoms and I will be delighted to see what you come up with. Please don’t feel the optional details are an absolute must as a result (for two of my fandoms I requested “Any” because I will be so genuinely thrilled by anything you can write for them). Above all I hope you really enjoy whatever you write, and I know that will shine through in your fic!
So:
What I Like
• I lurve me some plot, I do, although I appreciate that with pressures of time etc. you really shouldn’t feel you have to produce some sprawling epic to keep me happy. I just like things with plot in.
• Canon relationships. Not into the slash or other kinds of pairings so much unless you have an incredibly plausible way of manufacturing it or (in the case of Black Books) it’s hilariously wrong.
• Bittersweet stories.
• Friendship.
• Weird goings on. I know that sounds remarkably broad, but I think in all four fandoms stuff happens that is creepy and unexplained. In the case of Black Books it may just be an unidentified bookshop creatures snuffling around or a hypnotically attractive cardboard cutout, but you know what I mean...
• Humour! Of various different kinds! i.e. please don’t make every joke be about sex if you are writing the funnies! But some of them can be because I’m down with that kind of thing! Too many exclamation marks!
• Post-series fic where appropriate. I love “what happened next” SO MUCH, and I’d love to see your interpretation of that kind of thing.
What I’d Prefer You Didn’t Write
• Porn and nothing but porn. Sex is fine if it’s where your story takes you, but it’s not what I get out of Yuletide I’m afraid.
• Utter unrelenting angstfests. I would prefer to get catharsis elsewhere.
• A “silly” AU story. Alternate universes are fascinating and although I do love cracky AU stories there’s one fandom out of my nominations that really suits AU stories and I would rather see something serious out of that.
So, as for the fandoms themselves:
Kaiba
My original request was:
“Any fic for this fandom would be great, but I'm particularly interested in either just another planet that Kaiba visits on his travels (from any point of view you like - Hyo-Hyo, Neiro in another body, an OC, whatever) or how you interpret the series ending and what may follow.”
This is essentially what I requested last year for Kaiba, but the same thing stands - I loved the whole world of Kaiba, the emotional atmosphere of it, and the standalone episodes worked really well. Anything that captures the same complicated balance between the sadness of the transience of memory and personality on these planets and the slightly wacky moments in between would be lovely.
I really don’t know how to take the ending, though - is it really “everyone, in the cloud” as the final episode title says? How do they rebuild their lives from there? What do you think, oh marvellous author?
Alternatively if you want to look into the pasts of the more minor characters like Kichi and Sate go right ahead. Seriously, Kaiba fic would be delightful whatever.
Black Books
My original request:
“I love Fran, whether as the seeming voice of drunken sanity or the complete madwoman she sometimes is. The boys would be nice to read about too but something Fran-centric would be great - does she EVER get a job, perhaps, or is there a reason she always seems to have time to be round at the shop while Nifty Gifty is long gone?”
So, Fran is theoretically the most normal of the trio in Black Books I think. Bernard is a misanthropic fantasist, Manny lives with said misanthropic fantasist for little to no reason after the first series, and Fran at least has a semblance of normality about her - one that frequently involves her getting roaring drunk, true, but I suspect she could function in normal society.
BUT WHY DOES SHE NOT HAVE A JOB, DEAR YULETIDE AUTHOR? This is a question that vexes me, and I would love to see what you think she does all the time. Or anything about her, really. She’s awesome.
(I have a bit of a thing for Tamsin Greig. Sorry.)
Noein
My original request:
“OMG NOEIN IS NOMINATED *flails* Fic about any of the characters at all, no matter how minor, would thrill me quite genuinely. If you can tie up the loose end about Haruka's phone call from her other self that would be amazing, but the list of things I love about this show is too long so I'll have to expand on it in my Yuletide letter...”
I was probably The Internet’s Biggest Noein Fanboy in 2005 (I now know more quantum physics-related vocabulary in Japanese than any sane person needs) and just the very idea of fanfic for the show is enough to make me gleeful.
The only thing I would say is I’m not super-into fic that’s about what characters are thinking about events in the show. I’d love an exploration of some alternate universe takes on what happens, or post-show fic that can be as introspective as you like - but Noein is so good at showing and telling us exactly what the characters think that I’m not really interested in further exploration of that sort of thing.
My favourite characters are Haruka, Yuu and Kosagi, but please feel free to write about absolutely anyone you want to and I’m genuinely super excited about the possibility of someone writing this request.
The City And The City
My original request:
“I really liked Corwi in the novel but feel she gets a little bit of short thrift compared to the Ul Qoman side of things later on. How does she adjust to Borlu's departure? Or even just look at her running a case on her own - if you can think of another ambiguous situation where Breach wouldn't step in that might be interesting.”
So basically The City And The City is the book that I have had in my head for years until China Mieville STOLE IT AND WROTE IT DOWN DAMN HIM. I now spend far too much of my time trying to work out if you could have two cities grosstopically separate but otherwise identical, although I have yet to manage to solve this particular conundrum...
So, yeah, Corwi. I liked her a lot, because she’s basically the “moderate” between Borlu’s slightly stilted character and Dhatt’s... well, Dhatt’s uncouthness. I kind of feel she gets a little shafted by the novel once Borlu crosses to Ul Qoma, perhaps somewhat out of necessity, but nonetheless I’d like to know more about her. I don’t ship her with anyone - it’s not that kind of novel - but anything you’d like to write about Corwi would be interesting. You could even take her out of Besz entirely - how does someone with such an ingrained ability to unsee adjust to normal cities and countries?