Dear Yuletide Writer 2014
Dear Writer:
Hello! I'm so pleased you're here! Yuletide is fantastic and exciting and one of the highlights of my year, and I hope you're having as much fun as I am. My prompts are, of course, optional -- if you're inspired by one of these fandoms in some other way, I'll love to read that. I've listed a bunch of things I like to give you some more general ideas of what I'm into (and a few things I'm not into). This is a grab-bag; feel free to do none of these, or lots of them, as it pleases you. The do-not-want bits of the list are mostly thematic -- things I in general don't enjoy which might come up in one of the fandoms I've requested.
Wants
heists and capers
hopeless loyalty
competence porn, especially social competence
codependent pairs
teams and teamwork
inevitable tragedy
hard-won happiness
negotiation (political, social, kinky)
functional poly and OT3s
aliens and encountering alien people/places/things/the uncanny
high-concept AUs (IN SPACE or DURING THE CRUSADES, for example)
the last things people say to each other
romance that evolves out of the main plot
canon-appropriate darkfic (including dubcon, noncon, torture, psychological manipulation, gore, body horror, etc.)
Do-Not-Wants
crapsack worlds/grimdark (stories where nothing happens or is possible except for darkfic themes)
rigid/essentialist gender roles
infidelity for reasons of lust/attraction/breaking-up-a-canon-pairing-for-another-pairing (infidelity for political/coerced reasons is okay)
pregnancy and kidfic (actual canon children are fine!)
And my actual signups, with short descriptions of the canons for writers who might want to branch out:
Kathy Mallory series - Carol O'Connell
If you're the Only Other Person In This Fandom, I am so glad to meet you you have NO IDEA. I've been reading these for years and years; they're my perfect guilty-pleasure mystery fiction. They have no right to be as good as they are; they're over-the-top and break half the rules about Good Writing and Kathy's a green-eyed blonde sociopathic Mary Sue and I LOVE HER.
I would adore a story which gives her some solid character development, though. Not that she ought to become less inhuman and broken and brilliant, but I'd really like to see her actually break through herself, instead of only almost getting there as she's done so many other times? (I am especially thinking post WINTER HOUSE.)
If this character development involved her sleeping with Charles, I would be so on board for that.
I love Charles, too. I think his devotion is great. I think his alienation from people who aren't as smart as he is is great. I think his sheer solid loyalty is FANTASTIC. I love his work with troubled kids.
You could also write a casefic? Maybe a CASEFIC WITH ROMANCE. Or I'm also very much a fan of seeing UST --> RST, and this not helping -- kind of the inverse of the Magical Healing Sex trope! And Kathy and Charles would work really well for that.
Or an AU! Charles and Kathy (and Riker and etc.) could be IN SPACE. I think they'd be great in space, or in any scifi future setting.
Go as creepy and disturbing as you like. These are serial killer mysteries, after all!
Where to get it: These are a series of mystery novels; I think they are all still in print. The best ones for getting a handle on Charles and Kathy are KILLING CRITICS, WINTER HOUSE, and STONE ANGEL, but they're all great. Pretty fast reads, too.
The Goblin Emperor - Katherine Addison
I love the political complexity of this book, but I also love the overarching sense of hope which grows out of Maia's approach to political complexity. I'd love to see how that works on a more intimate scale: i.e., I want the story of Maia and Csethiro, and what kind of marriage they are going to make together.
Csethiro's one of my favorite characters -- the bit with her handwriting! And her swordfighting skills! and her political savvy! -- and the end of the book suggests that she and Maia are going to learn how to be good for one another. I'd love to see a story about that happening.
(Or a slice-of-life moment from somewhere in the book, from Csethiro's POV?)
Where to get it: Single book, published 2014; I wouldn't say it's a fast read, but it's a gorgeous one, and the universe is self-contained. This is an anti-grimdark political fantasy, where real consequences exist but it is possible to achieve a better world through being an ethical person. it's great.
The Wicked + The Divine
Spoilers for issue #5.
Okay, so I'm writing this request the day after #5 came out and I am made of emotions about Luci, and I quite desperately want MORE LUCI, and that's what this request is about.
Not fix-it fic -- I think she narratively had to die, right then (after all, she'd APOLOGIZED, and Lucifer doesn't get to do that) -- but aftermath fic (what is going on with Laura and those cigarettes? Is Laura going to be haunted by a Luci-afterimage? Would Laura LIKE to be, and isn't?) or flashback fic (just -- MORE LUCI) or internal Luci POV on anything that has just happened, though I'd especially love it during that destructive stroll out of the prison.
Luci/Laura is great, if you want to go there.
Where to get it: Comic, in five issues so far, distributed by Image. It's on Comixology. There is also a trade of these first five issues coming out soon, but I don't know if 'soon' is in time for Yuletide. WicDiv is about pop music and gods and desire and fandom and David Bowie (kinda) and wanting to be something larger than yourself. The art is brilliant. The writing is stellar. Luci is going to break your heart.
Only Lovers Left Alive
I'd adore seeing the early stages of Eve and Adam's relationship -- or something from the future they're doubtlessly going to have together. Tell me about Eve's books and Adam's music. Put them in a garden, in a spaceship, in a dying city, in a vibrant one. I'd love if you included some of the visual and aural richness that the film has -- a focus on setting and sound would be amazing.
On a more prurient note, goddamn, that glove-removal scene. If you felt like writing kink? A focus on the gloves and who gets to take them off and bare skin and intimacy would be amazing.
Where to get it: Film, 2013. Out on DVD/Blueray/on Netflix. You will not regret the two hours of your life. This is a vampire movie where vampirism is sort of about immortality and music; it makes me genuinely happy. It's also got Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston in, if that sort of thing floats your boat (it really floats mine.)
Hello! I'm so pleased you're here! Yuletide is fantastic and exciting and one of the highlights of my year, and I hope you're having as much fun as I am. My prompts are, of course, optional -- if you're inspired by one of these fandoms in some other way, I'll love to read that. I've listed a bunch of things I like to give you some more general ideas of what I'm into (and a few things I'm not into). This is a grab-bag; feel free to do none of these, or lots of them, as it pleases you. The do-not-want bits of the list are mostly thematic -- things I in general don't enjoy which might come up in one of the fandoms I've requested.
Wants
heists and capers
hopeless loyalty
competence porn, especially social competence
codependent pairs
teams and teamwork
inevitable tragedy
hard-won happiness
negotiation (political, social, kinky)
functional poly and OT3s
aliens and encountering alien people/places/things/the uncanny
high-concept AUs (IN SPACE or DURING THE CRUSADES, for example)
the last things people say to each other
romance that evolves out of the main plot
canon-appropriate darkfic (including dubcon, noncon, torture, psychological manipulation, gore, body horror, etc.)
Do-Not-Wants
crapsack worlds/grimdark (stories where nothing happens or is possible except for darkfic themes)
rigid/essentialist gender roles
infidelity for reasons of lust/attraction/breaking-up-a-canon-pairing-for-another-pairing (infidelity for political/coerced reasons is okay)
pregnancy and kidfic (actual canon children are fine!)
And my actual signups, with short descriptions of the canons for writers who might want to branch out:
Kathy Mallory series - Carol O'Connell
If you're the Only Other Person In This Fandom, I am so glad to meet you you have NO IDEA. I've been reading these for years and years; they're my perfect guilty-pleasure mystery fiction. They have no right to be as good as they are; they're over-the-top and break half the rules about Good Writing and Kathy's a green-eyed blonde sociopathic Mary Sue and I LOVE HER.
I would adore a story which gives her some solid character development, though. Not that she ought to become less inhuman and broken and brilliant, but I'd really like to see her actually break through herself, instead of only almost getting there as she's done so many other times? (I am especially thinking post WINTER HOUSE.)
If this character development involved her sleeping with Charles, I would be so on board for that.
I love Charles, too. I think his devotion is great. I think his alienation from people who aren't as smart as he is is great. I think his sheer solid loyalty is FANTASTIC. I love his work with troubled kids.
You could also write a casefic? Maybe a CASEFIC WITH ROMANCE. Or I'm also very much a fan of seeing UST --> RST, and this not helping -- kind of the inverse of the Magical Healing Sex trope! And Kathy and Charles would work really well for that.
Or an AU! Charles and Kathy (and Riker and etc.) could be IN SPACE. I think they'd be great in space, or in any scifi future setting.
Go as creepy and disturbing as you like. These are serial killer mysteries, after all!
Where to get it: These are a series of mystery novels; I think they are all still in print. The best ones for getting a handle on Charles and Kathy are KILLING CRITICS, WINTER HOUSE, and STONE ANGEL, but they're all great. Pretty fast reads, too.
The Goblin Emperor - Katherine Addison
I love the political complexity of this book, but I also love the overarching sense of hope which grows out of Maia's approach to political complexity. I'd love to see how that works on a more intimate scale: i.e., I want the story of Maia and Csethiro, and what kind of marriage they are going to make together.
Csethiro's one of my favorite characters -- the bit with her handwriting! And her swordfighting skills! and her political savvy! -- and the end of the book suggests that she and Maia are going to learn how to be good for one another. I'd love to see a story about that happening.
(Or a slice-of-life moment from somewhere in the book, from Csethiro's POV?)
Where to get it: Single book, published 2014; I wouldn't say it's a fast read, but it's a gorgeous one, and the universe is self-contained. This is an anti-grimdark political fantasy, where real consequences exist but it is possible to achieve a better world through being an ethical person. it's great.
The Wicked + The Divine
Spoilers for issue #5.
Okay, so I'm writing this request the day after #5 came out and I am made of emotions about Luci, and I quite desperately want MORE LUCI, and that's what this request is about.
Not fix-it fic -- I think she narratively had to die, right then (after all, she'd APOLOGIZED, and Lucifer doesn't get to do that) -- but aftermath fic (what is going on with Laura and those cigarettes? Is Laura going to be haunted by a Luci-afterimage? Would Laura LIKE to be, and isn't?) or flashback fic (just -- MORE LUCI) or internal Luci POV on anything that has just happened, though I'd especially love it during that destructive stroll out of the prison.
Luci/Laura is great, if you want to go there.
Where to get it: Comic, in five issues so far, distributed by Image. It's on Comixology. There is also a trade of these first five issues coming out soon, but I don't know if 'soon' is in time for Yuletide. WicDiv is about pop music and gods and desire and fandom and David Bowie (kinda) and wanting to be something larger than yourself. The art is brilliant. The writing is stellar. Luci is going to break your heart.
Only Lovers Left Alive
I'd adore seeing the early stages of Eve and Adam's relationship -- or something from the future they're doubtlessly going to have together. Tell me about Eve's books and Adam's music. Put them in a garden, in a spaceship, in a dying city, in a vibrant one. I'd love if you included some of the visual and aural richness that the film has -- a focus on setting and sound would be amazing.
On a more prurient note, goddamn, that glove-removal scene. If you felt like writing kink? A focus on the gloves and who gets to take them off and bare skin and intimacy would be amazing.
Where to get it: Film, 2013. Out on DVD/Blueray/on Netflix. You will not regret the two hours of your life. This is a vampire movie where vampirism is sort of about immortality and music; it makes me genuinely happy. It's also got Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston in, if that sort of thing floats your boat (it really floats mine.)