Yuletide letter 2013
/dusts off Livejournal, sneezes
1. Agent Pendergast Series - Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child
Corrie Swanson, Constance Greene
Okay, so I've only read up through Cemetery Dance, and it's quite possible Corrie and Constance have met and I don't know about it yet :( I'll be caught up by December, though, so feel free to pretend I'm already up through Two Graves. Regardless, Corrie and Constance are my favorites and I would love so, so much to see them team up! Casefic would be spectacular, but really any story about the two of them would please me greatly. Femslash or gen would both be great.
Okay, I am caught up, and things are...much more okay than I expected, actually! All the same, I think it might be safer if for the purposes of your fic we each assume the other won't have read White Fire, because God only knows what Preston+Child are going to pull in that one.
Things I love about these books: the blatant and beautiful genre awareness! The multitude of awesome women! The very Victorian "strain of madness in the Pendergast family" deal, mixed with the text's outright admission that Pendergast and Constance have both been through some shit and are both pretty legitimately Not Right In The Head and it's really kind of scary! The completely straight-faced, modern-thriller style in which these stories present completely ridiculous premises!
2. Hellblazer
Gemma Masters (Hellblazer) Epiphany Constantine (Hellblazer)
Okay fine, so I ship these two. I ship them a LOT, since even before they actually kissed on-page. But my request--well, you will start to see a pattern develop, here. I'd love to see them after John's death, getting their shit together (Gemma in particular has been having a rough time for basically forever) and, at the very least, maybe for relations between them to get on a more even keel.
This is such a huge canon that it's difficult to know what to elaborate on :/ For whatever it's worth I am really, really bitter about Constantine being imported into the New 52, and it is not because OH MY GOD HE CAN'T SAY FUCK ANY MORE. I feel like a big strength of Constantine as a character--of any Constantine you like, John or Joanna or Gemma--is that Constantines are, historically, willing to look ugly shit in the face that the people around them can't or won't acknowledge. I think the entire premise is wasted by just dumping him in the central DCU where weirdness is commonplace. Plus--more relevantly to my actual request, here--John got a nice resolution or whatever on the Vertigo side, but everyone around him pretty much just got left hanging because a 25-year title got cancelled so abruptly, and that kind of sucks.
Also, you know, I think Gemma is a fantastic character who has repeatedly been given a raw as fuck deal in the text, and I guess it'd be really nice to see her claw back some ground in her own life.
3. Jim Stringer mysteries - Andrew Martin
Lydia Stringer
Okay, so Lydia and Jim are really cute together and all, but I frequently suspect that Jim is not exactly the brains of their collective operation. Really, though, I just want whatever story you'd care to tell about her--her point of view on their marriage, on Jim's mystery-solving, or even giving her a problem of her own to sink her teeth into.
I have nothing more to add to this request, I'm sorry! I fret over making fairly general requests like this one in case my writer thinks I don't want it but NO REALLY I JUST LOVE LYDIA, MOAR LYDIA FOREVER PLEASE.
4. Flashpoint: Lois Lane and the Resistance
Lois Lane (Flashpoint), Penny Black (Flashpoint)
So Penny Black is really great! And she is only in three comics issues ever, which is just a crime. I'm pretty sure Flashpoint!Lois is into that, so I requested her, but really just please God I want more Penny please.
Yes, uh, that thing I said. I really like stories about robots and cyborgs, and characters who blur the line between person and machine.
5. Lord Peter Wimsey - Dorothy L. Sayers
Helen Wimsey, Mary Wimsey, Gerald Wimsey Viscount St George, Hilary Thorpe
This is an either-or kind of request! Do not panic, dear author.
Every time I read Clouds of Witness I'm kind of taken aback by how sympathetic Helen is to Mary--Helen is usually written as so upright and cold and defensive of The Family Name above all else, but in this case she's the one telling Peter and Honoria that Mary's going through a tough time, and why can't they give her some space??? It's a bit out of place for her, for sure, and I'd love to see a story explaining why she's so sympathetic.
But hey, that's a pretty specific request, and my love for St. George/Hilary Thorpe is eternal and endless. So I'd still be ecstatically happy to read something about them instead!
Based on my writing output this is probably pretty clear by now, but I really love the Wimsey family. I love Peter and Harriet and all, because I have a soul, but I am also endlessly curious to see more of the dynamics between Wimsey family members who are not Peter or Harriet. To that end, my requests are absolutely not mutually exclusive, or you can write me someone in the family reacting to St. George/Hilary or Jerry and Hilary getting up to hijinks at Oxford or you know what, I'm getting excited and possibly being actively unhelpful here, ignore me.
6. How to Steal a Million (1966)
Simon Dermott, Nicole Bonnet
Okay, I'll be honest, I just noticed this was on the list and added it last-minute and haven't had time to write a coherent opinion about it. But this is one of my favorite movies, and I love the romance so ridiculously much and just GIVE ME MORE PLEASE. Tell me a story about Nicole and Simon being married, maybe!
It's been a week and I am still having trouble articulating why I love this movie beyond OH GOD SO CUTE THEY ARE THE CUTEST. And yes, the romance is super cute! And bickery! I love bickering. But I also love heist movies, and this is also a really clever one of those. And I guess what I love about the romance, too, is that so often in romance stories one party (usually the woman, in het romance) has to Sacrifice Everything to be with the person they love, and that doesn't happen here. It's Nicole's father who's supposed to make the sacrifice for her happiness, and even then he doesn't really manage at all and it does no harm! Everyone ends up happy regardless.
I don't know if any of that helps, but that's some more coherent input, at least.
Things I like in general
Het or femslash where the partners are legit equals; I have a particular thing for protectiveness, especially if it's mutual, and people getting to rescue each other a lot, and people sort of figuring out how to be tough and heroic as they go along. Hurt/comfort. (There is a theme here.)
Happy or optimistic endings, for God's sake, though they're all the more satisfying if people have to scramble through some shit to get there.
Bickering, witty or otherwise; found families.
Things I dislike in general
Please don't kill anyone off who isn't dead in canon. Viscount St. George does not count as "dead in canon."
Sexual violence, torture, graphic violence in general--I'm not super squeamish or anything but, you know, it's just not what I want to be reading on my parents' couch on Christmas morning. Hellblazer and Pendergast are both really violent to begin with, though, so you know, do what you need to do to serve the idea. I trust you.
Thanks so much, and I can't wait to see what you come up with!
1. Agent Pendergast Series - Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child
Corrie Swanson, Constance Greene
Okay, so I've only read up through Cemetery Dance, and it's quite possible Corrie and Constance have met and I don't know about it yet :( I'll be caught up by December, though, so feel free to pretend I'm already up through Two Graves. Regardless, Corrie and Constance are my favorites and I would love so, so much to see them team up! Casefic would be spectacular, but really any story about the two of them would please me greatly. Femslash or gen would both be great.
Okay, I am caught up, and things are...much more okay than I expected, actually! All the same, I think it might be safer if for the purposes of your fic we each assume the other won't have read White Fire, because God only knows what Preston+Child are going to pull in that one.
Things I love about these books: the blatant and beautiful genre awareness! The multitude of awesome women! The very Victorian "strain of madness in the Pendergast family" deal, mixed with the text's outright admission that Pendergast and Constance have both been through some shit and are both pretty legitimately Not Right In The Head and it's really kind of scary! The completely straight-faced, modern-thriller style in which these stories present completely ridiculous premises!
2. Hellblazer
Gemma Masters (Hellblazer) Epiphany Constantine (Hellblazer)
Okay fine, so I ship these two. I ship them a LOT, since even before they actually kissed on-page. But my request--well, you will start to see a pattern develop, here. I'd love to see them after John's death, getting their shit together (Gemma in particular has been having a rough time for basically forever) and, at the very least, maybe for relations between them to get on a more even keel.
This is such a huge canon that it's difficult to know what to elaborate on :/ For whatever it's worth I am really, really bitter about Constantine being imported into the New 52, and it is not because OH MY GOD HE CAN'T SAY FUCK ANY MORE. I feel like a big strength of Constantine as a character--of any Constantine you like, John or Joanna or Gemma--is that Constantines are, historically, willing to look ugly shit in the face that the people around them can't or won't acknowledge. I think the entire premise is wasted by just dumping him in the central DCU where weirdness is commonplace. Plus--more relevantly to my actual request, here--John got a nice resolution or whatever on the Vertigo side, but everyone around him pretty much just got left hanging because a 25-year title got cancelled so abruptly, and that kind of sucks.
Also, you know, I think Gemma is a fantastic character who has repeatedly been given a raw as fuck deal in the text, and I guess it'd be really nice to see her claw back some ground in her own life.
3. Jim Stringer mysteries - Andrew Martin
Lydia Stringer
Okay, so Lydia and Jim are really cute together and all, but I frequently suspect that Jim is not exactly the brains of their collective operation. Really, though, I just want whatever story you'd care to tell about her--her point of view on their marriage, on Jim's mystery-solving, or even giving her a problem of her own to sink her teeth into.
I have nothing more to add to this request, I'm sorry! I fret over making fairly general requests like this one in case my writer thinks I don't want it but NO REALLY I JUST LOVE LYDIA, MOAR LYDIA FOREVER PLEASE.
4. Flashpoint: Lois Lane and the Resistance
Lois Lane (Flashpoint), Penny Black (Flashpoint)
So Penny Black is really great! And she is only in three comics issues ever, which is just a crime. I'm pretty sure Flashpoint!Lois is into that, so I requested her, but really just please God I want more Penny please.
Yes, uh, that thing I said. I really like stories about robots and cyborgs, and characters who blur the line between person and machine.
5. Lord Peter Wimsey - Dorothy L. Sayers
Helen Wimsey, Mary Wimsey, Gerald Wimsey Viscount St George, Hilary Thorpe
This is an either-or kind of request! Do not panic, dear author.
Every time I read Clouds of Witness I'm kind of taken aback by how sympathetic Helen is to Mary--Helen is usually written as so upright and cold and defensive of The Family Name above all else, but in this case she's the one telling Peter and Honoria that Mary's going through a tough time, and why can't they give her some space??? It's a bit out of place for her, for sure, and I'd love to see a story explaining why she's so sympathetic.
But hey, that's a pretty specific request, and my love for St. George/Hilary Thorpe is eternal and endless. So I'd still be ecstatically happy to read something about them instead!
Based on my writing output this is probably pretty clear by now, but I really love the Wimsey family. I love Peter and Harriet and all, because I have a soul, but I am also endlessly curious to see more of the dynamics between Wimsey family members who are not Peter or Harriet. To that end, my requests are absolutely not mutually exclusive, or you can write me someone in the family reacting to St. George/Hilary or Jerry and Hilary getting up to hijinks at Oxford or you know what, I'm getting excited and possibly being actively unhelpful here, ignore me.
6. How to Steal a Million (1966)
Simon Dermott, Nicole Bonnet
Okay, I'll be honest, I just noticed this was on the list and added it last-minute and haven't had time to write a coherent opinion about it. But this is one of my favorite movies, and I love the romance so ridiculously much and just GIVE ME MORE PLEASE. Tell me a story about Nicole and Simon being married, maybe!
It's been a week and I am still having trouble articulating why I love this movie beyond OH GOD SO CUTE THEY ARE THE CUTEST. And yes, the romance is super cute! And bickery! I love bickering. But I also love heist movies, and this is also a really clever one of those. And I guess what I love about the romance, too, is that so often in romance stories one party (usually the woman, in het romance) has to Sacrifice Everything to be with the person they love, and that doesn't happen here. It's Nicole's father who's supposed to make the sacrifice for her happiness, and even then he doesn't really manage at all and it does no harm! Everyone ends up happy regardless.
I don't know if any of that helps, but that's some more coherent input, at least.
Things I like in general
Het or femslash where the partners are legit equals; I have a particular thing for protectiveness, especially if it's mutual, and people getting to rescue each other a lot, and people sort of figuring out how to be tough and heroic as they go along. Hurt/comfort. (There is a theme here.)
Happy or optimistic endings, for God's sake, though they're all the more satisfying if people have to scramble through some shit to get there.
Bickering, witty or otherwise; found families.
Things I dislike in general
Please don't kill anyone off who isn't dead in canon. Viscount St. George does not count as "dead in canon."
Sexual violence, torture, graphic violence in general--I'm not super squeamish or anything but, you know, it's just not what I want to be reading on my parents' couch on Christmas morning. Hellblazer and Pendergast are both really violent to begin with, though, so you know, do what you need to do to serve the idea. I trust you.
Thanks so much, and I can't wait to see what you come up with!