Dear Yuletide Writer 2021
Dear Yuletide Writer,
Hi, and thank you in advance for writing a story for me! I'm pretty easy to please -- unless you write a context-free sex scene, I'll be thrilled just to get a fic in one of the fandoms I asked for. *grin* But I realize that's not terribly helpful, so here's the (very!) long version. (I am sorry for the tl;dr, but I like to talk about things I love and I figure more details are better than fewer.)
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General Information:
1. First, while you cannot go wrong by writing gen for me, that is not a requirement. I will also read and enjoy pretty much anything when it comes to ships -- het, slash, femslash, threesomes, poly, whatever -- so long as you put in a bit of character development so the relationships don't seem to come out of nowhere. I tend to skim past sex scenes, though, so your efforts are best spent in other directions.
2. I read all kinds of genres and moods, from schmoopy fluff to angsty deathfic, but my favorite endings are bittersweet (leaning toward happy) and a little complicated.
3. If I said 'any' characters, I meant it. I fall in love with worlds and themes as much as I fall in love with characters, if not more. On a related note, I prefer fic compatible with the worlds and situations that canon presents. AUs of a "what if person X made choice A instead of choice B at moment Y" type are cool, but high school or coffee shop AUs are not what I'm looking for.
4. Stuff I really, really like: This can be boiled down to, 'Please treat characters as intelligent people who have understandable motives for their actions, please take the worlds seriously as settings, and please remember that sex and romance are not all there is to life. Also, ethics, metaphysics, and worldbuilding are dead cool.'
The long version: I like character development; world-building; explanation of plot holes in canon; subtle humor; a sense of wonder; writing that evokes an emotional reaction as well as telling a story; close relationships that don't necessarily involve sex (i.e., friendship, families, teachers and students, coworkers, traveling companions, soldiers in the same cause, etc.); the consequences of actions and choices; a sense of place and time; dialogue that conveys character as well as plot information; politics; ethics; people being intelligent even if they make bad choices; people trying to do the right thing even if they make bad choices; conflict because of opposing goals that both have points in their favor; a lack of simple solutions; female characters treated as people instead of plot devices; male characters treated as people instead of plot devices; ideas that make me stop and think; the nature of memory; the nature of truth; possession; soul-searching; non-gratuitous torture (...I have a kink, shut up); war and battles; hand-to-hand fighting; swordfights; peace and diplomacy; magic that's properly magical and strange or magic that's explained as a science (but not both at once); books and reading; people exploring a new country/world/city; linguistics and languages; early Industrial Revolution technology (or whatever technology is suitable to the milieu); people using logic to investigate a problem; and fires, floods, earthquakes, and other natural disasters.
5. Stuff I'm not so keen on:
*obvious authorial hatred for characters I like and/or find interesting (which is generally all of them)
*sex or romantic love with no in-story justification (unless the people in question are already a canon couple)
*gratuitous angst/torture/rape (i.e., bad stuff that comes out of nowhere and is not necessary to make the plot or character arc work)
*idiot plots (i.e., problems that could be solved in five minutes if the characters asked one or two obvious questions)
*pining (just not my trope)
*cheating on one's partners (also just not my trope... except if it's Lark! I am okay reading about Lark deliberately cheating on anyone, because that is just another facet of her general amorality and belief the world revolves around her.)
Okay. On to specific fandoms!
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The Darkangel Trilogy
(This is a fantasy/sci-fi trilogy by Meredith Ann Pierce, which would probably be classed as YA if written today. The component books are The Darkangel, A Gathering of Gargoyles, and The Pearl of the Soul of the World. They're quick reads but it may take a little work to find copies.)
Characters: Eoduin, Sabr, Syllva, Worldbuilding
Request: I would like a story focusing on a female character and her place in the world, please! You don't need to include all three of my chosen characters (I'm not sure how that would even work, anyway!), but tell me a story about at least one of them before they got tangled up in the events of the series. I am completely cool with dark!fic here, given that Eoduin is a slaveowner and Sabr presumably earned the name "bandit queen" for a reason, but dark!fic is not a requirement. Light and hopeful stories are also great.
Here are some potential ships, if you are in a shippy mood this Yuletide: Eoduin and her unnamed fiancé, Eoduin and Aeriel (before or after death, and yes I know it's deeply problematic in multiple directions), Sabr and Irrylath, Sabr and Aeriel, Sabr and Erin (hatesex?), Syllva and the King of Avaric, Syllva and her unnamed second husband, etc. However, gen is just as welcome, and I am always here for stories about female friendship.
Also, please note the worldbuilding tag! The world Pierce creates on the moon is lyrical, beautiful, numinous, and strange, but at the same time feels like somewhere real people can and do live ordinary lives, farming, fishing, trading, hunting, making pots and baskets and tools, and all the other tasks needed to keep a society ticking along. There are also dramatic cultural and environmental differences between various lands, which shape the worldview of each land's inhabitants. So I am interested in what being from Terrain means to Eoduin, what being part of Avaric-in-exile means to Sabr, what being from Isternes (and traveling across the sea and back) means to Syllva.
My Thoughts: This series has been one of my favorites since I was quite young, and I love it madly and passionately because of everything it doesn't do. I mean, I love what it does do as well -- the utterly matter-of-fact fairytale atmosphere and the equally matter-of-fact way Pierce melds science fiction into that framework, the slow reveal of the post-apocalyptic elements, the lush descriptive language, the way Aeriel's power of heart is literalized through her mastery of the golden spindle, etc. -- but the characters and their world would not stick in my mind half as strongly if Pierce hadn't written what needed to happen instead of what narrative structures have trained us to expect will happen when you make a love story as central as Aeriel and Irrylath are.
Also the story hinges entirely on women's choices and women's relationships, and lets women be strong and central characters without forcing them into the Strong Female Character template. (Erin and Sabr come closest, and even they don't really fit into that box.) Women get to be heroes and villains and people just trying to go about their lives while occasionally getting swept up by grand events.
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Greenwing & Dart
(This is a fantasy series by Victoria Goddard, with five currently extant books: Stargazy Pie, Bee Sting Cake, Whiskeyjack, Blackcurrant Fool, and Love-in-a-Mist. They are quick, engaging reads, a bit like regency comedy-of-manners meets pulp adventure in a fantasy world that is both recovering from a magical apocalypse and tipping toward social revolution.)
Characters: Lark Indrilline, Mrs. Jullanar Etaris, Violet, Worldbuilding
Request: I would like a story about any two of these characters (though if you can think of a way to manage all three, I will be deeply impressed!), in which they get to be clever and ruthless and awesome. In the case of Violet and Mrs. Etaris, I am also very open to them being kind, because that is also a strength and while Violet may be out of practice, Jullanar is not. Additionally, I am deeply interested in the exploration/creation of various corners of Alinor during its slow recovery from magical apocalypse.
Here are some potential story seeds, though please don't feel bound by any of them! How exactly did Violet and Lark first meet, and how did Violet convince Lark to take her on as a servant/supporter? Did Lark ever try to ensnare Violet by magical means, and if so, was Violet able to resist? Did Violet and Mrs. Etaris have any conversations or side adventures during Stargazy Pie? Did either Violet or Mrs. Etaris attempt to write to the other after Violet left Ragnor Bella? Did Mrs. Etaris ever attend the Orio City book fair herself, and if so, did she perhaps encounter Lark and/or Violet? What might happen to bring any of the three into contact with each other in the time between Love-in-a-Mist and The Return of Fitzroy Angursell?
I am open to some deeply fucked-up Lark/Violet if you feel inclined in that direction, but gen is always welcome. :) Additionally, while I DNW a focus on Mrs. Etaris's unhappy marriage, I am open to an exploration of her relationship with her children.
(If you want to incorporate spoilers about Mrs. Etaris's backstory and her former companions, that is totally cool though not a requirement!)
My Thoughts: Things I adore about this canon include: Women! Worldbuilding! Comedy of manners! Political intrigue! Magic! Secret pasts! Spies! Smugglers! Mafia bosses! College roommates! Loyalty and betrayal! Bookstores! The deep weirdness of small towns! The sociopolitical woes of large cities! Literary quotations! Bandits! Forests both magical and mundane! Swords! Forced drug addictions! Moral ambiguity! Mysterious curses! Middle-aged mothers kicking ass! Young women with a cause! Post-post-apocalypse! Empire-building! Socialist revolution! Etcetera, etcetera. :)
A few additional points:
1. I would be thrilled to receive a story that includes any of the other female characters, such as Jullanar Maebh, Hope Stornaway, Anna Garsom, the Marquise of the Woods Noirell, Red Myrta, Myrta the Hand, Lady Rusticiana (the Chancellor of Morrowlea), Lady Jessamine of Alinor, the various locals of Ragnor Bella, and so on and so forth.
2. I am totally fine with any of the various male characters playing significant roles in your story, so long as the main focus remains on two women interacting.
3. To reiterate, although I generally dislike stories about cheating in relationships, I am 100% okay with reading a story that involves Lark cheating on someone (cheating on Jemis with Violet? cheating on Violet with Jemis? cheating on Violet with some other person? there are many options!) because her inability to understand or reciprocate trust is a big part of her character. I can see her either making it very clear upfront that she expects fidelity from her partners but will not return it, or just casually stringing along new favorites without bothering to mention that fact to her current paramour(s).
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Saga of the Skolian Empire
(This is a long-running series of novels and short stories by Catherine Asaro that mixes military sf, hard sf, space opera, and romance. Also telepathy, because why not. It's a very fun and tropey canon, but not one that can be picked up in a day.)
Characters: Rocalisa Qox-Skolia
Request: This request is both very specific and very open-ended. Here is the specific part: Lisi leaves Prism as a young adult (use whatever plot justification works best for you), and encounters the giant tangle of post-Radiance War interstellar politics and its ramifications for her family. Here is the open-ended part: literally everything else.
I admit that I would love you forever if you can get Lisi to meet any of her relatives either in person or via the psiberweb (which is why I nominated Jai, Kelric, and Dehya), but that is not strictly necessary. Other things that would be received with great joy but which are not requirements include some kind of action/adventure plot and/or a romance. If that romance happened to be lesbian and/or poly, I would be even more thrilled -- canon is sadly short on lesbians, though we did get Althor being both bi and poly -- but again, that is a bonus rather than a demand.
If that prompt is not working for you, here are some other ideas for Lisi-centric stories. Tell me about her growing up on Prism, or about returning to Prism to rebuild. Tell me about her years living on Earth with Seth: did she make friends; did she have a cute teenage romance; how hard was it to keep all the necessary secrets; did she adopt any pieces of Earth culture like Jai adopted Catholicism; etc. Just, tell me something about Lisi!
For this prompt, a focus on romance is obviously fine, though I would appreciate if you also put equal emphasis on at least one of the following: family, secrets, or action/adventure.
My Thoughts: Back in 2017, I posted some thoughts about this series. Namely, what really gets me is the family stuff, and the secrets, and the intersection of those secrets with dicey interstellar politics, leading to the situation where nobody can ever learn the truth about Jai's heritage without pulling everything down around everyone. Which means Lisi's very existence is a time bomb, if and when she ever ventures off Prism. (This is also true for Vitar and del-Kelric, obviously, but I'm not asking for them as my main character.)
I think all the Qox-Skolia children grew up with this interesting mix of innocence/naivety and gut-level knowledge of how terrible the universe can be (this will happen when you're raised in peaceful isolation, but your parents are telepaths who've been through some deep shit), and I'd really like to see how that plays out in someone other than Jai (since he gets plenty of focus as a major protagonist in canon). I'd also like to see how the matriarchal backdrop of the Skolian Empire plays out for a female protagonist who isn't coming from a (perceived) background of privilege like Soz, Dehya, and Roca (or a military background like Major Bhaajan) since obviously Lisi can't tell people about her heritage and would have to make her journey incognito.
...
Also I just want to see a woman doing a variation of Kelric's Ascendant Sun plot, only without the sexual objectification. *hands* I am a simple woman. I have simple needs. And in this particular case, they boil down to family, secrets, and bantering romances while on the run from space pirates or some convenient equivalent. (Or, you know, family stuff on Prism, or romance and secrets on Earth, or whatever, so long as Lisi's choices drive the story.)
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And that is that. Thank you again, and happy writing! If you want to comment on this post, you can do so over here on Dreamwidth, where there are currently (
comments)
Hi, and thank you in advance for writing a story for me! I'm pretty easy to please -- unless you write a context-free sex scene, I'll be thrilled just to get a fic in one of the fandoms I asked for. *grin* But I realize that's not terribly helpful, so here's the (very!) long version. (I am sorry for the tl;dr, but I like to talk about things I love and I figure more details are better than fewer.)
---------------
General Information:
1. First, while you cannot go wrong by writing gen for me, that is not a requirement. I will also read and enjoy pretty much anything when it comes to ships -- het, slash, femslash, threesomes, poly, whatever -- so long as you put in a bit of character development so the relationships don't seem to come out of nowhere. I tend to skim past sex scenes, though, so your efforts are best spent in other directions.
2. I read all kinds of genres and moods, from schmoopy fluff to angsty deathfic, but my favorite endings are bittersweet (leaning toward happy) and a little complicated.
3. If I said 'any' characters, I meant it. I fall in love with worlds and themes as much as I fall in love with characters, if not more. On a related note, I prefer fic compatible with the worlds and situations that canon presents. AUs of a "what if person X made choice A instead of choice B at moment Y" type are cool, but high school or coffee shop AUs are not what I'm looking for.
4. Stuff I really, really like: This can be boiled down to, 'Please treat characters as intelligent people who have understandable motives for their actions, please take the worlds seriously as settings, and please remember that sex and romance are not all there is to life. Also, ethics, metaphysics, and worldbuilding are dead cool.'
The long version: I like character development; world-building; explanation of plot holes in canon; subtle humor; a sense of wonder; writing that evokes an emotional reaction as well as telling a story; close relationships that don't necessarily involve sex (i.e., friendship, families, teachers and students, coworkers, traveling companions, soldiers in the same cause, etc.); the consequences of actions and choices; a sense of place and time; dialogue that conveys character as well as plot information; politics; ethics; people being intelligent even if they make bad choices; people trying to do the right thing even if they make bad choices; conflict because of opposing goals that both have points in their favor; a lack of simple solutions; female characters treated as people instead of plot devices; male characters treated as people instead of plot devices; ideas that make me stop and think; the nature of memory; the nature of truth; possession; soul-searching; non-gratuitous torture (...I have a kink, shut up); war and battles; hand-to-hand fighting; swordfights; peace and diplomacy; magic that's properly magical and strange or magic that's explained as a science (but not both at once); books and reading; people exploring a new country/world/city; linguistics and languages; early Industrial Revolution technology (or whatever technology is suitable to the milieu); people using logic to investigate a problem; and fires, floods, earthquakes, and other natural disasters.
5. Stuff I'm not so keen on:
*obvious authorial hatred for characters I like and/or find interesting (which is generally all of them)
*sex or romantic love with no in-story justification (unless the people in question are already a canon couple)
*gratuitous angst/torture/rape (i.e., bad stuff that comes out of nowhere and is not necessary to make the plot or character arc work)
*idiot plots (i.e., problems that could be solved in five minutes if the characters asked one or two obvious questions)
*pining (just not my trope)
*cheating on one's partners (also just not my trope... except if it's Lark! I am okay reading about Lark deliberately cheating on anyone, because that is just another facet of her general amorality and belief the world revolves around her.)
Okay. On to specific fandoms!
---------------
The Darkangel Trilogy
(This is a fantasy/sci-fi trilogy by Meredith Ann Pierce, which would probably be classed as YA if written today. The component books are The Darkangel, A Gathering of Gargoyles, and The Pearl of the Soul of the World. They're quick reads but it may take a little work to find copies.)
Characters: Eoduin, Sabr, Syllva, Worldbuilding
Request: I would like a story focusing on a female character and her place in the world, please! You don't need to include all three of my chosen characters (I'm not sure how that would even work, anyway!), but tell me a story about at least one of them before they got tangled up in the events of the series. I am completely cool with dark!fic here, given that Eoduin is a slaveowner and Sabr presumably earned the name "bandit queen" for a reason, but dark!fic is not a requirement. Light and hopeful stories are also great.
Here are some potential ships, if you are in a shippy mood this Yuletide: Eoduin and her unnamed fiancé, Eoduin and Aeriel (before or after death, and yes I know it's deeply problematic in multiple directions), Sabr and Irrylath, Sabr and Aeriel, Sabr and Erin (hatesex?), Syllva and the King of Avaric, Syllva and her unnamed second husband, etc. However, gen is just as welcome, and I am always here for stories about female friendship.
Also, please note the worldbuilding tag! The world Pierce creates on the moon is lyrical, beautiful, numinous, and strange, but at the same time feels like somewhere real people can and do live ordinary lives, farming, fishing, trading, hunting, making pots and baskets and tools, and all the other tasks needed to keep a society ticking along. There are also dramatic cultural and environmental differences between various lands, which shape the worldview of each land's inhabitants. So I am interested in what being from Terrain means to Eoduin, what being part of Avaric-in-exile means to Sabr, what being from Isternes (and traveling across the sea and back) means to Syllva.
My Thoughts: This series has been one of my favorites since I was quite young, and I love it madly and passionately because of everything it doesn't do. I mean, I love what it does do as well -- the utterly matter-of-fact fairytale atmosphere and the equally matter-of-fact way Pierce melds science fiction into that framework, the slow reveal of the post-apocalyptic elements, the lush descriptive language, the way Aeriel's power of heart is literalized through her mastery of the golden spindle, etc. -- but the characters and their world would not stick in my mind half as strongly if Pierce hadn't written what needed to happen instead of what narrative structures have trained us to expect will happen when you make a love story as central as Aeriel and Irrylath are.
Also the story hinges entirely on women's choices and women's relationships, and lets women be strong and central characters without forcing them into the Strong Female Character template. (Erin and Sabr come closest, and even they don't really fit into that box.) Women get to be heroes and villains and people just trying to go about their lives while occasionally getting swept up by grand events.
---------------
Greenwing & Dart
(This is a fantasy series by Victoria Goddard, with five currently extant books: Stargazy Pie, Bee Sting Cake, Whiskeyjack, Blackcurrant Fool, and Love-in-a-Mist. They are quick, engaging reads, a bit like regency comedy-of-manners meets pulp adventure in a fantasy world that is both recovering from a magical apocalypse and tipping toward social revolution.)
Characters: Lark Indrilline, Mrs. Jullanar Etaris, Violet, Worldbuilding
Request: I would like a story about any two of these characters (though if you can think of a way to manage all three, I will be deeply impressed!), in which they get to be clever and ruthless and awesome. In the case of Violet and Mrs. Etaris, I am also very open to them being kind, because that is also a strength and while Violet may be out of practice, Jullanar is not. Additionally, I am deeply interested in the exploration/creation of various corners of Alinor during its slow recovery from magical apocalypse.
Here are some potential story seeds, though please don't feel bound by any of them! How exactly did Violet and Lark first meet, and how did Violet convince Lark to take her on as a servant/supporter? Did Lark ever try to ensnare Violet by magical means, and if so, was Violet able to resist? Did Violet and Mrs. Etaris have any conversations or side adventures during Stargazy Pie? Did either Violet or Mrs. Etaris attempt to write to the other after Violet left Ragnor Bella? Did Mrs. Etaris ever attend the Orio City book fair herself, and if so, did she perhaps encounter Lark and/or Violet? What might happen to bring any of the three into contact with each other in the time between Love-in-a-Mist and The Return of Fitzroy Angursell?
I am open to some deeply fucked-up Lark/Violet if you feel inclined in that direction, but gen is always welcome. :) Additionally, while I DNW a focus on Mrs. Etaris's unhappy marriage, I am open to an exploration of her relationship with her children.
(If you want to incorporate spoilers about Mrs. Etaris's backstory and her former companions, that is totally cool though not a requirement!)
My Thoughts: Things I adore about this canon include: Women! Worldbuilding! Comedy of manners! Political intrigue! Magic! Secret pasts! Spies! Smugglers! Mafia bosses! College roommates! Loyalty and betrayal! Bookstores! The deep weirdness of small towns! The sociopolitical woes of large cities! Literary quotations! Bandits! Forests both magical and mundane! Swords! Forced drug addictions! Moral ambiguity! Mysterious curses! Middle-aged mothers kicking ass! Young women with a cause! Post-post-apocalypse! Empire-building! Socialist revolution! Etcetera, etcetera. :)
A few additional points:
1. I would be thrilled to receive a story that includes any of the other female characters, such as Jullanar Maebh, Hope Stornaway, Anna Garsom, the Marquise of the Woods Noirell, Red Myrta, Myrta the Hand, Lady Rusticiana (the Chancellor of Morrowlea), Lady Jessamine of Alinor, the various locals of Ragnor Bella, and so on and so forth.
2. I am totally fine with any of the various male characters playing significant roles in your story, so long as the main focus remains on two women interacting.
3. To reiterate, although I generally dislike stories about cheating in relationships, I am 100% okay with reading a story that involves Lark cheating on someone (cheating on Jemis with Violet? cheating on Violet with Jemis? cheating on Violet with some other person? there are many options!) because her inability to understand or reciprocate trust is a big part of her character. I can see her either making it very clear upfront that she expects fidelity from her partners but will not return it, or just casually stringing along new favorites without bothering to mention that fact to her current paramour(s).
---------------
Saga of the Skolian Empire
(This is a long-running series of novels and short stories by Catherine Asaro that mixes military sf, hard sf, space opera, and romance. Also telepathy, because why not. It's a very fun and tropey canon, but not one that can be picked up in a day.)
Characters: Rocalisa Qox-Skolia
Request: This request is both very specific and very open-ended. Here is the specific part: Lisi leaves Prism as a young adult (use whatever plot justification works best for you), and encounters the giant tangle of post-Radiance War interstellar politics and its ramifications for her family. Here is the open-ended part: literally everything else.
I admit that I would love you forever if you can get Lisi to meet any of her relatives either in person or via the psiberweb (which is why I nominated Jai, Kelric, and Dehya), but that is not strictly necessary. Other things that would be received with great joy but which are not requirements include some kind of action/adventure plot and/or a romance. If that romance happened to be lesbian and/or poly, I would be even more thrilled -- canon is sadly short on lesbians, though we did get Althor being both bi and poly -- but again, that is a bonus rather than a demand.
If that prompt is not working for you, here are some other ideas for Lisi-centric stories. Tell me about her growing up on Prism, or about returning to Prism to rebuild. Tell me about her years living on Earth with Seth: did she make friends; did she have a cute teenage romance; how hard was it to keep all the necessary secrets; did she adopt any pieces of Earth culture like Jai adopted Catholicism; etc. Just, tell me something about Lisi!
For this prompt, a focus on romance is obviously fine, though I would appreciate if you also put equal emphasis on at least one of the following: family, secrets, or action/adventure.
My Thoughts: Back in 2017, I posted some thoughts about this series. Namely, what really gets me is the family stuff, and the secrets, and the intersection of those secrets with dicey interstellar politics, leading to the situation where nobody can ever learn the truth about Jai's heritage without pulling everything down around everyone. Which means Lisi's very existence is a time bomb, if and when she ever ventures off Prism. (This is also true for Vitar and del-Kelric, obviously, but I'm not asking for them as my main character.)
I think all the Qox-Skolia children grew up with this interesting mix of innocence/naivety and gut-level knowledge of how terrible the universe can be (this will happen when you're raised in peaceful isolation, but your parents are telepaths who've been through some deep shit), and I'd really like to see how that plays out in someone other than Jai (since he gets plenty of focus as a major protagonist in canon). I'd also like to see how the matriarchal backdrop of the Skolian Empire plays out for a female protagonist who isn't coming from a (perceived) background of privilege like Soz, Dehya, and Roca (or a military background like Major Bhaajan) since obviously Lisi can't tell people about her heritage and would have to make her journey incognito.
...
Also I just want to see a woman doing a variation of Kelric's Ascendant Sun plot, only without the sexual objectification. *hands* I am a simple woman. I have simple needs. And in this particular case, they boil down to family, secrets, and bantering romances while on the run from space pirates or some convenient equivalent. (Or, you know, family stuff on Prism, or romance and secrets on Earth, or whatever, so long as Lisi's choices drive the story.)
---------------
And that is that. Thank you again, and happy writing! If you want to comment on this post, you can do so over here on Dreamwidth, where there are currently (
comments)