Dear Yuletide Writer
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. I will read anything when it comes to pairings -- 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 -- but I prefer gen, and I tend to skim sex scenes because the non-sex parts of the story are almost always more interesting to me. (Feel free to disregard this if you are writing the Karla-has-a-sex-life prompt! In that particular case, porn is more than welcome. In fact, even a context-free sex scene would be okay... though context is always better. *wry*)
2. I read all kinds of genres and moods, from schmoopy fluff to angsty deathfic, but my favorite endings are bittersweet and a little complicated.
3. When 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. (Tangentially, I would 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 okay, but AUs where everyone works in a coffeeshop 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 world-building are dead cool.'
The long version: I like character development; world-building; explanation of plot holes in canon; subtle humor; good spelling and grammar; 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); and predestination, prophecies, and anything else that denies free will.
6. If there are ugly social issues inherent in these things I love, and you want to talk about them, that is fine by me. That falls under 'taking the characters and settings seriously,' and I am always pleased when a story makes me stop and think. (This is not to say that I don't love more straightforward squeeing as well -- because I totally do! -- but if you want to go deeper, I am with you all the way.)
Okay. On to specific fandoms.
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The Dispossessed:
(This is a standalone science fiction novel by Ursula K. Le Guin, though it is part of a rather haphazard universe called, variously, the Ekumen or the Hainish Cycle.)
Characters: any!
Request: This has been one of my favorite books for almost twenty years, and I am sure I will love any story you write for it. I am not at all fussy! I like the characters, the utopianism and related politics and philosophy, the crazy alien physics, the world-building for both Urras and Anarres, etc. I am also totally up for fic about "The Day Before the Revolution" and the rest of Laia Odo's life.
If you want plot hooks, I am fascinated by the way marriage (or the lack thereof) plays out in Anarresti society, and what that means for Shevek and Takver. I am also intrigued by the hints of Odo's own relationship with Taviri; I enjoy the throwaway mentions of Urrasti legends and would love to see them turned into proper mythology; I am curious about the chaos in Benbili that was going on while Shevek was on Urras; I'd love to hear about Ambassador Keng's reaction to Urras both pre- and post-Shevek; etc., etc. There are infinite options! I like all pairing types, but I would prefer a focus on plot, character development, and world-building instead of a focus on sex and/or romance.
My thoughts: What I love about this book is everything. No, seriously -- everything. Shevek fascinates me, and I love how real all his relationships feel, especially the family he and Takver create and maintain. I like how he slowly learns to connect with other people, that he and Takver have problems and work through them, that they're good and loving parents but their own concerns affect their children. I like how Shevek's relationship with Sadik is in some ways a direct repudiation of his non-relationship with his own mother, Rulag, while in other ways Shevek and Rulag are very similar -- both direct, abrupt, and work-driven. I like the glimpses we get of Shevek's friends over the years.
I love the alien conception of physics, where science is assumed to automatically include moral and philosophical dimensions, and to describe only the physical world is only doing a fraction of the job. I love the descriptions of life on Anarres, how the people work together to carve life out of a barren, inhospitable world -- the parts where Takver studies sea life, or Shevek marvels at the abundance of species on Urras, are very striking.
I love the way the utopian anarchism of Anarres is not perfect; it must be maintained, carefully, and the gains come with corresponding losses. I love that the Anarresti themselves disagree over the ideal shape of their society, and are fighting against the human tendency to settle into power structures and fixed patterns of behavior. I love the way Urras is so rich and so poor at the same time, so gentle and so cruel; there is such abundance, yet they hoard power and build fences to keep people (women, the poor, people from other countries) from sharing in that abundance. I love how the people of both worlds are shaped by their cultures so they keep talking past each other. Neither world is perfect, and there is a clear symbiosis between them; in some ways they need one another to act as the symbolic Other. I love the hints of geopolitics that play out on Urras during Shevek's visit. He only stays in A-Io, but there is a sense of a greater world beyond his limited horizon; I am curious about the parts of Urras he doesn't get to see, and how the existence of Anarres and Shevek's presence on Urras play out in other cultures.
I am fascinated by the implication that both Urras and Anarres are in a long, slow-motion social change caused by the intrusion of other human species into their worlds -- the idea that they are descended from the Hainish must shake them, and I really like that Shevek is inspired by reading some of Einstein's Terran physics, though he thinks Einstein is all wrong about any number of things. I am also fascinated by the glimpses of Terra provided by Ambassador Keng, and how that post-apocalyptic culture shapes her attitude toward Urras and Annares. (If you want to show how Shevek's invention of the ansible helps nudge that totalitarian version of Earth toward the society later seen in City of Illusion, be my guest, though that's obviously outside the boundaries of my official request.)
As for "The Day Before the Revolution," Odo is a vivid, compelling character even in the brief glimpses we get during The Dispossessed, and she comes satisfyingly to life here. It's interesting that Le Guin chose not to write about the grand events of Odo's life, but to focus on a quiet day in her old age as she is learning (awkwardly, reluctantly, bitterly) to deal with physical and emotional loss, and realizing that the movement she inspired has grown beyond her. It's not the kind of story I'm used to reading in science fiction, which I think makes it more powerful than it would be in a different genre. Anyway, Odo is fascinating, so if you want to write about her instead of the later world, that would also be extremely cool.
As I said above, I am not fussy about what you write! As long as you write about Anarres and Urras, please feel free to use whatever canon and original characters you want! (And if you want to write sex and/or romance between Shevek and Takver, or between Odo and Taviri, that is fine by me. I just ask that the story include some character development and world-building as well, for balance.)
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Lucifer:
(This is a completed eleven-volume comics series written by Mike Carey and illustrated by Peter Gross, Dean Ormston, Ryan Kelley, et al. It is based on character interpretations developed by Neil Gaiman in The Sandman, but you don't have to read that series to understand this one.)
Characters: any!
Request: Lucifer is my favorite, but I love pretty much all the characters. What I am especially interested in reading is a story about families -- Lucifer and his brothers; Lucifer, Michael, and Elaine; Elaine's human family, or how Cestis copes with 'her' new wife and son after the series end; Rachel and her resurrected brother (is he healed? how does she cope if he is or isn't?); Gaudium, Spera, and Lumen; Mazikeen and Lilith; Jill and Noema; Izanami and her sons; or any of the other family units in the series. Failing that, why not tell me what Gabriel was up to during the series? He seems to have vanished off the face of the universe after the incident with Lilith, and I would love an explanation of what happened to him. I like all pairing types, but I would prefer them to remain in the background.
My thoughts: I have a thing for the devil, okay? Not in the religious/ethical sense of worshipping evil, but as a character. I empathize with feeling trapped and coerced, and with lashing out against that. I like Satan in Paradise Lost. I like Lucifer in Neil Gaiman's Murder Mysteries. I like Lucifer in Angel Sanctuary.
And I like this version of Lucifer, as envisioned by Gaiman in The Sandman and fleshed out by Mike Carey in Lucifer. He is cold and proud, solitary, self-centered, and cruel... but he doesn't compromise, he keeps his bargains, he returns faith for faith given (if cutting a bit toward the letter of the law rather than the spirit), he cares about Michael and Mazikeen as much as he's able, and he never, ever lies. He is the one who tells God, "No." And he makes it stick.
Of course, Lucifer himself is not the only reason I love the series. I love Elaine in her confusion, and the way she grows and becomes so much more (personally, not just professionally) than she ever imagined. I love Mazikeen, how Carey found a warrior queen inside the lovestruck demon Gaiman first showed us. I love Michael's tortured attempts to understand and justify the flaws in the universe, and to do right by his duty and his daughter. I love how human all the angels and demons and centaurs and old gods and playing cards and humans are. I love the wheels within wheels of the plot, and how the seeds of the end are inevitable from the beginning if you look. I love the world-building that makes hell a living, breathing society. I love the storytelling, the patterns and word choices, the little asides Carey stops and makes in the middle of his epic. I love the scale, and the horrible edge to the choices Lucifer makes and forces other people to make. I love the stupid humor Gaudium, Spera, and some other characters bring to the table. I love that an epic saga of metaphysical war is packaged as a kitchen table story about dysfunctional families, about fathers and sons and mothers and daughters and sisters and brothers. (I really, really like that part.)
But mostly I come back to Lucifer, and the idea of saying no. No lies. No compromises. No false choice between serving in heaven or reigning in hell. He insists there are other options and he goes out and makes them. Along the way, by accident and side-effect, he inspires other people to make their own hard choices according to their own natures. Truth and choice, I think, may be the heart of the story. You face who you are, and that determines what you do.
(One note: If you write fic for this series, please use a light hand with italics. Yes, the comics are heavy on italics. But what works in one medium often falls flat in another, and excess italics make my head hurt.)
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The Lions of Al-Rassan:
(This is a standalone fantasy novel by Guy Gavriel Kay.)
Characters: any!
Request: This is another of my all-time favorite books, and again I'm sure I'll love anything you write! That said, I've always been interested in the canon gaps. For example, what else happened during the year Ammar and Rodrigo served in Ragosa? What was the Belmontes' marriage like before they had children? When and why did Ishak learn medicine, and how did he come to Almalik's attention? How did Jehane, Ammar, and/or Alvar adjust to Sorenica? Or anything else that catches your fancy. I like all pairing types, but I would prefer that you focus at least as much on plot, character development, and world-building as on any potential sex and/or romance.
I love this book because, while you can't call it anything but fantasy, it is not particularly fantastical. It's excellently written historical fiction that happens to be set in a made-up world. (I grant that Kay's secondary world is suspiciously similar to Spain during the Reconquista, but the fantasy aspect frees him to create his own characters and plot rather than being a slave to historical accuracy.) Kay also learned a trick from Tolkien that adds extra poignancy: the constant refrain of beauty shattered and fading in a harsh, mortal world. There's an aching sense of lost possibilities, the hope that if just one or two things had gone differently... but then you look again at the larger situation of the world, and you realize historical forces are aligned against your dreams, and nothing lasts forever. As Rodrigo says, "Even the sun goes down."
This book makes me cry every time I read it -- literally cry, I mean, not just get a little sniffly. I don't cry over books like that. But Kay gets inside my heart, hooks it open, and leaves me raw and aching. I love that so much, that a fictional world and fictional people can be that real and true for me. I want them all to win, but there is no way for that to happen, and that's better than any old struggle between straightforward good and evil. Because it's real.
I particularly like the friendship between Rodrigo and Ammar, the way Jehane is an independent, competent adult, and the Belmontes' marriage. (If you write about Miranda and Rodrigo, or Jehane and Ammar, I am totally okay with a sex scene, but please don't make that the only focus of the story.)
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Black Jewels:
(This is a sprawling fantasy series by Anne Bishop -- I believe there are currently nine component books, starting with Daughter of the Blood. This is probably not the best fandom to get into in under two months.)
Characters: Karla
Request: I want to see Karla having an actual sexual/romantic relationship with another woman. Or several relationships. Or one relationship with several women. Whatever! Her partner(s) can be canon or original, whichever is easiest for you. I don't care if you focus on the feelings or the sex, but I would like Karla to retain her prickly edges even while in love and/or lust. If you show how she balances her sex life with the pseudo-family she canonically formed with her Captain of the Guard and Della, that would be extra awesome -- I am all in favor of found families, the larger the better -- but if you want to write something set during her teen years or to gloss over that potential area of conflict, that is also fine by me. I just want Karla to act on her sexuality and be HAPPY. It is not so very much to ask!
(P.S. I have a huge soft spot for Karla/Wilhelmina, if you can think of a way to make that work, but that is totally not required.)
My thoughts: Bishop is not quite what I'd call a guilty pleasure, but this series hits a LOT of my id buttons, and hits them HARD, which keeps me reading even when her world-building often makes me go, "Ummm... are you sure?" So yes, please, bring on powerful people using that power, women unashamedly in charge, violence and vengeance all over the place, predatory behavior in otherwise human characters, and so on and so forth. Getting to see Karla in her role as Queen -- sitting in judgment, yanking the leashes on recalcitrant members of her various Circles, negotiating with other Territories, etc. -- would be awesome. There are never enough stories about women exercising power.
As for sex itself, should you choose to write anything explicit... well, better TMI now than a belated discovery that we have incompatible kinks, yeah?
First, you are not obligated to write porn! Second, if you do so, vanilla is fine; canon itself is pretty vanilla when it comes to sex between protagonists and I have never felt any loss of sensuality there. Third, I do not want non-con or dub-con in this context, though mention of past rape and/or threats thereof is okay.
Now, on to kinks and other details. Bloodplay during consensual sex is fine and more than fine, as is creative use of Craft for bondage or other games. (Phantom hands and seduction tendrils are neat, but seriously, they can't be the only options! Especially not for a Healer and Black Widow.) On that note, I am not into D/s when used in the service of verbal or physical humiliation -- I am not into humiliation or degradation in general, FYI -- but the general idea of taking care/being cared for is tasty, and bondage in and of itself is awesome. Being restrained can be about freedom and relaxation, or enhancing sensation by blocking off one sense, like sight or touch. Breast worship and nipple play are always a plus. Mild xeno is also cool if you want to write Karla with a character who is not physically fully human -- like the way people from Tigrelan have claws and Eyriens have wings. I'm not into bestiality, though, and sex with Kindred would come too close to that for me.
Given Karla's reaction to her Virgin Night, I tend to think she doesn't seek penetration, though she may be perfectly happy to use Craft or a physical object to penetrate a lover, should that lover so desire. Teasing is good, both giving and receiving, but in a spirit of mutuality, not with an emotionally cruel edge. Dirty talk is also good, but not in the sense of calling people by sexually degrading names (even in a reclamatory fashion). For example, saying "I'm going to do X, Y, and Z to you, and you're going to love it," is cool, but finishing with, "you filthy little slut," is not what I'm looking for.
Lastly, if you are setting this after Queen of the Darkness, acknowledgement of Karla's injuries would be nice, though it doesn't have to be a big thing.
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And that is that. :-)
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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.
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General Information:
1. I will read anything when it comes to pairings -- 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 -- but I prefer gen, and I tend to skim sex scenes because the non-sex parts of the story are almost always more interesting to me. (Feel free to disregard this if you are writing the Karla-has-a-sex-life prompt! In that particular case, porn is more than welcome. In fact, even a context-free sex scene would be okay... though context is always better. *wry*)
2. I read all kinds of genres and moods, from schmoopy fluff to angsty deathfic, but my favorite endings are bittersweet and a little complicated.
3. When 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. (Tangentially, I would 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 okay, but AUs where everyone works in a coffeeshop 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 world-building are dead cool.'
The long version: I like character development; world-building; explanation of plot holes in canon; subtle humor; good spelling and grammar; 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); and predestination, prophecies, and anything else that denies free will.
6. If there are ugly social issues inherent in these things I love, and you want to talk about them, that is fine by me. That falls under 'taking the characters and settings seriously,' and I am always pleased when a story makes me stop and think. (This is not to say that I don't love more straightforward squeeing as well -- because I totally do! -- but if you want to go deeper, I am with you all the way.)
Okay. On to specific fandoms.
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The Dispossessed:
(This is a standalone science fiction novel by Ursula K. Le Guin, though it is part of a rather haphazard universe called, variously, the Ekumen or the Hainish Cycle.)
Characters: any!
Request: This has been one of my favorite books for almost twenty years, and I am sure I will love any story you write for it. I am not at all fussy! I like the characters, the utopianism and related politics and philosophy, the crazy alien physics, the world-building for both Urras and Anarres, etc. I am also totally up for fic about "The Day Before the Revolution" and the rest of Laia Odo's life.
If you want plot hooks, I am fascinated by the way marriage (or the lack thereof) plays out in Anarresti society, and what that means for Shevek and Takver. I am also intrigued by the hints of Odo's own relationship with Taviri; I enjoy the throwaway mentions of Urrasti legends and would love to see them turned into proper mythology; I am curious about the chaos in Benbili that was going on while Shevek was on Urras; I'd love to hear about Ambassador Keng's reaction to Urras both pre- and post-Shevek; etc., etc. There are infinite options! I like all pairing types, but I would prefer a focus on plot, character development, and world-building instead of a focus on sex and/or romance.
My thoughts: What I love about this book is everything. No, seriously -- everything. Shevek fascinates me, and I love how real all his relationships feel, especially the family he and Takver create and maintain. I like how he slowly learns to connect with other people, that he and Takver have problems and work through them, that they're good and loving parents but their own concerns affect their children. I like how Shevek's relationship with Sadik is in some ways a direct repudiation of his non-relationship with his own mother, Rulag, while in other ways Shevek and Rulag are very similar -- both direct, abrupt, and work-driven. I like the glimpses we get of Shevek's friends over the years.
I love the alien conception of physics, where science is assumed to automatically include moral and philosophical dimensions, and to describe only the physical world is only doing a fraction of the job. I love the descriptions of life on Anarres, how the people work together to carve life out of a barren, inhospitable world -- the parts where Takver studies sea life, or Shevek marvels at the abundance of species on Urras, are very striking.
I love the way the utopian anarchism of Anarres is not perfect; it must be maintained, carefully, and the gains come with corresponding losses. I love that the Anarresti themselves disagree over the ideal shape of their society, and are fighting against the human tendency to settle into power structures and fixed patterns of behavior. I love the way Urras is so rich and so poor at the same time, so gentle and so cruel; there is such abundance, yet they hoard power and build fences to keep people (women, the poor, people from other countries) from sharing in that abundance. I love how the people of both worlds are shaped by their cultures so they keep talking past each other. Neither world is perfect, and there is a clear symbiosis between them; in some ways they need one another to act as the symbolic Other. I love the hints of geopolitics that play out on Urras during Shevek's visit. He only stays in A-Io, but there is a sense of a greater world beyond his limited horizon; I am curious about the parts of Urras he doesn't get to see, and how the existence of Anarres and Shevek's presence on Urras play out in other cultures.
I am fascinated by the implication that both Urras and Anarres are in a long, slow-motion social change caused by the intrusion of other human species into their worlds -- the idea that they are descended from the Hainish must shake them, and I really like that Shevek is inspired by reading some of Einstein's Terran physics, though he thinks Einstein is all wrong about any number of things. I am also fascinated by the glimpses of Terra provided by Ambassador Keng, and how that post-apocalyptic culture shapes her attitude toward Urras and Annares. (If you want to show how Shevek's invention of the ansible helps nudge that totalitarian version of Earth toward the society later seen in City of Illusion, be my guest, though that's obviously outside the boundaries of my official request.)
As for "The Day Before the Revolution," Odo is a vivid, compelling character even in the brief glimpses we get during The Dispossessed, and she comes satisfyingly to life here. It's interesting that Le Guin chose not to write about the grand events of Odo's life, but to focus on a quiet day in her old age as she is learning (awkwardly, reluctantly, bitterly) to deal with physical and emotional loss, and realizing that the movement she inspired has grown beyond her. It's not the kind of story I'm used to reading in science fiction, which I think makes it more powerful than it would be in a different genre. Anyway, Odo is fascinating, so if you want to write about her instead of the later world, that would also be extremely cool.
As I said above, I am not fussy about what you write! As long as you write about Anarres and Urras, please feel free to use whatever canon and original characters you want! (And if you want to write sex and/or romance between Shevek and Takver, or between Odo and Taviri, that is fine by me. I just ask that the story include some character development and world-building as well, for balance.)
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Lucifer:
(This is a completed eleven-volume comics series written by Mike Carey and illustrated by Peter Gross, Dean Ormston, Ryan Kelley, et al. It is based on character interpretations developed by Neil Gaiman in The Sandman, but you don't have to read that series to understand this one.)
Characters: any!
Request: Lucifer is my favorite, but I love pretty much all the characters. What I am especially interested in reading is a story about families -- Lucifer and his brothers; Lucifer, Michael, and Elaine; Elaine's human family, or how Cestis copes with 'her' new wife and son after the series end; Rachel and her resurrected brother (is he healed? how does she cope if he is or isn't?); Gaudium, Spera, and Lumen; Mazikeen and Lilith; Jill and Noema; Izanami and her sons; or any of the other family units in the series. Failing that, why not tell me what Gabriel was up to during the series? He seems to have vanished off the face of the universe after the incident with Lilith, and I would love an explanation of what happened to him. I like all pairing types, but I would prefer them to remain in the background.
My thoughts: I have a thing for the devil, okay? Not in the religious/ethical sense of worshipping evil, but as a character. I empathize with feeling trapped and coerced, and with lashing out against that. I like Satan in Paradise Lost. I like Lucifer in Neil Gaiman's Murder Mysteries. I like Lucifer in Angel Sanctuary.
And I like this version of Lucifer, as envisioned by Gaiman in The Sandman and fleshed out by Mike Carey in Lucifer. He is cold and proud, solitary, self-centered, and cruel... but he doesn't compromise, he keeps his bargains, he returns faith for faith given (if cutting a bit toward the letter of the law rather than the spirit), he cares about Michael and Mazikeen as much as he's able, and he never, ever lies. He is the one who tells God, "No." And he makes it stick.
Of course, Lucifer himself is not the only reason I love the series. I love Elaine in her confusion, and the way she grows and becomes so much more (personally, not just professionally) than she ever imagined. I love Mazikeen, how Carey found a warrior queen inside the lovestruck demon Gaiman first showed us. I love Michael's tortured attempts to understand and justify the flaws in the universe, and to do right by his duty and his daughter. I love how human all the angels and demons and centaurs and old gods and playing cards and humans are. I love the wheels within wheels of the plot, and how the seeds of the end are inevitable from the beginning if you look. I love the world-building that makes hell a living, breathing society. I love the storytelling, the patterns and word choices, the little asides Carey stops and makes in the middle of his epic. I love the scale, and the horrible edge to the choices Lucifer makes and forces other people to make. I love the stupid humor Gaudium, Spera, and some other characters bring to the table. I love that an epic saga of metaphysical war is packaged as a kitchen table story about dysfunctional families, about fathers and sons and mothers and daughters and sisters and brothers. (I really, really like that part.)
But mostly I come back to Lucifer, and the idea of saying no. No lies. No compromises. No false choice between serving in heaven or reigning in hell. He insists there are other options and he goes out and makes them. Along the way, by accident and side-effect, he inspires other people to make their own hard choices according to their own natures. Truth and choice, I think, may be the heart of the story. You face who you are, and that determines what you do.
(One note: If you write fic for this series, please use a light hand with italics. Yes, the comics are heavy on italics. But what works in one medium often falls flat in another, and excess italics make my head hurt.)
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The Lions of Al-Rassan:
(This is a standalone fantasy novel by Guy Gavriel Kay.)
Characters: any!
Request: This is another of my all-time favorite books, and again I'm sure I'll love anything you write! That said, I've always been interested in the canon gaps. For example, what else happened during the year Ammar and Rodrigo served in Ragosa? What was the Belmontes' marriage like before they had children? When and why did Ishak learn medicine, and how did he come to Almalik's attention? How did Jehane, Ammar, and/or Alvar adjust to Sorenica? Or anything else that catches your fancy. I like all pairing types, but I would prefer that you focus at least as much on plot, character development, and world-building as on any potential sex and/or romance.
I love this book because, while you can't call it anything but fantasy, it is not particularly fantastical. It's excellently written historical fiction that happens to be set in a made-up world. (I grant that Kay's secondary world is suspiciously similar to Spain during the Reconquista, but the fantasy aspect frees him to create his own characters and plot rather than being a slave to historical accuracy.) Kay also learned a trick from Tolkien that adds extra poignancy: the constant refrain of beauty shattered and fading in a harsh, mortal world. There's an aching sense of lost possibilities, the hope that if just one or two things had gone differently... but then you look again at the larger situation of the world, and you realize historical forces are aligned against your dreams, and nothing lasts forever. As Rodrigo says, "Even the sun goes down."
This book makes me cry every time I read it -- literally cry, I mean, not just get a little sniffly. I don't cry over books like that. But Kay gets inside my heart, hooks it open, and leaves me raw and aching. I love that so much, that a fictional world and fictional people can be that real and true for me. I want them all to win, but there is no way for that to happen, and that's better than any old struggle between straightforward good and evil. Because it's real.
I particularly like the friendship between Rodrigo and Ammar, the way Jehane is an independent, competent adult, and the Belmontes' marriage. (If you write about Miranda and Rodrigo, or Jehane and Ammar, I am totally okay with a sex scene, but please don't make that the only focus of the story.)
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Black Jewels:
(This is a sprawling fantasy series by Anne Bishop -- I believe there are currently nine component books, starting with Daughter of the Blood. This is probably not the best fandom to get into in under two months.)
Characters: Karla
Request: I want to see Karla having an actual sexual/romantic relationship with another woman. Or several relationships. Or one relationship with several women. Whatever! Her partner(s) can be canon or original, whichever is easiest for you. I don't care if you focus on the feelings or the sex, but I would like Karla to retain her prickly edges even while in love and/or lust. If you show how she balances her sex life with the pseudo-family she canonically formed with her Captain of the Guard and Della, that would be extra awesome -- I am all in favor of found families, the larger the better -- but if you want to write something set during her teen years or to gloss over that potential area of conflict, that is also fine by me. I just want Karla to act on her sexuality and be HAPPY. It is not so very much to ask!
(P.S. I have a huge soft spot for Karla/Wilhelmina, if you can think of a way to make that work, but that is totally not required.)
My thoughts: Bishop is not quite what I'd call a guilty pleasure, but this series hits a LOT of my id buttons, and hits them HARD, which keeps me reading even when her world-building often makes me go, "Ummm... are you sure?" So yes, please, bring on powerful people using that power, women unashamedly in charge, violence and vengeance all over the place, predatory behavior in otherwise human characters, and so on and so forth. Getting to see Karla in her role as Queen -- sitting in judgment, yanking the leashes on recalcitrant members of her various Circles, negotiating with other Territories, etc. -- would be awesome. There are never enough stories about women exercising power.
As for sex itself, should you choose to write anything explicit... well, better TMI now than a belated discovery that we have incompatible kinks, yeah?
First, you are not obligated to write porn! Second, if you do so, vanilla is fine; canon itself is pretty vanilla when it comes to sex between protagonists and I have never felt any loss of sensuality there. Third, I do not want non-con or dub-con in this context, though mention of past rape and/or threats thereof is okay.
Now, on to kinks and other details. Bloodplay during consensual sex is fine and more than fine, as is creative use of Craft for bondage or other games. (Phantom hands and seduction tendrils are neat, but seriously, they can't be the only options! Especially not for a Healer and Black Widow.) On that note, I am not into D/s when used in the service of verbal or physical humiliation -- I am not into humiliation or degradation in general, FYI -- but the general idea of taking care/being cared for is tasty, and bondage in and of itself is awesome. Being restrained can be about freedom and relaxation, or enhancing sensation by blocking off one sense, like sight or touch. Breast worship and nipple play are always a plus. Mild xeno is also cool if you want to write Karla with a character who is not physically fully human -- like the way people from Tigrelan have claws and Eyriens have wings. I'm not into bestiality, though, and sex with Kindred would come too close to that for me.
Given Karla's reaction to her Virgin Night, I tend to think she doesn't seek penetration, though she may be perfectly happy to use Craft or a physical object to penetrate a lover, should that lover so desire. Teasing is good, both giving and receiving, but in a spirit of mutuality, not with an emotionally cruel edge. Dirty talk is also good, but not in the sense of calling people by sexually degrading names (even in a reclamatory fashion). For example, saying "I'm going to do X, Y, and Z to you, and you're going to love it," is cool, but finishing with, "you filthy little slut," is not what I'm looking for.
Lastly, if you are setting this after Queen of the Darkness, acknowledgement of Karla's injuries would be nice, though it doesn't have to be a big thing.
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And that is that. :-)
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