Dear Yuletide Writer 2016
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.)
---------------
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. (Except if you are writing the Karla-has-a-sex-life prompt! In that particular case, porn is more than welcome. *grin* I'd still appreciate some context around it, though.)
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 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 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 world-building 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); and predestination, prophecies, and anything else that denies free will.
Okay. On to specific fandoms.
---------------
The Lions of Al-Rassan:
(This is a standalone fantasy novel by Guy Gavriel Kay.)
Characters: any!
Request: This is one of my all-time favorite books, and 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? How did Jehane and Ammar adjust to Sorenica? I am also interested in points at which the story might have turned and gone in a different direction. Such alternate paths are probably equally likely to end in tragedy, alas, but new and different flavors of bittersweet are worth sampling. *wry*
I like all pairing types and, with one caveat detailed in my letter, am open to any combination of the four characters nominated this year. (Those being Jehane, Ammar, Rodrigo, and Miranda.) 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.
And now the caveat I mentioned in my prompt! I like the relationships Rodrigo has with both Ammar and Jehane, and I like polyamory, BUT I dislike cheating. Therefore if you write Rodrigo doing anything non-platonic with Ammar, Jehane, or both, please either have him get permission from Miranda or work her in as well somehow. (Perhaps creating a scenario where that makes any logistical sense is a good basis for a 'turn left' canon-based AU?) This applies in reverse if Ammar and/or Jehane somehow visit the Belmontes' home while Rodrigo is away. Also, I am okay with a sex scene if you're writing a relationship-centric story -- for any relationship among the four nominated characters, really -- but please don't make sex the only focus of your fic.
---------------
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 may not be readily available through libraries.)
Characters: Syllva, Eryka
Request: Syllva and Eryka are background characters in the trilogy itself, but what we hear about their lives is fascinating and I would love to know more about them.
Potential story seeds: What were their childhoods like? When did their parents die? How did Syllva meet the king of Avaric and what was Eryka's reaction to her sister leaving and handing her the government of Isternes? What did Syllva think of Avaric and Westernesse in general before everything went wrong? What was the sisters' relationship like between Syllva's return home and Eryka's own departure? What did Eryka think of Syllva's remarriage? What did Syllva think of Eryka's desire to travel, particularly after her own tragic experiences in Westernesse? What were Eryka's merchanting years like? Why did she go to Pirs and how did she meet the suzerain and his brother? Did Syllva and Eryka correspond during any of the periods they were living on different continents, or had Oriencor's influence broken down infrastructure too far by that point? What is the nature of government in Isternes and how is it related to the religion whose details Pierce declines to describe? Etc.
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.
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 -- and this is still unusual thirty years later -- none of the fathers implicit in the story ever gets a name. All but one of the mothers do. And what I want this year is a story about two of those mothers, whose lives (from the brief snippets we overhear) sound like they were full enough for a dozen people. In other words, I want to know more about Syllva and Eryka, because sisters are awesome. Sisters who are queens, adventurers, and intercontinental merchants are even better. *grin* I listed my most urgent questions in my prompt, but really, I would love almost anything about them.
My one caveat is that I don't want a story centered around Syllva mourning Irrylath's presumed death and Eryka comforting her in her grief. It is absolutely fine for that to be a side element in a story centered around something else, but I feel that Irrylath's tragedy gets enough focus in canon and I would like to hear about something else this year.
---------------
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. This is a very fun 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 really 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 July, 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 kind of 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.)
---------------
Daredevil (Comics)
(This is a long-running western superhero comics series set in Marvel's 616 universe. An awful lot of it is available online through various sources, but this is probably not the best fandom to get into in under two months.)
Characters: Natasha Romanov, Kirsten McDuffie, Elektra Natchios, Matt Murdock
Request: I admit upfront this is a slightly peculiar character combination, and I hereby absolve you of having to write all four characters if you can't think of a way to fit them into the same story. But I would really like to see at least two of the women, and see them interacting in a way that involves their professional lives rather than their romantic histories with Matt.
In other words, I want some kind of case!fic wherein Natasha and/or Kirsten and/or Elektra get to exercise their various professional skillsets to solve a problem. The scale can be as large or small as you like. You can pick whatever time period works best for your plot. Matt can be involved or not, as you please, though I would like the women to be at least as instrumental to the eventual resolution as he is. And if you can think of ways to work in any of the other women who have touched Matt's life over the years (whether lovers, friends, or enemies), that would be extra specially cool. :)
I genuinely don't care what you do with ships in this fic -- ship any of them, ship all of them, ship none of them, whatever! -- but romance should really not be the focus here, please.
My thoughts: I had been tangentially aware of Daredevil for a long time -- the 616 universe is a tangled mess of interconnected continuity; I read an isolated issue here or there over the years I worked in a magazine shop; and I have often been in the habit of reading entertainment journalism and/or fannish meta about canons I don't actually read or watch directly -- but my knowledge was very secondhand until the Netflix show hit in 2015.
Sustaining interest in audiovisual media is not easy for me, though, so my first reaction when falling in love with any audiovisual canon is to read every non-audiovisual tie-in I can hunt down. Which in this case are not really tie-ins but inspiration? But anyway, first I checked out a bunch of TPBs from my local library system. Then I got a Marvel Unlimited account, and I have been haphazardly poking around in the archives ever since.
The thing about a long-running series (in any medium) is that it changes dramatically over time, sometimes to the point where what seem like its defining characteristics in one decade become nearly irrelevant in another. I have enjoyed elements of every era I've read so far, wildly different though some of them are. But I think what I like best is when Daredevil writers keep their focus away from the cosmic absurdities of the 616 universe and tell more human-level stories.
(You can find my thoughts about some runs and arcs under the Daredevil tag here on my journal -- just scroll past the MCU stuff.)
Anyway, one of my long-term frustrations as a reader of superhero comics (and probably one reason I have never been a steady reader) is the treatment of women in that genre of that medium. So I want a story centered around some of the women who have moved in and out of Matt's life over the years, and I want a story that specifically DOES NOT focus on their relationships with Matt, except insofar as that's one obvious thing they have in common. Instead, I want to know who they are as people, and see as many of them interact with each other as is feasible. :D
---------------
Black Jewels [NSFW]:
(This is a sprawling fantasy series by Anne Bishop -- I believe there are currently nine component books, starting with Daughter of the Blood. Again, 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. 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; any kink that depends on those is going to turn me off -- but the general idea of taking care/being cared for is tasty, and bondage in and of itself is awesome. Teasing is good, both giving and receiving, but in a spirit of mutuality rather than 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.
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. Mild xeno is 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. I also enjoy breast worship and cunnilingus.
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.
---------------
And that is that. Thank you again, and happy writing!
You can also read this entry 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. (Except if you are writing the Karla-has-a-sex-life prompt! In that particular case, porn is more than welcome. *grin* I'd still appreciate some context around it, though.)
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 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 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 world-building 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); and predestination, prophecies, and anything else that denies free will.
Okay. On to specific fandoms.
---------------
The Lions of Al-Rassan:
(This is a standalone fantasy novel by Guy Gavriel Kay.)
Characters: any!
Request: This is one of my all-time favorite books, and 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? How did Jehane and Ammar adjust to Sorenica? I am also interested in points at which the story might have turned and gone in a different direction. Such alternate paths are probably equally likely to end in tragedy, alas, but new and different flavors of bittersweet are worth sampling. *wry*
I like all pairing types and, with one caveat detailed in my letter, am open to any combination of the four characters nominated this year. (Those being Jehane, Ammar, Rodrigo, and Miranda.) 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.
And now the caveat I mentioned in my prompt! I like the relationships Rodrigo has with both Ammar and Jehane, and I like polyamory, BUT I dislike cheating. Therefore if you write Rodrigo doing anything non-platonic with Ammar, Jehane, or both, please either have him get permission from Miranda or work her in as well somehow. (Perhaps creating a scenario where that makes any logistical sense is a good basis for a 'turn left' canon-based AU?) This applies in reverse if Ammar and/or Jehane somehow visit the Belmontes' home while Rodrigo is away. Also, I am okay with a sex scene if you're writing a relationship-centric story -- for any relationship among the four nominated characters, really -- but please don't make sex the only focus of your fic.
---------------
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 may not be readily available through libraries.)
Characters: Syllva, Eryka
Request: Syllva and Eryka are background characters in the trilogy itself, but what we hear about their lives is fascinating and I would love to know more about them.
Potential story seeds: What were their childhoods like? When did their parents die? How did Syllva meet the king of Avaric and what was Eryka's reaction to her sister leaving and handing her the government of Isternes? What did Syllva think of Avaric and Westernesse in general before everything went wrong? What was the sisters' relationship like between Syllva's return home and Eryka's own departure? What did Eryka think of Syllva's remarriage? What did Syllva think of Eryka's desire to travel, particularly after her own tragic experiences in Westernesse? What were Eryka's merchanting years like? Why did she go to Pirs and how did she meet the suzerain and his brother? Did Syllva and Eryka correspond during any of the periods they were living on different continents, or had Oriencor's influence broken down infrastructure too far by that point? What is the nature of government in Isternes and how is it related to the religion whose details Pierce declines to describe? Etc.
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.
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 -- and this is still unusual thirty years later -- none of the fathers implicit in the story ever gets a name. All but one of the mothers do. And what I want this year is a story about two of those mothers, whose lives (from the brief snippets we overhear) sound like they were full enough for a dozen people. In other words, I want to know more about Syllva and Eryka, because sisters are awesome. Sisters who are queens, adventurers, and intercontinental merchants are even better. *grin* I listed my most urgent questions in my prompt, but really, I would love almost anything about them.
My one caveat is that I don't want a story centered around Syllva mourning Irrylath's presumed death and Eryka comforting her in her grief. It is absolutely fine for that to be a side element in a story centered around something else, but I feel that Irrylath's tragedy gets enough focus in canon and I would like to hear about something else this year.
---------------
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. This is a very fun 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 really 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 July, 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 kind of 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.)
---------------
Daredevil (Comics)
(This is a long-running western superhero comics series set in Marvel's 616 universe. An awful lot of it is available online through various sources, but this is probably not the best fandom to get into in under two months.)
Characters: Natasha Romanov, Kirsten McDuffie, Elektra Natchios, Matt Murdock
Request: I admit upfront this is a slightly peculiar character combination, and I hereby absolve you of having to write all four characters if you can't think of a way to fit them into the same story. But I would really like to see at least two of the women, and see them interacting in a way that involves their professional lives rather than their romantic histories with Matt.
In other words, I want some kind of case!fic wherein Natasha and/or Kirsten and/or Elektra get to exercise their various professional skillsets to solve a problem. The scale can be as large or small as you like. You can pick whatever time period works best for your plot. Matt can be involved or not, as you please, though I would like the women to be at least as instrumental to the eventual resolution as he is. And if you can think of ways to work in any of the other women who have touched Matt's life over the years (whether lovers, friends, or enemies), that would be extra specially cool. :)
I genuinely don't care what you do with ships in this fic -- ship any of them, ship all of them, ship none of them, whatever! -- but romance should really not be the focus here, please.
My thoughts: I had been tangentially aware of Daredevil for a long time -- the 616 universe is a tangled mess of interconnected continuity; I read an isolated issue here or there over the years I worked in a magazine shop; and I have often been in the habit of reading entertainment journalism and/or fannish meta about canons I don't actually read or watch directly -- but my knowledge was very secondhand until the Netflix show hit in 2015.
Sustaining interest in audiovisual media is not easy for me, though, so my first reaction when falling in love with any audiovisual canon is to read every non-audiovisual tie-in I can hunt down. Which in this case are not really tie-ins but inspiration? But anyway, first I checked out a bunch of TPBs from my local library system. Then I got a Marvel Unlimited account, and I have been haphazardly poking around in the archives ever since.
The thing about a long-running series (in any medium) is that it changes dramatically over time, sometimes to the point where what seem like its defining characteristics in one decade become nearly irrelevant in another. I have enjoyed elements of every era I've read so far, wildly different though some of them are. But I think what I like best is when Daredevil writers keep their focus away from the cosmic absurdities of the 616 universe and tell more human-level stories.
(You can find my thoughts about some runs and arcs under the Daredevil tag here on my journal -- just scroll past the MCU stuff.)
Anyway, one of my long-term frustrations as a reader of superhero comics (and probably one reason I have never been a steady reader) is the treatment of women in that genre of that medium. So I want a story centered around some of the women who have moved in and out of Matt's life over the years, and I want a story that specifically DOES NOT focus on their relationships with Matt, except insofar as that's one obvious thing they have in common. Instead, I want to know who they are as people, and see as many of them interact with each other as is feasible. :D
---------------
Black Jewels [NSFW]:
(This is a sprawling fantasy series by Anne Bishop -- I believe there are currently nine component books, starting with Daughter of the Blood. Again, 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. 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; any kink that depends on those is going to turn me off -- but the general idea of taking care/being cared for is tasty, and bondage in and of itself is awesome. Teasing is good, both giving and receiving, but in a spirit of mutuality rather than 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.
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. Mild xeno is 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. I also enjoy breast worship and cunnilingus.
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.
---------------
And that is that. Thank you again, and happy writing!
You can also read this entry on Dreamwidth, where there are currently (
comments)