Quarter mile at a time.
Stories are live, authors have been revealed, which means it's time for the annual Yuletide post-mortem.
This was my first-ever Yuletide default. I was originally matched on iZombie, a show I have fallen head-over-heels in love with and was ridiculously excited to write. My recipient requested my holy trinity of Liv, Clive, and Ravi - all systems go so far. I spent some time talking through ideas with Sara (my canon beta) and Jules (my brain board), and decided to go with Clive character exploration with a healthy dose of backstory. Still good to go. I wrote roughly 2800 words of banter and research and case fic. I was excited.
Then, "The Hurt Stalker" happened.
December 1, 2015, a day that will live in infamy. Because, folks, iZombie aired my fic on national television.
Oh, the fine details were different. The case itself, for instance. But the vic being Clive's ex? Check. Clive being a suspect? Check. Hints of Creole heritage? Check. There were no fewer than four lines that were nearly identical to dialogue in my fic.
I spent the entire episode texting Sara in sheer disbelief. Here, have a taste of my madness.
As a last-ditch effort, my brain spit out a crack bunny (what if Liv ate a superhero?!). That bunny was promptly boiled, Fatal Attraction-style, by the scenes from the next ep, where (wait for it) LIV ATE A SUPERHERO.
(Pay no attention to the Hamilton squee behind the curtain.)
So that was that. I slunk away to click the default button for the first time ever. Original recip, I hope you had a wonderful Yuletide. It wasn't you, it was me.
I did, however, pick up a pinch hit. My contribution to this year's crop was one fic in Fast & Furious fandom. If the Kevin Bacon Game has taught us anything, it's that the universe is small and fandom is even smaller, and this year's Yuletide proved it. This was an assignment for the lovely arysteia, who wrote me the world's most perfect fic in this same fandom for Not Primetime earlier in the year. Salute, la mia Famiglia is legitimately everything I wanted and more - an amazing happily-ever-after for my favorite found-family, without being schmoopy or trite or taking away from anything the films themselves have established.
As you might imagine, this was a somewhat daunting assignment.
arysteia requested F&F in two different permutations - Brian/Dom for the original film, and post-Furious 7 for the perfect square of Dom, Letty, Brian, and Mia. But specifically, she wanted a le Guin-based troped called a sedoretu, where marriages are made up of four people and entail four separate relationships. It was a great premise, and F&F has the perfect pairings for it, so I tried my best. Euclidean (The Sacred Geometry of Chance) took the idea of that square (and several other mathematical metaphors) and spread it over the series, with a focus on the first film, and Dom in particular - trying to trust Brian, not only in general, but with the things he holds most dear, namely Mia (and, unbeknownst to him, Letty). One of the things the Yuleletter mentioned was a love of identity porn, and making Brian literally forbidden from the outset was such a fun way to play with that concept. This fic really wanted to be about three times as long as it is now - to spread out and breathe across the rest of the films the way it is through the first - but deadlines are a bitch. I hope to be able to expand it and tell the story that I meant to tell, and that my recip deserves, but I hope she enjoyed it, anyway.
I received a wonderful slice-of-life Hamilton fic, A Strong Enough Foundation, about Angelica Schuyler being awesome Alexander and Angelica being dear friends in the face of unrequited love and unresolved daddy issues. It is insightful and lovely, go read it post haste.
Until next year!
This was my first-ever Yuletide default. I was originally matched on iZombie, a show I have fallen head-over-heels in love with and was ridiculously excited to write. My recipient requested my holy trinity of Liv, Clive, and Ravi - all systems go so far. I spent some time talking through ideas with Sara (my canon beta) and Jules (my brain board), and decided to go with Clive character exploration with a healthy dose of backstory. Still good to go. I wrote roughly 2800 words of banter and research and case fic. I was excited.
Then, "The Hurt Stalker" happened.
December 1, 2015, a day that will live in infamy. Because, folks, iZombie aired my fic on national television.
Oh, the fine details were different. The case itself, for instance. But the vic being Clive's ex? Check. Clive being a suspect? Check. Hints of Creole heritage? Check. There were no fewer than four lines that were nearly identical to dialogue in my fic.
I spent the entire episode texting Sara in sheer disbelief. Here, have a taste of my madness.
As a last-ditch effort, my brain spit out a crack bunny (what if Liv ate a superhero?!). That bunny was promptly boiled, Fatal Attraction-style, by the scenes from the next ep, where (wait for it) LIV ATE A SUPERHERO.
(Pay no attention to the Hamilton squee behind the curtain.)
So that was that. I slunk away to click the default button for the first time ever. Original recip, I hope you had a wonderful Yuletide. It wasn't you, it was me.
I did, however, pick up a pinch hit. My contribution to this year's crop was one fic in Fast & Furious fandom. If the Kevin Bacon Game has taught us anything, it's that the universe is small and fandom is even smaller, and this year's Yuletide proved it. This was an assignment for the lovely arysteia, who wrote me the world's most perfect fic in this same fandom for Not Primetime earlier in the year. Salute, la mia Famiglia is legitimately everything I wanted and more - an amazing happily-ever-after for my favorite found-family, without being schmoopy or trite or taking away from anything the films themselves have established.
As you might imagine, this was a somewhat daunting assignment.
arysteia requested F&F in two different permutations - Brian/Dom for the original film, and post-Furious 7 for the perfect square of Dom, Letty, Brian, and Mia. But specifically, she wanted a le Guin-based troped called a sedoretu, where marriages are made up of four people and entail four separate relationships. It was a great premise, and F&F has the perfect pairings for it, so I tried my best. Euclidean (The Sacred Geometry of Chance) took the idea of that square (and several other mathematical metaphors) and spread it over the series, with a focus on the first film, and Dom in particular - trying to trust Brian, not only in general, but with the things he holds most dear, namely Mia (and, unbeknownst to him, Letty). One of the things the Yuleletter mentioned was a love of identity porn, and making Brian literally forbidden from the outset was such a fun way to play with that concept. This fic really wanted to be about three times as long as it is now - to spread out and breathe across the rest of the films the way it is through the first - but deadlines are a bitch. I hope to be able to expand it and tell the story that I meant to tell, and that my recip deserves, but I hope she enjoyed it, anyway.
I received a wonderful slice-of-life Hamilton fic, A Strong Enough Foundation, about Angelica Schuyler being awesome Alexander and Angelica being dear friends in the face of unrequited love and unresolved daddy issues. It is insightful and lovely, go read it post haste.
Until next year!