NFE 2015 - the Reveal
My gifts were wonderful! I didn't guess the identity of a single one of the writers, though, so as Fic Detective I ended the NFE only so-so. Never mind...on with the Reveal...
- the wintry female-centric adventure, The Mystery of Mount Pire, starring two Queens, a Tarkheena, a Wolf and a Raven, and filled with delicious cameos and cross-references, was by
edenfalling /Elizabeth Culmer - thanks again, Liz!
- the world-first (I think) story starring a much-neglected minor character from VDT (and beautifully skewering some deplorably patronising attitudes of canon characters), Clipsie the Mariner, was by
transposable_element (thank you, trans!)
and another story gorgeously subverting canon dismissal of a minor character, and bringing out the wisdom of the small and earthy, was The scent of apples, by
redsnake05 (thank you, Red!)
Three! I am very, very lucky! :)
As for my own contributions: I wrote two stories,one in the main collection, and one in the Madness.
I wrote How the bet was won for tungsten_illusionist, in response to a request for Narnian gods written as people with power, along the Percy Jackson model. I found this very tricky - I've never attempted Immortal POV before - and dodged working out a complete theology of how the different gods relate to the Emperor-over-sea. (Maybe later.) Rather than attempt an all-in piece,therefore, I ended up writing pretty much a two-hander, as Bacchus and Tash travel Calormen (mostly) in the attempt to nullify some of the fall-out from the Anvard transformation (which also worked through some of my feelings about how the arts can become a weapon in the struggle for power - and how artists can allow themselves to be co-opted into that). I was not unhappy with the finished product, though not absolutely cock-a-hoop, either; a bit meh about it garnering only 8 kudos, but de gustibus, yes?
I also wrote a Madness story, The Atrementus Collection: Men, Monks and Gamekeepers, a study in popular legend, in response to prompts from
songsmith and AviaTantellaScott, but also to follow up an idea that has been niggling at me since Chapter Four of The Ivory Merchants - in which Edmund discovered an old manuscript of a Narnian tale retold to give heart to oppressed Narnian children during the Winter.
I thought then that the papers of the author and proposed publisher of that story could make an interesting study - especially with the publisher coming under pressure as Winter closes in. I've also seen questions, several times, raised about the books on Tumnus' shelf, such as Men, Monks and Gamekeepers - questions asking just how much knowledge of Humans there was in Narnia at the time, and if Man was really seen as a myth. So I wrote the Madness story offering an answer to those questions. :)
And have also cheerfully launched what will become a longer collection of linked pieces exploring the whole story of the bookbinder/publisher/pamphleteer, not in a sequential story, but through disparate odds and ends which (I hope) will sometimes amuse, but will also allow readers to progressively jigsaw together a longer narrative of life among the humbler intellectuals of the country as Jadis' Winter takes hold. To be continued...
This entry was originally posted at http://heliopausa.dreamwidth.org/44452.html. Please comment here or there.
- the wintry female-centric adventure, The Mystery of Mount Pire, starring two Queens, a Tarkheena, a Wolf and a Raven, and filled with delicious cameos and cross-references, was by
edenfalling /Elizabeth Culmer - thanks again, Liz!
- the world-first (I think) story starring a much-neglected minor character from VDT (and beautifully skewering some deplorably patronising attitudes of canon characters), Clipsie the Mariner, was by
transposable_element (thank you, trans!)
and another story gorgeously subverting canon dismissal of a minor character, and bringing out the wisdom of the small and earthy, was The scent of apples, by
redsnake05 (thank you, Red!)
Three! I am very, very lucky! :)
As for my own contributions: I wrote two stories,one in the main collection, and one in the Madness.
I wrote How the bet was won for tungsten_illusionist, in response to a request for Narnian gods written as people with power, along the Percy Jackson model. I found this very tricky - I've never attempted Immortal POV before - and dodged working out a complete theology of how the different gods relate to the Emperor-over-sea. (Maybe later.) Rather than attempt an all-in piece,therefore, I ended up writing pretty much a two-hander, as Bacchus and Tash travel Calormen (mostly) in the attempt to nullify some of the fall-out from the Anvard transformation (which also worked through some of my feelings about how the arts can become a weapon in the struggle for power - and how artists can allow themselves to be co-opted into that). I was not unhappy with the finished product, though not absolutely cock-a-hoop, either; a bit meh about it garnering only 8 kudos, but de gustibus, yes?
I also wrote a Madness story, The Atrementus Collection: Men, Monks and Gamekeepers, a study in popular legend, in response to prompts from
songsmith and AviaTantellaScott, but also to follow up an idea that has been niggling at me since Chapter Four of The Ivory Merchants - in which Edmund discovered an old manuscript of a Narnian tale retold to give heart to oppressed Narnian children during the Winter.
I thought then that the papers of the author and proposed publisher of that story could make an interesting study - especially with the publisher coming under pressure as Winter closes in. I've also seen questions, several times, raised about the books on Tumnus' shelf, such as Men, Monks and Gamekeepers - questions asking just how much knowledge of Humans there was in Narnia at the time, and if Man was really seen as a myth. So I wrote the Madness story offering an answer to those questions. :)
And have also cheerfully launched what will become a longer collection of linked pieces exploring the whole story of the bookbinder/publisher/pamphleteer, not in a sequential story, but through disparate odds and ends which (I hope) will sometimes amuse, but will also allow readers to progressively jigsaw together a longer narrative of life among the humbler intellectuals of the country as Jadis' Winter takes hold. To be continued...
This entry was originally posted at http://heliopausa.dreamwidth.org/44452.html. Please comment here or there.