Dear Author
Dear rarewomen writer!
I'm so happy that you've been matched to me on one of my two favourite fandoms, Harry Potter and Greek mythology! This is my first time writing a Dear Author letter, so I hope it'll be of some use to you. Let it be known first and foremost that I'm really not a picky reader - if you have fun with it, I'll feel it and it will be absolutely great. If you're looking for some direction though, feel free to use any of the things I mention in this letter. :)
Some general thematic stuff that I absolutely love: Friendship above all. Women choosing their own directions in life, struggling with peer pressures, familial pressures, societal pressures. Women being small heroes in their own right. Emotional and sexual coming-of-age. Women forming their own support systems. Women loving each other emotionally and sexually, but also women loving men emotionally and sexually and having relationships/friendships with men that support them. Women negotiating their boundaries in life, sex, and emotion. Women being defined by many different things, at many different moments; complexity in their emotional lives, reassessment of established relationships, taking control of their own lives. Realistic sex, with all of its pitfalls, awkwardness and potential mind-blowingness. Non-linearity in the formal sense to support the non-linearity of emotional development. Stream-of-consciousness.
If you want to check out what my usual preoccupations fic-wise are, you can always check out my journal with my fanfics here: my fic masterlist.
Fandoms:
1) Harry Potter: Padma Patil, Parvati Patil, Alicia Spinnet, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw
Harry Potter is great because it has an entire universe you can play around with. I love idiosyncratic magical systems that build on what we see in the series and the Muggle/wizard relations/tensions. That said, if world-building isn't your thing, small, real moments between characters in the margins of the bigger story are what really gets my heart beating.
I would absolutely love a fic exploring the relationship between Padma and Parvati, with special attention to their ethnic roots, the fact that they're twins and ended up separated in Hogwarts. Even if you don't focus on their sibling bond I'd love it to come up if you decide to work with either of them. I'd also love a fic in which either of them struggles with outside/familial pressures regarding sexual orientation - my favourite femmeslash couple is Lavender/Parvati. A story about them could go in so many directions, including the reaction of Padma and the rest of Parvati's Indian family.
Alicia I would like to see fleshed out more than she in the books. Her friendship with the other Quidditch girls is woefully underappreciated in the books and would make for some wonderful study of kick-ass girl friendship (or more, if you're so inclined). Het with Alicia is also completely encouraged, of course!
Rowena and Helga - well, they're women in a medieval context and this in itself interests me immensely. The relationship between them and what their position is with regards to Godric and Salazar is something that has been fascinating to me from the start. How do the founders meet? From what kind of intellectual/feudal background are they? How do Helga and Rowena, as women, hold their own in a strongly patriarchal society? How do they support each other? How do they build Hogwarts? (I'm a bit of a history geek, so if you're going to write about the Middle Ages, I'd like it if it was somewhat historically 'accurate', as far as we can really know a time past, of course - but then, these are the wizarding Middle Ages, so you can definitely play with it, as long as the system independently holds its own). And then we have Helena - how did Rowena get pregnant? Did she have an illicit relationship or was it a legitimate marriage? What was the relationship between mother and daughter before and after the stealing of the diadem?
2) Greek Mythology: Aphrodite, Athena, Demeter, Medea, Persephone
These women are all either goddesses or mythological people - but it's their humanity that appeals to me. I love the very strange combination of an emotional development in people who are immortal - how do the gods handle their immortality? How do the goddesses construct their own lives in the patriarchal structure of the Olympos? How do they feel about their worship? How do they help/not help their believers? What happens when they fall in love with mortals (which happens often in the 'canon')? What does sex mean to them? What does childbirth mean to them?
Aphrodite is the perfect candidate for a myriad of sexual combinations - I would love a fic exploring her sexuality and her view on love, as well as her relationship to Eros. How does she feel about the traditions of sex and love on earth and do they differ from her own? What does sexual pleasure mean to someone who has all of eternity?
Athena is supposed to be almost 'sexless', having sprung fully formed from her father's head - how does she negotiate her intellectual status with herself as a symbol of war? What is the relationship between war and thinking? What is her gender identity? Who does she love if anyone? What is her relationship to Zeus, who is her father and mother both?
Demeter has the most complex relationship with earth of all of them - she controls it, and then when Persephone is gone she kind of loses that control. What does this mean to her? How does she feel about Hades? How does she live in winter? What is her status amongst the greater goddesses who live on Olympos?
Persephone negotiates the boundary of life and death. What does this mean? How does she cross? Is love possible in the underworld? How does she feel about her forced marriage? What does it mean to her to live in a timeless world for an amount of time (a contradiction in itself) and then to return to the highly 'timed' upper world? How does she adapt to being the underworld's queen?
Medea is hands down my favourite mythological non-god character. I would love an exploration of the development of the love between her and Iason and how it turns sour. How does a mother decide to kill her children? What does she want to achieve with this? How does it affect her and her life? There is just so much to play with here. Medea is an extremely nuanced character that has already received an astounding depth in Euripides' handling of her story - if you can get your hands on a translation of his Medeia (or if you're one of the lucky people who can read it in Greek, but in that case I'm sure you've done so already), I recommend it highly!
Well, this is getting quite long and very rhetorical-question-filled, so I'll leave it at this. Just know that I will be thrilled to receive whatever you write for me - as long as it has women being their wonderful selves, it can never go wrong. I wish you luck and most of all, fun with writing!
Love
holyfant
I'm so happy that you've been matched to me on one of my two favourite fandoms, Harry Potter and Greek mythology! This is my first time writing a Dear Author letter, so I hope it'll be of some use to you. Let it be known first and foremost that I'm really not a picky reader - if you have fun with it, I'll feel it and it will be absolutely great. If you're looking for some direction though, feel free to use any of the things I mention in this letter. :)
Some general thematic stuff that I absolutely love: Friendship above all. Women choosing their own directions in life, struggling with peer pressures, familial pressures, societal pressures. Women being small heroes in their own right. Emotional and sexual coming-of-age. Women forming their own support systems. Women loving each other emotionally and sexually, but also women loving men emotionally and sexually and having relationships/friendships with men that support them. Women negotiating their boundaries in life, sex, and emotion. Women being defined by many different things, at many different moments; complexity in their emotional lives, reassessment of established relationships, taking control of their own lives. Realistic sex, with all of its pitfalls, awkwardness and potential mind-blowingness. Non-linearity in the formal sense to support the non-linearity of emotional development. Stream-of-consciousness.
If you want to check out what my usual preoccupations fic-wise are, you can always check out my journal with my fanfics here: my fic masterlist.
Fandoms:
1) Harry Potter: Padma Patil, Parvati Patil, Alicia Spinnet, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw
Harry Potter is great because it has an entire universe you can play around with. I love idiosyncratic magical systems that build on what we see in the series and the Muggle/wizard relations/tensions. That said, if world-building isn't your thing, small, real moments between characters in the margins of the bigger story are what really gets my heart beating.
I would absolutely love a fic exploring the relationship between Padma and Parvati, with special attention to their ethnic roots, the fact that they're twins and ended up separated in Hogwarts. Even if you don't focus on their sibling bond I'd love it to come up if you decide to work with either of them. I'd also love a fic in which either of them struggles with outside/familial pressures regarding sexual orientation - my favourite femmeslash couple is Lavender/Parvati. A story about them could go in so many directions, including the reaction of Padma and the rest of Parvati's Indian family.
Alicia I would like to see fleshed out more than she in the books. Her friendship with the other Quidditch girls is woefully underappreciated in the books and would make for some wonderful study of kick-ass girl friendship (or more, if you're so inclined). Het with Alicia is also completely encouraged, of course!
Rowena and Helga - well, they're women in a medieval context and this in itself interests me immensely. The relationship between them and what their position is with regards to Godric and Salazar is something that has been fascinating to me from the start. How do the founders meet? From what kind of intellectual/feudal background are they? How do Helga and Rowena, as women, hold their own in a strongly patriarchal society? How do they support each other? How do they build Hogwarts? (I'm a bit of a history geek, so if you're going to write about the Middle Ages, I'd like it if it was somewhat historically 'accurate', as far as we can really know a time past, of course - but then, these are the wizarding Middle Ages, so you can definitely play with it, as long as the system independently holds its own). And then we have Helena - how did Rowena get pregnant? Did she have an illicit relationship or was it a legitimate marriage? What was the relationship between mother and daughter before and after the stealing of the diadem?
2) Greek Mythology: Aphrodite, Athena, Demeter, Medea, Persephone
These women are all either goddesses or mythological people - but it's their humanity that appeals to me. I love the very strange combination of an emotional development in people who are immortal - how do the gods handle their immortality? How do the goddesses construct their own lives in the patriarchal structure of the Olympos? How do they feel about their worship? How do they help/not help their believers? What happens when they fall in love with mortals (which happens often in the 'canon')? What does sex mean to them? What does childbirth mean to them?
Aphrodite is the perfect candidate for a myriad of sexual combinations - I would love a fic exploring her sexuality and her view on love, as well as her relationship to Eros. How does she feel about the traditions of sex and love on earth and do they differ from her own? What does sexual pleasure mean to someone who has all of eternity?
Athena is supposed to be almost 'sexless', having sprung fully formed from her father's head - how does she negotiate her intellectual status with herself as a symbol of war? What is the relationship between war and thinking? What is her gender identity? Who does she love if anyone? What is her relationship to Zeus, who is her father and mother both?
Demeter has the most complex relationship with earth of all of them - she controls it, and then when Persephone is gone she kind of loses that control. What does this mean to her? How does she feel about Hades? How does she live in winter? What is her status amongst the greater goddesses who live on Olympos?
Persephone negotiates the boundary of life and death. What does this mean? How does she cross? Is love possible in the underworld? How does she feel about her forced marriage? What does it mean to her to live in a timeless world for an amount of time (a contradiction in itself) and then to return to the highly 'timed' upper world? How does she adapt to being the underworld's queen?
Medea is hands down my favourite mythological non-god character. I would love an exploration of the development of the love between her and Iason and how it turns sour. How does a mother decide to kill her children? What does she want to achieve with this? How does it affect her and her life? There is just so much to play with here. Medea is an extremely nuanced character that has already received an astounding depth in Euripides' handling of her story - if you can get your hands on a translation of his Medeia (or if you're one of the lucky people who can read it in Greek, but in that case I'm sure you've done so already), I recommend it highly!
Well, this is getting quite long and very rhetorical-question-filled, so I'll leave it at this. Just know that I will be thrilled to receive whatever you write for me - as long as it has women being their wonderful selves, it can never go wrong. I wish you luck and most of all, fun with writing!
Love
holyfant