Yuletide Letter 2013
Very limited time to work on it this week, but I promise to have the whole thing up before the weekend's through.
Thanks for your patience, dear writer!
~Mardy
ETA: Done! (And still the weekend, just barely.)
Brave and generous Yulewriter,
You liked one or more of these fandoms/characters enough to volunteer to write potentially anything, and I like each of these fandoms/characters enough that I'd be thrilled with just about anything you'd want to give me. Remember, you expressly do not have to include every (or any) optional detail in the assignment or in this letter.
Gen for any of the following prompts? Grand. Any kind of pairing or moresome for the same? Equally grand. And if this letter doesn't answer a particular question about something you'd really like to write except that I didn't say whether or not I wanted that sort of thing and now you're worried you might accidentally write the wrong thing and ruin Yuletide, let me assure you that a) you won't ruin it, and b) you should write it, and c) which is for cookie, and that's good enough for me.
Now, on with the show!
20th Century CE RPF - Walt Disney, Nikita Khrushchev
For me, such a situation is inconceivable. I cannot find words to explain this to my people. --NK
Optional details: Despite concerns for his safety, what if Khrushchev /had/ visited Disneyland on his '59 tour of the US? Would there have been gangsters, rocket launchpads under the castle, some kind of zombie contagion in the water supply? Would Walt's submarine fleet have been enough as a line of defense, or did he have other protections in place throughout the park? Go as silly or epic or surreal as you want, dear writer; this little piece of almost-history absolutely deserves it.
Links:
Gangsters, rockets & outbreaks
Walt and his submarines
Mr. K. goes to Hollywood
This is one of those situations where, if truth really is stranger than fiction, the fiction had better be pretty strange indeed, don't you think? I mean, there must have been a reason the LAPD thought taking Khrushchev on a tour of housing projects would be loads safer than letting him visit Disneyland with his family, BUT THEY NEVER SAID WHAT IT WAS.
A glaring omission, and one that really ought to be rectified with fanfic. Possibly involving guest appearances from Frank Sinatra as a gangster and David Niven in a submarine (or not).
100 Books That Should Be Written (Tumblr) - Any
Optional details: A thousand-word excerpt from any of these four books would be great! Or possibly something a little different -- a rave review, maybe? But a ranty one might be more interesting, especially for something like An Awful Mess. Or a school book report on The Given Tree! Author's notes would be a very Eliot thing to do for April Was Nothing, or you could write a whole AU wiki entry based around Island Getaways and the premise that Earhart not only survived but made it big in the memoir market. In short, anything at all you want to do with this fandom, I absolutely want to read.
Link: Graphic designer Tyler Adam Smith's library of unwritten books, all in one place
I don't know if there's very much I can add to this muchness of a prompt that would be helpful, except maybe a little background on why I nominated these particular four books:
April Was Nothing - I have to admit I'm really hoping for author's notes here -- going through all of Eliot's eclectic references was my favorite part of reading The Waste Land, and I'd love a peek at the hodgepodge of unlikely inspirations he might draw from in a postmortem follow-up.
An Awful Mess - Because Roald Dahl writing a guide to puberty would likely be more horrifyingly informative (or entertainingly misinformative) than most real books on the subject out there.
Island Getaways and the Art of Early Retirement - Because sometimes (many times) history needs a fix-it.
The Given Tree - I thought the original was already pretty unsettling, even without the author's photo or Silverstein's later comic on a similar theme. Dare I ask what the tree's going to give her boy next?
Just seeing one of these four take a step closer to being real and readable would thrill my imaginary book-loving heart to no end.
Museum of Bad Art - Any
What they all have in common is a special quality that sets them apart in one way or another from the merely incompetent. --MOBA
Optional details: What do these artworks get up to when there isn't anyone around to keep an eye on them? Do they travel around Boston wreaking merry havoc, like maybe breaking into the Museum of Fine Arts after hours so they can make fun of how the other half lives? Or are they the secret superheroes of the city, righting wrongs and performing feats of awesomeness that nobody would expect from a collection of dumpster decorations and thrift store rejects? I'll leave it totally up to you, dear writer, to decide whether the characters in the works involved are the baddest of the bad or just drawn that way.
Links:
Lucy in the Sky with Flowers, and how her past finally caught up with her
Worried Guy, and why his hair is full of secrets
In the Cat's Mouth, first in a series of unfortunate animal-related events
The Athlete, bringer of controversy
If there are other artworks you want to include or use instead of the ones listed above, please do so! I chose these four for their additional info and backstories as much as for the pictures themselves, in case you'd like more than just the visuals to work from. And MOBA itself, from the traveling exhibitions to the rejection collection auctions to the guest interpretations -- I love how artfully they parody the world they're a part of, but how they've also shown over the years that works of spectacular fail can be kind of admirable in their way, even likeable. And still 100% bad to the bone.
Once and Future King series - T. H. White - Lyo-lyok, Wart | King Arthur
Douce-down, Tender-tread, Warm-nest and Walk-in-line:
These live forever.
Optional details: How does Lyo-lyok look back on her time as the Wart's teacher and traveling companion, the conversations they had, the things she learned about human beings in general and one silly goose of a boy in particular? Do they ever see each other again, and would either of them recognize the other if they did? (Or an alternate prompt if you've read The Book of Merlyn: What would have happened if the old wizard had let Arthur stay longer among the geese as he so very much wanted to?)
I'd forgotten how very short this part of The Once and Future King is -- even without the weight it has in the earlier version written for the The Book of Merlyn, it still feels like the heart of the book to me. But then there's that bit tacked on at the end of The Sword in the Stone section where Lyo-lyok sends arrows fletched with her own feathers as a coronation gift, and the indication that all the animals the Wart met during his transformations went to live out their last years in a retirement menagerie paid for by the City of London. Whatever happened to change Lyo-lyok's views on bloodshed? On living without boundaries?
Now if instead you're writing for The Book of Merlyn prompt, please, please pretend the interruption on the lake never happened. Was Lyo-lyok intending to accept Arthur's courtship? Let him down gently? What further lessons and travels and dangers and complications would the changing seasons have brought? And when the old king finally, inevitably had to return to face his doom -- would it all have been worth it? Or would a longer stay only serve to make the leaving more painful?
喔 天啊! - 周靖龍 | Oh God! - Alon Chou - Any
Here's the artist's site where you can see the entire picture, plus close-ups of every one of the characters by clicking on 'next' at the bottom.
Optional details: Why is that rascally goddess manipulating the cupbearer? Is it all just a divine prank, or does she have some kind of greater destiny in mind for the poor guy? What part will the king (and maybe the various onlookers) play in the events about to unfold? Whatever you choose to write, I'll be delighted to see what you make of this opulent world and the wonderfully, ridiculously expressive characters that inhabit it.
I'd really like to think, artist's statement notwithstanding, that this scene isn't going to end in tears, mess, and a new skull trophy for the king's belt. There's a Norman Rockwell-meets-Frank Frazetta vibe to Chou's style here, one that I associate not so much with tragedy and gore than with folksy good humor and scantily-clad heroes triumphing over adversity. Do you think a happy ending is possible, dear writer? Happy for whom?
Greek Mythology - Hestia
Optional details: Does quiet, self-effacing Hestia really prefer to have nothing to do with the other gods' squabbles, their meddling in mortal affairs, or is her participation more indirect and subtle than anyone realizes? Her role as goddess of the hearth, of fire and of the home and of sacrifice -- it seems like that could be a devastating combination under the wrong circumstances. Have those circumstances ever come to pass? If so, why are they (and her part in them) never spoken of?
Back when I was a kid, I thought Hestia was the goddess of boring. Her most important act is basically giving up her seat on Olympus to Dionysus because otherwise, I dunno, everybody would have to resort to playing musical chairs to decide the issue, and you can just imagine how Zeus and crew would drama that up in a hurry.
But nowadays I look at all that meek and mild mysteriousness and I wonder was really going on with her. The rest of the pantheon have cruelty and thoughtlessness and mistakes and selfishness written into their characters, but never Hestia. Why is that?
I know AUs are popular for this fandom, and if you want to set your story in a different time period, that's absolutely fine by me. A different place, though, I'm not quite as sold on, seeing as how Greek mythology's so tied up in the land and landmarks of the people who worshipped these gods and told tales about them. Still, if you can think of a way to keep some of those ties, even in a far distant setting, that's definitely a story I'd be interested in reading.
***
One last thing I want to mention is how very much I love a strong sense of place in stories. Every Yuletide I've said that, and it's always fascinating to see the many ways different authors interpret and incorporate the idea of place, how it affects the plot or the mood or the characters, how sometimes a place can become almost a character in itself.
I hope this letter was of help, but if not, hey, forget about it. The story I want most to read is one the one you want to tell.
Good luck and good writing to you!
~Mardy
(Credit where it's due: images are from here, here, here, here, here, and here.)
Thanks for your patience, dear writer!
~Mardy
ETA: Done! (And still the weekend, just barely.)
Brave and generous Yulewriter,
You liked one or more of these fandoms/characters enough to volunteer to write potentially anything, and I like each of these fandoms/characters enough that I'd be thrilled with just about anything you'd want to give me. Remember, you expressly do not have to include every (or any) optional detail in the assignment or in this letter.
Gen for any of the following prompts? Grand. Any kind of pairing or moresome for the same? Equally grand. And if this letter doesn't answer a particular question about something you'd really like to write except that I didn't say whether or not I wanted that sort of thing and now you're worried you might accidentally write the wrong thing and ruin Yuletide, let me assure you that a) you won't ruin it, and b) you should write it, and c) which is for cookie, and that's good enough for me.
Now, on with the show!
20th Century CE RPF - Walt Disney, Nikita Khrushchev
For me, such a situation is inconceivable. I cannot find words to explain this to my people. --NK
Optional details: Despite concerns for his safety, what if Khrushchev /had/ visited Disneyland on his '59 tour of the US? Would there have been gangsters, rocket launchpads under the castle, some kind of zombie contagion in the water supply? Would Walt's submarine fleet have been enough as a line of defense, or did he have other protections in place throughout the park? Go as silly or epic or surreal as you want, dear writer; this little piece of almost-history absolutely deserves it.
Links:
Gangsters, rockets & outbreaks
Walt and his submarines
Mr. K. goes to Hollywood
This is one of those situations where, if truth really is stranger than fiction, the fiction had better be pretty strange indeed, don't you think? I mean, there must have been a reason the LAPD thought taking Khrushchev on a tour of housing projects would be loads safer than letting him visit Disneyland with his family, BUT THEY NEVER SAID WHAT IT WAS.
A glaring omission, and one that really ought to be rectified with fanfic. Possibly involving guest appearances from Frank Sinatra as a gangster and David Niven in a submarine (or not).
100 Books That Should Be Written (Tumblr) - Any
Optional details: A thousand-word excerpt from any of these four books would be great! Or possibly something a little different -- a rave review, maybe? But a ranty one might be more interesting, especially for something like An Awful Mess. Or a school book report on The Given Tree! Author's notes would be a very Eliot thing to do for April Was Nothing, or you could write a whole AU wiki entry based around Island Getaways and the premise that Earhart not only survived but made it big in the memoir market. In short, anything at all you want to do with this fandom, I absolutely want to read.
Link: Graphic designer Tyler Adam Smith's library of unwritten books, all in one place
I don't know if there's very much I can add to this muchness of a prompt that would be helpful, except maybe a little background on why I nominated these particular four books:
April Was Nothing - I have to admit I'm really hoping for author's notes here -- going through all of Eliot's eclectic references was my favorite part of reading The Waste Land, and I'd love a peek at the hodgepodge of unlikely inspirations he might draw from in a postmortem follow-up.
An Awful Mess - Because Roald Dahl writing a guide to puberty would likely be more horrifyingly informative (or entertainingly misinformative) than most real books on the subject out there.
Island Getaways and the Art of Early Retirement - Because sometimes (many times) history needs a fix-it.
The Given Tree - I thought the original was already pretty unsettling, even without the author's photo or Silverstein's later comic on a similar theme. Dare I ask what the tree's going to give her boy next?
Just seeing one of these four take a step closer to being real and readable would thrill my imaginary book-loving heart to no end.
Museum of Bad Art - Any
What they all have in common is a special quality that sets them apart in one way or another from the merely incompetent. --MOBA
Optional details: What do these artworks get up to when there isn't anyone around to keep an eye on them? Do they travel around Boston wreaking merry havoc, like maybe breaking into the Museum of Fine Arts after hours so they can make fun of how the other half lives? Or are they the secret superheroes of the city, righting wrongs and performing feats of awesomeness that nobody would expect from a collection of dumpster decorations and thrift store rejects? I'll leave it totally up to you, dear writer, to decide whether the characters in the works involved are the baddest of the bad or just drawn that way.
Links:
Lucy in the Sky with Flowers, and how her past finally caught up with her
Worried Guy, and why his hair is full of secrets
In the Cat's Mouth, first in a series of unfortunate animal-related events
The Athlete, bringer of controversy
If there are other artworks you want to include or use instead of the ones listed above, please do so! I chose these four for their additional info and backstories as much as for the pictures themselves, in case you'd like more than just the visuals to work from. And MOBA itself, from the traveling exhibitions to the rejection collection auctions to the guest interpretations -- I love how artfully they parody the world they're a part of, but how they've also shown over the years that works of spectacular fail can be kind of admirable in their way, even likeable. And still 100% bad to the bone.
Once and Future King series - T. H. White - Lyo-lyok, Wart | King Arthur
Douce-down, Tender-tread, Warm-nest and Walk-in-line:
These live forever.
Optional details: How does Lyo-lyok look back on her time as the Wart's teacher and traveling companion, the conversations they had, the things she learned about human beings in general and one silly goose of a boy in particular? Do they ever see each other again, and would either of them recognize the other if they did? (Or an alternate prompt if you've read The Book of Merlyn: What would have happened if the old wizard had let Arthur stay longer among the geese as he so very much wanted to?)
I'd forgotten how very short this part of The Once and Future King is -- even without the weight it has in the earlier version written for the The Book of Merlyn, it still feels like the heart of the book to me. But then there's that bit tacked on at the end of The Sword in the Stone section where Lyo-lyok sends arrows fletched with her own feathers as a coronation gift, and the indication that all the animals the Wart met during his transformations went to live out their last years in a retirement menagerie paid for by the City of London. Whatever happened to change Lyo-lyok's views on bloodshed? On living without boundaries?
Now if instead you're writing for The Book of Merlyn prompt, please, please pretend the interruption on the lake never happened. Was Lyo-lyok intending to accept Arthur's courtship? Let him down gently? What further lessons and travels and dangers and complications would the changing seasons have brought? And when the old king finally, inevitably had to return to face his doom -- would it all have been worth it? Or would a longer stay only serve to make the leaving more painful?
喔 天啊! - 周靖龍 | Oh God! - Alon Chou - Any
Here's the artist's site where you can see the entire picture, plus close-ups of every one of the characters by clicking on 'next' at the bottom.
Optional details: Why is that rascally goddess manipulating the cupbearer? Is it all just a divine prank, or does she have some kind of greater destiny in mind for the poor guy? What part will the king (and maybe the various onlookers) play in the events about to unfold? Whatever you choose to write, I'll be delighted to see what you make of this opulent world and the wonderfully, ridiculously expressive characters that inhabit it.
I'd really like to think, artist's statement notwithstanding, that this scene isn't going to end in tears, mess, and a new skull trophy for the king's belt. There's a Norman Rockwell-meets-Frank Frazetta vibe to Chou's style here, one that I associate not so much with tragedy and gore than with folksy good humor and scantily-clad heroes triumphing over adversity. Do you think a happy ending is possible, dear writer? Happy for whom?
Greek Mythology - Hestia
Optional details: Does quiet, self-effacing Hestia really prefer to have nothing to do with the other gods' squabbles, their meddling in mortal affairs, or is her participation more indirect and subtle than anyone realizes? Her role as goddess of the hearth, of fire and of the home and of sacrifice -- it seems like that could be a devastating combination under the wrong circumstances. Have those circumstances ever come to pass? If so, why are they (and her part in them) never spoken of?
Back when I was a kid, I thought Hestia was the goddess of boring. Her most important act is basically giving up her seat on Olympus to Dionysus because otherwise, I dunno, everybody would have to resort to playing musical chairs to decide the issue, and you can just imagine how Zeus and crew would drama that up in a hurry.
But nowadays I look at all that meek and mild mysteriousness and I wonder was really going on with her. The rest of the pantheon have cruelty and thoughtlessness and mistakes and selfishness written into their characters, but never Hestia. Why is that?
I know AUs are popular for this fandom, and if you want to set your story in a different time period, that's absolutely fine by me. A different place, though, I'm not quite as sold on, seeing as how Greek mythology's so tied up in the land and landmarks of the people who worshipped these gods and told tales about them. Still, if you can think of a way to keep some of those ties, even in a far distant setting, that's definitely a story I'd be interested in reading.
***
One last thing I want to mention is how very much I love a strong sense of place in stories. Every Yuletide I've said that, and it's always fascinating to see the many ways different authors interpret and incorporate the idea of place, how it affects the plot or the mood or the characters, how sometimes a place can become almost a character in itself.
I hope this letter was of help, but if not, hey, forget about it. The story I want most to read is one the one you want to tell.
Good luck and good writing to you!
~Mardy
(Credit where it's due: images are from here, here, here, here, here, and here.)
