(no subject)
Dear Yuletide Writer,
Hello, and thank you for offering to write in one of these fandoms! I’m very excited to see what you write, and I hope my letter will be more helpful than frustrating. I’m including a number of prompts if you find that helpful. If you have an idea of your own, please go with that!
I'm Alona on AO3 and eugeniedanglars on Tumblr.
GENERAL
I am fine with canon levels of violence, horror, social injustice, problematic views, what-have-you for all these fandoms. I enjoy upbeat, fun stories but I also love to suffer dramatically about fiction, so whatever tone you go with will work for me.
Yes, please: people going on adventures; people being competent at their jobs; politics, variety court scheming and variety revolutionary, or anything in between; worldbuilding, particularly where it explores a world’s mythos; emotional catharsis; complicated family dynamics; domesticity (platonic or romantic) in unusual situations; hurt/comfort; outside POVs; non-linear or otherwise non-traditional story forms; situational humor; canon divergence AUs.
No, thanks: explicit sexual content; non-con; permanent memory loss; conflict based on easily resolved misunderstandings/general soap opera drama; adultery; out there AUs (modern day, coffee shop, etc.).
FANDOM SPECIFIC
Vingt mille lieues sous les mers | Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea - Jules Verne (Captain Nemo and Pierre Aronnax)
This book is a perfect storm of things that are My Favorite: THE SEA, intense science nerdery (about THE SEA), a Revenge Quest, WORLD REVOLUTION financed by recovered treasure, nerds in love (or in friendship!), aaaaand brilliant, compassionate, tormented Captain Nemo, one of my all-time favorite characters in fiction. - I’m also intensely fond of Aronnax and find him a great narrator to hang out with.
I will happily read gen fic, but I must confess that I’m pretty far gone on Nemo and Aronnax as Science Boyfriends separated by Nemo’s Revenge Quest and also his being a little more married to the sea than Aronnax is prepared to run with. (I have a designated OTP song, I’m afraid.)
I would love to read: missing scenes during the novel; any post-canon scenario that reunites Nemo and Aronnax, temporarily or permanently; an early steampunk adventure or undersea quest; anything that engages a little more with contemporary politics, if that’s your jam? I definitely don’t need any kind of happy ending here, since it’s prime territory for High Drama Tragedy suffering, but I certainly wouldn’t object to one in the least.
Additional notes: If you’re wondering how much SCIENCE!!!! is too much, there’s really no such thing as far as I’m concerned, if you’re the sort of person who enjoys it. I’ve said I don’t like out there AUs but I would never say no to 20,000 Leagues IN SPACE.
Re: L'Île mystérieuse/The Mysterious Island: if you aren’t familiar with it, feel particularly free to ignore this bit; if you are: I’m not a fan of the specifics of what it does with Nemo’s story (or the way it messes with the timeline), but I do like that in he is Indian (and his enemy is specifically the British) and tend to think of it as canon.
Plain Kate - Erin Bow (Any)
I read this book quite recently and was blown away by it. It strikes precisely the note I love best when handling serious issues: clear-eyed and totally unromantic but with a deep thread of compassion. I love that it focuses on the way people get to be outsiders and what it means to occupy a precarious social position, and I adore/am permanently heartbroken about its handling of cycles of violence/revenge. I’m intrigued by the magic system and by the way it incorporates Slavic folklore.
I love Kate herself, and her emotional journey throughout the book. I love how practically she approaches things and ache at how clever she’s forced to be to try to survive. I’m kind of perpetually haunted and struck by the moment she feels like she may as well let Linay destroy Lov.
I love Drina! She’s so upbeat and so much a part of her community, while still carrying the horror of her mother’s death and feeling like she has to leave. I love her and Kate’s friendship, and the description of how it’s permanently altered once they’re reunited is really poignant to me. If you see their relationship going to a romantic place later on I would totally be open to that.
Taggle is one of the best talking cats ever, for being so perfectly catlike, and his and Kate’s relationship was a highlight of the book for me. Many tears were wept, etc.
I’m pretty permanently distraught about Linay - really dreadful revenge quests do have that effect on me - and I love the line the novel walks of neither siding with him nor firmly condemning him. I haven’t included any prompt for it, because I know it’s by nature difficult to work in, but I’m fascinated by Kate and Linay’s relationship in all its Stockholm-y discomfort.
This is my nomination, and I chose the characters I’m most interested in reading about. I would absolutely be all right with a fic including any combination of them that works for you. Of the characters I left out because of the limit, I’m definitely most interested in Lenore.
I would honestly be thrilled with just about anything for this book, but here are some ideas: Kate and Taggle’s post-canon adventures - how Kate builds a career and a place to belong for herself, whether she settles in one place, whether she ever takes an apprentice; Drina’s post-canon adventures, how she deals with the fallout of the novel and the impact that has on her relationships with her family; Kate and Drina’s post-canon adventures together, where their friendship goes; backstory during Linay’s wanderings, or earlier, while Lenore was still alive, exploring her and Linay and Drina’s family dynamics.
Imperial Radch Series - Ann Leckie (Anaander Mianaai)
I adore pretty much everything about these books. Everything that happens in them is so much exactly what I want to happen, all of the time! I love sentient AIs with lots of feelings and also rebellion against oppressive empires (and also, you may have surmised, revenge quests!) and also incessant tea-drinking. And - of course - I always love a great villain.
I find Anaander absolutely delightful in the way that I want to punch her in the face repeatedly, and I’m always mildly surprised when any given Imperial Radch fic isn’t at least a little about making fun of her. Like, I respect a person who decides she’s going to be Supreme Ruler Of Everything Forever and does it more or less successfully for three-thousand years…but also she’s so entirely awful in such hilarious ways! I love getting to see all the various versions of Anaander and how they are all fundamentally the same person.
I’d love to read about: small Anaander’s early adventures in politics; Anaander making the decisions to go forth and conquer and to split herself into multiple bodies; one of Anaander’s friendships over the years, and how it ended; another time Anaander had to operate with fewer bodies than she was used to/be separated from the rest of herself for a long period; how the split looks from Anaander’s - any Anaander’s - POV, particularly before Breq brings it out into the open. Basically I would love any Anaander backstory!
Assorted notes for the fandom: the books’ approach to pronouns really, really works for me and I would prefer it was kept to; I love very nearly every character, so feel free to bring in whoever fits.
Hello, and thank you for offering to write in one of these fandoms! I’m very excited to see what you write, and I hope my letter will be more helpful than frustrating. I’m including a number of prompts if you find that helpful. If you have an idea of your own, please go with that!
I'm Alona on AO3 and eugeniedanglars on Tumblr.
GENERAL
I am fine with canon levels of violence, horror, social injustice, problematic views, what-have-you for all these fandoms. I enjoy upbeat, fun stories but I also love to suffer dramatically about fiction, so whatever tone you go with will work for me.
Yes, please: people going on adventures; people being competent at their jobs; politics, variety court scheming and variety revolutionary, or anything in between; worldbuilding, particularly where it explores a world’s mythos; emotional catharsis; complicated family dynamics; domesticity (platonic or romantic) in unusual situations; hurt/comfort; outside POVs; non-linear or otherwise non-traditional story forms; situational humor; canon divergence AUs.
No, thanks: explicit sexual content; non-con; permanent memory loss; conflict based on easily resolved misunderstandings/general soap opera drama; adultery; out there AUs (modern day, coffee shop, etc.).
FANDOM SPECIFIC
Vingt mille lieues sous les mers | Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea - Jules Verne (Captain Nemo and Pierre Aronnax)
This book is a perfect storm of things that are My Favorite: THE SEA, intense science nerdery (about THE SEA), a Revenge Quest, WORLD REVOLUTION financed by recovered treasure, nerds in love (or in friendship!), aaaaand brilliant, compassionate, tormented Captain Nemo, one of my all-time favorite characters in fiction. - I’m also intensely fond of Aronnax and find him a great narrator to hang out with.
I will happily read gen fic, but I must confess that I’m pretty far gone on Nemo and Aronnax as Science Boyfriends separated by Nemo’s Revenge Quest and also his being a little more married to the sea than Aronnax is prepared to run with. (I have a designated OTP song, I’m afraid.)
I would love to read: missing scenes during the novel; any post-canon scenario that reunites Nemo and Aronnax, temporarily or permanently; an early steampunk adventure or undersea quest; anything that engages a little more with contemporary politics, if that’s your jam? I definitely don’t need any kind of happy ending here, since it’s prime territory for High Drama Tragedy suffering, but I certainly wouldn’t object to one in the least.
Additional notes: If you’re wondering how much SCIENCE!!!! is too much, there’s really no such thing as far as I’m concerned, if you’re the sort of person who enjoys it. I’ve said I don’t like out there AUs but I would never say no to 20,000 Leagues IN SPACE.
Re: L'Île mystérieuse/The Mysterious Island: if you aren’t familiar with it, feel particularly free to ignore this bit; if you are: I’m not a fan of the specifics of what it does with Nemo’s story (or the way it messes with the timeline), but I do like that in he is Indian (and his enemy is specifically the British) and tend to think of it as canon.
Plain Kate - Erin Bow (Any)
I read this book quite recently and was blown away by it. It strikes precisely the note I love best when handling serious issues: clear-eyed and totally unromantic but with a deep thread of compassion. I love that it focuses on the way people get to be outsiders and what it means to occupy a precarious social position, and I adore/am permanently heartbroken about its handling of cycles of violence/revenge. I’m intrigued by the magic system and by the way it incorporates Slavic folklore.
I love Kate herself, and her emotional journey throughout the book. I love how practically she approaches things and ache at how clever she’s forced to be to try to survive. I’m kind of perpetually haunted and struck by the moment she feels like she may as well let Linay destroy Lov.
I love Drina! She’s so upbeat and so much a part of her community, while still carrying the horror of her mother’s death and feeling like she has to leave. I love her and Kate’s friendship, and the description of how it’s permanently altered once they’re reunited is really poignant to me. If you see their relationship going to a romantic place later on I would totally be open to that.
Taggle is one of the best talking cats ever, for being so perfectly catlike, and his and Kate’s relationship was a highlight of the book for me. Many tears were wept, etc.
I’m pretty permanently distraught about Linay - really dreadful revenge quests do have that effect on me - and I love the line the novel walks of neither siding with him nor firmly condemning him. I haven’t included any prompt for it, because I know it’s by nature difficult to work in, but I’m fascinated by Kate and Linay’s relationship in all its Stockholm-y discomfort.
This is my nomination, and I chose the characters I’m most interested in reading about. I would absolutely be all right with a fic including any combination of them that works for you. Of the characters I left out because of the limit, I’m definitely most interested in Lenore.
I would honestly be thrilled with just about anything for this book, but here are some ideas: Kate and Taggle’s post-canon adventures - how Kate builds a career and a place to belong for herself, whether she settles in one place, whether she ever takes an apprentice; Drina’s post-canon adventures, how she deals with the fallout of the novel and the impact that has on her relationships with her family; Kate and Drina’s post-canon adventures together, where their friendship goes; backstory during Linay’s wanderings, or earlier, while Lenore was still alive, exploring her and Linay and Drina’s family dynamics.
Imperial Radch Series - Ann Leckie (Anaander Mianaai)
I adore pretty much everything about these books. Everything that happens in them is so much exactly what I want to happen, all of the time! I love sentient AIs with lots of feelings and also rebellion against oppressive empires (and also, you may have surmised, revenge quests!) and also incessant tea-drinking. And - of course - I always love a great villain.
I find Anaander absolutely delightful in the way that I want to punch her in the face repeatedly, and I’m always mildly surprised when any given Imperial Radch fic isn’t at least a little about making fun of her. Like, I respect a person who decides she’s going to be Supreme Ruler Of Everything Forever and does it more or less successfully for three-thousand years…but also she’s so entirely awful in such hilarious ways! I love getting to see all the various versions of Anaander and how they are all fundamentally the same person.
I’d love to read about: small Anaander’s early adventures in politics; Anaander making the decisions to go forth and conquer and to split herself into multiple bodies; one of Anaander’s friendships over the years, and how it ended; another time Anaander had to operate with fewer bodies than she was used to/be separated from the rest of herself for a long period; how the split looks from Anaander’s - any Anaander’s - POV, particularly before Breq brings it out into the open. Basically I would love any Anaander backstory!
Assorted notes for the fandom: the books’ approach to pronouns really, really works for me and I would prefer it was kept to; I love very nearly every character, so feel free to bring in whoever fits.