Yuletide Reveal!
Man, I only planned on writing ONE FIC this year. AHAHAHA.
So, the main story I wrote this year, and unexpectedly the shortest and best recieved, was a District 9 fic, No Man's Land. A billion thanks to my wonderful betas, brimtoast and adellyna , both of whom were kind enough to actually watch the movie just because I fretted at them THAT OFTEN. Anyway, I fretted, but this was such a great fic to get to write, seriously. I loved the movie so much, and got to watch it over and over and over AND OVER, and pick it apart and work it back together into something new.
...I also signed up for a number of pinch-hits, because I am insane.
The first was He Blinded Me With Archaeology, a Mutt/Indiana Jones fic, and this story KICKED MY ASS. Mainly because I couldn't resist doing ridiculous and probably unnecessary amounts of research on all the delicious archaeological tidbits (DID YOU GUYS KNOW SPIELBERG AND LUCAS WERE ACTUAL SUBTLE FOR ONCE? I mean, not that the rest of the movie isn't a plasma canon to the skull, but in the 40s and 50s one of the prevailing theories as to the origin of the Nazca lines were ALIENS! AND THE MOVIE IS ABOUT ALIENS. I was in awe. Lucas! And Spielberg! SUBTLETY! WHO KNEW.) Ahem. Yeah, so obviously I spent hours upon hours wallowing in linguistics and 1950s anthropological theory, and then the deadline was coming up and I realized suddenly that I'd forgotten to get to the porn. :/ Anyway, I wanted to write more of this, but I think it wound up being a nice little fic as is, and my recipient seems to like it, which was the entire point. SO I DECLARE THIS ONE A WIN. \o/
My second pinch-hit, well. I spent a lot of time frolicking and hippoing in the #yuletide chat, which was AWESOME, but anyway, there was a lot of talk about last minute pinch-hits, and then, you know, one of my all-time favorite books came up on the pinch-hit list, and I'd been planning on writing a treat for it ANYWAY, right? MIGHT AS WELL MAKE IT OFFICIAL. It was definitely one of those moments where I was like "YAY, I GOT THE PINCH HIT! *several seconds pass* OH GOD IT'S DUE TOMORROW AHHHHHH."
It was a Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell request. *____* Book of my heart, you guys. Anyway, I wrote The King's Man, and it's a short little post-canon story about Childermass, beset on both sides by Vinculus and the Raven King. Childermass is one of my all-time favorite characters in one of my all-time favorite books, and I was so incredibly stressed about doing this fic justice. Luckily, I had a number of wonderful betas from #yuletide (along with my darlings brimtoast and softylforgotten), and they all helped kick my ass into writing something that I was not only happy with, but also proud of.
...then I signed up for a third pinch hit. Yeah. I wasn't done with either my Indiana Jones or my JS&MN fic, and I'd signed up for another. I'd told myself sternly "NO MORE PINCH HITS. SELF, I MEAN IT. NO MORE." But the pinch-hits kept coming and coming, later and later, last-minute frantic pleas for stories, and one of them, well. I wanted it, but no! I was done with pinch hits! DONE!
But it kept going unclaimed, and kept going unclaimed, and it was THE GRAVEYARD BOOK, you guys! THE GRAVEYARD BOOK! I couldn't leave it all alone and unwanted and rejected. So I snatched it up, and promptly lost my shit, because holy fuck, 3 fics to write in basicaly 24 hours, AHHHHHH. brimtoast was fondly disgusted with me, and others were just in awe at my deep and abiding madness. And oh man, I'd thought I'd been stressed before. Sure, I'd grabbed the prompt and I'd definitely be able to write something for it, but what if someone else would have been able to write it BETTER? And then I'd have deprived the recipient of a good fic and instead they'd just get total drivel and OH GOD, I HAD RUINED CHRISTMAS, I WAS WORSE THAN THE GRINCH. DOOM DESPAIR, ETC.
But lo and behold, You Comes and You Goes, a story about Silas and Miss Lupescu and an absent Bod, did manage to be written in a timely fashion. It was even relatively well-recieved! I am triumphant! \o/
Long story short, I did finish all of my fics, got them uploaded and edited and pleasing to my eyes, if no one elses, by 11:59 PM on the 24th. I think the pinch-hits weren't as great as they could have been, but I tried, and I loved writing all of them, and I'm so glad the recipients seemed to enjoy them too.
TEN THOUSAND THANK YOUS to my darling, wonderful betas and all the brilliant people in Yulechat, who are all encouraging and lovely and just as crazy as I am. I am totally addicted to Yuletide, now. It was my first year, and I had SUCH a good time, and I can't believe I've never participated before. I've been a terrible fandom lurker for years, and it was great getting to finally give back. I did a number of hippo dances in #yuletide (under the pseudo of "Pillow" -- don't ask) and I also got to beta a TON of fantastic fics, which believe you me will be mentioned in some rec posts soon, because HOMG, did you guys know that being a beta means you get to read awesome fics EARLY? DUDE. IT'S GREAT.
Anyway, even though authors have been revealed, I still have approximately 49 fics I still want to rec, and even more that I want to read, so there will be more gleeful, rambling posts soon. Don't think you've escaped yet.
I LOVE YOU ALL. HAPPY YULE, AND HAPPY NEW YEAR. *dances a victory lap across the internet*