holiday
Last night, after I got off work, my cousin and I re-enacted that scene from Fellowship of the Rings where the fellowship trek uphill in the mountains in the snow, carrying hobbits. It was raining (freezing rain), and we had groceries and tiny children, but the general principle was the same. It was very bracing. After we dried off and set the kids up with Miyazaki films, I baked a pear and chocolate and brown-butter cake, and made dinner for my cousin and her kids and her husband and 
sasha_feather, and we had a really lovely (if fairly exhausting) Christmas Eve. I stayed up until the yuletide archive opened, and read my stories before falling asleep. I got two! I have no idea why I got two, but they are both TOTALLY WONDERFUL, and I am so not complaining. TWO STORIES. ALL FOR ME. \o/
Body and Soul. Cyrano de Bergerac - Rostand.
This story, you guys. This story. I said in my comment that I'm not usually super crazy about stories written in this kind of internal monologue style, but maybe because we never do see inside their heads in the play, and maybe because the character voices are totally spot on -- this story is really kind of perfect. Cyrano and Christian and Roxanne are all a lot more aware than we might have thought, and somehow that makes their tragedies better, without making them any less moving. There is also a translation note. DEAR YULETIDE SANTA, I LOVE YOU SO MUCH. All of them knew the truth: there is no perfect love, but sometimes imperfection is enough.
The Swordswoman Triumphant. Swordspoint - Kushner.
And this one! Oh my gosh! I asked for Katherine/Artemisia, or Katherine/Artemisia/Marcus, or really anything about Katherine after the end of Privilege of the Sword, and this is a lovely epilogue, all about the play Katherine commissions, and the high drama and romance of fiction vs. more complicated real life, and lessons, and life. This Katherine and Marcus are both a lot like Alec in ways I appreciated, and Artemisia is entirely herself, and Lydia Godwin is a perfect foil. In short: lovely! She dropped his hand and whirled again, making an invisible pass at a proudly posing swordsman in the tapestry hanging between two bookshelves. "So we can’t make people do what we think is best. But I can be the Swordswoman. I can fight for honor with my blade. Or in the courts. Or in the ballroom. Or over tea."
This morning, I woke up early and opened ten thousand tabs of yuletide fic to read -- it may be a few days before I get my recs together, this year. I have to work tomorrow and Sunday and Monday -- and then
sasha_feather came over, and we squeezed oranges, and Colin turned up with champagne and grenadine, and I mixed mimosas. sunqist and chiyo_no_saru turned up on schedule, and I made French Toast and whipped cream with bourbon in, and an enormous pile of bacon, and we had an utterly fantastic fannish Christmas (yuletide, sunqist said) brunch -- and I got to do one of my favorite things: introduce people I love to other people I love, and feed them, and geek out.
Now Colin is passed out on the couch, and
sasha_feather is on the phone with her family, and Doctor Who has just finished downloading. In a few minutes, I'm going hook up a laptop to the television, so that we can all watch Doctor Who on the big screen while we finish off the champagne.
Happy Christmas, and yuletide, and Failure To Separate Church From State Day, and Solstice, and whatever denominational or non-denominational holidays you choose to celebrate. ♥
Originally posted at oliviacirce @ dreamwidth. If you'd like, comment there using OpenID.
sasha_feather, and we had a really lovely (if fairly exhausting) Christmas Eve. I stayed up until the yuletide archive opened, and read my stories before falling asleep. I got two! I have no idea why I got two, but they are both TOTALLY WONDERFUL, and I am so not complaining. TWO STORIES. ALL FOR ME. \o/
Body and Soul. Cyrano de Bergerac - Rostand.
This story, you guys. This story. I said in my comment that I'm not usually super crazy about stories written in this kind of internal monologue style, but maybe because we never do see inside their heads in the play, and maybe because the character voices are totally spot on -- this story is really kind of perfect. Cyrano and Christian and Roxanne are all a lot more aware than we might have thought, and somehow that makes their tragedies better, without making them any less moving. There is also a translation note. DEAR YULETIDE SANTA, I LOVE YOU SO MUCH. All of them knew the truth: there is no perfect love, but sometimes imperfection is enough.
The Swordswoman Triumphant. Swordspoint - Kushner.
And this one! Oh my gosh! I asked for Katherine/Artemisia, or Katherine/Artemisia/Marcus, or really anything about Katherine after the end of Privilege of the Sword, and this is a lovely epilogue, all about the play Katherine commissions, and the high drama and romance of fiction vs. more complicated real life, and lessons, and life. This Katherine and Marcus are both a lot like Alec in ways I appreciated, and Artemisia is entirely herself, and Lydia Godwin is a perfect foil. In short: lovely! She dropped his hand and whirled again, making an invisible pass at a proudly posing swordsman in the tapestry hanging between two bookshelves. "So we can’t make people do what we think is best. But I can be the Swordswoman. I can fight for honor with my blade. Or in the courts. Or in the ballroom. Or over tea."
This morning, I woke up early and opened ten thousand tabs of yuletide fic to read -- it may be a few days before I get my recs together, this year. I have to work tomorrow and Sunday and Monday -- and then
sasha_feather came over, and we squeezed oranges, and Colin turned up with champagne and grenadine, and I mixed mimosas. sunqist and chiyo_no_saru turned up on schedule, and I made French Toast and whipped cream with bourbon in, and an enormous pile of bacon, and we had an utterly fantastic fannish Christmas (yuletide, sunqist said) brunch -- and I got to do one of my favorite things: introduce people I love to other people I love, and feed them, and geek out.
Now Colin is passed out on the couch, and
sasha_feather is on the phone with her family, and Doctor Who has just finished downloading. In a few minutes, I'm going hook up a laptop to the television, so that we can all watch Doctor Who on the big screen while we finish off the champagne.
Happy Christmas, and yuletide, and Failure To Separate Church From State Day, and Solstice, and whatever denominational or non-denominational holidays you choose to celebrate. ♥
Originally posted at oliviacirce @ dreamwidth. If you'd like, comment there using OpenID.