Femslash Exchange dear Author Letter
General stuff
I don't like extremes - neither too bleak angst or too happy fluff - but honestly, everything in between is fine by me. I'm okay with darker stories as well as cute slice-of-life things, I adore explicit content (but don't feel like you have to write porn if you're not comfortable with it, I'd be happy with a PG-rated piece as well) and am pretty enthusiastic about kink of any kind. My only real squicks are bestiality, scat, and parental incest, so I reckon you've got a fair bit of room if you want to take the kink route.
Likes: complex characters with complex motivations, internal conflicts, UST, happy old-married-couple bickering, first-love passion, snarkery, intelligence, women challenging people's expectations of them, stylistic experiments...
Dislikes: demonisation of any kind of character (ie villains being evil just for the evulz), romance cliches played absolutely straight, arsehole too-arrogant doms, too simple character interpretations...
(If you want to know more, you can find my yuletide letter here and I have a tumblr which is a fair representation of the inside of my mind.)
Carmilla
When I started reading Carmilla, I tried to keep a list of "thinly veiled lesbian innuendo". I had to give up about one third in. Needless to say, I was absolutely delighted by it.
I love historical fiction, I love the lesbian vampire trope, I love how obvious some of Carmilla's evil vampire tricks are (if you happen to know Discworld - that's the kind of vibe I got from it). I don't love the ending, though, because it feels a little anticlimactic. And aside from the intherent Victorian silliness
Anyway, for a story, this could be so many thing. Modern AU's would be very welcome. Alternate endings too, where Laura and Carmilla run off to commit murder and mayhem together. Something from Carmilla's pov? You can go happy murderous lesbians in love, or the full-on parody route, or make it an exploration of homophobic stigma, or turn it as dark as you want.
The Fall
One of the most fascinating scenes in The Fall was to me the uncomplicated, direct way Stella picked up her one-night stand and had sex with him - this was a woman who seemed to have no sexual shame at all, and I loved seeing that, I loved her confidence and her no-nonsense approach.
As for Reed and Danielle... No matter who you chose, I'd want this to be a fair, mutually enjoyable and respectful kind of thing. Whether it's Danielle developing a bit of a crush on her charismatic new boss and Stella dealing with that, or Reed being bisexual in an open relationship who's looking for a bit of uncomplicated same-gender sex, or an AU where Stella picks up one of those two women instead of James, or something else entirely - I want it to be something positive. Not that there can't be a dark edge to it (in fact, I welcome dark edges), but anything like Stella taking advantage of Danielle or cheating with Reed... no please.
Lost Girl
I absolutely adore Lost Girl and its fun, accepting approach to bisexuality. But it was Tamsin who's fascinated me the most, mainly because she's such an atypically female character. She drinks, she's cynical, she's implied to have quite a few casual sexual encounters... I love how cynical and world-weary she is. As for Bo, I love her combination of dorkiness with her kindness and willingness to stand up for people who could use it.
I enjoyed seeing them together a lot, both Bo being intrigued by Tamsin and Tamsin being blown away by Bo, even after all those centuries - I love their mutual amazement and respect for each other.
One of the essences of Lost Girl is how it explicitly says that you can love more than one person at the time, and that that's okay, so no badtalking about Lauren or Dyson please. As for the rest, it's up to you. It could be a missing scene thing, a post-the-ending of the last season, or even an AU where Tamsin instead of Dyson works at the police and first meets Bo.
Merlin
My needs for Merlin are pretty specific. I'm convinced that you don't have to do much to see Morgana and the other High Priestesses as the true heroes (or anti-heroes) of the story, desperately trying to preserve their religion and protect their people, whatever the cost.
For Morgana and Morgause: I loved how tender Morgause was with Morgana, and how Morgana finally felt accepted and welcomed by someone. I'd love to see what happened between them in the year she was away - how did their relationship develop? Did Morgana trust her from the start? Or it could be a modern!AU.
For Nimueh/Igraine: the field's open. I'm forever frustrated that we'll never know the full backstory, and I think there's definitely room for something close between them. If you can, try not to make Uther 100% evil, even though I know it can be hard.
Like before: an edge of darkness, of depressiveness or even bad endings is absolutely fine here - if you're going 100% fluffy happy joy I might lose my suspension of disbelief. But I don't want to see any emotional manipulation on either Morgause's or Nimueh's part.
I don't like extremes - neither too bleak angst or too happy fluff - but honestly, everything in between is fine by me. I'm okay with darker stories as well as cute slice-of-life things, I adore explicit content (but don't feel like you have to write porn if you're not comfortable with it, I'd be happy with a PG-rated piece as well) and am pretty enthusiastic about kink of any kind. My only real squicks are bestiality, scat, and parental incest, so I reckon you've got a fair bit of room if you want to take the kink route.
Likes: complex characters with complex motivations, internal conflicts, UST, happy old-married-couple bickering, first-love passion, snarkery, intelligence, women challenging people's expectations of them, stylistic experiments...
Dislikes: demonisation of any kind of character (ie villains being evil just for the evulz), romance cliches played absolutely straight, arsehole too-arrogant doms, too simple character interpretations...
(If you want to know more, you can find my yuletide letter here and I have a tumblr which is a fair representation of the inside of my mind.)
Carmilla
When I started reading Carmilla, I tried to keep a list of "thinly veiled lesbian innuendo". I had to give up about one third in. Needless to say, I was absolutely delighted by it.
I love historical fiction, I love the lesbian vampire trope, I love how obvious some of Carmilla's evil vampire tricks are (if you happen to know Discworld - that's the kind of vibe I got from it). I don't love the ending, though, because it feels a little anticlimactic. And aside from the intherent Victorian silliness
Anyway, for a story, this could be so many thing. Modern AU's would be very welcome. Alternate endings too, where Laura and Carmilla run off to commit murder and mayhem together. Something from Carmilla's pov? You can go happy murderous lesbians in love, or the full-on parody route, or make it an exploration of homophobic stigma, or turn it as dark as you want.
The Fall
One of the most fascinating scenes in The Fall was to me the uncomplicated, direct way Stella picked up her one-night stand and had sex with him - this was a woman who seemed to have no sexual shame at all, and I loved seeing that, I loved her confidence and her no-nonsense approach.
As for Reed and Danielle... No matter who you chose, I'd want this to be a fair, mutually enjoyable and respectful kind of thing. Whether it's Danielle developing a bit of a crush on her charismatic new boss and Stella dealing with that, or Reed being bisexual in an open relationship who's looking for a bit of uncomplicated same-gender sex, or an AU where Stella picks up one of those two women instead of James, or something else entirely - I want it to be something positive. Not that there can't be a dark edge to it (in fact, I welcome dark edges), but anything like Stella taking advantage of Danielle or cheating with Reed... no please.
Lost Girl
I absolutely adore Lost Girl and its fun, accepting approach to bisexuality. But it was Tamsin who's fascinated me the most, mainly because she's such an atypically female character. She drinks, she's cynical, she's implied to have quite a few casual sexual encounters... I love how cynical and world-weary she is. As for Bo, I love her combination of dorkiness with her kindness and willingness to stand up for people who could use it.
I enjoyed seeing them together a lot, both Bo being intrigued by Tamsin and Tamsin being blown away by Bo, even after all those centuries - I love their mutual amazement and respect for each other.
One of the essences of Lost Girl is how it explicitly says that you can love more than one person at the time, and that that's okay, so no badtalking about Lauren or Dyson please. As for the rest, it's up to you. It could be a missing scene thing, a post-the-ending of the last season, or even an AU where Tamsin instead of Dyson works at the police and first meets Bo.
Merlin
My needs for Merlin are pretty specific. I'm convinced that you don't have to do much to see Morgana and the other High Priestesses as the true heroes (or anti-heroes) of the story, desperately trying to preserve their religion and protect their people, whatever the cost.
For Morgana and Morgause: I loved how tender Morgause was with Morgana, and how Morgana finally felt accepted and welcomed by someone. I'd love to see what happened between them in the year she was away - how did their relationship develop? Did Morgana trust her from the start? Or it could be a modern!AU.
For Nimueh/Igraine: the field's open. I'm forever frustrated that we'll never know the full backstory, and I think there's definitely room for something close between them. If you can, try not to make Uther 100% evil, even though I know it can be hard.
Like before: an edge of darkness, of depressiveness or even bad endings is absolutely fine here - if you're going 100% fluffy happy joy I might lose my suspension of disbelief. But I don't want to see any emotional manipulation on either Morgause's or Nimueh's part.