Dear Yuletide Writer: 2013 Edition
Dear Yuletide Writer,
I'm so excited about the fact that you're writing me a story in one of the tiny fandoms of my heart!
I've done Yuletide most years since I started in 2006. If you'd like to check out some of my previous letters, they're pretty easy to find since I don't post much ;)
Mostly I want you to write a story that excites you, so my optional details are really to help get you started, if you find that helpful. I said a lot in my actual signups this year (I don't always remember to) so I'm mostly just going to copy & paste and maybe add in a few things that I forgot about.
Green-Sky Trilogy--Zilpha Keatley Snyder (Any)
I'm interested in all of the major characters and basically just love this universe. A few ideas to get you going:
Post-series Pomma/Teera or gen friendship as they deal with the fallout of book 3.
Something about the pre-history of this world and how they came to the planet--and maybe how that mutated from history into legend.) One of the few things I _don't_ love is that when the POV shifts away from Raamo, he starts to seem more like a Christ-figure and less like the earnest but very real young teenager he is in book 1; so maybe a missing scene from book 2 or book 3 from his point of view.
Do'l Falla is a great character-gifted, flawed, ultimately trying to set things right. I'd love to see her as a younger woman or maybe interacting with one of the younger characters.
I couldn't fit them in to the character set but I also love Genaa and Neric and their relationship; backstory/pre-series fic from their points of view, alternate POVs or missing scenes, or post-series fic (especially post-series fic) would all be great. Shippy or gen is fine.
Something I forgot to add is that I love how the emphasis on peace and harmony is both partial and incomplete and used to control people--and yet also very meaningful and real. Something about how their culture both changes and stays the same as the Kindar & Erdlings continue to integrate would be cool too.
I Knew Prufrock Before He Got Famous (song)--Frank Turner (Any)
I'd love to know more about the characters who are sketched, briefly but vividly, in this song.
Does Justin ever make it big? How did the revolution of English boys with banjos go? What are the dragons that Jay slays? Why is Tre the safest girl the narrator knows?
(And--I love FT but feel free to twit the unconscious misogyny that sometimes slips into his songs!)
Maybe a scene of all of them being in the entourage of a more famous friend? Or just generally bumming around London and making music?
Pretty much sticking to what I said in the sign-ups! And I'll add that this would be a great fandom to pick up if we matched on something else and you're not feeling it, since it's 3 minutes and pretty easy to find.
And Both Were Young--Madeleine L'Engle (Philipa "Flip" Hunter, Paul Laurens, Erna Weber, Collette Perceval)
This is definitely an ANY rather than an ALL request when it comes to the characters I selected.
Ever since I read in Listening for Madeleine (an oral/interview based biography of L'Engle) that Flip Hunter's love interest was a girl in the first draft of this book and an early editor convinced her to change it, I have been craving f/f slash in this universe.
What if Paul Laurens--the handsome, troubled, war-orphan love interest--was Paulette or Paula or Pauline? What changes? What stays the same?
If that doesn't appeal, I'd love femslash with the girls at the school (Erna/Flip or Erna/Jackie) or gen friendship fic. I like all of Flip's girlfriends but I suggested Erna because the book only lightly touches on the implications of Erna being German at an international school almost immediately post-WWII and I think more about that would be interesting.
Or, alternatively, some gen mentor & student interaction between Flip and Madame Perceval. An unrequited crush on Flip's part is fine (it's practically canon!) but I'd really rather not read a teacher/student relationship.
Or...L'Engleverse fans know that Flip becomes a successful artist because one of her paintings plays a role in A Severed Wasp. What happens between boarding school and then? Gen, het, slash or all of the above.
All I really want to add here is that unless you prefer not to know too much about the lives of authors you like (a position I can totally respect!), if you're a L'Engleverse fan you might want to check out Listening for Madeleine if you haven't already.
Tennis RPF--Martina Navratilova, Chris Evert
Tennis might have been my first fandom--the era I'm interested is the early 80s to early 90s, when I was a kid watching Wimbledon & the US Open with my mom. I always cheered for Martina and Mom always cheered for Chrissy but I loved them both.
I'd love f/f slash with those two, or gen friendship fic if you're uncomfortable slashing the living.
I'll have links in my journal but here are some possibilities:
Late 70s/early 80s when Martina was a new defector and still trying to fulfill her potential.
IIRC, Martina introduced Chris to one of her exes, Andy Mills. What if that had gone a little differently?
Martina wrote in her autobiography that Chris was her rock on her first emotional return trip to Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic). Fic with a real sense of place and end of the cold war historical moment would be great.
Martina/Wimbledon. 'Nuff said--especially anything set around her last final against Conchita Martinez. The match is probably available on YouTube--what I love about it is Martina's unabashedly emotional relationship with Wimbledon (and also there's a bit where Conchita's hurt and Martina holds her towel up so Conchita can have privacy from the cameras that just gave me *hearteyes* when I saw it)
Feel free to use major figures from the women's (or men's) tour of that era--Tracy Austin, Hana Mandlikova, Billie Jean King, Steffi Graf etc...
Funnily enough, this is one of the few fandoms where I'd also enjoy a really radical AU, as long as it preserved their characters--Martina & Chrissy as space pirates or Cold War astronauts/cosmonauts would be amazing, f'r instance!
I actually do have a few things to add here--if I remember correctly, the info about Martina & Chris in Czechoslovakia comes from Martina's 1985 autobiography written with George Vecsey. I've not read the 1995 biography of her, norThe Rivals: Chris Evert vs. Martina Navratilova: Their Epic Duels and Extraordinary Friendship. I just found out about the latter book and it's going on my TBR pile approximately now.
I can't remember the source for this but I'm pretty sure there was an interview where Chris talked about the limitations she felt in the role of "America's Sweetheart" and said that the rivalry between the two of them was always on-court only and they were friends off-court --except for a period when Martina's trainers took 'crushing the enemy'" a bit literally. ETA: If this is at all relevant to your interests, you should watch this: http://www.tennischannel.com/news/NewsDetails.aspx?newsid=11023 because Chris putting the Hall of Fame ring on Martina's finger is basically the most adorable thing ever.
And I had a couple more AU ideas: Martina has co-written some mystery novels--what about them as detectives? Or future fic where they're awesome badass old ladies hanging out together? They've both gone on and done lots of cool stuff after their initial careers--I could see them going on and doing all manner of cool stuff in the future.
Inquisitor's Apprentice series--Chris Moriarty (Any)
I would be so thrilled with anything in this series! It has great historical atmosphere, character depth, and does diversity right--I'd love to see a fic that builds on those excellent qualities!
Ideas: Sasha, Sasha's dybbuk, and their dark, complex relationship. What happens as the dybbuk becomes more and more a separate individual?
Lily Astral--I'd love to see more of the series from her point of view!
Rosie DiMaggio--I love that she's beautiful, obsessed with inventions and science and absolutely unapologetic about being herself. Anything more about Rosie would be great! And if Rosie were to meet and have adventures with Lily, or with Bekah Kessler, that would be amazing.
I love the entire Kessler family and more scenes of them being awesome and having each others' backs would be awesome.
Maxmilian Wolf--I'd love more Inspector Wolf backstory! Or future fic, or missing scenes from his POV...
Basically sticking to everything I said here! I should add that although I didn't mention him much, Sasha is a great main character and I would also be totally fine with him as the MC in your story. I tend to see this fandom in a very gen way, but I'd be happy with ships as well (either slash or het, so long as it's appropriate to the characters' ages). I also love Bella De Serpa (J.P. Morgaunt's mysterious and morally ambiguous librarian) and Philip Payton (Inspector Wolf's sharp-as-a-tack assistant) so feel free to include or focus on them too! Also, this would also be a pretty easy fandom to pick up if we matched on something else, since it consists of two not-insanely-long middle grade novels.
Psy-Changeling-Nalini Singh (Any)
I'm more into the worldbuilding in this series than I am invested in most of the romance; basically anything that explores some aspect of that will make me happy.
A few things I'm curious about: what is it like to be an ocean-based changeling? a non-predatory changeling? how have the Forgotten's abilities changed?
I love the series but I'm not a super fan of the whole alpha-male/bonding aspects and I like that Singh herself has started complicated it a bit (Riaz & Adria subverting mating bonds, Indigo mating with less-dominant Drew) and I'd love to see that taken further. A vulnerable male (River Shannon comes to mind) and a lone female changeling? The lack of LGBTQ pairings is also noted--feel free to change that.
Some existing characters/pairings I like:
Max Shannon/Sophia Russo--I'd actually love to know how their lives have been going post-Bonds of Justice?
Sienna Lauren Snow--I'd love fic of her hanging out with different members of the pack, basically growing into her role as a kickass leader. I like Hawke but I'd love to see something that focuses mainly on Sienna's evolution.
Alice Eldredge--What happens when she wakes up? (Should I mention that Alice/Amara is my femslash crack pairing?)
Nikita Duncan & Anthony Kyriakus--middle-aged psy love? Or just building an empire"?
Sasha Duncan Hunter--I love her journey throughout the series. Her evolving control of her gifts, her relationship with Lucas, and especially her evolving relationship with Nikita as Sasha becomes a mother herself.
Cade/Tally--I love their roles as mentors to the abused Forgotten kids.
And most of all--what happens when Silence falls?
I forgot to say this explicitly, but I'm totally fine with OCs as major characters in this fandom.
So yay! Thank you for being my writer! It's going to be a great Yuletide!
I'm so excited about the fact that you're writing me a story in one of the tiny fandoms of my heart!
I've done Yuletide most years since I started in 2006. If you'd like to check out some of my previous letters, they're pretty easy to find since I don't post much ;)
Mostly I want you to write a story that excites you, so my optional details are really to help get you started, if you find that helpful. I said a lot in my actual signups this year (I don't always remember to) so I'm mostly just going to copy & paste and maybe add in a few things that I forgot about.
Green-Sky Trilogy--Zilpha Keatley Snyder (Any)
I'm interested in all of the major characters and basically just love this universe. A few ideas to get you going:
Post-series Pomma/Teera or gen friendship as they deal with the fallout of book 3.
Something about the pre-history of this world and how they came to the planet--and maybe how that mutated from history into legend.) One of the few things I _don't_ love is that when the POV shifts away from Raamo, he starts to seem more like a Christ-figure and less like the earnest but very real young teenager he is in book 1; so maybe a missing scene from book 2 or book 3 from his point of view.
Do'l Falla is a great character-gifted, flawed, ultimately trying to set things right. I'd love to see her as a younger woman or maybe interacting with one of the younger characters.
I couldn't fit them in to the character set but I also love Genaa and Neric and their relationship; backstory/pre-series fic from their points of view, alternate POVs or missing scenes, or post-series fic (especially post-series fic) would all be great. Shippy or gen is fine.
Something I forgot to add is that I love how the emphasis on peace and harmony is both partial and incomplete and used to control people--and yet also very meaningful and real. Something about how their culture both changes and stays the same as the Kindar & Erdlings continue to integrate would be cool too.
I Knew Prufrock Before He Got Famous (song)--Frank Turner (Any)
I'd love to know more about the characters who are sketched, briefly but vividly, in this song.
Does Justin ever make it big? How did the revolution of English boys with banjos go? What are the dragons that Jay slays? Why is Tre the safest girl the narrator knows?
(And--I love FT but feel free to twit the unconscious misogyny that sometimes slips into his songs!)
Maybe a scene of all of them being in the entourage of a more famous friend? Or just generally bumming around London and making music?
Pretty much sticking to what I said in the sign-ups! And I'll add that this would be a great fandom to pick up if we matched on something else and you're not feeling it, since it's 3 minutes and pretty easy to find.
And Both Were Young--Madeleine L'Engle (Philipa "Flip" Hunter, Paul Laurens, Erna Weber, Collette Perceval)
This is definitely an ANY rather than an ALL request when it comes to the characters I selected.
Ever since I read in Listening for Madeleine (an oral/interview based biography of L'Engle) that Flip Hunter's love interest was a girl in the first draft of this book and an early editor convinced her to change it, I have been craving f/f slash in this universe.
What if Paul Laurens--the handsome, troubled, war-orphan love interest--was Paulette or Paula or Pauline? What changes? What stays the same?
If that doesn't appeal, I'd love femslash with the girls at the school (Erna/Flip or Erna/Jackie) or gen friendship fic. I like all of Flip's girlfriends but I suggested Erna because the book only lightly touches on the implications of Erna being German at an international school almost immediately post-WWII and I think more about that would be interesting.
Or, alternatively, some gen mentor & student interaction between Flip and Madame Perceval. An unrequited crush on Flip's part is fine (it's practically canon!) but I'd really rather not read a teacher/student relationship.
Or...L'Engleverse fans know that Flip becomes a successful artist because one of her paintings plays a role in A Severed Wasp. What happens between boarding school and then? Gen, het, slash or all of the above.
All I really want to add here is that unless you prefer not to know too much about the lives of authors you like (a position I can totally respect!), if you're a L'Engleverse fan you might want to check out Listening for Madeleine if you haven't already.
Tennis RPF--Martina Navratilova, Chris Evert
Tennis might have been my first fandom--the era I'm interested is the early 80s to early 90s, when I was a kid watching Wimbledon & the US Open with my mom. I always cheered for Martina and Mom always cheered for Chrissy but I loved them both.
I'd love f/f slash with those two, or gen friendship fic if you're uncomfortable slashing the living.
I'll have links in my journal but here are some possibilities:
Late 70s/early 80s when Martina was a new defector and still trying to fulfill her potential.
IIRC, Martina introduced Chris to one of her exes, Andy Mills. What if that had gone a little differently?
Martina wrote in her autobiography that Chris was her rock on her first emotional return trip to Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic). Fic with a real sense of place and end of the cold war historical moment would be great.
Martina/Wimbledon. 'Nuff said--especially anything set around her last final against Conchita Martinez. The match is probably available on YouTube--what I love about it is Martina's unabashedly emotional relationship with Wimbledon (and also there's a bit where Conchita's hurt and Martina holds her towel up so Conchita can have privacy from the cameras that just gave me *hearteyes* when I saw it)
Feel free to use major figures from the women's (or men's) tour of that era--Tracy Austin, Hana Mandlikova, Billie Jean King, Steffi Graf etc...
Funnily enough, this is one of the few fandoms where I'd also enjoy a really radical AU, as long as it preserved their characters--Martina & Chrissy as space pirates or Cold War astronauts/cosmonauts would be amazing, f'r instance!
I actually do have a few things to add here--if I remember correctly, the info about Martina & Chris in Czechoslovakia comes from Martina's 1985 autobiography written with George Vecsey. I've not read the 1995 biography of her, norThe Rivals: Chris Evert vs. Martina Navratilova: Their Epic Duels and Extraordinary Friendship. I just found out about the latter book and it's going on my TBR pile approximately now.
I can't remember the source for this but I'm pretty sure there was an interview where Chris talked about the limitations she felt in the role of "America's Sweetheart" and said that the rivalry between the two of them was always on-court only and they were friends off-court --except for a period when Martina's trainers took 'crushing the enemy'" a bit literally. ETA: If this is at all relevant to your interests, you should watch this: http://www.tennischannel.com/news/NewsDetails.aspx?newsid=11023 because Chris putting the Hall of Fame ring on Martina's finger is basically the most adorable thing ever.
And I had a couple more AU ideas: Martina has co-written some mystery novels--what about them as detectives? Or future fic where they're awesome badass old ladies hanging out together? They've both gone on and done lots of cool stuff after their initial careers--I could see them going on and doing all manner of cool stuff in the future.
Inquisitor's Apprentice series--Chris Moriarty (Any)
I would be so thrilled with anything in this series! It has great historical atmosphere, character depth, and does diversity right--I'd love to see a fic that builds on those excellent qualities!
Ideas: Sasha, Sasha's dybbuk, and their dark, complex relationship. What happens as the dybbuk becomes more and more a separate individual?
Lily Astral--I'd love to see more of the series from her point of view!
Rosie DiMaggio--I love that she's beautiful, obsessed with inventions and science and absolutely unapologetic about being herself. Anything more about Rosie would be great! And if Rosie were to meet and have adventures with Lily, or with Bekah Kessler, that would be amazing.
I love the entire Kessler family and more scenes of them being awesome and having each others' backs would be awesome.
Maxmilian Wolf--I'd love more Inspector Wolf backstory! Or future fic, or missing scenes from his POV...
Basically sticking to everything I said here! I should add that although I didn't mention him much, Sasha is a great main character and I would also be totally fine with him as the MC in your story. I tend to see this fandom in a very gen way, but I'd be happy with ships as well (either slash or het, so long as it's appropriate to the characters' ages). I also love Bella De Serpa (J.P. Morgaunt's mysterious and morally ambiguous librarian) and Philip Payton (Inspector Wolf's sharp-as-a-tack assistant) so feel free to include or focus on them too! Also, this would also be a pretty easy fandom to pick up if we matched on something else, since it consists of two not-insanely-long middle grade novels.
Psy-Changeling-Nalini Singh (Any)
I'm more into the worldbuilding in this series than I am invested in most of the romance; basically anything that explores some aspect of that will make me happy.
A few things I'm curious about: what is it like to be an ocean-based changeling? a non-predatory changeling? how have the Forgotten's abilities changed?
I love the series but I'm not a super fan of the whole alpha-male/bonding aspects and I like that Singh herself has started complicated it a bit (Riaz & Adria subverting mating bonds, Indigo mating with less-dominant Drew) and I'd love to see that taken further. A vulnerable male (River Shannon comes to mind) and a lone female changeling? The lack of LGBTQ pairings is also noted--feel free to change that.
Some existing characters/pairings I like:
Max Shannon/Sophia Russo--I'd actually love to know how their lives have been going post-Bonds of Justice?
Sienna Lauren Snow--I'd love fic of her hanging out with different members of the pack, basically growing into her role as a kickass leader. I like Hawke but I'd love to see something that focuses mainly on Sienna's evolution.
Alice Eldredge--What happens when she wakes up? (Should I mention that Alice/Amara is my femslash crack pairing?)
Nikita Duncan & Anthony Kyriakus--middle-aged psy love? Or just building an empire"?
Sasha Duncan Hunter--I love her journey throughout the series. Her evolving control of her gifts, her relationship with Lucas, and especially her evolving relationship with Nikita as Sasha becomes a mother herself.
Cade/Tally--I love their roles as mentors to the abused Forgotten kids.
And most of all--what happens when Silence falls?
I forgot to say this explicitly, but I'm totally fine with OCs as major characters in this fandom.
So yay! Thank you for being my writer! It's going to be a great Yuletide!