Post Yuletide post
yuletide authors have been revealed! I wrote two stories this year:
I sayeth unto thee (Prince of Egypt)
Written for: theo-winterwood.
Rating: PG
Summary: In Midian, Moses was a stranger in a strange land; now he is on familiar soil, but a stranger nonetheless.
and a Yuletide Treat,
I Friend You, You Friend Me (Hercules: the Legendary Journeys)
Written for: marycrawford
Rating: PG
Summary: "It's a social network,” Salmoneus explained.
Prince of Egypt: This was my original fic. The prompt had only said "slash, please", which freaked me out a bit; slash between Moses and Rameses is vaguely incestuous, depending on how you look at it, which made me uncomfortable - and theo-winterwood's journal was friends-locked, so I didn't know how important the slash aspect was to her (I assume 'her'). After rewatching the source, I finally decided to focus on the strong bond between the brothers, which is my favorite aspect of the movie, and hope that she'd still like it - and anyway, the line between close friendship and slash subtext has always been thin, right? Thankfully, I got a wonderful comment in response to the story, so I think it turned out well. And I was honesty floored by the response this fic got. I'd thought that since it was categorized under Prince of Egypt and not Bible, hardly anyone would click on it in the first place. And then, on the very first yuletide rec post, it was recced! How psyched was I, you cannot imagine.
Just about everything I have to say on Prince of Egypt, I think I've said in this fic. God hardening Pharaoh's heart. The unforgivable cruelty of the tenth plague. Moses' love to both God and his brother; the necessity of following God's directions even when he hates what he's doing. I'm not talented enough to articulate the emotions I feel when I think about these things, so all I could do in the story was point them out, and let each reader continue the train of thought in their own heads.
I'll just add that my favorite part in writing this was researching Egyptian mythology. According to the movie, Moses only discovered he was an Israelite as an adult; therefore, he was only introduced to monotheism after years of being indoctrinated as a polytheist. I didn't work in too many details in the end, but still, it does mark a significant difference between how he looked at the world before and after the Burning Bush, and it was writing this fic that made me realize that. At least, in the PoE version of the story, which granted, isn't 100% Bible compliant. (But I'm not going to go into a discussion about how true the story really is, because wow, we'd be arguing till 2009.)
(And a quick tackle hug to leiascully, who really did save my life, answering my questions and betaing for me as she was also polishing her own fic in the wee hours of the morning. Well, wee for me in any case.)
Hercules: the Legenday Journeys: This was my original assignment - basically, Hercules: tLJ gen. I was really psyched, because not only did it look fun to write, but the recipient was one of the betas of the gift I myself had gotten last year (Hercules ex Machina, a Hercules/Bible crossover). But then, because of the assignment mix-up, someone else got the prompt, so I just figured I might write something for it if I have time, after I finish my fic.
As expected, my fic was finished at the very last second, so I'd pretty much given up on writing anything else. But then, a few days before the 25th, I saw that marycrawford's requests were still listed as unfulfilled! This will not do, I thought, and then I remembered one of my initial bunnies. What happens when the Ancient Greek gods are introduced to Facebook? Now, over the past few months, Facebook has taken over Israel by storm. I don't think you can realize just how much, if you live in a place where it was introduced to society gradually. Here, it just exploded into being one bright 2007 October, and it's INSANE. But hey, you know, I'd thought it was a local insanity, and then I saw the responses the fic was getting and realized that maybe not.
And this fic - after what I felt was a 'success' of my fic last year, which still pretty much rocks my own socks off, I was resigned to be disappointed this year, and wow, was I overwhelmed. I've just been squeeing to myself for the past week, basically, both that I was reading such great fic, and that you liked mine, you really, really liked them!
So anyway, Herc was written during a train ride on the night before yuletide and between midnight and 630AM, with 7AM being the posting deadline. Which means that there are, alas, two typos hidden in there, which I didn't want to bug the mods about. The title and author's note are the result of it being 6AM, and me not having leiascully online to help me with the title. But all in all, I am very pleased with it, and happy that Mary liked it, and just, you know, happy period :-)
Out of the 41 stories I'd recced (and still do), 11 were by authors whose names I at least recognized, 5 were by authors who'd commented on my fics, 4 were by people who are on my flist, 1 whose author had also recced one of my stories, and 1 that - heck, I'll just point you to exhibit A. It turns out she was the one who'd written it, the sneak. And that, my friends, is the awesomeness of anonymity.
Going to reply to comments now; if I didn't get your comment, believe me, I will hunt you down to thank you. And a happy January to all, and here's to next year!
I sayeth unto thee (Prince of Egypt)
Written for: theo-winterwood.
Rating: PG
Summary: In Midian, Moses was a stranger in a strange land; now he is on familiar soil, but a stranger nonetheless.
and a Yuletide Treat,
I Friend You, You Friend Me (Hercules: the Legendary Journeys)
Written for: marycrawford
Rating: PG
Summary: "It's a social network,” Salmoneus explained.
Prince of Egypt: This was my original fic. The prompt had only said "slash, please", which freaked me out a bit; slash between Moses and Rameses is vaguely incestuous, depending on how you look at it, which made me uncomfortable - and theo-winterwood's journal was friends-locked, so I didn't know how important the slash aspect was to her (I assume 'her'). After rewatching the source, I finally decided to focus on the strong bond between the brothers, which is my favorite aspect of the movie, and hope that she'd still like it - and anyway, the line between close friendship and slash subtext has always been thin, right? Thankfully, I got a wonderful comment in response to the story, so I think it turned out well. And I was honesty floored by the response this fic got. I'd thought that since it was categorized under Prince of Egypt and not Bible, hardly anyone would click on it in the first place. And then, on the very first yuletide rec post, it was recced! How psyched was I, you cannot imagine.
Just about everything I have to say on Prince of Egypt, I think I've said in this fic. God hardening Pharaoh's heart. The unforgivable cruelty of the tenth plague. Moses' love to both God and his brother; the necessity of following God's directions even when he hates what he's doing. I'm not talented enough to articulate the emotions I feel when I think about these things, so all I could do in the story was point them out, and let each reader continue the train of thought in their own heads.
I'll just add that my favorite part in writing this was researching Egyptian mythology. According to the movie, Moses only discovered he was an Israelite as an adult; therefore, he was only introduced to monotheism after years of being indoctrinated as a polytheist. I didn't work in too many details in the end, but still, it does mark a significant difference between how he looked at the world before and after the Burning Bush, and it was writing this fic that made me realize that. At least, in the PoE version of the story, which granted, isn't 100% Bible compliant. (But I'm not going to go into a discussion about how true the story really is, because wow, we'd be arguing till 2009.)
(And a quick tackle hug to leiascully, who really did save my life, answering my questions and betaing for me as she was also polishing her own fic in the wee hours of the morning. Well, wee for me in any case.)
Hercules: the Legenday Journeys: This was my original assignment - basically, Hercules: tLJ gen. I was really psyched, because not only did it look fun to write, but the recipient was one of the betas of the gift I myself had gotten last year (Hercules ex Machina, a Hercules/Bible crossover). But then, because of the assignment mix-up, someone else got the prompt, so I just figured I might write something for it if I have time, after I finish my fic.
As expected, my fic was finished at the very last second, so I'd pretty much given up on writing anything else. But then, a few days before the 25th, I saw that marycrawford's requests were still listed as unfulfilled! This will not do, I thought, and then I remembered one of my initial bunnies. What happens when the Ancient Greek gods are introduced to Facebook? Now, over the past few months, Facebook has taken over Israel by storm. I don't think you can realize just how much, if you live in a place where it was introduced to society gradually. Here, it just exploded into being one bright 2007 October, and it's INSANE. But hey, you know, I'd thought it was a local insanity, and then I saw the responses the fic was getting and realized that maybe not.
And this fic - after what I felt was a 'success' of my fic last year, which still pretty much rocks my own socks off, I was resigned to be disappointed this year, and wow, was I overwhelmed. I've just been squeeing to myself for the past week, basically, both that I was reading such great fic, and that you liked mine, you really, really liked them!
So anyway, Herc was written during a train ride on the night before yuletide and between midnight and 630AM, with 7AM being the posting deadline. Which means that there are, alas, two typos hidden in there, which I didn't want to bug the mods about. The title and author's note are the result of it being 6AM, and me not having leiascully online to help me with the title. But all in all, I am very pleased with it, and happy that Mary liked it, and just, you know, happy period :-)
Out of the 41 stories I'd recced (and still do), 11 were by authors whose names I at least recognized, 5 were by authors who'd commented on my fics, 4 were by people who are on my flist, 1 whose author had also recced one of my stories, and 1 that - heck, I'll just point you to exhibit A. It turns out she was the one who'd written it, the sneak. And that, my friends, is the awesomeness of anonymity.
Going to reply to comments now; if I didn't get your comment, believe me, I will hunt you down to thank you. And a happy January to all, and here's to next year!