Yuletide Reveal
The three stories I wrote for this year‘s Yuletide were:
1.) My Assignment:
Icebound (13024 words) by Selena
Chapters: 7/7
Fandom: Order of the Air Series - Melissa Scott & Jo Graham, 20th Century CE RPF
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Mitchell Sorley/Stasi Rostov
Characters: Mitchell Sorley, Stasi Rostov, Henry Kershaw, Leni Riefenstahl, Max Schirmer, Franz Schrieck, Hans Schneeberger
Additional Tags: Yuletide, 1930s, Adventure & Romance, Foreshadowing, Films, Antisemitism, POV Jewish Character
Summary:
Spring of 1933: Mitch and Stasi hadn't planned on spending their honeymoon dodging bears and icebergs. But the pilot supposed to do the hair raising stunt flying on the German-American movie "SOS Iceberg" has fallen sick, the leading lady may or may not be possessed, and there is a ghost bent on revenge involving the new German leader...
My recipient requested Stasi and Mitch from the Order of the Air novels by Melissa Scott and Jo Graham. Since I adore the novels, and also their characters, this was a joy to write. The reason why it‘s also tagged for 20th Century RPF is that other than Mitch, Stasi and briefly a friend of theirs, all the other characters are historical. The novels themselves, which start in the 1920s and by now have reached the later 1930s, are adventures involving flying, archaeology and supernatural elements, and they give both cameos and important roles to figures of history. My beta, who hadn‘t yet a chance to read them, told me she had no trouble following the story, which gives me the hope it‘s understandable for fans of the book and not-yet-readers of same alike.
Now, Mitch and Stasi, the couple whose relationship was to be a focus of the story, flirt pretty much from the get go, despite the fact that when they meet in book 2 she’s a conwoman in the process of robbing his friend, but their marriage at the end of the third novel nonetheless happens quite sudden. The next novel is set two years later. So I thought one interesting time to delve into their relationship would be the period immediately after their marriage, when they‘re still in transition, finding out what being married means to them, and what they want it to mean, how they balance and negotiate each other‘s issues, ethics and boundaries. Which, since they marry at the end of 1932, put the necessary time frame for the novel in the spring of 1933.
What I didn‘t want to write were only a few pages of introspection and dialogue. I wanted a plot, and one what would involve some of the elements which made the novels intriguing to me. Pondering this, and the novels‘ ability to let our heroes get involved into flying adventures which more often than not involve politics, supernatural elements and a brush with the film world, my vague cinematic memories re: the spring of 1933 reminded me of various things - including an US-German coproduction mainly filmed in Greenland and starring Leni Riefenstahl just before she became Hitler‘s favourite film director, and Ernst Udet, the legendary ace whom the Order of the Air characters meet in a later novel. Since the director was Arnold Fanck whose penchant of putting his actors at risk when filming on extreme actual locations makes today‘s action obsessed directors look like carebears, the movie would have provided some entertaining anecdotes in any case. But since the leading lady was someone who was about to devote her considerable artistic gifts to the cause of one of the worst mass murderers in history, it would also provide me with the challenge of matching the novel‘s skills of using rl villains without either prettifying them or going for the operetta Nazi cliché. Whether or not I succeeded, only the reader can tell.
2.) Treat for a friend who had a tough year the first:
Selkie Bride (10911 words) by Selena
Chapters: 5/5
Fandom: David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Emily Peggotty/James Steerforth, David Copperfield/James Steerforth, Emily Peggotty & Martha Endell, Emily Peggotty & Daniel Peggotty, Emily Peggotty & David Copperfield, Emily Peggotty/ Ham Peggotty
Characters: Emily Peggotty, James Steerforth, Littimer, Daniel Peggotty, Ham Peggotty, Clara Peggotty, David Copperfield, Martha Endell, Mrs. Gummidge
Additional Tags: POV Female Character, Misses Clause Challenge, Character Study, Crossdressing, Power Dynamics, Yuletide Treat, Complicated Relationships, Yuletide
Summary:
In which Emily Peggotty becomes the heroine of her own life, and the villain, too.
When I saw
likeadeuce in her Yuletide letter had requested David Copperfield, and spefically Steerforth, David/Steerforth and had added that if Emily was to show up, she‘d want her to have her own agenda, inspiration struck. Me being me, the result is a story about Emily first and foremost, with David/Steerforth a subplot, so to speak, but years of personal aquaintance had made me reasonable certain ‚Deuce would not mind.
Emily is one one of Dickens‘ takes on that very Victorian trope, the seduced woman promptly punished by fate, though as opposed to many another Victorian fallen woman she makes it out of her novel alive and actually well. Still, it struck me upon rereading how much he keeps the adult Emily (as opposed to the child Emily) off stage, so to speak - she‘s mostly reported or talked about, and since the narrator is David who is canonically clueless about women (and a lot of men as well), this provided me with ample room for fleshing out the character. And canon gave me a lot to work with, actually. (For example: Rereading the novel, it far clearer than I had recalled that Emily really did not want to marry Ham quite independent from the Steerforth factor. Also, according to Littimer she became fluent in French, Italian and possibly German in a very quick time, which says a lot about her linguistic gifts and smarts. And while David insists on seeing her as utterly helpless, it stands to reason that a woman who can make it back from Naples to London on her own without any money to start that journey with has good surival skills.)
Providing Emily with a story of her own while still keeping with all that happens in the novel, and trying my hand at plausible Dickensian dialogue for Steerforth was a very enjoyable challenge, and I loved meeting it.
3.) Treat for a friend who had a tough year the second:
Ash and Iron (6291 words) by Selena
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Rome (TV 2005)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Atia of the Julii & Servilia of the Junii, Julius Caesar/Servilia of the Junii, Atia of the Julii & Octavia of the Julii, Mark Antony/Atia of the Julii, Octavia of the Julii/Servilia of the Junii, Servilia of the Junii & Cato the Younger
Characters: Atia of the Julii, Servilia of the Junii, Octavia of the Julii, Julius Caesar, Mark Antony, Cato the Younger, Terentia (c. 98 BCE-5 CE)
Additional Tags: Backstory, Character Study, POV Female Character, Misses Clause Challenge, Yuletide Treat, Yuletide
Summary:
Atia would never concede victory to Servilia, in anything.
kangeiko asked for Atia and Servilia (in their Rome incarnations) in her letter. While the feud between these two ladies in central to the tv show they‘re in, it hasn‘t been covered all that much by fanfic, so I couldn‘t resist, and returned to Rome for some more fanfiction. It even gave me the chance to include one of my favourite anecdotes about the historical Servilia, as well as the fact that this anecdote and the birth of the later Augustus both happened during Cicero‘s consulate, in the year of the Catiline Conspiracy. Rewatching some of the Atia and Servilia centric episodes was an added bonus for me.
This entry was originally posted at https://selenak.dreamwidth.org/1263038.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.
1.) My Assignment:
Icebound (13024 words) by Selena
Chapters: 7/7
Fandom: Order of the Air Series - Melissa Scott & Jo Graham, 20th Century CE RPF
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Mitchell Sorley/Stasi Rostov
Characters: Mitchell Sorley, Stasi Rostov, Henry Kershaw, Leni Riefenstahl, Max Schirmer, Franz Schrieck, Hans Schneeberger
Additional Tags: Yuletide, 1930s, Adventure & Romance, Foreshadowing, Films, Antisemitism, POV Jewish Character
Summary:
Spring of 1933: Mitch and Stasi hadn't planned on spending their honeymoon dodging bears and icebergs. But the pilot supposed to do the hair raising stunt flying on the German-American movie "SOS Iceberg" has fallen sick, the leading lady may or may not be possessed, and there is a ghost bent on revenge involving the new German leader...
My recipient requested Stasi and Mitch from the Order of the Air novels by Melissa Scott and Jo Graham. Since I adore the novels, and also their characters, this was a joy to write. The reason why it‘s also tagged for 20th Century RPF is that other than Mitch, Stasi and briefly a friend of theirs, all the other characters are historical. The novels themselves, which start in the 1920s and by now have reached the later 1930s, are adventures involving flying, archaeology and supernatural elements, and they give both cameos and important roles to figures of history. My beta, who hadn‘t yet a chance to read them, told me she had no trouble following the story, which gives me the hope it‘s understandable for fans of the book and not-yet-readers of same alike.
Now, Mitch and Stasi, the couple whose relationship was to be a focus of the story, flirt pretty much from the get go, despite the fact that when they meet in book 2 she’s a conwoman in the process of robbing his friend, but their marriage at the end of the third novel nonetheless happens quite sudden. The next novel is set two years later. So I thought one interesting time to delve into their relationship would be the period immediately after their marriage, when they‘re still in transition, finding out what being married means to them, and what they want it to mean, how they balance and negotiate each other‘s issues, ethics and boundaries. Which, since they marry at the end of 1932, put the necessary time frame for the novel in the spring of 1933.
What I didn‘t want to write were only a few pages of introspection and dialogue. I wanted a plot, and one what would involve some of the elements which made the novels intriguing to me. Pondering this, and the novels‘ ability to let our heroes get involved into flying adventures which more often than not involve politics, supernatural elements and a brush with the film world, my vague cinematic memories re: the spring of 1933 reminded me of various things - including an US-German coproduction mainly filmed in Greenland and starring Leni Riefenstahl just before she became Hitler‘s favourite film director, and Ernst Udet, the legendary ace whom the Order of the Air characters meet in a later novel. Since the director was Arnold Fanck whose penchant of putting his actors at risk when filming on extreme actual locations makes today‘s action obsessed directors look like carebears, the movie would have provided some entertaining anecdotes in any case. But since the leading lady was someone who was about to devote her considerable artistic gifts to the cause of one of the worst mass murderers in history, it would also provide me with the challenge of matching the novel‘s skills of using rl villains without either prettifying them or going for the operetta Nazi cliché. Whether or not I succeeded, only the reader can tell.
2.) Treat for a friend who had a tough year the first:
Selkie Bride (10911 words) by Selena
Chapters: 5/5
Fandom: David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Emily Peggotty/James Steerforth, David Copperfield/James Steerforth, Emily Peggotty & Martha Endell, Emily Peggotty & Daniel Peggotty, Emily Peggotty & David Copperfield, Emily Peggotty/ Ham Peggotty
Characters: Emily Peggotty, James Steerforth, Littimer, Daniel Peggotty, Ham Peggotty, Clara Peggotty, David Copperfield, Martha Endell, Mrs. Gummidge
Additional Tags: POV Female Character, Misses Clause Challenge, Character Study, Crossdressing, Power Dynamics, Yuletide Treat, Complicated Relationships, Yuletide
Summary:
In which Emily Peggotty becomes the heroine of her own life, and the villain, too.
When I saw
likeadeuce in her Yuletide letter had requested David Copperfield, and spefically Steerforth, David/Steerforth and had added that if Emily was to show up, she‘d want her to have her own agenda, inspiration struck. Me being me, the result is a story about Emily first and foremost, with David/Steerforth a subplot, so to speak, but years of personal aquaintance had made me reasonable certain ‚Deuce would not mind.
Emily is one one of Dickens‘ takes on that very Victorian trope, the seduced woman promptly punished by fate, though as opposed to many another Victorian fallen woman she makes it out of her novel alive and actually well. Still, it struck me upon rereading how much he keeps the adult Emily (as opposed to the child Emily) off stage, so to speak - she‘s mostly reported or talked about, and since the narrator is David who is canonically clueless about women (and a lot of men as well), this provided me with ample room for fleshing out the character. And canon gave me a lot to work with, actually. (For example: Rereading the novel, it far clearer than I had recalled that Emily really did not want to marry Ham quite independent from the Steerforth factor. Also, according to Littimer she became fluent in French, Italian and possibly German in a very quick time, which says a lot about her linguistic gifts and smarts. And while David insists on seeing her as utterly helpless, it stands to reason that a woman who can make it back from Naples to London on her own without any money to start that journey with has good surival skills.)
Providing Emily with a story of her own while still keeping with all that happens in the novel, and trying my hand at plausible Dickensian dialogue for Steerforth was a very enjoyable challenge, and I loved meeting it.
3.) Treat for a friend who had a tough year the second:
Ash and Iron (6291 words) by Selena
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Rome (TV 2005)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Atia of the Julii & Servilia of the Junii, Julius Caesar/Servilia of the Junii, Atia of the Julii & Octavia of the Julii, Mark Antony/Atia of the Julii, Octavia of the Julii/Servilia of the Junii, Servilia of the Junii & Cato the Younger
Characters: Atia of the Julii, Servilia of the Junii, Octavia of the Julii, Julius Caesar, Mark Antony, Cato the Younger, Terentia (c. 98 BCE-5 CE)
Additional Tags: Backstory, Character Study, POV Female Character, Misses Clause Challenge, Yuletide Treat, Yuletide
Summary:
Atia would never concede victory to Servilia, in anything.
kangeiko asked for Atia and Servilia (in their Rome incarnations) in her letter. While the feud between these two ladies in central to the tv show they‘re in, it hasn‘t been covered all that much by fanfic, so I couldn‘t resist, and returned to Rome for some more fanfiction. It even gave me the chance to include one of my favourite anecdotes about the historical Servilia, as well as the fact that this anecdote and the birth of the later Augustus both happened during Cicero‘s consulate, in the year of the Catiline Conspiracy. Rewatching some of the Atia and Servilia centric episodes was an added bonus for me.
This entry was originally posted at https://selenak.dreamwidth.org/1263038.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.