Yuletide: Anastasia's Future Plans
This was my 'official' pinch hit, in the sense that it was a pinch that I requested and was assigned. The fandom is the Anastasia Krupnik series by Lois Lowry, one of the middle grade series that I loved when I was about twelve. The request was for Anastasia femslashed with Henry, a.k.a. Henrietta Peabody, Anastasia's friend from the book Anastasia's Chosen Career.
(The link goes to the Archive Of Our Own; I'll eventually repost here for the sake of archival redundancy, but you can comment over there for now, or wait 'til it's here.)
As before, if you want to just go read the story, it's here:
Anastasia's Future Plans
Anastasia Krupnik series, by Lois Lowry; teen and up audiences; f/f; Anastasia Krupnik/Henrietta "Henry" Peabody, with bonus Anastasia's family; mild spoilers for the Anastasia series
At age seventeen, Anastasia starts to figure out what her plans for her life are-with a little help.
The Anastasia Krupnik books are a middle-grade series published from the early 80s through the mid 90s, about a girl named Anastasia with whom I identified a great deal. She loved books! She carried around a notebook with her and made lists in it! She made wild leaps of (il)logic! She was cheerfully determined even when it was, perhaps, not in her best interest! And in some ways she was wish-fulfillment: her parents, though imperfect as parents always are, were fascinating and sympatico. And she had a tower bedroom, and a goldfish named Frank, who, unlike my goldfish, did not die immediately.
And more to the point, I'd recently ordered the entire Anastasia series from Amazon in a fit of nostalgia and reread them with great glee, which meant that when the pinch hit rolled by, of course I leapt on it.
The prompt, Anastasia/Henry fluffy femslash, wasn't something I'd ever thought about before I saw the prompt... and yet as soon as I saw it, I said, "Oh, of COURSE." You see, the book that introduces Henry (full name Henrietta) is Anastasia's Chosen Career, in which Anastasia takes a modeling class. (Her chosen career is not modeling, it's bookstore ownership, but she wants the modeling class to develop more grace and stuff.)
Henry is an African-American girl also taking the class, a girl with a lot of intelligence and spirit and also, as is revealed over the book, a girl who's incredibly beautiful. Henry is interested in modeling because she wants to make money for college. And Anastasia is sort of... transfixed by Henry's beauty (which is revealed after she became friends with Henry). When I first read the book mumblemumble years ago, I didn't think anything of it. But upon getting the prompt, my brain instantly put on the slash goggles and Anastasia's fascination snapped into focus. Anastasia has a crush on Henry!
So I wrote the story about Anastasia trying to figure out what to do for college, and by extension what to do with her life, while simultaneously figuring out her own attraction to her friend.
The biggest joy of this one was writing it in the voice of the books, with Anastasia's list-making, her eccentric family, and her idiosyncratic thought processes. It came surprisingly easily (a pleasure after the difficulty of nailing down Paarfi's voice for In Which Tazendra Catches a Thief), and was just plain fun to write. Especially the scene where Anastasia and her family have dinner.
Posted on LJ and DW, reply here or there. Currently there are
comments at DW.
(The link goes to the Archive Of Our Own; I'll eventually repost here for the sake of archival redundancy, but you can comment over there for now, or wait 'til it's here.)
As before, if you want to just go read the story, it's here:
Anastasia's Future Plans
Anastasia Krupnik series, by Lois Lowry; teen and up audiences; f/f; Anastasia Krupnik/Henrietta "Henry" Peabody, with bonus Anastasia's family; mild spoilers for the Anastasia series
At age seventeen, Anastasia starts to figure out what her plans for her life are-with a little help.
The Anastasia Krupnik books are a middle-grade series published from the early 80s through the mid 90s, about a girl named Anastasia with whom I identified a great deal. She loved books! She carried around a notebook with her and made lists in it! She made wild leaps of (il)logic! She was cheerfully determined even when it was, perhaps, not in her best interest! And in some ways she was wish-fulfillment: her parents, though imperfect as parents always are, were fascinating and sympatico. And she had a tower bedroom, and a goldfish named Frank, who, unlike my goldfish, did not die immediately.
And more to the point, I'd recently ordered the entire Anastasia series from Amazon in a fit of nostalgia and reread them with great glee, which meant that when the pinch hit rolled by, of course I leapt on it.
The prompt, Anastasia/Henry fluffy femslash, wasn't something I'd ever thought about before I saw the prompt... and yet as soon as I saw it, I said, "Oh, of COURSE." You see, the book that introduces Henry (full name Henrietta) is Anastasia's Chosen Career, in which Anastasia takes a modeling class. (Her chosen career is not modeling, it's bookstore ownership, but she wants the modeling class to develop more grace and stuff.)
Henry is an African-American girl also taking the class, a girl with a lot of intelligence and spirit and also, as is revealed over the book, a girl who's incredibly beautiful. Henry is interested in modeling because she wants to make money for college. And Anastasia is sort of... transfixed by Henry's beauty (which is revealed after she became friends with Henry). When I first read the book mumblemumble years ago, I didn't think anything of it. But upon getting the prompt, my brain instantly put on the slash goggles and Anastasia's fascination snapped into focus. Anastasia has a crush on Henry!
So I wrote the story about Anastasia trying to figure out what to do for college, and by extension what to do with her life, while simultaneously figuring out her own attraction to her friend.
The biggest joy of this one was writing it in the voice of the books, with Anastasia's list-making, her eccentric family, and her idiosyncratic thought processes. It came surprisingly easily (a pleasure after the difficulty of nailing down Paarfi's voice for In Which Tazendra Catches a Thief), and was just plain fun to write. Especially the scene where Anastasia and her family have dinner.
Posted on LJ and DW, reply here or there. Currently there are
comments at DW.