Dear Yuletide Author
For those of you who are looking at this and going, "Yuletide? WTF is that?", Yuletide is a holday rare-fandom fanfic exchange. You can find more information on the main Yuletide comm. Signups are open through Friday.
Dear Yuletide Author:
First things first. I am generally pretty easy to please, and at Yuletide I am especially easy to please. If you write pretty much anything, I'll be happy; there are only a scant handful of things that I actually don't want. So if you get the prompts and have a brilliant idea, run with it.
That said, if you want more guidance, I aim to please!
The list of things I just plain don't like it short enough that I'll just list it really quick to start: please no incest, bestiality, scat, watersports, noncon, or sex involving underage characters. As long as you avoid those, I am likely to be happy.
As for what I do like... well, I'll go fandom-by-fandom.
The Westing Game, by Ellen Raskin
Characters I requested: Angela Wexler, Turtle Wexler
Other characters I love, but that aren't necessary: Sandy McSouthers, Judge Ford, Theo Theodorakis, Chris Theodorakis, Sydelle Pulaski... honestly, pretty much any of them
My optional details: The Westing Game is an old favorite of mine, and the fraught relationship between Turtle and Angela remains one of the things that I love most about it. Any story that dealt with the two characters would make me very happy, but here are a few specific ideas: perhaps a story that followed both of them over the next several years, showing us the way they grow apart and grow together, or perhaps a fluffy sistershood story when they're both adults and have some perspective on their mother's manipulations, or just something where they sit down together and talk.
If you want to add other characters, please feel free! I also really like Turtle's relationship with Sandy and Julian, and anything dealing with either Turtle or Angela's romantic relationships would be lovely.
The only things I definitely don't want for this fandom are incest or cross-generational relationships. (That is, if you want to write either Angela or Turtle with people their own age, that's just fine, but please no Angela/Turtle or Turtle/Sandy, for instance.)
The source material, and what I love about it: The Westing Game is a short novel, published for a middle-grade audience, but it's quite a complex and even psychological little book. It's tightly plotted, brilliantly characterized, extremely funny in parts and quite touching in others. The first time I read it, I was about ten, and I read it in an hour or so... and I've been rereading it regularly ever since. At its heart, it's a mystery, a puzzle-story... one that plays fair with its readers without being overly obscure.
My favorite thing about The Westing Game, hands-down, is the characters. I love them all in isolation and in combination. Each one is beautifully detailed and leaps off the page, and part of why I requested the fandom is that I wanted to see more of those characters. I love how they are all complex (surprisingly so, for such a short book) and have layers of motivations, and how, under it all, each one is sympathetic in his or her own way. And when you put them together and they can strike sparks off one another, wow. I love the way that their relationships are so complicated: the way Turtle resents the hell out of Angela, for instance, but also loves her enough to take the blame for her; the way Judge Ford feels so deeply conflicted about Sam Westing, who treated her with condescension and respect by turns; the way Theo's bonds with his brother are both deeply loving and incredibly stifling. And so on, through practically every interpersonal relationship in the book.
The relationship between Angela and Turtle (rivalry but also intense affection) has particularly always touched me. I'd love to see more of that. Really, though, you could just put a couple of the characters in a room together and I'd be delighted. Futurefic, pastfic, a missing scene... any of those would be fine by me.
The Westing Game appears to be out of print (sob!), but copies aren't hard to track down in used bookstores, or used from Amazon. More information on the book and its characters can be found on the Westing Heirs fansite.
Borderland Series, ed. by Terri Windling
Characters I requested: Any
My optional details: I'll be honest: my favorite thing about the Bordertown books, hands down, was Bordertown. That means that I'm extremely easy to please with this fandom! Any characters, any plot... as long as we get to see lots of that weird, half-magical, wonderful place. Heck, if you want to create original characters and use them, I would have no objections!
If you'd like some specific ideas, here are a few. I think Tick-Tick is a great character, and would love to see more of her--perhaps something from early in her days in B-town, when she was first beginning her love affair with technology? I also love the relationship between Strider and Sai, the way they navigate the difficult waters with her being a halfie and him being straight out of faerie, and would just adore a story about the pair of them. I love Seal and Cam and their relationship, and the way Seal learns who she is while living on a boat on the Mad River, and I'd love to see more of them growing into each other as a couple.
But basically, I love everything about the setting, and any story that touches on the strange, sideways, unpredictable magic of B-town would make me a happy girl.
The source material, and what I love about it: The Borderlands books are a series of anthologies, plus a few novels, set in a shared world. The concept of the books is that, at some point in the recent past, Elfland "reappeared" and now shares a border with our human world. The border is a place where neither magic nor the physical laws of our "real" world quite hold sway... and on the border is a city, called Bordertown, where elves and humans mingle, where neither magic nor technology works all the time, where there are gangs and runaways, bands and dive bars, hole-in-the-wall diners that serve both elfin ambrosia and human cheesesteaks.
As I mentioned in my request details, my favorite thing about Bordertown is the setting. I love the weird hybrid world, where technology works sometimes and magic works sometimes, where runaways and artists rub elbows with magicians and bouncers. I've always been much taken with the details, the way each neighborhood has its own flavor, the way the whole setting works on a kind of sideways dream logic that meshes with the smog of motorcycle exhaust and the grit of asphalt. It's got the kind of anachrotech that I love in steampunk, but from a totally different perspective: this is a cockeyed blend, not of old and new, but of fantastic and mundane.
Any of the existing characters would make me happy, and honestly you'd be more than welcome to create new characters to populate B-town. Really, the only thing I very specifically want for this setting is for the story to be set in Bordertown itself; I'd prefer if you didn't move the action to the World or to Elfland. If you want more specific guidance, though, I've always been fascinated by Tick-Tick, the elf with the passion for human technology. I also like the cop Sunny Rico and her partner Linn (must be hard to be a cop in B-town, eh?), and the complicated romance between Sai the bitter halfie and Strider the elfiest elf from Elfland. And I think Seal and Cam are just freaking adorable. Any rating or pairing (or no pairing at all-gen is always welcome) is fine for this one.
There are a number of Borderlands/Bordertown books, but to start with I'd recommend either the anthology The Essential Bordertown (which appears to be in print), or the novel Finder by Emma Bull (which does not, but can be found fairly readily used). More information about the setting can be found on the Bordertown fan page.
Neopets
Characters I requested: Brynn, Hanso
Other characters I love, but that aren't necessary: Xandra, Illusen, Jhudora, Hannah, Cog
My optional details: I wasn't expecting to get a new Yuletide fandom when the Neopets plot "The Faerie Ruins" began, but that's exactly what happened. I am so thoroughly charmed by the relationship between Brynn, the duty-minded but merciful guard, and Hanso, the rogueish thief, that I had to request. Anything between those two would be lovely, but here are some ideas: perhaps a daring adventure in which the two have to work together (to Brynn's exasperation) to save Neopia from another threat--or perhaps a story in which the tables are turned, and Hanso has to track down Brynn--or even a fluffy story about the two working through their differences.
Romance is absolutely fine (and even encouraged, although not necessary), but for this fandom only I would strongly prefer no sex of any kind.
The source material, and what I love about it: Neopets is a free online game site, in which you "adopt" pets, play games, complete plots, and so on. It sounds goofy, and honestly it is pretty goofy, but some of the plots are awesome. I count the plot that inspired me to request it this year as one of them.
"The Faerie Ruins" is about a group of Neopets attempting to figure out why the faeries (powerful magical beings with a tremendous influence on their world) have been turned to stone. The plot features a number of characters, but my favorites are the ones listed above: Brynn, a knight and guardswoman of the kingdom of Brightvale, and her long-time frenemy Hanso, an unrepentant rogue and thief with extremely questionable morals. I wouldn't have thought I would ever ship Neopets characters until this plot, but you know, I totally do.
Which isn't to say that you need to write a romance! The things I like best about Neopets plots are their sense of excitement, adventure, and whimsy; a gen adventure story, or a silly side-story involving the pair of them, would make me perfectly happy. Perhaps a bit of pastfic about the first time they met--or something set in the future, another adventure they go on together.
As I mention in the optional details, for this fandom I would really prefer no sex, although a Brynn/Hanso romance would be quite welcome if you want to go that route. I also prefer there to be not an overabundance of angst. But otherwise, go crazy! Over-the-top joyful goofiness is very much in keeping with the feel of Neopets.
You can check out Neopets from the main Neopets site, or you can jump straight to the Faerie Ruins plot comic, which will give you enough to write about Brynn and Hanso all by itself and which you don't need to sign up for the site to read. (It's just eleven chapters, most of them between three and five pages each.) More information about Neopets can be looked up on the unofficial Neodex.
Yonec, by Marie de France
Characters I requested: Any.
My optional details: Yonec is probably the lais of Marie de France that sticks most in my mind: the odd, lovely, tragic story of a woman in a tower and her shapechanging faerie lover. I would be absolutely delighted by anything you wrote for me based on Yonec, but here are some ideas if you want something to get started with: something centering on the love story between Muldumarec and the lady, or something about Yonec trying to learn more about his long-dead father, or Yonec growing up not quite human, or even something about Muldumarec's history before he met the lady (what was his life like in the silver castle)?
Shapeshifting is one of my favorite themes, so anything that focused on Muldumarec's ability to change into a bird of prey would please me, too.
The source material, and what I love about it: The lais of Marie de France are a set of romantic song-stories (lais), often with fantastic elements. Yonec, one of the lais, is the story of a romance between a woman locked in a tower and her magical knight-lover named Muldumarec (who might be a faerie), who visits her by shapechanging into a falcon and flying through her window.
This story hits so many of my narrative kinks it's hard to know where to begin!
For one thing, shapeshifting-into the shape of a bird of prey, no less, a potent symbol of power and freedom-has always fascinated me, and I'd love any story that played with that. For another thing I love that this is one of those rare stories where a faerie man (whether he's actually a faerie depends on the translation, but I've always liked that interpretation) falls in love with a mortal woman, and seeks to aid her rather than damn her. I love that the woman trapped in the tower is given a taste of freedom, and more than that, that she is portrayed to deserve that freedom. I love the trope of the child, half-magic and half-mortal, who grows up to learn his parent's legacy.
Basically there's not much you could do with this that I wouldn't love. Any rating or pairing (or no pairing at all-gen is always welcome) is fine for this one.
You can read Yonec for free online in a modern verse translation, complete with footnotes. (Including footnotes it's 16 pages.) My favorite published translation is the prose translation by Burgess and Busby. For an absolute wealth of information about the lais and their context, see The International Marie de France Society.
(If you're the type of Yuletide person who likes to have additional options [and no pressure if you aren't!], both Neopets and Yonec have source materials that can be read for free online, and that wouldn't take more than a couple of hours to catch up on. The Westing Game and Bordertown are a bit harder to come by, especially in a limited timeframe, but can often be got cheaply used.)
Anyway. There's my letter, but I'd like to reiterate that I'm pretty easy to please. If you have an idea that catches your attention and makes you excited, please go with it, even if it's not among my suggested story ideas! I can't wait to see what you come up with.
Yours excitedly,
sister_coyote | sister_coyote |
sister_coyote
Posted on LJ and DW, reply here or there. Currently there are
comments at DW.
Dear Yuletide Author:
First things first. I am generally pretty easy to please, and at Yuletide I am especially easy to please. If you write pretty much anything, I'll be happy; there are only a scant handful of things that I actually don't want. So if you get the prompts and have a brilliant idea, run with it.
That said, if you want more guidance, I aim to please!
The list of things I just plain don't like it short enough that I'll just list it really quick to start: please no incest, bestiality, scat, watersports, noncon, or sex involving underage characters. As long as you avoid those, I am likely to be happy.
As for what I do like... well, I'll go fandom-by-fandom.
The Westing Game, by Ellen Raskin
Characters I requested: Angela Wexler, Turtle Wexler
Other characters I love, but that aren't necessary: Sandy McSouthers, Judge Ford, Theo Theodorakis, Chris Theodorakis, Sydelle Pulaski... honestly, pretty much any of them
My optional details: The Westing Game is an old favorite of mine, and the fraught relationship between Turtle and Angela remains one of the things that I love most about it. Any story that dealt with the two characters would make me very happy, but here are a few specific ideas: perhaps a story that followed both of them over the next several years, showing us the way they grow apart and grow together, or perhaps a fluffy sistershood story when they're both adults and have some perspective on their mother's manipulations, or just something where they sit down together and talk.
If you want to add other characters, please feel free! I also really like Turtle's relationship with Sandy and Julian, and anything dealing with either Turtle or Angela's romantic relationships would be lovely.
The only things I definitely don't want for this fandom are incest or cross-generational relationships. (That is, if you want to write either Angela or Turtle with people their own age, that's just fine, but please no Angela/Turtle or Turtle/Sandy, for instance.)
The source material, and what I love about it: The Westing Game is a short novel, published for a middle-grade audience, but it's quite a complex and even psychological little book. It's tightly plotted, brilliantly characterized, extremely funny in parts and quite touching in others. The first time I read it, I was about ten, and I read it in an hour or so... and I've been rereading it regularly ever since. At its heart, it's a mystery, a puzzle-story... one that plays fair with its readers without being overly obscure.
My favorite thing about The Westing Game, hands-down, is the characters. I love them all in isolation and in combination. Each one is beautifully detailed and leaps off the page, and part of why I requested the fandom is that I wanted to see more of those characters. I love how they are all complex (surprisingly so, for such a short book) and have layers of motivations, and how, under it all, each one is sympathetic in his or her own way. And when you put them together and they can strike sparks off one another, wow. I love the way that their relationships are so complicated: the way Turtle resents the hell out of Angela, for instance, but also loves her enough to take the blame for her; the way Judge Ford feels so deeply conflicted about Sam Westing, who treated her with condescension and respect by turns; the way Theo's bonds with his brother are both deeply loving and incredibly stifling. And so on, through practically every interpersonal relationship in the book.
The relationship between Angela and Turtle (rivalry but also intense affection) has particularly always touched me. I'd love to see more of that. Really, though, you could just put a couple of the characters in a room together and I'd be delighted. Futurefic, pastfic, a missing scene... any of those would be fine by me.
The Westing Game appears to be out of print (sob!), but copies aren't hard to track down in used bookstores, or used from Amazon. More information on the book and its characters can be found on the Westing Heirs fansite.
Borderland Series, ed. by Terri Windling
Characters I requested: Any
My optional details: I'll be honest: my favorite thing about the Bordertown books, hands down, was Bordertown. That means that I'm extremely easy to please with this fandom! Any characters, any plot... as long as we get to see lots of that weird, half-magical, wonderful place. Heck, if you want to create original characters and use them, I would have no objections!
If you'd like some specific ideas, here are a few. I think Tick-Tick is a great character, and would love to see more of her--perhaps something from early in her days in B-town, when she was first beginning her love affair with technology? I also love the relationship between Strider and Sai, the way they navigate the difficult waters with her being a halfie and him being straight out of faerie, and would just adore a story about the pair of them. I love Seal and Cam and their relationship, and the way Seal learns who she is while living on a boat on the Mad River, and I'd love to see more of them growing into each other as a couple.
But basically, I love everything about the setting, and any story that touches on the strange, sideways, unpredictable magic of B-town would make me a happy girl.
The source material, and what I love about it: The Borderlands books are a series of anthologies, plus a few novels, set in a shared world. The concept of the books is that, at some point in the recent past, Elfland "reappeared" and now shares a border with our human world. The border is a place where neither magic nor the physical laws of our "real" world quite hold sway... and on the border is a city, called Bordertown, where elves and humans mingle, where neither magic nor technology works all the time, where there are gangs and runaways, bands and dive bars, hole-in-the-wall diners that serve both elfin ambrosia and human cheesesteaks.
As I mentioned in my request details, my favorite thing about Bordertown is the setting. I love the weird hybrid world, where technology works sometimes and magic works sometimes, where runaways and artists rub elbows with magicians and bouncers. I've always been much taken with the details, the way each neighborhood has its own flavor, the way the whole setting works on a kind of sideways dream logic that meshes with the smog of motorcycle exhaust and the grit of asphalt. It's got the kind of anachrotech that I love in steampunk, but from a totally different perspective: this is a cockeyed blend, not of old and new, but of fantastic and mundane.
Any of the existing characters would make me happy, and honestly you'd be more than welcome to create new characters to populate B-town. Really, the only thing I very specifically want for this setting is for the story to be set in Bordertown itself; I'd prefer if you didn't move the action to the World or to Elfland. If you want more specific guidance, though, I've always been fascinated by Tick-Tick, the elf with the passion for human technology. I also like the cop Sunny Rico and her partner Linn (must be hard to be a cop in B-town, eh?), and the complicated romance between Sai the bitter halfie and Strider the elfiest elf from Elfland. And I think Seal and Cam are just freaking adorable. Any rating or pairing (or no pairing at all-gen is always welcome) is fine for this one.
There are a number of Borderlands/Bordertown books, but to start with I'd recommend either the anthology The Essential Bordertown (which appears to be in print), or the novel Finder by Emma Bull (which does not, but can be found fairly readily used). More information about the setting can be found on the Bordertown fan page.
Neopets
Characters I requested: Brynn, Hanso
Other characters I love, but that aren't necessary: Xandra, Illusen, Jhudora, Hannah, Cog
My optional details: I wasn't expecting to get a new Yuletide fandom when the Neopets plot "The Faerie Ruins" began, but that's exactly what happened. I am so thoroughly charmed by the relationship between Brynn, the duty-minded but merciful guard, and Hanso, the rogueish thief, that I had to request. Anything between those two would be lovely, but here are some ideas: perhaps a daring adventure in which the two have to work together (to Brynn's exasperation) to save Neopia from another threat--or perhaps a story in which the tables are turned, and Hanso has to track down Brynn--or even a fluffy story about the two working through their differences.
Romance is absolutely fine (and even encouraged, although not necessary), but for this fandom only I would strongly prefer no sex of any kind.
The source material, and what I love about it: Neopets is a free online game site, in which you "adopt" pets, play games, complete plots, and so on. It sounds goofy, and honestly it is pretty goofy, but some of the plots are awesome. I count the plot that inspired me to request it this year as one of them.
"The Faerie Ruins" is about a group of Neopets attempting to figure out why the faeries (powerful magical beings with a tremendous influence on their world) have been turned to stone. The plot features a number of characters, but my favorites are the ones listed above: Brynn, a knight and guardswoman of the kingdom of Brightvale, and her long-time frenemy Hanso, an unrepentant rogue and thief with extremely questionable morals. I wouldn't have thought I would ever ship Neopets characters until this plot, but you know, I totally do.
Which isn't to say that you need to write a romance! The things I like best about Neopets plots are their sense of excitement, adventure, and whimsy; a gen adventure story, or a silly side-story involving the pair of them, would make me perfectly happy. Perhaps a bit of pastfic about the first time they met--or something set in the future, another adventure they go on together.
As I mention in the optional details, for this fandom I would really prefer no sex, although a Brynn/Hanso romance would be quite welcome if you want to go that route. I also prefer there to be not an overabundance of angst. But otherwise, go crazy! Over-the-top joyful goofiness is very much in keeping with the feel of Neopets.
You can check out Neopets from the main Neopets site, or you can jump straight to the Faerie Ruins plot comic, which will give you enough to write about Brynn and Hanso all by itself and which you don't need to sign up for the site to read. (It's just eleven chapters, most of them between three and five pages each.) More information about Neopets can be looked up on the unofficial Neodex.
Yonec, by Marie de France
Characters I requested: Any.
My optional details: Yonec is probably the lais of Marie de France that sticks most in my mind: the odd, lovely, tragic story of a woman in a tower and her shapechanging faerie lover. I would be absolutely delighted by anything you wrote for me based on Yonec, but here are some ideas if you want something to get started with: something centering on the love story between Muldumarec and the lady, or something about Yonec trying to learn more about his long-dead father, or Yonec growing up not quite human, or even something about Muldumarec's history before he met the lady (what was his life like in the silver castle)?
Shapeshifting is one of my favorite themes, so anything that focused on Muldumarec's ability to change into a bird of prey would please me, too.
The source material, and what I love about it: The lais of Marie de France are a set of romantic song-stories (lais), often with fantastic elements. Yonec, one of the lais, is the story of a romance between a woman locked in a tower and her magical knight-lover named Muldumarec (who might be a faerie), who visits her by shapechanging into a falcon and flying through her window.
This story hits so many of my narrative kinks it's hard to know where to begin!
For one thing, shapeshifting-into the shape of a bird of prey, no less, a potent symbol of power and freedom-has always fascinated me, and I'd love any story that played with that. For another thing I love that this is one of those rare stories where a faerie man (whether he's actually a faerie depends on the translation, but I've always liked that interpretation) falls in love with a mortal woman, and seeks to aid her rather than damn her. I love that the woman trapped in the tower is given a taste of freedom, and more than that, that she is portrayed to deserve that freedom. I love the trope of the child, half-magic and half-mortal, who grows up to learn his parent's legacy.
Basically there's not much you could do with this that I wouldn't love. Any rating or pairing (or no pairing at all-gen is always welcome) is fine for this one.
You can read Yonec for free online in a modern verse translation, complete with footnotes. (Including footnotes it's 16 pages.) My favorite published translation is the prose translation by Burgess and Busby. For an absolute wealth of information about the lais and their context, see The International Marie de France Society.
(If you're the type of Yuletide person who likes to have additional options [and no pressure if you aren't!], both Neopets and Yonec have source materials that can be read for free online, and that wouldn't take more than a couple of hours to catch up on. The Westing Game and Bordertown are a bit harder to come by, especially in a limited timeframe, but can often be got cheaply used.)
Anyway. There's my letter, but I'd like to reiterate that I'm pretty easy to please. If you have an idea that catches your attention and makes you excited, please go with it, even if it's not among my suggested story ideas! I can't wait to see what you come up with.
Yours excitedly,
sister_coyote | sister_coyote |
sister_coyote
Posted on LJ and DW, reply here or there. Currently there are
comments at DW.