Dear Yuletide Goat...
Thank you! I'm really looking forward to the story you're going to write, and I hope you have a good time with Yuletide. (Also, my AO3 handle is DaisyNinjaGirl.)
General Stuff About Me
I've been participating in Yuletide for a few years now and really enjoying it - both for the writing and the sheer cheerful juggernaut nature of the event. ;-) Some things I've noticed about myself is that I tend to enjoy more stories that are reasonably consistent with the original canon - so sequels and prequels and inbetween scenes, and I love it when a minor character gets their story expanded or someone does a nifty bit of world building on some little detail and makes it all make sense. (Original characters are also fine.) AUs and crossovers are less my thing, although there have been some definite exceptions that really blew me away, so please take this paragraph as an 'optional details are optional' section and write the story that will make you happy. The prompts I've given are also optional, please have fun with what you choose to write. Also, stories that pass the Bechdel Test Are Love!
Squicks
I'm seriously not into non-consensual or underage sex. I also don't like graphic torture scenes or incest. Consensual BDSM isn't a squick for me (no problem with consenting adults doing what makes them happy), but it's also not something I'm particularly interested in reading about (sorry, if that's one of your things). I don't have a problem with where you want to write characters on the Kinsey Kaleidoscope with respect to pairings, but I guess I'm more interested in how characters' relationships work out with each other than erotica. (I generally read in the Gen and Teen brackets.)
Territory - Emma Bull - Any
The shootout at the OK Coral... except not at all. This is an alternate history version of the events in Tombstone, mostly told from the point of view of some original characters who were in Tombstone in the months leading up to the big shootout. The book does the typical Emma Bull thing of building really interesting characters and, while, they're involved with a big crisis that affects their lives in a material way, they're also dealing with issues of creative fulfillment. And there's magic! Other things I like about it - a lot of detail about women's concerns and how they might go about their professional lives, some very sympathetic portrayals of Chinese people in the American West, a wealth of historical detail - Bull really did her research on this one.
Possible Prompts:
I would love to see a story that picks up on one of the loose ends in the novel (there are so many!) and fills it out a little. For instance, what happened in San Francisco that it didn't feel simpler at the time, and why did Jesse Fox and Chow Lung need to hire an opera singer? How did Mildred's career as a writer for Gallagher's Weekly turn out? Did Jesse ever make it to Mexico and do his horse training job? Kate Holliday is a force of nature - the events of the novel that she knows about, or what happened afterwards to her would be really interesting. And what is it about Doc Holliday that got her attention so intensely, anyway? Bonus prompt for characters not on the nomination list: What's the story behind Chu working for Chow Lung? What happened to Jesse's sister from the sister's point of view?
What's Your Number? RPF - Anna Faris
What's Your Number? is a comfort movie for me - for a film with so much nudity and innuendo, it has a very kindly heart, and I really like how the male lead's backstory is reduced down to a few offhand comments so that they can spend a lot of time on Ally's relationship with her mother, sister and friends, and the ways in which women regulate each other's sexuality. Also, I have absolutely no complaints about the eye candy. (I'm exactly as shallow as the next person, so long as the next person is my sister. ;-) ) The actor interviews are their own kind of fun - there's an enormous sense of camaraderie and playfulness in the way the cast are teasing each other. It feels like it must have been a fun film to work on.
Possible Prompts:
Three of the actors in this movie went on to be leads or supporting actors in the Marvel franchise, plus a fourth who got suctioned up by Peter Jackson. The prompt of my heart would be the story of Anna Faris getting a lead part in a Marvel movie - what superhero/supervillain would she be, and how would it work out for everyone? I'm also interested in the dynamic between Anna Faris, Chris Pratt and Chris Evans - there's a comment made in one of the interviews that the three of them got on really well together, how did that play out?
Derkholm Series - Flurian Atreck, Elda, Claudia, Blade
This series is a lot of fun, and it's got this incredible juxtaposition of a big scary problem that no one knows how to deal with smash in the middle of teenagers trying to work out who they are as people. It also has that very Diana Wynne Jones trait of wanting the protagonists to acknowledge their actions - to be able to say that maybe they did something for a selfish reason, or knew that they could have acted differently if they'd really wanted to, and *owning* that. I think that's a really powerful thing.
Possible Prompts:
(I've listed four characters, but feel free to write a story about just one or two if you'd like.)
I'd love to see how the relationships between Elda and Flurian, and Claudia and Blade, work out. The books end with this real sense of "I've found the girl I want and nobody else will do, except she's *way* too young right now." I think both Flurian and Blade would care a lot about not being creepy about it - how would they work that out? Would there be benign introductions to other fellows, just to be sure? What kind of feelings do Elda and Claudia have back? Are there good ideas for helping each other out that turn out to be rather more complicated than expected, with hijinks ensuing? Do people fall in love, or do they end up friends, and what has to happen for them to work out what that relationship is going to be? Other prompts - Elda and Claudia having girl time and bonding with each other; Flurian's backstory on the other continent; Blade's got a very old-fashioned magical education from Deucalion - how does he interact with the University trained establishment?
Emma - Jane Austen - Jane Fairfax
Ah, Emma. I had an English lecturer once spend best part of a lecture telling us what an awful book it was, only to spend the last ten minutes saying "Are you mad? It's a wonderful book. Never trust what anyone tells you." It's a book full of puzzles and misunderstandings and different interpretations of what's actually going on.
Possible Prompts:
I'd love a story about Jane Fairfax. She's a very quiet person raised in the shadow of a lot of big personalities - Emma finds being compared to her very trying; Jane must find being compared to Emma an equal ordeal, especially as they're both gentlewomen of the same age and thus expected to be friends. What's the story like from her point of view? She takes up with a man, Frank, who's very like Emma on the surface - a lot of flash and facile ability, but not a lot of depth, so I'm interested in what is it about Frank that attracts her. What are the things about Jane that Frank likes, and more importantly respects? Does she ever train him out of trying things it on (on her at least), or is that part of his appeal?
Thanks again, I hope you have a great time with the exchange.
Stephanie
General Stuff About Me
I've been participating in Yuletide for a few years now and really enjoying it - both for the writing and the sheer cheerful juggernaut nature of the event. ;-) Some things I've noticed about myself is that I tend to enjoy more stories that are reasonably consistent with the original canon - so sequels and prequels and inbetween scenes, and I love it when a minor character gets their story expanded or someone does a nifty bit of world building on some little detail and makes it all make sense. (Original characters are also fine.) AUs and crossovers are less my thing, although there have been some definite exceptions that really blew me away, so please take this paragraph as an 'optional details are optional' section and write the story that will make you happy. The prompts I've given are also optional, please have fun with what you choose to write. Also, stories that pass the Bechdel Test Are Love!
Squicks
I'm seriously not into non-consensual or underage sex. I also don't like graphic torture scenes or incest. Consensual BDSM isn't a squick for me (no problem with consenting adults doing what makes them happy), but it's also not something I'm particularly interested in reading about (sorry, if that's one of your things). I don't have a problem with where you want to write characters on the Kinsey Kaleidoscope with respect to pairings, but I guess I'm more interested in how characters' relationships work out with each other than erotica. (I generally read in the Gen and Teen brackets.)
Territory - Emma Bull - Any
The shootout at the OK Coral... except not at all. This is an alternate history version of the events in Tombstone, mostly told from the point of view of some original characters who were in Tombstone in the months leading up to the big shootout. The book does the typical Emma Bull thing of building really interesting characters and, while, they're involved with a big crisis that affects their lives in a material way, they're also dealing with issues of creative fulfillment. And there's magic! Other things I like about it - a lot of detail about women's concerns and how they might go about their professional lives, some very sympathetic portrayals of Chinese people in the American West, a wealth of historical detail - Bull really did her research on this one.
Possible Prompts:
I would love to see a story that picks up on one of the loose ends in the novel (there are so many!) and fills it out a little. For instance, what happened in San Francisco that it didn't feel simpler at the time, and why did Jesse Fox and Chow Lung need to hire an opera singer? How did Mildred's career as a writer for Gallagher's Weekly turn out? Did Jesse ever make it to Mexico and do his horse training job? Kate Holliday is a force of nature - the events of the novel that she knows about, or what happened afterwards to her would be really interesting. And what is it about Doc Holliday that got her attention so intensely, anyway? Bonus prompt for characters not on the nomination list: What's the story behind Chu working for Chow Lung? What happened to Jesse's sister from the sister's point of view?
What's Your Number? RPF - Anna Faris
What's Your Number? is a comfort movie for me - for a film with so much nudity and innuendo, it has a very kindly heart, and I really like how the male lead's backstory is reduced down to a few offhand comments so that they can spend a lot of time on Ally's relationship with her mother, sister and friends, and the ways in which women regulate each other's sexuality. Also, I have absolutely no complaints about the eye candy. (I'm exactly as shallow as the next person, so long as the next person is my sister. ;-) ) The actor interviews are their own kind of fun - there's an enormous sense of camaraderie and playfulness in the way the cast are teasing each other. It feels like it must have been a fun film to work on.
Possible Prompts:
Three of the actors in this movie went on to be leads or supporting actors in the Marvel franchise, plus a fourth who got suctioned up by Peter Jackson. The prompt of my heart would be the story of Anna Faris getting a lead part in a Marvel movie - what superhero/supervillain would she be, and how would it work out for everyone? I'm also interested in the dynamic between Anna Faris, Chris Pratt and Chris Evans - there's a comment made in one of the interviews that the three of them got on really well together, how did that play out?
Derkholm Series - Flurian Atreck, Elda, Claudia, Blade
This series is a lot of fun, and it's got this incredible juxtaposition of a big scary problem that no one knows how to deal with smash in the middle of teenagers trying to work out who they are as people. It also has that very Diana Wynne Jones trait of wanting the protagonists to acknowledge their actions - to be able to say that maybe they did something for a selfish reason, or knew that they could have acted differently if they'd really wanted to, and *owning* that. I think that's a really powerful thing.
Possible Prompts:
(I've listed four characters, but feel free to write a story about just one or two if you'd like.)
I'd love to see how the relationships between Elda and Flurian, and Claudia and Blade, work out. The books end with this real sense of "I've found the girl I want and nobody else will do, except she's *way* too young right now." I think both Flurian and Blade would care a lot about not being creepy about it - how would they work that out? Would there be benign introductions to other fellows, just to be sure? What kind of feelings do Elda and Claudia have back? Are there good ideas for helping each other out that turn out to be rather more complicated than expected, with hijinks ensuing? Do people fall in love, or do they end up friends, and what has to happen for them to work out what that relationship is going to be? Other prompts - Elda and Claudia having girl time and bonding with each other; Flurian's backstory on the other continent; Blade's got a very old-fashioned magical education from Deucalion - how does he interact with the University trained establishment?
Emma - Jane Austen - Jane Fairfax
Ah, Emma. I had an English lecturer once spend best part of a lecture telling us what an awful book it was, only to spend the last ten minutes saying "Are you mad? It's a wonderful book. Never trust what anyone tells you." It's a book full of puzzles and misunderstandings and different interpretations of what's actually going on.
Possible Prompts:
I'd love a story about Jane Fairfax. She's a very quiet person raised in the shadow of a lot of big personalities - Emma finds being compared to her very trying; Jane must find being compared to Emma an equal ordeal, especially as they're both gentlewomen of the same age and thus expected to be friends. What's the story like from her point of view? She takes up with a man, Frank, who's very like Emma on the surface - a lot of flash and facile ability, but not a lot of depth, so I'm interested in what is it about Frank that attracts her. What are the things about Jane that Frank likes, and more importantly respects? Does she ever train him out of trying things it on (on her at least), or is that part of his appeal?
Thanks again, I hope you have a great time with the exchange.
Stephanie