Dear Yuletide benefactor...
Hi, author! First of all, thanks for writing for me this year--this is always something to look forward to every fall, and I’m really excited by the prospect of a story in any one of these fandoms. I never know what to say in these letters, but I thought I’d talk a bit about my general likes and dislikes and a few more fandom-specific things, which I hope is helpful.
Generally speaking, I like all kinds of pairings--slash, het, femslash, poly, whatever--and gen, and literally any amount of sex is fine, from no smut whatsoever up to the super explicit. I am a-okay with fandom clichés, so if you’re feeling like something super trope-tastic, I’ll read all the fake-married or coffee shop AUs ever. Things I love include AUs and fusions of all kinds, happy endings, found families, moments of discovery or revelation, important conversations between characters, and first meetings. My dislikes include dark or angsty endings, character bashing, betrayal, graphic violence, non-con, incest, and infidelity.
When it comes to specific fandoms:
In the sign-up I said, I would super love a story about what happens after the fire at the end of the movie. What's married life like for Sarah and Robert? How does Sarah adjust to living in a normal-sized house, without money problems for once, and cut off from her family and acquaintances? What does Alice think of Millie, and vice versa? How does Robert deal with his burned hands--is he still able to be a carpenter, or does he have to delegate a lot of his work, or what? And does Sarah get super into politics? I was so happy when Sarah and Millie finally got out of their terrible house, and I'd like to know what happens next.
Speaking of trope-tastic goodness, The Moth hits a lot of good buttons for me--found families, class/culture clash, strong sibling relationships, plus a good old antagonistic relationship becoming a romantic and mutually supportive one. I like the WWI setting, but I know very little about it, so if you’re worried about historical inaccuracy here, worry not--chances are that I will not spot any anachronisms, and if I do, I can’t imagine caring that much.
I’m really interested in all these characters adjusting to their changed circumstances, as I said in my sign-up, but a day in the life-type story or a story about the relationships would be great, too--ultimately, all I really want is a story about the aftermath of the movie focusing on its main characters. Of all these characters, there’s no two of them for whom I wouldn’t like a story about their relationship: both Robert and Sarah’s sibling relationships with Millie are so great, but different, because Robert’s had very different life experiences and Millie has always been Sarah’s responsibility in a family that didn’t really care about her, and both of those dynamics are so interesting to me. I’d love to see how Alice and Robert rebuild their relationship after the trainwreck that was Carrie’s pregnancy, but I’d also love seeing how Alice and Sarah get to know each other--after Sarah’s break with Peggy Waters, she could probably really use a positive older woman figure in her life. And of course, Sarah and Robert’s romance would probably be full of lots of disagreements but also lots of mutual support--I can’t see either one of them letting the other get away with self-pity or sitting on their hands about a problem.
In the signup, I said, What I'd like to know is, how did Valerie come up with the plan to con Richard in the first place? Did she keep contacts with all these criminal acquaintances of Richard's even while trying to keep Michael out of anything remotely illegitimate, or did she meet Ochoa by chance sometime and the inspiration just came to her? How much did Michael know? And how did Rodrigo get involved, and how did he and Valerie hook up? I just have so many questions.
One of the things that fascinates me about this movie is that Valerie’s the legit one, who’s very scornful of the way Richard cheats people, so on a character level, I wonder how she came to decide that conning Richard and getting him thrown into prison was the best way to deal with the lawsuit and the other disruptions to her and Michael’s lives that he poses. If you didn’t want to talk about the planning of the actual con, that’s fine with me--I’d love a little background on her relationships with her brothers, which I have to think played a huge role in her decision to carry out this plan. She’s obviously very protective of Michael, if he didn’t even know that Richard was suing her--how much did she have to keep from him when planning the con? And how long has she been dating Rodrigo? Because that seems like something that might be a bit complicated to hide from a brother who works in the same hotel as you and with whom you presumably spend a lot of time.
I’m really interested in the Rodrigo/Valerie relationship, too--obviously he hadn’t worked with Richard before, or the whole con would be blown, so how did she even meet him? And given how hard she’s tried to keep Richard’s cons from affecting Michael, and her job at the hotel, what made her decide to get involved with a con artist? (Assuming that Rodrigo actually does do cons professionally, as opposed to being an actor who got roped into this whole business by a mutual acquaintance, which is also a possibility!)
In short, one of the things I love about this movie is that in the end, I think, Valerie’s the most important force driving the main con, which given her role as the “legit” sibling, says really interesting things about her character that I would love to see more about.
In the sign-up I said: I super want Georgie and Jez's fairy-tale happily-ever-after, now that Georgie's terrible fiance is out of the picture, Jez out of prison, and they've got their Stately Home. I'm also really curious about how Georgie and Floss explain the situation--and who the heck Jez and Dylan are--to their friends, and how exactly Dylan and Floss hooked up.
Here’s another movie fandom where I’m really interested in the aftermath. For starters, given Georgie’s high-profile status as a member of the British nobility, and her (presumably) high-profile break-up with Roger, I feel like at least the tabloids would be really interested when she moves in with and eventually marries a guy who went to prison for ripping people off, and her friends have got to be wondering what is going on, what with the wedding being called off, and Roger being revealed to be a jerk, and Georgie suddenly hooking up with this other guy, and their family home, which has been mortgaged forever, is suddenly theirs again. Actually, if you wanted to write an outsider POV of the whole situation, that would be really cool.
On the other hand, fluff about Dylan and Floss getting together, or Dylan and Jez helping fix up the house and becoming part of the family, or Georgie sitting around of an evening doing her medical school homework while Jez invents a Rube Goldberg-esque machine in the corner and Dylan and Floss compare notes on who can get more done for the Down Syndrome Foundation cheaper--any kind of fluff you can imagine would be more than welcome.
I’d also be super interested in seeing how Georgie decided to take the plunge again and marry Jez, after her horrible experience getting engaged to and almost marrying an old friend who turned out to be a lot more interested in money than in her. I feel like, if I were her, I’d have some hang-ups to get over before I could feel like marrying a con artist was a good idea--but then again, Georgie’s clearly the sort to enjoy an adventure, so maybe getting married seemed like the logical next adventure. And Floss! We know so little about Floss, but I would love to see her take on the rapid-fire events of the movie and how she feels about the situation at the end. Plus, Jez and Dylan probably have a lot to adjust to, since being more in the public eye probably curtails their con-artist shenanigans. Or does it?
In the sign-up, I said: I would like all the Jane ever--her backstory, what she's doing during Rogue Nation, what she does during her time off. Anything Jane-related would be awesome. And if you wanted to stick in friendship and/or romantic shenanigans with Benji and/or Ilsa, I would not at all be opposed.
I seem to have a general trend this year of asking for either stories about con artists, stories about aftermath, or stories about ladies, or some combination thereof. Hmm. I guess I’m okay with that.
Generally speaking, just about any story about Jane would be really great. I am seriously curious about what she was doing during Rogue Nation--if the whole IMF got disbanded, what did that mean for her? Was she in the field at the time, and thus had to pull an Ethan Hunt-esque exploit to extract herself? Has she retired, and is watching all this intently from her job at the CIA or NSA or Interpol? Alternately, I’d be perfectly happy with seeing her before Ghost Protocol, how she got into the IMF and that sort of thing.
I have a weird craving for something about her hanging out with Benji, either in a romantic or friendship capacity--I think it would be great to see Jane have fun or be happy, and Benji seems like he would be fun to hang out with, especially if you like movies or video games--but I’m okay if that’s not something you can work with. As far as relationships go, I’d also like to see her first meeting with Ilsa--or maybe she already knows Ilsa from previous spying adventures, and they have a standing date to meet and talk about their jobs, or hook up in fancy hotels. It would be great to see multiple Mission Impossible ladies at the same time, interacting with each other.
In the sign-up I said: I'm really intrigued by Phoebe's decision to go undercover with Mike so deeply--there's so much she would have had to sacrifice, and so much she would have had to keep from him. And how does she feel about getting back into the spy/assassination lifestyle at the end? Any exploration of Phoebe's decision-making process or motives or feelings or her relationship with Mike would be amazing.
In keeping with my trend this year: another female character's POV of movie events. But seriously, Phoebe’s life as an undercover agent is super fascinating to me. Does she find it really difficult, or did she not have much of a life beforehand and so doesn’t have personal ties binding her to original identity? Or does she have some secret way of getting in touch with people from her past life, which makes things easier and/or emotionally stressful, because she can’t tell them where she is and what she’s doing?
And at what point do her feelings for Mike become real? What are her feelings for Mike? At the end of the movie, she doesn’t look very psyched about him becoming an assassin again--I’d really love to see a scene in which they talk about that, because in a lot of ways, going back to that is as much giving up a life as going undercover was in the first place, if that makes any sense. What’s her role in these missions they send Mike and her on? Is she his backup, his cover story, does she provide him with mission information?
This is one where I would enjoy backstory, something during the movie, or something taking place after the movie--they’re all fine by me.
Anyway, I hope at least something in here is helpful to you. Thanks again for writing for me--I'm looking forward to seeing your story, and I hope you have fun writing it.
Best wishes,
Tam Cranver
Generally speaking, I like all kinds of pairings--slash, het, femslash, poly, whatever--and gen, and literally any amount of sex is fine, from no smut whatsoever up to the super explicit. I am a-okay with fandom clichés, so if you’re feeling like something super trope-tastic, I’ll read all the fake-married or coffee shop AUs ever. Things I love include AUs and fusions of all kinds, happy endings, found families, moments of discovery or revelation, important conversations between characters, and first meetings. My dislikes include dark or angsty endings, character bashing, betrayal, graphic violence, non-con, incest, and infidelity.
When it comes to specific fandoms:
In the sign-up I said, I would super love a story about what happens after the fire at the end of the movie. What's married life like for Sarah and Robert? How does Sarah adjust to living in a normal-sized house, without money problems for once, and cut off from her family and acquaintances? What does Alice think of Millie, and vice versa? How does Robert deal with his burned hands--is he still able to be a carpenter, or does he have to delegate a lot of his work, or what? And does Sarah get super into politics? I was so happy when Sarah and Millie finally got out of their terrible house, and I'd like to know what happens next.
Speaking of trope-tastic goodness, The Moth hits a lot of good buttons for me--found families, class/culture clash, strong sibling relationships, plus a good old antagonistic relationship becoming a romantic and mutually supportive one. I like the WWI setting, but I know very little about it, so if you’re worried about historical inaccuracy here, worry not--chances are that I will not spot any anachronisms, and if I do, I can’t imagine caring that much.
I’m really interested in all these characters adjusting to their changed circumstances, as I said in my sign-up, but a day in the life-type story or a story about the relationships would be great, too--ultimately, all I really want is a story about the aftermath of the movie focusing on its main characters. Of all these characters, there’s no two of them for whom I wouldn’t like a story about their relationship: both Robert and Sarah’s sibling relationships with Millie are so great, but different, because Robert’s had very different life experiences and Millie has always been Sarah’s responsibility in a family that didn’t really care about her, and both of those dynamics are so interesting to me. I’d love to see how Alice and Robert rebuild their relationship after the trainwreck that was Carrie’s pregnancy, but I’d also love seeing how Alice and Sarah get to know each other--after Sarah’s break with Peggy Waters, she could probably really use a positive older woman figure in her life. And of course, Sarah and Robert’s romance would probably be full of lots of disagreements but also lots of mutual support--I can’t see either one of them letting the other get away with self-pity or sitting on their hands about a problem.
In the signup, I said, What I'd like to know is, how did Valerie come up with the plan to con Richard in the first place? Did she keep contacts with all these criminal acquaintances of Richard's even while trying to keep Michael out of anything remotely illegitimate, or did she meet Ochoa by chance sometime and the inspiration just came to her? How much did Michael know? And how did Rodrigo get involved, and how did he and Valerie hook up? I just have so many questions.
One of the things that fascinates me about this movie is that Valerie’s the legit one, who’s very scornful of the way Richard cheats people, so on a character level, I wonder how she came to decide that conning Richard and getting him thrown into prison was the best way to deal with the lawsuit and the other disruptions to her and Michael’s lives that he poses. If you didn’t want to talk about the planning of the actual con, that’s fine with me--I’d love a little background on her relationships with her brothers, which I have to think played a huge role in her decision to carry out this plan. She’s obviously very protective of Michael, if he didn’t even know that Richard was suing her--how much did she have to keep from him when planning the con? And how long has she been dating Rodrigo? Because that seems like something that might be a bit complicated to hide from a brother who works in the same hotel as you and with whom you presumably spend a lot of time.
I’m really interested in the Rodrigo/Valerie relationship, too--obviously he hadn’t worked with Richard before, or the whole con would be blown, so how did she even meet him? And given how hard she’s tried to keep Richard’s cons from affecting Michael, and her job at the hotel, what made her decide to get involved with a con artist? (Assuming that Rodrigo actually does do cons professionally, as opposed to being an actor who got roped into this whole business by a mutual acquaintance, which is also a possibility!)
In short, one of the things I love about this movie is that in the end, I think, Valerie’s the most important force driving the main con, which given her role as the “legit” sibling, says really interesting things about her character that I would love to see more about.
In the sign-up I said: I super want Georgie and Jez's fairy-tale happily-ever-after, now that Georgie's terrible fiance is out of the picture, Jez out of prison, and they've got their Stately Home. I'm also really curious about how Georgie and Floss explain the situation--and who the heck Jez and Dylan are--to their friends, and how exactly Dylan and Floss hooked up.
Here’s another movie fandom where I’m really interested in the aftermath. For starters, given Georgie’s high-profile status as a member of the British nobility, and her (presumably) high-profile break-up with Roger, I feel like at least the tabloids would be really interested when she moves in with and eventually marries a guy who went to prison for ripping people off, and her friends have got to be wondering what is going on, what with the wedding being called off, and Roger being revealed to be a jerk, and Georgie suddenly hooking up with this other guy, and their family home, which has been mortgaged forever, is suddenly theirs again. Actually, if you wanted to write an outsider POV of the whole situation, that would be really cool.
On the other hand, fluff about Dylan and Floss getting together, or Dylan and Jez helping fix up the house and becoming part of the family, or Georgie sitting around of an evening doing her medical school homework while Jez invents a Rube Goldberg-esque machine in the corner and Dylan and Floss compare notes on who can get more done for the Down Syndrome Foundation cheaper--any kind of fluff you can imagine would be more than welcome.
I’d also be super interested in seeing how Georgie decided to take the plunge again and marry Jez, after her horrible experience getting engaged to and almost marrying an old friend who turned out to be a lot more interested in money than in her. I feel like, if I were her, I’d have some hang-ups to get over before I could feel like marrying a con artist was a good idea--but then again, Georgie’s clearly the sort to enjoy an adventure, so maybe getting married seemed like the logical next adventure. And Floss! We know so little about Floss, but I would love to see her take on the rapid-fire events of the movie and how she feels about the situation at the end. Plus, Jez and Dylan probably have a lot to adjust to, since being more in the public eye probably curtails their con-artist shenanigans. Or does it?
In the sign-up, I said: I would like all the Jane ever--her backstory, what she's doing during Rogue Nation, what she does during her time off. Anything Jane-related would be awesome. And if you wanted to stick in friendship and/or romantic shenanigans with Benji and/or Ilsa, I would not at all be opposed.
I seem to have a general trend this year of asking for either stories about con artists, stories about aftermath, or stories about ladies, or some combination thereof. Hmm. I guess I’m okay with that.
Generally speaking, just about any story about Jane would be really great. I am seriously curious about what she was doing during Rogue Nation--if the whole IMF got disbanded, what did that mean for her? Was she in the field at the time, and thus had to pull an Ethan Hunt-esque exploit to extract herself? Has she retired, and is watching all this intently from her job at the CIA or NSA or Interpol? Alternately, I’d be perfectly happy with seeing her before Ghost Protocol, how she got into the IMF and that sort of thing.
I have a weird craving for something about her hanging out with Benji, either in a romantic or friendship capacity--I think it would be great to see Jane have fun or be happy, and Benji seems like he would be fun to hang out with, especially if you like movies or video games--but I’m okay if that’s not something you can work with. As far as relationships go, I’d also like to see her first meeting with Ilsa--or maybe she already knows Ilsa from previous spying adventures, and they have a standing date to meet and talk about their jobs, or hook up in fancy hotels. It would be great to see multiple Mission Impossible ladies at the same time, interacting with each other.
In the sign-up I said: I'm really intrigued by Phoebe's decision to go undercover with Mike so deeply--there's so much she would have had to sacrifice, and so much she would have had to keep from him. And how does she feel about getting back into the spy/assassination lifestyle at the end? Any exploration of Phoebe's decision-making process or motives or feelings or her relationship with Mike would be amazing.
In keeping with my trend this year: another female character's POV of movie events. But seriously, Phoebe’s life as an undercover agent is super fascinating to me. Does she find it really difficult, or did she not have much of a life beforehand and so doesn’t have personal ties binding her to original identity? Or does she have some secret way of getting in touch with people from her past life, which makes things easier and/or emotionally stressful, because she can’t tell them where she is and what she’s doing?
And at what point do her feelings for Mike become real? What are her feelings for Mike? At the end of the movie, she doesn’t look very psyched about him becoming an assassin again--I’d really love to see a scene in which they talk about that, because in a lot of ways, going back to that is as much giving up a life as going undercover was in the first place, if that makes any sense. What’s her role in these missions they send Mike and her on? Is she his backup, his cover story, does she provide him with mission information?
This is one where I would enjoy backstory, something during the movie, or something taking place after the movie--they’re all fine by me.
Anyway, I hope at least something in here is helpful to you. Thanks again for writing for me--I'm looking forward to seeing your story, and I hope you have fun writing it.
Best wishes,
Tam Cranver