Dear Yuletide Author
Dear Yuletide Author,
HI! Thank you so much for writing a story for me! I love all of these fandoms and am excited to read your story. I rambled a lot, but, if you work best without details, feel free to ignore. I’m interested in just about anything in these stories. And, after all, optional details are optional!
And about that “just about.” Well, I have asked for shippy stuff, but I prefer nothing about PG-13. I guess I’m more interested in how the relationship works, how the characters interact with each other, than the physical aspect. And I’m also interested in all of these relationships in general, so don’t feel obligated to write something shippy! Friendship is awesome, too!
I like stories that stick fairly close to canon (Provost’s Dog is an exception to this, depending what you do), but if you come up with an absolutely awesome AU, go ahead and run with it! What I'm really interested in here are the characters. I like stuff that leans more towards the happy side of life? Or at least the positive side. Not that it needs to be all happy, shiny fun-times, but I’d rather not read about anything too sad or awful!
Also, if you're reading whatever you matched me on and feel you can't write it at all? I think all of my fandoms are relatively easy to catch up on, so I tried to add in information that would help with that.
I’m not the most easily stalkable person on the internet, so I apologize for that! I’m katayla on AO3 and most of my own fic is uploaded there, so feel free to poke around. My GoodReads is also public, if that’s of use to you!
And now, for the rambling!
16th & 17th Century CE RPF
Characters: Mary Tudor Queen of France, Charles Brandon
So I was introduced to a (so fictionalized they called her Margaret) version of Mary Tudor’s and Charles Brandon’s love story on The Tudors and was just fascinated. When I researched the love story, it got even better! It’s already one of my favorite tropes-falling in love with your brother’s best friend/your best friend’s brother-but then you add in they had to defy Henry VIII to be together! And got away with it.
Anyway, I’ll ramble more in my Yuletide letter, but, basically, tell me about them! Whether it’s how they fall in love or a slice-of-life story or something else, I’m just interested in reading about them!
So yeah! I didn’t end up watching much beyond the first season of The Tudors (someday?), but that was the first I’d heard of these two. And just SUCH A GREAT story. That they defied Henry VIII and got away with it, that they had a long and apparently happy marriage (even if he did marry his ward right after her death). Basically, all the relationships there fascinate me. She was a princess, she knew she wasn’t free to marry who she wanted, he was her brother’s best friend, and that brother happened to be Henry VIII. (And if you want to include Henry in this, feel free! I’m also interested in his relationships with Mary and Charles, both individually and as a couple.)
Anyway, details about their relationship are somewhat scarce and they haven’t had a lot of fiction written about them (someday the historical romance authors will jump on this!), so, really, I just want MORE about them. How did they fall in love? Was it sudden? More of a longterm thing? How did they deal with knowing Mary would have to marry someone else for the good of the country? And then how did they make the decision to defy Henry? What was their life together like?
This is also an easy fandom to catch up on if you matched me on something you’re no longer sure about writing! Basically, you can find out pretty much everything about them from their wikipedia pages: Mary and Charles. So yeah. Lots of blanks to fill in there! (Oh, and I’m no Tudor expert-most of my knowledge comes from fiction-so while I certainly appreciate historical accuracy, I’m not going to jump on you for a wrong detail.)
Betsy-Tacy Series - Maud Hart Lovelace
Characters: Tacy Kelly, Harry Kerr
So much of their relationship happened offscreen. They met, Harry said he was going to marry her, Tacy seemed to like him and . . . they got married. And I want more! What was their courtship like? What was it like for Tacy being married before her best friends? Or maybe a glimpse of their future? Did they ever have that girl?
More rambling in my Yuletide letter!
Betsy-Tacy! So I’ve been trying to remember how I was introduced to these books and I can’t. I know they were library books and I think I just happened to grab them off the shelf, but maybe someone recommended them to me. Anyway, however I found them, I grew up loving them. In many ways, they're pretty different from my own experiences, and yet they feel so familiar. The characters feel like people I know. I feel like I could’ve been a part of that world. I want to be a part of that world.
Anyway, I identified with both Betsy and Tacy. Besty because I wanted to be a writer, but Tacy was much more ME. I was that shy kid. And so I think there’s a bit of fantasy fulfillment for me when it comes to Tacy and Harry’s relationship. He showed up out of the blue right after she turned 18 and that was it for her. They got married and lived happily after. (Okay, that last half is personal canon, but they seemed happy in all the glimpses we got of them.)
But! As I said in the request, so much of their relationship happened offscreen! I would’ve loved to have gotten a Carney’s House Party for them so we could hear about their love story. What was their courtship like? I loved the description in Betsy and Joe of their first meeting, how Tacy usually went off by herself in a crowd (something else I can relate to!) and how this time Harry followed her, and how she wasn’t shy with him. And Tacy’s reaction when Betsy told her Harry said he wanted to marry her! It seems like she liked him right away. And then we don’t really hear anything about their courtship. I’d love to see some of that filled in. (And feel free to include other characters! Did Betsy and Tib ever interrogate her about Harry? What did Tacy share--or not share--with them?) Or maybe something early on in their marriage? Tacy was married before her best friends. What was that like for her? In Betsy and the Great World, Betsy talks about how she and Tacy had always planned to travel the world together. Was that something Tacy thought about, too? Or take it into the future! Do they have more kids? Ever have a girl? Or anything along the lines!
And for research purposes: The Betsy-Tacy series, by Maud Hart Lovelace, includes 10 books, plus three spin-offs. They’re fast reads, but if you don’t want to read/re-read them all, Harry doesn’t show up until Betsy and Joe. He and Tacy get some mentions in Betsy and the Great World, and then they show up in person in Betsy’s Wedding. Currently, spyglass_ and I are running a read/re-read of the books at belovedbooks, so feel free to check that out!
Provost's Dog - Tamora Pierce
Characters: Beka Cooper, Rosto the Piper
I loved the first book in the series. And one of the things that really interested me was the interaction between the Dogs and the Rats. It wasn’t as simple as “good guys” and “bad guys” and I thought that was especially represented in Beka and Rosto’s relationship. They seemed to be set up as the ship of series and I looked forward to reading about them dealing with being on opposite sides of the law in the context of a romantic relationship.
More rambling in my Yuletide letter, but, yeah, something that deals with that aspect of their relationship would be awesome! Future fic, deciding to be together, talking about why they *can’t* be together, gen fic about their friendship, etc!
Tamora Pierce! I grew up with the Alanna books and followed her work ever since. I didn’t love everything, but Beka seemed like so much of what I loved about her work. Beka was awesome, I loved that it was set in a part of the world we hadn’t heard about before and I thought all of the side characters were great! (BTW, feel free to include others, if your fic leads you that way.) As I noted in the request, I especially liked the interaction between the Dogs and the Rats. Anyway, sadly, I wasn’t a huge fan of the second or third book, so feel free to ignore them or set the story early in the timeline. You can read my GoodReads review of Mastiff here, but I do complain about it, so if you loved it, be aware of that!
And as for the actual request, I guess I don’t have a lot to add? That’s the aspect of Beka and Rosto I’m most interested in, but if it doesn’t do something for you, feel free to come up with something else! Slice of life stuff would be awesome or a description of one of their breakfasts. Or maybe something from Rosto's perspective? We only see him through Beka's eyes. What's he like away from her? What's it like being the Rogue? How serious is he about her?
Research: So, these books are part of the Tortall universe, but they’re set before all the other books, so can be read by themselves. The books in the series are Terrier, Bloodhound and Mastiff, but the parts I’m interested in are almost entirely in Terrier, so if you matched me elsewhere, but are interested in this, you could probably read just that.
SO. Hopefully I haven’t overwhelmed you! Basically, all you need to know is I love these fandoms and these characters. Reading more about them will just be awesome!
Looking forward to December 25,
katayla