Yuletide Letter
Nov. 17th, 2011 08:50 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccastareyesAs is customary, I am signing up for Yuletide. Sort of surprised at some of the fandoms that made it -- I was just telling ![[insanejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/ij-userinfo.gif)
yuuo that Legend of Zelda: the Ocarina of Time would be way too big for Yuletide. Oh, well.
Dear Yuletide Writer,
I always have fun with this challenge, so I hope you have fun too. Since I've suffered from that most dreaded of beasts, writer's block, I thought I'd give you some explanation for my optional details, as well as such things as my general fic preferences.
I don't consider myself a shipper/slasher/genficcer; I do all three, but tend towards favoring female characters. I am a sucker for good worldbuilding and fics that can take you from tears to laughter and earned happy endings. I once did a list of things I adore in stories; some of them are pretty specific to original fiction, but perhaps you can find inspiration.
As for things I don't like... well, I don't like character bashing, Slut-shaming or other negative depictions of female sexuality, -Isms in general, though in some cases they are canon -- Dragaera has a lot of fantasy racism and classism, Velveteen is set in our world (well, with superheros), and Hines's books note that not all countries are enlightened about sexuality. Though even then, I'd prefer that the fic answer such problematic material from characters rather than letting it go unchallenged.
I'm not much of a erotica writer/reader. While I tolerate angst, I like it to be at most bittersweet rather than bitter, and character specific -- as I said above, I do like my happy endings. AUs and crossovers are acceptable, though, with crossovers, I'd prefer you find fandoms I've read/seen/etc.
As for my specific requests, here goes! I've also helpfully noted which books/short stories can be read quickly in case you wish to switch assignments.
Chronicles of Elantra - Michelle Sagara
This is a 7-book (I have not read Cast in Ruin, but intend on it) series set in the capital city of the Empire, focused around Kaylin Neya, a girl who grew up on the wrong side of the river, was adopted by the city police force as their mascot, and now is a junior detective by day, emergency midwife at night, trying to make the world a better place. And also, thanks to some mystical tattoos, a center for world-altering events.
What I love about the setting are the characters and the different races. I actually do like Kaylin and find her endearing. I like her stubbornness, though occasionally my little academic wants to shake her a bit for being so practical as to be hopeless: yes, Kaylin, you should learn this. I like her friendships with Teela and Tain, her pseudo-daughter relationship with Marcus and the Hawklord, the way she overcame her dislike of the Thaalani, and her complicated relationship with Severn. (Teela also makes me crack up, and I wonder more about Tain, who doesn't have as many hints dropped about why he joined the Hawks.)
As for the various fantasy races, I like the creativity that some of the mortal races show, and even the looks at the Barrani that aren't just 'high elves' that we get in Cast in Courtlight. I want to know more about the Aerians and remember that one race was mentioned as existing in the city, but not shown onscreen. I also note that book 6 really kicked the anthill. (Also, continuity: I like that the books have it, and that usually the next book will have some mention of cleanup from the last.)
What I don't like is that the whole series is very intense in timescale: Kaylin Neya has saved the city several times in the last year; she deserves a vacation or at least a job that doesn't turn into her having to stare down the elements or face the evil that lurks in the heart of the fiefs.
I'm also not a fan of Nightshade and his relationship with Kaylin. Either setting a fic before she meets him (which could be problematic since I do like Severn) or in which he doesn't play much of a role would be my ideal.
Some ideas would be, as I mentioned, a casefic -- either a traditional Hawk job, or something from Kaylin's moonlighting jobs as midwife and friend of orphans -- that doesn't end in world-altering mayhem, one of the things Teela and Tain drag Kaylin into under the idea that she needs to have fun, or just the general daily life of a city where very different people try not to kill one another.
(Also the book canonically has multiple worlds, so feel free to use crossovers, even if it violates the 'Kaylin gets a week without saving the GD city' request...)
Dragaera - Steven Brust
This one made it on my list this year because I picked up roleplaying Tazendra over on Insanejournal, and because... well, because I enjoyed Tiassa a lot more than the previous couple of books. Brust has two series set in this universe (technically three, but Brokedown Palace can be read as mostly stand-alone) -- the Khaavren Romances (5 books) are a pretty direct take off of the Three Musketeers and sequels and are set before the Vlad Taltos books (14 books). They also tend to be lighter if you ignore the prose stylings -- Vlad is more noir and more towards the underside of Dragaeran society, while Khaavren is a noble.
Now, what I like about the series is the action. Brust does high fantasy with omnipresent magic well. Also, there's a lot of people charging around with swords and doing cool, interesting things. And many of those people are female -- I like most of the female characters in the series.
I also like the way Brust can shift tones: as I mentioned, the prose of the two series read differently, and Vlad's books shift in narrative techniques within his series. So, if you aren't up to mimic some of the tones used, I won't be disappointed. Well, unless everyone talks like a valley girl or modern inner-city gangster. Well, unless you can convince me that there's a reason and it's a stylistic choice, of course.
Picking out a character is hard. As I mentioned above, I adore Tazendra for being a passionate person who goes on adventures and is a general badass sorcerer-swordswoman. Since she has 500 years of being a baroness and 200+ more as being a Lavode, surely she did more offscreen. OTOH, I'd also really like Cawti and Norathar (or Cawti/Norathar) buddy fic, either something set before Cawti became a revolutionary and Norathar became the Dragon princess, or something akin to Tiassa, where the two reunite for reasons. Exciting reasons. Or fic about Daro, Countess of Whitecrest, who was pretty forgettable until Tiassa (well, except for adding to a Jhereg assassin's Very Bad Day in Five Hundred Years After) but has the makings of an awesome character. More about her history/family or her role in being in charge of a city that became the capital of the Empire, or what she thinks of any of this. Or her with Cawti and Norathar, or if she ever interacted with Tazendra (since Tazendra is friends with her husband), or her and the Empress...
The problem is that I can't request all of these things -- well, if you write me an AU where these four characters can somehow all be awesome together, I encourage this (with a side of Aliera and the Empress and...). So I'm putting things up with Any, with the note that if you write me anything in the fandom -- yet another Vlad story, Pel being sneaky, Aliera and Morrolan being pseudo-siblings and teasing one another, Sara the minstrel, past fic with Kieron and Dolivar, etc. -- I will be happy and squeeful. But remember the badassery and female characters being awesome!
I don't object to AUs or crossovers/fusions. I don't mind if you bring in the fantasy racism/classism in the setting, since I think it would be hard to write something without that. I am a Tazendra/Aerich shipper (even realizing how it ended for them -- see note on AUs), think Daro/Khaavren is adorable, and don't mind Vlad/Cawti, even if I agree that it didn't have much of a chance to end well. Not really feeling the Vlad slash ships that show up, but that could just be my general inclinations more towards femmeslash and het than maleslash.
Princess Series - Jim Hines
This one is four books, and is a take on how 'happily ever after' sometimes isn't. Which is one thing I like about the setting: Hines is very good at both sticking to fairy tale details and expanding on them. And twisting the knife.
Also, the four-book series involved Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Snow White as having adventures to help protect Cinderella's kingdom. What's not to like? Hines specifically noted that he wanted to show many different types of strong female characters: Talia is a more traditional badass, Snow is a clever sorceress who also totally owns her sexuality, and Dani is socially quite tricky and... well, don't mess with her husband or son. Plus, Queen Bea, Dani's mother-in-law and mentor figure.
I selected Talia, because... well here I need to spoil the end of the series. Folks who haven't read this (or don't care about spoilers) can scroll past the blockquote...
If that doesn't float your boat, Talia and Snow (before or after Dani joins them) adventures in fairy-tales is always going to make me smile, or Talia's life before she sleeps for a thousand years. She talks a bit about her siblings in Red Hood's Revenge and seems to care for them. Or about crushes or other normal teenager things that happened before she fell asleep. Or about Talia's relationship with Beatrice, or her time at the Temple before she gets the hell out of the country, or whatever.
I don't mind Talia/Snow or Talia/Gerta or Talia/Faziya or whatever -- if you make Talia interested in men (or split up Dani and Armand), I will be quite displeased, though. AUs are also totally acceptable. Crossovers with other fairy tale fandoms -- I've read both of Mercedes Lackey's fairy tale series, for instance -- or things in that vein (Stardust), or Jim Hines's other work, or anything that makes you happy. Or, heck, urban fantasy AU. Or space pirates. (Why space pirates? Why the hell not!)
Velveteen - Seanan McGuire
This is probably the fandom that's easiest to read if you don't want to write the other three: Velveteen Versus is a short story series by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
seanan_mcguire. The first seven are available at the link above; four more have been published at Seanan's LJ, and two more should be up by the end of the year.
Velveteen (real name Velma Martinez) is a child superheroine who, after growing up fighting evil and saving Christmas with her power over toys (seriously, her superpower is that she controls toys, and you don't realize how badass that is), decided she was done with this whole super business, and most certainly being under the control of the Super Patriots Inc., the corporation that makes a living finding and training (and marketing and...) superheros. They decided to make her life a living hell, causing Vel to flee to Oregon, one of the states where they have little influence. Of course, then she discovers that the super business is hard to leave for reasons other than the long hands of the Marketing Division...
I like the humor and goofiness of Vel's life: seriously the series has fun with the idea that a grown woman dresses up in a brown leotard and bunny ears to save the city using her army of toy soldiers, My Little Pony cavalry, and various stuffed toys and plastic air force. I like that it's still real, despite that. Vel's life as a child super mirrors a lot of what you read of child stars -- she's a highly trained professional hero, but otherwise can barely hold down a coffeeshop job.
This is another fandom where I wouldn't object to casefic. I like the character of Governor Morgan as well, and her own attitudes towards the Super Patriots Inc., and want to see how she and Vel will relate as they end up in a sort of Batman/Commissioner Gordon mode. Or just Vel trying to stay sane as a superhero.
Also, this is totally a place for holiday themed fiction. It's canon that Vel knows Santa Claus and he made sure that she always had a wonderful Christmas. And that one of her friends is Jackie Frost, daughter of Jack Frost and the Snow Queen. Fiction about Saving Christmas or seasonal/holiday monarchs or whatever is totally a good use of your time.
yuuo that Legend of Zelda: the Ocarina of Time would be way too big for Yuletide. Oh, well. Dear Yuletide Writer,
I always have fun with this challenge, so I hope you have fun too. Since I've suffered from that most dreaded of beasts, writer's block, I thought I'd give you some explanation for my optional details, as well as such things as my general fic preferences.
I don't consider myself a shipper/slasher/genficcer; I do all three, but tend towards favoring female characters. I am a sucker for good worldbuilding and fics that can take you from tears to laughter and earned happy endings. I once did a list of things I adore in stories; some of them are pretty specific to original fiction, but perhaps you can find inspiration.
As for things I don't like... well, I don't like character bashing, Slut-shaming or other negative depictions of female sexuality, -Isms in general, though in some cases they are canon -- Dragaera has a lot of fantasy racism and classism, Velveteen is set in our world (well, with superheros), and Hines's books note that not all countries are enlightened about sexuality. Though even then, I'd prefer that the fic answer such problematic material from characters rather than letting it go unchallenged.
I'm not much of a erotica writer/reader. While I tolerate angst, I like it to be at most bittersweet rather than bitter, and character specific -- as I said above, I do like my happy endings. AUs and crossovers are acceptable, though, with crossovers, I'd prefer you find fandoms I've read/seen/etc.
As for my specific requests, here goes! I've also helpfully noted which books/short stories can be read quickly in case you wish to switch assignments.
Chronicles of Elantra - Michelle Sagara
This is a 7-book (I have not read Cast in Ruin, but intend on it) series set in the capital city of the Empire, focused around Kaylin Neya, a girl who grew up on the wrong side of the river, was adopted by the city police force as their mascot, and now is a junior detective by day, emergency midwife at night, trying to make the world a better place. And also, thanks to some mystical tattoos, a center for world-altering events.
What I love about the setting are the characters and the different races. I actually do like Kaylin and find her endearing. I like her stubbornness, though occasionally my little academic wants to shake her a bit for being so practical as to be hopeless: yes, Kaylin, you should learn this. I like her friendships with Teela and Tain, her pseudo-daughter relationship with Marcus and the Hawklord, the way she overcame her dislike of the Thaalani, and her complicated relationship with Severn. (Teela also makes me crack up, and I wonder more about Tain, who doesn't have as many hints dropped about why he joined the Hawks.)
As for the various fantasy races, I like the creativity that some of the mortal races show, and even the looks at the Barrani that aren't just 'high elves' that we get in Cast in Courtlight. I want to know more about the Aerians and remember that one race was mentioned as existing in the city, but not shown onscreen. I also note that book 6 really kicked the anthill. (Also, continuity: I like that the books have it, and that usually the next book will have some mention of cleanup from the last.)
What I don't like is that the whole series is very intense in timescale: Kaylin Neya has saved the city several times in the last year; she deserves a vacation or at least a job that doesn't turn into her having to stare down the elements or face the evil that lurks in the heart of the fiefs.
I'm also not a fan of Nightshade and his relationship with Kaylin. Either setting a fic before she meets him (which could be problematic since I do like Severn) or in which he doesn't play much of a role would be my ideal.
Some ideas would be, as I mentioned, a casefic -- either a traditional Hawk job, or something from Kaylin's moonlighting jobs as midwife and friend of orphans -- that doesn't end in world-altering mayhem, one of the things Teela and Tain drag Kaylin into under the idea that she needs to have fun, or just the general daily life of a city where very different people try not to kill one another.
(Also the book canonically has multiple worlds, so feel free to use crossovers, even if it violates the 'Kaylin gets a week without saving the GD city' request...)
Dragaera - Steven Brust
This one made it on my list this year because I picked up roleplaying Tazendra over on Insanejournal, and because... well, because I enjoyed Tiassa a lot more than the previous couple of books. Brust has two series set in this universe (technically three, but Brokedown Palace can be read as mostly stand-alone) -- the Khaavren Romances (5 books) are a pretty direct take off of the Three Musketeers and sequels and are set before the Vlad Taltos books (14 books). They also tend to be lighter if you ignore the prose stylings -- Vlad is more noir and more towards the underside of Dragaeran society, while Khaavren is a noble.
Now, what I like about the series is the action. Brust does high fantasy with omnipresent magic well. Also, there's a lot of people charging around with swords and doing cool, interesting things. And many of those people are female -- I like most of the female characters in the series.
I also like the way Brust can shift tones: as I mentioned, the prose of the two series read differently, and Vlad's books shift in narrative techniques within his series. So, if you aren't up to mimic some of the tones used, I won't be disappointed. Well, unless everyone talks like a valley girl or modern inner-city gangster. Well, unless you can convince me that there's a reason and it's a stylistic choice, of course.
Picking out a character is hard. As I mentioned above, I adore Tazendra for being a passionate person who goes on adventures and is a general badass sorcerer-swordswoman. Since she has 500 years of being a baroness and 200+ more as being a Lavode, surely she did more offscreen. OTOH, I'd also really like Cawti and Norathar (or Cawti/Norathar) buddy fic, either something set before Cawti became a revolutionary and Norathar became the Dragon princess, or something akin to Tiassa, where the two reunite for reasons. Exciting reasons. Or fic about Daro, Countess of Whitecrest, who was pretty forgettable until Tiassa (well, except for adding to a Jhereg assassin's Very Bad Day in Five Hundred Years After) but has the makings of an awesome character. More about her history/family or her role in being in charge of a city that became the capital of the Empire, or what she thinks of any of this. Or her with Cawti and Norathar, or if she ever interacted with Tazendra (since Tazendra is friends with her husband), or her and the Empress...
The problem is that I can't request all of these things -- well, if you write me an AU where these four characters can somehow all be awesome together, I encourage this (with a side of Aliera and the Empress and...). So I'm putting things up with Any, with the note that if you write me anything in the fandom -- yet another Vlad story, Pel being sneaky, Aliera and Morrolan being pseudo-siblings and teasing one another, Sara the minstrel, past fic with Kieron and Dolivar, etc. -- I will be happy and squeeful. But remember the badassery and female characters being awesome!
I don't object to AUs or crossovers/fusions. I don't mind if you bring in the fantasy racism/classism in the setting, since I think it would be hard to write something without that. I am a Tazendra/Aerich shipper (even realizing how it ended for them -- see note on AUs), think Daro/Khaavren is adorable, and don't mind Vlad/Cawti, even if I agree that it didn't have much of a chance to end well. Not really feeling the Vlad slash ships that show up, but that could just be my general inclinations more towards femmeslash and het than maleslash.
Princess Series - Jim Hines
This one is four books, and is a take on how 'happily ever after' sometimes isn't. Which is one thing I like about the setting: Hines is very good at both sticking to fairy tale details and expanding on them. And twisting the knife.
Also, the four-book series involved Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Snow White as having adventures to help protect Cinderella's kingdom. What's not to like? Hines specifically noted that he wanted to show many different types of strong female characters: Talia is a more traditional badass, Snow is a clever sorceress who also totally owns her sexuality, and Dani is socially quite tricky and... well, don't mess with her husband or son. Plus, Queen Bea, Dani's mother-in-law and mentor figure.
I selected Talia, because... well here I need to spoil the end of the series. Folks who haven't read this (or don't care about spoilers) can scroll past the blockquote...
The series ended with Snow heroically sacrificing herself, and Snow's 'sister' (a construct Snow created from her imaginary friend as a kid and a lot of magic), Gerta, ends up with Talia, who had been pining for Snow. While I'm glad Talia is happy and Gerta got to live past the end of the book, the ending seems too pat. I'd like some fic addressing some of the issues that Gerta was created (perhaps inadvertently) to both love and be sexually attracted to Talia, and that both women might not be comfortable with that.
If that doesn't float your boat, Talia and Snow (before or after Dani joins them) adventures in fairy-tales is always going to make me smile, or Talia's life before she sleeps for a thousand years. She talks a bit about her siblings in Red Hood's Revenge and seems to care for them. Or about crushes or other normal teenager things that happened before she fell asleep. Or about Talia's relationship with Beatrice, or her time at the Temple before she gets the hell out of the country, or whatever.
I don't mind Talia/Snow or Talia/Gerta or Talia/Faziya or whatever -- if you make Talia interested in men (or split up Dani and Armand), I will be quite displeased, though. AUs are also totally acceptable. Crossovers with other fairy tale fandoms -- I've read both of Mercedes Lackey's fairy tale series, for instance -- or things in that vein (Stardust), or Jim Hines's other work, or anything that makes you happy. Or, heck, urban fantasy AU. Or space pirates. (Why space pirates? Why the hell not!)
Velveteen - Seanan McGuire
This is probably the fandom that's easiest to read if you don't want to write the other three: Velveteen Versus is a short story series by
seanan_mcguire. The first seven are available at the link above; four more have been published at Seanan's LJ, and two more should be up by the end of the year. Velveteen (real name Velma Martinez) is a child superheroine who, after growing up fighting evil and saving Christmas with her power over toys (seriously, her superpower is that she controls toys, and you don't realize how badass that is), decided she was done with this whole super business, and most certainly being under the control of the Super Patriots Inc., the corporation that makes a living finding and training (and marketing and...) superheros. They decided to make her life a living hell, causing Vel to flee to Oregon, one of the states where they have little influence. Of course, then she discovers that the super business is hard to leave for reasons other than the long hands of the Marketing Division...
I like the humor and goofiness of Vel's life: seriously the series has fun with the idea that a grown woman dresses up in a brown leotard and bunny ears to save the city using her army of toy soldiers, My Little Pony cavalry, and various stuffed toys and plastic air force. I like that it's still real, despite that. Vel's life as a child super mirrors a lot of what you read of child stars -- she's a highly trained professional hero, but otherwise can barely hold down a coffeeshop job.
This is another fandom where I wouldn't object to casefic. I like the character of Governor Morgan as well, and her own attitudes towards the Super Patriots Inc., and want to see how she and Vel will relate as they end up in a sort of Batman/Commissioner Gordon mode. Or just Vel trying to stay sane as a superhero.
Also, this is totally a place for holiday themed fiction. It's canon that Vel knows Santa Claus and he made sure that she always had a wonderful Christmas. And that one of her friends is Jackie Frost, daughter of Jack Frost and the Snow Queen. Fiction about Saving Christmas or seasonal/holiday monarchs or whatever is totally a good use of your time.
