Dear Yuletide Author
Oct. 22nd, 2012 08:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccastareyesOkay, so time for my annual Yuletide letter. I have four requests. Unfortunately, three of the four have some canon investment, so if you want to check them out, it might be a stretch to do so between now and Yuletide. But I'm listing them in general.
Here's my last year's letter and here's a list of things I like in stories. Obviously they aren't going to be complete guides to what I like, but give you some samples of 'things that appeal to me'.
As I note, I'm not much of an erotica or pure bitter angst reader, and I love female characters being awesome.
So, onto the specific stuff.
Crest/Banner of the Stars | Seikai series: Lafiel
What it is: Either 2 anime series (13 episodes each) and a 10(?) episode OAV (plus another OAV that may have fansubs somewhere, but where never commercially translated to English), or three manga volumes. It's based on a 7 book Japanese light novel series, but only the first three were translated into English.
The series is Japanese SF, set in an interstellar future. The series has the background of a war between the genetically engineered Abh Empire and the four other powers, but the main focus is on Jinto Lynn, a baseline human (lander or Terran, depending on your translation) who ended up adopted into the Abh nobility when his homeworld was conquered when he was a child, and Abriel Lafiel, a young Abh officer who happens to be the granddaughter of the seated Empress and considered a bit of a prodigy. The English translated material covers a prequel story chronicling the start of the war and Jinto and Lafiel's first meeting; and two stories set as part of Lafiel's first command.
What I like about the series: Honestly, that it's entertaining SF, and that Jinto and Lafiel have a fun dynamic. I also like that, to an extent, the Abh would usually be considered the bad guys: they spent the years pre-war ignoring the major powers and conquering any human colonies that didn't have spaceflight. They don't get democracy, and insist that all Abh nobles modify their children to a certain template of Abh traits, which has been fixed for centuries. On the other hand, they don't care terribly much about planet-level politics as long as trade keeps up and space stays an Imperial matter. You get a picture of a society that is flawed in different ways than its rivals are flawed.
I also like the characters. Jinto and Lafiel I mention (and, yes, I ship it), but I like the rest of Lafiel's bridge staff and the way they interact with one another. Seriously if I got a Star-Trek style TV show of hour-long adventures of the Basroil, I would die of happiness. So, a mission fic would be excellent, and work well considering how much Lafiel complains about being stuck on diplomatic duty in Banner II because she and Jinto are landed nobility as well as military officers. It would also be an excuse to explore setting more.
Lafiel's family is also fun, since her father and brother are rather markedly different in temperament than her. We also barely see Lafiel's onscreen relationship with her biological mother, but we get the level of deep respect Lafiel has for her.
AUs could be interesting, as well as other crossovers with posthumans/different strains of humanity.
October Daye series: Any Character
What it is: A series (6 books, plus three short stories, one of which is available for free (bottom of the page)) by Seanan McGuire set in the Bay Area and the Courts of Faerie. Our protagonist is October "Toby" Daye, who is a changeling knight with a tendency to be a hero. After trying to rescue her liege lord and friend's wife and daughter from his brother, she spends fifteen years as a fish, which gives her even more issues. And things keep happening to drag her into trouble. "Toby, stop this war. Toby, children have gone missing again. Toby, some fae want to kill you."
The author's blog is also fun to read and has cool things.
Why I Like it: The setting is exquisite, both in its humor (Safeway pixies, the time Toby hitched a ride on a mermaid's wheelchair down a San Francisco hill to escape goblins, Toby's friend who is a troll cab driver), its beauty and the fact it and the residents will do horrible things to you. Faeries aren't always nice people, and plenty of nasty things happen.
Most (all?) of the side characters are interesting. Seriously, there's probably not a single character I wouldn't squee to see a story about. Some have more backstory, and some are mysteries -- some intentionally so, as any time Quentin's backstory comes up, the author is all 'look, a distraction!' in interviews. Also, tantalizing hints about the Oversky or fae kingdoms deep in the ground, or the brief glimpse of Tybalt's backstory in London we get in one of the short stories.
This one is hard for me to narrow down what I want, besides something that expands the world. (I admit I don't find Toby and Tybalt's relationship particularly exciting on its own, but throwing in Toby's friends reacting and it's a sell.)
Dragaera Series: Tazendra
So, Steve Brust's Dragaera series is 19 books, but it can be divided into three groups: the five-book 'Khaavren romance' series and the thirteen-book 'Vlad Taltos' series, which is mostly distinguished in tone and viewpoint character, but shares a setting and a lot of characters. (The 19th book, Brokedown Palace, is set in a neighboring country and has much less character overlap and a different tone from either series.) My request focuses mostly on the Khaavren series, and the Vlad book that's sort of a crossover between the two, Tiassa.
Both series are very actiony and swashbuckly, even if Khaavren is more about nobility and politics and battles and later eipc magic, and Vlad is about witchcraft and organized crime and assassination and later epic magic.
What I like: I like that the Empire is in a stage of turmoil, thanks to Adron's Disaster (described in Khaavren's books): a period of several centuries where sorcery didn't work after a failed coup magically nuked the capital. Basically, we see that a lot of elf/Dragaeran youth start abandoning the caste system. Plus 'easterners' start emigrating and become a dispirited minority that doesn't really have a place in the Empire's social structure.
But also awesome female characters. I mention Tazendra and as a favorite. Tazendra is pretty much the fight-happy sorceress friend of Khaavren. She goes out to bars and gambles (and usually loses) and challenges people who cheat at cards to duels. She's arrogant and loud and violent and hates bullies and can blow things up and died after she did the setting equivalent of beating a Great Old One in a sorcery contest. She presents herself as stupid for the first book and a half until the setting badass wizard yells at her pointing out that dumb sorceresses don't live as long as she did: more Tazendra's 'stupidity' is that she'd let her friends take the lead on problems she didn't find interesting.
But there's also plenty more, like Aliera e'Kieron (who is another badass sorceress), and the younger characters (Roaana, Ibronka and Zerika, who is also the Empress), and Kathana the painter (who was also a fugitive because she killed an art critic with her paintbrushes), and Sethra Lavode and more social badasses like Countess Daro and Lady Teldra. And people who became prominent after Tazendra died, like Cawti and Norathar.
Speaking of... I'm totally up for AUs for this because there's plenty of canon after Tazendra gets killed. Seriously, go nuts. Or alternate setting stuff, since the characters for this are fabulous. Or crossovers. I don't know how that would work, but go for it.
(Also, I totally ship Tazendra with Aerich, her friend and later liege-lord. Hey, both of them admit it, and Aerich's last regret was that they never did anything about it, even if it was ~forbidden love~.)
Solar System: Pluto
I mean it. I study planetary astronomy for a living. I've laughed at Nice model jokes. If you're worried about being too obscure, provide citations: I'll read them.
But I do want fic about Pluto being buddies with Eris and Haumea and Makemake and Sedna and all of those KBOs and generally being 'I belong!' rather than kicked out of the planet club.
Here's my last year's letter and here's a list of things I like in stories. Obviously they aren't going to be complete guides to what I like, but give you some samples of 'things that appeal to me'.
As I note, I'm not much of an erotica or pure bitter angst reader, and I love female characters being awesome.
So, onto the specific stuff.
Crest/Banner of the Stars | Seikai series: Lafiel
I'd really like fiction about some of the other things the Basroil had done besides the stories in Banner I and II. I love Lafiel's relationships with the crew, and the crew in general. (Also, I love Lafiel and Jinto's relationship.)
If you're not up for that Lafiel interacting with her family (her father, her little brother, her grandmother, or Captain Lexshue) would also be nice.
What it is: Either 2 anime series (13 episodes each) and a 10(?) episode OAV (plus another OAV that may have fansubs somewhere, but where never commercially translated to English), or three manga volumes. It's based on a 7 book Japanese light novel series, but only the first three were translated into English.
The series is Japanese SF, set in an interstellar future. The series has the background of a war between the genetically engineered Abh Empire and the four other powers, but the main focus is on Jinto Lynn, a baseline human (lander or Terran, depending on your translation) who ended up adopted into the Abh nobility when his homeworld was conquered when he was a child, and Abriel Lafiel, a young Abh officer who happens to be the granddaughter of the seated Empress and considered a bit of a prodigy. The English translated material covers a prequel story chronicling the start of the war and Jinto and Lafiel's first meeting; and two stories set as part of Lafiel's first command.
What I like about the series: Honestly, that it's entertaining SF, and that Jinto and Lafiel have a fun dynamic. I also like that, to an extent, the Abh would usually be considered the bad guys: they spent the years pre-war ignoring the major powers and conquering any human colonies that didn't have spaceflight. They don't get democracy, and insist that all Abh nobles modify their children to a certain template of Abh traits, which has been fixed for centuries. On the other hand, they don't care terribly much about planet-level politics as long as trade keeps up and space stays an Imperial matter. You get a picture of a society that is flawed in different ways than its rivals are flawed.
I also like the characters. Jinto and Lafiel I mention (and, yes, I ship it), but I like the rest of Lafiel's bridge staff and the way they interact with one another. Seriously if I got a Star-Trek style TV show of hour-long adventures of the Basroil, I would die of happiness. So, a mission fic would be excellent, and work well considering how much Lafiel complains about being stuck on diplomatic duty in Banner II because she and Jinto are landed nobility as well as military officers. It would also be an excuse to explore setting more.
Lafiel's family is also fun, since her father and brother are rather markedly different in temperament than her. We also barely see Lafiel's onscreen relationship with her biological mother, but we get the level of deep respect Lafiel has for her.
AUs could be interesting, as well as other crossovers with posthumans/different strains of humanity.
October Daye series: Any Character
Okay, I nominated any here, so go nuts. I want to see more of Toby's world, especially from a view other than Toby's. If you want some direction, there's plenty of rambling in my Yuletide letter, but here's some prompts.
* If you've read the most recent book, seeing Etienne and his new family (and ironing out the bugs) would be lovely.
* What Toby's household gets up to when she's not around. May and Quentin and Jazz and Raj and the cats and Spike just hanging out, or navigating mortal San Francisco (or fae SF) or whatever. (Not that you can't throw Toby in there too.)
* Anything about the Undersea, with bonus points for including the Luidaeg.
But seriously, you could show Toby doing her errands and I'd probably be happy, since this is a setting where tribes of pixies colonize grocery stores and have turf wars.
What it is: A series (6 books, plus three short stories, one of which is available for free (bottom of the page)) by Seanan McGuire set in the Bay Area and the Courts of Faerie. Our protagonist is October "Toby" Daye, who is a changeling knight with a tendency to be a hero. After trying to rescue her liege lord and friend's wife and daughter from his brother, she spends fifteen years as a fish, which gives her even more issues. And things keep happening to drag her into trouble. "Toby, stop this war. Toby, children have gone missing again. Toby, some fae want to kill you."
The author's blog is also fun to read and has cool things.
Why I Like it: The setting is exquisite, both in its humor (Safeway pixies, the time Toby hitched a ride on a mermaid's wheelchair down a San Francisco hill to escape goblins, Toby's friend who is a troll cab driver), its beauty and the fact it and the residents will do horrible things to you. Faeries aren't always nice people, and plenty of nasty things happen.
Most (all?) of the side characters are interesting. Seriously, there's probably not a single character I wouldn't squee to see a story about. Some have more backstory, and some are mysteries -- some intentionally so, as any time Quentin's backstory comes up, the author is all 'look, a distraction!' in interviews. Also, tantalizing hints about the Oversky or fae kingdoms deep in the ground, or the brief glimpse of Tybalt's backstory in London we get in one of the short stories.
This one is hard for me to narrow down what I want, besides something that expands the world. (I admit I don't find Toby and Tybalt's relationship particularly exciting on its own, but throwing in Toby's friends reacting and it's a sell.)
Dragaera Series: Tazendra
Tazendra is my favorite character, and I have a soft spot for Daro. You don't have to include both, but if you do (hey, Daro is married to one of Tazendra's best friends), go for it. Or you could write Tazendra's various exploits, or continuing Daro's interactions with Cawti or missing scenes or whatever.
Also, I'm totally open to AU, both in the 'changing canon' sense and in the 'suddenly... in space' sense.
So, Steve Brust's Dragaera series is 19 books, but it can be divided into three groups: the five-book 'Khaavren romance' series and the thirteen-book 'Vlad Taltos' series, which is mostly distinguished in tone and viewpoint character, but shares a setting and a lot of characters. (The 19th book, Brokedown Palace, is set in a neighboring country and has much less character overlap and a different tone from either series.) My request focuses mostly on the Khaavren series, and the Vlad book that's sort of a crossover between the two, Tiassa.
Both series are very actiony and swashbuckly, even if Khaavren is more about nobility and politics and battles and later eipc magic, and Vlad is about witchcraft and organized crime and assassination and later epic magic.
What I like: I like that the Empire is in a stage of turmoil, thanks to Adron's Disaster (described in Khaavren's books): a period of several centuries where sorcery didn't work after a failed coup magically nuked the capital. Basically, we see that a lot of elf/Dragaeran youth start abandoning the caste system. Plus 'easterners' start emigrating and become a dispirited minority that doesn't really have a place in the Empire's social structure.
But also awesome female characters. I mention Tazendra and as a favorite. Tazendra is pretty much the fight-happy sorceress friend of Khaavren. She goes out to bars and gambles (and usually loses) and challenges people who cheat at cards to duels. She's arrogant and loud and violent and hates bullies and can blow things up and died after she did the setting equivalent of beating a Great Old One in a sorcery contest. She presents herself as stupid for the first book and a half until the setting badass wizard yells at her pointing out that dumb sorceresses don't live as long as she did: more Tazendra's 'stupidity' is that she'd let her friends take the lead on problems she didn't find interesting.
But there's also plenty more, like Aliera e'Kieron (who is another badass sorceress), and the younger characters (Roaana, Ibronka and Zerika, who is also the Empress), and Kathana the painter (who was also a fugitive because she killed an art critic with her paintbrushes), and Sethra Lavode and more social badasses like Countess Daro and Lady Teldra. And people who became prominent after Tazendra died, like Cawti and Norathar.
Speaking of... I'm totally up for AUs for this because there's plenty of canon after Tazendra gets killed. Seriously, go nuts. Or alternate setting stuff, since the characters for this are fabulous. Or crossovers. I don't know how that would work, but go for it.
(Also, I totally ship Tazendra with Aerich, her friend and later liege-lord. Hey, both of them admit it, and Aerich's last regret was that they never did anything about it, even if it was ~forbidden love~.)
Solar System: Pluto
Okay, here's my confession. I like Pluto, but I'm totally okay with the dwarf planet thing. So tell me a story about Pluto where things worked out pretty well for it. You know, it went from being an oddball among the Big Eight with the closest thing to a kindred spirit begin Triton, who ditched the gig to be a moon of Neptune, to being with a whole crowd of Kuiper Belt objects that suddenly get what it's like to have to shovel the nitrogen on cold days, or wondering if Neptune is avoiding it, since it always seems to be on the other side of the Solar System when Pluto comes in for a close look.
You might have noticed, I'm a big astronomy nerd, so feel free to throw in all the science in jokes. All of them.
I mean it. I study planetary astronomy for a living. I've laughed at Nice model jokes. If you're worried about being too obscure, provide citations: I'll read them.
But I do want fic about Pluto being buddies with Eris and Haumea and Makemake and Sedna and all of those KBOs and generally being 'I belong!' rather than kicked out of the planet club.
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Date: 2012-10-31 10:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-10-31 10:31 pm (UTC)