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sophia_sol) wrote2016-09-27 10:14 pm
sophia_sol) wrote2016-09-27 10:14 pm
Dear Yuletide Author letter 2016
The Yuletide letters post for the year is up, which means it's once again time to post my letter!
DEAR AUTHOR,
I am so excited to know that you are going to be writing me a fic in one of my fandoms! I already know you have excellent taste, since you offered to write one of these fandoms, so I am sure that I will enjoy whatever it is you write for me, and I hope you have fun writing.
If you want to know more about my likes/dislikes and my thoughts about each fandom, please read on! :D
First of all, in terms of fanfiction in general, I am pretty broad in my tastes! I love worldbuilding, I love character explorations, I love character interrelationships, I love politics, I love angst, I love fluff, I love plottiness, I love ridiculousness, I love explorations of canon, I love AUs, I love -- agh, it is hard to list all the things, because really, SO MANY THINGS.
Obviously not all the things are relevant for the fandoms I've requested, but really, go where your heart takes you and I will be delighted. (though if you go in the more heartbreaking directions I would appreciate if there were at least a bit of hopefulness at the end.)
In terms of shipping, I'm fine with gen, slash, femslash, het, poly, etc, whatever you feel fits the story. I don't tend to have OTPs and am happy to be convinced by whatever ship (or lack of ship) you choose to write. No incest or underage, please.
A few things I particularly enjoy:
But please feel free to ignore anything from that list that isn't relevant to the fandom we matched on, or isn't something that interests you, or doesn't fit with whatever fic idea you want to write.
I have two requests of things I would rather you avoid:
And now on with the stuff about each specific fandom!
The Princess Curse, by Merrie Haskell
Requested characters: Any
(characters in tagset: Reveka, Dragos)
Pretty much Reveka and Lord Dragos are SO AMAZING and SO INTERESTING and I WANT ALL THE FANFICTION about either or both of them. Lord Dragos backstory from pre-king-of-the-underworld days? Lord Dragos backstory about him becoming lord of the underworld and being new and awkward and not knowing everything and trying and failing and all that? Reveka growing further into her role as queen of the underworld? Reveka and Dragos learning to know each other better over the years? A fic about Reveka and Dragos politicking in the underworld???
Although actually I'm also just into this book (and its worldbuilding!) in general so don't necessarily feel bound by the characters in the tagset. I would also be interested in fic like, for example: more about the functioning of the underworld, Alethe’s nymph’s backstory, fic about whatever’s up with Reveka’s handmaid Thela. And so on! SO MANY OPTIONS and I would love any of them, including things I haven't mentioned here!
Please note that I'm less interested in reading a story that's mainly focused on a romantic relationship (or development thereof) between Reveka/Dragos, although their romance could certainly be an aspect in a story about other things if you want. Please avoid having anything romantic/sexual happening between them while Reveka is underage.
If you would find it helpful, here's the review I wrote of The Princess Curse when I first read it.
Wives & Daughters, by Elizabeth Gaskell
Requested character: Cynthia
I loved Wives & Daughters a lot! Gaskell is a wonderful writer. But I also had some frustrations with this book's treatment of Cynthia.
What I'm looking for here is a fic that (...unlike the book) doesn't think Cynthia is an inherently less worthy human being. Imperfect, yes, but less worthy, certainly not! However, please don't make the question of Cynthia's relative worthiness the focus of the fic.
This could be the most AU of AUs, it could be a strictly canon fic, it could be plotty or plotless, it could be ANYTHING, I don't care, I just care a lot about Cynthia and want to read more about her. Please feel free to include Molly too if you want (Molly's super great! I love Molly a lot!) but don't feel you have to.
Some ideas, just off the top of my head, so if you like working from prompts you have something to work with: a missing scene from canon about Molly and Cynthia's friendship, a space AU, Cynthia and her marriage post-canon, Cynthia's relationship with other girls while at boarding school, an AU where Mrs Kirkpatrick and Mr Gibson marry when Cynthia and Molly are much younger so Cynthia grows up with Molly as a sister, an AU where Cynthia doesn't succeed in freeing herself from her engagement with Mr Preston and ends up having to marry him, an AU where dragons exist (a la the Temeraire series, and I have no idea what would happen in this AU but I would be interested to find out!).
I'm fine with Cynthia's marriage at the end being read as platonic or romantic, and you can also feel free to ignore the marriage if you want to. Please don't write Cynthia/Molly for me, as that gets too close to my incest squick.
Please also note that I have not seen the TV miniseries and would prefer fic to be based off the book.
If you would find it helpful, here's the review I wrote of Wives & Daughters when I first read it.
Just Plain Maggie, by Lorraine Beim
Requested character: Beth
This book was a mainstay of my childhood, but practically nobody else has ever heard about it because it’s a children's book from the fifties that has been out of print for decades. So if you are writing me something for Just Plain Maggie you have already MADE MY LIFE, no matter what you do with it.
I just have so many warm and fuzzy feelings about this book. Friendship between girls! Summer camp, including canoe tripping! Adults in a children's book who are actually good people! People being supportive of each other despite different backgrounds and life experiences! (The only unfortunate part is having to read past the terrible stereotypes of Native Americans in that one chapter....sigh)
But I'm most interested in Beth. She is one of the more complicated characters. She comes from a very wealthy family but her parents' approval of her is based solely on how successful she is at things - no unconditional love for her - which understandably kind of messes her up. And so she spends a lot of the book being an asshole.
But by the end of the book she's genuinely TRYING to be friends with the other girls instead of just dismissing them as not good enough and I'm just like AWWW BETHHHHH GO YOU. It's hard work to learn a different way of interacting with the world when you've been taught one way all your life! Going back home after her experience at camp this summer, I imagine it'll be even harder for her because she'll have no support and encouragement from her family.
So I'd love to read a story about what happens with Beth after the end of the book - whether that's immediately after, or the next year, or after she's grown up, or whatever. I'd love to read more about her growth, or about her efforts towards friendship, or about her difficult relationship with her parents. Feel free to include other characters from the book as well if you like - I want to believe that the friendships made this summer survive! I would also be interested in Beth/Maggie shipfic when they're no longer children, if that would be something you'd be interested in exploring.
Splendor and Misery - clipping. (Album)
Requested characters: The Computer (Splendor and Misery), Number 2331
I fell in love with this album during nominations period and then panicked because I'd already made up my mind what I was going to nominate, and I didn't know what to do! But thank goodness for the nominations confirmation post because I could rest easy knowing someone else had nommed this.
As a result of this being a johnny-come-lately fandom for me, I have no idea how to approach knowing what to ask for. It takes me longer than this to develop words to understand my feelings. I just love this album a lot and want to read fic about it! I'M SORRY, I worked hard for my other fandoms to give a bit of direction in terms of what kinds of things I'd enjoy reading about, but here I am at sea. I am going to have to have faith that you, dear author, having felt capable of offering this fandom, have some sort of idea on how to approach writing for it. So please, feel free to write whatever fic you most want to see in this fandom and I am sure I will be into it.
I will note that I specifically requested the characters of the Computer and Number 2331 because those two characters and their relationship with each other is particularly compelling to me.
I suppose you may find the post by Jedusaur that inspired me to listen to the album relevant? Read it here.
And an incomplete list of some of the things that I find particularly appealing about this album because you may find that useful too (don't worry, I don't expect you to work all these elements into your fic!):
DEAR AUTHOR,
I am so excited to know that you are going to be writing me a fic in one of my fandoms! I already know you have excellent taste, since you offered to write one of these fandoms, so I am sure that I will enjoy whatever it is you write for me, and I hope you have fun writing.
If you want to know more about my likes/dislikes and my thoughts about each fandom, please read on! :D
First of all, in terms of fanfiction in general, I am pretty broad in my tastes! I love worldbuilding, I love character explorations, I love character interrelationships, I love politics, I love angst, I love fluff, I love plottiness, I love ridiculousness, I love explorations of canon, I love AUs, I love -- agh, it is hard to list all the things, because really, SO MANY THINGS.
Obviously not all the things are relevant for the fandoms I've requested, but really, go where your heart takes you and I will be delighted. (though if you go in the more heartbreaking directions I would appreciate if there were at least a bit of hopefulness at the end.)
In terms of shipping, I'm fine with gen, slash, femslash, het, poly, etc, whatever you feel fits the story. I don't tend to have OTPs and am happy to be convinced by whatever ship (or lack of ship) you choose to write. No incest or underage, please.
A few things I particularly enjoy:
- Competence ftw. People who are really good at something, whatever that thing is. I also enjoy if this is surprising to the people around them.
- People who care deeply about each other, whether that's romantic or friendship or family or found-family or something else entirely.
- People whose relationships with each other (platonic or otherwise) are complicated.
- Stories that don't focus exclusively on male characters.
- Fannish tropes. Telepathic bonds! marriage of convenience! bodyswap! robots! time-travel! AUs! etc! so many sweet tropes! (please note though that I am not personally interested in zombies, vampires, werewolves, apocalypse AUs or modern AUs of these canons, or true destined soulmates.)
But please feel free to ignore anything from that list that isn't relevant to the fandom we matched on, or isn't something that interests you, or doesn't fit with whatever fic idea you want to write.
I have two requests of things I would rather you avoid:
- Explicit sex. Nothing wrong with it, I just personally don't find reading it to be terribly interesting.
- Embarrassing situations. I have a strong embarrassment squick, and would rather not have to read my gift through my fingers! Mostly what this means is avoiding conversations where characters are speaking at cross-purposes without realizing it, resulting in awkward misunderstandings. Or where characters overhear something without all of the context, resulting in awkward misunderstandings. Basically awkward misunderstandings in general, really, especially if said misunderstandings are treated as funny.
And now on with the stuff about each specific fandom!
The Princess Curse, by Merrie Haskell
Requested characters: Any
(characters in tagset: Reveka, Dragos)
Pretty much Reveka and Lord Dragos are SO AMAZING and SO INTERESTING and I WANT ALL THE FANFICTION about either or both of them. Lord Dragos backstory from pre-king-of-the-underworld days? Lord Dragos backstory about him becoming lord of the underworld and being new and awkward and not knowing everything and trying and failing and all that? Reveka growing further into her role as queen of the underworld? Reveka and Dragos learning to know each other better over the years? A fic about Reveka and Dragos politicking in the underworld???
Although actually I'm also just into this book (and its worldbuilding!) in general so don't necessarily feel bound by the characters in the tagset. I would also be interested in fic like, for example: more about the functioning of the underworld, Alethe’s nymph’s backstory, fic about whatever’s up with Reveka’s handmaid Thela. And so on! SO MANY OPTIONS and I would love any of them, including things I haven't mentioned here!
Please note that I'm less interested in reading a story that's mainly focused on a romantic relationship (or development thereof) between Reveka/Dragos, although their romance could certainly be an aspect in a story about other things if you want. Please avoid having anything romantic/sexual happening between them while Reveka is underage.
If you would find it helpful, here's the review I wrote of The Princess Curse when I first read it.
Wives & Daughters, by Elizabeth Gaskell
Requested character: Cynthia
I loved Wives & Daughters a lot! Gaskell is a wonderful writer. But I also had some frustrations with this book's treatment of Cynthia.
What I'm looking for here is a fic that (...unlike the book) doesn't think Cynthia is an inherently less worthy human being. Imperfect, yes, but less worthy, certainly not! However, please don't make the question of Cynthia's relative worthiness the focus of the fic.
This could be the most AU of AUs, it could be a strictly canon fic, it could be plotty or plotless, it could be ANYTHING, I don't care, I just care a lot about Cynthia and want to read more about her. Please feel free to include Molly too if you want (Molly's super great! I love Molly a lot!) but don't feel you have to.
Some ideas, just off the top of my head, so if you like working from prompts you have something to work with: a missing scene from canon about Molly and Cynthia's friendship, a space AU, Cynthia and her marriage post-canon, Cynthia's relationship with other girls while at boarding school, an AU where Mrs Kirkpatrick and Mr Gibson marry when Cynthia and Molly are much younger so Cynthia grows up with Molly as a sister, an AU where Cynthia doesn't succeed in freeing herself from her engagement with Mr Preston and ends up having to marry him, an AU where dragons exist (a la the Temeraire series, and I have no idea what would happen in this AU but I would be interested to find out!).
I'm fine with Cynthia's marriage at the end being read as platonic or romantic, and you can also feel free to ignore the marriage if you want to. Please don't write Cynthia/Molly for me, as that gets too close to my incest squick.
Please also note that I have not seen the TV miniseries and would prefer fic to be based off the book.
If you would find it helpful, here's the review I wrote of Wives & Daughters when I first read it.
Just Plain Maggie, by Lorraine Beim
Requested character: Beth
This book was a mainstay of my childhood, but practically nobody else has ever heard about it because it’s a children's book from the fifties that has been out of print for decades. So if you are writing me something for Just Plain Maggie you have already MADE MY LIFE, no matter what you do with it.
I just have so many warm and fuzzy feelings about this book. Friendship between girls! Summer camp, including canoe tripping! Adults in a children's book who are actually good people! People being supportive of each other despite different backgrounds and life experiences! (The only unfortunate part is having to read past the terrible stereotypes of Native Americans in that one chapter....sigh)
But I'm most interested in Beth. She is one of the more complicated characters. She comes from a very wealthy family but her parents' approval of her is based solely on how successful she is at things - no unconditional love for her - which understandably kind of messes her up. And so she spends a lot of the book being an asshole.
But by the end of the book she's genuinely TRYING to be friends with the other girls instead of just dismissing them as not good enough and I'm just like AWWW BETHHHHH GO YOU. It's hard work to learn a different way of interacting with the world when you've been taught one way all your life! Going back home after her experience at camp this summer, I imagine it'll be even harder for her because she'll have no support and encouragement from her family.
So I'd love to read a story about what happens with Beth after the end of the book - whether that's immediately after, or the next year, or after she's grown up, or whatever. I'd love to read more about her growth, or about her efforts towards friendship, or about her difficult relationship with her parents. Feel free to include other characters from the book as well if you like - I want to believe that the friendships made this summer survive! I would also be interested in Beth/Maggie shipfic when they're no longer children, if that would be something you'd be interested in exploring.
Splendor and Misery - clipping. (Album)
Requested characters: The Computer (Splendor and Misery), Number 2331
I fell in love with this album during nominations period and then panicked because I'd already made up my mind what I was going to nominate, and I didn't know what to do! But thank goodness for the nominations confirmation post because I could rest easy knowing someone else had nommed this.
As a result of this being a johnny-come-lately fandom for me, I have no idea how to approach knowing what to ask for. It takes me longer than this to develop words to understand my feelings. I just love this album a lot and want to read fic about it! I'M SORRY, I worked hard for my other fandoms to give a bit of direction in terms of what kinds of things I'd enjoy reading about, but here I am at sea. I am going to have to have faith that you, dear author, having felt capable of offering this fandom, have some sort of idea on how to approach writing for it. So please, feel free to write whatever fic you most want to see in this fandom and I am sure I will be into it.
I will note that I specifically requested the characters of the Computer and Number 2331 because those two characters and their relationship with each other is particularly compelling to me.
I suppose you may find the post by Jedusaur that inspired me to listen to the album relevant? Read it here.
And an incomplete list of some of the things that I find particularly appealing about this album because you may find that useful too (don't worry, I don't expect you to work all these elements into your fic!):
- AI/human relationship of some variety
- excellent feel/atmosphere
- neat interplay of futuristic elements and history
- narrative with main characters who are not the privileged people, and themes of resisting/escaping oppression
- space!
- spaceship (or spaceship AI) as character
- questions of personhood (for AI or humans)
- playing around with how to tell the story, not a standard straightforward narrative (though it goes a little too far in places for me and I'm kind of confused about everything it's trying to say? But it's still INTERESTING)
no subject
(heh, personhood of AIs, where did I just see something about that... :P although my story is less about the AI's personhood and more about its developing awareness of the personhood of humans)
I'm so glad my post got you to listen! This album is one of my greatest loves at the moment, and I am thrilled to be able to introduce other people to it.
no subject
I'm really glad you made that post about this album, introducing me to it.