yuletide letter [2016]
Oct. 1st, 2016 11:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kiphianaDear Yuletide Author,
HAPPY YULETIDE! Not just yet, obviously, but soon. I am excited to be writing this letter and I hope it's useful for you. I'm even more excited to read what you write!
My username on AO3 is bigsunglasses.
First, a quick guide to my tastes. I want to be left happy or optimistic at the end of a story - please, no endings that are bitter or sad. I am attached to the settings as much as the characters, so avoid AUs/fusions, etc, or anything cracky in tone. I also prefer fics with some action or interaction, rather than ones that are just one character reflecting/introspecting. Finally, please don't write any ships that break up canon ships.
Do not want.
Pregnancy loss, or difficulties. Rape or dub-con. Character death (referencing a canon death in passing is fine, someone dying in the fic is not). Terminal illness. Infidelity. Explicit torture. Gore. Gaslighting. Humiliation. Incest.
Lovelist.
Worldbuilding. Exploring culture & cultural differences. History. Friendship. Fluff. Cooking and savoury food. Ecology - nature & wildlife in general (also the seaside, lakes, rivers). Adventure. Loyalty. Protectiveness. Going undercover. Secret identities. Themes of truth & justice. Working to build happiness with an imperfect set of cards. Sacrifice rewarded. Blossoming romance. Established OTP taking on the plot. Creating and building things (families, meals, cities, houses, books, whatever...). Physical touch: brushing hair, holding hands, massages, etc. Hurt/comfort. Some favourite romantic tropes: we-only-kissed-to-provide-a-diversion-it-meant-nothing-honestly, huddling-for-warmth, pretend!dating, marriages-of-convenience/arranged-marriages.
Smut.
If the muse moves you towards smut, go for it! But I'd love there to be at least some plot or framing story, rather than outright PWP. I'm not really interested in reading sex for sex's sake, but in reading how and why particular characters do sex. Be as explicit or not as you want - but not kinky.
Chalion Saga - Lois McMaster Bujold
Betriz dy Ferrej
For the most part, The Curse of Chalion delivered everything I wanted lock, stock and barrel. But I did yearn for more Betriz - particularly a glimpse at Betriz that wasn't filtered through Caz's eyes. I love them as a couple, but I would prefer not to receive fic that focuses on their romance. Apart from anything else, Caz (much as I love him) does tend to take over stories!
Betriz is Iselle's right hand, her faithful friend and loyal supporter, and I would be happy to read their relationship before, during or after canon. How did they get along initially? Was Betriz keen to become close to such an important person, or did she like Iselle for herself from the beginning? And anything that happens to Iselle happens to Betriz too, in some form: for instance when they come to the Zangre, Betriz's political awareness must expand just as Iselle's does. How does she learn to navigate the court? How does she deal with being an obvious route to Iselle - is she constantly deflecting suitors or coping with petitioners? Or it'd be fun to see how their older chaperone, Nan dy Vrit, might have educated them both in more practical aspects of grand life, as a sort of counterpoint to Caz's political education.
I would also love her perspective on that midnight ride fleeing to freedom, just before Caz brings Bergon secretly into the country. That's always sounded like such a fascinating episode. And there would have been no going back for Betriz then. Up until that point she could, I think, have detached herself from Iselle if she was afraid, and gone to the other side. But even for such a loyal person, that midnight ride seems like a political Rubicon - was it a no-brainer for Betriz or did she contemplate letting Iselle go alone? It's easy to be a loyal friend when there is no specific danger to oneself. Seeing the evolution of Betriz's loyalty (starting from earlier in the book, even, to culminate here) would be lovely.
Or then, anything set after the novel would be great too. Betriz would have had power in her own right as Iselle's best friend, but united with Caz she's even more a force to be feared. What sort of duties is she assigned? What challenges does she face? Does she ever long to go back to the quiet life with her father, or does she never tire of politics and court life?
My Friend the Professor - Lucilla Andrews
Estelle Dexter
Is it weird to request a romance novel, but not the hero/heroine?! I hope not, because this Yuletide I'm requesting the heroine's best friend. Her story is SO great in canon and I have always wanted more of it! Estelle was raised wealthy, pampered and adored, and turned out not a bit spoiled. She has the guts to defy expectations and train to be a nurse, gets on brilliantly, and then has her health ruined so she can't nurse again. Towards the end of the novel, the heroine thinks this single tantalising line, which has stayed with me ever since I was a tween kiphiana reading the book for the first time (I'm now next door to thirty!): she thinks that Estelle should go read medicine now. YES! Please write me Estelle coming to that conclusion herself, with or without pestering from Frances, and how she gets on in medical school c. the late 1950s/early 1960s. There was no longer any legal barrier to women becoming doctors of course - but still a lot of cultural barriers. One of my favourite things about this book is how it's a social history primary source in fiction form - it creates this insular medical world with its culture, its roles and its rules, so absorbingly. I'd love to get some more period detail. For that reason, I'd prefer not to receive a fic about a much older or retired Estelle - I'm very into the setting of the novel.
If medical details aren't your thing, I'd also love an exploration of Estelle and Bart's relationship, from any stage during the novel or in the early years afterwards. They exist in the sidelines of Frances's romance in canon, so all we see is Estelle and Bart struggling to communicate - Estelle's running shy of him, he is basically a puppy adoring from afar. But I'd love to see how their original attraction flared, and how their relationship developed even when she was so prickly. I'd also be thrilled to see how their relationship develops post-canon, with Estelle recovering then studying, and Bart studying, and them trying to set themselves up in the world.
If you decide to write Estelle (or anyone) on a particular patient's case, please remember my DNW's above & don't make it a terminal illness or a pregnancy-related problem - otherwise, go wild.
The Tales of Einarinn - Juliet E McKenna
Allin Mere, Temar D'Alsennin
I love these two, and not just because I ship them. They are two people who are so very far from their beginnings, who can never go back, and have to do their best with that. It’d be lovely to see something about them at any point from canon onwards. If you're going for gen, I'm happy for the fic to focus more on one character than the other. Does Allin ever see her family again? (does Temar ever meet them? Could be some great culture clash there.) What were her first months in Hadrumal like? Or it'd be fascinating to gain some insight into the difficult time for Temar between the end of The Swordsman's Oath and the beginning of The Warrior's Bond, during the second establishment of the colonists.
Or I'd also be delighted if you wrote Temar/Allin. Maybe a proposal scene, or an admitting-feelings scene. Their first times doing various things together. Pick any moment from their relationship that you fancy exploring! Working together as a team on a problem or adventure. Temar helping Allin learn/define her social role as Maitresse. Her teaching him more about the modern world. Becoming parents. Doing magic together. Curtainfic of a colony-building kind.
And if you want to add bits of worldbuilding about Kellarin and its canonical present and its possible future, please do - one of my favourite things about this series is the worldbuilding, the sense of a place where time and history really do change things. It’s a busy, diverse and changing world filled with busy, diverse and changing people who all are living their own lives and ambitions as best they can.
HAPPY YULETIDE! Not just yet, obviously, but soon. I am excited to be writing this letter and I hope it's useful for you. I'm even more excited to read what you write!
My username on AO3 is bigsunglasses.
First, a quick guide to my tastes. I want to be left happy or optimistic at the end of a story - please, no endings that are bitter or sad. I am attached to the settings as much as the characters, so avoid AUs/fusions, etc, or anything cracky in tone. I also prefer fics with some action or interaction, rather than ones that are just one character reflecting/introspecting. Finally, please don't write any ships that break up canon ships.
Do not want.
Pregnancy loss, or difficulties. Rape or dub-con. Character death (referencing a canon death in passing is fine, someone dying in the fic is not). Terminal illness. Infidelity. Explicit torture. Gore. Gaslighting. Humiliation. Incest.
Lovelist.
Worldbuilding. Exploring culture & cultural differences. History. Friendship. Fluff. Cooking and savoury food. Ecology - nature & wildlife in general (also the seaside, lakes, rivers). Adventure. Loyalty. Protectiveness. Going undercover. Secret identities. Themes of truth & justice. Working to build happiness with an imperfect set of cards. Sacrifice rewarded. Blossoming romance. Established OTP taking on the plot. Creating and building things (families, meals, cities, houses, books, whatever...). Physical touch: brushing hair, holding hands, massages, etc. Hurt/comfort. Some favourite romantic tropes: we-only-kissed-to-provide-a-diversion-it-meant-nothing-honestly, huddling-for-warmth, pretend!dating, marriages-of-convenience/arranged-marriages.
Smut.
If the muse moves you towards smut, go for it! But I'd love there to be at least some plot or framing story, rather than outright PWP. I'm not really interested in reading sex for sex's sake, but in reading how and why particular characters do sex. Be as explicit or not as you want - but not kinky.
Chalion Saga - Lois McMaster Bujold
Betriz dy Ferrej
For the most part, The Curse of Chalion delivered everything I wanted lock, stock and barrel. But I did yearn for more Betriz - particularly a glimpse at Betriz that wasn't filtered through Caz's eyes. I love them as a couple, but I would prefer not to receive fic that focuses on their romance. Apart from anything else, Caz (much as I love him) does tend to take over stories!
Betriz is Iselle's right hand, her faithful friend and loyal supporter, and I would be happy to read their relationship before, during or after canon. How did they get along initially? Was Betriz keen to become close to such an important person, or did she like Iselle for herself from the beginning? And anything that happens to Iselle happens to Betriz too, in some form: for instance when they come to the Zangre, Betriz's political awareness must expand just as Iselle's does. How does she learn to navigate the court? How does she deal with being an obvious route to Iselle - is she constantly deflecting suitors or coping with petitioners? Or it'd be fun to see how their older chaperone, Nan dy Vrit, might have educated them both in more practical aspects of grand life, as a sort of counterpoint to Caz's political education.
I would also love her perspective on that midnight ride fleeing to freedom, just before Caz brings Bergon secretly into the country. That's always sounded like such a fascinating episode. And there would have been no going back for Betriz then. Up until that point she could, I think, have detached herself from Iselle if she was afraid, and gone to the other side. But even for such a loyal person, that midnight ride seems like a political Rubicon - was it a no-brainer for Betriz or did she contemplate letting Iselle go alone? It's easy to be a loyal friend when there is no specific danger to oneself. Seeing the evolution of Betriz's loyalty (starting from earlier in the book, even, to culminate here) would be lovely.
Or then, anything set after the novel would be great too. Betriz would have had power in her own right as Iselle's best friend, but united with Caz she's even more a force to be feared. What sort of duties is she assigned? What challenges does she face? Does she ever long to go back to the quiet life with her father, or does she never tire of politics and court life?
My Friend the Professor - Lucilla Andrews
Estelle Dexter
Is it weird to request a romance novel, but not the hero/heroine?! I hope not, because this Yuletide I'm requesting the heroine's best friend. Her story is SO great in canon and I have always wanted more of it! Estelle was raised wealthy, pampered and adored, and turned out not a bit spoiled. She has the guts to defy expectations and train to be a nurse, gets on brilliantly, and then has her health ruined so she can't nurse again. Towards the end of the novel, the heroine thinks this single tantalising line, which has stayed with me ever since I was a tween kiphiana reading the book for the first time (I'm now next door to thirty!): she thinks that Estelle should go read medicine now. YES! Please write me Estelle coming to that conclusion herself, with or without pestering from Frances, and how she gets on in medical school c. the late 1950s/early 1960s. There was no longer any legal barrier to women becoming doctors of course - but still a lot of cultural barriers. One of my favourite things about this book is how it's a social history primary source in fiction form - it creates this insular medical world with its culture, its roles and its rules, so absorbingly. I'd love to get some more period detail. For that reason, I'd prefer not to receive a fic about a much older or retired Estelle - I'm very into the setting of the novel.
If medical details aren't your thing, I'd also love an exploration of Estelle and Bart's relationship, from any stage during the novel or in the early years afterwards. They exist in the sidelines of Frances's romance in canon, so all we see is Estelle and Bart struggling to communicate - Estelle's running shy of him, he is basically a puppy adoring from afar. But I'd love to see how their original attraction flared, and how their relationship developed even when she was so prickly. I'd also be thrilled to see how their relationship develops post-canon, with Estelle recovering then studying, and Bart studying, and them trying to set themselves up in the world.
If you decide to write Estelle (or anyone) on a particular patient's case, please remember my DNW's above & don't make it a terminal illness or a pregnancy-related problem - otherwise, go wild.
The Tales of Einarinn - Juliet E McKenna
Allin Mere, Temar D'Alsennin
I love these two, and not just because I ship them. They are two people who are so very far from their beginnings, who can never go back, and have to do their best with that. It’d be lovely to see something about them at any point from canon onwards. If you're going for gen, I'm happy for the fic to focus more on one character than the other. Does Allin ever see her family again? (does Temar ever meet them? Could be some great culture clash there.) What were her first months in Hadrumal like? Or it'd be fascinating to gain some insight into the difficult time for Temar between the end of The Swordsman's Oath and the beginning of The Warrior's Bond, during the second establishment of the colonists.
Or I'd also be delighted if you wrote Temar/Allin. Maybe a proposal scene, or an admitting-feelings scene. Their first times doing various things together. Pick any moment from their relationship that you fancy exploring! Working together as a team on a problem or adventure. Temar helping Allin learn/define her social role as Maitresse. Her teaching him more about the modern world. Becoming parents. Doing magic together. Curtainfic of a colony-building kind.
And if you want to add bits of worldbuilding about Kellarin and its canonical present and its possible future, please do - one of my favourite things about this series is the worldbuilding, the sense of a place where time and history really do change things. It’s a busy, diverse and changing world filled with busy, diverse and changing people who all are living their own lives and ambitions as best they can.
