Dear Yuletide Writer,

Thank you so much for offering to write for one of these fandoms! Just for making the effort, you are now one of my favorite people. So, to make things easier for you, I'm going to tell you some of my general likes and dislikes, as well as what drew me to these four particular fandoms. I'll get into more specific requests, but if you're one of those writers that like a free rein -- be sure that I'll be happy with whatever you're happy writing. These are just ideas, and of course, are totally optional.

My taste in fic is pretty darn eclectic -- from ridiculous farce to angst-ridden apocafic. You can take a look at my delicious rec list if you feel like you'd want a better idea of the sort of fics I tend to collect, but I forget to tag a lot of things, and right now there aren't any fics in that list from the four fandoms I'm requesting for Yuletide this year.

My favorites tend to be stories with clear, vivid imagery that stops short of being florid -- think traditional Japanese architecture as opposed to French Baroque -- and clever, natural dialogue, that keeps the characters' voices true to canon. Constant, uncharacteristic swearing will get on my nerves, but I'm not a prude about it.

A tight narrative flow is fairly important -- nothing will throw me out of a story faster than a character's surprise!teleportation from a hallway to a car, or action (say a fight scene, or something) that is simply physically impossible as written. It won't ruin a story, but I'll have to stop and puzzle out how it would have actually gone down, and that'll slow things up. My brain just catches on those things.

I like stories that highlight the relationships between characters, how they depend on and care for each other. I'm not talking sappy soliloquies about how much they can't live without each other. I just like it made obvious through the action of the story.

That said, I tend to prefer gen stories -- my favorite relationships are partner, team, family. I do, however read and enjoy slash, and occasionally het, as well. It's just that sex is not that important to me in a story. I prefer plot/character driven, actiony fic. And anyway, suggestion has always been sexier to me than explicitly spelled out smut. Not that I won't read smut.   Or write it.  *cough*  So take this paragraph with a grain of salt.

There are only a very few things that I really DON'T like to read in a fic, and avoid whenever I can:

Long Drawn Out Torture in Painful Detail -- here, less is much much more. Suggestion is powerful, and doesn't leave me feeling dirty.

Seriously Kinky Sex -- my tastes are pretty vanilla, compared to some of the things you'd find on the kink memes. Some light bondage seems to be about my limit.

Vilifying Characters -- character bashing just annoys me.

Removing a Character's Spine -- turning someone who, canonically, would pick themselves up and brush themselves off, or at least shove their fears and disappointments and hurts into the back of their mind until they have time to deal with them, into someone who mopes around and needs constant reassurance, is very much like character bashing, in my opinion.

And that's about it, really. I'm pretty easy to please.

The fandoms:


( ReBoot )


( Rex Stout -- Nero Wolfe series )</div></div>


( The Book of Atrix Wolfe )



( Natsume Yuujinchou )



In conclusion:  Please have fun writing whatever you choose to write!  I hope this letter might give you some ideas -- or maybe you'll have completely different ones!  Which, I'm sure, will be totally awesome and fun to write.  'Cause that's important, having fun.  Reading a story that you, the author, obviously loved writing will make the whole experience kind of special. 

Thank you!

I'm busy these days -- I'm beta-ing a rather long and interesting Merlin fic, I'm writing a fic for a friend, I'm planning out my Yuletide fic and my Sheppard H/C secret exchange fic . . . all fun and nifty things!

But what I find myself doing tonight, instead, is uploading all my old fics to the Archive of Our Own (thanks deltacephei for the invite!). I ADORE archives and other cool organizational things, so I find this weirdly relaxing. And you can't be productive all of the time, right? Right. *whistles innocently*

But in posting them all (I say "all" like it's some massive task, but really, there's only eight of them. Prolific, I am not. :P) I find myself remembering an old meme (no doubt inaccurately), and deciding to waste further time.

So, here are the first lines of all of my fic, and the last lines too, just for the heck of it. How repetitive am I, really? *looks at new!fic plot sketches worriedly*


First Lines:


When the winds blow and the rains come, and the old oak's roots pull free from the ground, that's fate.
After the wedding (once the doves were back in their cages, all the white feathers raked up off the lawn), Dieter drove the couple to the airport.
We came through the roaring burn of the upper atmosphere into a thunderous mass of clouds.
It wasn't quite dawn yet.
In Athos, the Celebration of a Thousand Suns was winding down.
The old man in the forest twisted the faded silk scarf between his hands, first one way, and then the other.
The only light shining on the auxiliary bridge came from the cold distant sparks of stars.
The stones of the castle walls caught the last fall of light, and glowed with it, warm against the cooling dusk.

Last Lines:

I hope the rain washed it out to sea.
I'll make it fly."
He refused (what other option did he have?) to admit, even in dreams, even in nightmares, that he kept expecting Peter to return his serve.
Not ever.
And Arthur smiled, and held on, as light washed over the window.
Then he swore, voice rough, and bit Merlin's shoulder, hard.
They'd made it.
They would not be less again.


Hmmm. Looks like maybe I could stand to mix things up a bit -- some shorter, punchier lines at the beginning? Some longer, more graceful sentences to end? Hmmmm. *frets*

Hooray! You totally deserve the Cy Young award -- you're a much needed bright spot on the Kansas City sports scene.

That, after the Chiefs won on Sunday (finally), just pleases me immensely. ^__^

I think I'm gonna love my assignment -- it'll be a challenge, but -- *flails*

If you missed it, over at yuletide , the post for the linking of the Yuletide letters is now up.  Geez, that's an awkward sentence construction . . .

\o/  Signups are open, from now until the 12th. 

I think I'm going to finish my Dear Yulegoat letter first, though, so I can put the link with the request. 

Happy birthday xparrot! May your day be shiny.

And friendshipper wins with four correct answers for the meme!  I'll write you a short story in any fandom you'd like (provided, of course, I have some familiarity with it *g*)  Thanks for playing along.




( The Answers )

Yuletide signups are just around the corner -- and now, NOW, I'm waffling over my fourth request.  Grrrr.  It's making my Dear Writer letter very hard to finish . . .

I'm going to leave the book meme open for answers until late Monday night (er . . . by my habits, that would be around 2 or 3 am, Tuesday morning, Central Standard Time.).  Again, whoever guesses the most books can ask me for a short story in the fandom of their choice, with the prompt of their choice.  So far, friendshipper 's in the lead!

Since my flist is on the small side, meaning a limited number of participants, I'll give you a clue if you ask for one!

I've seen this, or memes similar to this, floating around, and thought, 'Why not?'

So, here are the first lines of twenty books.   And just to makes things fun, I'll gift a short story in the fandom of the recipient's choice (provided I know it) to whoever gets the most right.  Just to warn you, my tastes run heavily towards science fiction and fantasy, but there are a few exceptions in this list.  And yes, the first lines of prologues and prefaces count.
 

( The List )


Have at it!

So I've been looking over the nominated fandoms for this year's Yuletide -- Picking four (mostly my nominations) that I really want fic for, and four alternates, just in case those fandoms get eliminated for some reason, or if I just change my mind.  I'm going to write a really detailed Yulegoat letter this year -- last year, I was lucky enough to get two stories -- but both of them were for the Dresden Files (which, while fun, isn't really that rare, yeah?)  I think it was because I gave the most detailed prompt for that fandom, and left the others more or less open.  Not that I want to get too specific, but I think a little more detail about what I like about the fandoms and the characters might be helpful. 

That, and I'm picking fandoms that are quite a bit more obscure this year, and I want to give my writer the best chance to know what the fandoms are!

So!  *claps hands*

I think I'm going link hunting!  These are the fandoms I'm going to request, so far.  They may change.

ReBoot
Rex Stout -- Nero Wolfe series
Ookiku Furikabutte (manga more than anime, I think)
Patrica A McKillip -- the Book of Atrix Wolfe

with these as alternates:

H2 (manga)
Natsume Yuujinchou (manga or anime)
C J Cherryh -- Morgaine Universe
Cross Game (manga)

If anybody knows of any good links to help me talk about these fandoms and the characters in them, drop me a line!

Finally.  Hali, I love you.  Succup, you're a star! Let's make this the start of a streak, ok guys?

Oh, Psych. I love you so, even when you're sort of ridiculous. And when you're really not so ridiculous? ♥

( small spoiler )

No more Psych till January.  This makes me sad.

Yuletide Nominations are now open!  Now I have to start narrowing down all those wistful fic-wishes I've made note of during the past year or so . . .

And possibly make some of my own Yuletide icons?  Although the ones already made are quite lovely . . .

I HATE getting involved in politics, in debates, in arguments where neither side is budging, and neither side is listening, and half the people involved (the louder, more obvious people) are drowning out any semblance of logic or rationality. I have my opinions, and I'll stand by them, but when my speaking up or not speaking up has no perceptible bearing on the outcome, I'm much more inclined to hold my peace.

That said, I agree with this.





And also, I think I could have a bit of a crush on this guy. Maybe.

Well. At least we took it into overtime. That's something, anyway. *sigh*

Come on boys! Don't fall apart in the fourth. If you let the Cowboys beat you, I will never hear the end of it. You have ten minutes -- hold 'em off!!

Yuletide nominations start next week!  I'm so excited -- this is such a fun thing.   

There's a new Terry Pratchett book out? Why didn't I know about this? I walked into the bookstore for myshift and there it was! Which means, of course, that I've put aside my copy and will buy it before I go home. Obviously, this is a very important thing to do! : )