Yuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuletide

[swan_tower]

Sometimes you just hit the jackpot.

I got two fics for Yuletide this year, and both of them are brilliant in different ways. The first is “a stuttered ancient alphabet in skin,” which is an Elfquest story exploring the early days after the fall of the High Ones, when the creation of the Wolfriders causes some of the pure-blooded elves to depart and seek their own way. It’s absolutely gorgeous in its exploration of the different philosophies, and the horror some of the the High Ones feel at living in a world where mortality and death are not just distant possibilities, but near-guarantees. The second fic is “The Winter Wind,” and it is nothing less than an epic retelling of Captain America: The Winter Soldier in the setting of the Sengoku Avengers fan-art set by Genesischant, which reimagines the characters as mystical samurai in early seventeenth century Japan. Watching the writer fit the various characters and beats into that setting is just fantastic.

As for my own fics, I managed to uphold tradition and write four, three of them full-length: “The Book of the Duchess, or, In the Dungeons of Her Grace” (A Knight’s Tale; Chaucer tries to tell a story, but keeps being interrupted), “A Prayer to Mother Night” (Legend; Lily’s actions in the aftermath of Darkness’ downfall), “Hush” (Ghostbusters; the origins of the library ghost), and then a little ficlet entitled A Scientific Proposal” (The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage; Babbage has a notion for how to improve their crime-fighting efforts).

It was a good way to close out 2016. And, unlike the fifth of the Memoirs, it’s stuff I can talk about and show to you now — but trust me when I say the latter is going well. :-)

Onward into 2016!

Originally published at Swan Tower. You can comment here or there.

Comments

[sovay]

"a stuttered ancient alphabet in skin," which is an Elfquest story exploring the early days after the fall of the High Ones, when the creation of the Wolfriders causes some of the pure-blooded elves to depart and seek their own way.

Oh, that's really nice. Elfquest was formative for me in early high school, though I stopped after Hidden Years. I've never read any fic for it. Thank you for the link.

[edit] and then a little ficlet entitled "A Scientific Proposal"

That's great.

Happy New Year!

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

Happy New Year to you as well!

I've gotten three Elfquest fics over the years, and all three have been excellent in their various ways. There's a reason I keep asking for it every Yuletide.

I am strongly contemplating a blog series this year, going through the graphic novel volumes one per month, posting about Elfquest and the various things it does so well.

[sovay]

I am strongly contemplating a blog series this year, going through the graphic novel volumes one per month, posting about Elfquest and the various things it does so well.

I would enjoy that. I actually read the first four volumes around the age of five when my family was visiting my brother's godparents in Colorado and I got poison ivy; I was promptly covered in calamine lotion, dropped on a cot, and handed a stack of Elfquest to read. So it went into my brain very early and in ways I'm sure I'm still sorting out, but I can remember imprinting on it in early high school. Kahvi forever.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

I imprinted in junior high. Some day I may succeed in reworking the story that began as Elfquest fanfic, and then publish it.

[sovay]

Some day I may succeed in reworking the story that began as Elfquest fanfic, and then publish it.

That sounds like a worthy goal.

Either that, or rework it as fic and give it to someone else at Yuletide, who will probably appreciate it.

[edit] Unrelated except via Yuletide, I've just realized that you wrote a fic I enjoyed very much two years ago, "Historical Curiosity." "Ji-hoon Thorsteinsson" is an excellent name for a Sempitern.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

Either that, or rework it as fic and give it to someone else at Yuletide, who will probably appreciate it.

Well, there are two obstacles to that.

1) I'm generally the only person asking for worldbuilding fic about made-up tribes, which is what my stuff is about.

2) When I say "the story," what I really mean is a mass of half-finished stories that I had delusions of turning into one or more novels. Reworking it as anything is a substantial undertaking.

Unrelated except via Yuletide, I've just realized that you wrote a fic I enjoyed very much two years ago, "Historical Curiosity." "Ji-hoon Thorsteinsson" is an excellent name for a Sempitern.

Just between you and me, his name is one of my favorite details from that fic. :-)

[sovay]

1) I'm generally the only person asking for worldbuilding fic about made-up tribes, which is what my stuff is about.

Eh. That's the sort of thing I'd do with secondary worlds. I mean, when I was reading the Dragonriders of Pern, I made up my own Weyr. (Didn't everybody?) I'd read it.

2) When I say "the story," what I really mean is a mass of half-finished stories that I had delusions of turning into one or more novels. Reworking it as anything is a substantial undertaking.

That's a reasonable objection. Best of luck with turning it into something you can share, all the same.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

Eh. That's the sort of thing I'd do with secondary worlds. I mean, when I was reading the Dragonriders of Pern, I made up my own Weyr. (Didn't everybody?) I'd read it.

Oh, I agree with you -- but for Yuletide purposes, I can only do something like that if the recip asks for it. Otherwise I have to write something about the characters they requested. (And while in theory I could write about those characters meeting my own made-up tribe, that would not really be good form.)

[sovay]

very early and in ways I'm sure I'm still sorting out

For example, I realized just now that I constellate something about the shape-changing of the High Ones with the shape-changing of the Earth-Masters in Patricia McKillip's Riddle-Master. Timmain's wolf-child; Suth who had a son among the vesta. The crow-shape in the line of the kings of An. The way some of the characters are immortal and some are not. "What makes you so certain that the High One has shaped himself to everything but the shape and language of men?" Some of the same sense of the far future that is also the deep past. All of this is in my head, not in any relation between the two texts, but I had similar constellations springing up around harping just from reading The Riddle-Master of Hed and the Prydain Chronicles and Susan Cooper's The Grey King around the same time. (I hope to God someone has studied the way that Wales figured in children's fantasy of the 1960's and '70's, because in retrospect it's fascinating.)

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

I should re-read the McKillip. It's been . . . jeez. Twenty years?

[sovay]

I should re-read the McKillip. It's been . . . jeez. Twenty years?

I have found something new in those books every time I have re-read them. They shaped a great deal of the way I think about language, but also about time and nonhumanness. I think of McKillip as one of the great writers of the sea. [edit] The Riddle-Master trilogy is also one of the rare cases where I like all of the protagonists. I like most of the cast, honestly. I have favorites, but still. It's nice.

[gelsey.livejournal.com]

I really do need to do Yuletide at least once.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

If you need advice or encouragement, just let me know!

[gelsey.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much! This year I didn't have time to even consider it. (I wrote my first novel length fanfic ever, my first novel length anything ever, and yeah, my life was non existent outside of work :P)

I am doing Chocolate Box (http://archiveofourown.org/collections/chocolatebox2015/profile) though, which is a new thing. First time doing a multifandom anything. It might yield up some stuff you'd like to read! Sign ups end on the 7th.