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A belated Yuletide post
Jan. 24th, 2022 09:00 pmBut I definitely need to post, because the prize for going above and beyond the call of duty goes to LookingForOctober. I knew before the authors were revealed that someone had written me a Howl's Moving Castle fic, "A Wizard of Wales," followed by a sequel fic, "A Wizard in Ingary" -- but not until reveals did I discover that the same person had also written me a THIRD story, this one for the Gabriel Knight series of video games: "Fate of the Children." Three fics from one writer! And as if that weren't bonanza enough, someone else wrote me a Howl fic, "In Which a Thesis Is Not Written."
It makes me feel embarrassed that I didn't have the time or energy to write treats the way I used to, in the misty past when I had more leisure. My assignment this year was "Gammer's Garden," a Chrestomanci fic for a prompt that made use of the decision to allow "Worldbuilding" as a character-style tag this year. No canon characters appear in the story, but it explores the history of the Pinhoe family and their dwimmer magic, with a connection to a detail of canon I've always found interesting.
Hopefully next Yuletide I'll be able to pay it all forward!
(originally posted at Swan Tower: https://is.gd/IyVaQ9)
More like a joke on myself?
Apr. 1st, 2020 12:52 amThe other day I commented on Twitter that I’d written 6000 words that day: 2500 words of what I needed to be working on (Night Parade), and 3500 of surprise!fanfic for one of my own damn novels.
And I do mean fanfic, in the sense that the story I produced isn’t trying to do the things an independent short story would do. It will mean very little if you haven’t read the novel (and contain egregious spoilers to boot), and the conflict it’s resolving — at least in part — starts well outside the bounds of the story itself. So it’s not the kind of thing I could ever attempt to sell.
Ergo, the natural thing to do is post it online as a freebie.
And if I’m going to do that, I might as well post it on April Fool’s Day. Not because it’s some kind of bait-and-switch on you guys, but because what better day to share Oops, Accidental Fanfic?
So in congratulations for surviving March, and to provide a bit of entertainment as we go into April, I give you “The Long Fall,” a post-canon fic for Turning Darkness Into Light. WARNING: CONTAINS MAJOR SPOILERS.
(Also, side question for people who know fannish etiquette better than I do: would it be weird for me to post this to AO3? I haven’t made any secret of the connection between my pseud there and my professional identity, and I don’t know whether having me show up in my own fandom would feel out of place. It might be one thing if there were a hundred fics for the Memoirs, but as of now, there’s a whopping eighteen.)
belated Yuletide post
Jan. 14th, 2020 09:31 amI never did post about Yuletide, did I? I blame the chaos that was the last several months of 2019 — I’m still picking myself off the floor.
I lucked into three (!) gifts this year. The first was “the three Chrestomancis,” the prompt for which was borne out of me realizing that Cat arrived at the castle before Gabriel passed away, meaning that for a while there were three nine-lived enchanters running around at once. (Not that any of them still had nine lives by that point, but it doesn’t affect their power.) Then I received “as wine pervades water,” which features exactly the kind of wedding I’d expect Rick O’Connell and Evy Carnahan (from the 1999 Mummy movie) to have, i.e. ad hoc and done at speed to save the world from a supernatural threat. I also got the Madness treat “When a Body Meets a Body,” and it amuses me how many Mummy fics I’ve seen involve bog bodies over the last few years; I credit Sovay and her comment that I quote in my Yuletide letter. 🙂
For my own part, I dove deep into the history of D&D for “Third-Party Supplements,” a fic for The Order of the Stick. My thanks to the various people who helped me research old editions, and especially whoever it was on Twitter (too difficult to dig back that far now) that linked me to the infamous Random Harlot Table. 😀 I legit rolled dice for this story, y’all.
“The Faces of Halloweentown”
Oct. 13th, 2018 01:13 pmBack in 2013 I wrote a small treat for the Yuletide fanfic exchange called “The Faces of Halloweentown,”, about the nature of the place Jack Skellington rules in The Nightmare Before Christmas. That movie always hovers on a knife-edge for me — do I want to watch it around Christmas? Or around Halloween? The story I wrote falls firmly on the latter side of that question, so I thought I might link to it now, in celebration of the season.
Mirrored from Swan Tower.
Yuletide 2017
Jan. 3rd, 2018 03:07 pmThis year I asked for and received a fic for the Mummy movie series (the ones with Rachel Weisz and Brendan Fraser, not the more recent thing with Tom Cruise). I got "Alicanto," by someone who chose to remain anonymous even after reveals, which introduces Evy and Rick to the idea of the Chinchorro mummies of South America.
My assignment was to write for the movie Clue. I produced "But here's what happened . . . later", set ten years later, with the various guests of Hill House receiving new letters inviting them to dinner -- and that's about all I can say without spoilers!
I also wrote three treats, as is my wont. "Found-hope" is a follow-up to the TV series of Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell; I think it also works for the novel, but it's been long enough since I read it that I can't swear to the continuity. "Eleven Echoes" is a look through the life of Tacroy from The Lives of Christopher Chant (with major spoilers for same). And "In Fair Verona, Where We Lay to Rest" is again a follow-up, this time for Romeo and Juliet, where the living are still haunted -- quite literally -- by the ghosts of those who died.
I've had relatively little time and brain to read the collection myself after the first day or two, so if you have things to recommend to my attention, please do link them here!
the eighth annual Yuletide Guessing Game
Dec. 26th, 2017 01:54 pm- I wrote for one book, one movie, one TV show, and one play.
- Only one of those is a fandom I have written in before.
- My assignment is in the 4000-5000 word range.
- For some inexplicable reason, all three of my treats came in between 1600 and 1700 words.
Any guesses?
Dear Yuletide Writer
Sep. 20th, 2017 12:30 am*
Welcome, Yulemouse/Yulegoat/Yulecritter of whatever sort! Thank you so much -- this is always a delight, and I'm eternally touched by the generosity of a story written for meeeee. :-)
The optional details below are optional; they are also, shall we say, a bit long. Please do not be put off by this. It's mostly me babbling about why I like the sources, and then offering a variety of tidbits that I hope will be useful to you. Basically, I'm just trying to feed the plotbunnies. (There are also more general notes about my tastes at the bottom.) (Also, way too many parenthetical asides.) Fandoms are in alphabetical order.
My username on AO3 is russian_blue, if you're the sort of Yuletider who trawls through previous gifts and/or fics for data before you start writing. :-)
***( Read more... )
As mentioned before, I'm russian_blue on AO3, so feel free to rummage around in the entrails of what I’ve got there if you need more data on what I like. And above all: have fun!
A belated Yuletide reveal
Jan. 4th, 2017 04:20 pmMy cast is off; I’m still in a brace, but that’s as much to remind myself not to be stupid as for actual support. I’ll be easing back into things over the next week or two.
In celebration of my much-improved ability to type, let’s talk about what I wrote for Yuletide!
My assignment was for Mercedes Lackey’s Tarma and Kethry books, the Vows and Honor corner of the Valdemar setting. I wrote “Self-Reliance,” which attempts to recreate the case-of-the-week feel of the original book (which is partly or entirely a fix-up of the short stories Lackey had published). Kethry’s magic has been cursed to malfunction, but emergencies don’t wait while you sort that kind of thing out; she and Tarma have to go in anyway.
I’ve done at least one pinch-hit every year, and managed to uphold that streak with a fic I’d already written as a treat. Apparently I wasn’t the only one motivated to treat, because there were not one, not two, but three fics for the prompt “what if the Devil in the song ‘The Devil Went Down to Georgia’ was Crowley from Good Omens?” My contribution to the field was “The Devil Sauntered Vaguely Down to Georgia” (referencing Crowley’s description in the dramatis personae as “an angel who did not so much fall as saunter vaguely downward”).
Then there were two treats that stayed treats. The first is for the basically non-existent fandom of The LXD, a short webseries by the Legion of Extraordinary Dancers where dancing is basically a superpower. Because the third season ended on a cliffhanger and there never was a fourth season, my recip asked for fic resolving the fact that two of the good guys had been brainwashed into serving the villain. The result was “Breathe. Stay calm. You’re gonna be OK.” — which was an interesting exercise for me, because while I have thirteen years of dance in my background, the closest I got to the street styles that dominate the LXD was a small amount of hip-hop influencing my jazz teacher. But I like trying to put dance into prose, so this was fun to write.
My last fic was a treat for someone who has treated me in the past. They asked for fic of Zero Punctuation, Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw’s series of breathless and colorful game reviews; I promptly thought of his distaste for quick time events, and thus was born “PRESS X TO NOT DIE,” which sends an amnesiac Yahtzee through the history of video gaming, starting with Colossal Cave Adventure and going on from there. I had a lot of fun researching this one, figuring out what game genres to represent, deciding which titles to use as iconic examples of same, and then watching YouTube gameplay videos so I’d know how to describe them.
As for my own gift, I got “A Day at the Cattery,” following Miss Climpson when the Cattery of Strong Poison has grown into a large and well-established enterprise.
Originally published at Swan Tower. You can comment here or there.
Dear Yuletide Writer
Sep. 20th, 2016 02:55 amThe optional details below are optional; they are also, shall we say, a bit long. Please do not be put off by this. It's mostly me babbling about why I like the sources, and then offering a variety of tidbits that I hope will be useful to you. Basically, I'm just trying to feed the plotbunnies. (There are also more general notes about my tastes at the bottom.) (Also, way too many parenthetical asides.)
My username on AO3 is russian_blue, if you're the sort of Yuletider who looks through previous gifts and/or fics for data before you start writing. :-)
( Read more... )
As mentioned before, I'm russian_blue on AO3, so feel free to rummage around in the entrails of what I’ve got there if you need more data on what I like. And above all: have fun!
Yuletide is a-comin’ in
Sep. 11th, 2016 11:21 amFor those who are interested, the annual Yuletide fanfiction exchange is starting up again! If you already know what it’s all about, the nominations post is here. If this is unfamiliar to you, the exchange rules are here, and the more detailed eligibility rules are here. Which may very well be confusing to a newbie, so feel free to ask me questions if there’s something you need clarification on.
Short form: Yuletide is very fun, covers a broad swath of things one would not normally term “fandoms” (ranging from historical periods to works of art to blog posts to commercials), and produces a number of really excellent stories every year. I’ve been doing it since 2010, and it’s sort of a busman’s holiday for me — a chance to tell stories and have it be pure play.
Originally published at Swan Tower. You can comment here or there.
Miss Fisher Gets a Clue
Mar. 22nd, 2016 11:18 pmA while ago on Twitter I said I want to read the fanfic where Miss Scarlet (of the Clue movie) is actually Phryne Fisher (of Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries), undercover.
Tonight this led to us casting the entire film with people from MFMM. Please disregard how many of these characters would therefore wind up murdering one another. :-P
WADSWORTH – Jack Robinson
MISS SCARLET – Phryne Fisher
MRS. PEACOCK – Prudence Stanley
MRS. WHITE – Rosie Sanderson, nee Robinson
PROFESSOR PLUM – Dr. Macmillan, cross-dressing
MR. GREEN – Hugh Collins
COLONEL MUSTARD – Baron Henry Fisher
MR. BODDY – Murdoch Foyle
THE COOK – Mr. Butler
YVETTE – Dorothy Williams
THE MOTORIST – Bert/Cec
THE COP – Neville Martin
SINGING TELEGRAM – Janey
THE CHIEF – Commissioner George Sanderson
Anybody want to write that for me? ^_^
Originally published at Swan Tower. You can comment here or there.
Yuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuletide
Jan. 2nd, 2016 11:16 amSometimes 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.
. . . and an awesome one. :-D
You see, during our tour we made a pact. I wasn’t going to hold her to it, because I know she’s a ridiculously busy woman — but when I came up with my idea for a Glamourist Histories fanfic, we agreed that if I wrote that one, Mary would write the Lady Trent fanfic idea she had come up with.
It should still work just fine even if you aren’t familiar with Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries. (Though if you aren’t: oh my god, you should go watch that show. It’s fabulous.) There’s also an AO3 version, if you have an account there and want to be able to do the whole bookmarking/reccing/etc thing — but you should still check out Mary’s post, which has an explanation for how the story came about. (As I recall my reaction, it looked a bit like this. Or that look Mako Mori gives Pentecost in Pacific Rim, when Raleigh says he wants Mako to have a shot at the co-pilot test and she looks like every Christmas for the rest of her life just got offered to her at once.)
I hope you all are half as entertained by the result as I was. :-D
Originally published at Swan Tower. You can comment here or there.
