Yuletide meta
Jan. 3rd, 2013 11:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
meteordustNotes on Her Brother's Keeper (Chronicles of Amber)
1979 people signed up for Yuletide this year. What are the odds of being matched to the same recipient as last year?
Not as long as you would think.
Anyway, I was surprised, and then flanicky. My recipient had been very enthusiastic about my story last year, and how the hell do I match those expectations? So there was a bit of performance pressure this time. Fortunately,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
amberite was generous and creative with her prompts, suggesting a range of ideas.
I went with the one focusing on Fiona: "She would take care of her brothers, always. There just came a point where the only good way to take care of Brand was to lock him up and stab him." Which was an interesting challenge, because how *do* you justify those actions as caring? I eventually worked out that she was protecting his wellbeing and his reputation, stepping in before he destroyed himself. (I don't know if I conveyed her "alien morality", because I'm now convinced that her reasons were perfectly justifiable...)
The story was influenced by my own experiences of siblinghood.
The title is based on the biblical quote "Am I my brother's keeper?" which was how Cain answered God when God asked him where Abel was, after Cain killed him. It was probably in my mind because of Jodi Picoult's novel My Sister's Keeper.
One of the best things about writing in the Amber universe: everyone is an unreliable narrator.
Notes on Salvation (Seafort Saga)
So I wrote a treat forkangeiko, her prompt being how "Tolliver is never really imperilled in canon, and therefore we don't see how Nicky would react to him being in danger." Nick tends to take Tolliver for granted, so it was fun to explore Nick worrying about him for once.
kangeiko had suggested "Tolliver dangling over a precipice or whatever", and I went with the literal interpretation. Nick refusing to let go was inspired by similar situations in Lois Bujold's Borders of Infinity and Komarr. Huddling together for warmth was inspired by every single hurt/comfort story out there.
What goes down, must come up. As soon as I remembered about gravitrons, I had my story. Because only Nick Seafort would blame himself for failing to defy the laws of gravity - and only Nick Seafort would somehow manage to defy the laws of gravity anyway.
The trickiest part was working out the logistics of how to get them into that situation.
The title was chosen to fit the theme of Nick saving Tolliver, but also for the religious connotations.
1979 people signed up for Yuletide this year. What are the odds of being matched to the same recipient as last year?
Not as long as you would think.
Anyway, I was surprised, and then flanicky. My recipient had been very enthusiastic about my story last year, and how the hell do I match those expectations? So there was a bit of performance pressure this time. Fortunately,
amberite was generous and creative with her prompts, suggesting a range of ideas. I went with the one focusing on Fiona: "She would take care of her brothers, always. There just came a point where the only good way to take care of Brand was to lock him up and stab him." Which was an interesting challenge, because how *do* you justify those actions as caring? I eventually worked out that she was protecting his wellbeing and his reputation, stepping in before he destroyed himself. (I don't know if I conveyed her "alien morality", because I'm now convinced that her reasons were perfectly justifiable...)
The story was influenced by my own experiences of siblinghood.
The title is based on the biblical quote "Am I my brother's keeper?" which was how Cain answered God when God asked him where Abel was, after Cain killed him. It was probably in my mind because of Jodi Picoult's novel My Sister's Keeper.
One of the best things about writing in the Amber universe: everyone is an unreliable narrator.
Notes on Salvation (Seafort Saga)
So I wrote a treat for
kangeiko, her prompt being how "Tolliver is never really imperilled in canon, and therefore we don't see how Nicky would react to him being in danger." Nick tends to take Tolliver for granted, so it was fun to explore Nick worrying about him for once.kangeiko had suggested "Tolliver dangling over a precipice or whatever", and I went with the literal interpretation. Nick refusing to let go was inspired by similar situations in Lois Bujold's Borders of Infinity and Komarr. Huddling together for warmth was inspired by every single hurt/comfort story out there.What goes down, must come up. As soon as I remembered about gravitrons, I had my story. Because only Nick Seafort would blame himself for failing to defy the laws of gravity - and only Nick Seafort would somehow manage to defy the laws of gravity anyway.
The trickiest part was working out the logistics of how to get them into that situation.
The title was chosen to fit the theme of Nick saving Tolliver, but also for the religious connotations.
