Yuletide letter
Oct. 14th, 2013 11:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
meteordustDear Yuletide Writer,
Thank you so much for offering to write a story for me! I love all these fandoms, and I'm really keen to see what you do in them! I've provided some prompts in case you're looking for inspiration, but please don't feel constrained to follow them. I'd be happy to go with anything that captures your imagination.
For me, it's about the characters and their relationships. Feel free to bend canon details, as long as the personalities and dynamics ring true. These people have powerful feelings about each other, and that's what sparks my interest in them. I want to see the moments in between scenes, or the adventures that might have been.
Some of the things I enjoy in stories are: undying loyalty, personal bravery, big damn hero moments, special everyday moments, subtle tension, conversations loaded with unspoken meaning, tough people showing a soft side, and soft people showing a tough side. I also enjoy clichefic (amnesia! bodyswap! stranded!) and alternate universes (where something happened differently in canon). But if the story that grabs you isn't about any of these, that's perfectly fine, run with it!
I'm a slash fan, but I also enjoy het and gen. Any rating is fine. However, I'm much more interested in story than PWPs.
I'm an optimist at heart, and I'm not keen on anything that is brutally violent or depressingly bleak. However, I don't mind darkness as long as there is a glimmer of light.
I hope this helps. Have fun writing!
Yours sincerely,
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
meteordust
(Yuletide signup name Serenade)
***
Request 1
Fandom: Seafort Saga by David Feintuch
Characters: Nick Seafort, Alexi Tamarov
Details: Nick has intense relationships with pretty much everyone he meets, and Alexi is no exception. I'm fascinated by the period right after Alexi's accident in Prisoner's Hope: his subsequent amnesia and slow recovery, Nick's awkward attempts to help, Alexi's loss and alienation. Probably because I love amnesia and hurt/comfort, whether slashy or gen. I'm also curious about Alexi's experiences during the time of Midshipman's Hope, when his close colleague suddenly becomes the untouchable Captain. But whatever you can come up with that shows Nick and Alexi sharing a moment together will be appreciated - I love these characters and want to see more of them. I'd rather any story didn't focus on hazing and bullying, especially regarding Philip Tyre, although I'm fine with references to it. And I realise that the source material itself is pretty grim, but for Yuletide I'm hoping for something that's a bit more hopeful.
Resources: There are seven novels in this series. However, I would be perfectly happy with a story based only on the first book. As far as I know, they are all still in print and should be available in bookstores and libraries.
***
Request 2
Fandom: Falcon by Mark Smith and Jamie Thomson
Characters: Falcon, Agidy Yelov
Details: I've always been fascinated by Yelov and the complicated relationship Falcon has with him - once chief and subordinate, now renegade and enforcer. I'd love to see any story where they interact, whether they're working together, or hunting each other, or having a doomed torrid affair. I also like the interactions between Falcon and the other Special Agents, so I'd be interested in anything from dramatic joint missions to the office Christmas party. I'm not that fussed about continuity, given it's a gamebook series, and I like alternate universes too. I'm fine with gen, het, or slash, of any rating. (Incidentally, in my head, I think of Falcon as male, but gender ambiguity is also cool!)
Resources: There are six books in this series. However, I would be perfectly happy with a story based only on the first book. They are out of print, but they can be found secondhand on AbeBooks, eBay, and Amazon. Falcon at Demian's Gamebook Web Page contains brief information about the series. PDFs of the books used to be available for download at Home of the Underdogs, but not anymore, although copies of the archive seem to float around on filesharing sites. There is also a community playthrough of the entire series on the RPG.net forums, although I haven't read the whole thread.
***
Request 3
Fandom: Chronicles of Amber - Roger Zelazny
Characters: Morganthe
Details: The thing about Amber is that we get so many tantalising tidbits of history and legend that we never get to explore. Morganthe is one of these. All we know about her are half a dozen lines: her heritage, seduction, pregnancy, abandonment, childbirth, and suicide. A tragic figure in someone else's story. But I want to know her story, or at least one of them. Something that brings her to life as a person, that tells me a little bit more about her than I already know. For me, Yuletide is about hopeful stories, so I would rather not focus on her despair and death. I'm fine with ominous foreshadowing or bittersweet sorrow, just not crushing doom. Some ideas: What does it mean to be a Rebman, living in a mirror image city? What is her relationship like with her aunt Llewella? Does she know Vialle, also a lady of the court, and are they friends? What does she make of the reversed Pattern that lies in the palace? Has she ever visited Amber or anywhere else? Or maybe something different happens in a canon divergence AU. Feel free to go wild with exploring the world, bring in whatever other characters you like, or invent characters of your own.
Resources: The First Chronicles of Amber are five slim books that focus on Corwin, and the Second Chronicles of Amber are another five that focus on his son Merlin. Some fans only like the first series, but I like both. Morganthe is only mentioned in the first book of the first series. They are all in print and should be available in bookstores and libraries, but often as omnibus collections.
***
Request 4
Fandom: Treasure Island - Robert Louis Stevenson
Characters: Jim Hawkins, Long John Silver
Details: When I was a kid, Jim Hawkins was the best hero ever. He saved the day so many times, with a combination of luck, wits and courage: overhearing the plot in the apple barrel, recapturing the Hispaniola from Israel Hands, facing threat of death in the fort of the pirates, pulling off one daring escapade after another. I'd love to see something set after the book, and get to witness the person Jim grows into. What would his unique experiences inspire him to do? Is he exploring the world? Or running the inn? If he has settled down somewhere, is he using his skills to do cool stuff, or is he dreaming of adventure? And Silver, that smiling, smooth, charming nemesis. He was supposed to have settled down with his wife, living off his share of the treasure, but can he really keep out of trouble? I'd love to see Jim meet him on equal terms at last. (Also, slashy hijinks are welcome if Jim is an adult, but I'd prefer nothing explicit for this fandom.) Or if you have an idea set during the book, I'd love to see a missing scene that gives us more of the adventures and characters, or even a peaceful moment of conversation.
Resources: Treasure Island is available free online at Project Gutenberg. It is also in print and should be available in bookstores and libraries.
***
Thank you so much for offering to write a story for me! I love all these fandoms, and I'm really keen to see what you do in them! I've provided some prompts in case you're looking for inspiration, but please don't feel constrained to follow them. I'd be happy to go with anything that captures your imagination.
For me, it's about the characters and their relationships. Feel free to bend canon details, as long as the personalities and dynamics ring true. These people have powerful feelings about each other, and that's what sparks my interest in them. I want to see the moments in between scenes, or the adventures that might have been.
Some of the things I enjoy in stories are: undying loyalty, personal bravery, big damn hero moments, special everyday moments, subtle tension, conversations loaded with unspoken meaning, tough people showing a soft side, and soft people showing a tough side. I also enjoy clichefic (amnesia! bodyswap! stranded!) and alternate universes (where something happened differently in canon). But if the story that grabs you isn't about any of these, that's perfectly fine, run with it!
I'm a slash fan, but I also enjoy het and gen. Any rating is fine. However, I'm much more interested in story than PWPs.
I'm an optimist at heart, and I'm not keen on anything that is brutally violent or depressingly bleak. However, I don't mind darkness as long as there is a glimmer of light.
I hope this helps. Have fun writing!
Yours sincerely,
meteordust(Yuletide signup name Serenade)
***
Request 1
Fandom: Seafort Saga by David Feintuch
Characters: Nick Seafort, Alexi Tamarov
Details: Nick has intense relationships with pretty much everyone he meets, and Alexi is no exception. I'm fascinated by the period right after Alexi's accident in Prisoner's Hope: his subsequent amnesia and slow recovery, Nick's awkward attempts to help, Alexi's loss and alienation. Probably because I love amnesia and hurt/comfort, whether slashy or gen. I'm also curious about Alexi's experiences during the time of Midshipman's Hope, when his close colleague suddenly becomes the untouchable Captain. But whatever you can come up with that shows Nick and Alexi sharing a moment together will be appreciated - I love these characters and want to see more of them. I'd rather any story didn't focus on hazing and bullying, especially regarding Philip Tyre, although I'm fine with references to it. And I realise that the source material itself is pretty grim, but for Yuletide I'm hoping for something that's a bit more hopeful.
Resources: There are seven novels in this series. However, I would be perfectly happy with a story based only on the first book. As far as I know, they are all still in print and should be available in bookstores and libraries.
***
Request 2
Fandom: Falcon by Mark Smith and Jamie Thomson
Characters: Falcon, Agidy Yelov
Details: I've always been fascinated by Yelov and the complicated relationship Falcon has with him - once chief and subordinate, now renegade and enforcer. I'd love to see any story where they interact, whether they're working together, or hunting each other, or having a doomed torrid affair. I also like the interactions between Falcon and the other Special Agents, so I'd be interested in anything from dramatic joint missions to the office Christmas party. I'm not that fussed about continuity, given it's a gamebook series, and I like alternate universes too. I'm fine with gen, het, or slash, of any rating. (Incidentally, in my head, I think of Falcon as male, but gender ambiguity is also cool!)
Resources: There are six books in this series. However, I would be perfectly happy with a story based only on the first book. They are out of print, but they can be found secondhand on AbeBooks, eBay, and Amazon. Falcon at Demian's Gamebook Web Page contains brief information about the series. PDFs of the books used to be available for download at Home of the Underdogs, but not anymore, although copies of the archive seem to float around on filesharing sites. There is also a community playthrough of the entire series on the RPG.net forums, although I haven't read the whole thread.
***
Request 3
Fandom: Chronicles of Amber - Roger Zelazny
Characters: Morganthe
Details: The thing about Amber is that we get so many tantalising tidbits of history and legend that we never get to explore. Morganthe is one of these. All we know about her are half a dozen lines: her heritage, seduction, pregnancy, abandonment, childbirth, and suicide. A tragic figure in someone else's story. But I want to know her story, or at least one of them. Something that brings her to life as a person, that tells me a little bit more about her than I already know. For me, Yuletide is about hopeful stories, so I would rather not focus on her despair and death. I'm fine with ominous foreshadowing or bittersweet sorrow, just not crushing doom. Some ideas: What does it mean to be a Rebman, living in a mirror image city? What is her relationship like with her aunt Llewella? Does she know Vialle, also a lady of the court, and are they friends? What does she make of the reversed Pattern that lies in the palace? Has she ever visited Amber or anywhere else? Or maybe something different happens in a canon divergence AU. Feel free to go wild with exploring the world, bring in whatever other characters you like, or invent characters of your own.
Resources: The First Chronicles of Amber are five slim books that focus on Corwin, and the Second Chronicles of Amber are another five that focus on his son Merlin. Some fans only like the first series, but I like both. Morganthe is only mentioned in the first book of the first series. They are all in print and should be available in bookstores and libraries, but often as omnibus collections.
***
Request 4
Fandom: Treasure Island - Robert Louis Stevenson
Characters: Jim Hawkins, Long John Silver
Details: When I was a kid, Jim Hawkins was the best hero ever. He saved the day so many times, with a combination of luck, wits and courage: overhearing the plot in the apple barrel, recapturing the Hispaniola from Israel Hands, facing threat of death in the fort of the pirates, pulling off one daring escapade after another. I'd love to see something set after the book, and get to witness the person Jim grows into. What would his unique experiences inspire him to do? Is he exploring the world? Or running the inn? If he has settled down somewhere, is he using his skills to do cool stuff, or is he dreaming of adventure? And Silver, that smiling, smooth, charming nemesis. He was supposed to have settled down with his wife, living off his share of the treasure, but can he really keep out of trouble? I'd love to see Jim meet him on equal terms at last. (Also, slashy hijinks are welcome if Jim is an adult, but I'd prefer nothing explicit for this fandom.) Or if you have an idea set during the book, I'd love to see a missing scene that gives us more of the adventures and characters, or even a peaceful moment of conversation.
Resources: Treasure Island is available free online at Project Gutenberg. It is also in print and should be available in bookstores and libraries.
***
