Trick or Treat meta
Nov. 12th, 2015 11:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
meteordustNotes on Owl Be There For You (Owls (Anthropomorphic))
Those who know me in real life know I like owls. I mean, really, really like them. So when I saw that anthropomorphic owls had been nominated as a fandom for this exchange, I just had to offer it. And I matched!
My recipient preferred a treat - ie a happy fic - for this fandom, and I was only too pleased to write about cute owls being cute.
I started thinking about the popular image of the wise owl, and wondered what if there was an unwise owl? What would that look like? Maybe an unwise owl would simply be a curious owl, interested in uncovering mysteries even if it was dangerous. I wanted Snowy Owl to be the mystery, since she was ghostlike and strange, so the mystery solver ended up being Barn Owl, my other favourite owl, because I love how their faces are shaped like hearts.
The one thing I was sure of: the title had to be an owl pun. Because otherwise, what's the point?
Notes on The House in the Woods (The Town Musicians of Bremen (Fairy Tale))
My recipient requested a number of fairy tale fandoms, and this was one of them. It was a great opportunity to pull out the fairy tale books I grew up with: a two volume Reader's Digest anthology of The World's Best Fairy Tales, which I still treasure. (Their version of "The Musicians of Bremen" has a dramatic illustration of the four animals bursting in on the terrified robbers.)
My recipient had some terrific prompts, including "the four animals are actually mythical and/or legendary creatures, and dangerous ones at that". Cats of legend immediately make me think of Bast, the Ancient Egyptian goddess. Surprisingly, the other animals also mapped out onto gods: for the dog, jackal-headed Anubis; for the rooster, falcon-headed Horus; and for the donkey, Set, who had the head of what is called the Set animal, which according to Wikipedia "does not resemble any known creature, although it could be seen as a composite of an aardvark, a donkey, a jackal, or a fennec fox".
It was fun to put an ominous spin on a cheerful story, and also to write in the conversational style of the old fairy tales.
Those who know me in real life know I like owls. I mean, really, really like them. So when I saw that anthropomorphic owls had been nominated as a fandom for this exchange, I just had to offer it. And I matched!
My recipient preferred a treat - ie a happy fic - for this fandom, and I was only too pleased to write about cute owls being cute.
I started thinking about the popular image of the wise owl, and wondered what if there was an unwise owl? What would that look like? Maybe an unwise owl would simply be a curious owl, interested in uncovering mysteries even if it was dangerous. I wanted Snowy Owl to be the mystery, since she was ghostlike and strange, so the mystery solver ended up being Barn Owl, my other favourite owl, because I love how their faces are shaped like hearts.
The one thing I was sure of: the title had to be an owl pun. Because otherwise, what's the point?
Notes on The House in the Woods (The Town Musicians of Bremen (Fairy Tale))
My recipient requested a number of fairy tale fandoms, and this was one of them. It was a great opportunity to pull out the fairy tale books I grew up with: a two volume Reader's Digest anthology of The World's Best Fairy Tales, which I still treasure. (Their version of "The Musicians of Bremen" has a dramatic illustration of the four animals bursting in on the terrified robbers.)
My recipient had some terrific prompts, including "the four animals are actually mythical and/or legendary creatures, and dangerous ones at that". Cats of legend immediately make me think of Bast, the Ancient Egyptian goddess. Surprisingly, the other animals also mapped out onto gods: for the dog, jackal-headed Anubis; for the rooster, falcon-headed Horus; and for the donkey, Set, who had the head of what is called the Set animal, which according to Wikipedia "does not resemble any known creature, although it could be seen as a composite of an aardvark, a donkey, a jackal, or a fennec fox".
It was fun to put an ominous spin on a cheerful story, and also to write in the conversational style of the old fairy tales.
