Amanuensis's Journal

Sooo...these are my current Yuletide noms:

Black Jewels Books - Anne Bishop
-Kermilla

(There's Black Jewels fic out there, but I really want some fanfiction takes on Kermilla's unresolved fate. Y' think she ever got a clue?)

Sorcerer's Lair (Video Game, part of Zen Pinball)
-Jake
-Jake's sister
-Whisper
-The Sorcerer

(This! Oh, I want someone to write an actual story for this pinball table.)

General Winston's Daughter - Sharon Shinn
-Lady Averie Winston
-Ket Du'kai
-Jalessa

(Just finished another reread of this book. A lot of room for sidestories and continuation on this one, I think.)

Eleanor Rigby (Song)
-Eleanor Rigby
-Father Mackenzie

(I dunno, I've just always had an urge for a creative take on this song's backstory, and it doesn't look like I'm going to end up writing it myself, so.)

Yuletide reveals!

I discovered who created my Yuletide gifts! fyrie wrote my Mulan-Aladdin crossover, twistedchick wrote my 1776 Adams/Franklin, and _hannelore wrote my Rapunzel/Little Mermaid! You guys are wonderful. Thank you all again for a fabulous Yuletide!


So imma gonna reveal my own Yuletide fic and meta on it for a minute.

Title: Deuxième Appendice (Second Appendix)
Fandom: Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Dangerous Liaisons) by Choderlos de Laclos
Pairing: The Vicomte de Valmont/The Chevalier Danceny (with background canon pairings)
Summary: An additional collection of letters reveals that the conquests of the Vicomte de Valmont were not confined to the ladies of the controversy.
Words: ~7,000


I wrote for Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Dangerous Liaisons) by de Laclos, which you probably know has been done in multiple movie versions (and put John Malkovich on the hot badboys actor map). But if you've read the original material, you'll know the book is epistolary. The recipient, v_v_lala, was asking for Valmont/Danceny slash, which made me think the obvious response was to write all the letters that revealed that particular relationship. And the entire thing was written in my head at that moment, really; it was just a matter of getting it down on paper. Which is what all the cackling was about.

I knew that the story was going to appeal to a limited audience because that sort of lofty, 18th-century-fake-letter-writing-style-in-translation would not be everybody's cup of tea, but the opportunity to imitate that style was like a dam bursting. Not just delight but relief. The sick thing is, I nearly write like this every day, in work emails. No, really. I have to rein myself in when I begin to type, "What is wanted by the parties requesting these concessions is our receptive ear," and then I sob and backspace the whole thing and instead type, "The people who say they want these things really just want to know we're listening to them." Which, yeah, may be better writing but it makes me sad that the English language is as rich as it is and I don't get to play with it in the way it deserves.

So, anyway, I got to play with it for this story. You'll either like that sort of thing or not. If you do happen to like the style in the book of Les Liaisons Dangereuses, check out my fic.

I got two full-length fics for my requests this Yuletide!

I got Disney Princess crossover fic, A Sense of Freedom, ~10K words, featuring two of my favorite Disney heroines (and their hunky, humorous guys), and the characterization and the plot and the way this story brings together two canons so seamlessly are so darn wonderful that it matters not at all that it isn't femmeslash; it wouldn't have worked for this story and I wouldn't have this story be any different from what it is, it's that delightful.

And I got 1776 fic, A Passion For Polite Intercourse, ~4K words, featuring John Adams/Benjamin Franklin in a scene one unmistakable step beyond innuendo, yet so wonderfully steeped in euphemism I sputtered myself silly. (It's the only AO3 story with a tag for "roast duck," too.) You will hear DaSilva and Daniels's voices when you read this, I swear.

I'm so happy to have been the instigator for these! I know the story I wrote for Yuletide is going to appeal to a narrow audience because of the style, but the comments I have got on it have been lovely. Will share after the reveal, of course!

I had wanted to provide some Yuletide Madness gifts but was stymied by the layout of the requests. The amount of work that elynross and astolat et al put into Yuletide is staggering, so it seems unfair of me to want to burden them further, but I hope that next year the archive is designed so that when Madness comes around, the requests will be organized by fandom. (In all other respects I find myself loving AO3 more and more. I didn't know you could download the stories in mobi format! How fab is that?)

So, like, when you guys got your Yuletide assignment, did you scroll down through the email, looking at the first request, thinking, "No. That's not the match. I didn't offer that. Did I? I WAS IN A STATE OF MADNESS WHEN I SUBMITTED MY OFFERS; MAYBE I DID. No, calm down. Keep looking." And did that happen for each of the requests, cruelly and slowly (like a fairy tale narrative where all the older siblings go out first on the quest but they all blow it until the youngest kid goes off and tries) until you got to the very last one in the list, and you said OH MY GOD WHAT and then saw the details and then said "...Oh. OH. Yeah, I can do that. Yeah. Oh, YEAH. MWAH HA HA HA HA HA."

...or was that just me?

Played about with Yuletide Nominations, and, as usual, was confused by the rules new to this year. Found a fandom I'd nominated was rejected, and because it was apparently requested by someone before me (and they were rejected), I can't edit it and choose something else. *throws up hands* I think I shall just sit over here and yell at all the whippersnappers to get off my lawn.

Various flist posts say Yuletide signups opened today; I swear, every year, I can never ever find the dratted sign-up page. Am never linked to anything official on my flist from Yuletide itself to make this announcement or point me in the right direction. Help?

One official Yuletide story already in, and today two Yuletide Madness drabble-ficlets completed and uploaded. Think I'll call it a night!

(This was much more fun than wrapping presents.)

Ooh, I like my assignment for Yuletide lots. I thought I might get this one last year; it's something I've loved for a long time and am thrilled to have the motivation to write for it.

Regarding my own request,

Dear Yuletide Santa/Kringle/Hanukkah Fairy/etc.:

Everything I had to say about the specific fandoms, I think I covered in my request. If you'd like to hear more details about my fic likes in general:

Yes, I love slash. I discovered I liked m/m slash at the same time I dove headfirst into fanfiction; it was not a coincidence. Three of these four fandoms that I chose for Yuletide, I chose because I cherish the slashy possibilities of the two main characters. Having said that, I also like friendship fic, pre-slash hints, femslash, humor, crack (I adore well-done crack), Alternate Realities... I love NC-17 smut, but I won't be sad if the fic chooses not to go there, not if it doesn't feel right to you.

Please don't feel you have to write an epic. Short fic is often the most rewarding. I eat up even drabbles. Write me 5 200-word drabbles to make the word count minimum; I'll still go ape.

Thank you so much!

Made my Yuletide list. I asked for 4 fandoms already on the list:

BlackJack
Ginn Hale - Wicked Gentlemen
Kuroshitsuji
Sunshine (2007)

And I added two that weren't:

Arturo Perez-Reverte - Captain Alatriste series
Michael Manning - Androgyne series (The Spider Garden/Hydrophidian/In a Metal Web)

I was surprised those hadn't been on there! For those who are curious about the latter, it's graphic novel erotica, and as intricately visual as it is, it's got a fascinating plot that was cliffhangered in the last volume, so it screams for fanfic. Check out the author's lj at metalweb. Note: Manning's stuff is very NSFW and he doesn't hide his art behind cut-tags, bless him.

Well, poo. Told you I didn't understand this Yuletide biz. I've been waiting to see announcements regarding pinch hits, because I thought that would be fun, and since I didn't see any, assumed they'd come out after the deadline, right? 'Cos they're for those who are good with quick turnaround times, right? Turns out there's a Yahoo!Group you join to watch for them and I've been missing them since the beginning of November. Again, poo.