Yuletide Letter 2019
Oct. 25th, 2019 07:23 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dragonbat2006Dear Yuletide Writer:
First and foremost, thank you so much for doing this! I really appreciate your efforts and I'm looking forward to whatever you deliver.
A few basic guidelines:
I don't like stories that end on a down-note. Happy endings are great. Hopeful endings are, too. (I.E. Stuff along the lines of, "Yes, we've lost so much, and things are looking pretty grim right now, but we're [Insert name of family/group/team] and we never stay down! We'll never give up!" is perfectly okay.)
I'm not into graphic sex or violence. Mature themes are fine. Hints at what might go on behind closed doors are great. Think Hitchcock ("I'm not going to show you what's going on. I'm going to show you the guy watching in the window/listening in the next room reacting to what HE sees/hears and let your imagination fill in the blanks...") rather than Friday the Thirteenth.
That doesn't mean I necessarily want darkfic. I'm open to it, but I'm also open to fluff, angst, missing scenes, bromance, friendship, humor, adventure, divergence AUs, h/c... Really I'm pretty flexible. I just wanted to be clear on my few absolute DNWs.
The only other DNWs I can think of offhand are 1) implied sexual relations between adults and minors in a canon when such relations are neither canonical nor condoned, and where the age gap is significant (A 20-year-old with a 16/17-year old is fine. An 18-year with a 13-year-old is not). 2) Underage with an age gap of more than a year or two. Two experimenting 13-year-olds? I'm open to it. A 17-year-old and a 13-year-old? No thanks.
So much for the basics. The specifics are in my signup, but I'll reprint here:
The Blue Castle:
I adore this novel. I think I place it above all of L.M. Montgomery's other works. Valancy is such an amazing character, and she and Barney are wonderful together.
I'd like to see more of their married life, either pre- or post-last chapter reveals. Include other characters if you like. I'm more a fan of PDAs and kiss-and-fade-to-black than steamy scenes that wouldn't have been acceptable in the original novel. Humor, slice of life, telling off snooty relations (I think one of my favorite scenes in the novel is when Valancy refuses to be cowed and finally speaks her mind at the silver anniversary dinner), you name it. I'm open to babyfic/kidfic if that's your thing, too.
Emelan — Tamora Pierce
Either set before The Circle Opens or during/post-Will of the Empress, please. I don't mind if either their teachers or their students show up in supporting roles. Sandry is my favorite character, but I love them all. Other than that, I'm open to stories focusing on training, slice of life, angst, fluff, adventure... really anything but my DNW's would be fine. I'm a sucker for happy or hopeful endings. ("We failed this time, but we'll beat succeed next time; no way we're just going to give up!" is absolutely okay.)
Do not want: graphic violence or sex, romantic pairings between the foster sibs, deathfic. To be clear, I don't mind if you want to do a romantic story between one of the Circle members and someone outside the Circle. But not among themselves. And not Teacher/student either.
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn — Betty Smith
As long as it's Francie-centric, you can use any or all of the nominated characters, or characters you like that haven't been nominated. Bonus points if you can make the period come alive as Smith did in the original novel. Suggestions—and don't let them limit you: Missing scenes, Francie having a heart to heart with Neeley or trying to with Katie. Introducing Ben to the family. The Nolans (or Nolans and Ben, whether he and Francie end up marrying or just stay friends) dealing with either the Great Depression or WWII. Francie either deciding to marry or not marry Ben.
DNW: graphic sex or violence. Mature themes are fine, so long as they're handled the way they were in canon (i.e. matter-of-fact, unsensationalized presentation. Darker points hinted at but not in lurid detail.) I don't mind if you want to give Francie or Neeley kids, but please don't let them upstage the canon characters.
Daredevil (Comics)
I am ALL about the bromance. I don't ship these two romantically, but I firmly believe that either would die for the other. Please no non-canonical deathfic, though. If you want to set this at any point in canon when one believes that the other has died like say, Brubaker's "Devil in Cellblock D" run), that's fine. Foggy being there for Matt after Battlin' Jack Murdock's death, or Karen's, or Milah's placement? Excellent. Matt being there for Foggy during chemo? I'm so there. Either one in trouble and the other running to the rescue? Go for it.
I don't care if you give me angst, h/c, adventure, missing scenes... just please end on a happy or hopeful note. I've read the noir periods in comics and while I loved much of Brubaker's run, I kept waiting for things to turn around and they never did. (Yes, I know that's kind of what 'noir' is supposed to be about. And I don't mind seeing a hero go down. Where noir and I part ways is that noir has the hero stay down. It takes him to rock bottom and flings him a shovel so he can keep digging lower. At some point, I want him to start climbing up, dagnabbit!)
Dungeons and Dragons (Cartoon)
If I could have nominated more than four characters, I'd have done the whole cast, lol! Instead, I stuck with my four favorites, but feel free to add the rest if you like.
Wide open here. Give me a realm adventure. Something pre-or-post-Realm. Angst, comedy, drama, action, h/c...
Gen or Hank/Sheila and/or Eric/Diana. Please don't put the kids in anything more explicit than canon did.
Thanks again! I can't wait to see what you come up with!
P.S. I'm going to be out of town between December 22nd and January 5th. I'm not sure how often I'll be online. I'll be checking my email, but I may not get a chance to read/comment until I come home. (I'll have my phone, but I'm discovering how frustrating it is to type text on one of those after years of just using a desktop.) Please be patient with me if my feedback/acknowledgment has to wait until I'm back home!
First and foremost, thank you so much for doing this! I really appreciate your efforts and I'm looking forward to whatever you deliver.
A few basic guidelines:
I don't like stories that end on a down-note. Happy endings are great. Hopeful endings are, too. (I.E. Stuff along the lines of, "Yes, we've lost so much, and things are looking pretty grim right now, but we're [Insert name of family/group/team] and we never stay down! We'll never give up!" is perfectly okay.)
I'm not into graphic sex or violence. Mature themes are fine. Hints at what might go on behind closed doors are great. Think Hitchcock ("I'm not going to show you what's going on. I'm going to show you the guy watching in the window/listening in the next room reacting to what HE sees/hears and let your imagination fill in the blanks...") rather than Friday the Thirteenth.
That doesn't mean I necessarily want darkfic. I'm open to it, but I'm also open to fluff, angst, missing scenes, bromance, friendship, humor, adventure, divergence AUs, h/c... Really I'm pretty flexible. I just wanted to be clear on my few absolute DNWs.
The only other DNWs I can think of offhand are 1) implied sexual relations between adults and minors in a canon when such relations are neither canonical nor condoned, and where the age gap is significant (A 20-year-old with a 16/17-year old is fine. An 18-year with a 13-year-old is not). 2) Underage with an age gap of more than a year or two. Two experimenting 13-year-olds? I'm open to it. A 17-year-old and a 13-year-old? No thanks.
So much for the basics. The specifics are in my signup, but I'll reprint here:
The Blue Castle:
I adore this novel. I think I place it above all of L.M. Montgomery's other works. Valancy is such an amazing character, and she and Barney are wonderful together.
I'd like to see more of their married life, either pre- or post-last chapter reveals. Include other characters if you like. I'm more a fan of PDAs and kiss-and-fade-to-black than steamy scenes that wouldn't have been acceptable in the original novel. Humor, slice of life, telling off snooty relations (I think one of my favorite scenes in the novel is when Valancy refuses to be cowed and finally speaks her mind at the silver anniversary dinner), you name it. I'm open to babyfic/kidfic if that's your thing, too.
Emelan — Tamora Pierce
Either set before The Circle Opens or during/post-Will of the Empress, please. I don't mind if either their teachers or their students show up in supporting roles. Sandry is my favorite character, but I love them all. Other than that, I'm open to stories focusing on training, slice of life, angst, fluff, adventure... really anything but my DNW's would be fine. I'm a sucker for happy or hopeful endings. ("We failed this time, but we'll beat succeed next time; no way we're just going to give up!" is absolutely okay.)
Do not want: graphic violence or sex, romantic pairings between the foster sibs, deathfic. To be clear, I don't mind if you want to do a romantic story between one of the Circle members and someone outside the Circle. But not among themselves. And not Teacher/student either.
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn — Betty Smith
As long as it's Francie-centric, you can use any or all of the nominated characters, or characters you like that haven't been nominated. Bonus points if you can make the period come alive as Smith did in the original novel. Suggestions—and don't let them limit you: Missing scenes, Francie having a heart to heart with Neeley or trying to with Katie. Introducing Ben to the family. The Nolans (or Nolans and Ben, whether he and Francie end up marrying or just stay friends) dealing with either the Great Depression or WWII. Francie either deciding to marry or not marry Ben.
DNW: graphic sex or violence. Mature themes are fine, so long as they're handled the way they were in canon (i.e. matter-of-fact, unsensationalized presentation. Darker points hinted at but not in lurid detail.) I don't mind if you want to give Francie or Neeley kids, but please don't let them upstage the canon characters.
Daredevil (Comics)
I am ALL about the bromance. I don't ship these two romantically, but I firmly believe that either would die for the other. Please no non-canonical deathfic, though. If you want to set this at any point in canon when one believes that the other has died like say, Brubaker's "Devil in Cellblock D" run), that's fine. Foggy being there for Matt after Battlin' Jack Murdock's death, or Karen's, or Milah's placement? Excellent. Matt being there for Foggy during chemo? I'm so there. Either one in trouble and the other running to the rescue? Go for it.
I don't care if you give me angst, h/c, adventure, missing scenes... just please end on a happy or hopeful note. I've read the noir periods in comics and while I loved much of Brubaker's run, I kept waiting for things to turn around and they never did. (Yes, I know that's kind of what 'noir' is supposed to be about. And I don't mind seeing a hero go down. Where noir and I part ways is that noir has the hero stay down. It takes him to rock bottom and flings him a shovel so he can keep digging lower. At some point, I want him to start climbing up, dagnabbit!)
Dungeons and Dragons (Cartoon)
If I could have nominated more than four characters, I'd have done the whole cast, lol! Instead, I stuck with my four favorites, but feel free to add the rest if you like.
Wide open here. Give me a realm adventure. Something pre-or-post-Realm. Angst, comedy, drama, action, h/c...
Gen or Hank/Sheila and/or Eric/Diana. Please don't put the kids in anything more explicit than canon did.
Thanks again! I can't wait to see what you come up with!
P.S. I'm going to be out of town between December 22nd and January 5th. I'm not sure how often I'll be online. I'll be checking my email, but I may not get a chance to read/comment until I come home. (I'll have my phone, but I'm discovering how frustrating it is to type text on one of those after years of just using a desktop.) Please be patient with me if my feedback/acknowledgment has to wait until I'm back home!
