Dear Yuletider
Nov. 17th, 2011 04:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mari4212Dear Yuletider,
I'm just going to sit here and squee at you for a bit, one, for agreeing to write in any of these categories, and two, because you are awesome and I know I'm going to love whatever you come up with. So, start with this. If it's in that fandom, and has the characters I picked in it, I am going to squee with delight and love you forever, no matter what plotbunny takes control of you.
General guidelines for any fandom of mine:
I have no objections to gen, het, or slash, nor to ratings ranging from g to a hard NC-17, though all of my prompts started out in my head as gen. I do squick out on infidelity, so if you want to write a pairing where the characters in canon already have an SO, please make sure you introduce a reason why the original pairing either broke up or that it’s an au where they weren’t together. I’m also not fond of incest, rape, or sexual assault, and you have to work really hard to convince me that including any of those as a plot element was necessary. I love female characters, and even when I didn’t request them, assume that I’m positive/neutral to the other female characters in the canon, and wouldn’t like them bashed. (Actually, you can probably assume that for any character in the fandoms I’ve requested.) I also don’t like racism, sexism, religious bashing or homophobia to be portrayed positively. If you really want to place it in as an issue to be addressed, please do not glorify it. For example, the original The Lost World book by Doyle was full of rampant sexism and race-fail, which makes sense in context of the time period. The tv series was much better, but you will note that most of the non-white characters were alternately savage or superstitious, Please if you write an adventure story in that fandom, if you make your own culture up for the main group to be interacting with, try not to fall into that same pattern. If you're working with Hand of Isis, it's fine to note that Iras has had issues being taken seriously as a woman and as someone who looked Egyptian rather than Greek or Roman. But I'll assume if you're offering to write this fandom, you're not going to write something suggesting that her critics were right. Id also appreciate it if that issue were not the main focus of the fic. I’m not looking for deathfic in any of my requests, but if you end up going with it with what you get out of one of these requests, I will not be upset. I like characters of color, and will probably enjoy it if you bring in one of the canonical characters of color in any of my fandoms, even if I didn’t specifically request them.
In terms of general story likes and dislikes, I enjoy character pieces, I like humor, I like people actually talking to each other and not always misunderstanding what the other person is getting at. I also like angst and drama, though I do like it if it’s not something that could easily be cleared up in five minutes of honest communication. I like friendships and mentorship as much as I like romance, moreso sometimes. I’m okay with the ending not being all the way happy, as long as it makes sense for the characters involved. I’m not majorly interested in straight tragedy.
Fandom specifics:
So, as to my requests. I'll include them below, along with a whole bunch of squeeing about the characters and the larger media.
Hand of Isis, by Jo Graham
I'm specifically looking for something about Iras's storyline. Her relationship with Cleopatra, what led to her awareness of how she related to men, her responsibility as Treasurer...anything cool and interesting with her, as Jo Graham's said that her plotline was the one to suffer the most in the length cuts she had to make.
I've got a squee post I wrote when Stealing Fire was released, explaining how much I loved Jo Graham's writing and these books. Hand of Isis is in many ways my favorite of the three books in the universe, though of course I love different sections of each individual book. I love the strong bonds of female friendship and sisterhood present in this book, how each of the three primary women is very different, and those differences are presented as okay. I love the exploration of duty and making a powerful commitment to your land, your sister/queen, and your deities, and how this was more important, in the long run, for both Charmain and Iras than any other relationship. Like I said, I really want more Iras, because she got the most cuts to her plotline and development. Anything you give me on her I'll enjoy. Does she have any of Charmain's visions of the past and future, or like I said in the plot, how does she view her relationships with Cleopatra and Charmain? I'm just, the world needs more Iras, and if it can get more Cleopatra and Charmain at the same time, I will laugh and squee and cheer, lots.
The Lost World
Marguerite and either Veronica or Roxton, bonus Summerlee is bonus. Marguerite's evolution and vulnerability. So in this fandom, Marguerite is my best beloved character, and I love things that deal with how honestly complex she is a character, how she is both extremely selfish and yet will sacrifice a lot for those she cares about. Play with something about that, if you like. Or give me something from one of the semi-AU episodes they had, like the one where Roxton went back to the Old West, and write a continuation of those characters.
I'm also fine with family-style fluff around the camp, especially the dynamics we saw in season 3 where they had gotten used to each other and had some trust built up. Or if you have some long and elaborate adventure story that you've always wanted to do with this series, go with that.
Also, I know I mentioned Summerlee, but if you can't work him in because of when you wanted to set your story, that's fine.
You can check out my earlier letter for more fandom squee, but up top is the short version, as I just pretty much love Marguerite lots, and find her a fascinating character. Do anything with that, and I'll love it.
The Five Hundred Kingdoms by Mercedes Lackey
So when it came to characters for this one, I was sincerely torn between requesting a character and just going for straight worldbuilding. I love this universe a lot and it's so rich in terms of storytelling. I put Godmother Elena, but feel free to play loose with that suggestion.
I'd be interested in seeing more about her work after her first big test. You could write about her specific work in one story, or more day in the life at her house with all the brownies and the Champion's school next door. Or, hey, Mercedes Lackey is always throwing in the one-liners about Princes being more interested in other princes than in princesses, how does Elena fix it for that prince to get out of his Traditional Path and on to dating the guy he likes. Or how does Elena arrange for Cinderella to run off with an interesting noblewoman at the ball instead?
Alternately, I'd love to see some of the more under-represented cultures and their fairy tales. How does the tradition affect some of the Japanese or Chinese story sets? What about African mythos?
And finally, this is an off-the-wall prompt, but it might be fun to see a story from The Tradition's perspective. I'm not sure what you'd do with that, but it'd probably be work checking out!
And finally, I've tagged this entry with pretty much everything that could be relevant, so if you need more input about what I like, what kind of stories I write, and what my meta is like.
I'm just going to sit here and squee at you for a bit, one, for agreeing to write in any of these categories, and two, because you are awesome and I know I'm going to love whatever you come up with. So, start with this. If it's in that fandom, and has the characters I picked in it, I am going to squee with delight and love you forever, no matter what plotbunny takes control of you.
General guidelines for any fandom of mine:
I have no objections to gen, het, or slash, nor to ratings ranging from g to a hard NC-17, though all of my prompts started out in my head as gen. I do squick out on infidelity, so if you want to write a pairing where the characters in canon already have an SO, please make sure you introduce a reason why the original pairing either broke up or that it’s an au where they weren’t together. I’m also not fond of incest, rape, or sexual assault, and you have to work really hard to convince me that including any of those as a plot element was necessary. I love female characters, and even when I didn’t request them, assume that I’m positive/neutral to the other female characters in the canon, and wouldn’t like them bashed. (Actually, you can probably assume that for any character in the fandoms I’ve requested.) I also don’t like racism, sexism, religious bashing or homophobia to be portrayed positively. If you really want to place it in as an issue to be addressed, please do not glorify it. For example, the original The Lost World book by Doyle was full of rampant sexism and race-fail, which makes sense in context of the time period. The tv series was much better, but you will note that most of the non-white characters were alternately savage or superstitious, Please if you write an adventure story in that fandom, if you make your own culture up for the main group to be interacting with, try not to fall into that same pattern. If you're working with Hand of Isis, it's fine to note that Iras has had issues being taken seriously as a woman and as someone who looked Egyptian rather than Greek or Roman. But I'll assume if you're offering to write this fandom, you're not going to write something suggesting that her critics were right. Id also appreciate it if that issue were not the main focus of the fic. I’m not looking for deathfic in any of my requests, but if you end up going with it with what you get out of one of these requests, I will not be upset. I like characters of color, and will probably enjoy it if you bring in one of the canonical characters of color in any of my fandoms, even if I didn’t specifically request them.
In terms of general story likes and dislikes, I enjoy character pieces, I like humor, I like people actually talking to each other and not always misunderstanding what the other person is getting at. I also like angst and drama, though I do like it if it’s not something that could easily be cleared up in five minutes of honest communication. I like friendships and mentorship as much as I like romance, moreso sometimes. I’m okay with the ending not being all the way happy, as long as it makes sense for the characters involved. I’m not majorly interested in straight tragedy.
Fandom specifics:
So, as to my requests. I'll include them below, along with a whole bunch of squeeing about the characters and the larger media.
Hand of Isis, by Jo Graham
I'm specifically looking for something about Iras's storyline. Her relationship with Cleopatra, what led to her awareness of how she related to men, her responsibility as Treasurer...anything cool and interesting with her, as Jo Graham's said that her plotline was the one to suffer the most in the length cuts she had to make.
I've got a squee post I wrote when Stealing Fire was released, explaining how much I loved Jo Graham's writing and these books. Hand of Isis is in many ways my favorite of the three books in the universe, though of course I love different sections of each individual book. I love the strong bonds of female friendship and sisterhood present in this book, how each of the three primary women is very different, and those differences are presented as okay. I love the exploration of duty and making a powerful commitment to your land, your sister/queen, and your deities, and how this was more important, in the long run, for both Charmain and Iras than any other relationship. Like I said, I really want more Iras, because she got the most cuts to her plotline and development. Anything you give me on her I'll enjoy. Does she have any of Charmain's visions of the past and future, or like I said in the plot, how does she view her relationships with Cleopatra and Charmain? I'm just, the world needs more Iras, and if it can get more Cleopatra and Charmain at the same time, I will laugh and squee and cheer, lots.
The Lost World
Marguerite and either Veronica or Roxton, bonus Summerlee is bonus. Marguerite's evolution and vulnerability. So in this fandom, Marguerite is my best beloved character, and I love things that deal with how honestly complex she is a character, how she is both extremely selfish and yet will sacrifice a lot for those she cares about. Play with something about that, if you like. Or give me something from one of the semi-AU episodes they had, like the one where Roxton went back to the Old West, and write a continuation of those characters.
I'm also fine with family-style fluff around the camp, especially the dynamics we saw in season 3 where they had gotten used to each other and had some trust built up. Or if you have some long and elaborate adventure story that you've always wanted to do with this series, go with that.
Also, I know I mentioned Summerlee, but if you can't work him in because of when you wanted to set your story, that's fine.
You can check out my earlier letter for more fandom squee, but up top is the short version, as I just pretty much love Marguerite lots, and find her a fascinating character. Do anything with that, and I'll love it.
The Five Hundred Kingdoms by Mercedes Lackey
So when it came to characters for this one, I was sincerely torn between requesting a character and just going for straight worldbuilding. I love this universe a lot and it's so rich in terms of storytelling. I put Godmother Elena, but feel free to play loose with that suggestion.
I'd be interested in seeing more about her work after her first big test. You could write about her specific work in one story, or more day in the life at her house with all the brownies and the Champion's school next door. Or, hey, Mercedes Lackey is always throwing in the one-liners about Princes being more interested in other princes than in princesses, how does Elena fix it for that prince to get out of his Traditional Path and on to dating the guy he likes. Or how does Elena arrange for Cinderella to run off with an interesting noblewoman at the ball instead?
Alternately, I'd love to see some of the more under-represented cultures and their fairy tales. How does the tradition affect some of the Japanese or Chinese story sets? What about African mythos?
And finally, this is an off-the-wall prompt, but it might be fun to see a story from The Tradition's perspective. I'm not sure what you'd do with that, but it'd probably be work checking out!
And finally, I've tagged this entry with pretty much everything that could be relevant, so if you need more input about what I like, what kind of stories I write, and what my meta is like.