None of this Nonsense, Please

Yuletide Letter 2019

2019-10-26T21:23:36Z

General Info:
AO3 Name: mari4212

Quick and dirty rules:

If you love the canon and you love writing your story, I will probably love it. Every prompt I throw out is a suggestion to have fun playing with or to spark ideas, it is not set in stone. I will read any rating from straight G to very explicit, though most of my prompts will start off gen based.

Things I love across all fandoms:
Female characters with agency (ie, making choices, having consequences, going out and doing the things themselves because they want them done). Friendships, especially female friendships. Friendships and respect into love. Unrequited love/pining, as long as the pining character figures out how to go on with the rest of their life. Unrequited/pining turning into mutual love as respect and friendship builds. Time travel, especially with older versions of the characters going back and interacting with younger counterparts/younger versions of their group (i.e., tvtropes’ Peggy Sue). Lawful good characters not being lawful stupid. Lawful good characters in general (think Steve Rogers, 90% of Star Trek, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Keladry of Mindelan, most Heralds in Valdemar). Trickster/guile heroines. I enjoy canon typical stories and canon divergent AUs, the kind where you ask what would have happened had this person made this key choice differently.

Do Not Wants:
Rape/Non-con/Dub-con. Racism/homophobia/misogyny/et cetera being portrayed positively, if you have to portray it at all. Graphic descriptions of character/animal harm. Character bashing; even if it's not one of my nominated characters please assume I love everyone in all my canons and you'd be right more often than not. I squick on infidelity, so if you want to ship a couple that have significant others in canon, please set it in an au where the original couple never got together or somehow broke it off. On the other hand, I do like OT3 and consider it a very useful alternative to jealousy/shipping wars. AUs that drastically change the setting – no coffeeshop or high school aus for example.

Fandom-Specific:

( The Lost World - tv )

( Dragon Jousters - Mercedes Lackey )

( The Story of Owen - E. K. Johnston )

( The Lady Astronaut Series - Mary Robinette Kowal )

comments

Yuletide Letter

2018-10-05T19:10:04Z

General Info:
AO3 Name: mari4212

Quick and dirty rules:

If you love the canon and you love writing your story, I will probably love it. Every prompt I throw out is a suggestion to have fun playing with or to spark ideas, it is not set in stone. I will read any rating from straight G to very explicit, though most of my prompts will start off gen based.

Things I love across all fandoms:
Female characters with agency (ie, making choices, having consequences, going out and doing the things themselves because they want them done). Friendships, especially female friendships. Friendships and respect into love. Unrequited love/pining, as long as the pining character figures out how to go on with the rest of their life. Unrequited/pining turning into mutual love as respect and friendship builds. Time travel, especially with older versions of the characters going back and interacting with younger counterparts/younger versions of their group (i.e., tvtropes’ Peggy Sue). Lawful good characters not being lawful stupid. Lawful good characters in general (think Steve Rogers, 90% of Star Trek, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Keladry of Mindelan, most Heralds in Valdemar). Trickster/guile heroines. I enjoy canon typical stories and canon divergent AUs, the kind where you ask what would have happened had this person made this key choice differently.

Do Not Wants:
Rape/Non-con/Dub-con. Racism/homophobia/misogyny being portrayed positively, if you have to portray it at all. Graphic descriptions of character/animal harm. Character bashing; even if it's not one of my nominated characters please assume I love everyone in all my canons and you'd be right more often than not. I squick on infidelity, so if you want to ship a couple that have significant others in canon, please set it in an au where the original couple never got together or somehow broke it off. On the other hand, I do like OT3 and consider it a very useful alternative to jealousy/shipping wars. AUs that drastically change the setting – no coffeeshop or high school aus for example.

Fandom-Specific:

( The Lost World - tv )

( Valdemar Series - Mercedes Lackey )

( Twisted: The Untold Story of a Royal Vizier - Holmes/McMahon/Lang & Lang & Gale )

( Lois Lane - Gwenda Bond )

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Yuletide plotting

2018-09-07T04:19:58Z

Noms open Sept 12th, run to the 21st, so next Weds through Friday.

Definitely nominating:

The Lost World
Twisted (Starkid Musical) - look up proper fandom posting on AO3 again.

Possibly nominating:

Valdemar (at least to get Karal, Natoli, Ulrich, and Altra in)
Something Jo Graham? I got spoiled for the past few years with good stories so I'm not sure if I have a new request.
Mercedes Lackey's Dragon Jousters series

comments

Resolutions

2018-01-02T00:14:14Z

I normally don't make formal resolutions, but I did want to pin these down to remind myself later:

1. Read more non-fiction, and try new authors.
2. Review more fanfic when I read it, even if it isn't newly posted.
3. Focus more on which veggies I'm eating each week, and plan meals around the vegetable first. Technically I started this resolution last week, getting the things to make a sweet potato and kale soup and baba ganoush, but I do want to be more intentional about it.

comments

Yuletide reveals

2018-01-01T13:55:34Z

So, several months ago, I got my Yuletide assignment and promptly cracked up. And no, settiai it wasn't you, though past experience explains why we both assume this as a matter of course.

Actually, I was laughing because I hit another pocket of my semi-incestuous fandom corner, and was assigned to tielan, who had written for me last Yuletide, and we matched on a slightly different set of books. I ended up writing:

Building Blocks (5782 words) by mari4212
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Valdemar Series - Mercedes Lackey
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Keisha Alder/Darian Firkin
Characters: Keisha Alder, Darian Firkin, Nightwind
Summary:

"then things are actually better than they were before the fight, I think, because they've made another compromise with each other." -Darian Firkin

And when the fics went live, I found myself very glad I'd written my second idea, because someone else had written a take on my first concept as another gift for tielan. My first thought had been to do scenes from their courtship, including the first fight as a minor scene, and track how the relationship grew.

...Several false starts later, I ended up jumping to the fight, and pretty early on, needing to figure out why they were actually arguing, and how the heck the resolution would improve the relationship, while still leaving the tensions in place that developed in the first half of Owlknight. It was when I was trying to explain who the characters were and a little of their backstory to someone else which gave me the insight into Darian's fears, and gave me what would make him lose his temper. Re-reading the books also gave me Darian's view of Nightwind and Snowfire's relationship, and that he'd want to fight fair and resolve conflict well in any relationship he considered serious.

I also wanted to have some echoes for Kiesha from Owlknight. So there's both some of her worries from that book, traced back in to their roots here, and there's also parts of her advice to Shandi that developed into the scene with Nightwind.

My big regret is that I couldn't get Kel in, but there was no place in this scenario that he was a good fit.

comments

Yuletide recs

2017-12-28T02:09:07Z

( recs for Mulan, Heralds of Valdemar, Dinotopia, Order of the Air, Persuasion, Spindle's End, and Sunshine )

comments

Drive-by squee

2017-12-25T11:57:04Z

Guys, Yuletide is up and my author-anon gave me 13K of Order of the Air adventure with Mitch and Stasi. I am going to absolutely demand that all of you who love the series like I do get over there and shower praises on the writer, because this is amazing.

Icebound (13024 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 7/7
Fandom: Order of the Air Series - Melissa Scott & Jo Graham, 20th Century CE RPF
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Mitchell Sorley/Stasi Rostov
Characters: Mitchell Sorley, Stasi Rostov, Henry Kershaw, Leni Riefenstahl, Max Schirmer, Franz Schrieck, Hans Schneeberger
Additional Tags: Yuletide, 1930s, Adventure & Romance, Foreshadowing, Films, Antisemitism, POV Jewish Character
Summary:

Spring of 1933: Mitch and Stasi hadn't planned on spending their honeymoon dodging bears and icebergs. But the pilot supposed to do the hair raising stunt flying on the German-American movie "SOS Iceberg" has fallen sick, the leading lady may or may not be possessed, and there is a ghost bent on revenge involving the new German leader...

And now to go make coffee and have breakfast.

comments

yuletide assignments

2017-10-10T11:59:41Z

*gigglesnorts*

...I am very amused right now, which will make total sense once reveals go out.

This one should be fun. And canon-review won't take too long to get through.

comments

Yuletide letter

2017-09-29T16:51:54Z

General Info:
AO3 Name: mari4212

Quick and dirty rules:

If you love the canon and you love writing your story, I will probably love it. Every prompt I throw out is a suggestion to have fun playing with or to spark ideas, it is not set in stone. I will read any rating from straight G to very explicit, though most of my prompts will start off gen based.

Things I love across all fandoms:
Female characters with agency (ie, making choices, having consequences, going out and doing the things themselves because they want them done). Friendships, especially female friendships. Friendships and respect into love. Unrequited love/pining, as long as the pining character figures out how to go on with the rest of their life. Unrequited/pining turning into mutual love as respect and friendship builds. Time travel, especially with older versions of the characters going back and interacting with younger counterparts/younger versions of their group (i.e., tvtropes’ Peggy Sue). Lawful good characters not being lawful stupid. Lawful good characters in general (think Steve Rogers, 90% of Star Trek, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Keladry of Mindelan, most Heralds in Valdemar). Trickster/guile heroines. I enjoy canon typical stories and canon divergent AUs, the kind where you ask what would have happened had this person made this key choice differently.

Do Not Wants:
Rape/Non-con/Dub-con. Racism/homophobia/misogyny being portrayed positively, if you have to portray it at all. Graphic descriptions of character/animal harm. Character bashing; even if it's not one of my nominated characters please assume I love everyone in all my canons and you'd be right more often than not. I squick on infidelity, so if you want to ship a couple that have significant others in canon, please set it in an au where the original couple never got together or somehow broke it off. On the other hand, I do like OT3 and consider it a very useful alternative to jealousy/shipping wars. AUs that drastically change the setting – no coffeeshop or high school aus for example.

Fandom-Specific:

( The Lost World - tv )

( Valdemar Series - Mercedes Lackey )

( Order of the Air - Melissa Scott and Jo Graham )

( Lois Lane - Gwenda Bond )

comments

headdesks

2017-09-28T23:32:19Z

So Yuletide noms came and went without me because I was super not paying attention. And right now I am profoundly grateful to the other person who always requests the tv fandom of my heart but who has like me not gotten a story set in it. Someday, other person, I swear I'm writing you something.

Now to do the trawl through and see what fandoms/characters I can shoot for. I've probably shot myself in the foot as far as requesting Karal in Valdemar...

No, wait, he's there! Fandom, I love you sometimes.

Now to add in the new fandom for this round and do any further tweaks to the base letter.

comments

I'm an Auntie!

2017-02-07T16:37:38Z

My brother and his girlfriend had their first child, Liam Michael, this morning at 10:20 am. *glees* Mom and baby are doing fine, though Kassandra is absolutely exhausted.

comments

Rejoice for this fic was lost and now is found

2017-01-28T00:06:49Z

The worst thing about having my computer hard drive die twice when I was in the Philippines was that I lost fic that I had been writing. Two stories in particular were irreplaceable, I thought.

...guess what I found hidden in the recesses of my e-mail accounts? And of course, I didn't find either by searching for them by title. I found one looking for a phone number, and the other by finally bothering to search for "kitty story".

Yes, Mom and Dad, I finally found the Right Side of the Door story again!

I also found the nano story that I'd written back when I was teaching for Americorps. Which, I need desperately to re-read through it and figure out where I was going next with it, and then I should probably start writing on it again just to see if I can finish it successfully. I know I need to work on introducing all the ghosts earlier on in the narrative, and that I need to actually get my head around the whole plot issue.

comments

Yuletide reveals

2017-01-01T04:22:02Z

I wrote two stories for Yuletide this year, both for the same fandom:

A True and Honest Thought (18654 words) by mari4212
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Emelan - Tamora Pierce
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Niklaren Goldeye, Trisana Chandler, Sandrilene fa Toren, Briar Moss, Daja Kisubo, Dedicate Lark, Dedicate Rosethorn
Additional Tags: Mentor/Protégé, Teaching, Families of Choice, Tris Has Issues, Canon Compliant, Canon Era, Weather Magic, alternate POV
Summary:

...that when you become a teacher, by your pupil, you'll be taught. Both Niko and Tris have a lot to learn from one another.

( fic discussion )

Playing dirty (1673 words) by mari4212
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Emelan - Tamora Pierce
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Trisana Chandler
Summary:

Five things about Lightsbridge that are easier than Tris thought they would be, and one that is harder.

( fic discussion part two )

At least both recipients seemed to really like their fics, and I got to re-immerse myself in Emelan and fall in love with the characters again.

comments

Yuletide recs

2016-12-27T16:24:48Z

Recs in Madeleine L'Engle, Beauty and the Beast, Emelan, Enchanted Forest Chronicles, Mulan, and Order of the Air ( Read more... )

comments

Yuletide rambles

2016-12-20T16:40:00Z

Yuletide fic is done, finally.

...I uploaded a shorter version of it that worked about a month ago, just to have something there, but I've been tinkering and adding sections on as I've gone. Yesterday I finally uploaded the final section, making it the longest Yuletide fic I've ever written. And this is after I scrapped about half of it to get it down to a length I could actually accomplish, given November was November.

Now I need to leave it set for a day before I re-read frantically and make sure I didn't miss something in prior edits. Or possibly look around and see if I can pull off a treat or two. I had a bunch highlighted before the world went crazy.

Also, dear Yuletide author, if you are reading this ~~which you most likely are, given my normal suspects~~: If the collection opens when it did last year, I will be between two church services on Christmas Eve. I will either dive headfirst into my story as decompression, or I will be ignoring it until I have a brain again the next morning. I am already planning on pretty much never leaving the church that day, given Community Cafe in the morning, then the Christmas pageant practices through the second church service. Expect a squeeing review in the morning, after my cat wakes me up demanding breakfast.

comments

Spearpoint and Shieldwall

2016-11-10T14:04:40Z

This election is devastating. I say this as a straight white Christian girl who is relatively buffered from the rest of the effects. I am angry, and I am upset, and I am grieving.

I used a metaphor with a friend on facebook. She was saying that she was too angry now to be calm and Buddhist, that she was going to fight back with everything she had to defend her husband and her friends. I told her that some people needed to be the sharp end of the spear, needed to be the offense in this next step of the battle for human rights and safety.

I'm not a spearpoint. I don't think I ever will be. But I can be the hearth-fire. I can be the place of shelter, and comfort and refreshment to those who fight. I can support them and stand beside them. And I will always be part of the shield-wall. I will always want to stand and protect those who will be hurt most.

We need both. If you cannot fight, will you join me in trying to be the shield and comfort?

comments

update on courting

2016-11-05T15:20:44Z

...It didn't happen.

So last night my uncle called around 6ish to let us know that traffic was really bad and he'd be taking the long way home, we should have our dinner and not wait for him. I finished making the soup and bread, and aunt Cathy and I ate.

Right around 7:20 we get another call from my uncle. He hit a dear. Or the dear hit him, more. He was okay, just a little shaken, and he needed us to come get him while a tow truck collected his car.

So Cathy and I called various people to let them know not to come over, including the landscaper guy, and she and I got in the truck and went to find Uncle Ralph. We spent from a little after 7:30ish till 9pm sitting in the driveway of the house closest to where the accident had happened, chatting with the couple that had come out to check on Ralph and offered him a place to move his car, and the tow truck still didn't show. We decided to head back to my aunt and uncle's place, leaving the car with its keys for the tow truck.

The couple that had helped Uncle Ralph called around 9:45ish to let us know that the tow truck had finally arrived.

Landscaper guy called me this morning, reaffirmed that he still wanted to try to connect with me, and I said I'd be willing to at least talk further to see if we had anything in common. So no awkward post dinner conversation, but a slightly awkward phone call?

comments

In which my life starts resembling a period novel

2016-11-04T13:46:41Z

So my aunt and uncle's landscaper is going to come call on me tonight. Which, the language there just makes me feel like I dropped into a Victorian novel, although this is at least one or two class level differences that would make a standard Victorian go apoplectic.

...Not quite sure how he went from yes he could ask for my phone number to call and talk sometime to see if we had anything in common to having the first step be a formal sit-down with my aunt providing tea and cookies and backing out of the room, but yeah, there's that.

This will either be nice or completely awkward. At this point I'm taking bets.

comments

yuletide rambling

2016-10-17T03:43:00Z

Canon review about half over, and a wild plot appears!

I know pretty much what my focus is, what key points I have to make sure to hit, and what the resolution is. ~~Now I just have to finish reviewing canon to get details right, and then write the darn thing.~~

Still, progress?

comments

home

2016-10-14T18:42:18Z

I got home yesterday about this time. Mom had been picking up a kidlet from kindergarten, and she noticed Dad's car parked, and mentioned that that must mean that I was back.

Kidlets shrieked, ran from the corner of the block to Dad's car, and then when Mom gave permission, around to the back of the house to come in. I was in the kitchen at that moment. Cue another set of shrieks and me being tackled by a five year old and a four year old babbling about how much they'd missed me when I was gone.

...Come this morning, they've stopped shrieking when they see me (for which my ears are truly grateful because wow were they loud), but they're still ridiculously excited whenever they see me.

Nice to know I was missed.

comments

yuletide

2016-10-10T23:42:04Z

I have an assignment already! *pets shiny recipient* Plus they had their letter up already, and I'd thought about what I'd write for this person, so yay for shiny things. I can even do canon review on vacation and draft ideas. And one thing they suggested strongly for this fandom is even squarely in my wheelhouse.

*cuddles shiny prompts*

comments

Yuletide Letter

2016-09-29T15:53:38Z

General Info:

Quick and dirty rules:

( Read more... )

Things I love across all fandoms:

( Read more... )

Do Not Wants:

( Read more... )

Fandom-Specific:

The Lost World - tv
Requested Characters: Marguerite Krux, John Roxton

( Read more... )

Valdemar Series - Mercedes Lackey
Requested Characters: Karal Austreben

( Read more... )

Order of the Air – Melissa Scott and Jo Graham
Characters: Mitchell Sorley, Stasi (Order of the Air)

( Read more... )

The Story of Owen – E. K. Johnson
Requested Characters: Siobhan McQuaid, Courtney Speed, Declan Porter

( Read more... )

comments

Oh computer

2016-09-29T03:55:00Z

So I've been having a bit of a problem with my power cord/adapter and the computer not acknowledging it was plugged in off and on for a while. Thought I had it fixed until this week, then it abruptly stopped working altogether. Luckily,I could order a new one and next day shipping was free for once, so I'm back to having a working computer!

Just in time to find out that it did not save my working draft of my Yuletide letter. It saved something labeled Yuletide letter, but not any of the information within. *headdesks*

Luckily I'm recycling two fandoms, so they mostly needed a moderate revamp (that added like two paragraphs on to one fandom's section, oops). And I had at least thought through the other fandoms a bit already, so I could just rewrite some of my existing ideas. But still, that wasn't the most fun. Also, my letter is now twice as long as the minimum story length. So yeah.

Fun things learned while writing this letter? I apparently have a real character kink for the trickster/manipulative/jewel thief/guile hero when it's a female character, and I love shipping said character with a lawfulish good male character. Hadn't realized it was more than just a one fandom thing until I started writing my Order of the Air section and practically hyperventilated over Mitch/Stasi.

comments

My mutant power

2016-09-22T02:21:18Z

So all through high school/college, whenever we played those mixers/icebreaker questions and someone asked what I'd want my mutant power to be, I've answered healing/empathy. Because those are kickass and yes I have always wanted to be the healer/counselor archetype anyway. There is probably in some long-trashed notebook the beginnings of an X-men fanfic Stephie and I wrote where there's a self-insert character of me with just those powers. We worked on it during our senior prom, because yes we were those geeks.

Now, though? If I was going to be a mutant in any version of the X-men verse, I think I'd go a bit more prosaic. I want the stupid spot-on-the-wall level gifts. As in I spent part of today at work playing with the idea of a character whose main mutant gift is the ability to warm up liquid, with the difference in temperature they could create being inversely proportional to how much liquid they're working with. A mug of tea? Easy enough to raise that to the point where you never need a microwave to reheat your drink. A person? Yeah now your at the part where you can maybe warm them by a degree at most. Anything bigger and you might as well not bother.

The kind of character who doesn't go study at Xavier's long term, who gets maybe a weekend seminar or some sort of summer class, then goes home and does their own thing for the rest of their life and never learns that the one teacher trying to explain the thermodynamics of how their gift works is also the one in black leather shooting concussive force beams out his eyes on the regular. Who lives out the idea that for every Xavier, Emma Frost, or Jean Grey there are dozens of "telepaths" whose powers mostly make them slightly more empathic or really good guessers at Madlibs.

Also, I'd love it if I could actually drink my mug of tea and have it stay hot the entire time, rather than averaging three reheats in the microwave, and just having the pragmatic gift seems cool to me at this point in my life.

...Okay, I still wouldn't turn down some level of empathy/healing if it showed up.

comments

snorts

2016-09-11T01:59:24Z

So my inability to tell when someone is flirting/hitting on me tends towards the legendary among my friends in real life.

Today? Today I actually noticed. Partially because it was so many of them in a row, and partially because one of them was pretty much lacking in all subtlety as he:

pointed out that he was a single father twice
mentioned that he'd been divorced for three months now
sat next to me talking at the church table for a good twenty minutes
Asked me if I had family, clarified to ask if I was married, then engaged, then if I was single in very short order
Found me and sent a friend request on facebook before I got home

At that point even I can take a hint. Dude wasn't creepy or annoying, just very obvious about his intent.

The other was having about three late twenty-something guys hovering around my table for a bit eating cookies and doing mild flirting with me.

...The things that happen when it's 90+ degrees out and you're wearing a semi low-cut sundress and have a prodigious bustline.

And also when you're handing out free cookies and lemonade at a street music fair/block party type thing for your church. That probably contributed in large part to the group of guys.

comments

None of this Nonsense, Please

Yuletide Letter 2019

Yuletide Letter

Yuletide plotting

Resolutions

Yuletide reveals

Yuletide recs

Drive-by squee

yuletide assignments

Yuletide letter

headdesks

I'm an Auntie!

Rejoice for this fic was lost and now is found

Yuletide reveals

Yuletide recs

Yuletide rambles

Spearpoint and Shieldwall

update on courting

In which my life starts resembling a period novel

yuletide rambling

home

yuletide

Yuletide Letter

Oh computer

My mutant power

*snorts*

snorts