Yuletide Ho!

[graycardinal]

Why  yes, of course I put in my nominations within minutes of reading the "nominations are open" post....

My choices this year include several recurring picks and one entirely new fandom:

Andrew Greeley - Blackie Ryan series
Linda Haldeman - The Lastborn of Elvinwood
Robyn Tallis - Planet Builders series
Seanan McGuire - Velveteen vs. series
Sherwood Smith - Coronets and Steel
Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego? (tv)

A look back at my posts under the Yuletide tag will find information on most of these, save for the newest, that being Coronets and Steel -- which is a cheerfully modern riff on The Prisoner of Zenda in which Our Heroine proves to be a dead ringer for her previously unknown cousin, who's in line to become crown princess of an Obscure European Pocket Country.  This means that Kim is herself descended from royalty, and in the course of trying to learn more about her newly revealed relatives, she finds herself up to her ears in Dobrenican intrigue...and attractive Dobrenican men.  Think of one of Elizabeth Peters' Vicky Bliss novels with a liberal dash of ghosts, a dusting of magic, and an extra helping of banter, and you have a fair sense of the tone.  A sequel is in preparation, but there's definitely room for extrapolation in the meantime.

As a practical matter, I have a pretty firm idea as to three of the four eventual requests from the above...and I'd likely have nominated the Disney Sorcerer's Apprentice film had someone else not gotten there first (though that may or may not end up as the fourth request).

Ahhh, Yuletide season....

Comments

[graycardinal]

First: the nomination form is here. Note that this is the first stage of a two-stage process; by nominating, you're simply indicating fandoms you think should be available for offer/request in the challenge proper. Actual signups come later. Note further that other people have already nominated over 2600 fandoms for inclusino as listed here -- and while some of these are likely to be ruled ineligible, all nominated fandoms that *are* eligible will in fact be available (it only takes one nomination to make the list).

Second: no need to feel less than well-read; obscurity is in many respects the whole point of this particular exercise (as a look at that nominated-fandoms page should suggest).

FWIW, I count three of my six nominations as Seriously Obscure. The "Tallis" ahd Haldeman books are both long out of print, though the latter is not too hard to locate, and the "Velveteen" series, being exclusively on the Web (mostly on LiveJournal, some on the author's Web site) is not too well known.

OTOH, the Greeley mystery series is popular and fairly widely available (though the author's health issues are such that we may not see any new work beyond what's been published). The Smith book is brand new in hardcover, and a good chunk of the Carmen Sandiego series has been released to DVD.