graycardinal | Yuletide 2011: Dear Yulecritter

Last year, the letter went up very late; this year, I'm posting quite early.

First things first: Thank you, Yulewriter, under whatever avatar you choose to appear -- and thank you as well to prospective Yulewriters and others who may be cruising the spreadsheets and LiveJournals reading these letters out of pure curiosity. You are noble and generous, not to mention helpful, friendly, courteous, kind...whoops, wrong script. Now, then: your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to overthrow the government of....no, that's not the right script either.

Then again -- this is going to be an interesting Yuletide. I turned in requests in an unusually obscure and baroque group of canons (calling these "fandoms" is an act of optimism on my part, as I'm not sure there's any fic at all out there for any of these). These are some of my longest-standing and most favorite literary worlds...but based on prior Yuletides, it's an open question as to whether any of them will draw offers from the wider Yuletide writing community. This initial group of requests is very much intended as a test case -- I'm doing what we've been specifically encouraged to do during discussions of the nomination/request process, even though I have a strong hunch it's going to make the matching engine throw up its virtual hands in defeat. If I'm wrong about that, and you've offered to write in one (or more) of these canons, you have my undying appreciation and gratitude, and we can discuss cookies after the reveal. If I'm right -- well, we'll see what happens next.

ETA: And there was much rejoicing, as it looks as if I have offers on two of these three requests! Thank you to all of you who've offered, whether we matched or not. And as for that third fandom, well, there's always next year. :-) [Note to self: plan on baking cookies early in January....]

But enough with the Yule intrigue. You want to know what I like. So:

Pluses for me include strong characterization, well-written dialogue, wit/banter/snark, clever use of canon, well-developed AUs, UST (heavy on both the U and the T), crossovers, and more. I'm neutral when it comes to matters of gen, slash, or femslash -- if the pairing is well-developed, I'll read with an open mind. I'm not into noncon, incest, or adult/child kinks, but have few other outright squicks as long as the relationship is age- and canon-appropriate; OTOH, I mostly don't read fanfic for sexual content.

When it comes to Yuletide, I typically request single characters, but not because I'm uninterested in romantic pairings or the other characters in a given canon. Rather, my take is that single characters are easier for the mods to match (I may be ornery, but I'm not that diabolically evil), and that it gives you, the writer, greater flexibility as you look around for other characters in the fandom for my chosen character to hang out with.

Now, as to my specific requests:

The Lastborn of Elvinwood • Linda Haldeman

Character: Thomas Heaton
I've always assumed that the good Vicar must have a fascinating back story -- considering his interests, and his apparent history with Merlin. Anything along this line will be met with great joy and appreciation -- but Optional Details Being Optional, I'll be immensely happy with just about any story that shows as much love for this book as I've had over the years. Definitely feel free to use any other characters from the book that fit your inspiration (hmm; did he introduce Marian to the Fernlord's court, or did she recruit him?) – and/or, if the plot bunnies call for it, to spin wickedly appropriate crossover characters into the mix.

This is my permanent Yuletide Fandom-of-One™; I've been submitting versions of the above request for years and doing my best to pimp the fandom along the way (to see prior efforts, click my Yuletide journal tag and scroll down). I highly recommend the novel (and the author generally) even if you don't have any intention of writing in the fandom; it's a quick and delightful read, and one of these years someone will extend on the canon and then we'll both be joyful and grateful beyond measure.

Planet Builders • Robyn Tallis

Character: Daphne de Vries
With as large a cast as there was in Planet Builders, not everyone got as much stage-time as they should have – and of all the underused characters, I’m particularly fond of Daphne, both because of her lively personality and because I’m also a big theater fan. Almost any Daphne story you can imagine would be greeted with delight, whether during canon (or even pre-canon) or long afterward; also, feel entirely welcome to make use of other canon characters and to partner or pair her up as you think appropriate. Working in her theatrical interests counts as a definite bonus but is not required.

This is another request I've made before, and what I've said in prior years still applies (see my "dear santa" tag for all the letters). If you know these books at all, you likely glommed onto them for the same reasons I did, and have a good idea of what will make me go SQUEE with the greatest and most squeeful volume. Lost cities, clever plans gone amusingly and comic-disastrously (but not too painfully) wrong, gentle romance, swashbuckling space opera -- it's all there, and this is really truly a case where I'm like Oliver Twist, and "please sir, may I have some more" will do very nicely indeed. Note that the other two tagged characters in the fandom -- Zach and Noriko -- are also favorites of mine; while you are absolutely not obligated to work them in, you might look their way first as you cast about for plot.

Windmaster's Bane series • Tom Deitz

Character: Liz Hughes
With some exceptions, we don't spend a lot of time in this series looking at events from Liz's point of view, and this seems a good chance to rectify that. If you have only seen the earliest books in the series, you might show us a scene or segment from one of those through her eyes or supply a bit of back story for her; if you're familiar with the full canon, then feel free to branch forward or sideways from what we've seen. Absolutely include any other characters you deem useful or interesting, though note that I'll be happiest to see series-canonical pairings/romantic relationships intact.

I remember this series very fondly indeed; it may be my very favorite execution ever of the "faerie folk show up in the modern world" concept -- not least because Deitz did excellent homework both on the Sidhe and on the Cherokee folklore that comes in farther along in the sequence. It has, though, been some time since I've reread the books closely (something I'll remedy between now and Christmas, you may be sure). As far as specific prompts for a Liz-centric story go, I may therefore be less helpful than you'd hope for. If you are working from earlier books, you might simply put Liz and Oisin, or the gypsies, or one of the Sidhe together and see what happens. If you're conversant with the full series, you may want to play with post-canon events -- in which case a story involving Liz and Mrs. Sullivan might be amusing, or Liz and David 20 years later. If you're really ambitious, you might even pick up and run with the hints in the last book or so that a major worlds-changing event is in the offing in which Our Heroes will figure (though that's likely beyond the scope of a Yuletide piece). All these, of course, are Optional Details Which Are Optional, and I will be well rewarded simply by seeing what you come up with.