Dear Santa: Yuletide 2025

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These letters aren't getting any shorter, so while I've got detailed material farther down, I think it's only fair to give you the list of fandom requests up front. So, those would be:

Antiques Roadshow RPF (any)
Batman Beyond (any)
Dirk Pitt (worldbuilding)
The Keltiad (any)
The Magician (TV 1973) (any)
Night of the Solstice (any)
Night World (any)
Power Rangers Operation Overdrive (any)

Now, then:
Greetings, O YuleScrivener, and welcome! And also, thank you! Where Yuletide is concerned, I am nothing if not a Requester Of The Seriously Obscure. Thus I am always amazed when the technomancy of the matching process succeeds in finding a writer who shares my appreciation for said obscurity, and delighted on Christmas morning when a wonderful and wondrous story from that writer's (metaphorical) pen lands in my AO3 gift-folder. We may just be setting out on this year's journey, but I know there's a happy ending to come, and I am grateful for it already. Your work is (and will be) appreciated and valued, and I look forward to seeing its fruits.

Likes & Dislikes
Feel free to wander backward through this journal and my fic on AO3 (linked to your left) to get an idea of my interests; what I write is very much also what I like to read – and has, over time, added up to rather a variety of fandoms. My past Yuletide letters (and those for other exchanges) are tagged "dear santa" herein; see the "Yuletide" tag too, if you like.

To summarize, though: text-driven pluses for me include effective use of wit (aka banter aka snark, etc.), as well as strong characterization & dialogue. I value both respect for and clever use of canon (including well-developed AUs -- the plot-driven kind, not the baristas/highschoolers/alt-species kind). I thrive on UST (heavy on both U and T), and am neutral where gen/het/slash is concerned; if the pairing is well-developed, I'll read with an open mind.

I am also a sucker for the well-executed crossover, whether via oblique allusion or head-on fandom collision. Yuletide being Yuletide and Optional Details Being Optional, I have absolutely no expectations along this line...but I have included an EXTREMELY OPTIONAL BONUS POINTS section in some of my requests, because I live in hope, and because I can’t resist this sort of opportunity. Take these in the spirit in which they’re given, or set them aside as you prefer.

DNWs:
AUs: Avoid alt-setting AUs (coffeeshop, high school, etc.) or (except as noted in a request) AUs that break core canon-consistent relationships. For guidance on canon divergence AUs, see individual requests; that said, crossovers/fusions are generally encouraged but wholly optional.

Explicit sex: Fade-to-black and non-explicit romantic themes are fine; smut as such just isn’t my jam. Please also avoid noncon, incest, adult/child, A/B/O, and power-imbalanced romantic/sexual relationships (mentor/student, boss/underling, etc.).

Canon-contradicting romance: Except as noted in a request, avoid breaking canonical relationships and honor sexual preferences/identities established in canon. OTOH, for unpaired characters, it’s OK to establish or widen a sexual identity or relationship. Where the potential exists, cross-canon relationships are both allowed and encouraged.

Character Matching & Prompts:
With one exception, all my requests this year are for “any” character – and I’m good with that. In a number of cases, these are fandoms with true ensemble casts, and I don’t/didn’t want to restrict your focus as writer. You’re very much free to feature just one character or to take a wide-angle approach (and to pull in additional fandom characters or OCs wherever they fit in, within the spirit of the Yuletide rules). My goal is to give you greater flexibility in introducing additional characters, whether from those nominated or from wider canon. Even where I supply relatively specific prompts in a request, I want you to be able to shape the story; my suggestions are meant as springboards, not boundaries.

Requests:

Antiques Roadshow RPF (any)
This is essentially a brand new fandom in which I’m at least partly responsible for the canonical tag.

PROMPTS:
There’s just enough material under the canonical tag on AO3 (three works, all short, one of them mine) to give you an idea of what I have in mind for this. Basically, I figure the fun here is to give the real-world appraisers a chance to evaluate a great variety of especially unusual artifacts – whether as an excuse to resolve a historical mystery (as I did with my piece), to look at the history of a crossover canon from a unique angle, or to challenge them by introducing supernatural or magical elements. Anyone looking to write for this fandom is presumably a history buff; obviously, so am I. Feel free to use this as an excuse to share your favorite period or collecting interest – or just to have some fun by tossing something genuinely weird into the appraisers’ laps.

EXTREMELY OPTIONAL BONUS POINTS:
My inner crossover geek is salivating over here – oh, the possibilities! Would Stephen Strange – or Rupert Giles, or Indiana Jomes - come on as a guest appraiser? What would a holodeck Leila Dunbar know about DS9 baseball artifacts? If someone dug up one of the magic rings from The Magician’s Nephew, would Kevin Zavian know what it was?

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Batman Beyond (any)
PROMPTS:
This request was specifically inspired by the episode titled “Out of the Past”, in which Terry is introduced to the family al-Ghul, with whom Bruce has an unusually complicated history. That particular episode has one especially dramatic twist...and that twist is one I’ve had capital-I Issues with ever since I first saw it. I have to think we didn’t get the whole story about that from what we saw – and I very much want the story we didn’t see. (Yes, I am being vague here; if you’ve seen the episode, you know what I’m talking about. If you haven’t, this is a case where you absolutely should not be spoiled for That Twist beforehand. Trust me on this.)

Now: two things. If you go with that specific prompt, write it the way you want to write it – don’t try to second-guess the resolution you may think I want. (I’m not sure myself how I want that confrontation to turn out – which is one reason I haven’t tried to write about it to date.) Second, you are also absolutely free to go somewhere else entirely with any or all of the Bats and/or al-Ghuls; the Batverse is large, and my obsession need not be yours.

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Dirk Pitt (worldbuilding)
PROMPTS:
Looking at the extended NUMAverse, three central elements seem most ripe for explanations or examinations:

(1) why don’t the fantastic discoveries in some of the early novels, including a secret moon base (CYCLOPS), the treaty uniting the US and Canada (NIGHT PROBE) and a sizeable chunk of the Library of Alexandria (TREASURE), seem to affect the course of world history in later books?

(2) All of Cussler’s series are tied together by characters’ cameo appearances in books outside their own usual orbits (even the Fargos, by way of St. Julien Perlmutter, and the parallel Pitt and Bell arcs in TITANIC SECRET). Given all the protagonists’ tendency to land in high-level conspiracy plots, you’d think the series leads would have formed a club by now....

(3) I think there’ve been Clive Cussler cameos in all the series to date, possibly excluding Isaac Bell (that’s the one series I’ve not actually read). If we put all the cameos together, what kind of in-universe biography does Cussler come out with?

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The Keltiad (any)
PROMPTS:
This is pretty much one of my Oliver!-class requests – the relevant line being, “Please, sir, may I have some more?”. I hadn’t realized till quite recently that the author, Patricia Kennealy-Morrison, died a few years ago – and as far as I can tell via the ‘Net, no further publishable Keltiad manuscripts seem to be extant.

In the circumstance, I will take pretty much anything I can get, and with this cluster of characters, I find myself more interested in post-canonical material than back story (but don’t let that stop you, particularly in O’Reilly’s case, if your muse takes you elsewhere).

In particular, I would be interested in material about these characters written from an outside POV, most particularly Earthside – whether from some of the Terran diplomats we meet in the books, or perhaps from newsfeed accounts. (If you are feeling especially mischievous, I am likely to be highly amused by an in-canon reaction/response to the Keltic poetry archive I posted some Yuletides back….)

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The Magician (TV 1973) (any)
PROMPTS:
This is another ‘verse where my chief prompt is simply “Please, Sir, may I have some more?” Casefic is just fine here, but need not be limited to action plots – I’d be equally happy to see our hero apply his magical skills to a murder case, a bit of carefully planned (but not coercive) matchmaking, an afternoon in a college (or kindergarten) classroom, or the solution of an archaeological treasure-hunt puzzle a la Indiana Jones or Sydney Fox. Likewise, feel free to set your story in an exotic vacation destination or plain old suburbia it’s the character work here that will draw me in, as much or more than the plot.

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Night of the Solstice (any)

A note here: I’m not sure how widely it’s been circulated among the fandom, but we lost L. J. Smith early this year to a long medical struggle. While it’s been reported that Strange Fate and one other novel are presently in the hands of her agent and/or editor, it appears that Mirror of Heaven, the planned third Wildworld novel, was probably not completed.

PROMPTS:
In a word – OWW. I am on record elsewhere as considering this and Heart of Valor Smith’s very best work, and I badly wanted Mirror of Heaven to exist. We do, however, have the Hodges-Bradley family, and I would be delighted to see pretty much anything you might have in mind for any of them at this point. While the fandom title refers specifically to the first book, I hope that most of the prospective writers here have also read the sequel.

Two particular thoughts: particularly if one has read the sequel, I'd enjoy seeing a longish jump forward to see what Alys’ and/or Janie’s adult lives look like as they balance life encompassing two such different worlds (and whether, given what Heart of Valor establishes about Alys’ status as something of an ambassador, there’s some sort of effort to formalize relations between the Wildworld and our ‘Stillworld’).

Alternately, seeing more of either girl’s training (Janie as sorceress, Alys as warrior/ambassador) would be just fine, as would seeing Claudia mature into adulthood. I’m not sure quite what one would do with Charles; as much as there seems to be genuine attraction between him and Elwyn, it’s hard to see that as a stable pairing from what we’ve seen in canon. Further development of the books’ Arthurian elements would be welcome, too (which parent has the relevant ancestry, and how much does said parent know, or not know, from family lore?).

EXTREMELY OPTIONAL BONUS POINTS:
If we’ve matched on this fandom, I should note that I wrote a Night of the Solstice story for Yuletide a scary number of years back. Should you find it useful, you are totally welcome to springboard off of anything therein as you approach the present assignment.

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Night World (any)

A note here: I’m not sure how widely it’s been circulated among the fandom, but we lost L. J. Smith early this year to a long medical struggle. That said, it’s been reported that Strange Fate and one other novel are presently in the hands of her agent and/or editor, and negotiations are said to be in process for their publication.

PROMPTS:
Me: I like all nine of these characters, individually and collectively, so you’re welcome to focus on anyone or everyone as your muse requires.

Prospective Writer: Gee, that helps a lot!

Me: No, really, character-wise, you’re welcome to pick and choose. My thoughts here run in two directions – I’m interested both in pre-canon (that is, early Night World history, focusing on Thierry or the Dark Kingdom or both) and developments post-Witchlight where the Daybreak characters (especially Jez, Rashel, and Ash) are in open conflict with the Night World.

In particular, I’m very curious about developments in the Dark Kingdom following on from Black Dawn (but I recognize that we don’t have characters from that book in the tag set). Alternately, some of these characters haven’t met one another in canon – any first meeting between characters from different books would be fun to see.

EXTREMELY OPTIONAL BONUS POINTS:
As much as I want to see Strange Fate at last, I’m not sure I trust the current publishing landscape to get it to us as soon as we’d like...and I’m also a little nervous about how well it will actually stick the landing. So: while tying off the Night World storylines is a novel-sized project that's far beyond the scope of any Yuletide assignment – and only if you feel truly comfortable attempting it, I would not be opposed to seeing a story that at least lays some groundwork for a grand finale, in a way that does justice to all of our favored characters.

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Power Rangers Operation Overdrive (any)
PROMPTS:
I like this iteration of the Ranger franchise for three things: the unique plot dynamic – the ongoing artifact hunting and the diverse array of villains make for interesting stories – and the late-blooming but unique character arcs for the Hartford family (not excluding Spencer, who reminds me strongly – in the best possible good way – of Alan Napier’s Alfred in the ’66 Batman series). Outside of RPM, Operation Overdrive is perhaps the most distinctively developed plot arc in the entire franchise (there are several others with strong and well-executed character arcs, but most of those are framed within the usual monster-of-the-week structure).

Feel free to find room for as much of the full Ranger ensemble (and/or any of their foes) as you care to include in your story. This is also one case where I’d be glad to see either a pre-series (i.e. Dad & Spencer) or post-series (any combo of Dad, Spencer & Mack) idea, or even a thoughtfully executed romantic arc (don’t feel limited to Rose for any het pairing in this line).