She Who Staples

In your own space, create a list of at least three things you'd love to receive, a wishlist of sorts.

Hmm, well, nobody can give me leisure time or sleep, so I can't guarantee that I'll be able to follow up on any of the following in a timely fashion, but:

1. I got a mini ice cream maker for Christmas, so I'd love some ice cream or sorbet recipes.

2. Travel tips for Lyon or Montpellier, which we'll be visiting next month.

3. Not recs as such, because they don't need to be tailored to me, but tell me about a book or a fic you've enjoyed recently.

4. Art for any of my fics.

Something I hate: mansplaining (well, I hate anybody telling me things I already know without considering that they might not be new to me, but I have certainly encountered it more among men)

Something I love: music making

Somewhere I have been: Marseille

Somewhere I would like to go: Maastricht sounds pleasant.

Someone I know: my mother is a Margaret.

Favorite movie: Mamma Mia is tremendous fun. The plot is silly but the songs are, obviously, great, the setting is cheering, and it is an utter delight to see a collection of screen legends and national treasures clearly having the time of their lives. It is the sort of fine careless rapture that cannot be repeated and nobody should ever attempt to make a sequel, particularly if they can't get Meryl Streep back for it.


Request letters in comments if desired.

I have had a busy couple of months, and failed to sign up for Little Black Dress entirely. I have picked up a pinch hit for that, however, and I did manage to participate in both Jukebox and, for the first time, Into A Bar.

I was extremely pleased to be assigned Trenuleţul - this was Moldova's song in the Eurovision Song Contest. (I missed Eurovision on account of being busy on my own European train adventures; we were in Freiburg on the finals night.) My story is based on the music video, and probably doesn't make a huge amount of sense without it. Anyway, this isn't the first time I've included arguably unnecessary detail on European train services in a Jukebox story, and it may or may not be the last, but I had a better excuse than usual and a great deal of fun. I would have liked to have had time to write more, but it seems to have been quite well-received.

What an exchange! (2101 words) by El Staplador
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Trenuleţul - Zdob şi Zdub & Fraţii Advahov (Music Video)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Train passengers - Character
Additional Tags: Trains, caper, Travel, Magical Realism
Summary:

Of course this train is special. But then every train is special.

Then fate had me on a train to Brighton when reveals happened, and my gift was this most gorgeously melancholic timeslip/ghost story:

Each life has its place (1935 words) by hangingfire
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Seaside Rendez-Vous - Queen (Song), Original Work
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Original Female Character/Original Female Character
Characters: Original Female Character(s)
Additional Tags: Supernatural Elements, Queer Themes, Queer Character, Historical References, 20th Century
Summary:

Seaside discoveries—a ghost story or perhaps a slippage in time, and oneself.

This year I took part in intoabar for the first time. In this challenge you pick a character, nominate four other fandoms, are assigned a random character from one of those fandoms, and write a crossover based on what happens when they meet in a bar (or bar-like environment). My character was Eugénie Danglars from The Count of Monte Cristo and I was assigned Lady Capulet from Romeo and Juliet. The result was this:

Immortal Gifts (1563 words) by El Staplador
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Le Comte de Monte-Cristo | Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas, Romeo And Juliet - Shakespeare
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Eugénie Danglars & Lady Capulet
Characters: Eugénie Danglars, Lady Capulet (Romeo and Juliet)
Additional Tags: Crossover, Community: intoabar, Gothic, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Post-Canon
Summary:

The city of Verona is glad to welcome the great prima donna - and for her, a meeting with a stranger raises some old ghosts.

(Eugénie Danglars goes into a bar and meets... Lady Capulet!)

Hello new people! I'm shewhostaples, or Staps.

I have been on Dreamwidth since 2009; before that I was on Livejournal (now deleted). I'm on various other places on the internet under my given name. I occasionally conflate the two identities under access lock, but never outside it. I check my reading list several times a day, comment when I feel I have something interesting to say, and post anything from twice a day (very rare) to once a month (also quite rare). An average would be once or twice a week.

I am married to and live with countertony in Cambridge, UK.

I hang around in various rare fandoms, most of them books of a vaguely sensationalist nature. (The Prisoner of Zenda; The Count of Monte Cristo; the works of John Buchan; that sort of thing.) Occasionally I wander into a megafandom, to the confusion of everyone. (The last one was Yuri!!! on Ice.) I write fic, mostly femslash. It's all on AO3.

I have a bad habit of getting behind on canons and not catching up again. For this reason I tend to gravitate towards closed canons, or things like Doctor Who where it's generally acknowledged that nobody's ever going to have watched everything.

Under friends-lock I am likely to post about:

1. day-to-day life
- work (I work for a major trade union)
- family drama (I usually manage to see the funny side)
- church (I am a middle-of-the-road Anglican; religion-related posts tend to be either 'this hilarious/infuriating thing that happened at church', 'I told some more church people that I'm bisexual' or 'here is a thing that I found irritating/helpful'; I don't proselytise)

2. writing. I've self-published two novels, one of which won a fairly major award but has made little difference to my life otherwise. I have no intention of giving up the day job.

3. my mental health (seasonal depression)

I like clothes, opera, dark chocolate, poetry, cherries, hymns, cycling, walking, and travelling by train. I don't drive (never passed my test) and won't fly (eco-worrier).

I occasionally unsubscribe from people without notice. This is invariably a 'it's not you, it's me' thing. I'm very relaxed about people doing the same to me: permanent subscribing and unsubscribing amnesty applies round here!