One for Sorrow

Hello and thank you, Yuletide writer! You are guaranteed an enthusiastic audience for your story, I can tell you.

If something in this letter inspires you, use it. If it stifles you, ignore it. I don't have any "perfect" stories in my head, I'd really just love to read anything in these fandoms or along these lines. For general likes/dislikes I'm fine with darkfic, even horror, and feel free to write whatever rating you like. In general, I do like the tone and emotional content of all these canons so I like to see that in fic as much as possible. To give you an idea of what excites me about the fandoms, here you go.

The theme this year seems to be long, complicated, often damaging relationships. Woo hoo!

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I got serious swag this year for Yuletide! If you watch The Americans--my favorite new show in 2013 by far--you'll love this fic. It's long and it's juicy and it's Philip-centric, and Phil's probably my favorite.

I recommend it to everyone highly! And when you're done, check out the other Americans fic because it's an embarassment of riches!

Grains of Gold Among the Sand (21159 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Americans (TV 2013)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Philip Jennings, Elizabeth Jennings, Paige Jennings, Henry Jennings
Additional Tags: Pre-Canon
Summary:

Philip Jennings throughout the years, navigating the minefields of marriage and family.

Wow, it's scary how long it's been since I've updated. You get out of the habit and drift away.

I also just got back from Sirens which I urge anybody who's interested in fantasy, and particularly women writing fantasy, should check out. The theme for next year is HAUNTINGS which is going to have been excited until next October.

Being in beautiful Washington State meant I only had a short time on returning to sign up for Yuletide, but I've done it. Hello Yuletide writer and thank you! You are guaranteed an enthusiastic audience for your story, I can tell you.

My main rule of thumb about this letter is that if it inspires you, use it. If it stifles you, ignore it. I don't have any "perfect" stories in my head, I'd really just love to read anything in these fandoms or along these lines. For general likes/dislikes I'm fine with darkfic, even horror, and feel free to write whatever rating you like. To give you an idea of what excites me about the fandoms, here you go! ( Collapse )

The concept, I mean. According to Joseph Campbell's The Power of Myth there are these stages the hero passes through as part of that big uber-story where the hero has a thousand faces (and one of them is Luke Skywalker).

I was thinking about this concept this week because I finally saw The Hobbit and really enjoyed it. I've been resenting the fact that they took this small book and blew it up to be possibly even longer than LOTR. I just hate the whole "we're splitting this one book into more than one movie" trend and have since DH. So I wasn't in a rush to see this, but I went with a group of fellow pervy hobbit fanciers, and it turned out to actually draw me in more than I expected. Some of the ways PJ found to add more weight--both in terms of the plot and the emotions--I thought worked pretty well. One moment I really liked was Bilbo's refusal/acceptance of the call.

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Happy new year! I am even going to make two posts today, which has sadly become really unusual. Yuletide was great fun this year again. I've managed to do a treat as well as a story in the past, but this year I only did my story. It was really fun to write, mostly because the fandom was Quiz Show. That gave me an excuse to rewatch it over and over. If you've never seen the movie, which is about the Quiz Show scandals of the 1950s, was directed by Robert Redford and stars John Turturro, Ralph Fiennes and Rob Morrow, you might check it out. It's got a crackling good script with dialogue that's just music to the ears.

If you have seen it and care to, check out my story as well, written for linaerys. Ten years after the events of the movie (so 1968) Dick and Charlie meet up again.

Chance Meeting at the Jefferson Hotel (3999 words) by sistermagpie
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Quiz Show (1994)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Richard Goodwin/Charles Van Doren
Characters: Richard Goodwin, Charles Van Doren
Summary:

How fitting to run into Charlie Van Doren tonight when futility was so much on Dick’s mind.

Also, if you didn't see it before and like Singin' in the Rain check out my gift story:

Top Billing (3568 words) by romanticalgirl
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Singin' in the Rain (1952)
Rating: General Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Don Lockwood, Cosmo Brown, Lina Lamont, Kathy Selden
Summary:

Singin' in the Rain was the end of the beginning for Don and Kathy, but what was it for Cosmo and Lina?

Happy Yuletide!

This year I got a fantastic present:

Top Billing (3568 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Singin' in the Rain (1952)
Rating: General Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Don Lockwood, Cosmo Brown, Lina Lamont, Kathy Selden
Summary:

Singin' in the Rain was the end of the beginning for Don and Kathy, but what was it for Cosmo and Lina?

Most Singin' in the Rain fic in Yuletide tends to deal with Don, Kathy and Cosmo, but I've always been most interested in Cosmo and Lina. This fic hits all my favorite bittersweet Hollywood emotions and stars my two favorite show biz survivors.

I'm still reading through the rest of the collection and have already found a lot of fantastic fics. Check it out!

Hey! So the amazing pts had an idea a while back. The idea was:

It occurred to us one bourbon-seasoned afternoon in March that Kissing and Adventure make really excellent partners—you know, in stories. And we thought to ourselves how grand it would be to assemble an anthology of fiction dedicated to making that case.

And lo, this idea became a reality--in e-book form! Seven tales of ships (as in vessels), and ships (as in kissing), all for under $3.00.

You can check out more details right here. There's story excerpts and links to get a copy of your own in multiple formats. So much kissing in a convenient format and a really low price!

Also, I'm in it. That is, I wrote one of the stories. As did other terrific people like aliwildgoose and jlh. I'm pretty excited about that part, actually. So I'm shamelessly plugging it. Proudly plugging it, in fact.

The Ships We Sail. Get your copy today! If you would like! No pressure!

It's been way too long since I updated this lj! I have been reading and commenting. This is my favorite time of year when all the great things happen: Fall, Sirens, Halloween and now Yuletide. This letter is for you, my assigned author. ( Collapse )

So Season 5 of Mad Men is over which means I have a little bit of my life back where I'm not constantly obsessing, but there's still a lot to chew over. Especially with my boy, Campbell. Because I've read so many reviews that either ignored his story as concluded in the finale or dismissed it as confusing and meaningless. Which I do not get. Maybe the story could have been done better, given that any story with this character has to break through a wall of resistance with viewers. Far from breaking through that wall with those viewers, this story just made it thicker because unhappy!Pete is unlikeable Pete. This year Pete lost a lot of people who'd grown to tolerate him because he'd been faithful to his wife. But I think Pete's story would actually have been considered a lot more interesting if given to another character. ( Collapse )

Can't believe how long it's been since I updated. I've been distracted by a lot of non-fandom things still going on, and spending a lot of time babbling about Mad Men on TWOP—no, not bashing Megan or JP’s teeth! There were times I was overdosing on her a bit and I don't think JP is that strong of an actress, especially relative to the rest of the cast, but in general, had a lot of fun analyzing Megan the character in many words! I may do a post on my thoughts about Megan--and one more on Pete because as annoying as it is for Megan-fans to read her bashing man I hate reviews that dismiss Pete's story with "I hate Pete and don't care what happens to him so his story made no sense and was dumb."

I've also been watching The Legend of Korra. I didn't have the same obsessed reaction to Korra as I didn’t to ATLA. Having seen the finale now, I just had to get thoughts out on how the storyline fell flat for me. So fair warning for criticism within--if you love the show I don't want to harsh your squee at all so please don't click! ( Collapse )

So yeah, it just seemed like an odd series to me.