yunitsa, posts by tag: yuletide - LiveJournal

So after dithering and dithering until the last moment, I didn't sign up for Yuletide -- I think for the first time in, what, seven years? It's not like there was nothing I could have written - just browsing vaguely through the letters, I ended up composing several stories in my head - but actually writing something down for an assignment felt like it would be just one more stressful addition to the massive to-do list. It's making me sad, though - another thing I used to enjoy taken away. Maybe I'll try to write some treats or pick up a pinch hit or something.

Last weekend I went to Bath with my gang of old university friends, which was absolutely lovely (we stayed at a grand old house in the middle of town and cooked nice food and went to the spa), but having those three days off meant I had to work frantically the week before and the week after to compensate and now I still don't feel like I've caught up. Today did manage to write a particularly thorny job application that I'd unwisely left until the last minute and to clean the flat, neither of which I wanted to do, so there's that. Plan for tomorrow is to go in early to finalise my essay marking and run errands, and then come home for lunch and reread Richard III and Frankenstein for my classes this week, though given how terrible I am at mornings (even with the extra hour), I suspect it may be a very late lunch. And now I am off to guilt-watch Downton Abbey.

(Oh, and also I was at the Welcome to Night Vale live show on Thursday! It was awesome, though some of the other live shows they've done must have been even more amazing to experience. And in other news, still continue to love Person of Interest to an unreasonable extent apparently unshared by the rest of the Internet, or at least the corner of it I'm aware of.)

Crossposted to http://yunitsa.dreamwidth.org/6939…, with comments.

I've spent the afternoon and evening working away on a difficult thing, so now I'm tired and rather loopy, but all the same, reading this comment in the Yuletide eligibility evidence post just made me laugh and laugh until I cried. I think "this is his eyebrows, and solely his eyebrows" and it just sets me off again. YULETIDE, guys.

You're welcome.

Crossposted to http://yunitsa.dreamwidth.org/6932…, with comments.

In a shocking and surprising development, I wrote the Lymond/Christopher Marlowe (in his Gay Atheist Spy incarnation) story :D

A Meeting of the Minds (2417 words) by yunitsa
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 16th Century CE RPF, Lymond Chronicles - Dorothy Dunnett
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Christopher Marlowe, Francis Walsingham, Francis Crawford
Additional Tags: Stealth Crossover, Queer Gen
Summary: In which Kit Marlowe is sent to recruit a visiting nobleman, and finds himself recruited in turn.

wildestranger and I matched on three fandoms (to the point where my Partner in Crime, on being sent a link, demanded whether we were in fact the same person), and as soon as I saw her requests, I knew that I wanted to write this crossover. It turned out to be rather more challenging than I expected, particularly the Lymond voice (I pictured him as an older Peter O'Toole, which made his recent death all the sadder for me) - I spent a lot of time fiddling and fine-tuning, and I'm still not convinced I got it right.

As I just said answering comments, the ending is ambiguous on purpose - Lymond never actually changes history, and I wanted to leave everyone free to imagine what happens next. Still, if you want to know my version, I think that Kit would decide to stay in London, but later, as the net closes in on him, he fakes his own death and escapes to Scotland. He finds Lymond very frail, but Philippa is kind to him - kinder than he'd learned to expect anyone to be. And if any enterprising academic were to go through the attics at Lymond Castle now, they'd find a box full of manuscripts that would make their career.

I read a bit less widely than in previous years, but it's still been a very satisfying Yuletide, and I'm so grateful to the two authors who wrote such lovely stories for me! I'm not doing a separate rec post, but you can find them here, tagged "Yuletide recs".

Crossposted to http://yunitsa.dreamwidth.org/6764…, with comments.

This year I got not one but two gorgeous Hilary Mantel stories, in different fandoms, which are both so perfect in their prose style that I'm in awe.

Conductors of Light (2812 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: A Place of Greater Safety - Hilary Mantel
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Maximilien Robespierre, Camille Desmoulins, Georges Jacques Danton
Summary: What is the position of magicians in France? As well ask, what is the position of one who practices the law? It varies.

(French Revolution magic AU! It's glorious! I want to read 900 more pages about their tragic revolutionary magic adventures!)

Wholesome, Even for the King (2955 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Wolf Hall Series - Hilary Mantel
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Jane Seymour, Thomas Cromwell
Additional Tags: Character Study, Yuletide Treat
Summary: "Jane," Bess says, her voice lowered, "you know his Majesty can't court you forever."
"Yes," Jane says. She has considered this. "There are only so many suitable lines my name will scan in, unless he starts reusing verses."

(Perfect, perfect Jane Seymour, in all her oddbeat glory. I love this so much.)

No points for guessing what I wrote this year -- if you come across it (which you might do now that I've tagged it more helpfully; I initially wanted to preserve the surprise for my recipient), you'll know it's me.

I'm trying not to binge-read Yuletide until my eyes fall out this year, but it's hard, because there are so many lovely things! And I've got most of the day free, since we tend to do Proper Christmas (with roast duck and presents) on Christmas Eve, and then Jewish Christmas on the day itself, going to the cinema and eating Chinese food. Though there's a lot of duck left over this year, so we might skip the Chinese.

In conclusion: Yuletide! So glad I decided to participate after all.

Crossposted to http://yunitsa.dreamwidth.org/6760…, with comments.

1) This was the week in which I finally managed to feel caught up with things - for a brief, glorious instant, my to-do list had nothing on it - which means that I've mostly been waiting for the other shoe to drop. I've also overcommitted myself a bit socially for last week and next, which means today I'm going to spend sitting very quietly, reading Woman on the Edge of Time (aka, the most depressing book in the world) for the class I'm teaching.

2) Speaking of which, the problem with reading about Lacanian feminism and then going to play with a nine-month-old baby is that you keep having conversations like, "Who's a cute little boy? Have you recognised yourself as a subject and entered the symbolic order yet?"

3) Yuletide! After all my dithering about signing up, I actually really love my assignment, and ended up writing most of a story draft yesterday. It's a bit overambitious and I'm not sure I'll pull it off successfully, but I'm rather pleased with myself for coming up with the idea :D

4) Currently having a traditional Sunday morning of fry-up and Radio 4, which has resulted in me going OH JULIAN FELLOWES NO a lot. Not that that will stop me from watching Downton Abbey this evening, but at least it's not claiming to be Shakespeare. Reviews for Romeo and Juliet overwhelmingly underwhelmed, which is a shame, as I do think Hailee Steinfeld is lovely.

Crossposted to http://yunitsa.dreamwidth.org/6695….

I had very mixed feelings about signing up for Yuletide this year, but they had everything to do with my doubts about my own abilities to write something. Receiving a story I have no doubts about at all - I'd love to see something written for any of these fandoms, dear writer, and you have already made me very happy by offering them!

General likes: developing relationships, partnerships (aka: together-they-fight-crime!), intelligent conversation, period details, restraint, sexual tension getting resolved

General dislikes: noncon, misunderstanding plots, out-of-character emoting, modern-day AUs

Any rating is fine, though characterisation in sex scenes is more interesting to me than the bare mechanics. I prefer reasonably positive endings for Yuletide, though I understand that's more possible for some fandoms than others, and I wouldn't want you to force the story to fit.

I'm signing up at the last minute, so I apologise for the slightly slapdash phrasing of the requests. For all of these fandoms, I guess my question is "how does this character/this relationship work?" So whatever situations you can put them in to help showcase that would be brilliant. Any plot is secondary - I like stories with the appearance of plot, where relevant, but you can handwave the specifics as much as you like; I know I often do.

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Crossposted to http://yunitsa.dreamwidth.org/6692….

All rather belated, as I've been travelling and haven't had a chance to read very much yet (though the stories I have read have been fantastic), but I received a lovely Laurence/Tharkay fic involving the search for the Northwest Passage: Bridge of Ice (9214 words) by OperaOtaku.

My own story was a character study of Hal from Shakespeare's first tetralogy, for anghraine. It's gen fic, and I probably should have tagged it for the plays (although it is very firmly based on this particular adaptation, to get the timeline to work and because Tom Hiddleston), so it hasn't really been read much, but I enjoyed the writing and I'm pleased with how it turned out:

The Ages of Man (1647 words) by yunitsa
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Hollow Crown (2012)
Rating: General Audiences
Warning: Author Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Characters: Richard II of England, Henry "Hotspur" Percy, John of Lancaster, Henry V of England
Summary: Hal grows up to be a king.

In other news, happy 2013 to all! I intend to spend it much like I did 2012, stressed and working like mad, but at least the weekend passed peacefully in rural Cheshire with my university friends, going on muddy walks and cooking delicious meals and playing games and taking silly photos. Getting back into the swing of things since getting home last night has been difficult, but alas I must, for there is much and much to do.

It’s that time again - time for me to sign up for Yuletide even though I haven't got a spare second to call my own and am clearly mad to do so. I'm only making three requests this year (unless something else completely irresistible occurs to me before the end of sign-ups), but I'd be extremely keen to receive a story in any of these sadly small fandoms. Dear Yuletide writer, I'm so pleased that you’ve volunteered to write in one of them for me, and I’m sure I’ll love whatever you come up with!

My specific (and somewhat id-tastic) requests are below the cut. In general, things I enjoy include the blossoming of reluctant friendships/partnerships, people working to fight/commit crime together, clever prose, pining, and that moment when restrained feelings break through. I’d be happy with a story of any rating, but, with sex scenes, I tend to focus on feelings over detailed anatomical descriptions. I’d prefer not to get something entirely bleak or disturbing for Yuletide, or an extreme AU that departs from the canonical setting (though there are exceptions to this if you really want to write St. Ives in Spaaace, and AUs taking the plot in a different direction are totally fine), and anachronistic language in historical fandoms can make me wince. Apart from that, anything goes.

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...Fifty Shades of Grey has been nominated for Yuletide. We have now entered the world of INFINITE RECURSION.

In other news, I knew it would be a terrible idea to watch the Person of Interest finale while doing a bit of housework, and I was right. This show has really grown on me, despite all its ridiculousness and stating of the obvious - someone will raise an eyebrow and I will have all of the feelings and desire all the fic, and there is barely any that I like :( And even if there were I wouldn't any time to read it :( :(

I don't know how much longer I can keep doing this, you guys. Today I did three job applications, wrote a couple of highly awkward emails, and read the speaker's book for tomorrow. Total forward progress = pretty much zero, yet again.

I'm not anything like done reading, but here is a highly varied selection of stories that I've really loved so far this year, and thought you guys might appreciate, if you haven't come across them yet.

First of all, I'd just like to rec everything written for Tour of the Merrimack this year, whether or not it was for me - they're all incredibly happy-making fix-it stories, perfectly capturing the characters, sexual tension, and even the...distinctive prose style of the series. Here's to lots more Merrimack fic in 2012!

RPF - 12th Century
Yip et Non - I have only three words to recommend this fic for alpheratz in particular, and they are "THEOLOGIANS OR POMERANIANS?" Because this is the fic in which Peter Abelard and Bernard of Clairvaux are naughty Pomeranians fighting over the Ball of Divine Truth, and I can't even articulate how glorious that is.

Oglaf
Five Things Sandoval Won't Tell You (And A Few Others He Will Not Shut Up About) - It's hard to know quite what to expect from Oglaf fic, given that it's a highly pornographic and hilarious webcomic, but it turns out - THIS. Exactly this. I fully accept each of these things as canon now, because they fit in so very well.

Naomi Novik - Temeraire
The Constraint of Conscience - This is exactly the Laurence/Tharkay fic I've been desperately longing to see set between Victory of Eagles and Tongues of Serpents, full of restrained desire and believable characterization and wonderful dialogue. And now I want about a hundred more helpings of the same, because I am greedy.

Lev Grossman - The Magicians
Q is for QUENTIN who sank in a mire - If the above is the Laurence/Tharkay fic I wish I'd written, this is the Magicians fic I wish I'd written. Absolutely flawless portrayals of all four of them, funny and brittle, which makes me alternatively want to hug and slap them all, just like the books.

American Revolution RPF
Force Majeure - A sort of Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell/American Revolution mashup, and I didn't even like JS&MN, but I loved this, and would happily read hundreds of thousands more words set in this universe. Particularly if they involved Washington/Hamilton, which is apparently my OTP now and I'm not even sure how that happened.

16th-17th Century RPF
And I'll no Longer be a Capulet - Starts with the perfect summary ("Marley was dead: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that.") and goes on from there to create a perfectly believable portrait of Christopher Marlowe at 30, escaping death and facing life in exile, and writing these stunning letters to a certain fellow playwright at home.

Scott Lynch - Gentleman Bastard series
The Best Laid Plans - Locke and Jean pretend to be married for a con, and then they're not so much pretending anymore. Simple and satisfying and it works, with that undercurrent of averted death (because it's sure to be averted somehow) underneath.

Patrick O'Brian - Aubrey/Maturin
Birds of a Feather - Stephen Maturin temporarily turns into a penguin; everyone takes this in stride. Absolutely hysterical.

Rome
From Rome to Brundisium, with Stops - An unusual but compelling take on the post-finale story, in which Vorena the Younger decides that it would be easier to live life as a boy, and does so. Has excellent voices and historical description.