sab | Entries tagged with yuletide

First, thank you

therealjae for the finest Yuletide present in the land. I'm glad it was you! (Largely because it means I might be able to use ~~my sekrit powers of persuasion~~ Luna to convince you to write me more Betsy-Tacy...) Srsly, thank you so much.

* I, Sab, broke from any previously established tradition and wrote And do the other things, 3rd Rock from the Sun futurefic with purple tubes and Tommy, for V., a mysterious fan best known for munning Tommy Solomon at her RP journal,

anold_soul. V, I'm so glad you liked the story... I know you're a tough Tommy critic and I'm thrilled that I was able to live up to your request.

I also wrote a pinch-hit which I nearly didn't own up to. I was assigned a pinchhit for

khaoschilde/wickedfox and, despite my best intentions, was unable to write the awesome fic she deserved in the allotted time. Then when the archive opened I saw that she had five other fics for the same prompt -- the benefit and drawback of the Yuletide Treats system -- so I sent a note out to le mod extraordinaire,

elynross, asking if I could have mine taken down. Elyn tactfully pointed out that I was being selfish and crazy, and that Yuletide is a gift exchange and the story's not mine to yank back from its recipient. I also thought about having it listed as "anonymous" upon reveal, which Elyn encouraged me to think hard about before committing to. And I did think and concluded that having one single fic credited to anonymous in the reveal would be both drama-queeny and attention-grabby.

Then I reread the story a couple more times and decided I didn't hate it quite so much after all.

* Annnnnyhoo. Here's, His Sad, Sorry Story, Scrubs in response to wickedfox's prompt for a fic about Perry Cox. And while it may not live up to my other Scrubsfic, it's ridiculous of me to be so megalomaniacal here in the holiday season.

Thanks to the nice people who commented on my stories, to the gracious recipients, and, again, to Jae, for the best gift ever.

Current Music: motion on the ocean - nana grizol

I'm re-reccing the ones from my initial post, so I can link to the community, which I forgot to do the first time around, and, anyway, who knows if I'll be organized enough after this first batch to do another one?

Anyway!

Tin Gods and Golden Goddessess was written for me and you can't have it! I requested the Betsy-Tacy series, high school era, and received this masterpiece of Tacypov, because, you know, Betsy left Hill Street for High Street and got to grow up, and Tacy stayed back on Hill Street. And plus, as MHL herself said in the books, many times, "Tacy wasn't interested in boys."

Spy vs. Spy, Love & Rockets. Framed in a hilarious mystery, this is all our favorite Hoppers folk lost-summering it at the mysterious Costigan manor, which seems like a hotbed of corruption but, as it turns out, is just a great place for Maggie and Hopey to spend their days and nights fucking. Oh and by the way, yuletide person, it's about time you wrote one of these. I was getting tired of being a fandom of one! Anyway, when the reveal comes, yuletide person, I will more fervently pounce upon thee. You know who you are.

The Kindly King of Strummings and Hummings, Chronicles of Prydain. Because Fflewddur is just the most marvelous wandering humbug king that ever was, and Eilonwy's the princess with the red-gold hair who always knows which way the wind is blowing. Plus there are dragons! And their colors are running!

Waiting, HIMYM. Robin/Barney, with laser tag, banter, and Canadian Christmas.

Feud, Jeremiah. Speaking of shows that were woefully underrepresented in fandom... it is so awesome to see Jeremiah and Kurdy and the crew of Thunder Mountain again. This is a satisfyingly plotty story, with the texture and desperation of the show itself, and is also a great tribute to Kurdy and Jeremiah's friendship. Plus Markus is well used, and Erin drives! Oh, show!

Four Views of General Jinjur, Baum's Oz series, done in interview style as described by those who knew Jinjur best, from the Munchkin mother that raised her to Ozma herself. Good, good fleshing-out of the woman who de-throned the Scarecrow and was, whether she wanted to admit it or not, instrumental in returning Ozma to her throne. The references to Oz canon throughout are elegant and perfect.

A Kiss is Still a Kiss, more Oz series. Don't let the typo in the summary line scare you off of this fic. This is pure Baumian wonder, with a fannish twist. The Oz books are unique among fairy tales and children's literature in that they are close to purely innocent. No ambiguous evil, nothing terribly scary, no sex, no romance of any kind. (In fact, aside from Aunt Em and Uncle Henry and a couple of other assorted, like, Munchkin families, no one is even married in Oz. And certainly there's no talk of it.) Here, Ozma, the fairy princess of Oz, finds an artifact from that other life of Dorothy's, and goes on a perfectly Ozma-style mission to figure it out. And, without corrupting one single sentence of the Oz series, the Yuletide author brings romance to Oz in the unlikeliest of couples.

See You in the Night, Band of Brothers. Here's what's up. Nixon's been with the intelligence officers while Dick's been on the line, so he has information Dick doesn't. And over the course of one cold evening, their bodies wrapped around each other, Nixon realizes he can't protect Dick any more and has to tell him the truth about the horrors of war. Ow. Oh. It's heartbreaking. Like -- if you'll forgive my diversion -- remember that NCIS ep when Gibbs was in a coma and when he woke up Franks had to tell him about 9/11 all over again? Yeah, like that. But worse, and much more beautiful.

There is no I or You, Frasier. A satisfying quickie; Niles reads Neruda and Daphne is clueless.

I'll Find You in the Morning Sun, Angels in America. Long, plotty, bang-on characterization from a flawed and neurotic Louis to a loyal and defensive Belize to a Prior who wants -- and gets -- more life. The friendship between Prior and Hannah is bittersweet and perfect, and the whole thing feels lifted right out of New York City at the dying end of the 1980s.

Whoops! ETA one more: Plenty of Paper, Battle Royale. I mean, all those kids could use backstories, but here are Yumiko and Yukiko, who hid out for as long as they could together and then were killed holding hands. Both adorable and chilling.

And, yes, okay, you were all exactly right, Out of the Dark, One Fish Two Fish is, yes, just that creepy and just that good. It's like an Asian horror movie with rhyming.

We shouldn't have been in the park that night. Alone, too young, in the dark.

Later, B. blamed me for it. He always did. I did alibis; he did rhymes. That's how it worked. Much later, B. blamed himself for it. He did responsibility; I did comfort. That's also how it worked.

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I'm one of those people who perpetually makes Santa's naughty list every year, so I rarely get presents, and that makes my Yuletide gift doubly sweet; something just for me, and something that says someone was thinking about me this year, just me, and, for a minute, fulfilling my hopes and wishes. And this year -- as, really, every year, I've lucked out -- I got the best present ever. Person, if you're reading this, thank you. All I wanted for Hanukkah was a little bit of Deep Valley this year, and I got it, my very own trip to the rambling Kelly house on the hill, like a warm night in the Ray family parlor, Julia at the piano and the rest of us doing the Merry Widow Waltz across the floor.

Happy holidays, folks.

I dreamed I was heading up a very long escalator; it went from hell up to Philadelphia. I was behind a chick with a backpack, and there were papers poking out, notes for her Yuletide fic, which turned out to be for me. (It was

glossing), writing me something based on the Betsy-Tacy books, and even then on the escalator I was surprised that she didn't choose the Love & Rockets prompt.

I've been fantasizing about my Yuletide fic; not the one I'm writing but the one some nice person is writing for me! and what it might be like. This year I picked four prompts I'm quite interested in, but here between you and me and the escalator to hell I'm thinking, at least today, that I'd really really like it if someone did the UTEOTW prompt.

This desire brought to you by the fact that I watched a couple episodes of Supernatural last night (update: still like the MOTWs, but wish the boys were Mulder and Scully instead) and they have all their angels, which reminded me of Wings of Desire and Faraway, So Close, featuring the two angels Damiel and Cassiel and it occurred to me that those films and SPN would be RIPE for a crossover.

And then my mind went to other Wim Wenders' I love, namely, Until the End of the World, which is, as many people who know me know, my most favoritest movie ever (next to Starship Troopers).

...actually, backing out slightly more, any die-hard Wenders fans among you? Favorite films? Favorite people? Favorite Philip Winter? (mine is the one from UTEOTW but followed incredibly closely by the one in Alice in the Cities, and then the one from Lisbon Story)

Anyone else seen the extended 7 hour cut of OTEOTW?

Anyone out there making progress on their

yuletide fic?

Anyone feel like adding some notable stories to my fanlore entry? *g*

Anyone seen Punk?

yuletide writer! Thanks for dropping by!

In general, I think I spelled out what I like pretty well in my requests, but at the same time, just go to town! If you've got an inspiration for any of those fandoms -- such as they are -- write that instead.

I'm not wild about domestic-bliss type fics (you know, babies, marriage, cohabitation, etc etc), and as a rule I tend to prefer first-time stories as opposed to established relationships, but then, you know, Betsy and Joe could totally break that rule. *g*

Anyway, write me something awesome! I can't wait to read it. I really really hope that one of my requests inspires you.

If you have any questions about my taste and style, go hit up

runpunkrun; she knows everything.

Also I don't have IP logging on, so anonymous comments/questions are totally kosher.

But that's not the point! The point is, happy holiday season and write something you're into!

ETA: Also, any rating is fine, kink is fine, non-kink is fine, slash, het, gen, all fine; there's very little that offends me as far as that goes. I trust that you are clever enough to know whether something like scat, or incest, is really within character... *g*

ET also A: So I've been reading other folks' letters and it occurs to me there's other stuff that's good to point out. First,

mosca noted that though this is a holiday challenge, there's really no need to put a holiday spin on the story. I mean, obviously Christmas is important to Betsy et al, and the Farbers are canonically Jewish, but there's really no reason to bring that in to the story unless it's part of your inspiration. Also, if you're doing the THS:SS prompt, there is really no definitive canon interpretation, and it's not like *I* am married to any particular characterization/timeline/etc for the stories, so you should consider it a carte blanche to make stuff up. I promise not to tell the band.

More thanks for being someone who cares about ANY of these fandoms enough to volunteer to write them; clearly because of that we are meant to be BFF.

Your'n,

Sab

Oh, right,

yuletide. I promised I'd say something, and here we are a day away from the end of the sign-up period (that's 9pm, Eastern time, Monday the 10th).

So. Yuletide is this marvelous online institution set up as wish fulfillment for a holiday present. Here's how it goes:

To the people who read Eating Hard Candy Alone but aren't part of fandom, per se, people who have never written fanfiction though you are aware of its existence, or people who are on the fringes of fandom and just don't know how to get involved, Yuletide is a great place to do this.

In general, "fandom" refers to two things. First, a group of people involved in the practice of being fans, ie, "we met through fandom" or "we're going to a conference to speak about fandom", or, second, a specific group of people and their stories, art, etc, focused on a single object of fannish interest, ie, "there are some crazy people in Doctor Who fandom," or "I like House, but I'm not really in the fandom." Either way, it's a noun. Does that help?

Yuletide, on the other hand, doesn't restrict itself to the second definition, isn't organized around any specific fandom or even "fandom" in the first definition. It's not a commitment to fannish practice -- again, it's a present.

There are many, many, many "fandoms" listed, though they're not necessarily "fandoms" at all. Here you'll find the books of the Bible, Greek Mythology, Aeschalus plays, shows like Scarecrow and Mrs. King or movies like Lost in Translation. Go give [this list] a lookover.

In many cases, creative works on that list have little or no "fandom" surrounding them; they're just books or plays or movies people would love to see a sequel to, or a look at from a different point of view, or offscreen "missing scenes" or happy endings. And in many cases -- most cases -- these works are listed and screened by the moderators, with a profound focus to make sure the project sticks to those works that don't already have stories written about them. Sticks to the non-fandom works.

What you do is go through [the big list] and see if there's anything out there that piques you. Sometimes it takes seeing it in writing to remember that you've always wondered if the Scarecrow and the Tin Man had sex while Dorothy was off with the Wicked Witch, or that you always wanted to know what Horatio does after the play is over, or how Mary Magdalene dealt with her boyfriend's death.

If you see something you like, or several somethings, give it a thought and ask yourself whether you could write a story based on one of these works. Then ask yourself what you'd request from a gift-giver. You can be specific in your requests -- "I want a story where Antigone has a lesbian affair and then goes into suspended animation and wakes up in the 20th century looking for the descendants of her lost lover" -- or you can be much more general -- "I'd love anything set in the Robert Jordan Wheel of Time universe" -- there is room for all things in Yuletide.

Then, if you're excited about the project and are already anticipating both the finished present (that another writer will write at your request) and the prospect of writing a story in a cool universe or arena that you've always loved, first read the [faq] -- the dates on the schedule are wrong -- and then [go sign up].

The close date for signups is tomorrow (Monday, for Americans) at 9pm Eastern Time (that's 6pm Pacific or 2am Greenwich and other times in other time zones for which I am incapable of doing math). You've got over 24 hours to think about it, read the big list, read the faq, ask me questions here or your other friends who may have participated in Yuletide before.

yuletide is brought to us by the combined genius of

elynross and

astolat and their crack team of supersoldiers. It's been going on for at least five years to thunderous applause, and with each passing year more and more people participate, and more and more new "fandoms" (for svv of fandom, as I said above -- creative works is a more apt description) show up. The more people who participate, the better chance you have of getting matched with a writer who shares your interests, and the more presents at the end!

In sum: read this post. Then read [the big list], then give it some real thought, then read the [faq] and the rest of the [website], and then take a deep breath, think about what you want to receive from another writer and what you're interested in writing yourself, and then [go sign up].

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I think the idea of Yuletide is one that extends beyond fandom proper and extends to anyone who has an old, favorite book or ever wondered "what if?" after a movie. I love the idea of bringing it out into the larger world, where people who don't consider themselves fannish/people who don't know that they've got a fan deep down inside/people who have a more mundane or academic relationship with texts and creative works can come and enjoy a cool holiday experience, write something new and exciting, and at the end, get an awesome present (as well as the opportunity to read all the awesome presents everyone's got). We're already at 1272 participants. The more, the better for all of us.

Most of the fic I produced this year came out of burning my Yuletide at both ends. Which shows to go ya that even in the driest of years, Yuletide season and Remix season will get fic outta me. (And yes, Vic, I'm counting the days...)

That said; here's 2006's flyleaf copyright page, aka, what Sab wrote in ought-six.

( my fictional year )

Thank you,

marginaliana for my Yuletide present this year, Open, a hard, sharp story about Eilonwy remembering just what Achren did to her.

Appropriately, my assignment this year, for

darthfox, was also set in Prydain, my favorite of all the fictional Welsh landscapes! I wrote The Knowledge, The Truth, and The Love, a sorta fairytale about Gwydion and Achren, and the future that's laid out for them because of Taran and Eilonwy's destiny.

I also wrote two stocking stuffers this year. Go team me!

First, (as ~~everyone~~

mandysbitch has already deduced), I did in fact write Cross Country, also known as this year's only Love & Rockets fic, for

glossing. Mmm, Hopey.

And then, I wrote one of the many, many versions of Geoffrey Tennant and Darren Nicholls dueling; for ease of reference, mine was the one with Cats. *g* For

mazily, I wrote O Lamentable Day! which was more fun to write than a barrel of kittens.

Happy Ought-Seven, all! Good night, sweet prince, and flights of angels and so on. Here's to a better year!