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lady_ragnell) wrote2019-10-27 01:03 pm
lady_ragnell) wrote2019-10-27 01:03 pm
Entry tags:
Dear Yuletide Author 2019
Dear Author,
First of all, thank you for writing for me! I am always so excited to do this exchange and get to read and write fic for some of my favorite small fandoms,and I always love the results. If you have an idea for one of these canons/sets of characters that you were hoping to write when you offered them, and it's not or not quite among my prompts, please feel free to run with it! Something you enjoy writing is always wonderful.
If you're curious about my taste, or what I've written in the past, you can find me on the AO3 as lady_ragnell and on tumblr as theladyragnell.
General Likes and Dislikes
Likes
Character death through terminal illness, particularly cancer, is my biggest no, especially where it's not present in the canon. I also prefer not to read character death in general, cancer or other major illness in general even when the character survives it, infidelity, incest, graphic depictions of abuse, non-con, horror-type elements, and gore. My general preference is to acknowledge the darkness of a canon--I definitely don't want things sanitized--but not focus on it or make it darker. I'm not one for Crueltide, basically!
Fandom Specific Likes and Prompts
The Author of the Acacia Seeds - Ursula K. LeGuin
Characters: None in tag set
Where to consume it: You can find it here for free online: The Author of the Acacia Seeds. (Time commitment: one very short short story.)
I just read this when I saw it in the tagset and fell instantly in love. I always love LeGuin's worldbuilding, and this sparks so many ideas about language, about art, about things we don't see or pay attention to. Honestly, whatever you offered this canon hoping to write, I would absolutely love to see it, above all! Whether that's revolutionary ants or other articles from this same or similar journals, I just want more of this world. If you want guidance, though, I would go more for the latter, and expand into other animal (or plant, or rock) languages and human interactions with them.
Prompts:
-Pick a new animal and explore what their language and art looks like. Never did I think I would end up putting a list of my favorite animals in an exchange letter, but if you want one of my favorite animals rather than your own, I am particularly fond of: cats, goats, any type of deer or antelope-like animal, whales and particularly the humpback whale, cephalopods, hyenas, and okapi.
-Who's the first person who discovered animal languages? What was the first piece of art decoded?
-Take me into the imagined future of the last article in this journal: who's the first person to decode the language of the maple tree, the slime mold, the volcano, the stars?
-Show me a translation of an artistic work from any creature you care to write about. What are the stories that elephants tell their children? What's the plot of a tardigrade opera? Do wrens have science fiction, and if so, what on earth does it look like?
-These are academic writings about animal languages. What might a pop culture newspaper article on the subject look like? A more personal letter from one of the studying linguists home to their families? A bored student learning and writing work for their Lion language elective?
A Countess Below Stairs - Eva Ibbotson
Characters: The Honourable Olive Byrne, Peter Grazinsky
Where to consume it: Wherever you buy books or ebooks! (Time commitment: one YA novel.)
This is one of my comfort reads, and I always love Ollie and Petya, though the latter has tragically few moments in the book. I love Ollie: her sweetness, her stubbornness, how much everyone loves her, her adoption of Alexander the hedgehog, her delight in her afternoon at the Russian club, just everything. I also love Peter, who loves his family and wants to take care of them, who has had a very hard last few years after a charmed childhood and has come out wise and caring. And what I'd love most is to see the two of them together and interacting.
Note: I'm waiving my DNW on major illness for this one not because I'd like to seen an occurrence or recurrence but just to explicitly say that you shouldn't ignore Ollie's medical history and the repercussions thereof, though I still would be happier with a fic that doesn't solely focus on that.
Prompts:
-Future fic! I'd read any fic you cared to give me about these two as adults, particularly if you write romance for them. Maybe Ollie goes off to university and Peter is doing graduate studies there or just lives nearby and decides to look out for her and they fall in love. Maybe even further into the future than that, there are some parties and another Mersham wedding. I'd love to see them falling in love, and growing into the wonderful adults I'm sure they'll be.
-They're still going to be young adults when WWII starts coming their way. If you want to set a romance in that backdrop, I'd be interested to see what you think that war will bring them, though I reiterate my desire for a happy ending!
-If you want to stick in the canon timeline of them as children, what interactions might they have in the year between the failed wedding and Anna and Rupert's wedding? Does he sneak her more treats at parties? Does he spend time with her and Niannka in the nursery? Do the two of them have another adventure at the Russian Club?
-Outsider POV, either of their friendship as children, of their romance as adults, or both. What does Minna think of them, after her lovely and tender thoughts about them before the ball at Heslop Hall? How about Niannka, these two beloved charges of hers? Or Anna, or Tom, or really anyone else who might have something interesting to say or to think.
Killjoys (TV)
Characters: The Lady
Where to consume it: In the US, Killjoys streams on the syfy.com website. I'm not sure about abroad, unfortunately! (Time commitment: 50 45-minute episodes.)
This show has given me so much joy over the past several years, and now it's over, with a whole glorious closed canon to play with! I love where this show left off, and I am so excited to see where fandom builds on it. Unusually for me, I am requesting the villain rather than some of our heroes! (Though I want to say right off that I love everyone in this show, and anyone you'd like to have show up for the Lady to play off would be amazing by me.) I didn't think I'd love the Lady as much as I ended up doing, but s5 went to some absolutely fascinating places with her--I tend to think of it as a villainous version of The Last Unicorn, for what that's worth. While you can definitely feel free to play with her history as the last of her species, and what it was like to live in the green, I'm primarily interested in her present and her future, where she was left at the end of the show.
Prompts:
-Where does she go from here? This show's got a history of villains, even major ones like Aneela and Khlyen, becoming allies. Once she's had more time to get used to being human, do they let her out of the mirror cube? What does she do then? At the end, she seemed likely to embrace trying out human life, but I'd love to see what that looks like for her.
-Her feelings on her own humanity as it grows through season 5. It seemed to be a combination of so many years in the green experiencing human memories and the presence of a human body, as well as Khlyen's encouragement. Does it frighten her? Is it something she secretly wanted as much as she wanted to bring her species back? Her desire for a name fascinated me, something with that would be very interesting.
-Give her someone to play off, post-canon. Does Khlyen come back once he's found Yalena (which is where I presume he was going at the end of canon), and do the three of them end up living together as some strange kind of family? How about people she had less chance to interact with: Fancy Lee, John or D'avin, even a conversation with Jaq now that she's no threat to him could be fascinating, or Delle Seyah reasserting her queenship over someone who she would have seen as usurping her.
-For a more formal version of that last one: five people who come to visit the Lady in the mirror cube, and one who came to let her out to live her life.
Tom Corbett: Space Cadet - Carey Rockwell
Characters: Tom Corbett, Astro, Roger Manning
Where to consume it: Free on Project Gutenberg! (Time commitment: up to seven short novels.)
So, first of all, I am just going to link to my comment on this canon at the fandom promo post, which tells you a lot about what I love about this canon, as well as giving the series order and links to specific books (including telling you which books I think are best, since it was clearly written by a series of ghostwriters and some were more to my taste than others): here you go! I just love these sci fi adventures, and these three ridiculous boys, very much, and with such a small fandom (the fandom is basically me and the few people I've managed to drag at least somewhat in), I am happy to see what you want to explore! As a note, I do ship the three members of the Polaris crew as an OT3, but I don't like OT3s unless I also like all their component ships, so if you're not a poly fan, team gen or any two of the three as a ship is also super fine by me.
Prompts:
-Hurt/comfort! Bless these books, at least once a book a team member gets imperiled or briefly presumed killed and the others have to worry over him and take care of them, and any of that is going to be amazing for me, they all do so well with it.
-Any fandom stereotypical trope or AU is going to be amazing for me for these characters. Amnesia, baby acquisition, time loops, marriage of convenience so they can all get assigned to the same ship after graduation, modern AU where they all go to space camp or are astronauts or just college roommates ... honestly, I cannot think of a trope or AU I would not enjoy seeing explored with these three, so feel absolutely free to play with anything you like!
-Canon divergence AU where they didn't make it into the Solar Academy, for whatever reason, or where they fail out for being unable to keep their team from squabbling when told or something. What do they do instead? How do they all find their way into each other's lives again, or stay together despite all odds?
-An adventure involving alien contact! The canon never went there, and adding aliens to a canon is always fun. (Or AU where one of them is an alien, the first to join the Solar Guard maybe?)
-Future fic! What happens when they graduate from the Solar Academy? Where are they assigned, together or apart? What do their lives look like?
White Boots - Noel Streatfeild
Characters: Harriet Johnson, Lalla Moore
Where to consume it: Wherever you usually buy books! Americans, note that you will find this book under the title Skating Shoes. Also, at the time I don't know of an ebook version available in the States, tragically. (Time commitment: one middle grade novel.)
A charming middle grade book originally published in 1951. I love all of Streatfeild's Shoes books because I love stories about people falling in love with art, and this one is particularly charming. Harriet and Lalla are such fun to see interacting, as are their families and those around them--if you want to put them in, feel welcome to. I love their competitive spirits and the different ways they take the ice skating on.
Prompts:
-Future fic (apparently it's my year for future fic requests)! I do ship it when they are adults, and I'd love to see some shippy fic for them as well as fic about their skating future. Do they acheive their dreams? Do they go to the Olympics and have to compete against each other? Do they wind up doing other things and only skating on weekends? Does Lalla take up hockey? Anything about their future will interest me.
-Modern AUs also would! The two of them on the Junior or Senior circuit, in today's very different figure skating world, with less worries about skating figures and more about landing triples, would be great.
-Holiday/winter fic! Since the canon's about ice skating and there's canonically a Christmas in the course of the book, it's ripe for good old-fashioned holiday fic, and I'm happy to have it if you're happy to write it.
-For some reason, they end up doing a pairs skating routine, lifts and all. (Modern AU optional.)
Happy writing, author! I am so excited to see whatever you come up with for these canons, and thank you again for whatever you choose to write. <3
First of all, thank you for writing for me! I am always so excited to do this exchange and get to read and write fic for some of my favorite small fandoms,and I always love the results. If you have an idea for one of these canons/sets of characters that you were hoping to write when you offered them, and it's not or not quite among my prompts, please feel free to run with it! Something you enjoy writing is always wonderful.
If you're curious about my taste, or what I've written in the past, you can find me on the AO3 as lady_ragnell and on tumblr as theladyragnell.
General Likes and Dislikes
Likes
- Stories about relationships, be they gen or shippy! I love seeing characters interact and play off each other: romances, rivalries, families and found families and friendships and co-working relationships are all amazing for me, particularly if it's about people working together (if sometimes reluctantly). Especially if there's banter involved!
- Happy endings! I am happy for characters to earn their happiness along the way with angst (I'm always a fan of hurt/comfort), but a happy or hopeful ending is always going to be my preference.
- Worldbuilding! I love to read fics that explore worldbuilding that's already there more deeply and fics that add lore and depth to canons whose worldbuilding is more glossed over. I love to see in-world pop culture and academia and news articles, and just generally to revel in the worlds of canons I love.
- I also love AUs. That could mean canon-divergence what-if AUs, a small or large divergence, or setting change AUs. I'm particularly fond of space AUs, the addition of small magical elements in a world that otherwise looks much like canon, and modern AUs where the author gets to use some interest or expertise to flesh out the setting, so if you just read a book about marine biology or know a whole lot about being a summer camp counselor, feel free to make use of it if you'd like. (Note: I tend to be pretty picky about soulmate AUs, so unless you've got an idea you're very attached to there, it wouldn't be my first choice.)
- Exploration of the spaces around canons: what happened before? What happens after--either immediate aftermath or months or years later? What's public perception of the canon's or fic's events like, or what does an outsider with an intimate view of the events think? (In that last case, I tend to prefer if the outsider POVs are canon characters, but if an OC jumps fully-fleshed-out into your mind, that is also fine.)
- And I am a sucker for classic tropes: hurt/comfort, fake dating, pretty much any marriage trope you will care to give me (arranged, marriage of convience, waking up married ... I will take it all), huddling for warmth or other survival-type situations. Basically, they are classics for a reason and I am always happy to see them!
- Any rating, G to E! Don't feel the need to avoid porn or adult subjects, but don't by any means feel pressure to include them either. With porn, I would prefer that any of the underage characters I've requested be overage when any porn takes place, though.
Character death through terminal illness, particularly cancer, is my biggest no, especially where it's not present in the canon. I also prefer not to read character death in general, cancer or other major illness in general even when the character survives it, infidelity, incest, graphic depictions of abuse, non-con, horror-type elements, and gore. My general preference is to acknowledge the darkness of a canon--I definitely don't want things sanitized--but not focus on it or make it darker. I'm not one for Crueltide, basically!
Fandom Specific Likes and Prompts
The Author of the Acacia Seeds - Ursula K. LeGuin
Characters: None in tag set
Where to consume it: You can find it here for free online: The Author of the Acacia Seeds. (Time commitment: one very short short story.)
I just read this when I saw it in the tagset and fell instantly in love. I always love LeGuin's worldbuilding, and this sparks so many ideas about language, about art, about things we don't see or pay attention to. Honestly, whatever you offered this canon hoping to write, I would absolutely love to see it, above all! Whether that's revolutionary ants or other articles from this same or similar journals, I just want more of this world. If you want guidance, though, I would go more for the latter, and expand into other animal (or plant, or rock) languages and human interactions with them.
Prompts:
-Pick a new animal and explore what their language and art looks like. Never did I think I would end up putting a list of my favorite animals in an exchange letter, but if you want one of my favorite animals rather than your own, I am particularly fond of: cats, goats, any type of deer or antelope-like animal, whales and particularly the humpback whale, cephalopods, hyenas, and okapi.
-Who's the first person who discovered animal languages? What was the first piece of art decoded?
-Take me into the imagined future of the last article in this journal: who's the first person to decode the language of the maple tree, the slime mold, the volcano, the stars?
-Show me a translation of an artistic work from any creature you care to write about. What are the stories that elephants tell their children? What's the plot of a tardigrade opera? Do wrens have science fiction, and if so, what on earth does it look like?
-These are academic writings about animal languages. What might a pop culture newspaper article on the subject look like? A more personal letter from one of the studying linguists home to their families? A bored student learning and writing work for their Lion language elective?
A Countess Below Stairs - Eva Ibbotson
Characters: The Honourable Olive Byrne, Peter Grazinsky
Where to consume it: Wherever you buy books or ebooks! (Time commitment: one YA novel.)
This is one of my comfort reads, and I always love Ollie and Petya, though the latter has tragically few moments in the book. I love Ollie: her sweetness, her stubbornness, how much everyone loves her, her adoption of Alexander the hedgehog, her delight in her afternoon at the Russian club, just everything. I also love Peter, who loves his family and wants to take care of them, who has had a very hard last few years after a charmed childhood and has come out wise and caring. And what I'd love most is to see the two of them together and interacting.
Note: I'm waiving my DNW on major illness for this one not because I'd like to seen an occurrence or recurrence but just to explicitly say that you shouldn't ignore Ollie's medical history and the repercussions thereof, though I still would be happier with a fic that doesn't solely focus on that.
Prompts:
-Future fic! I'd read any fic you cared to give me about these two as adults, particularly if you write romance for them. Maybe Ollie goes off to university and Peter is doing graduate studies there or just lives nearby and decides to look out for her and they fall in love. Maybe even further into the future than that, there are some parties and another Mersham wedding. I'd love to see them falling in love, and growing into the wonderful adults I'm sure they'll be.
-They're still going to be young adults when WWII starts coming their way. If you want to set a romance in that backdrop, I'd be interested to see what you think that war will bring them, though I reiterate my desire for a happy ending!
-If you want to stick in the canon timeline of them as children, what interactions might they have in the year between the failed wedding and Anna and Rupert's wedding? Does he sneak her more treats at parties? Does he spend time with her and Niannka in the nursery? Do the two of them have another adventure at the Russian Club?
-Outsider POV, either of their friendship as children, of their romance as adults, or both. What does Minna think of them, after her lovely and tender thoughts about them before the ball at Heslop Hall? How about Niannka, these two beloved charges of hers? Or Anna, or Tom, or really anyone else who might have something interesting to say or to think.
Killjoys (TV)
Characters: The Lady
Where to consume it: In the US, Killjoys streams on the syfy.com website. I'm not sure about abroad, unfortunately! (Time commitment: 50 45-minute episodes.)
This show has given me so much joy over the past several years, and now it's over, with a whole glorious closed canon to play with! I love where this show left off, and I am so excited to see where fandom builds on it. Unusually for me, I am requesting the villain rather than some of our heroes! (Though I want to say right off that I love everyone in this show, and anyone you'd like to have show up for the Lady to play off would be amazing by me.) I didn't think I'd love the Lady as much as I ended up doing, but s5 went to some absolutely fascinating places with her--I tend to think of it as a villainous version of The Last Unicorn, for what that's worth. While you can definitely feel free to play with her history as the last of her species, and what it was like to live in the green, I'm primarily interested in her present and her future, where she was left at the end of the show.
Prompts:
-Where does she go from here? This show's got a history of villains, even major ones like Aneela and Khlyen, becoming allies. Once she's had more time to get used to being human, do they let her out of the mirror cube? What does she do then? At the end, she seemed likely to embrace trying out human life, but I'd love to see what that looks like for her.
-Her feelings on her own humanity as it grows through season 5. It seemed to be a combination of so many years in the green experiencing human memories and the presence of a human body, as well as Khlyen's encouragement. Does it frighten her? Is it something she secretly wanted as much as she wanted to bring her species back? Her desire for a name fascinated me, something with that would be very interesting.
-Give her someone to play off, post-canon. Does Khlyen come back once he's found Yalena (which is where I presume he was going at the end of canon), and do the three of them end up living together as some strange kind of family? How about people she had less chance to interact with: Fancy Lee, John or D'avin, even a conversation with Jaq now that she's no threat to him could be fascinating, or Delle Seyah reasserting her queenship over someone who she would have seen as usurping her.
-For a more formal version of that last one: five people who come to visit the Lady in the mirror cube, and one who came to let her out to live her life.
Tom Corbett: Space Cadet - Carey Rockwell
Characters: Tom Corbett, Astro, Roger Manning
Where to consume it: Free on Project Gutenberg! (Time commitment: up to seven short novels.)
So, first of all, I am just going to link to my comment on this canon at the fandom promo post, which tells you a lot about what I love about this canon, as well as giving the series order and links to specific books (including telling you which books I think are best, since it was clearly written by a series of ghostwriters and some were more to my taste than others): here you go! I just love these sci fi adventures, and these three ridiculous boys, very much, and with such a small fandom (the fandom is basically me and the few people I've managed to drag at least somewhat in), I am happy to see what you want to explore! As a note, I do ship the three members of the Polaris crew as an OT3, but I don't like OT3s unless I also like all their component ships, so if you're not a poly fan, team gen or any two of the three as a ship is also super fine by me.
Prompts:
-Hurt/comfort! Bless these books, at least once a book a team member gets imperiled or briefly presumed killed and the others have to worry over him and take care of them, and any of that is going to be amazing for me, they all do so well with it.
-Any fandom stereotypical trope or AU is going to be amazing for me for these characters. Amnesia, baby acquisition, time loops, marriage of convenience so they can all get assigned to the same ship after graduation, modern AU where they all go to space camp or are astronauts or just college roommates ... honestly, I cannot think of a trope or AU I would not enjoy seeing explored with these three, so feel absolutely free to play with anything you like!
-Canon divergence AU where they didn't make it into the Solar Academy, for whatever reason, or where they fail out for being unable to keep their team from squabbling when told or something. What do they do instead? How do they all find their way into each other's lives again, or stay together despite all odds?
-An adventure involving alien contact! The canon never went there, and adding aliens to a canon is always fun. (Or AU where one of them is an alien, the first to join the Solar Guard maybe?)
-Future fic! What happens when they graduate from the Solar Academy? Where are they assigned, together or apart? What do their lives look like?
White Boots - Noel Streatfeild
Characters: Harriet Johnson, Lalla Moore
Where to consume it: Wherever you usually buy books! Americans, note that you will find this book under the title Skating Shoes. Also, at the time I don't know of an ebook version available in the States, tragically. (Time commitment: one middle grade novel.)
A charming middle grade book originally published in 1951. I love all of Streatfeild's Shoes books because I love stories about people falling in love with art, and this one is particularly charming. Harriet and Lalla are such fun to see interacting, as are their families and those around them--if you want to put them in, feel welcome to. I love their competitive spirits and the different ways they take the ice skating on.
Prompts:
-Future fic (apparently it's my year for future fic requests)! I do ship it when they are adults, and I'd love to see some shippy fic for them as well as fic about their skating future. Do they acheive their dreams? Do they go to the Olympics and have to compete against each other? Do they wind up doing other things and only skating on weekends? Does Lalla take up hockey? Anything about their future will interest me.
-Modern AUs also would! The two of them on the Junior or Senior circuit, in today's very different figure skating world, with less worries about skating figures and more about landing triples, would be great.
-Holiday/winter fic! Since the canon's about ice skating and there's canonically a Christmas in the course of the book, it's ripe for good old-fashioned holiday fic, and I'm happy to have it if you're happy to write it.
-For some reason, they end up doing a pairs skating routine, lifts and all. (Modern AU optional.)
Happy writing, author! I am so excited to see whatever you come up with for these canons, and thank you again for whatever you choose to write. <3