amelia_petkova | Entries tagged with yuletide

I'm really stuck on whether or not to sign up for Yuletide this year. I missed the nominating period, so I can't check if any of the fandoms I'd really want fic in were nominated and approved (does anybody know how to see the list of nominated/confirmed fandoms on AO3? I haven't been able to find it anywhere). I'm just not excited about it right now, though I know that feeling could come later.

I don't know, maybe I'll just look through the Dear Santa/Yulegoat/whatever letters and write Treats this year.

I got two stories this year and they're both awesome!!!

The Duke's Daughters (or: Overture, King Lear)
Fandom: Princess Tutu

This reads like it could be an episode of the show and it's terrific. Set during Season 1, it has ballet and Shakespeare references, and a winter setting. Drosselmeyer is his impressive, creepy as hell self, and Edel plays a role too. The writer took all my favorite things and rolled them up together.

The Selkie's Daughter
Fandom: The Tower at Stony Wood by Patricia A. McKillip

I have fic for a McKillip novel!!! It reads just like her writing style and deals with what happens to Melanthos after all the obvious heroes, princesses, and witches have gone on with their lives in Gloinmere. Reading this fic makes me want to go out to the beach or pier and watch the waves roll in.

I got up at 7 AM today to write fan fiction. Holy Yuletide deadlines, Batman! I have other projects to work on as well, but I'm mostly rushing to meet the Yuletide deadline. For the first time, I have two fics in progress for my recipient and I want to see if I can pull it off. My mother's reaction, when she got up a half-hour later and saw me showered, dressed, and sitting at my laptop:

Mom: How long have you been up?
Me: Since 7.
Mom: ...is everything all right?
[I have no clue what she was wondering. Maybe that I hadn't slept well, who knows.]
Me: Yes, I just have a lot of stuff to get done this weekend and I can never get to it during the work week.
Mom: ...okay.

In my mother's defense, she had just woken up and hadn't had a cup of tea yet.

At this point I've finished the first draft of my first story and the first draft of the second story is at least a quarter finished. If everything goes according to plan, I'll get the first story done by the end of the weekend. It all depends on how many errands, Christmas shopping, and other to-do items come up. Still...

I'm almost done with a Yuletide fic! Yay!!!

Dear Yuletide Santa,

I’m fairly easy to please, as most of my requested fandoms are small enough that I’ll be happy to get any fan fiction in them. You can poke around my LJ to get ideas about what I like and all of my fic is also posted at AO3. My only major turn-offs in fic that I can think of are incest and dubious/non-consent. I like humorous fic a lot but other genres are good, too. For the fandoms where I selected “any” for the characters (and even with “Tower at Stony Wood”, where I specifically asked for Melanthos), feel free to include characters who weren’t nominated. I’ve included some plot suggestions with each fandom but I have no problem with using your own ideas if that works best for you.

( Keeper's Chronicles - Tanya Huff )

( Bloody Jack Adventures - L.A. Meyer )

( Princess Tutu )

( Tower at Stony Wood - Patricia A. McKillip )

I'm trying to decide whether or not I feel like doing Yuletide this year. I've only registered for it once but it was fun writing for the Madness last year. (Part of the reason I didn't sign up last year was because the nominating and registering processes sounded more complicated than in the past.) Fandoms I'm considering so far:

Bloody Jack by L.A. Meyer
Princess Tutu
Tamsin by Peter S. Beagle
Utena
The Keeper's Chronicles by Tanya Huff

As I mentioned earlier, I wrote two ficlets for Yuletide Madness this year. I was a little embarrassed when it turned out that the prompts had been filled already in the main Yuletide collection but I'm still glad with how they turned out.

Title: Dream of Better Worlds
Fandom: El laberinto del fauno/Pan's Labyrinth
Summary: Long after the end, Mercedes dreams about Ofelia

Title: Cultural Boundaries
Fandom: Vision of Escaflowne
Summary: It's Van's turn to adjust (or not) to technology and culture in Hitomi's world

I didn't end up taking any pinch hits for yuletide this year but I have posted two ficlets for Yuletide Madness. It's fun so far! Depending on how much family time I have tomorrow and the prompts list, I might write some more.

ETA: I'm impressed with how well AO3 has been holding up this week.

I first participated in yuletide two years ago and had a blast, even though my recipient seemed to have dropped off the face of the earth. I didn't do it last year because I felt I had my hands full with finishing grad school and job hunting. Now it's coming up to that time again. Things going on this year during yuletide-writing season:

1. finishing the revisions on a novel that's been in the works for years
2. starting a second novel
3. job hunting (I'm unemployed. Again.)
4. multiple knitting projects
5. other fan fics in progress that I want to finish in the next few months

I want to do yuletide but am having trouble convincing myself that I can. At the moment I'm considering just signing up to be a pinch-hitter. If I can decide in the next few days, I'll do it. If not, I'll just skip participating again altogether.

Now that we're into the Yuletide reveal, I can show what I wrote. Reposted here.

Title: The Truth of Kings

Fandom: The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander

Disclaimer: All the characters and events within The Chronicles of Prydain belong to Lloyd Alexander.

Summary: Friends meet one last time before the Sons of Don leave Prydain.

Author's Notes: Although at the end of The High King it is implied that everyone departs soon after Taran is declared the High King, for the purposes of this story I have taken the liberty of inserting a longer space of time between the ending events of the book.

( Riding to their futures )

I just read my Yuletide fic and it's the best! I've been grinning ever since I started reading it. It's Songs That My Mother Taught Me. Fandom: The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. It has Helen and the Narrator, libraries, archives, and letters. What more could a girl ask for?

What I said in the comments: Thank you! This is a wonderful Yuletide present. You did a great job of capturing the characters’ voices. Also, I recently started graduate school to become a librarian and archives are dear to me, so this is doubly special. Thanks again.

I want to read through all the other posted stories right now but I'm going to make myself wait until the website is less busy from all of us reading our goodies.

Working on my end-of-the-semester projects again. I have my first-ever literature review due on Monday, a take-home exam (I have no idea how to find the information I need to get) and the final bits of a website project due on Tuesday, and an agonizing sit-down test on Thursday. I want to die. Or throw up, I'm not sure which. It'd be easier if I had my laptop at home and could just jump in and out of homework, instead of several-hour-long stretches in one of the computer labs. (Even a typewriter, for god's sake!)

My literature review is on censorship in public libraries. I'm diving it up by themes, one of which is on what is appropriate for children. I'm so far gone that I'm trying to find a legit way to include the line "Think of the children!"

As I'm writing the review, when I get stuck I write in and then erase lines like, "I'm running away to Canada now" and "I want to drink tea until I'm in my happy place." Seriously, I write much better when I have a cup of tea.

Edit: I've been in the computer lab a bit less than two hours. My brain is fried. I wanted to write at least 1,000 words on the lit review tonight. I wrote around 450. I am now going home to indeed drink tea until I'm in my happy place. Or I'll get out the liquor. I'd rather be working on yuletide.

Current Mood: cheerfully demented

Dear Yuletide Santa,

This is my first time doing Yuletide; I'm very excited. I hope my requests were written well enough to start giving you ideas for stories. I’ve never seen any fics for most of the fandoms I requested (and I haven’t yet written any myself), so in general anything in them will make me happy. I haven’t produced much fan fiction but if you click on the tag to the right for “fan fiction” you’ll be able to see what I’ve posted. Somehow most of it ends up being humor. I do love funny fic but the other genres are wonderful, too. I do like some characters more than others (names are given in the following sections) but I am good with stories not involving these characters if you can’t think of anything involving them, or the suggested prompts don’t work for you.

My requests:

( Peter S Beagle - Tamsin )

( Elizabeth Hand - Mortal Love )

( Robert Holdstock - Mythago Wood series )

( Elizabeth Kostova - The Historian )

Have fun! I look forward to reading your story.