One for Sorrow

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

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, and I don't like futurefic. To give you an idea of what excites me about the fandoms, here you go.

( Details within )

I won Yuletide this year with my gift fic. A story of an asset and his handler through the years. I think this is the very first fic for The Americans to feature Charles Duluth and it is SO. GOOD!

Like the Fellow Says (7425 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Americans (TV 2013)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Philip Jennings & Charles Duluth
Characters: Philip Jennings, Charles Duluth, Elizabeth Jennings
Additional Tags: Unresolved Emotional Tension, Backstory, Character Study, Non-Linear Narrative
Summary:

He knew damn well that without these meetings with Philip, handing over information, trading sarcasm, his life now would be meaningless. He'd known that for a while. But what he hadn't known before was what Philip got out of it. Asset and handler: Charles and Philip through the years.

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! ( Requests Within )

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!

So Yuletide really is fun, I find. :-) I read a lot of stories I really liked. Once again I'll pimp my Nero Wolfe story, Furlough, which I now know was written by Re_White.

I wrote two stories, one as a treat. My treat was in the English and Scottish Popular Ballads fandom. measured_words talked about a fic based on the song Lamkin/Long Lankin that made sense of some of the plotholes. If you don't know the song, someone put up a video to the Steeleye Span version, the one I know, here. Lots of blood! Anyway, this is the solution I came up with:

December 8, 1957 (1966 words) by sistermagpie
Fandom: English and Scottish Popular Ballads - Francis James Child
Rating: Not Rated
Warning: Author Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Characters: Lamkin
Summary:

Fred told Gloria to beware.

There's canon level violence (which means some character deaths) in that one. Also misogyny.

My main assignment was really exciting because it was for one of my favorite books and movies, The Haunting of Hill House. I was watching this movie nonstop around Halloween so I was in the right headspace for the assignment and a nice reread. I love Shirley Jackson! And ava_jamison and jlh for showing me what didn't work.

Fear and Guilt Are Sisters (4345 words) by sistermagpie
Fandom: Haunting of Hill House - Shirley Jackson
Rating: Not Rated
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Eleanor, Theodora
Summary:

Theo thought she got away from Hill House just in time.

It takes place post-canon so there's mentions of character death and suicide as a subject.

I love bringing a little Halloween to Yuletide!

I hope everybody had a happy new year! I've started the new year off in the traditional way, housecleaning while watching a Hoarders marathon. I'm not sure how I ever cleaned before Hoarders.

Hopefully I'll get it together enough to do a list of some of the stories I loved this year, though I'm still making my way through the collection!

I hope everybody had a great

I hope everyone is having a wonderful December, whatever you celebrate! I bring a lovely Yuletide gift to share!

Furlough (1391 words) by Anonymous
Fandom: Nero Wolfe - Rex Stout
Rating: Mature
Warning: Author Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Archie Goodwin/Nero Wolfe
Characters: Archie Goodwin, Nero Wolfe
Summary:

Archie knows that this is Wolfe being polite. This is Wolfe bowing to circumstance.

Nero Wolfe--so psyched! One of the things that's so cool about Ner Wolfe is that, like comics, the series goes on for decades without the characters changing. So you have your choice of what time period to set a story. This year, interestingly, there were 3 Nero Wolfe fics that took place during WWII. I admit, mine was my favorite.:) But it was great reading this fic in context. In Black Market Blues a restless Archie goes undercover to catch some black market thugs. He's restless because Nero has pulled strings to make sure he never goes to the front.

In my story, Nero has tried and failed to pull the same strings. Archie is sent to the front, but carries Wolfe with him.

So yeah, I'm pretty pleased with my Yuletide!

There's something weird about that year. Weird in a good way. 11 is so Edwardian. It's also my favorite number. Hopefully that will make for a lucky year.

Hope everyone had a good New Year's. I got back home just as the blizzard was starting and stayed locked inside for the worst of it, rationing food to keep from having to go shopping. I went to a New Year's slumber party and could even just see the fireworks from the window! ali_wildgoose made these Mohito martini cocktail things that went very well with pink champagne. It must have left me really hungry because I went out to dinner last year and was ravenous--and also had some nice spiked apple cider. Mmmm. Warm.

Anyway, I did Yuletide this year so for the first time I actually knew what was going on with that. I got four lovely stories (linked here) and was so grateful and psyched for that that I wrote a treat for someone on Christmas Day. Apparently people reveal themselves on lj to say what they wrote, so these were mine.

The treat I wrote was for a YA book that might not be that well-known but it was a favorite of mine and one person requested it. It's called Down a Dark Hall and is by Lois Duncan. I recommend the book more than my story, but my fic is Priorities.

My main story is a re-telling of one of my fave fairy tales that's not as well-known as some others (but is sort of a variation on a more well-known story), "Fitcher's Bird." In my head it's read in a 1920s New York accent. Much jazz age slang, Yiddish and flappers.

Esther and the Egg 3200 words. The Egg snatched nearly every chorus girl at The Club Araby. Then he snatched Esther.

Community and Back to the Future fans should also check out Clio's Ancient Artifacts and Modern Rituals (the gang goes to NYC for a Vacation Episode!), which I got to read before it was posted, and Alternates (I can't be the only person who found the happy ending on Back to the Future a little scary, right? How was Marty going to cope with a family full of strangers?).

Okay. Have a ton of stuff to do today, all without getting out of pajamas. Let 2011 begin!

I hope everyone has had a happy holidays this month, whatever and whenever you celebrated! I always feel left out of Yuletide this time of year so this year I decided what it would feel like to actually participate--it feels like being a kid totally excited for presents for me, it turns out.

I got fantastic gifts! I still can't get over somebody writing them for me--and not just an assigned story but lovely treats! I was ridiculously gleeful just knowing they were there before the reveal. So sharing the love, I got 4 stories in all in 2 fandoms.

( Dark is Rising, LA Confidential, and also Nero Wolfe and Huge )

It's been a while since I've updated, I just realized. But I'm still here and commenting! December is coming, and every year I feel a little left out of the gift exchange at Christmas since I don't write fic. Not the stress when everyone seems to be worried about their fics--but the present opening seems like such a fun part of everyone's Christmas day!

So this year I decided to take the plunge! Here I am writing my very first Yuletide letter.:-)

( Dear Yuletide Author... )