I misunderstood the point of this ride

The following list contains fanart dating back to early 2006, meaning that there is a ... fairly significant/varied range of quality and skill. Alphabetical by fandom, newest-oldest in descending order.

( Lilith's fanart masterlist )

( transformative works policy )

Everything in this journal should ideally be read in just that context: this is a personal journal, and for the most part its intended audience is a small circle of friends and acquaintances. That said, anything posted publicly is fair game for linking. It’s my view that publicly accessible content is always at least potentially, well, public. I’ve always participated in fandom and online community with that in mind.

That said: if you know my real name or any of my non-fannish social media accounts, please never publicly link them to my fannish accounts! Thank you so much. :)

Hi there!! Thanks so much for writing for me! I hope you have as much fun with that as I know I will, reading it.

I keep telling myself I’ll write a shorter letter, but I get so much enjoyment out of imagining possibilities and squeeing over the books (and webcomic, this year!) that I love. That means I’m going to have some prompts and some possibly disjointed thoughts about why I love these fandoms. None of it is there to be prescriptive! Feel free to go your own way!

My general feeling going into this Yuletide is that life is pretty tough right now and things are rather dark in the real world, and well, I could use some joy. While every canon is different and the tone that fits each one varies, my tastes are running towards silly shenanigans, adventures, and comfort ... if sometimes flavored a bit by darkness, spookiness (how I love spooky things), or hurt. I’m not looking for schmaltz, but I’m looking for going relatively light on the hurt.

(Er, also. I want to acknowledge something: for all my reliable enthusiasm about this event and the process going in, over the last few years, I’ve struggled pretty hard with reading and commenting on my gifts in anything like a reasonable time frame. It seems to fit in with some other mental health struggles, but that’s not an excuse, and I feel genuinely terrible about it. So, mainly for my own accountability/breaking this cycle: feedback will be prompt this year. Probably on the 25th, and definitely before the 1st; that's a promise.)

A note on DNWs (and Likes): I think these lists are helpful, and I very much appreciate you taking them into account! That said, I think they’re there as general guidelines, to be given and taken in good faith. There’s always going to be some possible interpretation of something (my Likes or DNWs, something in canon, something you’ve written) that one of us won’t have thought of that could maybe be borderline, and I don’t want you to stress it! (My AO3 sign-up includes some fandom-specific annotations to the DNWs, in case those are helpful.)

I hope that you have a marvelous Yuletide - whatever that means to you! Thank you again! <3

( DNWs, requests and prompts! )

Hi there! I'm Lilith. Thanks so much for writing for me! We clearly have some taste in common, and I’m always pleased to “meet” new people who enjoy the same books. ;) I’m psyched to see what you come up with, and I dearly hope that you have a blast doing it!

(And hello to any random browsers or window-shoppers. I hope you’re having a good time too! I haven't been around this year - is that whole "open to gifts" thing still worth noting? I am, for the record. <3)

If you’re the kind of person who likes to poke around past requests, you’ll notice that a couple of the ones here are repeats from previous years. Please know that this doesn’t mean I have a preference for those fandoms over the others I’ve just added, or vice versa! I promise, that’s not the case at ALL. The best fic comes from the effort and investment of the writer, so frankly, what I want the most for Yuletide is whichever one of these canons YOU’D be most excited to write about. I am and have always been unapologetically Pollyanna-ish about this exchange. It’s a long, longtime favorite seasonal tradition for me.

There are plentiful thoughts and prompts (and in several cases, links to promo posts) below. I’m just like this (and as a writer, I just like this kind of thing - lots of material to work with, I mean); believe me, I do not demand or expect you to adhere to my ideas! They’re there for you to use as much or little as you want (and because I have a lot of fun rambling about stuff I enjoy).

I hope that you have a marvelous Yuletide - whatever that means to you! Thank you again! <3

( DNWs, requests and prompts! )

Hello! Thanks so much for being my writer this year. I’m deeply excited to see what you come up with, and I hope you have fun with it. I am really into all these canons, and I’m delighted that we have that in common!

(And hello to any random browsers or window-shoppers. I hope you’re having a good time too! Since this is a thing now: I am absolutely open to treats - and giddily grateful if you feel inspired in that direction.)

All my requested fandoms are in the “Books & Literature” category, but they range in length from a fairy tale that would barely meet the Yuletide minimum word count to a four-book series (although my request focuses on one particular volume). There’s a darker trend to them, with a lot of themes around abuse, repressive circumstances and troubled interpersonal relationships. My Yuletide tastes tend to run in the direction of hope and positive change for the characters (even if stuff is pretty messy or creepy, and almost certainly complicated on the way there) - though the degree to which this is possible obviously depends a good deal on the details!

I’ll save any additional rambling for the individual canons; there are thoughts and prompts (and in most cases, links to promo posts) below. (Sometimes there are a LOT of thoughts and/or prompts. I absolutely do not expect you to adhere to them - they’re there for you to use if you want to, or if not, not!) I’ll just end the letter portion by noting that Yuletide is a long, longtime favorite seasonal tradition for me, and I’m just really happy to be back for another year. I hope you have a fantastic Yuletide - whatever that means to you!

( DNWs, requests and prompts! )

Hi there! This is the best exchange; I’m so excited. Thank you for drawing for me!

I had a wonderful time with the first iteration of MFD; the low-pressure, mutually enthusiastic and encouraging feeling of the whole thing was a breath of fresh air and a source of inspiration to me. Let’s keep that going! I’m so glad you’re here; please know that whatever your skill level or experience is (and these things are SUPER relative, srsly), whatever your style(s)/medium(s) of choice, I can’t wait to see what you make. Making stuff! It’s the best!

I happen to really love prompts, likes, and that sort of thing to play with, so I’m going to try and provide a bunch below, but they are entirely take-them-or-leave-them as far as I’m concerned. I’d appreciate you taking my DNWs into account, but apart from that, please have fun with whichever character, group, ship, setting, etc I’ve requested that catches your fancy. However you like. (On the subject of likes: note that the "Thematic Likes" and "Art Likes" links under the cut will open a separate post, in a new tab. I've kept my DNWs in this post because they're a bit more MFD-specific.)

Treats are very welcome and appreciated tremendously.

Eeee. ( Okay, here we go! )

Taking a breather mid-work-day after a somewhat nerve-wracking meeting with my boss, so, hello out there. I hope you lot are doing all right.

In the world of Lilith Does Too Many Exchanges, a lull of sorts approaches; the chocolateboxcomm archive is live, and the rarefemslashexchange archive will be soon (hopefully tomorrow). I'm not doing anything but once_upon_fic, which has a pleasantly long creation period, until May at least. Whew. I'm hoping to come out of the winter blues with a more balanced professional life (as I keep getting the hang of this position) and fresh energy to put towards my original projects. Fingers crossed.

Oh, but speaking of Chocolate Box! My gifts are amazing and deserve all the eyes on them.

In The Script of the Future, X-Men Comics, Mystique/Destiny, 721 words, G
A sweet look at the earliest days of their relationship, through Raven's eyes, which includes one of the best and most intimate, lovely uses of her powers as an accessible adaptation and it's so romantic and I just can't. I love them so much.

Gravitating towards you, Sailor Moon, Hotaru/ChibiUsa, G
A beautiful portrait of this pairing; in the creator's own words, a "royal portrait, sort of. Because they can't stop looking at each other instead of the painter." Delicate, graceful lines and gesture, a deeply intimate mood, and an excellent use of a limited palette. Could be appreciated with no canon knowledge whatsoever, I suspect.

In other news, I stumbled across an old fannish friend out of the blue on tumblr this weekend, someone I hadn't spoken to in 10+ years, and I've been feeling a little giddy about it off and on. I mean, on the one hand, help, I'm old. On the other, she's still writing (and tormenting a fascinated audience with her cruel chapter cliffhangers and intense emotional scenes) and it's just so lovely to rediscover a lost connection. It makes me feel more hopeful about the world, or life, or something.

Onwards and upwards and all that jazz!

This has been an absurdly long month, even for January. I'm ready to move forward with this whole 2022 thing already!

Work is trying to eat me alive with busy--new job continues to be an adventure!--but I have finally convinced my boss to let me have (all of) one day of remote work every week, starting with this Wednesday. I'd have given anything to be able to do it today instead (10 degrees Fahrenheit, unshoveled sidewalks galore, and the buses running 20 minutes late), but she claims the Dean of the College is very against Monday and Friday telework (presumably because of the general atmosphere of suspicion the entire administration of the College has towards staff actually working if we're not under the gimlet managerial eye at all times, because this is such a healthy workplace). Whatever. It's a bit frustrating to feel locked in to this place for another 2-3 years, but I figure it's a reasonable price to pay for the soft career change I was able to make; moving from a purely administrative role to a creative/marketing role with nothing like that on my resume (except education), because I've been with this office for years and they knew I could do it. Now I just have to rack up enough portfolio material and solid career time and I'm out of here. Not sure where to yet, but somewhere else, and quite possibly our of higher ed altogether.

Er, anyway. On the fun and fannish side of things, I'm finally well into my Chocolate Box assignment (which is good, as it's due in a week) and pondering potential treats; I'm also really looking forward to once_upon_fic sign-ups! Writing-based challenges are harder for me than exchanges where I can draw, but I had such a brilliant time adapting Bluebeard last year. It's such a delightfully small, niche exchange. This year I nominated an old favorite obscure story from my favorite class in college: Belle-Belle, ou Le Chevalier Fortuné, by the Countess d'Aulnoy, who is also credited with coining the term "fairy tale" (contes de fées). Also that creepy unattributed tale about the woman who wore a ribbon as a choker that she never, ever took off (you know the one; it's retold as "The Green Ribbon" in In A Dark, Dark Room, among other versions).

Also, today marks the end of my month of X-Men recs over at fanart_recs! ( Click here for eight-ish works of rather (ahem) x-ceptional X-book fanart. )

I'll be doing a month of Sailor Moon fanart recs for February!

I could ramble a bit about the end of The Expanse, the cover reveal for Nona the Ninth, and so forth, but this endless pile of work is calling, so I guess I will leave it there for now. Egad.

I'm so delighted that you could stop by! I love this exchange to bits. I hope it's a fun time for you, too. <3

I'm keeping some lists of general likes over here, and more fandom/character specifics below the cut. Please feel free to use them as much or as little as you like! I get ... enthusiastic, but this is supposed to be a low-pressure exchange, so please take that to heart and follow your bliss; I'm going to love finding out where that takes you. (I appreciate you avoiding my DNWs in the process, of course!)

( A plethora of prompts! )

Hi there! Thank you for creating for me; I hope you have a great time! I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with. <3

I'm trying something new with this exchange, I have a separate General Likes and DNWs post, in case you find that helpful. Under the cut, I'll share some more specific prompts for my requested pairings, which you're welcome to use, adapt or ignore in favor of other ideas - whatever works best for you.

( Prompts under here. )

My ex asked me this weekend whether I'd finished my Yuletide story. No indeed, but it's moving along. (Though I will say - knowing that there's a relatively concrete neuropsychological reason why I struggle so much with time management does not magically solve the problem!)

This fall has been a lot. The hibernation urge is strong as we move into winter. That said, I haven't been entirely unproductive! femslashex reveals went up yesterday:


( Vulcan kisses and Fairy Tale AUs )

It was a fun exercise in drawing for fandoms I've been meaning to for ages, and never gotten around to. I should really do more TOS art (how were these my first??); the retro sci-fi costuming is so much fun! Also I've been loving all the canon Harley/Ivy comics I keep catching glimpses of on tumblr ... every once in awhile I feel so genuinely grateful for the way some segments of culture really have changed (or started to) from the norms of even a decade ago.

My own gift was this lovely little Sailor Moon S interlude, A Little More Time, by SugarFey - a depiction of Haruka and Michiru (with a little Setsuna) in between the two major arcs of that season. I've been having a lot of resurgent Sailor Moon feelings this year, and I was so delighted to get this gift. It's just the right mix of sweetness, hotness and angst!

It's very strange how thoroughly out of the habit of reading fanfic I am lately, even though I've participated in so many exchanges this year. I'm always excited to read my gifts, when I get fic, and writing now and then is a delightful and tantalizing challenge, but ... IDK. I do think Yuletide will be different (even though I never manage to read more than a fraction of the archive), because it's very much its own thing. So much variety! Such novelty! And reading the archive is just a favorite holiday tradition, of course.

The malaise is probably a combination of the fact that I don't have a "main" fandom, that the ones I'm most interested in lately are fairly rare, and that I mostly want to listen to audiobooks while I draw (or ride my bike, or do almost anything else). I should find myself some podfic. I'm sure there must be some for The Locked Tomb, at least?

I'm especially excited for multifandomdoodle. I would love to have more all-art exchanges; I crave ALL THE FANART even more than I used to. I go looking for some after almost every book I read lately (the genre ones, in any case). If I didn't hate running things like this, I would totally start a book fandoms fanart exchange.