I wish that I could be there right now

[reflectedeve]

Okay, I feel like talking about yuletide some more . . . people over at the community have been posting links to posts they've made musing over fandom choices, and now I feel like talking about mine.

Some fandoms I'm thinking about requesting. . . there are quite a few more, here, than I can actually request, but I don't think I'll decide for certain 'til I see the finished fandoms list, so why not.

1. Birds of Prey - Oracle, Black Canary, Catwoman (comics, femslash)
I'm actually more of a Marvel reader than DC, but well, my favorite pairing is currently split among core X-books. I was thinking about requesting classic Excalibur, but I think that's still too "big" a title . . . anyway, I digress. These two titles are probably too big as well, and as I discover that there are a lot of other things I want to read, I'm thinking that I won't suggest them. But . . . I picked up the original trade by Dixon a few months ago, and I was very taken with it. Of the original team-up, both Dinah and Babs have a great deal of appeal for me--one a pouty, sexy, but cynical super-type, the other an amazing geek who misses being super--and I love their symbiotic relationship. (Have to admit, all those scenes posted on scans_daily haven't hurt, either!) I was also grabbed by the storyline involving Catwoman, and her brief bits of banter with both Dinah and Babs. Ed Brubaker's more recent run on Catwoman has been one of my favorite "super" titles of all-time, as well.

Femslash is my favorite, always, and a threesome--with voyeurism!--how hot would that be? Plus they are all characters with a nice bit of depth to explore, and while BoP is a major and popular book, I haven't really been exposed to any fanfic. (I'll have to actually research and see what I can see.)

2. Y: The Last Man - Hero Brown, Beth II(comics, femslash?)
I've loved this comic since I started reading it, but I have to admit . . . I tend to be focused on pairing fic more often than not, and there wasn't really a pair I wanted more of (outside canon) until recently. However! Hero Brown and Beth "II" (the pregnant one, who lives in a church) have recently teamed up, as it were: two of my favorite secondary characters. Between Hero's issues and visions, and Beth's strength of mind and knowledge of theology (my pet topic), they're a duo made in heaven, for me . . . either in gen, or femslash, though I'd prefer the latter.

I have a real thing for women adventuring together--can you tell? ;)

3. Fairy Tales - Snow Queen, Gerda (femslash)
Hans Christian Andersen wrote two of my favorite fairy tales ever: The Little Mermaid and The Snow Queen. It's a wrench to pick between them, but I've worked with TLM a great deal myself already. Besides, I'm fascinated by the moral/magical conflict presented in TSQ.

I find the notion of a Snow Queen/Gerda seduction very appealing, either sexually or spiritually, but ideally both. I was concerned about Gerda being too underaged (I don't like chan at all), but the story ends with a declaration that she and Kay have grown up, so it shouldn't be an issue. Besides, I like the age difference, so long as nobody's a child. (Gerda/robber girl would be lovely, too.)

I asked for this one last year and didn't get it, but I may try again anyway, as I like it so much.

4. Historic RPF (pirates) - Mary Read and Anne Bonney (femslash?)
There isn't a great deal of detail about the lives of these two famous female pirates--though I have recently come accross some information about their childhoods--but it's enough to be somewhat tantalizing. From the sound of it, they were independent, resourceful women, as well as brave ones (fighting alone when the navy came to capture their drunken crew). Of course, piracy wasn't nearly so pretty a picture as we tend to paint, but heck, this would be fanfic. Also, it involves women (well, woman: Mary) in drag, and that just clinches my interest. ;) Femslash would be just awesome, as usual.

5. Fingersmith - Sue Trinder and Maud Lilly (book and movie, femslash, smut?)
I don't like this book quite as much as Tipping the Velvet, but it's certainly interesting. I'm just always so frustrated with where it cuts off! After all that build-up, there's so little of the relationship between Sue and Maud. Ideally, I'd really love to read some smut between the two of them, exploring Maud's knowledge (which of course has never been applied). That reference to the words for "what [she] want[s] to do to [her]" is so tantalizing. And wow, it would be particularly amazing to have a story that dealt with the issue of stories and books . . . the library setting, Maud writing, Sue learning to read, even just reference to Victorian pornography in general. Mmm.

5. Howl's Moving Castle - Howl, Sophie (book, het)
It's all very well that Sophie and Howl are ready to live "happily ever after" at the end of the novel, and I rather appreciate the lack of sentimentality involved. However, I still want to know how it happens, how their relationship changes (or is fulfilled), all that nonsense. Something set between Howl's Moving Castle and The Castle In The Air. (There was a fun little story set after the end of HMC, last year, but I'd like something that focuses more on Sophie and Howl together, specifically.)

Other fandoms I'm considering at this point are Peter Pan (book or movies; Peter Pan, Wendy/Tiger Lily; femslash or gen), Jeeves & Wooster (tv; slash), ElfQuest (Cutter/Skywise slash), From Eroica With Love (Klaus/Dorian slash--getting them into bed would be nice), Dorothy Dunnett's Lymond Chronicles (Lymond/Philippa, het) and Finder (comic; Marcie, Jaeger; gen).

I'm not going to talk about which fandoms I might offer to write (there's some overlap, but not a lot). I'm paranoid about giving too much away. ;)

Interestingly, one of my biggest challenges in the past hasn't been picking obscure enough material; this is really the first year that I've had potential trouble with that.

Rather, some of my fandoms are just too obscure. I've suggested and sometimes requested a number of things several times now, but I just have to give up, because nobody's familiar with them, or interested. There are the really random movies I love, like Victor/Victoria, which is just random (but awesome); The Court Jester, which is pretty damn old (but classic); and The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother, which no-one has even heard of. Then there's the indie comics, such as Desert Peach, Charm School, and Blue Monday . . . I'm worried about Finder.

Throw in a couple of books that nobody's read, like Patricia C. Wrede's The Raven Ring, or even better, Sheridan LeFanu's Carmilla, and I wind up slightly frustrated.

Even with my less obscure "obscure" fandoms, I've a big preference for femslash. That's something of a disadvantage, even with yuletide, where there's a much greater concentration of it than in almost any of my fandoms.

I almost always wind up with fic for the least obscure fandom I've asked for (or offered). My first year, I wound up both reading and writing Good Omens, which I love, but which is really due to be dropped at this point.

Mind you, I've never heard of a good third of the fandoms that get written for (much less suggested). So it's hardly all bad: I get recommendations for some pretty fantastic things. And it's hardly all bad to get fic for a fandom you rarely see, even if it's not as wildly obscure as I start to imagine. Mine is a small frustration: it just came to mind very vividly as I was narrowing my immense list down from forty-four to six. ;) You know how that goes.

Comments

[sweetvalleyslut.livejournal.com]

Other people will undoubtedly request Eroica and Jeeves (well, they'll request the books, but it's essentially the same thing), so I wouldn't worry about those.

[reflectedeve.livejournal.com]

Yeah, they've pretty much dropped to the bottom of the list, but I'm so into both of them right now that there's a slim chance I'll want one of those fic to have my name on it (as a recipient). ;) Slim, though.

[klmorgan.livejournal.com]

... I've had an idea for a Fingersmith story for over a year now, but didn't think anyone would want to read it.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

[reflectedeve.livejournal.com]

You are a very, very silly girl.

. . . but awesome! Did I mention awesome? In a often-has-ideas-I-love sort of way.

[klmorgan.livejournal.com]

Heeheeheehee.

Well, hey, I guess I'll try to get into Yuletide and you'll submit the request and I'll say I'm open to Fingersmith requests and we'll see what happens? Is that how this goes?

[reflectedeve.livejournal.com]

*laughs* Well, partly, hon. But you're not supposed to plan it in advance! :p Besides, I haven't narrowed down my four favorites yet.

However, you should join yuletide anyway, because anything you write will be awesome. And you should also perhaps write that Fingersmith story even if it isn't for yuletide, for pretty much the same reason. ;)

[klmorgan.livejournal.com]

Bwaha, you're just GREEDY. Sitting there with your fanfic GREED. ;)

[reflectedeve.livejournal.com]

Well, who could help it, having read your work? ^^

[mutecornett.livejournal.com]

I know Desert Peach and Blue Monday! I don't really write at all, but I have read them! I adore indie comics and we actually have an amazing comic book library here at my school.

And I've always shipped Gerda/robber girl myself. ♥

[reflectedeve.livejournal.com]

You would . . . I figured you might. ^^ Your art style is certainly reminiscent of some indie work I've read (part of why I love it so). That makes me happy, because I don't really know anyone else who reads them, apart from the folks who work at my comic shop. I've managed to convert some friends to some comics, but only a little, and never the indies.

There needs to be more fairy tale slash around. ^^

[mutecornett.livejournal.com]

I was actually going to write up this mega mega long review post about indie comics, but it would take so long to compile reviews from my regular LJ.

Still. I really think the indie stuff out there is the best, although it's starting to merge with a more mainstream literary fiction sort of graphic novel. But, yeah, SO MUCH GOOD STUFF.

Where did you find out about Desert Peach, actually? My friend gave me the first issue of Desert Peach, which is how I found it, but I've had a lot of trouble finding it even in indie-friendly comic book stores.

[reflectedeve.livejournal.com]

I'm rather partial to a lot of the indie stuff, though my tastes definitely also run towards the sort of titles published by the Vertigo imprint . . . what I think you mean by the "mainstream literary fiction sort of graphic novel." The work I want to do kind of combines elements of both styles. ^^

You could post a recs list! ;) Those are always awesome. Heck, I should do that (I have done, for individual friends, but never in a general post).

I think I first heard of it from Trina Robbins' A Century of Women Cartoonists when I was a kid. I picked up a copy of "Seven Peaches" (the collected first seven issues) at my local comic shop, which is pretty damn awesome, with a good indie section, and I'm friends with everyone who works there. They also have an original piece of Donna Barr art on the wall. Unfortunately, though, I only have that volume and one or two single issues.

[mutecornett.livejournal.com]

Oh! Well, I mostly meant mainstream literary fiction as a good but different thing--Chris Ware and Charles Burns etc. It was badly put on my part, sorry, because I actually like the literary stuff better, now that I think about it.

Are you going into graphic novels/comic books/sequential art/whatever they're called these days?

(Whee, let's both post rec lists! ♥!)

[reflectedeve.livejournal.com]

Oh, the animated animal icons! *ahem* Aaaanyway.

The genres and factions in comics aren't exactly well-defined, are they? I think I understand what you mean, now. I'm ashamed to say that I haven't read nearly as much of that sort as I'd like. I guess I have fairly eclectic tastes, but that tends to leave me with having read only a little of everything. I'm always getting distracted by the latest offering by Ellis or Gaiman.

I hope I am; that's my plan, anyways. I guess you could say I'm taking my time, though. I have a tiny piece being published in a small anthology (I think, they postponed the publication date and I haven't heard much in awhile), and in the meantime I'm trying to find an administrative or editorial job somewhere in the industry . . . to build connections, and because I'd enjoy working with comics in most capacities. ^^ As far as the creative stuff goes, well, it seems like I'll have to wait and see. I have a big project I'm working on, but I'm mightily slow. ^^;

(Absolutely! I'm kind of half-dead right now, but I'll try and start compiling one tomorrow. ^^ I can't wait to see yours--I can always use some indie recs.)

[mutecornett.livejournal.com]

I have a TON of these animated animal icons! *uses another*

As for the indie comics, it's mostly that we have a comic book library here. If you're around the Portland area ever I could show you around, it's fantastic!

(Oh god there are so many reviews to compile. *cries* I have opinions about everything.)

[reflectedeve.livejournal.com]

I am slain, I tell you. ;)

Lucky you! My library has some selection of comics, but it's not nearly adequate. And it's funny . . . I was actually born in Portland, but I've lived on the East Coast my whole life. Interestingly, it's currently pretty high on my list of places to look for jobs, though, so . . . who knows. I might very well be in the area sometime. I hear it's wonderful.

(I know! Maybe just a list to start with . . . with maybe a little blurb?)

[mutecornett.livejournal.com]

Well! This awesome comic book library is all the more reason to move to Portland, then! :)

[akatonbo.livejournal.com]

I almost always wind up with fic for the least obscure fandom I've asked for (or offered).

You too? The only year I didn't get the least obscure thing I requested, I very nearly double-matched with someone who's on my flist partly /because/ we're both in the same obscure fandom (she wrote for me, I pinch-hit for her), and that was the same year that I actually got a NYR... for the least obscure thing I asked for, although it was still a fandom that doesn't exist outside of ff.net that I was never going to get a real story for otherwise, but the source material itself was by no stretch of the imagination obscure.

And I ended up writing really common stuff in the same fandom my first two years (even after offering only obscure characters the second year, I got matched with someone who requested 'any' and then named one of the two leads as her favorite, so of course I wrote about him because it was a gift for her), so that I would have given up on it the third year even if it hadn't been disqualified.

[reflectedeve.livejournal.com]

Yes, it happens to me a good bit, though every year I tend to offer less "common" obscure fandoms, which helps some. It's a little frustrating at times, because my taste seems to be rather askew from the majority of participants', but heck, it's still really fun, and I still get to write/read things which I rarely would otherwise.

[firstfaerie.livejournal.com]

So the fandoms have to be fairly obscure? That's an interesting requirement - I hadn't actually realised it before, I thought people just tended to request off-the-wall stuff ^^ Who would you request from "The Court Jester"? Hmmm *ponder ponder* This could be fun, maybe I should look into this.

[reflectedeve.livejournal.com]

Yeah, obscurity was actually the original point: it's a multifandom exchange of rare fic. Things get disqualified if the fans become too prolific elsewhere . . . we lost Kim Possible last year (which made me sad, because I'm not happy with the Kim/Shego offerings that are available, but that's life). We're likely to lose Good Omens this year, and possibly Narnia (the movie made for a fandom boom). On the other hand, it means all kinds of random bits of literature and other such things are fair game.

For The Court Jester . . . something focused on the Captain/Maid Jean, possibly, or if I were really naughty . . . brave!Hawkins/Ravenhurst subtext?

It is fun! I always encourage everyone to join in. New participants have to write a New Year's Resolution story, though, so hie thee over to the website (http://yuletidetreasure.org) and check it out! *encourage encourage*

[graycardinal]

[wandering over from yuletide]

Yikes. We have a potentially alarming overlap of interests:

I know of The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother, though I don't have a recording (I do have Without A Clue and Young Sherlock Holmes, however, and quite liked Murder By Decree). Holmes is a major interest of mine; I've read pretty widely in the pastiches, can wax highly opinionated on some of them at the drop of a deerstalker, and was a subscriber to Holmesian Federation back in the printzine era, before the scandal that imploded it.

If by Finder you're referring to the Emma Bull Bordertown novel, I've read that (and most of the other Bordertown material); I've also read and greatly enjoyed just about the entire Wrede canon (must get hold of the newly-published third in the "Sorcery & Cecilia" series). Raven Ring is definitely one of the better Lyra books, and I do wish Wrede would get back to Lyra at some point; OTOH, I believe she's said somewhere or other that she disapproves of fanfic set in her worlds, and I try not to step on the toes of professional prose-authors who make such wishes known.

In the pirate department, cadhla wrote and posted a short fic in her LJ a couple of months back wherein she had the current-run Doctor Who encounter Ann Bonny, and cadhla is always good for excellent fic. (Have you looked at Tanith Lee's YA novel Piratica? Girl pirate, not slashy that I recall but much fun.)

And of course I'm writing Kim Possible fic my ownself, albeit also not (exactly) slash. If I actually get far enough in the present cycle, my take on Kim/Shego is going to be very odd compared to the general run of fic I've seen....

[reflectedeve.livejournal.com]

Wow, I'll add you to the list of people (I can count them on one hand) who know that movie. It came out on DVD recently, which I almost expected it never would, so I snapped it up. ^^ It's a little embarrassing, though . . . I'm not very well-read as far as Holmes goes. I really want to read more--it's high on the list. I came to the film more because Gene Wilder is kind of my family's favorite actor, we watched many of his movies when I was small. The Adventure is my favorite.

Actually, the Finder I referred to is an excellent independent sci-fi comic series by Carla Speed McNeil. ^^ I love The Raven Ring, though I didn't know it was part of a series . . . do the characters continue at all? (I've had this real desire to slash Karvonnen and Lord Daner ever since I read it, and I love Eleret very much as well.)

I'll have to look up that Doctor Who fic, that sounds awesome. Female pirates are fun, though I find myself more interested in the real historical figures, recently.

I hang out at the KP Slash Haven, and am involved in the fanart community on dA . . . and my take is quite different from the majority as well. I even drew a little comic strip (http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/40727765/") about that recently. ^^

[reflectedeve.livejournal.com]

Whoops, screwed up that link. It's here (http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/40727765/). ^^;

[graycardinal]

Holmes: If you haven't seen Without a Clue, you really ought to look that one up -- Michael Caine and Ben Kingsley chew scenery divinely as Watson (in this version, the real brains of the duo) and Holmes (an actor hired by Watson to front the team).

Wrede: There are a total of five novels set in Lyra (Raven Ring is the fifth and most recent), though they're all set at significantly different times and places in the world's history, so there are no individual continuing characters. Unfortunately, all are out of print, though Powell's has copies of most of them, plus various of her other work; I have never met a Wrede book I didn't like. There was also an omnibus edition of the first three Lyra books (Shadows Over Lyra) which includes re-polished texts of those volumes plus a compendium of notes and commentary on Lyran history.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

Oooh - Without a Clue and Young Sherlock Holmes. Two of my recent Sherlockians.

[sae.livejournal.com]

I vote RPF, Y the Last Man, or try Oracle.

They seem to have the most potential to be known-unknowns while still delivering good writing (as opposed to "omg I am Eroica and I luff u, come 2 bed" "i hate u, but ok!" ;)

[reflectedeve.livejournal.com]

*grin* Well, I'll admit that you've got half of my six suggestions right there . . . though I'm not putting anything in stone about my requests 'til I can see the full list of eligible fandoms.

Well, the Eroica fic from previous years has been good . . . it just hasn't gotten them into bed, and I really do want to see that. :p But someone else is bound to suggest it.

[sae.livejournal.com]

well, I suggested them in order of recommendation, if that helps any ;) how many do you get to ask for, again?

[reflectedeve.livejournal.com]

Well, you don't get to pick an order. I mean, you can write a "Dear Santa" letter in your journal if you want, hinting at preferences, but none of that has to be honored: only fandom and character choices. You're matched up with a writer randomly according to one common fandom. If you're lucky, your match might know more than one of them, but . . . it's entirely his/her choice as to which one gets written.

Of course, there's always the chance that someone will write one or more of your other requests for the New Year's Resolution challenge; that's happened to me twice.

You get four fandom requests during the actual sign-up (with up to four characters per fandom), and you have to offer at least three fandoms (with as many characters as you like).

(I usually wind up offering a lot more than three, but with fairly limited choices of character. And with the limits on nominations this year, I suspect that I may wind up offering less.)

Oh man, I need to chill with the excitement. Sign ups won't be starting for weeks!

[tangleofthorns.livejournal.com]

I love the Snow Queen idea. You should request it--I'd love to see it, too.

The pellet with the poison's in the...

[franzeska]

But before my brain attempts to recreate that entire monologue, let me just say that I once got a request I did not like for Yuletide (can't remember what it was now) and so purchased an entire novel series and had it shipped across the Pacific so I could write something else. People just don't take Yuletide in the right spirit.

Good novel series too. It's now one of my all-time favorites.


Why yes, I am using google blogsearch to read all the posts about Yuletide from the last month or so.