I misunderstood the point of this ride

Well hello! I'm so sorry this letter is a little late--and thanks so much for writing for me! I love the books I requested, and I’m so excited that you’re into one or more of them too! Nice taste. ;)

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.

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! It would be lovely if you took a look to have a sense of my feelings about the characters/books, but ultimately the best stories are the ones where you follow your own vision, and in any case, I’d rather you enjoyed yourself writing something you want to write. Seriously, as far as I’m concerned, that’s what it’s all about. A story you’re invested in writing will delight me the most, by a mile.

Thank you again, and I really hope you have a blast!

(Oh, and treats are always welcome. <3)

( fandom-specific thoughts, prompts, etc )

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! )

Nearly at the end of the year at last. Happy holiday season, friends; I hope you're all cozy somewhere with people you love and/or good things to do.

It has been really wonderful to be home with my family again for Christmas, after the miserable isolation of last year. I feel incredibly lucky that we were able to swing it; that we don't live far enough apart to require flying, and that my brother and his girlfriend were willing and able to come get me in their car so I didn't have to carry the risks of mass transit home to my parents, both in their early seventies. It has been a mostly peaceful, occasionally very goofy time; certainly a respite from my life in the city (though I'm nearly ready to go back - I miss my cat).

I'm looking forward to reading some of the Yuletide stories I've set aside on the train and leaving lots of belated but heartfelt comments on the delightful variety of multifandomdoodle works! Speaking of which, if you haven't, you should seriously check out the Multifandom Doodle archive. This exchange is really living up to its promise of inclusivity and low-pressure fun and general goodwill. I don't suppose we could have it quarterly? ;)

I received a really lovely gift from each of those exchanges:

tingle, Sex Education, Lily-centric, 1946 words, M
A contemplative journey through Lily's creative inspiration and endeavors, from childhood viewings of Star Trek through a modest adult side career as a writer of delightfully weird and retro-futurism-tinged self-published erotica and cozy domesticity with Ola and their kids. <3

Poor Jody ..., The Locked Tomb, Judith/Coronabeth, G
Pre-series, an incorrigible Coronabeth flirts with a rigidly uncomfortable Judith at a Third House party. Sheer delight!

As ever, I want to keep this fandom train rolling a bit longer, so I'm signing up (to draw) for rarefemslashexchange and chocolateboxcomm (currently in sign-ups and nominations, respectively). My writing brain needs a rest ... I am pleased with how my Yuletide story came out, but I struggled with it more than I have in years.

Oh, and I finally saw Die Hard last night (yes, for the first time). Honestly, a bit bloodier than I'd have preferred, but it certainly had its moments.

Well hello! Thank you so much for writing for me this year!

Of note: I am a relatively detailed and prolific prompter! Some people really enjoy working from prompts; some don’t. ODAO, and if you’d rather strike out in a different direction, please know that I’ll be delighted by that, too. Not to go all nonbinary Pollyanna on you, but: for me, Yuletide is primarily all about everyone having as much fun as they possibly can and sharing their love of something with a like-minded fan (a rare experience, for many of these rare fandoms). I am genuinely more invested in your enjoyment than in any of my ideas below. They’re there for fun and in case you want them.

But enough of that. I’ve requested, as is my wont, a bunch of books (two series and two stand-alones--at least, so far), as well as a podcast and a Netflix show. Some I’ve requested before (many times, even), and a couple are brand new to me. I love them all. I’m on the edge of my seat, waiting to find out which one you love too! Happy Yuletide, and I hope you get the experience you want out of it. <3 Let's get to the good stuff!

You can find me at Lilith and reflectedeve if you like! (My twitter is locked and little-used.) And should it come up for some reason, my pronouns are they/them.

I am opted-in to these mini-challenges: Wrapping Paper, Make The Yuletide Gay, ... and a Partridge in a Pear Tree

General Likes | DNWs | The Girls I’ve Been | The Locked Tomb
Wayfarers | The Witch Family | Unwell | Sex Education

( All of the above! )

This is such a weird year, and a weird/sad holiday season; I’m so grateful to fandom for being my constant through all this. I’m making characteristically slow progress through my "marked for later" list, and I’ll hopefully get some more recs out later, but I don’t want to wait to show off my awesome gifts:

what slows down the nights to a long lingering crawl
The Queen’s Thief - Megan Whalen Turner
Gen-ish (Irene/Eugenides, Helen/Sophos), T, 2.3K
A lovely, peaceful, and sometimes bittersweet look at much of the main cast of the series post-canon, with insights into the fragility of peace and the ongoing complexity of politics and royal life, as well as love and companionship.

To Brie or Not To Brie
Gamechanger - L.X. Beckett
Gen-ish (pre-Rubi Whiting/Gimlet Barnes), G, 1.5K
Multi-layered meta exploration of the fannish culture around semi-scripted VR game celebrities in the social media heavy world of this sadly obscure book, with some lovely pre-canon pining! I was blown away to receive a treat in this fandom. It’s great, and more people should read the book, enjoy this fic, and write more!

Also, for anyone who is still feeling the gift-giving spirit and creative momentum, fandomtrees is ongoing! You could leave some lucky fan a ficlet, or a drawing, or maybe some recipe or book recs! Here are some trees with no presents yet.



My own tree is over here, and while it lists a few specific fandoms/prompts/etc, any little thing in the fandoms I love (and the prompts in my past exchange letters) would fill me with joy. Which I have to admit ... I could really use more of right now. Things are really hard. I know they are for just about everyone else, too.

Much love to you all - I hope you’re happy and safe and with loved ones (human or otherwise).

I am so very pleased with my femslashex assignment. It's exactly the sort of thing I want to be working on right now - the biggest challenge will be settling on one idea (and not overextending)!

Trying to turn my brain to Yuletide nominations is proving to be a little bit of a struggle just at present. (Honestly, I'm having a really hard time focusing on anything with more than surface attention. It's part of being out of steam for what a 5-alarm fire the whole world is and has been this year, and I hope I get a second wind soon.)

( Some things I'm considering. )

Well, I have time to ponder, I guess. Hopefully I'll have more brain-space this weekend.

After such a long, intense holiday season, it’s been extremely lovely to relax and spend time reading this year’s Yuletide crop! I have so many more I want to read, but since I’ve already been more thorough than I manage most years, I thought I’d put together some pre-reveal recs for a change!

First things first: I received two gifts this year, one in the main collection and one Madness treat. They’re both really fantastic - I am the luckiest to have stories for two of my obscure fandoms, written by such talented writers. <3

The Enchanted April - Elizabeth von Arnim
Do You See Me?
Lotty Wilkins/Caroline Dester, G, 5447K
This lovely fic is everything I could have asked for - it effortlessly takes up the dreamy, atmospheric quality of the source’s prose, puts plenty of delightful bite into Lady Caroline’s POV, and fixes the major painful problem I had with canon, beautifully. The sweetness of Lotty and Scrap’s dynamic is complimented by the cathartic reworking of Scrap’s reaction to Mr. Briggs. So good!

Chronin
Travelers
Mirai Yoshida/Hatsu, G, 1093K
Aaah! I’m so beyond pleased to get fic for this! It’s a delightful little post-canon conversation between Mirai and Hatsu that showcases everything I love about their dynamic (the way Hatsu challenges Mirai and all her expectations at every turn) and pokes at the whole topic of time travel a bit more. Deftly written and full of possibility. <3


I’ve been reading all over the archive in whatever order fancy takes me, and trying to really mix things up, so I haven’t read every story in nearly any fandom that has more than one. Here are some entirely random favorites( in 14th Century RPF, Captain Marvel, The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Gideon the Ninth, The Good Place, Oxford Time Travel, Slings and Arrows, Victor/Victoria and Wayfarers. )

I’m looking forward to sharing a bit about my own story after reveals. After all these years, Yuletide continues to be one of my favorite fannish holiday traditions, period. And I really needed it this year!

( Yay!! General stuff. )

Specific preferences/prompts/etc by fandom, in alphabetical order (there is definitely no order of preference):

( A Song For A New Day - Sarah Pinsker )

( Chronin - Ali Wilgus )

( The Enchanted April - Elizabeth von Arnim )

( The Future of Another Timeline - Annalee Newitz )

( The Witch Family - Eleanor Estes )

( Wayfarers - Becky Chambers )

… and that is quite enough from me! Happy writing, and I hope you have a fun and un-stressful Yuletide! Thank you again!!

The way things have been going lately, I should probably make some kind of nostalgia-inflected icon.

Procrastinating to distract myself from stressful life things, as one does, I created a "series" for all my Yuletide stories going back to 2004 on the AO3, because I've been a little frustrated with the way works are automatically displayed/organized in reverse chronological order. It just looks messy to me, all the fanart (challenge fills) and fic mixed together.

The "series" goes back to 2004 because, back when the old Yuletide archive was all uploaded to the AO3 what, a few years ago now? - I was so mortified by the quality of some of the older stories that I wound up orphaning two of them, including the one from 2003, the very first year of the challenge. Which seems a bit silly now, but you can't undo that. So there are 10 stories in there, meaning I've written 12 total (over the course of 11 years, with a break for a few in between).

I grow old ... I grow old ...
I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.

Having gone that far, I finally got around to cleaning up those older, transferred stories; tagging the recipients, the pairings (where applicable), etc. I let myself do a little minor editing here and there. And I went looking for the stories people wrote for me back in 2003, 2004, whose authors didn't go in and tag me, if they're even around anymore. The challenge was so much smaller back then; I probably could recognize more individual names than not, and jeez, nostalgia. It makes me want to go right home and call my best friend, who is probably a bit too busy with my two-year-old niece for "remember when"s.

Enough rambling. I have to make a decision about which of the three chocolateboxcomm fandoms I matched on I'm going to draw for. (I really shouldn't draw for all three. I really, really shouldn't.) One of them is the fandom my first, now-orphaned Yuletide story was written in, in 2003, so I guess not everything has changed.

Note for my lovely Yuletide author(s?): I’m flying to the UK from the US on Monday night. Which means I will arrive in England with my polycule Christmas morning, both zombified and with social obligations. Not sure when exactly I’ll have the opportunity to read the three(!!) lovely and exciting gift fic I see on my AO3 profile. Know that I am super excited and can hardly wait! But my squeeful comments might be a little delayed.

Also, so yeah, I’m spending a week in England with my partner and metamours! I haven’t been out of the country in about nine years, which is absurd. I’m deeply excited, even though I tragically won’t be making the short trip up to Scotland that I was hoping for. There will have to be other visits, clearly.

Huh, I definitely kind of missed this. Maybe 2019 will be the year of journaling revival for me, whether or not there’s a real fandom/community resurgence here.