Yuletide 2022 Letter
Oct. 15th, 2022 09:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
starfishstarHello, dear yule goat!
Thank you for writing a gift for me! I am excitable, enthusiastic and eager (also easygoing, and probably lots of other words that start with "e"...), so you can know I will enjoy whatever you choose to create, because you'll have created it out of love for one of these fandoms we share, to which I say: yay!
General notes: I’m starfishstar on AO3 and DW if you want to have a look through anything of mine or...anything?
Likes: A focus on character interactions, be that friendship or romance or family. Found family dynamics. Humor and banter. UST (all the UST) as long as it resolves by the end. Happy or hopeful endings (angst and complexity are fine – I like stories that are realistic! – but I do need at least a degree of hope). I'm generally not looking for PWP, but I'm not going to make that a hard DNW this year, just a preference (as in, I'd prefer things other than pure smut). :-) I love what I'll term "crack treated seriously" – a premise that sounds so ridiculous, but then is treated with such earnestness and emotional depth that it somehow really works.
DNW: I think just the big ones: please no major character death, non-con/dub-con, or graphic violence. This year especially I'd like to avoid anything about death, cancer, loss of a loved one, since I've had to face that myself this year.
Treats: Yes, please! I have the option for receiving treats enabled on AO3.
FANDOMS:
(listed alphabetically, because how could I choose favorites??)
Call Me By Your Name (2017) – any (Elio, Oliver, Annella, Samuel, or any others as well)
Darius the Great Series - Adib Khorram – any (Darius, Sohrab, Laleh, Stephen, or any others as well)
As soon as I finished reading Darius the Great Deserves Better I remember thinking, this sets up so much great potential for a further sequel (or fic!); I remember thinking very clearly about 3 specific themes, which I'm now trying to reconstruct because it's been a while. Definitely one of them (and probably of most interest to me) was Sohrab. He's going to be in Canada? He and Darius will be able to visit?? This could go in a gen or a shippy direction, I'm fine with either, but I think I'm especially interested in the unexpected ways it might change their friendship. A huge shift in circumstances like that – even though it's a good change! – can shift the nature or tone or whatever of a friendship, and there might be some hurdles to overcome on the way to finding a new (and even better?) way to be friends. I'd be really interested in any of that.
Second theme I thought about after Darius the Great Deserves Better was the question of what Darius decides to do next – he's pretty definite about not-college, but as far as I remember didn't really articulate what it might be instead. It feels like a fairly unusual choice in a YA book, so I'd be interested to know more.
I think the third theme I'd had in mind was probably Darius' romances, in general, but that one admittedly interests me the least, because I can't really muster up a lot of excitement for either of the love interests in Deserves Better. But if you've got ideas to explore, go for it! (Could be Sohrab, if that feels right to you, or maybe a character we haven't even met yet. Someone Darius meets in the course of his whatever-it-is-he-does-next-that's-not-college?)
Here I've mostly talked about Darius (and a bit about Sohrab) but all the characters here are great, so if you want to explore the relationships between Darius and his dad, his mom, or Laleh, go for it! (I know his mom isn't in the tagset, but I'd be delighted to read about her if you want. So much of the first book is about Darius' struggle to understand his dad, and have his dad understand him, so I'd love to see more of him bonding with his mom as well.) And what is Laleh like as she gets a bit older?
Graceling Realm Series - Kristin Cashore – any (Katsa, Po, Bitterblue, Giddon, Fire, Brigan, Hanna, Nash, any subset/in any combination)
I love these characters: how they banter, and take care of each other, and have differences but then work on their differences, and create a big, safe web of family for each other... My thoughts and prompts tend to focus on Katsa, Bitterblue, and co., since those are the books I've reread more recently, but I also love Fire and Brigan and would not be sad to return to their world!
Just a very small example of the many possible combinations of characters I love... Bitterblue & Katsa, or Bitterblue & Po – I love their big/little sibling dynamic. Katsa/Po, having their wild, glorious, adventurous mostly-shared life, where they go their separate ways, do their separate good works, but always find their way back to each other. I am a big sap for Giddon's undying devotion to Bitterblue. :-) Fire and Brigan (and Hanna) and the peaceful, loving, strong family space Fire has determinedly carved out for herself out of so much adversity. I know they're not in the tagset, but if you happen to want to write Raffin/Bann, I love them and we never get enough Raffin/Bann. (Lots more prompts and detail about all of these ideas in my previous Yuletide sign-ups, if you want! See my "Yuletide" tag.)
And a wildcard prompt that occurred to me very abruptly while looking back through Bitterblue last year: Giddon/Po? That time period where Giddon learns Po's secret, and is so angry at him, and then works through it and they get back to being awesome buddies... It totally works as a platonic friendship thing, but on rereading, it also gave me some seriously intriguing shippy feels. They're clearly great friends, who get along really well and have each other's backs. What would that period in their lives (the Grace reveal and subsequent falling out) look like if Giddon and Po's feelings for each other were more than platonic?
John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme – any
I will never say no to a "Since You Ask Me..." tale! I love the virtuosic wordplay and unrepentant silliness.
And though I see "Finnemore | The Storyteller" is the only character nominated, I'm up for any characters or sketch you want to riff on. (The goldfish and King Neptune? The animal designers, with their personal life crises bleeding into their work? More animal interviews? Catching up with the proprietor of the "slightly off" ice cream van ten years later? Or play around with the brilliant structure and entwining story threads of Series 9!) I love John Finnemore's writing, with its combination of humor and kindness, and I'm basically just a fan of everything. So pick your favorite corner of this sprawling 9-series show and take this as carte blanche to have fun!
London Calling Series - Alexis Hall – any (Luc, Oliver, Odile, Alex, or any others, in any combination)
Oh my god. So, until last year I would have sworn (and believed it, too) that I wasn't interested in reading romance novels – not even queer ones – because I get enough romance from my fic reading, and don't need to seek out more of it, and so on... And then I read Boyfriend Material. And read it again. And again? I may be up to 5 times or so, I've lost track. So. Yeah. I've enjoyed plenty of Alexis Hall's other books, and now other romance writers as well, but something about this book just lands in the absolute sweet spot for me. It's how Luc and Oliver are both complicated, well-developed characters who are fucking things up but trying really hard to do better. It's how the plot arc of their romance isn't about overcoming some arbitrary external obstacles to reach an inevitable happily ever after; it's how the story is about the two of them learning about themselves as people, first and foremost, recognizing their issues and working on them, and how that individual stuff intersects with their attempts to have a functional relationship together. (And they don't magically make each other happier and better people; being together provides the motivation, but they have to do the work themselves, individually and together.)
...Uh, I could go on and on about that, apparently.
Anyway, this book for me also strikes the perfect balance of treating the characters and their relationship really earnestly and honestly, but also having the off-the-wall marvelous ridiculousness of the supporting characters. Both Boyfriend Material and Husband Material make me laugh so. much. (Some of Hall's other books, for me, go too far toward "look, hey, everything is zany just because it can be!" But this one – is perfect.) So you're welcome to just write about Luc and Oliver, but you're also welcome to write about Alex Twaddle being his marvelously ridiculous self. Or Odile being her marvelously ridiculous self. Or any of the other supporting characters, frankly. (What is the deal with Barbara Clench's husband, Gabriel? Don't think I haven't noticed that he doesn't speak a single line across both the books!)
Set your story during either or both of the books – or after – or anything, anything. Just tell me more about these wonderful, ridiculous, yet somehow real and sympathetic characters.
Seraphina Series - Rachel Hartman – any (i.e., Seraphina, Tess, Orma, Spira, or any others, in any combination)
mini-challenges:Challenges I plan to opt into if they're happening again this year (...will try to remember to update here once it's clear which challenges are in fact happening this year...)
Jewltide
MultiLingYule
and of course: Yuletide Madness Drabble Invitational!
.
Thank you for writing a gift for me! I am excitable, enthusiastic and eager (also easygoing, and probably lots of other words that start with "e"...), so you can know I will enjoy whatever you choose to create, because you'll have created it out of love for one of these fandoms we share, to which I say: yay!
General notes: I’m starfishstar on AO3 and DW if you want to have a look through anything of mine or...anything?
Likes: A focus on character interactions, be that friendship or romance or family. Found family dynamics. Humor and banter. UST (all the UST) as long as it resolves by the end. Happy or hopeful endings (angst and complexity are fine – I like stories that are realistic! – but I do need at least a degree of hope). I'm generally not looking for PWP, but I'm not going to make that a hard DNW this year, just a preference (as in, I'd prefer things other than pure smut). :-) I love what I'll term "crack treated seriously" – a premise that sounds so ridiculous, but then is treated with such earnestness and emotional depth that it somehow really works.
DNW: I think just the big ones: please no major character death, non-con/dub-con, or graphic violence. This year especially I'd like to avoid anything about death, cancer, loss of a loved one, since I've had to face that myself this year.
Treats: Yes, please! I have the option for receiving treats enabled on AO3.
FANDOMS:
(listed alphabetically, because how could I choose favorites??)
Call Me By Your Name (2017) – any (Elio, Oliver, Annella, Samuel, or any others as well)
This does seem to have become my Yuletide forever fandom. <3
Tell me any story of Elio/Oliver. During that summer, the longing before they confess their feelings, the stolen moments once they’ve come together, the bittersweetness as the summer rushes to its close; or give me the story of after – do they stay together? do they find each other again 20 years later? or something in between? I love these two characters, and I do long to see them get a chance to be happy together – but I'm definitely appreciative of fics that work through all the obstacles they face, rather than waving them away. If you can bring them back together in a way that feels earned, I'd love that.
I love the lushness of this world – emotionally, visually, everything. It's an achingly beautiful portrait of being on the cusp of adulthood and falling in first love, and what exquisite agony both of those things can be. Elio is a perfect encapsulation of all of that: awkward and longing and passionate and bold. This request is for movie canon, but one thing I love from the book is the whole section in Rome, that endless night of new experiences, Elio discovering the world and engaging with it as an adult for the first time, being treated as an adult for the first time – basically falling in love with life at the same time as he's falling in love with Oliver. So if you want to explore anything like that – not necessarily Rome specifically, but rather that pairing of "Elio/world" along with "Elio/Oliver" – I always enjoy that.
I also love Elio's parents, so wise and kind, and how they give him space to grow while also being there to catch him if he falls. I love seeing their dynamic with Elio, or with Oliver – Oliver, who (it seems to me) clearly hasn't had that kind of unconditional parental support. What does it mean to Oliver to have that, from two adults who respect and care for him...and who are also all tangled up with the boy he's falling in love with? Is he able to let himself accept that love (both the romantic kind and the familial kind)?
Bonus prompt: I'm Jewish, and I love that these characters are Jewish and that it's part of what connects them. For all he has more hang-ups in other ways, Oliver is more confident and open in his Judaism than Elio's family is, and that's new and exciting for Elio. If you're Jewish, or can write about Judaism knowledgeably/sensitively, I always love to read a fic that involves Judaism being an important point of connection between them. Celebrating a holiday or tradition together? Sharing favorite family foods? Discovering unexpected differences between the traditions they grew up with (Oliver in the US, Elio in Italy)? Or anything else that acknowledges their Jewishness as a shared identity, something that draws Elio toward Oliver – with the parallel of being both queer and Jewish, how both of those are things set Elio and Oliver apart from many of the others around them and connect them to each other.
Fandom-specific DNW: Plot points/characters from “Find Me”; treating female characters dismissively (i.e., please either don’t include Marzia in the fic at all, or let her be a fully developed character in her own right).
Tell me any story of Elio/Oliver. During that summer, the longing before they confess their feelings, the stolen moments once they’ve come together, the bittersweetness as the summer rushes to its close; or give me the story of after – do they stay together? do they find each other again 20 years later? or something in between? I love these two characters, and I do long to see them get a chance to be happy together – but I'm definitely appreciative of fics that work through all the obstacles they face, rather than waving them away. If you can bring them back together in a way that feels earned, I'd love that.
I love the lushness of this world – emotionally, visually, everything. It's an achingly beautiful portrait of being on the cusp of adulthood and falling in first love, and what exquisite agony both of those things can be. Elio is a perfect encapsulation of all of that: awkward and longing and passionate and bold. This request is for movie canon, but one thing I love from the book is the whole section in Rome, that endless night of new experiences, Elio discovering the world and engaging with it as an adult for the first time, being treated as an adult for the first time – basically falling in love with life at the same time as he's falling in love with Oliver. So if you want to explore anything like that – not necessarily Rome specifically, but rather that pairing of "Elio/world" along with "Elio/Oliver" – I always enjoy that.
I also love Elio's parents, so wise and kind, and how they give him space to grow while also being there to catch him if he falls. I love seeing their dynamic with Elio, or with Oliver – Oliver, who (it seems to me) clearly hasn't had that kind of unconditional parental support. What does it mean to Oliver to have that, from two adults who respect and care for him...and who are also all tangled up with the boy he's falling in love with? Is he able to let himself accept that love (both the romantic kind and the familial kind)?
Bonus prompt: I'm Jewish, and I love that these characters are Jewish and that it's part of what connects them. For all he has more hang-ups in other ways, Oliver is more confident and open in his Judaism than Elio's family is, and that's new and exciting for Elio. If you're Jewish, or can write about Judaism knowledgeably/sensitively, I always love to read a fic that involves Judaism being an important point of connection between them. Celebrating a holiday or tradition together? Sharing favorite family foods? Discovering unexpected differences between the traditions they grew up with (Oliver in the US, Elio in Italy)? Or anything else that acknowledges their Jewishness as a shared identity, something that draws Elio toward Oliver – with the parallel of being both queer and Jewish, how both of those are things set Elio and Oliver apart from many of the others around them and connect them to each other.
Fandom-specific DNW: Plot points/characters from “Find Me”; treating female characters dismissively (i.e., please either don’t include Marzia in the fic at all, or let her be a fully developed character in her own right).
Darius the Great Series - Adib Khorram – any (Darius, Sohrab, Laleh, Stephen, or any others as well)
As soon as I finished reading Darius the Great Deserves Better I remember thinking, this sets up so much great potential for a further sequel (or fic!); I remember thinking very clearly about 3 specific themes, which I'm now trying to reconstruct because it's been a while. Definitely one of them (and probably of most interest to me) was Sohrab. He's going to be in Canada? He and Darius will be able to visit?? This could go in a gen or a shippy direction, I'm fine with either, but I think I'm especially interested in the unexpected ways it might change their friendship. A huge shift in circumstances like that – even though it's a good change! – can shift the nature or tone or whatever of a friendship, and there might be some hurdles to overcome on the way to finding a new (and even better?) way to be friends. I'd be really interested in any of that.
Second theme I thought about after Darius the Great Deserves Better was the question of what Darius decides to do next – he's pretty definite about not-college, but as far as I remember didn't really articulate what it might be instead. It feels like a fairly unusual choice in a YA book, so I'd be interested to know more.
I think the third theme I'd had in mind was probably Darius' romances, in general, but that one admittedly interests me the least, because I can't really muster up a lot of excitement for either of the love interests in Deserves Better. But if you've got ideas to explore, go for it! (Could be Sohrab, if that feels right to you, or maybe a character we haven't even met yet. Someone Darius meets in the course of his whatever-it-is-he-does-next-that's-not-college?)
Here I've mostly talked about Darius (and a bit about Sohrab) but all the characters here are great, so if you want to explore the relationships between Darius and his dad, his mom, or Laleh, go for it! (I know his mom isn't in the tagset, but I'd be delighted to read about her if you want. So much of the first book is about Darius' struggle to understand his dad, and have his dad understand him, so I'd love to see more of him bonding with his mom as well.) And what is Laleh like as she gets a bit older?
Graceling Realm Series - Kristin Cashore – any (Katsa, Po, Bitterblue, Giddon, Fire, Brigan, Hanna, Nash, any subset/in any combination)
I love these characters: how they banter, and take care of each other, and have differences but then work on their differences, and create a big, safe web of family for each other... My thoughts and prompts tend to focus on Katsa, Bitterblue, and co., since those are the books I've reread more recently, but I also love Fire and Brigan and would not be sad to return to their world!
Just a very small example of the many possible combinations of characters I love... Bitterblue & Katsa, or Bitterblue & Po – I love their big/little sibling dynamic. Katsa/Po, having their wild, glorious, adventurous mostly-shared life, where they go their separate ways, do their separate good works, but always find their way back to each other. I am a big sap for Giddon's undying devotion to Bitterblue. :-) Fire and Brigan (and Hanna) and the peaceful, loving, strong family space Fire has determinedly carved out for herself out of so much adversity. I know they're not in the tagset, but if you happen to want to write Raffin/Bann, I love them and we never get enough Raffin/Bann. (Lots more prompts and detail about all of these ideas in my previous Yuletide sign-ups, if you want! See my "Yuletide" tag.)
And a wildcard prompt that occurred to me very abruptly while looking back through Bitterblue last year: Giddon/Po? That time period where Giddon learns Po's secret, and is so angry at him, and then works through it and they get back to being awesome buddies... It totally works as a platonic friendship thing, but on rereading, it also gave me some seriously intriguing shippy feels. They're clearly great friends, who get along really well and have each other's backs. What would that period in their lives (the Grace reveal and subsequent falling out) look like if Giddon and Po's feelings for each other were more than platonic?
John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme – any
I will never say no to a "Since You Ask Me..." tale! I love the virtuosic wordplay and unrepentant silliness.
And though I see "Finnemore | The Storyteller" is the only character nominated, I'm up for any characters or sketch you want to riff on. (The goldfish and King Neptune? The animal designers, with their personal life crises bleeding into their work? More animal interviews? Catching up with the proprietor of the "slightly off" ice cream van ten years later? Or play around with the brilliant structure and entwining story threads of Series 9!) I love John Finnemore's writing, with its combination of humor and kindness, and I'm basically just a fan of everything. So pick your favorite corner of this sprawling 9-series show and take this as carte blanche to have fun!
London Calling Series - Alexis Hall – any (Luc, Oliver, Odile, Alex, or any others, in any combination)
Oh my god. So, until last year I would have sworn (and believed it, too) that I wasn't interested in reading romance novels – not even queer ones – because I get enough romance from my fic reading, and don't need to seek out more of it, and so on... And then I read Boyfriend Material. And read it again. And again? I may be up to 5 times or so, I've lost track. So. Yeah. I've enjoyed plenty of Alexis Hall's other books, and now other romance writers as well, but something about this book just lands in the absolute sweet spot for me. It's how Luc and Oliver are both complicated, well-developed characters who are fucking things up but trying really hard to do better. It's how the plot arc of their romance isn't about overcoming some arbitrary external obstacles to reach an inevitable happily ever after; it's how the story is about the two of them learning about themselves as people, first and foremost, recognizing their issues and working on them, and how that individual stuff intersects with their attempts to have a functional relationship together. (And they don't magically make each other happier and better people; being together provides the motivation, but they have to do the work themselves, individually and together.)
...Uh, I could go on and on about that, apparently.
Anyway, this book for me also strikes the perfect balance of treating the characters and their relationship really earnestly and honestly, but also having the off-the-wall marvelous ridiculousness of the supporting characters. Both Boyfriend Material and Husband Material make me laugh so. much. (Some of Hall's other books, for me, go too far toward "look, hey, everything is zany just because it can be!" But this one – is perfect.) So you're welcome to just write about Luc and Oliver, but you're also welcome to write about Alex Twaddle being his marvelously ridiculous self. Or Odile being her marvelously ridiculous self. Or any of the other supporting characters, frankly. (What is the deal with Barbara Clench's husband, Gabriel? Don't think I haven't noticed that he doesn't speak a single line across both the books!)
Set your story during either or both of the books – or after – or anything, anything. Just tell me more about these wonderful, ridiculous, yet somehow real and sympathetic characters.
Seraphina Series - Rachel Hartman – any (i.e., Seraphina, Tess, Orma, Spira, or any others, in any combination)
Book series of my heart. <3 I adore and deeply admire the empathy with which Rachel Hartman writes her characters. I have equal-opportunity love for both the duologies, so feel free to write Seraphina-centric or Tess-centric or indeed something else entirely!
I'm a fan of Orma and Seraphina, their awkward, dragon-ish, and yet ultimately very loving bond; how Orma looks out for Seraphina even though he doesn't entirely understand her. (FYI one of my favorite lines from the book is this: Orma moved a pile of books off a stool for me but seated himself directly on another stack. This habit of his never ceased to amuse me. Dragons no longer hoarded gold; Comonot's reforms had outlawed it. For Orma and his generation, knowledge was treasure. As dragons through the ages had done, he gathered it, then he sat on it. :D I love that image, Orma the dragon atop his hoard of…knowledge. )
Or Seraphina and Tess! We only get these small glimpses of them interacting; after having lived so deeply inside each of their perspectives in their separate books, I'd love to see more of them together, learning to finally be sisters to each other, recognizing that maybe not all of their assumptions about each other have been true. (I did feel like the Tess books were kind of unfair to Seraphina, portraying her as distant and even uncaring, when that wasn't my experience from the Seraphina books at all. So maybe play with that, what it's like as these two fumble to get to know each other after having had massively different experiences of each other and of their (somewhat) shared childhood.
Seraphina/Kiggs/Glisselda post-Shadow Scale: I’m endlessly curious about the dynamics of this relationship, what kind of day-to-day life the three of them build for themselves and how their triad works. Do the ways they have to play pretend in public take a toll? When they get precious moments just to be themselves, what is that like? Come to think of it, this needn’t necessarily be shipping fic – just give me Seraphina & Kiggs & Glisselda bantering together in the behind-the-scenes of running a kingdom.
Spira isn't the first character my mind turns to (nothing against Spira – as a reader I just lived so, so deeply within Seraphina's life, and then the same for Tess) but if you're interested in writing about them, go for it! I'm so intrigued by Spira/Hami – falling for each other happened so fast, and kind of came out of nowhere, but also didn't? I'd love to see more about what life ends up being like for this unexpected and yet incredibly sweet pairing.
Worldbuilding... There's so much great stuff here: dragons who can transform physically into human shape (but still remain dragon-minded), the cultural differences between dragons and humans based on their very, very different histories and ways of interacting with their environment. Dragons and quigutl. Quigutl and humans. Not to mention the extraordinary expansion of this world in In the Serpent's Wake, with the many different nations of the south we get to meet, and the sabak, and the Katakutia... I'm up for all of it!
I'm a fan of Orma and Seraphina, their awkward, dragon-ish, and yet ultimately very loving bond; how Orma looks out for Seraphina even though he doesn't entirely understand her. (FYI one of my favorite lines from the book is this: Orma moved a pile of books off a stool for me but seated himself directly on another stack. This habit of his never ceased to amuse me. Dragons no longer hoarded gold; Comonot's reforms had outlawed it. For Orma and his generation, knowledge was treasure. As dragons through the ages had done, he gathered it, then he sat on it. :D I love that image, Orma the dragon atop his hoard of…knowledge. )
Or Seraphina and Tess! We only get these small glimpses of them interacting; after having lived so deeply inside each of their perspectives in their separate books, I'd love to see more of them together, learning to finally be sisters to each other, recognizing that maybe not all of their assumptions about each other have been true. (I did feel like the Tess books were kind of unfair to Seraphina, portraying her as distant and even uncaring, when that wasn't my experience from the Seraphina books at all. So maybe play with that, what it's like as these two fumble to get to know each other after having had massively different experiences of each other and of their (somewhat) shared childhood.
Seraphina/Kiggs/Glisselda post-Shadow Scale: I’m endlessly curious about the dynamics of this relationship, what kind of day-to-day life the three of them build for themselves and how their triad works. Do the ways they have to play pretend in public take a toll? When they get precious moments just to be themselves, what is that like? Come to think of it, this needn’t necessarily be shipping fic – just give me Seraphina & Kiggs & Glisselda bantering together in the behind-the-scenes of running a kingdom.
Spira isn't the first character my mind turns to (nothing against Spira – as a reader I just lived so, so deeply within Seraphina's life, and then the same for Tess) but if you're interested in writing about them, go for it! I'm so intrigued by Spira/Hami – falling for each other happened so fast, and kind of came out of nowhere, but also didn't? I'd love to see more about what life ends up being like for this unexpected and yet incredibly sweet pairing.
Worldbuilding... There's so much great stuff here: dragons who can transform physically into human shape (but still remain dragon-minded), the cultural differences between dragons and humans based on their very, very different histories and ways of interacting with their environment. Dragons and quigutl. Quigutl and humans. Not to mention the extraordinary expansion of this world in In the Serpent's Wake, with the many different nations of the south we get to meet, and the sabak, and the Katakutia... I'm up for all of it!
mini-challenges:
Jewltide
MultiLingYule
and of course: Yuletide Madness Drabble Invitational!
.
