Spring Green

Dear Yuletide Writer

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 06:11:35 GMT

Dear Yuletide Writer,

Thank you so much for writing for me! I am sure I will love whatever you have to offer. Also, if the prompts I tried to put into the form don't work for you, please feel free to discard them and write what you want to.

If you are the kind of author who likes working from prompts/likes stalking your recipient (I do too!), here's more detail. But if you aren't, please skip over it!

I read gen, femslash, slash, and het, all flavors from very explicit to hinted at to not there at all. I tend to love the female characters the most, and I'm trying to do this year. More POC in Yuletide, yay!

Capital Scandal (Cha Song-Joo)
I love Cha Song-Joo SO MUCH! I would love something that's on the amazing UST between her and Lee Soo-Hyeon, or a Five Things That Never Happened. Or something about her past in Russia. Or a cute friendship fic with her and Wan, or her and Yeo-Kyeong. Really, anything would be good!
I wrote up the series here. As you can tell, I love the outfits, I love the almost-noir, I love the UST. I would love something with a lot of Korean history in it, to take the candy-colored coating off the kdrama.

Angel Sanctuary (Any)
Since there are a fair amount of Lucifer and Alexiel stories out there now, I would love something about Kurai, or the Mad Hatter, or Barbiel (Raphael's tough female lieutenant who looks like she would take no crap from him). What's life like in Hell? What about Kurai's time between meeting Alexiel and meeting Setsuna? Why does Barbiel stick around Raphael? Or anything with the Mad Hatter! And if none of that works for you, I still adore Alexiel and Lucifer and Setsuna and Sara and Kira and company! I'd love to know what happens after the series as well.
I wrote this up here. I love the cracktastic worldbuilding and a corrupt Heaven and a human Hell, I love the history and the reincarnations, I love how lush and overwrought everything is.

Red Cliff (Sun Shangxiang)
The princess who has her own bevy of warrior maids! How could she not be awesome? I would love anything about her, from her relationship with her brother, or her relationship with Xiao Ciao, or even the hints of a relationship she seems to have with Zhuge Liang. Or if you're up for going beyond the movie, it'd be great seeing an interpretation of what happens after.
If you decide to go for romance with this (and I'm good with het or femmeslash), I'd prefer it to be less graphic, or just hinted at. Or hey, write about one of her maids if you like! Mostly I want the POV of the women in the movie.

L.J. Smith - Night World (Any)
I would love something for my inner thirteen year old that my current self wouldn't wince at. My favorites are Jez and the characters from Daughters of Darkness, and I especially love DoD's take on story cliches and the way it's funny instead of dark and angsty. Or go the opposite and do the completely dystopic and apocalyptic! What happens if Circle Daybreak fails? What about an AU where the Night World never had to go underground? Or feel free to play with the soulmate idea and completely break it apart. What happens if you hate your soulmate? What if you're just indifferent?
As you can tell, I'm fine for people not following canon here! Especially the canon prose style ;). I'm also fine with OCs, fic about the past, fic about the future, dystopic fic, anything you can think of! I love the world with the passion of the adolescent who read these, but I'm also interested in taking it and mixing it up and growing it up.

Thanks,
Oyce

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Yuletide!

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 04:03:15 GMT

It's kind of embarrassing how little I post here unless it's Yuletide...

But! Nominations!

I really shouldn't do this this year because of finals, but I do not care.

I am thinking of nominating:
- Capital Scandal
- Angel Sanctuary (I was so sad no one nominated it last year!)
- Grand Guignol Orchestra (not out in the US yet, but one can always hope...)
- Chinese mythology
- Cantarella

Is anyone going to nominate any of these? Any ideas for the sixth spot?

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[Fic] LJ Smith, Night World: How to Save the Day (sort of)

Fri, 02 Jan 2009 18:45:01 GMT

Spoilers: For the soulmate pair in Daughters of Darkness
Disclaimer: Not mine!
Summary: The Trials and Tribulations of Ash Redfern: one. Ash: zero. The road to redemption is lined with potholes.
Notes: Written for Ziho for Yuletide 2008

Read How to Save the Day (sort of)

Series information

Night World is a yet unfinished (argh!) series of young adult Gothic fantasy crack by LJ Smith; I devoured them when I was a teenager and pleasantly discovered that they are cracktastically rereadable recently. The premise is that there's a Night World populated by witches, vampires, werewolves, and other such creatures, and the world soon evolves to encompass soulmates and the good Night Worlders who don't despise humans and/or toy with them and/or eat them. Daughters of Darkness is the second book in the series and the best: it has a lovely sense of humor about the many tropes Smith uses, along with one incredibly self-absorbed, fatuous, and mostly evil vampire and one human girl who loves astronomy and kicking people. Unsurprisingly, they're soulmates, but more surprisingly, neither of them falls swooningly in love.

Some commentary

This is fun fluff written a few hours before deadline with the same take on the humans/monsters theme running through my other stories this year, but with a sense of humor. Plus, I love Ash, but I love it when he gets kicked around more.

I am also fairly certain he would have a very difficult time wrapping his head around feminism, but I suspect that is required reading for anyone who's going to be Mary-Lynette's soulmate.

[Fic] The Queen and the Soldier: Cruel Hope and Gray Despair

Fri, 02 Jan 2009 18:34:36 GMT

Spoilers: For the entire song
Disclaimer: Not mine!
Summary: Hell's queen is its ruler and its most enslaved soul.
Notes: Written for Avendya for Yuletide 2008.

Read Cruel Hope and Gray Despair

Series information

"The Queen and the Soldier" is a song by Suzanne Vega (lyrics), but my favorite version is the cover by Kate Rusby and Kathryn Roberts. coffeeandink introduced me to it, and I love it to pieces and keep almost requesting it for Yuletide and then not. The fandom as far as I know has one other story, edonohana's lovely The Queen Knew She'd Seen His Face Some Place Before.

Some commentary

The requestor didn't have much in the prompt outside of filling in the details of the song, and edonohana had planted the idea of reincarnation in my head, since the cover of the song ends by repeating the first verse. And I loved that she had set hers in India, and I want to write more POC, so I was noodling about for settings. And then I had the absolutely cracktastic idea that the queen would be queen of Hell and that the battle in the song would be her rebellion against Heaven, and things sort of went from there.

I suspect I like this fic far more than it deserves, but oh, I don't care! It has overblown prose, a cold heroine who is queen of Hell, reincarnation, fallen angels (both the queen and the soldier), a romance with a far more powerful woman, and did I mention Heaven and Hell? I wanted to make both the queen and the soldier POC as well, but also did not want to make them recognizably from a certain culture, given that the whole fallen angel/Hell thing could be seen as an unfortunate commentary. I tried to fudge by making the queen's black skin a marker of her status as an angel (albeit former), and I really wanted to play with the standard associations with white as good and black as evil. I am not sure I ended up succeeding though.

This may be the most id-tastic thing I have written since high school.

[Fic] Monster: The Mathematics of Worth

Fri, 02 Jan 2009 18:06:54 GMT

Spoilers: For the entire series
Disclaimer: Not mine!
Summary: Every morning, Eva pours herself a glass of Scotch, sniffs and lets the alcohol vapors tempt her, then upends the contents in the kitchen sink.
Notes: Written for Influxes for Yuletide 2008.

Read The Mathematics of Worth

Series information

Monster is an 18-volume manga series by Urasawa Naoki (also an anime series, though I've never seen it) which is nominally a thriller, but really about the line between what makes us human and what makes us monsters. I suspect all my stories this year could be summarized in that manner. My fic stars Eva Heinemann, who's the rich, often rude, often unkind socialite engaged to Dr. Kenzo Tenma in the very beginning of the series. When I first read it, I hated her and the whole trope of the bitter spurned woman, but as the series went on, she developed interesting depths while never losing the bite that made her Eva.

The fic is spoilery for the fates of characters post-series and briefly mentions some events of the series, though it doesn't really ruin any of the main revelations of the series.

Some commentary

I am insane for taking a pinch hit while not done with Story #1 and not done with finals and when the source is 18 volumes long and I can't remember anything that happened. But the prompt was so neat! And re-reading the series in two or three days was a little nerve-wracking, but also very rewarding.

The only thing is that I wish I had more time to polish this piece; though I got in the main inversion of Eva's early statement in the series that not all lives are created equal, there are still bits that irk me on a prose level. Still, I am secretly glad that in my head, Nina and Eva are talking and that Eva has lost none of her prickliness, even though she has fundamentally changed quite a bit.

[Fic] Claymore: Pretty Monsters

Fri, 02 Jan 2009 17:54:42 GMT

Spoilers: Through Claymore chapter 80 or so
Disclaimer: Not mine!
Summary: Ugly manners, her mother would say, pretty is as pretty does, but she never told her pretty girl that monsters ate pretty and ugly girls alike.
Notes: Written for woodburner for Yuletide 2008. Many thanks to magicnoire for the quick beta!

Read Pretty Monsters

Series information

Claymore is a shounen manga series by Yagi Norihiro about half-human half-yoma women called Claymores who go around killing yoma with giant swords. There is a lot of blood, which I do not like so much, and a whole lot of stoic icy warriors, interesting backstory, worldbuilding, and awesome relationships among the many warriors, which I like A LOT. The story is pretty spoilery for the series, and I have no idea how well it stands alone.

Some commentary

The perils of Yuletide: sign up for a fandom in which you have not read all the canon! Yes, this was indeed the reason for my mad rush through the rest of Claymore (and my watching almost the entire anime series) while attempting to do finals and other school things at the same time. Even though I would not recommend this to anyone who is not insane, I would so totally do it again! I had tremendous amounts of fun reading and re-reading the series to pick up tiny snippets about a character who gets very memorable screen time, but not very much of it.

I briefly toyed with the idea of reading KJ Bishop or re-reading Orphan's Tales for the recipients' other requests but ended up not, thanks to the lateness of inter-library loans.

I wanted to do something about prettiness and Galatea for the obvious reasons, but also something with monstrous mothers and monstrous humans and human monsters, because we don't get to see much of humans in the series and because one of my favorite things about the series is how it plays with the line between human and monster. So that and prettiness and ugliness got all jumbled together, and nothing made much sense until I randomly threw in some twins.

Suddenly, Galatea was raising her own small army, human and female, and it was a homage to Buffy as well, which worked for me, since Claymore often feels like a very dark version of the Slayers and the Watchers' Council for me.

I am still somewhat worried that the prose is too ornate for the series and that the entire pretty/ugly/beautiful dynamic and monster/human dynamic is hammered in instead of hinted at. But overall, I like the story, and it was very fun writing.

Yuletide guessing

Tue, 30 Dec 2008 18:45:19 GMT

Please note that my guesses are usually hilariously wrong.

Play "guess who wrote what" with me in the comments, though don't confirm or deny anything, of course!

My guesses:
vee_fic wrote Cinderella, Made of Steel
etothey wrote the City of Diamond fic I haven't read yet because I don't remember who all the characters are
magicnoire wrote The Work of Chemists
deepad wrote One Thousand and One and Counting (and I'm guessing with shewhohashope as a beta)

Yuletide 2008 recs, round 1

Tue, 30 Dec 2008 17:36:19 GMT

I have been in Shanghai basically since the Yuletide archive went live, and while I was able to sneak away to an internet cafe to frantically download stories every day, I forgot about the Great Firewall of China and how it keeps out LJ! In other news, I think this made me skip over a ton of stories I would have otherwise liked, because the feeling of your mother waiting for you to finish your email ("How can you take so long every day checking email?" and I was not about to explain Yuletide to her) is not conducive to fic appreciation!

That said, I got not just one, but TWO Sancia/Alfonso Cantarella stories! AWESOMESAUCE! I made squealing squeeing noises and flapped my hands about in glee just because two people (or possibly one?) wrote my favorite characters from one of my favorite crack gothic shoujo series!

The first is If I Could Move Time, and it has Alfonso yearning and Sancia being guarded and wary and bonus reincarnation (whoo!). I love that it captures how constrained by politics and their own fears and desires they are, but mostly, Alfonso/Sancia yaaaay!

She does not dream at night, or imagine a place where it is possible to be loved and be more than a pawn. Where it is possible to have a love that does not need to be broken or looked down upon, where politics and birth do not determine their fate, where it is possible to be happy and free.

The second is Under Light, which has twelve-year-old Alfonso and fourteen-year-old Sancia and sex and is disturbingly creepy in a good way. My favorite thing about it is that it follows with the series and doesn't punish or look down on Sancia for having sex, and I love that wee!Alfonso thinks she's amazing no matter what.

But nothing he's heard helps, because right now, even in this dimly lit old servant's corridor, Sancia is breathtaking.

Her head is tilted back and she's smirking up at the man, so much confidence it makes his heart ache.

The Work of Chemists (Skip Beat!) - I gave up on the series a while ago, but I think I will have to pick it up again now. OMG. So this fic? Is hilarious. I would have been on the floor, howling, had I not been reading around one in the morning and trying not to wake up my entire family. It so amazingly perfectly captures Kyoko's narrative voice, and I love love love the over-the-top shounen "I must try harder to devote all I can to acting" and her plummeting from the heights of joy to the depths of despair to her cluelessness and just everything! And it has Moko-Kyoko too! I am just pulling out a single quote, but I honestly want to quote the entire fic.

Kyoko's heart was racing happily. She had been invited to visit Moko at home! Their friendship was growing stronger and deeper before Kyoko's very eyes! Would they braid one another's hair? Perhaps she and Moko could give one another a makeover? Or! Or Moko might open her heart to Kyoko, and shyly share her secret thoughts!

Azumanga Daioh's Romeo and Juliet (Azumanga Daioh) - This manages to perfectly capture the four-panel pacing of the original, with the addition of a delicate, understated romance (at least, as delicate as Tomo ever gets...). It's got great lines for all the characters, and I particularly love the Tomo. And the Osaka. And Ms. Yukari. And and... all of them, really!

"I tried to get into the movies once," Osaka replied. "It didn't work."

"You?!?" Yomi said with her mouth hanging open. "Did your parents try and get you in a commercial when you were a kid? Is your uncle a movie producer?"

"No, I just walked right up to the screen. But it turns out it's just a big piece o' cloth..."

and if they are not dead (Monster) - This is a lovely post-series fic full of tension and fear and ultimately the same forgiveness and humanity that the series shows, and just like the series, it's about what makes us monsters, but more importantly, what makes us human.

She takes the postcard upstairs to her flat, then searches for the other two while the kettle heats up. She fills a French press and, while the coffee is brewing, pins all three postcards to the board above her desk, isolated a little apart from the clippings of Dieter's team and the take-out menus. And then, gazing at the three sketches, she unwraps the last of the bread from Paris, pours a cup of coffee, and tips five spoonfuls of sugar into her cup.

The sugar is sweet. The bread is good.

Cinderella, Made of Steel (Sarah Connor Chronicles) - My favorite of the SCC stories this year. This gets Cameron-voice absolutely perfect, and just like Cameron, the fic is heart-warming, funny, sad, and terrifying, often at the same time. And while it's mostly about Cameron, it's also about Sarah and what she's lost, with Derek and John as lovely grace notes.

"Be quiet as you go up," says Cameron. "Sarah has not been sleeping well."

"Thanks," says Reese. "I don't want to be shot."

Cameron does not want him to be shot either. He would require medical attention. That would be bad. He might die. That would be worse. Cameron has not allotted time in her schedule for disposing of a body. She does not say this.

the sandwich story (Calvin and Hobbes) - Waaaah! This made me cry. When I was a kid, I named every single one of my stuffed animals and loved them and made them houses out of blankets and my sister and I would never buy just one (stuffed animals must be bought in pairs, so they will be each others' best friend). Now I'm back home, and I've forgotten the names of the newest, the ones bought closest to teenagerhood, and they all sit in the closet, gathering dust. This fic is about that.

"Hobbes," Calvin says thoughtfully, perched on the sharply slanted roof outside his bedroom window. "Have you always been around?"

Hobbes looks very wise and takes a large bite of his tuna sandwich. His reply is muffled and incomprehensible around the food.

Calvin takes this to mean that Hobbes doesn't know, either.

5 Things Olive Snook Never Thought and One Thing She Did (Pushing Daisies) - A lovely little treat with Olive, Ned, and Chuck, and no quote for this, since it's so short.

Wearing the Sod Gown (Castle in the Sky) - I love Yuletide for giving me stories in fandoms I never would have thought of! It's been years since I've seen the movie, but all the same, this fic is wonderful. Like many of the other pieces I'm enjoying most this year, this is a wonderful coda to the series, and I really want this to be canon.

"People who can be free shouldn't, and the ones that should are chained to the earth until it's too late," he said.

Whole New World (Aladdin) - The genie, post-series, and the people who keep shaping your life and make-shift families (my favorite kind).

He wonders, sometimes, what freedom is worth, if he always returns to the same place; but Agrabah isn't just a place. For the brief and golden time that it exists (and relatively, for Genie, it is brief), it's home.

One Thousand and One and Counting (One Thousand and One Arabian Nights) - I am not entirely sure this fic makes sense without the request ("A woman tells stories to a man at night - stories that keep her alive. Let it matter that much."), but I love the interpretation of the prompt and the anger in the story along with the celebration of so many cultures.

"Yes, you are here to help," she agrees amiably. Keep him engaged, throw any tall tale at the monster to pacify him. "My sister," second cousin on her mother's side, actually, but English does not have a specific word for that, "says that as well. She wishes..."

Red Sky by Morning (Mythology - Chinese) - I wish I remember the Matsu (Mazu) legend more so I knew what this story was doing with it, but I love just seeing this in the archive and remembering hearing stories of her in history class back in grade school.

Until the world narrows to this, this point, this moment where she's standing by the harbor rocks, watching for ships at sea, blood-red clothes like a shout against the gray of sea and sky.

Fools and Their Money (Antique Bakery) - Bwahaha! Chikage being Chikage.

Chikage had picked an agricultural chemicals company that traded on the Nisei because according to him, it looked lonely. Tachibana set up a computerized trading account and bought him four shares, and that should have been that.

One Minute, Counting (Pushing Daisies) - Emerson! The coroner! A premise that is absolutely awesome.

And then he really was done. He swallowed. Goodbye uncomfortable metal slab, he thought. Goodbye Knit-Wit magazine and the sweet smell of yarn and the soft click-click-click that needles made when you got into a rhythm. Goodbye fresh crisp checks in the mail.

The Queen's Wedding Night (Attolia series) - Someone wrote sex in the Attolia universe and it worked! Giant spoilers for the second book, and I love that this fic has so much unsaid and so much hurt. No quotes for spoiler reasons.

Wed, 24 Dec 2008 18:59:24 GMT

And because I am UTTERLY INSANE, stories 1981 and 1984 have just been posted! Whee!

Also, dear Yuletide Santa, I am pretty sure I will be able to glom onto my story within the next day or so, but I may also take a few days, as I am not entirely sure about the status of my internet. (Still! They will have to pry my laptop from my cold dead hands!)

#2!!!!

Sat, 20 Dec 2008 15:53:46 GMT

814

stories posted in Yuletide 2008 so far!

Most Recent Story From

!!!! Oyce !!!!

WHOO!

Thu, 18 Dec 2008 13:38:21 GMT

406

stories posted in Yuletide 2008 so far!

Most Recent Story From

!!!! Oyce !!!!

... now we hope I can finish my pinch hit in time!

Mon, 15 Dec 2008 05:42:01 GMT

717 words, THANK GOD!

Of course, I have no idea how good they are, but it is still much better than the zero I had yesterday!

Alas, I am insane and took a pinch hit while in the midst of finals, and that one is still at zero, as I am still reviewing the source. Gaaaaaah what was I thinking?!

Sadly, being a basic account does not let me create polls, so I ask everyone how they are doing with their Yuletide stories instead.

Dear Yuletide Santa

Sun, 09 Nov 2008 03:04:30 GMT

Please only read if you think more details will help and not hinder!

My not-so-sekrit blog is oyceter on LJ, if you want to see what I've written up on certain fandoms or whatnot.

I like gen, het, f/f, and m/m. I am very pro-female-characters and very pro-characters-of-color; I will probably fall over dead of squee for women of color. I tend to dislike non-con and rape being portrayed as romantic and love triangles that involve people cheating; I always feel bad for the person left out. Though I do like twisted power dynamics and dirty!bad!wrong! and feel if you want to put that into anything but the Megan Lindholm, it would be quite fitting. Here are some of my Cool Bits with an added note that you do not have to include any of them for me to love your story! Please feel free to ignore them!

I'm also linking to stuff I've written up on my requested fandoms in my main LJ if it'll help.

Cantarella - I requested Sancia because she's my favorite character right now (I'm not sure why I'm not as fascinated by Cesare, since I really should be). I'd love Sancia/Alfonso if you wrote it, although if it squicks you out, that is also ok! I'm also for Sancia/Cesare, Sancia/Lucrezia, Sancia and Lucrezia friendship, or just Sancia if you like. I love the series' utter crack mixed with historical fact, and I especially love that Higuri You doesn't neatly slot Sancia and Lucrezia in the Madonna/Whore dichotomy, that she allows us to see the limitations on their lives and what they do about them. I've read through volume 10.

Lust, Caution - I would love a Five Things That Never Happened story for Wang Jia Zhi. I, uh, actually didn't find the sex in the movie that hot, since it revolves male dominance and female submission, which I tend to see a lot in the media I consume. I'm particularly curious about her relationship with Kuang Yu Min and her development from naive girl to bitter woman, and most of all, I want to fix the ending (rot13) fb sbe bapr, gur srznyr fcl qbrfa'g orgenl ure pbhagel/vqrnyf/sryybj fcvrf bhg bs ybir/yhfg naq gevhzcuf! Be fbzrguvat. !

Megan Lindholm's Ki and Vandien series - I feel like there should have been a novel between Harpy's Flight and The Windsingers, in which we learn how the oh-so-broken Ki we see in the first book becomes the Ki of the latter books. Unsurprisingly, I love Ki/Vandien, and I'm also extremely curious how their wary relationship from book one turns into the "I would trust my life to you though I try not to because I don't want to weight you down" that we see later. I've read the entire series.

Vampire Knight - Something that my inner 13-year-old will scarf down like candy with prose for my outer, older self would be lovely! I am caught up through the scans, and I especially want something, anything about (rot13) inzcver Lhhxv! Onpxfgbel, natfg jvgu Xnanzr, natfg jvgu Mreb, natfg jvgu rirelbar, nalguvat! V nz n Lhhxv/Mreb fuvccre ng urneg, fb V jbhyq rfcrpvnyyl ybir nalguvat jvgu inzcver Lhhxv naq Mreb syvccvat gur qlanzvp gurl unq cerivbhfyl (gur Mreb fhpxvat ure oybbq ntnvafg n jnyy fprar BZT) be sreny inzcver Lhhxv be ernyyl, nalguvat inzcver Lhhxv. Or if that's not your thing, I'm also very curious about Ruka and Akatsuki's relationship, especially in the anime.

In conclusion: I hope you have lots of fun writing the story and lots of fun doing Yuletide, and thank you!

Thu, 30 Oct 2008 07:02:13 GMT

Whoo! I have nominations!

Bride of the Water God
Cantarella (manga)
Lust Caution (movie)
Megan Lindholm - Ki and Vandien series
Mythology - Chinese
Vampire Knight

ranalore, were there any specific characters you wanted for Bride? I think I got all the ones I like (including woman with tattoo), but I may have missed people.

Also, am somewhat annoyed that there is absolutely no Asian mythology in there and was briefly considering nominating "Mythology - Asian," until I had many qualms as to trying to populate the character list for that!

Did anyone nominate Nana, Honey and Clover, or 20th Century Boys? Or any Yuki Kaori?

Yuletide!

Tue, 28 Oct 2008 03:50:33 GMT

Or, in which I actually return to my long-neglected journal.

And I just realized that Friday is the last day for nominations, and I haven't thought about what to ask for!

Current ideas:
Vampire Knight OMG want. Um. Unless it doesn't count for Yuletide anymore?
Cantarella for sure.

I am fairly certain I want Megan Lindholm's Ki and Vandien series and Chinese mythology and LJ Smith's Night World.

And then, I am drawing a blank... I figure I got a Nana fic last year, and there's been a small, yet steadily growing list of Angel Sanctuary. I'm considering re-nominating "The Queen and the Soldier" and Lust, Caution from last year. And I'm trying to decide if it's worth it to nominate dramas that aren't Coffee Prince, since I'd love to see something for Dal Ja's Spring and maybe Damo.

What has everyone else nominated?

Writers you admire meme

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 08:28:30 GMT

Hi! I could use cheering up, and I am sure other people could as well. Or even if they don't, I seriously doubt anyone ever minds being complimented on their writing. So I am going to tell you which fandom writers I wish I wrote like (feel free to substitute different types of writers or vidders or whatever floats your boat), and not in a "Wow, I suck" way, but in a "These people are really awesome, and I admire them a lot" way. Please tell me about people you admire! Or, better yet, post this in your own LJ and hopefully make someone's day.

I love thuviaptarth's gorgeous prose and ability to slide in and out of unreliable narrators. I also love that even though she writes jeweled Gothic stories with sharp edges, she can also write delicate and oh-so-wistfully bittersweet and adorable as well.

I love etothey's prose as well, the way there are so many things left unsaid and hinted at, the glimpses of the intricate clockwork of plot. I love the way things look in her world, everything just slightly off, slightly different from this one, and infinitely more interesting and marvelous.

I love how edonohana writes, sharp and snappy and funny and vivid. I love how she captures the absurdity and humor in situations and thoughts, and then makes a sharp turn into heart-wrenching emotion so you're laughing and wincing at the same time.

I love how rilina_fic gets into characters and finds pieces of them that you never really thought about, the way all the details in her writing accumulate and give things a weight and significance.

I love how minnow1212's work just sneaks up on you and then worms its way into your heart, how her characters are so human and complicated, each containing worlds.

[Fic] Mushishi: Obliscence and the Plane of Experience (the Rememory Remix)

Sat, 26 Apr 2008 23:48:31 GMT

First, someone wrote me a remix of one of my first pieces! Go read Chancing Happiness (The Red, Red Wine Remix), which is a Hakkai/Gojyo story that nicely explores Gojyo's side of things and has the two broken people that I love.

I wrote:

Spoilers: Through volume 3 of the manga and episode 12 of the anime
Disclaimer: Not mine!
Summary: "We, amnesiacs all, condemned to live in an eternally fleeting present, have created the most elaborate of human constructions, memory, to buffer ourselves against the intolerable knowledge of the irreversible passage of time and the irretrieveability of its moments and events." - Geoffrey Sonnabend
Notes: Thanks to etothey for the beta and xsmoonshine for writing in this tiny fandom!

Read Obliscence and the Plane of Experience (the Rememory Remix)

Some commentary, same spoilers as for the fic

The title and quote are from an exhibit at the Museum of Jurassic Technology, one of the most surreal experiences ever. I thought Ginko would get a laugh out of it, if nothing else.

I was debating between remixing this fic or a Hero one and decided to go with Mushishi, as my remix for the other would have ended up being more on Chinese poetry and possibly ghosts and building of the Great Wall of China and have had next to nothing to do with the original movie.

I knew I wanted to do something about the fish and Ginko, as on a reread of vol. 3, I realized that Ginko was doomed to turn into a Tokoyami! And he didn't know this! Also, the amnesia haunts me, and I constantly want to fix it, even though giving him back his memories would have been cheating. Then I got stuck for weeks, as I needed an actual plot, which I suck at.

While chatting with edonohana about how Gundam Wing inspired all sorts of fiction (original, on her part), I joked that I needed to have the voices of outer space in my fic. And that became the mushi of the week, which eventually turned into another phase of the Tokoyami mushi, which I realized would move into the retired mushishi's village, to draw in more of the original fic.

I didn't realize until later that Ginko had brought the Tokoyami and GInko mushi with him, because he the one who affects people and places, sometimes adversely, and manages to walk away unscathed and unchanged. The remix itself is a commentary on how sometimes you can't revisit things, how places change and people die and some memories can't be restored.

Sat, 09 Feb 2008 03:55:23 GMT

I give in!

Favorite fic by me meme.

2007 in review

Fri, 04 Jan 2008 11:20:47 GMT

One Bird to Sing (the Origami Remix) - Saiyuki, 4/13, 2690 words

Adolescence Revisited - Honey and Clover, 6/9, 1790 words

Seventy Percent - Avatar, 11/13, 170 words

Salvation - Gundam Wing, 12/24, 1630

Warming Up - Princess Tutu, 12/24, 430 words

Metamorphosis - xxxHolic, 12/24, 1170 words

After - Project Blue Rose, 12/24, 990 words

Skin Shallow, Bone Deep - Mars, 12/25, 3770 words

Tink - Pushing Daisies, 12/25, 430 words

The Journey West - American Gods, 12/25, 430 words

Total stories: 10
Total fandoms: 10
Total word count: 13,800

Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you'd predicted?

Both more and less? I felt for most of the year like last year was a completely fluke, as I wrote a grand total of three stories from Jan. through Nov.

And then I wrote seven stories in December because I am insane. Next time, please whomp me on the head if I ever try doing mass gift fics ever again!

Still, it was nice to know that I could do it.

What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted in January 2007?

Probably Mars, just because I never thought about it. And also Avatar, just because I was so uninterested in it last year.

No, wait. The one I never would have predicted was my Gundam Wing story, having dropped out of that fandom over 6 years ago!

What's your favorite story of the year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you happiest?

I think "The Journey West." And some of that was because of how popular it was -- that was the story I wrote this year that felt the most personal and the most important to me, and it was good to see that it affected other people as well.

Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them?

I decided to write winter holiday gift fic for four people while I did Yuletide at the same time. I learned that I am insane! But also that I can get stuff out there if I need to.

I also played around more with voice: two first-person POV stories ("After" and "Salvation"), one OC ("Salvation"), one second-person POV ("The Journey West"), and three stories that didn't feel like my usual type of story ("The Journey West," "Tink," and "Metamorphosis"). I also tried plot with "Skin Shallow, Bone Deep," though that didn't happen so much. I am not quite sure what I learned -- I think I am at a point where I am still playing around and figuring what I can do.

Do you have any fanfic or profic goals for the New Year?

I amazingly have an original story in mind, inspired by a Yuletide prompt, so I want to try to get research done for it. Other than that, Yuletide and Remix next year, and then just see what strikes my fancy.

From my past year of writing, what was...
My best story: "Skin Shallow, Bone Deep" and "Warming Up." With all the others, I felt like I never quite got everything right, and "The Journey West" would be up here except I can spot embarrassing grammar mistakes and the moment my sister yelled that the latkes were burning. Ah, the problems with writing Yuletide Treats...

Story most underappreciated by the universe: Probably "Tink." It's funny; it actually got more comments that I usually get, but it was one of the dozen knitting stories for Pushing Daisies this year. Honestly, though, Yuletide was so generous comment-wise that I don't feel bad. Most of my other non-Yuletide ones didn't get that many comments, but I sort of expect that, as I like pretty obscure fandoms. Plus, the people I wrote them for liked them, and that makes me happy.

Most fun story: Urgh. I feel like this year, nothing was fun to write. It was all so hard! This is because I have finally admitted maybe I am a writer to myself, which means I feel like I should work and improve and things like that.

Sexiest story: "Skin Shallow, Bone Deep" is the only one with actual sex in it.

Story with single sexiest moment: The body calligraphy scene in "Skin Shallow, Bone Deep."

Story with single sweetest moment: Rei telling Kira he was willing to wait in "Skin Shallow, Bone Deep."

Most unintentionally *telling* story: I totally thought everyone and their mother would know I wrote "Skin Shallow, Bone Deep" and "The Journey West," as the first has all the elements of my usual "nothing happens, everyone eats" stories and the second... well, it's about Monkey! And Chinese immigration!

Holy crap, that's wrong: "Seventy Percent," though not really in the way most people would think.

Story that shifted my own perceptions of the characters: "Skin Shallow, Bone Deep" made me re-examine both Kira and Rei, and it made me project what they might be like twelve years down the line, which was very difficult to do realistically. It also had me re-examine their entire relationship and the power dynamics involved.

Hardest story to write: "Skin Shallow, Bone Deep." It was so hard! I had to make it about every day life and keep it from being totally boring. And then I had to go write a sex scene. And then I had to scrap and completely rewrite about 50% of it because it was boring.

Easiest story to write: "The Journey West," largely because I didn't have time to be neurotic. That, and I had been tossing the idea around in my head for a year.

"Warming Up" and "Seventy Percent," because I knew what I wanted, I knew how to get there, and there wasn't the horrible "argh the entire structure SUCKS" feeling I got from nearly everything else.

Biggest disappointment: I don't know. I think "The Journey West," "Metamorphosis," "One Bird to Sing," and "Salvation" never quite ended up being what I had pictured in my head, but I got them most of the way there.

Biggest surprise: "The Journey West"

Good lord. I think I have used up all my Yuletide comment karma for the next five years! I fell out of my chair when recs for it started appearing on my flist, which was pure awesome.

Overall: Maybe next year I will actually write before Yuletide deadlines come up!

I wrote het for the first time (er, at least that I will tell you about), and I wrote het sex for the first time. I played around with prose styles and tried to actually work on my prose. I am tempted to do a Muscular Prose Experiment a la Yoon this year, and I would like to write something with an actual plot some day. I have also stopped pretending I don't write, which means I feel obligated to work on things and improve and make resolutions and take pills and the like. I suspect the main reason why I wrote less this year than I did last year was precisely because of that; I didn't feel like I could just jot down random stuff anymore.

The sad thing is, I am not sure if that actually made my stories any better. I think it will take much longer than a year to know, really.

[Fic] American Gods: The Journey West

Wed, 02 Jan 2008 00:31:09 GMT

Spoilers: None
Disclaimer: Not mine!
Summary: Listen, and I will tell you how Monkey comes to America.
Notes: Written for st_aurafina for Yuletide 2007. Rachel, Yoon, Vom Marlowe, and Mely all guessed me correctly! (I felt so obvious writing this!)

Read The Journey West

Fandom information

American Gods is a book by Neil Gaiman about old myths and gods coming to America. There is also other stuff, but really, all you need to know is that Gaiman posits that gods come to America with their believers.

Factual notes

"Sandalwood hills" is the translation of the Chinese name for Honolulu. I think it may have originally referred to all of Hawaii, though I'm not sure. "Golden mountains" are, of course, California. "San Francisco" in Chinese is still called "Old Gold Mountain" (Australia was called "gold mountain" later, leading to the need for distinction).

The "no women" was because most of the first Chinese immigrants were men intending to make money to send back home, or to make enough to later move their families over. Most of them were never able to, because of immigration laws that turned away Chinese women. The reason why there's a larger and older Japanese-American population here is because more Japanese women were allowed here. Also, of course, the "no women" is because of all the scare tactics about evil Chinese men kidnapping white women into prostitution and drugging them with opium, never mind the history behind opium use in China. The first wave of Chinese immigrants came fleeing worsening conditions in the falling Qing Dynasty, conditions that really weren't helped by things like the Opium Wars or other Western attempts to break China open for "trade."

I think Monkey making new monkeys from bits of his fur is right from the book, though it's been a while since I've read it.

It's 1971 because of the Immigration Act of 1965, which finally repealed national quotas for immigration and led to the second large wave of Chinese immigration here. Though many Chinese people came here after the Communist takeover of China, the second wave was largely composed of those coming over from the Chinese diaspora, people whose parents had fled the Communists by migrating to Taiwan and Hong Kong, who then moved to America and had kids like me.

Some commentary

Through all of last week, I called this The Little Story That Could. I feel vaguely guilty and amazed and incredibly grateful for the attention it's gotten; I wrote it with an hour and a half left on the Yuletide clock and burned two batches of latkes on the stove in the process.

I lie a bit -- the story was written in about an hour, but it's been brewing in my head for a year now, ever since seeing an American Gods pinch hit for Yuletide 2006. I didn't get the pinch hit then (or now, even!), but I knew then and there I was going to tell the story of Monkey and the history of Chinese immigration to America. I've thought about writing it as a manga short story with vom_marlowe as well, though I was and still am unsure of how to script it.

I wish I had had more time to proof the story. I wanted to include more on Malaysia and Singapore and Indonesia and Thailand and Vietnam and Hawaii and Korean Americans. "Island nations and peninsular cities" was written in reference to Taiwan and Hong Kong, but it is of course also all the nations and cities of Southeast Asia where the Chinese diaspora has spread. I also wish I had included more on the third wave of Chinese immigration from mainland China, but I ran out of time.

I wrote this in anger and pain and hope, with the need to see myself in fiction and the knowledge that most stories of America are not my stories of America. I love that one of the central figures of American Gods is Anansi, but I rolled my eyes at the ever-familiar Norse mythology, of the feeling that immigration had somehow stopped way back when, that the new gods were Technology and whatnot. Because while they are, people are still coming here and bringing their own gods and their own stories.

This story is my "fuck you" to the Chinese Exclusion Act, to the laws barring Asian Americans from citizenship and naturalization, to the Japanese internment camps, to the murder of Vincent Chin. I mock the sentence in the Wikipedia article saying "After World War II, general anti-Asian prejudice largely dissolved."

This story is also my attempt to write myself and people like me into American history; I am American, yes, but I am also not, because I am Chinese, because I will not assimilate, because the red white and blue and the land of the free is what I grew up on, but it's also what kept me out, because I also grew up reading and hearing about Monkey and Li Bai, Hong Kong and Taiwan, Yellow River and Xi'an. It's also not just American; it's an attempt to write people like me into the Western world.

That said, the granddaughter in the story isn't me or anyone specific I know, though it could be a lot of us.

I'm incredibly touched that people liked the story and even more affected by the people who commented or recced saying it was their story too. It is their story as much as it is mine; we are all the mothers and daughters and friends in it.

[Fic] Pushing Daisies: Tink

Tue, 01 Jan 2008 22:56:22 GMT

Spoilers: None
Disclaimer: Not mine!
Summary: tink (v.i.) 1. attempt to repair or improve something in a casual or desultory way, often to no useful effect 2. (vocational) knit backwards
Notes: Written for firstgold for Yuletide 2007

Read Tink

Series information

Pushing Daisies is a TV show about a pie-maker who can bring people back to life by touching them. If he touches them again, they die forever. If they stay alive for longer than a minute, someone else will die.

None of this is really important; all you really need to know is that Emerson Cod is a private investigator who knits.

Some commentary

I actually wrote this prior to seeing the prompt on Yuletide, thanks to untrue_accounts saying there should be Emerson knitting fic. Of course, there were about a million Emerson-knits fic for Yuletide, heh.

The fic wouldn't write itself until I figured out that Emerson learned to tink before he learned to knit; otherwise, it was just a fic about knitting that didn't illuminate much about Emerson. Also, Pushing Daisies voice is haaaaard!

For non-knitters, "tink" is actually what knitters call unknitting (it's "knit" spelled backwards), Red Heart is a cheap brand of yarn known for its squeaky acrylic-ness, and I hate hate hate tinking decreases like the ones in the story. Hate.

For knitters, in my head, the knitting needle found in the dog's jaw is a magenta aluminum Boyes straight, to go with the Red Heart yarn of course ;). Also, I want my own Emerson for tinking rows and rows of lace knit in freaking mohair!

No, this is not from personal experience at all...

[Fic] Mars: Skin Shallow, Bone Deep

Tue, 01 Jan 2008 22:29:47 GMT

Spoilers: For the entire series
Disclaimer: Not mine!
Summary: These were the memories he didn't have of Sei: growing up, growing different, growing apart.
Notes: Written for Tou-chan for Yuletide 2007. Includes work-safe image done by the wonderful vom_marlowe!

Read Skin Shallow, Bone Deep

Series information

Mars is by Soryo Fuyumi (author of Eternal Sabbath), published by TokyoPop. It's about shy artist good girl Kira and destructive motorcycle-racing bad boy Sei, and it's also about two damaged people trying to heal themselves. Well, that, a lot of of Gothic plot twists involving twins, psychotic mass murderers, parentage, and who knows what else!

It was one of the first shoujo manga series I ever read, and I devoured it in the space of a few days. Later on, it was one of the first shoujo manga series brought over to the States; I found out it had been translated when I spotted a young girl reading a volume of it on the subway in New York, just like a schoolgirl in Tokyo or Taipei.

I don't think the story will make much sense without knowledge of the canon, since a lot of what I was trying to do was to change the characters in canon, to age them plausibly, to turn a Gothic high-school romance to a romance that could work in the real world. Also, I totally spoil almost all the plot twists of the manga.

Some commentary (series spoilers)

I got the prompt and basically panicked, wondering why in the world I had listed this as something I would write. Given that I have listed about 40 fandoms each Yuletide, this is pretty much par for the course. You'd think I'd learn. But the panic is part of the Yuletide experience!

I knew I wanted to do something post-series, if only because I couldn't think of anything I could write within the timeline of the series. And with that, I knew I wanted to do Kira and Rei, many years down the line, married and grown up and doing things like paying bills, going to work, worrying about rent or mortgages, and all that seeming boring grown up stuff. Part of it is my fascination with the "after" of "happily ever after;" part of it is my reaction to all the manga series about teenagers and high school.

A lot of what ended up informing the story was my anger at how Rei's story overtakes Kira's; I was surprised by that when I first read the series, but having read much more shoujo, I am grumpy by how many stories with female protagonists end up All About the Men anyway. I was also mad that Rei gets to live out his dream motorcycle racing, and I wanted to know how that would end up playing out, given that it is probably not a career that makes that much money.

When I reread the manga, I could see a horribly dystopic future with the two, Kira unhappy and silent and bearing it up as she always does, Rei not noticing. But I didn't want to write that (also, I seriously doubt my recipient wanted to read it!). So I tried to see what would make it work. I also wanted to portray a couple that has been together and married for quite some time, just because you never see that. I wanted the sense that they knew each other in and out, that they were comfortable with each other, but also that they had their own lives outside of the marriage.

It was hard to do that when the entire thing was from Rei's POV, but I tried to slip in notes about Kira being the one to hold down the day job, about her art and how important it was to her. I'm just sad I couldn't get in a Kira-Harumi friendship scene, because in my mind, Kira twelve years post-series has grown braver and more sure, she has friends at work and from art school. I, um, broke up Harumi and Tatsumi just because how many high school relationships do you usually see working out long term?

I also stole a ton of thoughts about art from telophase and vom_marlowe's posts, as it's been fascinating to watch how both of them are working on improving and creating from an outside point of view. I, like many, always thought of art as inspiration and talent and all that fluffy stuff; they made me look at the work and the craft, the realities of prioritizing and setting time aside, of practicing and trying to expand your horizons.

This was incredibly difficult for me to write. The Sei bits were easy; the hard part was making the present-day sections alive and real and not boring. Many thanks to Rachel for her help in brainstorming and beta-ing and listening to me whine a lot, and many thanks to Vom Marlowe for her constant encouragement and her gorgeous art.

And finally: I wrote sex! And people thought it was hot, whoo!

Yuletide 2007 recs, round 3

Mon, 31 Dec 2007 20:14:47 GMT

Naamah's Token (Kushiel series) - I've always enjoyed Phedre and Joscelin's odd, thorny, difficult, yet ultimately satisfying romance, particularly how it turns romance conventions of the promiscuous man and the chaste woman on its head. As such, I love that this fic is about the push-pull of Phedre's sexual desires, and I particularly love the scene between Nicola and Joscelin.

I heard the tale told once in Cereus House where I spent my childhood, of how proud Azza and cruel Kushiel wagered a province between them for a night spent in Naamah's arms.

Bentou for Two (Nobuta wo Produce) - I'm not sure if this will work for people who haven't seen Nobuta, but this saved the ending a bit for me. It's Nobuta and Mariko, gradually learning to be friends, and I really needed to read that.

The square flat box, blue with green stripes, held a couple of egg rolls, some boiled vegetables, and a patch of rice with a pig's face drawn onto it with gome seeds.

Scenes from the Lives of Princes (Coffee Prince) - Again, I'm not sure if this will work for people who don't love the canon, but this gives me all the same warm fuzzies that watching Coffee Prince does. Just... awwwwww!

Years after Coffee Princess proves as big a hit as Coffee Prince, they'll be sitting in Han Kyul and Eun Chan's living room after dinner, and Han Sung will say, "Why don't you make the coffee, Han Kyul? Your wife must be sick of it, after doing it all day."

All the King's Men (Cain Saga/Godchild) - This has everything I love about Yuki Kaori's series: poisons, absolutely insane plotting, hot like whoa, and Cain alternately being vulnerable, manipulative, and cruel. Also, zombie priest and dove! Embryonic shrew skull! The crack, I love it so much, and it doesn't hurt that the fic is extremely sexy as well.

Hypnotized by this strange sight, Crehador forgot the terrible suspicion which had brought him to this place, and watched as Cain, with a languorous sigh, let a single drop fall upon his small pink tongue.

Rehearsals (The Scarlet Pimpernel) - I have a giant weakness for The Scarlet Pimpernel, and this fic plays to everything I loved about the original. Percy and Marguerite grow up and learn to dissemble -- Percy's disguises have always been flashier, but I love that the author's Marguerite is so vivid and ruthless as well.

She was an unprepossessing sight that year, sulky mouth dominating her bony young face and straggles of greasy curls covering her eyes and her grimy cheeks - a year or two too young for the whorehouse but that was the most you could say.

Sefirot (Angel Sanctuary) - After this has been recced by several people, I have been saving it as a treat (it has taken me forever to get to the a's). And oh, I love this so much. Kabbalah and snippets from Alexiel's lives and Kira and Setsuna and oh! LOVE! Right now, my favorite section is "Geburah" because I am in love with bloody, icy Alexiel, but it may change any second. It's got reincarnation and sin and desire and I love it SO MUCH.

We spilled entrails and we rejoiced, and I could no longer tell where I ended and you began. Have you read your secret in me? Do you play a deeper game?

Nanatsusaya... am I your master? Or am I but your mistress?

A Taste of You (Angel Sanctuary) - I never thought I would like Kira/Katou, but I love this. I love the focus on taste, the gothic, lush, sinful imagery, the way Kira is cruel and casual, how the author weaves Setsuna and Alexiel into the fic. It also doesn't hurt that it's incredibly hot.

Kira has always liked the taste of cigarettes. He fancies that cancer is a spice, noxious and thickly sweet, one more forbidden fruit in a corrupt life.

Black Moon in the Afternoon Sky (After School Nightmare) - I'm in love with how this manages to capture the creepy, surreal, haunting atmosphere of the canon, with the gorgeous language and imagery, with the extremely hot Ichijo/Sou scenes, and I would rec it just for that. But I love it even more for how it treats Kureha and the penultimate scene, for making her just as important as Ichijo/Sou, for not ignoring her pain and rage and grief and love. If I ruled the universe, this would be how the manga ended.

On the way back, before you push the doors open, you can never stop yourself from wondering if the world ended while you were sleeping; if all you'll find above are the remnants of a holocaust, screaming shadows blasted onto bleached walls, or piles of corpses still bleeding from their open mouths.

The Last Rites of Wednesday Addams (Addams Family movies) - I love this, even though I've only watched bits and pieces of the movies on TV. I love the mother-daughter relationship, poisonings and all, and, ok. It's a rite of passage passed down from mother to daughter for hundreds of years! Involving things like being trapped in an Iron Maiden by choice! There really was no way I wasn't going to like this.

On their 18th birthday, each Nightshade woman is sat down by her mother - or, if her mother is fortunate enough to have been dismembered, eviscerated, set on fire, or otherwise deceased, another suitable Nightshade female - and given the Last Rites.

No, not the quaint little Catholic custom; this is a purely Nightshade tradition, handed down from each firstborn female.

The Walls of Sparta (300) - I wouldn't have read this were it not for liviapenn's rec; there is a reason why I avoided seeing 300. This reads like the flip side to Luminosity's vid Vogue -- while the vid was about taking on the male gaze, the fic is about the people the male gaze doesn't even see. I love the rage in this, I love that it gives voices back to the women, the slaves, the captives. This is my canon and my story in a way that Frank Miller's work can never be.

Her first husband, she initially thought, had joined the masters. He marched out and had not returned, he died with his oppressors. His friends were forced to the fight just as he was but--Persia! Blessed Persia!--they had run, they had fled and joined the liberators. They were free; she could imagine them with gold and silver, bronze and myrrh.

Yuletide 2007 recs, round 2

Sat, 29 Dec 2007 22:00:07 GMT

The Invisible City; or, Dick Mayhew and his Marvellous Cat (Neverwhere) - I've largely forgotten Neverwhere, which has never been one of my favorite Gaimans, but I love this story. Something is happening to London Below, and the Marquis de Carabas is dragging Richard around to investigate. I love how vivid London is, past and present, Above and Below, and I absolutely adore the ending, which made me scroll right back to the top to reread.

A couple of well-meaning fellow-drinkers had assured Richard very seriously that he had to be sworn in as Freeman of Highgate before he could buy a drink. He was halfway through explaining, with some embarrassment, that he had been the Greatest Hunter In London Below for some years now and he wasn't likely to fall for that one (again) when the Marquis arrived.

The Greatest May Appear the Least (Mushishi) - I think this is my favorite of the Mushishi stories this year. I particularly love that it's about Ginko and the scientific method; if it hadn't been telophase's gift, I would have suspected her of writing it because of the focus on observation and deduction.

Instead, he sat quietly and idly observed his surroundings.

Interesting: lush vegetation that should, by rights, be stunted and sparse.

Notable: a moon providing as much light as one might find on a stormy day.

Compellingly conclusive: the suggestion of a glow from the greenery reaching upward from the narrow valley.

The Ivory Horn (His Dark Materials) - I can't find a good quote for this one, but this is one of my favorite stories from Yuletide 2007. Will is looking for another way to travel between worlds, and nothing will stop him. I love how creepy this grows, how it doesn't back away from consequences, and oh my god, the concept and execution is simply brilliant. If you had told me about it beforehand, I would have scoffed and said it wouldn't work, but it does, and perfectly so.

The Pen and the Sword (the Anne books) - This is another of my favorites. I have a giant, giant soft spot for Rilla of Ingleside, which is my favorite of the Anne books because of Rilla, in all her practicality and romance and how she must grow up. Rilla and the rest of the Rainbow Valley gang are grown up here, and it's now 1939. I love love love how the voice of this sounds just like the books, I love how the characters are older and wiser and how much it hurts to see them going through another war, and I absolutely adore how brave they all are, even though now the glory of it is gone.

I keep as busy as I can; the old Red Cross has started up again, as if it had never been gone, and I find I can knit a sock as handily as ever I could, but the spice of it has gone; if we must have it all again then we must, but the girl who dreamt of heroes and admired a well-turned-out young man in khaki is gone forever, replaced by a woman who knows only grim necessity and endurance.

Fairy Tale of L.A. (Life) - Short and sweet and pitch-perfect Reese and Crews. I love the last line, which is just so Dani.

"What?" Dani says, still not used to the way Crews starts conversations, like he's tossing a grenade at you and expecting you to play catch.

The Crush of Cthulu (HP Lovecraft) - I don't actually know the Lovecraft canon, but this would have made me snort coffee up my nose, had I been so ill-advised to drink coffee while reading. I think the excerpt speaks for itself.

"The tale I am about to relate is a horrible one. It has dark pacts made with hideous creatures, things too twisted for the human mind to comprehend, and horrors beyond the stars who willfully violate the laws of Euclidean geometry."

The man bent his head down sorrowfully and I could feel the fear still emanating from him. He stood there, for what seemed to be aeons, and I could sense he was trying to build up his strength to tell me something, something that would forever scar my sanity, leaving my mind a pale shadow of what used to be.

He finally raised his head, and in a most doleful and anguished tone, he whispered three terrifying words that indeed, would later send me into a cataleptic state and a prolonged stay in Arkham's most prominent asylum. These words, I remember even now, as he uttered them and then stared at me with agony in his eyes.

"It has sex."

i live my life in growing orbits (Haibane Renmei) - Haibane fic! And it's small and delicate and quiet, just like the series, about recovery and growth and living. It makes me think of spring green tendrils of vine gently unfurling in the sunshine, of bean shoots in newly-turned earth.

What one notices is the coming of spring, not winter's passing. Small things, first: the gentleness of the air on a sunny morning, or the stirring of new leaves, or how the earth, no longer frost-hardened, yields just enough for one's shoes to make their mark.

A Heaven of Blackbirds (Fionavar) - I've always wanted Jaelle's story, and this one delivers. I particularly love that it has both Jaelle the High Priestess and Jaelle the woman, and though it's about the woman in the end, it never shortchanges how important priesthood is and was to Jaelle, how much Dana is woven through her life.

Oh Dana, she cried in the silence of her heart, grieving as she never had before. Why not me?

a solitary blue (Fionavar) - I'm not sure if people who aren't rabid Sharra/Diarmuid shippers would love this as much as me, but Sharra is my favorite character from the books, and I love how this captures her grief and the slow healing, how she is trying to find her wings again.

Her father does not ask her to return to Cathal when he departs in the spring, for which she is grateful: she would rather stay here in Paras Derval, where the memories of gardens are not as sharp.

Tell It Slant (Fray) - Love! I love who is telling the tale, I love the rhythms of the prose, I love how it's about stories and legends and how it connects Mel with Buffy and Faith. It reminds me of that last panel in Tales of the Slayers, of Mel sitting on the table and reading an old book, the ghosts of all the slayers past gathered behind her in solidarity and sisterhood.

After two hundred years, the Slayer's back. She's a silhouette in the city, a shadow in the streets. She's death in the alleys when the moon is dark, hope in the ruins when the rain is cold. She carries a red crescent; it's her best friend and your worst nightmare.

She's the one girl in all the world, that old, forgotten chant.

Tell the story, even if you must tell it slant.

Yuletide 2007 recs, round 1

Thu, 27 Dec 2007 09:15:08 GMT

I got not one, but TWO stories for Yuletide! Awesome!

The Mountain and the Hawk (Ellen Kushner - The House of the Nine Doors) - First of all, OMG OMG OMG! SQUEEE! Someone actually wrote fic for this non-existent fandom, and that alone would send me completely through the roof! But moreso, I love the fic so much! I love getting a look at Eyas' background, I love the additional history and sense of place the author brings to the world, the contrast between the mountains and the city, between Eyas and Gwai, between Vrel and Eyas. And it's hot! Eeeeeee!

The mountains are a ring of teeth surrounding the city, sharp and broken and impassable in most places. They have, at different times in the city's history, been shield and sword, cocoon and cage, boon and bane.

Pipe Dreams (Nana) - And then someone wonderful wrote me a treat for Nana! Yaaaaay! I love how it gets at Punk Nana's vulnerabilities, the ones she doesn't know how to deal with, and I love that it fits in both Cute Nana and Ren, how it takes all those hints in the narration of the manga and makes them text.

His fingers are rough, the tips calloused. Underneath, she feels the lingering traces of soft hands and hesitance, and she arches into his touch, willing the dream to fade.

And now for the other stories! I start my way at the bottom of the alphabet and work my way up.

Houses and Rain (xxxHolic) - I love this fic so much. SO MUCH. I love the bittersweetness of it, the description of chocolate, the assorted spirits trying to be human, and the prickly, grumpy ame-warashi, who I don't actually remember from the canon, but this story makes me want to go back and reread it for all the bits she's in. I love the bits of Japanese folklore and how the little oden fox gets a bit, and did I mention the bittersweet wistfulness?

Foxes always know where to find good paper. It's because they hang out with scholars so much of the time.

Beginnings (Discworld) - Aww! Death, once again lost with those strange human customs.

As the stove began to heat up, he set to work on the tiny lives swarming within the kettle's water, releasing them each as it came closer and closer to boiling.

It was easier to make tea when one considered all the deaths required.

The Birthday of Eternity (Discworld) - Death + the witches! How can it be bad? Also, this has got awesome Nanny Ogg voice, and I love Nanny Ogg to bits. I think the Death-Nanny Ogg conversations may have already slipped into my personal canon, along with Nanny Ogg's topologically odd socks.

Death stared at the jug. It had a little porcelain udder, complete with four ineptly paint-splotched teats. The milk, however, was clearly meant to pour out a hole in its nose. Nanny Ogg did not seem to find it out of the ordinary.

Fiddler's Went A'Courtin' (Sandman) - I was a little wary of the premise, but the author carries it off beautifully. It's Fiddler's Green, in love, but wonderfully, delicately, and gently so.

Life as an occasionally anthropomorphic personification of an imaginary land means not having a particularly subtle subconscious.

Winter Words (The Blue Sword) - The quote I picked for this doesn't really illustrate why I love this fic; its voice is less obvious than some of the prior stories. But it feels like McKinley in how it focuses on the small moments, on the "after" part of "happily ever after," how both Harry and Corlath are trying so hard.

Harry's brother, Richard (who kept his honor so close Corlath at first mistook it for disapproval), spent much of his time in those long halls.

Petition (The Rabbi's Cat) - OMG! OMG! Someone wrote fic for Rabbi's Cat! Someone wrote GOOD fic for Rabbi's Cat! I was almost afraid to read this because I love the original so much, but I love this fic. It gets the rabbi down, but more importantly, it gets the cat perfectly. The cat's cat logic and cat theology is just wonderful.

"Cats know things," I inform him, smugly. It's true; we do. We hear more than people imagine. "Didn't you know, there is a feline Torah, and these are the stories we yowl to one another at night in the alleys of the city."

Once Upon a Bird (Princess Tutu) - I love the language and the imagery in this one, the way it feels like a Brothers Grimm fairy tale, only through a warped mirror.

You follow a trail of shining pebbles, or maybe they are candy eggs, the kind that taste of sugar and cream and fruit from the summer's first harvest, the kind that witches tempt children with. Even in a dream you know better than to stop and taste one, just to see.