Yuletide letter
Nov. 2nd, 2019 05:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
luzulaEr, I am boring and my Yuletide letter is basically copy-pasted from last year's, with some slight modifications. Also it just consists of my sign-up details so that they are visible to anyone else who wants to read them.
But anyway, if you are my assigned writer: welcome, and I am so happy that we share this rare fandom! There are some story ideas below, but if you have some idea already that you want to write, go for it--I hope I've given you some sense of what I would enjoy. And I hope you have fun writing!
Mars trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson (any characters)
Ideas:
- An AU where Ann and Sax got together on Antarctica. How does this influence the terraforming debate?
- Arkady on Antarctica, pretending to be boring and hiding his revolutionary anarchist plans. His inner monologue is probably hilarious...
- Marina/Ursula/Vlad - what does that relationship look like? We don't get any of their POV:s, but it's made pretty clear that theirs is a poly relationship. Also it would be fun to see them working on their ecological economics.
- Frank/John/Maya. They are not actually my favorite characters, but Frank/John is a slash pairing that cries out for someone to write it.
- Nadia is one of my favorite characters, so maybe just tell me a story about her solving an engineering problem?
Only four characters are nominated, and I understand if you stay with those! I just included prompts about more of them in case you felt inspired. A worldbuilding story without any of the nominated characters is also welcome! I really like all the landscape description and technical detail in the books, so feel free to pastische that if you want, but you don't have to (I get that it could be daunting!). I also like all the people and communities and political debate in the Martian underground. Also I like documentary-style stories, with letters/political tracts/debates/poetry/scientific articles/news articles/whatever. Maybe the demi-monde in Sabishii produces some kind of newspaper?
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin (any characters)
I left the character field empty here, because I would love to get worldbuilding fic. That said, if you have an idea for a fic based on one or more of the nominated characters, I am also entirely happy to get that, and I know that it's entirely reasonable (rule-wise) for you to write that for me! If you want to tell the story, I am sure I'll love it too. If I have a preference among the nominated characters, it's for Therem Harth and Genly Ai. Perhaps relevant here is that I like vivid setting and nature description, and I love the whole sequence when they're up on the ice. But hey, it would be interesting to know more about Faxe, too!
Anyway: I am intrigued by Gethen's relationship to technology, where they are very slow to adopt new things and yet they have very useful stuff such as the Chabe stove (I would love to have one). How does their conservative approach work in practice? Was Chabe an inventor, and what is their story? Or maybe Chabe wasn't a person but a hearth with an engineering collective that fine-tuned the stove for long generations? Or maybe have an observer from another planet contrast Gethen's approach with their own. If you don't want to write about technology: how did people on Gethen come up with the theory of evolution? (We know from a comment in the book that they have it.) I'd be happy to read a Gethenian treatise on natural history and biology. And finally, if you're not into science, I would also love to get more Gethenian mythology and folk tales. Or politics is also interesting: how does the Karhide-Orgoreyn situation evolve? On my last reread, I thought the book had a lot of interesting things to say about nationalism. Or worldbuilding about the gender system is also welcome. Or what about fic about the earlier observers on Gethen, before Genly Ai came there? I like documentation-style fic, which can lend itself well to worldbuilding, but straight-up story is great too.
Always Coming Home by Ursula K. Le Guin
I recently re-read this book with a book club, and we had lots of interesting discussion. So what I want here is worldbuilding, which maybe seems redundant because that's what the whole book is about. But whatever, basically any exploration of the world that you want to write is welcome.
Ideas (though be very welcome to have your own idea instead):
- I really liked the story in the "life stories" section about the guy who breeds pear trees. Doing something well and making it your life's work, I find that very moving.
- What do childrens' schooling look like?
- One person in book club speculated that Kesh culture had been intentionally created in the past, could that be so?
- I find Le Guin's various self-inserts fascinating (Pandora, Little Bear Woman, the nameless editor), especially the conflicted Pandora. Maybe you could do the same kind of meta self-insert as a fanfic author writing in Le Guin's world?
- How much does Kesh culture change over time? If you write from the POV of someone who is Kesh in 200 years, what would it look like?
- Maybe write from the POV of someone from another culture who comes to live with the Kesh? What things are similar/different?
- Several people in my book club found the culture frustrating because of its lack of critical and rational thinking, maybe you could adress this?
- Do people do Yuletide over the Exchange (and ask for filthy within-House incest porn)?
But anyway, if you are my assigned writer: welcome, and I am so happy that we share this rare fandom! There are some story ideas below, but if you have some idea already that you want to write, go for it--I hope I've given you some sense of what I would enjoy. And I hope you have fun writing!
Mars trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson (any characters)
Ideas:
- An AU where Ann and Sax got together on Antarctica. How does this influence the terraforming debate?
- Arkady on Antarctica, pretending to be boring and hiding his revolutionary anarchist plans. His inner monologue is probably hilarious...
- Marina/Ursula/Vlad - what does that relationship look like? We don't get any of their POV:s, but it's made pretty clear that theirs is a poly relationship. Also it would be fun to see them working on their ecological economics.
- Frank/John/Maya. They are not actually my favorite characters, but Frank/John is a slash pairing that cries out for someone to write it.
- Nadia is one of my favorite characters, so maybe just tell me a story about her solving an engineering problem?
Only four characters are nominated, and I understand if you stay with those! I just included prompts about more of them in case you felt inspired. A worldbuilding story without any of the nominated characters is also welcome! I really like all the landscape description and technical detail in the books, so feel free to pastische that if you want, but you don't have to (I get that it could be daunting!). I also like all the people and communities and political debate in the Martian underground. Also I like documentary-style stories, with letters/political tracts/debates/poetry/scientific articles/news articles/whatever. Maybe the demi-monde in Sabishii produces some kind of newspaper?
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin (any characters)
I left the character field empty here, because I would love to get worldbuilding fic. That said, if you have an idea for a fic based on one or more of the nominated characters, I am also entirely happy to get that, and I know that it's entirely reasonable (rule-wise) for you to write that for me! If you want to tell the story, I am sure I'll love it too. If I have a preference among the nominated characters, it's for Therem Harth and Genly Ai. Perhaps relevant here is that I like vivid setting and nature description, and I love the whole sequence when they're up on the ice. But hey, it would be interesting to know more about Faxe, too!
Anyway: I am intrigued by Gethen's relationship to technology, where they are very slow to adopt new things and yet they have very useful stuff such as the Chabe stove (I would love to have one). How does their conservative approach work in practice? Was Chabe an inventor, and what is their story? Or maybe Chabe wasn't a person but a hearth with an engineering collective that fine-tuned the stove for long generations? Or maybe have an observer from another planet contrast Gethen's approach with their own. If you don't want to write about technology: how did people on Gethen come up with the theory of evolution? (We know from a comment in the book that they have it.) I'd be happy to read a Gethenian treatise on natural history and biology. And finally, if you're not into science, I would also love to get more Gethenian mythology and folk tales. Or politics is also interesting: how does the Karhide-Orgoreyn situation evolve? On my last reread, I thought the book had a lot of interesting things to say about nationalism. Or worldbuilding about the gender system is also welcome. Or what about fic about the earlier observers on Gethen, before Genly Ai came there? I like documentation-style fic, which can lend itself well to worldbuilding, but straight-up story is great too.
Always Coming Home by Ursula K. Le Guin
I recently re-read this book with a book club, and we had lots of interesting discussion. So what I want here is worldbuilding, which maybe seems redundant because that's what the whole book is about. But whatever, basically any exploration of the world that you want to write is welcome.
Ideas (though be very welcome to have your own idea instead):
- I really liked the story in the "life stories" section about the guy who breeds pear trees. Doing something well and making it your life's work, I find that very moving.
- What do childrens' schooling look like?
- One person in book club speculated that Kesh culture had been intentionally created in the past, could that be so?
- I find Le Guin's various self-inserts fascinating (Pandora, Little Bear Woman, the nameless editor), especially the conflicted Pandora. Maybe you could do the same kind of meta self-insert as a fanfic author writing in Le Guin's world?
- How much does Kesh culture change over time? If you write from the POV of someone who is Kesh in 200 years, what would it look like?
- Maybe write from the POV of someone from another culture who comes to live with the Kesh? What things are similar/different?
- Several people in my book club found the culture frustrating because of its lack of critical and rational thinking, maybe you could adress this?
- Do people do Yuletide over the Exchange (and ask for filthy within-House incest porn)?
