Candy Hearts Exchange reveal!

[luzula]

I wrote three fics for the exchange. My assignment was edwardianspinsteraunt where I was matched on Jill--I'm pretty sure she guessed it was me! I didn't initially have any idea as to what to write, but after a while I came up with an interesting canon divergence which nobody had written yet. It's my happiest AU for Jill/Kitty yet, I think. The title is unfortunately boring, but I'm satisfied with the story itself! Jill's POV is always a joy to write. At some point I should probably write Kitty's POV as well...with seven works in the fandom now, it doesn't look like anyone has yet done so, probably because Jill's narration is so distinctive.

Recognition (5018 words) by Luzula
Fandom: Jill - E. A. Dillwyn
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Kitty Mervyn/Gilbertina Trecastle | Caroline Jill
Additional Tags: Identity Reveal, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Servants
Summary: Kitty recognises Jill during their stay in Corsica, and their lives take a different turn.

Next, I thought I'd try to evade sanguinity's skill at guessing by writing her a treat in a fandom I'd never written before, namely Kidnapped. This failed utterly, since both she and muccamukk guessed it was me! I also forgot to write any author's notes or summary for it, oops, but apparently my style is distinctive anyway...please let me know how you recognized me.

A Vital Question (609 words) by Luzula
Fandom: Kidnapped - Robert Louis Stevenson
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: David Balfour/Alan Breck Stewart
Additional Tags: Missing Scene, Unresolved Sexual Tension
Summary: David ponders a vital question, and fails to resolve it.

Meanwhile, sanguinity wrote both of my gift fics--thank you so much! I'd guessed she wrote the Hornblower fic, but not that she also wrote the Jill fic. Which means she played exactly the same trick on me as I did on her, but she succeeded!

I also wrote a little spontaneous treat for regshoe, being inspired by her FotH/Kidnapped crossover to write a version of history where Archie survives. It's not fair that Keith should get all the character death fixes!

The Heart of an Oak (2152 words) by Luzula
Fandom: The Jacobite Trilogy | The Flight of the Heron Series - D. K. Broster
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Archibald Cameron of Lochiel, Ewen Cameron, Jean Cameron of Dungallon
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Character Death Fix, Escape, Gratuitous Nature Details
Summary: When the redcoats come to Glenbuckie, Ewen and Archie find a different hiding place.

Comments

[muccamukk]

Honestly, because it wasn't anyone else.

[sanguinity]

but apparently my style is distinctive anyway...please let me know how you recognized me.

My shortlist was you, garonne, and muccamukk; I felt verecunda would have shown off her command of Scots (as indeed she did in the Kidnapped fic she wrote for me!). There was nothing super-distinctive about your style in the story, but there is a certain... agh, my brain insists on the word "roundness" without supplying anything meaningful about what that means... that I associate with your writing.

Too, I thought it not-unlikely that you had written a treat for me, and I knew muccamukk has been struggling lately, and so that it was unlikely that it was hers. So a little bit "felt like luzula" and a decent chunk of "likely to be luzula".

[luzula]

Yeah, I guess the pool of probable writers is pretty small!

[luzula]

That makes sense! There's also regshoe, but 1) she's got a lot of RL stuff at present, and 2) she would have included birds and more landscape description.

I'm totally envious of verecunda's command of Scots! I was thinking the other day that there's so little Alan POV in Kidnapped fic, and that I ought to write some, but that I could have no hope of capturing his style. Then again, RLS made a choice which wasn't obvious in how he portrayed David and Alan's voices, and another choice would totally be possible, too.

Roundness, hmm. *ponders this*

[edwardianspinsteraunt]

Aha! Yes, I was pretty confident you were the author of the Jill fic - thank you again! :D And I agree, it would be very interesting to write fic from Kitty's PoV - I'd love to get into her head and know what she thinks of her lady's maid...

[sanguinity]

Yes, regshoe is pretty distinctive, hence her not being on the shortlist!

Then again, RLS made a choice which wasn't obvious in how he portrayed David and Alan's voices, and another choice would totally be possible, too.

Yes, absolutely. I know muccamukk has made the choice to eschew Scots in her Kidnapped fic, and it worked very well. Better, I think, to admit straight-up that you don't have command of a language or dialect (or resources to have someone check/correct it), than to run the risk of butchering it.

Roundness, hmm. *ponders this*

It's more how you handle a story and subject than the prose itself. Round and full and smooth, without any sharp or jagged bits. You make me ache or weep or smile or laugh for the characters, but you rarely ask me to wince or flinch for them -- a raw spot being unwillingly exposed, or a deeply unattractive trait scraping to the surface through the public front.

And I know you're going to come up with counter-examples for me, and I'm going to have a hard time defending that characterization! But there's not-infrequently a point in your stories where I'd jog right and you jog left, because the kinds of stories we're interested in as storytellers are slightly different.

Which is in no way a criticism, of course! But it does mean that when I read your stories, the experience of reading them often feels a certain way -- a roundness, a smoothness -- because you're interested in one kind of story over another. That feeling isn't as distinctive as regshoe's birds, but it is characteristic to the point of my being able to say, "That could have been one of luzula's," and my not infrequently being proved right.

[luzula]

Better, I think, to admit straight-up that you don't have command of a language or dialect (or resources to have someone check/correct it), than to run the risk of butchering it.
True! I usually ask solo to translate dialogue to Scots for me, but that's been mostly for Guthrie's dialogue, of which there is a limited amount. For a whole Alan story I'd definitely go the route of at least having the narration not be in Scots.

Re: differences between what we go for in storytelling, I agree with you! A case in point is Keith--I certainly put him through the wringer on occasion, but you're more interested in exploring the ways in which he might struggle with his various issues once he's in a relationship with Ewen. Whereas I more often write him as committed (sometimes even self-destructively so) once he's got it through his thick head what his feelings actually are and that they're returned.

This doesn't mean I disagree with your interpretation of Keith! I think it's an eminently likely one, and in fact I am overjoyed to read your stories, because you come up with other stuff than I do.

[sanguinity]

Yes, exactly! Both a set of valid storytelling interests, both a workable approach to constructing a story, and both resulting in stories worth reading. But they do have a recognizably different shape from each other. :-)

And now that I'm no longer being sneaky, I'm looking forward to going back and reading your Jill stories. Hurrah, more stories to read!