Luzula

1) Guess who's got two thumbs and a first draft of her Yuletide story? ME. \o/ Ha, and I was worried about being able to write at all. I guess now I can work some more on my bonus Yuletide story.

2) We have a new flatmate! Or will have, anyway--one of my flatmates is moving out at New Year and we had to find someone new. It was pretty painless; we held a bunch of interviews and me and my remaining flatmate agreed at once about who we wanted to ask. She said yes, so that's settled. Also she has a cute dog.

3) Hmm, what else? Life is pretty much as usual. I have my standard bread baking in the oven; maybe I'll share the recipe:

Mix 2 deciliters of plain yoghurt with 12 deciliters of warm water, add salt and a little bit of yeast, and then 2 liters of coarsely ground rye flour. Put the bowl in a plastic bag and let it stand for 24-48 hours. This makes for a great fake sourdough! Then mix in fine wheat flour until the dough is firmer (but still almost loose enough to "flow" off the spoon). Butter and flour three rectangular bread pans and put the dough in. Let rise for an hour. Then bake in 200 degrees Celsius for 1 h 20 min. Remove from pans and wrap bread in towels immediately; let cool. Then put the bread in plastic bags and let it mature for a day before eating.

Yay, we share a small fandom! I tried to give a sense of my tastes in each fandom, but please don't feel constrained by any of the specific suggestions. Just have fun writing and I am sure I will love it.

( The Dispossessed, Aubrey/Maturin, Paksenarrion, Papillon )

It's mythological mpreg, though? Every mythology needs a bit of that, I think. : )

El-ahrairah and the Litter of Kittens (2150 words) by Luzula
Fandom: Watership Down - Richard Adams
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Hyzenthlay, Thethuthinnang, Original Characters
Additional Tags: Mythology - Freeform, Mpreg, Female Relationships, Storytelling, Misses Clause Challenge
Summary: In Efrafa, Hyzenthlay tells a story to her friends: a story where a doe gets the better of El-ahrairah.

I was a bit worried when I signed up, since my track record for writing hasn't been good this year. But it worked out fine when I got going, and I am pleased with the story. exeterlinden helped with brainstorming and early beta when she visited in November, and akamine_chan beta-read the finished story. Thank you! ♥ My recipient didn't comment, though, which worries me a little--maybe they really hate mpreg? They didn't list it among their dislikes, though, and they do like mythology and genderswap. Ah well.

For Yuletide I received For the Best, a lovely Laurie/Andrew fic by queen_ypolita! Thank you so much! ♥ Also I got a treat: Advices and Queries, an intriguing Laurie/Andrew drabble by El_Staplador. Thank you!

And then there were mod treats for dSSS: The Wolf Gets A Christmas Wish Too by Dogsled, The Good Stuff by desireearmfeldt, and the podfic of china_shop's story Lies, Neckties and Ballistics by malnpudl. Thank you all, I feel spoiled! ♥ I have not had the time to listen to the podfic or read the last story yet (have been at my parents' place), but I will. : )

I've been reading a fair amount of holiday fic, and I had ambitions of making recs, but it has not happened yet. Ah well.

Yay, we share a small fandom! I tried to give a sense of my tastes in each fandom, but please don't feel constrained by any of the specific suggestions. Just have fun writing and I am sure I will love it!

( Papillon, Paksenarrion, The Charioteer, The Dispossessed )

For Yuletide I wrote two fics for my recipient Snow, because I matched on two fandoms!

A Crack in the Wall (6798 words) by Luzula
Fandom: Hadestown (Musical), Greek and Roman Mythology
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Eurydice/Persephone
Characters: Eurydice (Hadestown), Persephone (Hadestown)
Additional Tags: Revolution, Poverty, Mining
Summary: Eurydice, in the Underground.

I started this fic half a year ago and talked about it in my journal, I think? It's funny, because I was wavering on my Persephone characterization, trying to decide which way to go, and then exeterlinden beta-read it for me two days before Christmas, and she was all "go to the daaark side!" And I did. *g* I also want to thank keerawa for taking a look at an early version, and moetushie for doing a super-fast beta for a stranger asking out of the blue. The fic didn't get that many comments, but my recipient liked it, and I'm happy with how it came out. I've been wanting to write something for Hadestown for a while, and I'm glad I did.

Down Among the Weeds (3887 words) by Luzula
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Tam Lin (Traditional Ballad)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Janet/Tam Lin
Characters: Janet (Tam Lin), Tam Lin
Additional Tags: Explicit Consent, Ballads, Revisionist Fairy Tale
Summary: Janet brings Tam Lin out of the wild woods.

I started on this one, too, before I even got my assignment. I'm especially grateful to noracharles for very useful beta feedback, to raspberryhunter who also gave useful feedback, and to jjhunter who looked at an early draft and helped me with a bit of brainstorming. This didn't get many comments either, but I liked how it came out. I've been thinking about Tam Lin on and off for months, and I'm glad I could get my thoughts out in fic form.

Your Fading Fire (2474 words) by Luzula
Fandom: due South
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Benton Fraser/Victoria Metcalf
Characters: Benton Fraser, Victoria Metcalf
Additional Tags: Episode Tag, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst
Summary: Fraser gets on the train. It's Victoria who has second thoughts.

Um, so this is the one I was not really happy with. My recipient liked it, though, so that's the most important thing, I guess? The problem was that my recipient wanted Fraser/Victoria porn with him in handcuffs, and I'd written a Fraser/Victoria fic with a scene similar to that for the last dSSS. So I just didn't know if I had anything more to say about that. I did find a new angle on it, I guess, but I'm not really sure it worked. Thanks to seascribe for beta-reading and reassurance, and to darlas_mom for pushing me to improve it. Heh, and obviously the title is a Gerard Manley Hopkins quote.

So hey, guess what I did today? Finished the first draft of my Yuletide story! I do actually mean to write a second Yuletide story as well, but now I have one, and if I get stalled on the second one, it won't matter. But I should really get to work on my dSSS story instead.

I spent today meeting up with the Danish fen outside Copenhagen, and it was most excellent! Except that I just missed exeterlinden with five minutes, but you can't have everything, I guess.

I have also signed up for Bitching Party in Seattle in April. I am not 100% sure that I can go yet, but if I can't, I'll only lose $20 when I refund. So who else is going?

Yay, we share a small fandom! I tried to give a sense of my tastes in each fandom, but please don't feel constrained by any of the specific suggestions. Just have fun writing and I am sure I will love it!

( Papillon, Paksenarrion, The Charioteer, Hadestown )

I want to post Yuletide recs and participate in the Snowflake challenge, but alas, my hands and back impose limits on my typing. Ah well. Nobody guessed either of my holiday exchange stories! I, on the other hand, was right in 11 of my 17 guesses for the due South Seekrit Santa exchange. *g* Anyway, for that exchange I wrote:

Turns of Tempest (7127 words) by Luzula
Relationships: Benton Fraser/Victoria Metcalf
Summary: In the end, she couldn't do it. All that planning, all the nights Victoria had spent in prison daydreaming about how she'd bring him down--when she was faced with the reality of betraying Benton Fraser, she couldn't do it. Even though he'd betrayed her, all those years ago.

I had the idea for this story a while ago, and I'm glad I could use it for dSSS. I'm reasonably happy with how it came out, and I'm grateful to keerawa and especially to exeterlinden for beta and brainstorming. While writing it, I discovered that basically all of Gerard Manley Hopkins' poetry is relevant for Fraser/Victoria, so I kind of went overboard with the poetry quoting, heh. This story makes me want all the fork-in-the-road AU:s for this pairing--like, did anyone ever write a story where Fraser lets her go up in the mountains instead of turning her in?

Building the Castle of Roses (6240 words) by Luzula
Fandom: Sleeping Beauty
Additional tags: Fairy Tales, Science Fiction, Bechdel Test Pass, Coming of Age, Closed Ecological Systems, Space Flight, Mentor Relationship, Misses Clause Challenge, Science
Summary: Sleeping Beauty in space.

This is story is an old WIP of mine that I could use since my recipient basically only said that they wanted a fairy tale retelling. I'm grateful to mergatrude, isis, and innocentsmith for beta-reading! Several people said in comments that they wanted this to be a novel, and I think I kind of did, too--it felt like I was only showing glimpses of the story, and it wandered pretty far from the original fairy tale. Anyway, I had fun with the world-building, and I grew fond of both Rose and Dr. Malfleur.

1) Right, so I got my Yuletide assignment. And okay, first I hyperventilated a bit before I dared to click on it, but okay, that is totally doable! In fact, I can use an old WIP that I have 4000 words written of already, since the recipient is very open in their request. Heh, in fact I offered that fandom with just the thought of maybe being able to use that story, and I don't have to re-familiarize myself with canon first, either. \o/ So hopefully that should not be too stressful, although I should know better than to say that.

2) Does anyone want to watch Bullitt with me? I want to watch it for the due South connection--it's not even remotely C6D, but Ray Kowalski's crush on Steve McQueen is basically canon, and I have never seen a Steve McQueen movie. I thought it might be interesting. Is the C6D-watching chat group still doing Flashpoint, btw?

I can't believe it's that time of year already. Anyway, I'm definitely going to recycle two of my requests from last year that didn't get filled:

- the Paksenarrion series by Elizabeth Moon (I want gen fic about Paksenarrion)
- the Hainish cycle by Ursula K. Le Guin (I want fic about Laia Odo, the founder of the Odonian movement on Anarres, or more generally fic for the Dispossessed. I wouldn't say no to Left Hand of Darkness fic either.)

I'll nom the second of these (I know someone else who will nominate the first).

Things I might want to request:

- Wilby Wonderful (gen fic about Emily and/or Sandra)
- 3:10 to Yuma (the remake) (Ben Wade/Dan Evans)
- the Spin series by Chris Moriarty (Li/Cohen)
- Deadwood (Jane/Joanie)

I've also pondered requesting Clare/Irene from the 1920's novel Passing by Nella Larsen. It's about two women who have made different life choices but who keep being fascinated and drawn to each other--there's a very clear erotic subtext. It's been some time since I listened to it, though (there's a great reading of it on Librivox) and I'd have to reread/listen to remember it well, so I might not prioritize this one. Has anyone read it?

Also, malnpudl has talked me into shipping Robert Lee/James Longstreet from the American Civil War novel The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara (or, you know, it's historical RPF, but I don't know how much the actual people were like the author's interpretations). It really is extremely slashy.

Oh, and also, I'd read slash for the Mark Knopfler song "Sailing to Philadelphia". Except that I really know nothing about Mason and Dixon except for what's in that song. And, weirdly, I want a science fiction fic for the Dire Straits song "Brothers in Arms" (it's the line "there's so many different worlds" that does it for me).

...so why exactly am I shipping people from American history? It's not like I actually know much about American history, since I'm not, y'know, American. Weird. Ah well.

Anyway, in conclusion: two of my nominations are still open!