Luzula

For the Trick or Treat exchange, I received this lovely little story where Keith Cameron is haunted, though it's a bit of a spoiler to say by what ghosts. I didn't think it was written by anyone I knew, and indeed it wasn't! Thank you!

Sometimes (1186 words) by fawatson
Fandom: The Jacobite Trilogy | The Flight of the Heron Series - D. K. Broster
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Characters: Keith Cameron, Ewen Cameron, Alison Grant (Jacobite Trilogy), Donald Cameron (Jacobite Trilogy), Margaret Cameron
Summary: Keith Cameron is haunted.

I wrote the following two stories for sanguinity, who unsurprisingly I keep getting assigned to in exchanges. This time I was determined that she wouldn't guess it was me! So I read a new-to-me book she had requested fic for (which was not a chore, since I like stories about Arctic expeditions anyway!) and wrote something for that. My beta reader feroxargentea who did a little Britpicking for me said it was sweet that I read a book just to write fic for sanguinity, but I'm afraid it was more competitive than sweet! *triumphs* : D I did also guess what she wrote (the first-ever fic for "Mr Rowl", yay! And it's a really good one.) But there's not much credit to take there since the pool of probable candidates was extremely small.

If It Worked Once (377 words) by Luzula
Fandom: Dark Matter - Michelle Paver
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Isaak the Husky (Dark Matter), Jack Miller (Dark Matter)
Additional Tags: First Meetings, Trick or Treat: Treat
(Oops, forgot to write a summary, but it is basically cute husky shenanigans.)

The Gift of the Sea (1478 words) by Luzula
Fandom: Dark Matter - Michelle Paver
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Gus Balfour/Jack Miller
Characters: Gus Balfour, Jack Miller (Dark Matter)
Additional Tags: Epilogue, Canonical Character Death, Epistolary
Summary: Jack finds something unexpected on the beach in Jamaica.

I now have a new computer, but none of my files are gone, because I back things up. I have lost all my Firefox tabs and bookmarks though, but perhaps a clean slate is not all bad. Let it gooo, let it gooo...

I'm at the family summer place and graaaaading student essays and generally very busy. But this morning I went birdwatching with my dad and saw, among other species:
- two vigilant whooper swans with seven adorable newly hatched cygnets, who hadn't even left the nest yet,
- a red-backed shrike sitting still on a branch,
- a couple of horned grebes with their strange red eyes.

Also, I have received gifts! : D For unsent_letters_exchange I received A Former Acquaintance, where Jill and Kitty meet again post-canon when Lady Trecastle spreads malicious rumours about them, and Known Jacobite, Cameron of Ardroy, which is loosely inspired by events in GitN and where Keith has to deal with having Ewen as his prisoner, while his superior officers want information about Archie from him. I love epistolary fic, and both of these do a great job of showing what's going on even when important events happen off-page.

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.

As she correctly guessed, I wrote the following fic for sanguinity! I was pretty much expecting her to guess it--the pool of writers is small, and I think it's pretty typical of my style. It's one of those times when an assignment and a deadline makes you produce something you didn't think you had in you. I had of course seen her prompt for Keith & Lachlan fic before, but it didn't spark inspiration for me until I actually was assigned to write it! I'm quite pleased with the result and feel that I now have a better appreciation of Lachlan as a character. It would be interesting with an epilogue where they meet again; perhaps I'll write that at some point. As usual, thanks to regshoe and garonne for beta-reading!

The Marrow of His Heart (12491 words) by Luzula
Fandom: The Jacobite Trilogy | The Flight of the Heron Series - D. K. Broster
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Lachlan MacMartin, Keith Windham, Ewen Cameron
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Murder, Revenge, Siblings, Enemies to reluctant allies, War, Minor Character Death
Summary: When Lachlan comes back to the shieling at Beinn Laoigh to find Ewen gone, he must do everything he possibly can to track him down and help him to escape—with the help of an unlikely ally along the way.

I think my second Yuletide fic would be difficult to guess unless you had seen and remembered this comment of mine. I'm glad I managed to finish this old WIP of mine, and it was fun to work in lots of food description, which I know the recipient enjoys and which felt very natural for Penthe. Thanks to cahn for beta-reading!

The White Ladies of the Ring (7901 words) by Luzula
Fandom: Earthsea - Ursula K. Le Guin
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Penthe/Tenar (Earthsea)
Characters: Penthe (Earthsea), Tenar (Earthsea), Ged (Earthsea), Ogion (Earthsea)
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Post-Canon
Summary: There was a sorcerer imprisoned in the Labyrinth, and Arha had told Kossil that she would kill him—but she did not want to. Perhaps she needed to ask someone for help...

As for my gifts, here's who wrote them:
- As I correctly guessed, sanguinity wrote A Precarious Position.
- As I correctly guessed, regshoe wrote A Happy Disguise.
- As I correctly guessed, garonne wrote A Dark and Draughty Scottish Castle.
- As I sort of guessed but did not dare to commit to (would she really give me TWO gifts? yes, apparently she would!) sanguinity wrote Talebearers.
- As a fan of Sutcliff and Jacobite fandoms, I thought verecunda might possibly have written Joy Enough for the Both of Us? But no, it was tryfanstone, whom I don't know, but whose fic I have enjoyed before!
- I refrained from guessing on the last one, but PerfectlySteadfast, whom I don't know, wrote Our Set.

This was SUCH a good Yuletide for me, possibly my best haul ever, though honestly the last couple of years have all been great! Thank you! <3 <3 *clutches stories to chest* (Also, is there any way I can see who was my assigned writer?)

I am now at the family "summer" place for a week with my parents, and we got a great haul of funnel chanterelle, yellow chanterelle, and black chanterelle today. Yum. Also there are dogs to cuddle.

For Trick or Treat exchange, I got a spooky fic for K J Charles' Think of England, where Daniel and Archie attend a cursed house party and Archie is unfazed by the existence of the supernatural: The Roofless Past. Thank you so much, nonny! \o/ There's also a good haul of FotH fic, most of it for sanguinity. I myself wrote more than one fic for the exchange (feel free to guess them... : ) ).

Writing-wise, I suppose I'm fairly productive at the moment, but I feel like I'm caught inside a set of nested parentheses that I want to close. In general, I prefer working in a sustained fashion on one fic until it's done. If it's a really long fic, I can take little breaks from it on occasion to dash off something short. But now I've got the FotH werewolf fic, which is at 30K and will perhaps be 35K when it's done, that I can't work on now because of Yuletide, and then there was Trick or Treat... well, I shouldn't complain; at least I've got a good idea for Yuletide!

My Wounded Name gift fic Seaweed and Apple Blossoms turns out to be written by sanguinity! OMG, you were so sneaky!! I had NO IDEA this was written by you, but I am delighted to find that it was! : D Hmm, I really don't know what I could have used as a tell...but in hindsight, it makes total sense. And I suppose you now see that you were correct in your guess as to what I wrote (wait, what were my suggestive WED comments?). *g*

I am equally delighted to find that my Flight of the Heron gift fic Hereafter was also written by someone I know: feroxargentea! : D This is another one where I suspected nothing during the anon time, but it makes perfect sense after reveals! In my defense, you haven't written in this fandom before, but the hiking and the lovely landscape and nature description definitely make sense now. Have you in fact ascended Ben Nevis?

And, in my THIRD failure to guess a gift fic written by a friend, garonne wrote me the lovely little Flemington ficlet Sentimental for Madness! This one I really should have been able to guess, given that I know she likes the epilogue of the book...and it's a TINY fandom. *facepalm*

I guess we can conclude both that I am slightly dense, and have excellent friends. : ) Hmm, which of you did I actually match with?

As for what I wrote: I matched with edwardianspinsteraunt on Jill by E A Dillwyn, a fun and femslashy book from 1884. I had actually been hoping to match on that fandom! I wrote the post-canon fic To Meet Again as Equals (8,500 words) for her, and then got a second idea and wrote the treat To Stay in Service (4,200 words) for regshoe.

Canon does a great set-up for f/f and the main character has a concealed identity, but then it doesn't really realize the potential of it! So there's a lot of scope for canon divergence AU:s and identity reveals. I do think you could read these fics without having read canon, if you are in the mood for historical f/f! There are notes in the beginning with what you need to know. I did not do a ton of research about the 1880's, so there isn't much specific setting detail (except for the underwear, ha ha), but hopefully I made up for it by working hard to capture the fun first-person narrative voice and style of canon. To be honest, canon also doesn't have much specific setting while it's in England. Thanks to garonne for beta reading both of these, and regshoe for beta reading the first!

And after I'd finished those, I pondered whether to go back to my longfic, or whether to start on another Yuletide treat. I decided to write a Wounded Name fic, which I'd been itching to do. The only problem was that I was the only one who had requested that fandom. But I didn't let that stop me! So I wrote Whose Hand Was Thine in Earnest (9,000 words) and gave it to garonne as a Madness treat, because I was pretty sure that she would like it. This was also a lot of fun to write, trying to capture the over-the-top nature of canon. regshoe did some great beta work on it--I'd decided to do a lot of retelling from Aymar’s POV, and she really pinpointed how to fix the parts of the retelling which didn't feel new enough.

Altogether, a pretty great Yuletide. : D I've never written so many words for Yuletide before--I think it's a side effect of now mostly writing novel length fic. Also, I've had time to read a fair amount, but my gifts are really my favorites. *clutches them to chest*

Signal boost: concrit_x is running again in July! I did this last year and thought it was fun: you get assigned two writers to give concrit, and get concrit from two people. Definitely going to do it again.

As thanks for a donation for an abortion fund, chestnut_pod has recorded a a podfic of A Woman of Anarres, a snippet of The Dispossessed fic I wrote for Yuletide. I enjoyed it a lot, including her headcanon that Pravic has rolling r:s.

I have finally made my way onto Discord, and am currently dipping my toes in the bookbinding discord (wow, it's huge, and I am intimidated!) and also a small and friendly Age of Sail one where sanguinity has made a Flight of the Heron channel. It's lovely to get to get some more interaction in my small fandom, and fun to see new people discovering the book.

I'm at 47K with my current longfic, and have just posted the second chapter on AO3! But I think I should take a little break with that one soon and write something which regshoe can enjoy during my upcoming trip. regshoe, you can choose between 1) an epilogue to the "That Good Faith" series, with Keith and Ewen in their sixties, or 2) Ewen as a student in Paris, being seduced by French aristocrats. Or actually the second one would probably benefit from visiting Versailles first, so I should wait with that one...sorry, I guess I didn't leave you much choice!

1) My DW circle is awesome and can solve all problems: I now have in my possession the scanned pdf:s of The Travels and Adventures of Mademoiselle de Richelieu. Will report back when I've read it. : D

2) A sum-up of fanworks that people recently made for me (or that are transformations of my work):
- petra wrote me a lovely P&P sonnet about Jane and Lizzie that I got in a letter, which is always a delight.
- blackglass recorded a podfic of my Watership Down fic The Story of Hrayatha and the Rabbit Who Left No Tracks. A good choice, since it includes oral storytelling, and I always enjoy hearing other people interpret my stories!
- Finally I got a private podfic in my email for my FotH fic In His Father's Footsteps from a fannish friend who is not in a position to have her voice on the internet. Which is a pity, because I loved it!

3) In non-fannish news, my supply of delicious rhubarb cordial that I made this summer is running out. : ( So I thought I'd try making rowanberry cordial--there's a large crop of them this year, and I found many recipes online. Alas, the result was not encouraging. I found it actively disgusting, with a lingering aftertaste that I couldn't get rid of even by brushing my teeth. They're so red and lovely on the tree! But obviously better left to the birds.

Ugh, we just had a scare. My mom had some symptoms that could reasonably have been stroke (dizzyness, weird blood pressure, tingly shooting sensations in her arms). We got an ambulance, but no stroke, WHEW! Now she's feeling better but also a bit nauseous, though, and they said it could be onset of an infection, so I really hope it's not covid, augh. /o\ Was surprised the paramedics took their time so much, though, there was even dog-cuddling. Maybe they had no other calls at the moment.

Anyway!

So, it turns out great_whatsit wrote my Talk of the Town gift fic Engraved on Our Hearts, and, as I had guessed, regshoe wrote my Flight of the Heron treat On That One Spot of Earth! Thank you both, so much. <3

I wrote a main fic and a treat, both for regshoe. I can really recommend writing gifts for regshoe, because she is a goddess of feedback. : D

Both were for the Naomi Mitchison book Travel Light, and one of them is also a crossover with Sylvia Townsend Warner's Lolly Willowes. Neither is a fandom I've written before, and I had fun doing so, though I couldn't manage anything long. I do wish I'd been able to figure out what was going on with the dragons in the first one, but I ended up leaving it a mystery. Both fics probably require fandom knowledge.

To Fólkvangr (1784 words) by Luzula
Fandom: Travel Light - Naomi Mitchison
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Halla, Steinvor
Additional Tags: Post-Canon
Summary: Halla drops her cloak and goes with the Valkyries, but what next?

Different Kinds of Freedom (647 words) by Luzula
Fandom: Travel Light - Naomi Mitchison, Lolly Willowes - Sylvia Townsend Warner
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Laura Willowes, Halla
Additional Tags: Crossover, Post-Canon
Summary: Laura has a visitor at Great Mop.

Well, I don't know if anyone in my circle is interested in this pairing except for mergatrude, but I just got an entirely lovely Bodhi Rook/Cassian Andor story for Trick or Treat. It genuinely made me gush and flail in comments. Also there's a pretty great version of Galen Erso subverting Bodhi.

Home Is Where (2573 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Cassian Andor/Bodhi Rook
Characters: Bodhi Rook, Cassian Andor, Galen Erso
Additional Tags: Family, Backstory, Developing Relationship, Implied/Referenced Character Death
Summary: Bodhi can't go back, but he's determined to keep moving forward.