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YULETIDE.
Dear poor person who got my Yuletide requests,
Someone this year suggested that the best way to do this letter was to just talk about why you love these fandoms, and I think that's an excellent idea. Plus, it means I have an excuse to gush over some tiny fandoms that I love, and any chance at that, I take. So this is unforgiveably long and very, very gushy.
I'll start off by repeating from last year that I'll love anything you do, and don't fret too much over the details I requested, or trying to sound like canon. My tastes in fic are very broad. If you're interested in the kind of stories I go for, I suggest looking at the bunnies tag on this journal, or at my del.icio.us account. As they should demonstrate, I like gen stories, 'ships, and sex scenes of all kinds, am fond of both the drippiest romances and the driest experimental prose, adore crack and strange AUs (as long as the characters are recognizable) and will read crossovers even if I don't know half the characters, but also love stories that seamlessly build out of canon. Please, wherever your heart leads you, go wild.
Also, please don't let this letter intimidate you in any way, and feel free to skip the rest of it if you're already scared of me; I swear I will squee madly at anything you write, as long as it's in the fandom. And none of them have much in the way of canon, so if you'd like to try one you didn't already know, that would be full of win.
Richard Peck - Here Lies The Librarian - I picked up this book after I heard Richard Peck read from it last year at the National Book Festival - I had not known, before I heard him talk, that he was a curmudgeon conservative, because it sure isn't evident through what he writes about.
Here Lies the Librarian is a perfect example of that, because I could *swear*, if I didn't know the author would never do such a thing, that it was written as a lesbian love story. I love stories that explore alternate gender and sexuality choices in a historical context, without playing it up for angst, and the way Richard Peck did it in this story, complete with crossdressing and a sudden twist in the romance plot, was pretty much perfect. I nearly jumped out of my seat squealing when the epilogue carefully made sure we knew that Irene and Peewee stayed together all their lives and never married. I didn't know you could still get that level of unintended subtext these days. Even if you don't go for slash, that strong, enduring female friendship, and the merry first-wave feminism behind it, is really wonderful and needs genfic too.
I'm also very much a sucker for stories with a strong sense of *place*, of setting, and Peck's turn-of-the-century novels do that really well. I'd love a story (slashy or not) that puts Irene and/or Peewee a few decades later in the 20th century, with all the changes that happened (WWI! Flappers! Moving pictures!), but keeps that very strong sense of place and time, whether it's actually historically accurate or not. (If you want to write about old cars or early racing, go for it! I would have loved more background on that, but I know almost nothing about it, so don't worry about getting things wrong.)
Also, if you're the other person who asked for and/or offered this fandom, whether you're my assigned writer or not, I LOVE YOU FOREVER. I was sure nobody else had heard of this. If you didn't offer the story but are Deeply Intrigued anyway, (as you should be!), it is a quite short, recent YA novel, and if you're in America, it is very likely available at your local library.
E. L. Konigsburg - From The Mixed-Up Files Of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler - I would have loved this book anyway, because stories about kids on their own always were my favorites, but Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler stole my heart. So many of the kids' adventure novels I'd read either essentially erased the grown-ups, or completely stereotyped them, but here was a fully-characterized grown-up who would have fit right in with the real grown-ups I knew and loved while at the same time giving the kids the freedom to have real adventures by themselves, which none of my grown-ups would have dared to do. I love the way she effortlessly straddles the grown-up world and the children's, being a responsible adult voice but participating in their world without ever becoming patronizing, while really understanding them. Her voice is just so strong and wonderful and she must be awfully fun to be around.
And then there's Saxonberg, about whom we know nothing except that he is a lawyer, an old friend and employee of Mrs. Frankweiler's, that they're fond enough that she teases him with impunity and that he's perfectly capable of resisting her charm. So far. Oh, and that he's Claudia and Jamie's grandfather, but not closely enough involved in their lives that it ever comes up in the story. How can someone excellent enough to be Mrs. Frankweiler's dear friend also be a less-than-awesome grandfather? That's what I'm always left wondering when I finish this book
Saxonberg needs fic. Preferably fic where Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler becomes the kids' step-grandmother, but really anything that explores who he is, and how the events of the book have changed his life as well as theirs, even if it's just his POV during the time they're missing, would be wonderful.
And yes, I love Old Person romance, and Old Person sex too (I seem to recall a particularly ornate bed, with very solid bedposts, that was mentioned with fondness..), but only if you like it too and can write it with affection rather than revulsion.
Also, apologies for asking you to 'ship people without canon first names. :D
If you want to try this fandom, it's another stand-alone short YA novel, and a classic that has a fair chance of being available in any English-language library.
Flesh Gordon : This is a 1970s soft-porn movie that parodies Flash Gordon. I probably can't do much better than to link to my comments upon watching it for the first time. I don't think anyone actually offered this, unless they got in right under the wire, but if you want to try it anyway it's about 90 minutes of good-natured, wacky softcore porn with SF crack, Power Pasties, awesome characters, canon gay sex (and pretty much every other kind of sex), and an actual plot that more-or-less hangs together. You might be able to rent it, or if somebody-who-is-totally-not-my-writer were to express interest in comments to this post or through a go-between, I might just upload a rip of the DVD for sharing purposes, because the love needs to be shared.
Tek Jansen: I love this fandom a *lot*. I love it for many reasons.
I love it for its meta-tasticness. I love that Tek is the blatant self-insert fantasy of a fictional character who is *himself* a blatant self-insert fantasy, except that if you know anything about real!Stephen, it's not hard to guess that Alpha Squad 7 was also *his* self-insert once upon a time. Because Tek is above all the fandom produced by a fanboy who suddenly had the power to make *any story he wanted* and know that people would love it regardless, and so he made the story of his boyish heart. I love that that means the Tek Jansen universe is pretty much just a free playground for everyone to go wild with wish-fulfillment play.
I love that it's such a joyful love-letter to pulp SF, that it manages that perfect blend of familiarity and true alienness that never quite comes off if too much thought is put into the worldbuilding, that it can do both a five-minute tribute to docking procedures and the best time travel physics ever, that it's gleefully self-aware without ever being self-conscious, that all the characters are so over-the-top recognizable and yet very much themselves, that the gender, class and race problems that are always there in vintage pulp are acknowledged and reclaimed with such grace.
I love the way the comic has taken what was given us in the cartoon and kept that careless exuberance, but at the same time given it the effortless depth of character and the deft hand with political and social satire that we're all familiar with from the Colbert Report. I love all the characters from the girl!Nick-Fury commander (Joanna Valentine?) in my icons to CASEY the long-suffering radioactive robot space monkey.
I love that it gives us a whole self-consistent *universe* that works under TCR's rules and gives us space in which to make the punditslash universe *epic*. I love the idea that along with Tek Jansen of Alpha Squad Seven there could also be a Keith Olbermann, Space Pirate, or a Jon Stewart saving the galaxy with a power ring and a shining light. I love the idea of a character who is Character!Stephen with all his passionate beliefs but without all of his endless frustrations and disappointments.
I just kind of love Tek Jansen.
All of the Tek Jansen cartoon shorts are available in (legal) streaming video on the blog at Colbert Nation.com, although you'll have to do some hunting to find the older ones (unless I get around to doing a link round-up post first.) There's probably less than a hour total; each story's about three minutes. The comic only has one issue out so far; they claim 2 and 3 will be out before Yuletide reveals, but I wouldn't count on it, and I don't care how well you keep canon anyway. The 8-page side story from the issue is available online (legally) at this EW.com article. I have the whole issue scanned and will be posting to share as soon as I get hosting space again. I don't really follow any of the novel excerpts available at various fan sites and fake fan sites and fake fake fan sites, so I'd prefer if you stuck mostly to cartoon and/or comic canon.
And just to re-iterate: I LOVE THESE STORIES. Anything at all that continues them, builds on them, talks about them, expands them, deepens them, reshapes them, or anything else your heart desires, will make me happy as long as it is also full of love for one of these fandoms.
And thank you so much for writing for me.
Someone this year suggested that the best way to do this letter was to just talk about why you love these fandoms, and I think that's an excellent idea. Plus, it means I have an excuse to gush over some tiny fandoms that I love, and any chance at that, I take. So this is unforgiveably long and very, very gushy.
I'll start off by repeating from last year that I'll love anything you do, and don't fret too much over the details I requested, or trying to sound like canon. My tastes in fic are very broad. If you're interested in the kind of stories I go for, I suggest looking at the bunnies tag on this journal, or at my del.icio.us account. As they should demonstrate, I like gen stories, 'ships, and sex scenes of all kinds, am fond of both the drippiest romances and the driest experimental prose, adore crack and strange AUs (as long as the characters are recognizable) and will read crossovers even if I don't know half the characters, but also love stories that seamlessly build out of canon. Please, wherever your heart leads you, go wild.
Also, please don't let this letter intimidate you in any way, and feel free to skip the rest of it if you're already scared of me; I swear I will squee madly at anything you write, as long as it's in the fandom. And none of them have much in the way of canon, so if you'd like to try one you didn't already know, that would be full of win.
Richard Peck - Here Lies The Librarian - I picked up this book after I heard Richard Peck read from it last year at the National Book Festival - I had not known, before I heard him talk, that he was a curmudgeon conservative, because it sure isn't evident through what he writes about.
Here Lies the Librarian is a perfect example of that, because I could *swear*, if I didn't know the author would never do such a thing, that it was written as a lesbian love story. I love stories that explore alternate gender and sexuality choices in a historical context, without playing it up for angst, and the way Richard Peck did it in this story, complete with crossdressing and a sudden twist in the romance plot, was pretty much perfect. I nearly jumped out of my seat squealing when the epilogue carefully made sure we knew that Irene and Peewee stayed together all their lives and never married. I didn't know you could still get that level of unintended subtext these days. Even if you don't go for slash, that strong, enduring female friendship, and the merry first-wave feminism behind it, is really wonderful and needs genfic too.
I'm also very much a sucker for stories with a strong sense of *place*, of setting, and Peck's turn-of-the-century novels do that really well. I'd love a story (slashy or not) that puts Irene and/or Peewee a few decades later in the 20th century, with all the changes that happened (WWI! Flappers! Moving pictures!), but keeps that very strong sense of place and time, whether it's actually historically accurate or not. (If you want to write about old cars or early racing, go for it! I would have loved more background on that, but I know almost nothing about it, so don't worry about getting things wrong.)
Also, if you're the other person who asked for and/or offered this fandom, whether you're my assigned writer or not, I LOVE YOU FOREVER. I was sure nobody else had heard of this. If you didn't offer the story but are Deeply Intrigued anyway, (as you should be!), it is a quite short, recent YA novel, and if you're in America, it is very likely available at your local library.
E. L. Konigsburg - From The Mixed-Up Files Of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler - I would have loved this book anyway, because stories about kids on their own always were my favorites, but Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler stole my heart. So many of the kids' adventure novels I'd read either essentially erased the grown-ups, or completely stereotyped them, but here was a fully-characterized grown-up who would have fit right in with the real grown-ups I knew and loved while at the same time giving the kids the freedom to have real adventures by themselves, which none of my grown-ups would have dared to do. I love the way she effortlessly straddles the grown-up world and the children's, being a responsible adult voice but participating in their world without ever becoming patronizing, while really understanding them. Her voice is just so strong and wonderful and she must be awfully fun to be around.
And then there's Saxonberg, about whom we know nothing except that he is a lawyer, an old friend and employee of Mrs. Frankweiler's, that they're fond enough that she teases him with impunity and that he's perfectly capable of resisting her charm. So far. Oh, and that he's Claudia and Jamie's grandfather, but not closely enough involved in their lives that it ever comes up in the story. How can someone excellent enough to be Mrs. Frankweiler's dear friend also be a less-than-awesome grandfather? That's what I'm always left wondering when I finish this book
Saxonberg needs fic. Preferably fic where Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler becomes the kids' step-grandmother, but really anything that explores who he is, and how the events of the book have changed his life as well as theirs, even if it's just his POV during the time they're missing, would be wonderful.
And yes, I love Old Person romance, and Old Person sex too (I seem to recall a particularly ornate bed, with very solid bedposts, that was mentioned with fondness..), but only if you like it too and can write it with affection rather than revulsion.
Also, apologies for asking you to 'ship people without canon first names. :D
If you want to try this fandom, it's another stand-alone short YA novel, and a classic that has a fair chance of being available in any English-language library.
Flesh Gordon : This is a 1970s soft-porn movie that parodies Flash Gordon. I probably can't do much better than to link to my comments upon watching it for the first time. I don't think anyone actually offered this, unless they got in right under the wire, but if you want to try it anyway it's about 90 minutes of good-natured, wacky softcore porn with SF crack, Power Pasties, awesome characters, canon gay sex (and pretty much every other kind of sex), and an actual plot that more-or-less hangs together. You might be able to rent it, or if somebody-who-is-totally-not-my-writer were to express interest in comments to this post or through a go-between, I might just upload a rip of the DVD for sharing purposes, because the love needs to be shared.
Tek Jansen: I love this fandom a *lot*. I love it for many reasons.
I love it for its meta-tasticness. I love that Tek is the blatant self-insert fantasy of a fictional character who is *himself* a blatant self-insert fantasy, except that if you know anything about real!Stephen, it's not hard to guess that Alpha Squad 7 was also *his* self-insert once upon a time. Because Tek is above all the fandom produced by a fanboy who suddenly had the power to make *any story he wanted* and know that people would love it regardless, and so he made the story of his boyish heart. I love that that means the Tek Jansen universe is pretty much just a free playground for everyone to go wild with wish-fulfillment play.
I love that it's such a joyful love-letter to pulp SF, that it manages that perfect blend of familiarity and true alienness that never quite comes off if too much thought is put into the worldbuilding, that it can do both a five-minute tribute to docking procedures and the best time travel physics ever, that it's gleefully self-aware without ever being self-conscious, that all the characters are so over-the-top recognizable and yet very much themselves, that the gender, class and race problems that are always there in vintage pulp are acknowledged and reclaimed with such grace.
I love the way the comic has taken what was given us in the cartoon and kept that careless exuberance, but at the same time given it the effortless depth of character and the deft hand with political and social satire that we're all familiar with from the Colbert Report. I love all the characters from the girl!Nick-Fury commander (Joanna Valentine?) in my icons to CASEY the long-suffering radioactive robot space monkey.
I love that it gives us a whole self-consistent *universe* that works under TCR's rules and gives us space in which to make the punditslash universe *epic*. I love the idea that along with Tek Jansen of Alpha Squad Seven there could also be a Keith Olbermann, Space Pirate, or a Jon Stewart saving the galaxy with a power ring and a shining light. I love the idea of a character who is Character!Stephen with all his passionate beliefs but without all of his endless frustrations and disappointments.
I just kind of love Tek Jansen.
All of the Tek Jansen cartoon shorts are available in (legal) streaming video on the blog at Colbert Nation.com, although you'll have to do some hunting to find the older ones (unless I get around to doing a link round-up post first.) There's probably less than a hour total; each story's about three minutes. The comic only has one issue out so far; they claim 2 and 3 will be out before Yuletide reveals, but I wouldn't count on it, and I don't care how well you keep canon anyway. The 8-page side story from the issue is available online (legally) at this EW.com article. I have the whole issue scanned and will be posting to share as soon as I get hosting space again. I don't really follow any of the novel excerpts available at various fan sites and fake fan sites and fake fake fan sites, so I'd prefer if you stuck mostly to cartoon and/or comic canon.
And just to re-iterate: I LOVE THESE STORIES. Anything at all that continues them, builds on them, talks about them, expands them, deepens them, reshapes them, or anything else your heart desires, will make me happy as long as it is also full of love for one of these fandoms.
And thank you so much for writing for me.
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