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queenbookwenchDear Santa,
I'm so excited that you are going to write a story for me in one of four tiny fandoms that I love! Now I am going to ramble about them for a bit!
First of all, I'd like to say that I want you to write the story that you want to write, the one that makes the little idea-centers in your brain spin around with mad glee! If that story doesn't exactly fit my prompts, go ahead and write it anyway. I'd rather have a story that you loved writing than a story that didn't inspire you because you felt like you had to tie yourself in knots writing exactly what I wanted.
If you feel like more information than what's in my prompts would cramp your style, feel free not to read the rest of this. Otherwise, behind the cut there are ramblings about Elfquest, Hopeless Savages, Elizabeth Enright's Melendy series, and Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan universe, as well as things I like and don't like generally.
Things I like:
--fic that has the spirit of canon, but expands it in interesting ways.
--future fic, backstory fic, missing scene fic, 5 things fic, AUs (of the "one tiny change in canon changed everything" variety rather than the "they're space pirates" variety)
--plot, if that floats your boat, but I also love
--character-based vignettes
--snappy dialogue
--conversations that reveal things about the characters, especially if they reveal more than they intended, or don't realize _what_ they're revealing
--hurt/comfort and emo-porn, if it fits the story
--moments of closeness with family and chosen family
--moral complexity, guilt, redemption/forgiveness
--angst
--friendship
--coming of age stories, character growth/exploration
--adventure and wacky hi-jinks, again if it fits the story
--comedy and drama in the same story
--"with great power comes great responsibility"
--heroes and heroines with flaws
--little details that help me visualize the setting and the characters.
--endings that are at least somewhat hopeful.
Things I don't like:
--gratuitous character-bashing
--PWPs (sex scenes are fine if they're organic to the story you're telling, but I don't like them as the point of the story)
--kink (see my note on the Vorkosigan universe for my one exception)
--incest
--bleak despair for Yuletide (everybody doesn't have to end up with a pony and a plastic rocket, but...see above)
--character studies that are basically bathtub stories (i.e. Character X gets into the bathtub and starts ruminating about his/her past, present, and future, but never gets out of the bathtub and does anything.)
Now, onto the specific fandoms:
Elfquest:
One of the things I love about this fandom is that the world of Elfquest seems simple at first, but it isn't, and the fan/reader gets to journey with the characters as their vision expands. I love the importance of family and loving relationships, and I love how the "good guys" all make some pretty serious mistakes, and the "bad guys" have reasons for their actions. Also, whichever characters or characters you choose from my list, feel free to use others as long as one of my selected characters remains the focus (i.e., if you write about Suntop, feel free to deal with his relationship with his twin, if you focus on Rayek, feel free to include Kahvi, Winnowill, Cutter, or Leetah, etc).
Hopeless Savages: Most of what I wanted to say about this fandom, I already said in the requests. The canon makes me break out in a big huge grin and laugh like a hyena every time I read it, but I also love its serious moments. The thing about "comedy and drama in the same story" was, like, tailor-made for this fandom.
Elizabeth Enright--Melendys series. I'm going to say about this fandom pretty much the same thing that I said last year. I love the way that these wholesome children's stories are also gentle celebrations of faintly Bohemian non-conformity. For the Melendys, being creative, artistic, and adventurous is normal, and they wouldn't want to be any other way. Particularly in Then There Were Five, Enright also introduces some issues that weren't exactly standard fare in children's books of the 40s and 50s, like death and child abuse. As far as the characters go, I love Randy's sensitivity, her perceptiveness about people, her fears and dramatics, and her dreams. I love Rush's insouciant cleverness, his held-in-check impatience with people he considers ignorant, his kind heart and his love of music. I especially love Mark--his isolation, his love of nature, his combination of shyness and strength, the way he can't quite believe in the reality of having a family and being loved. I love Father and Cuffy and Mona and Oliver too, so feel free to include them.
Lois McMaster Bujold--Vorkosigan universe. If you offered "any" in this fandom, but aren't quite sure what to do with my request--I'm sorry! :( I'm aware that they characters I selected aren't exactly the most-requested characters in this fandom, so let me babble a lot about why I love them. I love Mark because he's been so profoundly damaged, but he keeps trying. I'm fascinated by the hints we get of his childhood and youth, and by his journey to discover himself, in a far more literal sense then most. I love his complex relationships with Miles and with Cordelia.
I love Kareen because she's independent-minded, loves learning, and isn't overly impressed with Miles. She sees someone worth knowing in Mark before he really sees it in himself. She's one of the first of a new generation, along with her sisters (which had to have been interesting, growing up), but I like the hints we get that Kareen is the one whose ambitions can't be satisfied within the still-traditional social structure of Barrayar. She's very young and has a lot to learn about life, but at the same time, she has an underlying knowledge of the kind of person she wants to be. I like the way Cordelia seems to see her as a protege in some ways. I love her very non-traditional relationship with Mark.
I'm especially curious about how that relationship developed between Mirror Dance and A Civil Campaign, but I'd also love backstory fic, future fic, missing scene fic or anything else you might want to do. I just want something that gives me a deeper look at these characters. And this is where my small kink exception comes in--sex is definitely a factor in their relationship, and I could potentially see them experimenting as a way to work through Mark's issues. So don't be afraid to go there if that's where your story wants to go.
I'm so excited that you are going to write a story for me in one of four tiny fandoms that I love! Now I am going to ramble about them for a bit!
First of all, I'd like to say that I want you to write the story that you want to write, the one that makes the little idea-centers in your brain spin around with mad glee! If that story doesn't exactly fit my prompts, go ahead and write it anyway. I'd rather have a story that you loved writing than a story that didn't inspire you because you felt like you had to tie yourself in knots writing exactly what I wanted.
If you feel like more information than what's in my prompts would cramp your style, feel free not to read the rest of this. Otherwise, behind the cut there are ramblings about Elfquest, Hopeless Savages, Elizabeth Enright's Melendy series, and Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan universe, as well as things I like and don't like generally.
Things I like:
--fic that has the spirit of canon, but expands it in interesting ways.
--future fic, backstory fic, missing scene fic, 5 things fic, AUs (of the "one tiny change in canon changed everything" variety rather than the "they're space pirates" variety)
--plot, if that floats your boat, but I also love
--character-based vignettes
--snappy dialogue
--conversations that reveal things about the characters, especially if they reveal more than they intended, or don't realize _what_ they're revealing
--hurt/comfort and emo-porn, if it fits the story
--moments of closeness with family and chosen family
--moral complexity, guilt, redemption/forgiveness
--angst
--friendship
--coming of age stories, character growth/exploration
--adventure and wacky hi-jinks, again if it fits the story
--comedy and drama in the same story
--"with great power comes great responsibility"
--heroes and heroines with flaws
--little details that help me visualize the setting and the characters.
--endings that are at least somewhat hopeful.
Things I don't like:
--gratuitous character-bashing
--PWPs (sex scenes are fine if they're organic to the story you're telling, but I don't like them as the point of the story)
--kink (see my note on the Vorkosigan universe for my one exception)
--incest
--bleak despair for Yuletide (everybody doesn't have to end up with a pony and a plastic rocket, but...see above)
--character studies that are basically bathtub stories (i.e. Character X gets into the bathtub and starts ruminating about his/her past, present, and future, but never gets out of the bathtub and does anything.)
Now, onto the specific fandoms:
Elfquest:
One of the things I love about this fandom is that the world of Elfquest seems simple at first, but it isn't, and the fan/reader gets to journey with the characters as their vision expands. I love the importance of family and loving relationships, and I love how the "good guys" all make some pretty serious mistakes, and the "bad guys" have reasons for their actions. Also, whichever characters or characters you choose from my list, feel free to use others as long as one of my selected characters remains the focus (i.e., if you write about Suntop, feel free to deal with his relationship with his twin, if you focus on Rayek, feel free to include Kahvi, Winnowill, Cutter, or Leetah, etc).
Hopeless Savages: Most of what I wanted to say about this fandom, I already said in the requests. The canon makes me break out in a big huge grin and laugh like a hyena every time I read it, but I also love its serious moments. The thing about "comedy and drama in the same story" was, like, tailor-made for this fandom.
Elizabeth Enright--Melendys series. I'm going to say about this fandom pretty much the same thing that I said last year. I love the way that these wholesome children's stories are also gentle celebrations of faintly Bohemian non-conformity. For the Melendys, being creative, artistic, and adventurous is normal, and they wouldn't want to be any other way. Particularly in Then There Were Five, Enright also introduces some issues that weren't exactly standard fare in children's books of the 40s and 50s, like death and child abuse. As far as the characters go, I love Randy's sensitivity, her perceptiveness about people, her fears and dramatics, and her dreams. I love Rush's insouciant cleverness, his held-in-check impatience with people he considers ignorant, his kind heart and his love of music. I especially love Mark--his isolation, his love of nature, his combination of shyness and strength, the way he can't quite believe in the reality of having a family and being loved. I love Father and Cuffy and Mona and Oliver too, so feel free to include them.
Lois McMaster Bujold--Vorkosigan universe. If you offered "any" in this fandom, but aren't quite sure what to do with my request--I'm sorry! :( I'm aware that they characters I selected aren't exactly the most-requested characters in this fandom, so let me babble a lot about why I love them. I love Mark because he's been so profoundly damaged, but he keeps trying. I'm fascinated by the hints we get of his childhood and youth, and by his journey to discover himself, in a far more literal sense then most. I love his complex relationships with Miles and with Cordelia.
I love Kareen because she's independent-minded, loves learning, and isn't overly impressed with Miles. She sees someone worth knowing in Mark before he really sees it in himself. She's one of the first of a new generation, along with her sisters (which had to have been interesting, growing up), but I like the hints we get that Kareen is the one whose ambitions can't be satisfied within the still-traditional social structure of Barrayar. She's very young and has a lot to learn about life, but at the same time, she has an underlying knowledge of the kind of person she wants to be. I like the way Cordelia seems to see her as a protege in some ways. I love her very non-traditional relationship with Mark.
I'm especially curious about how that relationship developed between Mirror Dance and A Civil Campaign, but I'd also love backstory fic, future fic, missing scene fic or anything else you might want to do. I just want something that gives me a deeper look at these characters. And this is where my small kink exception comes in--sex is definitely a factor in their relationship, and I could potentially see them experimenting as a way to work through Mark's issues. So don't be afraid to go there if that's where your story wants to go.
