quigonejinn

Dear Yuletide Writer:

So, like, I've never done Yuletide before? I am a Yuletide virgin. And I do not know ~~how we get to second base~~ what kind of guidance you like or would find helpful. I have a profound loathing of titles and ellipses, but I'm pretty sure that I would love a fic of nothing but the sexy redheaded older man stroked the green-eyed minx's earlobes . . . hard.

Also, for the record, if you want to take any one of these canons and totally transfer them, to, say, Appaloosa to a 1950s US high school or Rhodry and Yraen to modern-day London or Michael Foyle as a Doctors Without Borders staffer in deep Southeast Asia? I am totally fine with that. In fact, words cannot even begin to describe how much I would enjoy such a thing. Should you be willing to write such overwhelming crack in one of my listed fandoms, I. Would. I don't even know what I would do.

Because I always end up wanting more guidance when I do these challenges, so I don't know whether you want it, and will include it in case you do:

1. Horatio Hornblower

Why is Hornblower so willing to think about staying in France permanently with Marie and the Comte during "Lord Hornblower?" Bonus points for sympathetic treatment of Barbara Wellesley.

And yeah, that's it in a nutshell. I'm a bookverse fan, but if you can find a way to extrapolate TV series canon out that far, I would be fucking amazed and appreciative.

On charecterization, I guess I like the characters in the fic in this fandom to be as complicated as Forester paints them -- Hornblower is a brilliant, charismatic leader with progressive social instincts, but he's also a selfish narcissist social climber. Barbara is gorgeous, charming woman who really does love her husband, but she also totally fails to offer him any sympathy whatsoever when his best friend of a lifetime dies on a mission that Hornblower dispatches him on and, instead, is kinda like DD: BUT WHAT ABOUT VIENNA? And let's not get into the thing about her being a slaveowner who isn't shy about physically punishing her property, OK? Bush is a profoundly loyal, loving kind man who supports his sisters without question because that's just what he does (and is better than a wife), but he flogs bitches for spitting, and has a very small circle of moral consideration.

And so on. So bonus points if you make the story of Hornblower's dickery and Barbara's ambition similarly complex.

Fic that I really loved in this fandom: Christ, anything by randomalia or thehappyreturn holy fuck. And have I mentioned that I love crack?

2. Foyle's War

I'm desperate. I'd love anything about the Foyle family dynamic. Or about Paul Milner. Or about Sam. Or, really, anything.

Yeah. I can't even think about good fic in this fandom without exploding into paroxysms of sheer, unrelenting glee. I have a slight preference for really sad, wistful fic about Daddy Foyle slowly coming to love Mama Foyle and Baby Foyle growing up, with lashings of Sam and Paul, but I'm not hung up on it in any way. I'll take anything that you give me. And I've never even seen FW fic anywhere. So.

3. Deverry by Katharine Kerr

Silver dagger life and the long road. Bonus points for bringing Maryn's yearning to be a silver dagger (and thus, Yraen) into the story. Alternatively, I'll take anything about Rhodry as gwerbret of Eldidd post-Jill departure, provided Gwin makes a meaningful appearance.

If the fact that I am like OIUG:LKDJF MADDYN AND AEEEETHAANNNNN AND RHODRYYY AND GWINNN HOMFGGG PS MADDYN AND AETHAN already isn't a tipoff, I am totally open to slash in this universe. If you'd like to throw in some under-the-horse-blanket or Branno envying Aethan and Maddyn or, you know, eternal undying devotion with Gwin tasting Rhodry's food during a particularly nasty period of intrigue and sleeping at the foot of Rhodry's bed, I would not be adverse to this.

Excuse me, I have to go read my favorite bits of A Time of Exile again.

(Also, if you write this, can I be your friend? Because oh my God, I am not alone in the universe.)

4. Appaloosa.

Tell me about another time they hired their guns.

If you're not super-familiar with any of the canons, this is probably the easiest one to get familiar with, because really, it's a two hour movie that may still be playing at your local cineplex. It's beautifully shot, and the acting is very, very good. I'm pretty much open to slash or gen -- in fact, if you have a hard time writing slash generally or getting these two, in particular, to do the dirty calf-roping, I am completely and utterly happy with tough -faced gen.