yuletide "dear author" letter 2013
Oct. 12th, 2013 10:38 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cricketmaskDear Yuletide Author,
Well, looks like that time of year where I brush off my DW account and write a long rambling letter about my requested fandoms! Since tumblr is my primary fannish hangout these days, I've provided links to specific tags for a few of the fandoms here. You don't have to take a look, of course, but it's there if you need it. If you want to get a sense for what I'm about when it comes to fic, I post under patho (recent) and ghostsoldier (a little older) at AO3.
So! I am SUPER EXCITED we matched on one of my requested fandoms! If we matched on more than one and you like that request more, feel free to write that story instead. I'm utterly in love with all the fandoms I've requested, and would be over the moon to receive fic for any of them. I trust your authorial judgment. For the most part, I prefer slash and gen to het, and I definitely want you to stick with what you're comfortable writing. I'm not opposed to receiving explicit fic by any means (although I'd prefer something that's not simply PWP), but I also love stories on the less explicit end of the spectrum as well. Write what you feel okay with writing.
A general list of things I love: weird and nightmarish imagery (if it fits the context), characters navigating relationships with each other (romantic or otherwise), ambiguous villainy, ambiguous heroism, assholes with hearts of gold, "so we saved the world...what now?", "so we destroyed the world...what now?", explorations of what it means to be human in a post-human world, the intersection of technology and the lived human experience, dysfunctional families, found families, dysfunctional and/or found families learning to be functional, meta, backstory expansion, worldbuilding, alternate universes and "what if?" stories, and playing with, lampshading or subverting common tropes.
A general list of things I'm not crazy about, for the purposes of Yuletide: angst without purpose, heavy focus on kink, stories where characters in relationships cheat, break up, or are otherwise needlessly unpleasant to each other, downer endings (I have a few exceptions for this, but they're fandom-specific), PWP, crossovers.
On to the specifics!
Deus Ex: Human Revolution
This game hit every single one of my fictional kinks, I swear to god. I would love to see more stories that address the world of the game, and especially how it changes after the various endings. I haven't played the original game (I watched other people play it when it came out, but never played it myself) but I'm very much okay with you referencing future events from the first Deus Ex as well. I love the way the game evokes a sense of tension between people with augments and those without, and the ways in which augmentation can be tied into class and geography and religion. Feel free to play with that! And if you'd rather go for something smaller, I would be TOTALLY HAPPY with slice-of-life or domesticity fic. I ship Adam and Frank like you wouldn't believe and would be over the moon to get a story where they figure out how to navigate a Real Life Relationship with each other, but if slash isn't your bag then something where Faridah and Adam and Frank all hang out together would be lovely as well.
I've rambled quite a bit about DXHR over on tumblr. Most of it is in my #cyborg sunglasses at night tag, although there are also a few things in the #this is not a liveblog tag. You may have to scroll a bit for the relevant ones in that second one, though.
Spec Ops: The Line
This game utterly blew me away. I played it on a friend's recommendation and all I really knew going in was that it "wasn't your typical shooter." NO SHIT, IT WASN'T. I'm not a fan of shooters and struggled a lot with the gameplay itself, but oh, the story. Spec Ops: The Line left me feeling sick and hollow and amazed, and I've spent the time since mourning the lack of fandom and fic for it. So! To that end, I'm completely serious when I say I'd be happy with pretty much anything. I'd be especially delighted to receive stories about any of the things I mentioned in my main request, but if you have a particular angle you'd like to explore, by all means go for it. As I mentioned above, I love worldbuilding details and nightmarish imagery, so feel free to go as weird and unsettling as you like with this one. Make me feel the stifling heat and gritty sand, give me the smell of burning oil, blind me with sunlight reflecting off shattered glass spires. Given the subject matter of the game, I'm absolutely okay with you going dark and/or angsty; I'm also okay with references to real-life politics. I really love the way the game called into question the idea of what it means to be a "hero," and it would be very cool to see that explored in fic as well.
I've talked about this game quite a bit over on my tumblr, so if you're feeling stuck you can hit up my #war is hell and also sandstorms tag.
Redshirts - John Scalzi
So I'm totally repeating my request from last year, because I recieved not one, but TWO utterly awesome fics as a result. One of my favorite things about the book was the way Scalzi toyed with various science fiction and Star Trek tropes -- I would be over the moon if you carried this idea forward into fic as well, especially since Star Trek fanfiction was really what paved the way for what we think of as "modern" fanfic and fandom. If you're up for writing something shippy, I'd really dig Dahl/Hester, Dahl/Finn, or Finn/Hester -- I don't ship them as an OT3, but I can't pick a favorite among the three variations and would be happy with any of them. If you prefer to write gen, that's cool too! I still want to know more about Dahl's time in seminary, and about the beautifully antagonistic friendship between Hester and Finn. Or you could jump forward -- what happens to the Intrepid after the show ends? Do any of the characters beside Dahl figure out that there's another, far quieter Narrative intruding on their lives? Feel free to play around with varying levels of Narrative intrusion and their awareness of it -- this is a fandom that lends itself beautifully to both meta and crack!fic, so go nuts.
Newsflesh Trilogy - Mira Grant
I felt so guilty for shipping these two as hard as I did in the first book, continued to feel guilty for most of the second book, and then felt REALLY VINDICATED AND HAPPY when we hit the big reveal. I know their world isn't exactly a happy one (zombie apocalypses tend to not lend themselves to happy endings, after all) but I was really pleased with the direction their story went and at this point I just want to know more about how their particular happy ending is playing out. This is the fandom where I am A-OK with het fic over, say, gen, because I have I mentioned how much I ship these two? I really really ship these two. And I'm curious to know how they deal with current Georgia not being the original Georgia. Not in an angsty way! More an "accepting that there are little and surprising differences, and we're going to roll with them because we love each other" way. That would be awesome.
*
Seriously, though, however you want to approach any of these, I know I'm going to love the result. I'm very excited to have you as my author, and look forward to seeing what you come up with!
Well, looks like that time of year where I brush off my DW account and write a long rambling letter about my requested fandoms! Since tumblr is my primary fannish hangout these days, I've provided links to specific tags for a few of the fandoms here. You don't have to take a look, of course, but it's there if you need it. If you want to get a sense for what I'm about when it comes to fic, I post under patho (recent) and ghostsoldier (a little older) at AO3.
So! I am SUPER EXCITED we matched on one of my requested fandoms! If we matched on more than one and you like that request more, feel free to write that story instead. I'm utterly in love with all the fandoms I've requested, and would be over the moon to receive fic for any of them. I trust your authorial judgment. For the most part, I prefer slash and gen to het, and I definitely want you to stick with what you're comfortable writing. I'm not opposed to receiving explicit fic by any means (although I'd prefer something that's not simply PWP), but I also love stories on the less explicit end of the spectrum as well. Write what you feel okay with writing.
A general list of things I love: weird and nightmarish imagery (if it fits the context), characters navigating relationships with each other (romantic or otherwise), ambiguous villainy, ambiguous heroism, assholes with hearts of gold, "so we saved the world...what now?", "so we destroyed the world...what now?", explorations of what it means to be human in a post-human world, the intersection of technology and the lived human experience, dysfunctional families, found families, dysfunctional and/or found families learning to be functional, meta, backstory expansion, worldbuilding, alternate universes and "what if?" stories, and playing with, lampshading or subverting common tropes.
A general list of things I'm not crazy about, for the purposes of Yuletide: angst without purpose, heavy focus on kink, stories where characters in relationships cheat, break up, or are otherwise needlessly unpleasant to each other, downer endings (I have a few exceptions for this, but they're fandom-specific), PWP, crossovers.
On to the specifics!
Deus Ex: Human Revolution
While I love how open the game's various endings are, I really want to know more about what happens to the characters after the events of the game come to a close. If Adam returns from Panchaea, what happens to him? How do his interactions with the other characters shift as a result of what he's experienced and knows? Pritchard ended up being one of my favorite characters, and I'm desperately curious to know how his relationship with Adam changed from being the guy's eyes and ears through most of the game. Shippiness would be lovely, but definitely isn't required -- them being snarky bros would be amazing as well. One of my favorite interpretations of Adam is that of a man who's deeply uncomfortable with being a living weapon and is still struggling to navigate that territory, and I would love to see more exploration of his ambivalence regarding augmentation.Even more optional details!
This game hit every single one of my fictional kinks, I swear to god. I would love to see more stories that address the world of the game, and especially how it changes after the various endings. I haven't played the original game (I watched other people play it when it came out, but never played it myself) but I'm very much okay with you referencing future events from the first Deus Ex as well. I love the way the game evokes a sense of tension between people with augments and those without, and the ways in which augmentation can be tied into class and geography and religion. Feel free to play with that! And if you'd rather go for something smaller, I would be TOTALLY HAPPY with slice-of-life or domesticity fic. I ship Adam and Frank like you wouldn't believe and would be over the moon to get a story where they figure out how to navigate a Real Life Relationship with each other, but if slash isn't your bag then something where Faridah and Adam and Frank all hang out together would be lovely as well.
I've rambled quite a bit about DXHR over on tumblr. Most of it is in my #cyborg sunglasses at night tag, although there are also a few things in the #this is not a liveblog tag. You may have to scroll a bit for the relevant ones in that second one, though.
Spec Ops: The Line
No lie, I would be happy with pretty much ANYTHING for this game. It cries out for fic -- stories that look at the events of the game from Adams' or Lugo's perspectives, backstory on Konrad and Walker and their time in Kabul, stories about what went down in Dubai before Walker's team gets there. Or the endings! Dear god, the endings! Tell me about what's going on in Walker's head during any of the endings, tell me about Walker going back the US and living with what he's done, tell me about Walker committing suicide by extraction team, tell me about Walker who shoulders Konrad's burden in every single way ("welcome to Dubai, gentlemen"). Or his hallucinations! Are they really hallucinations, or is he perhaps in Purgatory? Anything -- and I do mean anything -- would be amazing.Even more optional details!
This game utterly blew me away. I played it on a friend's recommendation and all I really knew going in was that it "wasn't your typical shooter." NO SHIT, IT WASN'T. I'm not a fan of shooters and struggled a lot with the gameplay itself, but oh, the story. Spec Ops: The Line left me feeling sick and hollow and amazed, and I've spent the time since mourning the lack of fandom and fic for it. So! To that end, I'm completely serious when I say I'd be happy with pretty much anything. I'd be especially delighted to receive stories about any of the things I mentioned in my main request, but if you have a particular angle you'd like to explore, by all means go for it. As I mentioned above, I love worldbuilding details and nightmarish imagery, so feel free to go as weird and unsettling as you like with this one. Make me feel the stifling heat and gritty sand, give me the smell of burning oil, blind me with sunlight reflecting off shattered glass spires. Given the subject matter of the game, I'm absolutely okay with you going dark and/or angsty; I'm also okay with references to real-life politics. I really love the way the game called into question the idea of what it means to be a "hero," and it would be very cool to see that explored in fic as well.
I've talked about this game quite a bit over on my tumblr, so if you're feeling stuck you can hit up my #war is hell and also sandstorms tag.
Redshirts - John Scalzi
Because this book riffs on Star Trek, I would absolutely LOVE to see fic that plays with classic fanfic tropes, especially ones that show up a lot in Star Trek fic. I’m ridiculously fond of the weird shit that always happens to the away teams – sex pollen, having to huddle together for warmth, accidental marriage, alien mind control, etc. How do our dear protagonists handle that kind of thing? I kind of love Dahl/Hester for anything post-book, but cheerfully ship Dahl/Finn and Finn/Hester as well. Gen is also lovely! Referencing the Narrative certainly isn’t necessary, but it would be delightful…especially if the characters acknowledge that Something Tropetastic Is Happening and either change how they act or go along with it anyway. The more meta, the better! I love that stuff.Even more optional details!
So I'm totally repeating my request from last year, because I recieved not one, but TWO utterly awesome fics as a result. One of my favorite things about the book was the way Scalzi toyed with various science fiction and Star Trek tropes -- I would be over the moon if you carried this idea forward into fic as well, especially since Star Trek fanfiction was really what paved the way for what we think of as "modern" fanfic and fandom. If you're up for writing something shippy, I'd really dig Dahl/Hester, Dahl/Finn, or Finn/Hester -- I don't ship them as an OT3, but I can't pick a favorite among the three variations and would be happy with any of them. If you prefer to write gen, that's cool too! I still want to know more about Dahl's time in seminary, and about the beautifully antagonistic friendship between Hester and Finn. Or you could jump forward -- what happens to the Intrepid after the show ends? Do any of the characters beside Dahl figure out that there's another, far quieter Narrative intruding on their lives? Feel free to play around with varying levels of Narrative intrusion and their awareness of it -- this is a fandom that lends itself beautifully to both meta and crack!fic, so go nuts.
Newsflesh Trilogy - Mira Grant
Slice-of-life domestic fic about Shaun and Georgia would be a dream come true. Tell me about their adventures after the series ends, tell me about them bickering in the kitchen and curling up together at night, tell me about Shaun accepting Georgia II for the way she is and them not angsting a whole lot over it. Tell me about them carving out space for themselves and being HAPPY.Even more optional details!
I felt so guilty for shipping these two as hard as I did in the first book, continued to feel guilty for most of the second book, and then felt REALLY VINDICATED AND HAPPY when we hit the big reveal. I know their world isn't exactly a happy one (zombie apocalypses tend to not lend themselves to happy endings, after all) but I was really pleased with the direction their story went and at this point I just want to know more about how their particular happy ending is playing out. This is the fandom where I am A-OK with het fic over, say, gen, because I have I mentioned how much I ship these two? I really really ship these two. And I'm curious to know how they deal with current Georgia not being the original Georgia. Not in an angsty way! More an "accepting that there are little and surprising differences, and we're going to roll with them because we love each other" way. That would be awesome.
*
Seriously, though, however you want to approach any of these, I know I'm going to love the result. I'm very excited to have you as my author, and look forward to seeing what you come up with!
