![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
Yuletide reveals, and the stories I wrote
So the ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
yuletide stories are revealed, and I wrote:
Norway - CJ Cherryh/Alliance Universe, gen (well, as gen as these people get), for![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
meteordust. Of the two stories, this is the one that I think is spectacularly, obviously mine; not only is it in the same fandom/same characters as the story I received (which is kind of delightful, actually), but it's exactly the same sort of thing I write for SGA, albeit with a different team.
And All the World Made New - Patrick O'Brian/Aubrey-Maturin novels, femslash, Clarissa/Sophie, formakesmewannadie. And this is the one that I think no one in a million years would have guessed that I wrote, but that I really enjoyed writing anyway.
Norway was picked up as a pinch hit. I'd decided that I wasn't going to do pinch hits unless I saw something that I really, really wanted to write. So, scrolling idly through the requests, I stopped dead when I saw something that was almost exactly what one of my requests had been, something I'd been dying to read for ages -- something I had considered writing just for myself in the past. And now I could write it for someone else, and if that happened not to be the request that was picked up of mine, there would be at least ONE story with those characters out there, and it would be appreciated by someone! How could I not?
It was spun off an idea I'd already had, about the Hellburner team going back to Earth; I had written a little of the beach scene a few years ago (although it changed a lot in the process of reshaping it for my recipient's request). The final story ended up more focused on the group than on Paul and Ben in specific, though out of the group, Paul and Ben are the ones who really fascinate me, ever since I read the books. I really loved writing them, I was thrilled that there are at least a couple people out there other than myself that like them too, and I wouldn't mind writing them again someday.
And All the World Made New is a story I never would have expected to write. I've never done femslash before -- f/f relationships in my original fiction, sure, but never in fanfic as an extra-canonical relationship. When I got my recipient's requests, I'd initially planned to work on one of the other ones. But on her Yuletide post in her journal, this was the one that she said she really wanted, and I because of that, I felt like I ought to at least try.
And I surprised myself by really loving it. I had to research the hell out of it -- I'd actually only read the O'Brian books up to book 10, so one of the major characters was one I hadn't even met in the books yet. So I read all the books that contained Clarissa; I kept a big text file of all the bits and pieces that would help me characterize her (what she looked like, some of the better dialogue exchanges from her interactions with Stephen and Jack, etc). On top of that -- and in retrospect, this seems kind of overkill, but this just goes to show how I'll do historical research at the drop of a hat -- I researched pre-Victorian erotica. It was completely fascinating; I read a ton of stuff online about the way that sexuality and pornography and homosexuality was approached in 18th-century Europe, none of which actually ended up making it into the story. I read Fanny Hill! Well, not the whole thing -- talk about painfully purple prose. But I originally intended the story to be very graphic, and I wanted it to be authentically graphic, in the sort of language that I used.
When I went to write it, however, what I ended up with, once I got into their heads, was incredibly restrained and even sort of, if this isn't a total contradiction in terms, passionately chaste. Going with the two characters I was writing, and trying to be true to them as possible, I simply couldn't see Clarissa tearing off Sophie's clothes and shagging her in the stables. For Clarissa, sex is not really an act of passion but, rather, as casual as brushing her hair, something she describes in the books as an act of friendship or comfort. For Sophie, it's kind of the opposite -- Clarissa is overly casual about sex, Sophie is not nearly casual enough. She was kept totally in the dark about sex right up until her marriage, and is still somewhat afraid of it or at least intensely embarrassed by it; I don't think she'd know an orgasm if one strolled up and asked her over for tea. Sophie is the very epitome of the "lie back and think of England" British wife. In the context of slashing Sophie, her behavior is perfectly consistent with a person who's never enjoyed sex because she's been trying to do it with someone who's got the wrong set of genitals, and doesn't know enough about how the world works to have even considered that might be the problem. But since she's spent her life thinking that sex is a vaguely shameful act between a husband and wife for mainly procreative purposes, actually changing her mind about that was something that was going to take a novel, and not one that I could write in a month and a half, either.
And that's why I approached it in the story the way that I did. Sex is a comfort thing for Clarissa, but for other people, not for herself. Sophie doesn't crave sex at all (though she might, with the right person) but she's incredibly isolated and lonely, as is Clarissa. The most likely relationship that I see between the two of them, at least initially, is one that involves a lot of cuddling and kissing and talking and curling up around each other, and not a whole lot of outright sex -- a very slow exploration of an alien landscape. Clarissa needs to learn that someone might be interested in her for something other than sex; Sophie needs to learn that she could be wanted for her body, and want back in return. And it won't happen overnight. But I could imagine this being a very drawn-out thing, something that never supplants their socially-sanctioned relationships with their husbands, but continues to sustain them to the end of their days -- a strong and loving friendship with certain, ahem, side benefits, Sophie slowly waking up to her own sexual potential and Clarissa to the emotional inner life she's been denied.
Hence the bits of correspondence at the end. Those who've read my SGA fic know that I'm a total junkie for what you might call documentation fic -- letters, diary entries, mission reports and other detritus of their daily lives. And I love the idea of Sophie and Clarissa having a long-term affair, and the kids suspecting what's going on but never exactly being sure. Jack's daughters grew up into such prim and proper ladies that they would never dream of insinuating that their mother had a long-term lesbian relationship with a family friend. Brigid, on the other hand, is annoyed by her cousins' coyness with the whole thing; it's perfectly obvious to her. And I loved the idea of Sophie expressing her illicit passions semi-openly in a lot of rather bad poetry, paeans to her relationship with Clarissa disguised in nature metaphors and a lot less well-concealed than poor naive Sophie realizes. (Tender leaves kissed by the dew, indeed!) I had originally wanted this part to be longer -- in fact, my very first idea was that the entire story would be in the form of excerpts from Sophie's diary and from the girls' letters to each other -- but it was really just supposed to be a very small epilogue, so I restrained myself and included only the pertinent bits.
And that's the story of the story. I was terribly nervous about this one, since it's worlds away from the SGA gen that I've been writing for the last two years -- literally and figuratively. I've never done femslash, never done a historical fandom before. And I really can't express how thrilled I was that my recipient liked it; I was pleased and excited and just generally very happy with my whole Yuletide experience.
yuletide stories are revealed, and I wrote:Norway - CJ Cherryh/Alliance Universe, gen (well, as gen as these people get), for
meteordust. Of the two stories, this is the one that I think is spectacularly, obviously mine; not only is it in the same fandom/same characters as the story I received (which is kind of delightful, actually), but it's exactly the same sort of thing I write for SGA, albeit with a different team.And All the World Made New - Patrick O'Brian/Aubrey-Maturin novels, femslash, Clarissa/Sophie, for
makesmewannadie. And this is the one that I think no one in a million years would have guessed that I wrote, but that I really enjoyed writing anyway.Norway was picked up as a pinch hit. I'd decided that I wasn't going to do pinch hits unless I saw something that I really, really wanted to write. So, scrolling idly through the requests, I stopped dead when I saw something that was almost exactly what one of my requests had been, something I'd been dying to read for ages -- something I had considered writing just for myself in the past. And now I could write it for someone else, and if that happened not to be the request that was picked up of mine, there would be at least ONE story with those characters out there, and it would be appreciated by someone! How could I not?
It was spun off an idea I'd already had, about the Hellburner team going back to Earth; I had written a little of the beach scene a few years ago (although it changed a lot in the process of reshaping it for my recipient's request). The final story ended up more focused on the group than on Paul and Ben in specific, though out of the group, Paul and Ben are the ones who really fascinate me, ever since I read the books. I really loved writing them, I was thrilled that there are at least a couple people out there other than myself that like them too, and I wouldn't mind writing them again someday.
And All the World Made New is a story I never would have expected to write. I've never done femslash before -- f/f relationships in my original fiction, sure, but never in fanfic as an extra-canonical relationship. When I got my recipient's requests, I'd initially planned to work on one of the other ones. But on her Yuletide post in her journal, this was the one that she said she really wanted, and I because of that, I felt like I ought to at least try.
And I surprised myself by really loving it. I had to research the hell out of it -- I'd actually only read the O'Brian books up to book 10, so one of the major characters was one I hadn't even met in the books yet. So I read all the books that contained Clarissa; I kept a big text file of all the bits and pieces that would help me characterize her (what she looked like, some of the better dialogue exchanges from her interactions with Stephen and Jack, etc). On top of that -- and in retrospect, this seems kind of overkill, but this just goes to show how I'll do historical research at the drop of a hat -- I researched pre-Victorian erotica. It was completely fascinating; I read a ton of stuff online about the way that sexuality and pornography and homosexuality was approached in 18th-century Europe, none of which actually ended up making it into the story. I read Fanny Hill! Well, not the whole thing -- talk about painfully purple prose. But I originally intended the story to be very graphic, and I wanted it to be authentically graphic, in the sort of language that I used.
When I went to write it, however, what I ended up with, once I got into their heads, was incredibly restrained and even sort of, if this isn't a total contradiction in terms, passionately chaste. Going with the two characters I was writing, and trying to be true to them as possible, I simply couldn't see Clarissa tearing off Sophie's clothes and shagging her in the stables. For Clarissa, sex is not really an act of passion but, rather, as casual as brushing her hair, something she describes in the books as an act of friendship or comfort. For Sophie, it's kind of the opposite -- Clarissa is overly casual about sex, Sophie is not nearly casual enough. She was kept totally in the dark about sex right up until her marriage, and is still somewhat afraid of it or at least intensely embarrassed by it; I don't think she'd know an orgasm if one strolled up and asked her over for tea. Sophie is the very epitome of the "lie back and think of England" British wife. In the context of slashing Sophie, her behavior is perfectly consistent with a person who's never enjoyed sex because she's been trying to do it with someone who's got the wrong set of genitals, and doesn't know enough about how the world works to have even considered that might be the problem. But since she's spent her life thinking that sex is a vaguely shameful act between a husband and wife for mainly procreative purposes, actually changing her mind about that was something that was going to take a novel, and not one that I could write in a month and a half, either.
And that's why I approached it in the story the way that I did. Sex is a comfort thing for Clarissa, but for other people, not for herself. Sophie doesn't crave sex at all (though she might, with the right person) but she's incredibly isolated and lonely, as is Clarissa. The most likely relationship that I see between the two of them, at least initially, is one that involves a lot of cuddling and kissing and talking and curling up around each other, and not a whole lot of outright sex -- a very slow exploration of an alien landscape. Clarissa needs to learn that someone might be interested in her for something other than sex; Sophie needs to learn that she could be wanted for her body, and want back in return. And it won't happen overnight. But I could imagine this being a very drawn-out thing, something that never supplants their socially-sanctioned relationships with their husbands, but continues to sustain them to the end of their days -- a strong and loving friendship with certain, ahem, side benefits, Sophie slowly waking up to her own sexual potential and Clarissa to the emotional inner life she's been denied.
Hence the bits of correspondence at the end. Those who've read my SGA fic know that I'm a total junkie for what you might call documentation fic -- letters, diary entries, mission reports and other detritus of their daily lives. And I love the idea of Sophie and Clarissa having a long-term affair, and the kids suspecting what's going on but never exactly being sure. Jack's daughters grew up into such prim and proper ladies that they would never dream of insinuating that their mother had a long-term lesbian relationship with a family friend. Brigid, on the other hand, is annoyed by her cousins' coyness with the whole thing; it's perfectly obvious to her. And I loved the idea of Sophie expressing her illicit passions semi-openly in a lot of rather bad poetry, paeans to her relationship with Clarissa disguised in nature metaphors and a lot less well-concealed than poor naive Sophie realizes. (Tender leaves kissed by the dew, indeed!) I had originally wanted this part to be longer -- in fact, my very first idea was that the entire story would be in the form of excerpts from Sophie's diary and from the girls' letters to each other -- but it was really just supposed to be a very small epilogue, so I restrained myself and included only the pertinent bits.
And that's the story of the story. I was terribly nervous about this one, since it's worlds away from the SGA gen that I've been writing for the last two years -- literally and figuratively. I've never done femslash, never done a historical fandom before. And I really can't express how thrilled I was that my recipient liked it; I was pleased and excited and just generally very happy with my whole Yuletide experience.
no subject
Lovely! It could even explain the total change that occurred (unexplained in the series) from Sophie HATING Clarissa (with the scarlet dress, and assuming she was one of Jack's floozies, and the near divorce), to the later closeness where they seem to be the very best of friends. An actual "missing scene" which we, as fans, always like to have filled in. Brava!
no subject
no subject
no subject
...Sigh. *fixes HTML*
no subject
no subject
Back when I was reading my way through Cherryh, I liked Heavy Time well enough, but it was when I got to Hellburner that the characters got their hooks into me. And I was astounded that Ben, who was such a self-centred ass in the first book, was still a self-centred ass and yet also completely awesome.
If you do decide to one day write more stories about these characters, you'll have at least one devoted reader. ^^
no subject
Like you, I didn't really fall in love with them until Hellburner -- I'd read Heavy Time as a teenager, and was thrilled to find out, years later, that there was a sequel ... and doubly, triply thrilled to find Ben given so much more depth and complexity, because, yeah, he's basically the least likeable character in the first book, and in Hellburner he's still a total asshole and yet so much more, a wonderful mess of contradictions with a (mostly) decent human being buried under about twenty layers of total dick.
no subject
YES! And it was perfect. I mean, in my head, I had certainly imagined the more graphic story - I could imagine this being a very drawn-out thing, something that never supplants their socially-sanctioned relationships with their husbands, but continues to sustain them to the end of their days -- a strong and loving friendship with certain, ahem, side benefits, Sophie slowly waking up to her own sexual potential and Clarissa to the emotional inner life she's been denied. - but as you say, that's a novel, the slow breakdown of Sophie's initial dislike, to fascination, to the gradual awakening of her physical responses that Jack has never touched. For a yuletide-length story, this story of Victorian (though, obviously, Georgian) restraint and, yes, chaste passion was just exactly the right thing.
The historical notes were particularly perfect - they reminded me a little of Byatt's Possession, just a bit, and I loved Brighid's no-nonsense approach to her cousin's handwringing about propriety. I write a lot of historical fanfiction myself (which is odd, because I'm not a history buff IRL, but I'll research anything for a story) and the period touches and tone were perfect, which I know is so very hard to do.
I hope the e-books helped - I did just what you did, when I was contemplating writing this myself, pickign out all the bits with Clarissa and reactions to Clarissa, and then I got pregnant and it killed my writing mojo for ages, and I wouldn't have been the right person anyhow - I'm more of a Diana, Sophie's head is hard for me to get into sympathetically, and you did such a beautiful job of that.
Again (is this the fourth time? I can't stop!) thank you so much for writing that - I loved it, and it is canon now, in my head.
no subject
I write a lot of historical fanfiction myself (which is odd, because I'm not a history buff IRL, but I'll research anything for a story)
I'm a definite history buff, but mostly for ancient and non-European history. I'm tremendously happy that it came across as authentic, because again, I haven't ever tried to write this time period and I'm mostly going off Google and period novels, so it's a tremendous relief to know that it seems authentic! And I'm completely thrilled that you liked the notes at the end, because those were honestly my favorite part to write. I am a total sucker for that sort of thing, the characters' documents and letters and such. I had actually, in the beginning, contemplated doing the whole thing in the form of excerpts from Sophie's diary and letters, but I abandoned that idea because there was just TOO much subtext to try to convey in the veiled terms that Sophie would no doubt use. But I loved the idea of using the bits of the daughters' letters at the end to give closure to the whole thing. And I have the most vivid mental image of Brighid as an adult -- an iconoclast, to put it mildly, and her father's daughter through and through!
And, again, I just couldn't be more overjoyed that you liked it. I really wanted to give you the thing you'd most specifically asked for, even though it's quite a departure from both my normal writing style and subject matter. As far as I'm concerned, there is no better feeling in the world to have worked hard on a gift and have it be appreciated, so thank you, very much!
Anonymous Gift-Fic!
(Anonymous) 2008-03-02 02:27 am (UTC)(link)"Nick! Nick!" Don whispered from the hydrangea bushes. He looked around. Dammit. His partner had vanished again. If he had a nickel for every time Nick stepped off into the twilight zone, Don would have the first year's college tuition for Jenny. "Knight!" he called out, more loudly, and a hand clamped down on his shoulder. Don jumped about six inches off the ground.
"Keep it down, Schanke. We're supposed to be hiding." Nick gave him a grin.
Don laughed. "It wouldn't make any difference. There's no one here."
"Yeah, well, just kept telling yourself you're here to please the Captain."
Don hunkered down against the hydrangea again. "Cohen would have our asses if something goes wrong," he admitted. He rolled his eyes. "We shouldn't be here, skulking around in the garden looking for some Councilor's imaginary enemies. We should be on the streets, solving crime--" Don stopped. He realized that Nick had vanished on him. Again.
Don groaned and squinted into the night. How the hell did that guy move so fast and so quietly? With blond hair like his, he should be easy to spot. He tried to see into the murky night, but even with the lights on around the house, it pretty much just looked like trees and shrubs to him. And certainly nobody sneaking about. Other than Nick and himself, that was.
"Find anything yet?"
Don jumped about a foot off the ground. "Yeesh, Natalie. Make some noise or something."
Natalie shrugged, but didn't exactly look apologetic. "Sorry." She held up a clear plastic evidence baggie that contained something dark and lumpy. "I just thought you wanted to know that Forensics finished with this."
"And?"
"It's dirt." She pushed the baggie into Don's hands. "Common dirt. You need to find something better to go on or Cohen's going to have a fit, you know." She folded her arms and raised an eyebrow. If nothing else, everyone had a common understanding that not pleasing Cohen was a very bad move.
Don put the bag of dirt in his pocket. "If there's anything to find. Just because the Councilor is hearing noises and thinks someone is sneaking around his property at night doesn't mean that someone actually *is*." In fact, Don thought, it was more likely than not, that the Councilor was just having some power play over the police force. It'd happened before. Back a few years. Don still remembered the hours upon useless hours of going through the trash heap looking for a couple of used up tv dinners because the guy thought someone had tried to poison him. And then it turned out that the guy was just becoming severely lactose intolerant.
Natalie peered through the hydrangea bushes. "No luck, then. Hey, where's Nick?"
"Right here."
Don managed not to jump at all that time. He was starting to get used to all the coming and going.
"I found some footwear impressions. In the dirt below one of the windows. By the rose trellis."
Natalie gave Don a smug look and Don took a deep, steadying breath. Dirt again. "Let's go see it, then, buddy."
Re: Anonymous Gift-Fic!
(Anonymous) 2008-03-02 02:28 am (UTC)(link)"Looks like someone wearing sneakers," Natalie said.
"Size eight," Nick said.
"How can you see *that*?" Don tried angling the flashlight, but he certainly couldn't see much impression detail in the *dark*.
Nick ignored his questions, as usual. If Schanke had a nickel for every time Nick ignored one of his questions, he'd have college tuition for Jenny's *second* year paid off. Nick looked up at the house. "I think I just figured it out."
Natalie looked up too. "Me, too."
Don scowled. "Well, then someone let me in on the secret!"
Nick laughed. "How old's your daughter?"
"Well, she's--" Don gasped. He looked up. "The scoundrel!"
The three of them went and tucked themselves behind another overly large hydrangea to wait it out. Natalie smirked and punched Nick in the arm, who grinned and ducked his head. Don tried to rationalize getting souvlaki for dinner, considering on the new diet he was supposed to be on. The trees loomed darkly, the bushes swished in the evening air, and whatever it was that did all that chirping and peeping all night long did all the chirping and peeping.
Then, they saw him.
"Bye, I love you," whispered the Councilor's daughter, like Juliet at the window.
"I love you too," he whispered back. In the darkness, the leaves on the trellis rustled, the trellis creaked, and as soon as his sneakered feet hit the ground, Nick grabbed one arm and Don the other.
Don gave the boyfriend credit. He didn't jump.
Re: Anonymous Gift-Fic!
Thank you SO much, anonymous person! I wish I knew who you were so I could thank you properly!
This was so much fun -- I love the mental image of all of them hiding and bickering in the shrubbery! Poor Don, never able to figure out how Nick appears and disappears like that. And Natalie's doing it to him now, too! Wonderful job with their casual friendly banter -- I could totally picture this happening. It was just the pick-me-up that I needed today!