Arctic Light

The reveals are out and here's what I wrote!

Photo Finish (Mrs. Pollifax, 5500 wds, Grace & Farrell, gen)
The recipient had an amazing prompt, which was for Miss Hartshorne (Emily's neighbor who has no idea that Emily is a spy) running into Farrell while she's on a travel tour and he's on a case. I couldn't resist this - so Grace gets her own little CIA spy adventure, for a treat.

Demon Touched (Chalion, 3600 wds, Adelis & Penric & Desdemona, gen)
Another irresistible prompt, in this case for Adelis acquiring a demon. This also led me to finally read the early Penric books, which I really enjoyed. I needed to brush up on Chalionverse theology and make sure I wasn't writing something that completely broke canon.

Merry Midwinter (Daniel Blackland, 4800 wds, Gabriel/Max)
I had decided ahead of time that even if I didn't match on it, I was going to treat the one Daniel Blackland requester in Yuletide, because there needs to be more fic for it in the world. The recipient prompted for between-books fic with Max and Gabriel getting to know each other better, so that's what I wrote, a getting-together fic with some AU holidays mixed in.

Second Case (MacGyver, 1100 wds, Mac & Pete, gen)
This was my assignment - I had no details to go on, so I stalked the recip a bit to see which characters they preferred, and decided to go with an additional scene to the flashback in "Partners" (the "how they met" flashback ep).


The obligatory Biggles

And of course I treated some Biggles!

Last Resort (5800 wds, Biggles & Ginger & EvS, gen + some background Biggles/EvS-ishness)
AU of Foreign Legionnaire in which EvS does actually try his doomed last stand idea, gets shot, but survives. Nice try, Erich, but you're just going to have to deal with the mortifying ordeal of not dying and having Biggles being nice to you.

And all my fortunes at thy foot I'll lay (2700 wds, Biggles/von Stalhein)
This is an idea I had been vaguely kicking around for a while, a post-Looks Back fic in which they both have to deal with the emotional fallout from Biggles getting shot and EvS's attendant feelings about that. Bonus: weak, recuperating Biggles.

Thank you for writing for me! I'm sure I'll love whatever you make, and I would be equally delighted to receive anything for any of my requested fandoms. This letter is for idea purposes only, to give you some inspiration, but if you come up with something different, go for it! I am also happy to receive fic that includes whatever winter holidays would be appropriate for the characters' culture and religion, though of course you don't have to.

I have treats turned on and I love to receive them!

( General likes and DNWs )

Fandoms:

( Smokescreen - Dick Francis )

( Chalion (Penric & Desdemona) - Lois McMaster Bujold )

( Daniel Blackland series - Greg van Eekhout )

( Biggles series - W.E. Johns )

I hope the day is treating you well! I am thrilled and delighted with my absolutely lovely gifts! They are all wonderful and exactly what I wanted. ♥

Fluffy (Iron Fist, Ward & Danny & Colleen, 4800 wds)
Ward gets turned into a kitten. This is EVERYTHING the premise promises, completely adorable with delightful banter and perfectly cat-accurate behavior (hiding under things! managing to hide in a room with nowhere to hide! will only let you pet them when you're not looking at them!) that is also somehow Ward-accurate behavior.

Two Men, a Baby, and a Magic Sword (Iron Fist, Danny & Ward & Ward's baby, 2000 wds)
Babysitting shenanigans, Ward trying hard to be a good dad, and a terminally cute dose of these two being cute with a baby. ♥

One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer (Defenders team, Jessica POV)
Teamy and gently angsty aftermath to a mission that didn't quite go as planned, with a great Jessica voice and a perfect touch of h/c.

I have also gotten lovely comments from all but one of the people I wrote for, and I am sipping a cup of gift tea right now. (Most of my family knows to give me tea. It's great.) I hope that you are having a nice day, whatever this day is for you.

I finally finished my Yuletide letter (canons eventually requested after a lot of dithering: Matthew Scudder mysteries, Iron Fist, Defenders, Wiseguy). I was amused to notice that a) they're all set largely in New York, and b) in every case, at least one of my requested characters is a Totally Done With Your Shit cynic who would absolutely hate dealing with magical bullshit. Therefore I would be delighted if anyone wants to inflict magical bullshit on them. I mean, obviously I am also fine with a perfectly normal, down-to-earth story. But consider though: Frank McPike having to deal with the fact that magic exists and Vinnie is in the middle of it.

Still about a day to sign up if you want to! JOIN US.

I am sad that the Defendersverse shows are so far down from last year's signups. I'm the only person requesting Iron Fist (so far), nobody's asked for Luke Cage at all, and there are only 3 people requesting Defenders when last year had over a dozen. I know people move on after a show ends, but did everyone have to move on so fast. ;___;

Anyway though, Trick or Treat Exchange opened on Halloween and is full of lovely things! I got two wonderful gifts:

The Haunting of the Rosebud Motel (Schitt's Creek, Stevie & David, 1300 wds)
Stevie and David perform an exorcism. And it goes about like you'd expect. HAHAHA. This is hilarious and adorable, and nailed canon perfectly.

and now the weather (Stranger Things, Steve/Nancy/Jonathan, 1300 wds)
Steve turned back into a person in the back seat of the Byers’ station wagon. Werewolf!Steve, with gentle h/c and lovely character dynamics. Really delightful.

Oh, before I get into Yuletide stuff ... Festivids is open for signups! (Small fandom vidding exchange, closes the 27th.) I already have my signup in, but haven't written a letter yet.

Meanwhile ... the Yuletide tagset is up! (May load slowly due to its size.) Signups will open on the 27th.

I nominated the Matthew Scudder books, Iron Fist, and Wiseguy. Checking out various other things of interest:
- Ben January: looks like the full character set here
- Alliance-Union: I figured this year, rather than nominating them, I'd throw my Hellburners on the Yuletide gods, and it looks like half of them got in (Ben and Dekker, but not Meg and Sal). Ah well, I can work with that.
- Dragaera: with an excellent character selection
- Finisterre/Nighthorses: with a surprising number of characters for such a mini-fandom.
- The Foundling is in this year! Excellent. (I don't ship the juggernaut pairing - inasmuch as a fandom with almost zero fic has a juggernaut - so the odds of actually getting any relevant-to-my-interests fic are low, but it's nice to see it in the tagset.)
- Imperial Radch: yessss
- Lymond Chronicles: not really something I'm into enough to either request or offer, but of the 3 characters nominated, one is Richard, and my secret Richard Crawford soft spot approves and hopes for fic.
- Mrs. Pollifax: pretty good character set here
- Rai-Kirah: wow, I haven't thought about that in ages. Slightly saddened by lack of Lydia in the tags.
- Elfquest: very eclectic character selection, which I guess isn't surprising for a series with approximately 4 billion characters, but I'm a little surprised by the lack of what I would consider the Usual Suspects for nominations.
- Robotech Macross! With a very interesting character selection. Someone is clearly into Zentraedi.
- Carnivale! ... but without my fave. Awww.
- Defenders is in, with an excellent character selection; yay!
- Luke Cage and Jessica Jones are in, though LC only has Shades and Comanche, and JJ has no Malcolm (boo).
- Forever Knight: with a ton of characters. I might have to offer this year.
- The Good Place: yay!
- Siren: I noped out on this at the end of season one, but it looks like the OT3 is in, so I will hope for fic.
- Whiskey Cavalier: of the characters who are in, I hope for Edgar/Jai.

I'm happy for the Guardian people - I see it qualified! Enjoy yourselves! :D I also see Chicago Typewriter among the kdramas; I need to finish watching that.

ETA: I completely forgot to check the movies! I'm surprised but pleased to see that both Captain Marvel and Into the Spiderverse are eligible. Other items of interest to me: Iron Giant, L.A. Confidential, The Princess Bride.

And I'm sure there are a bunch more I'm either forgetting to look up or will notice after signups close.

What are you excited for?

The Yuletide Madness treat collection has now released, and I got another gift!!

In Sickness and in Health (Alliance-Union, Hellburner crew, 1400 words)
Like I just wrote in a comment, wow does this author ever have my number when it comes to these characters. XD Sweet and lovely h/c (in a very canon-plausible scenario!) with a character who has come so, so far from the lone wolf he was at the start of the series. ♥

My Yuletide is amazing this year. I'm so happy!

This year I went sliiiightly overboard and ended up writing ... *counts on fingers* 8 treats plus my assignment. Some might be relatively easy to guess; at least one I am confident that absolutely nobody is going to guess. Enjoy the treasure hunt. :D

Sneaking in with some Yuletide fic recs before reveals ...

I already recced the story written for me - Troublesome to Others, But A Torment To Themselves (Vorkosigan series, Mark/Kareen + Miles) - but really, it's great and I just had to say again how delighted I was with it. :D

I have definitely read more than this, but these are the ones I bookmarked and therefore the only ones I can remember to rec. See, this is why I should have done this a week ago.

( Recs - Dark Tower, Rivers of London, Dalemark Quartet, Red Dwarf, Cadfael Chronicles, Quantum Leap )

Thank you so much for writing for me! I am generally very easy to please, and I am equally excited about all of these fandoms, so I'm sure I will love whatever you make for me!

General likes: hurt/comfort, plotty fic, fluffy fic, angst with a happy ending, action, quiet moments of domesticity, gen, banter, competence, cuddling, presumed dead but really alive, characters saving each other.

General dislikes: Crossovers, character death, unhappy endings.

Individual requests under the cut. Fandoms: The Cinder Spires (Jim Butcher), Never Trust a Dead Man (Vivian Vande Velde), Vorkosigan Saga (Lois McMaster Bujold), Benjamin January Mysteries (Barbara Hambly).

( Requests )

In conclusion, please don't worry about sticking too close to any of my requests if you have a different idea. I'm requesting these fandoms and these characters because I love them, and my reading tastes are fairly broad as long as it's not just "rocks fall, everyone dies", so if you write a story that speaks to you, I'll probably love it too!

... okay, seriously, I gotta get on this Yuletide thing, if I'm going to do it this year. Signups close tonight!

One of the things I wanted to do before I get my letter up was post recs for the more obscure books I'm requesting, since it looks like most (all?) of my requests this year are for book fandoms, and hey, if I liked them, maybe you will like them too! And maybe I'll have more people to talk to them about!

Let's start with Never Trust a Dead Man by Vivian Vande Velde. It's recently back in print ... with an absolutely terrible cover. The cover on the older edition was a bit young for the book itself, but at least it was cute and generally fairly accurate to what happens in the book, even if they aged the protagonist down by about 5 years. (The writing style is middle-grade-ish, but the characters are in their late teens.) The new one looks like it should be the cover for a self-published YA vampire romance. Not that there's anything wrong with YA vampire romance, but that's really not what this book is.

This book has been one of my comfort reads for at least a decade or more. It's fast, funny, sweet, has a surprisingly well-crafted mystery given the simplicity of the style, and it never fails to make me happy, despite the book's somewhat dark premise. It's about a young man in a rural, medieval-ish village who is accused of murder, and because they don't know what to do with him -- murder isn't something they have to deal with very often -- the villagers wall him up in an ossuary cave with the dead man's corpse. Luckily for him, he's not the only person in the cave; there's also a witch (sarcastic, hyper-competent, and AWESOME; she's great) who sneaks in every so often to steal bits of corpses for spells.

She agrees to help him, and so the accused murderer and the dead man's ghost team up to solve the murder. Complication #1: they can't stand each other (which is why he was accused of killing the other guy in the first place -- they had a longstanding and very public feud). Complication #2: due to a necromantic spell gone wrong, the (sarcastic, annoyed) ghost came back trapped in the body of a bat. Meanwhile the witch just wants to know what she did to deserve being saddled with these two idiots. Things pretty much go (hilariously) downhill for everyone from there.

I love this book; it's been one of my perennial Yuletide recs for ages. Parts of it still make me laugh, no matter how many times I've read it, and it's a lovely riff on the general theme of misjudging people based on first impressions -- everyone from the dead guy to the witch to the main character's love interest turns out to be more than they appear at first. It's also a short book and a fast read, so it's not that much of a time investment, unlike the fantasy doorstopper I'm about to rec in the next post.