The Christmas special of Call the Midwife was lovely. ( Spoilers ensue. )

In Yuletide news, I got some lovely comments on both stories by now; more on the official assignment than on the treat, but that was to be expected because of the fandoms in question. Also, I spotted the assignment story recced on the journal of someone who is a complete stranger, which is extra thrilling. For all the fretting, that's the charm of the anonymous period before the reveal: getting comments, and perhaps being recced, solely on the basis of the story itself.

I haven't had the chance to watch the film version of Les Miserables yet for the simple reason it hasn't been released in Bamberg (but I'm off to Munich again next week, which is when I'll also go watch The Hobbit for a second time in the undubbed version). However, being familiar with both the novel and the musical meant I've been leisurely reading through reviews. Some comments about Marius reminded me that Hugo is a good example of reader/viewer training clashing with authorial intent, and not in the usual way. Because I don't think Marius is meant to be the young romantic hero of the tale (and failing at it). Hugo, writing from exile on his channel island because of his anti-Napoleon-III. pamphlet Napoleon Le Petit, isn't exactly charitable towards Marius ; ( spoilers for Les Mis ensue )

And yet Marius is still the most sympathetic variation of a certain type that shows up in The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Le Roi s'amuse, the drama which forms the basis of Verdi's opera Rigoletto (Verdi had to transport the whole plot to Mantua and make the king a duke in order to get around the censor), always in conjunction with an amazing woman in unrequited love with him. ( Spoilers for Notre Dame and Rigoletto ensue, along with ramblings on a favourite Hugo trope. )

Emerging bleary-eyed from a lot of reading, I bring reccomendations. (Well, the first part of them anyway. More to follow.) As for my own stories, both the recipients liked them and wrote lovely things about them at their own journals (their summaries of what the stories are about are better than mine, drat!), which makes me glad, but not too many other people so far bothered to check them out so far, woe. Ah well. Self, you knew this would happen, a rare fandom is a rare fandom, and within rare fandoms, at least in one case you picked a subject you knew maybe only recipient and yourself are interested in. (But I still want other people to read both stories, she sniffles, they mean so much to me this year!)

However, as a reader, I'm in unqualified ecstasy. Have a first bunch of recs (excluding, of course, my gifts which I have already talked about).

History/Hunger Games: The Sticking Place

Yes, you read the fandoms right. Someone wrote an ingenious fusion of the Hunger Games premise with the 15th century. In the Fifth Hunger Games, Lucrezia Borgia, Richard (III.) of York, Marguerite d'Anjou and poor Henry of Lancaster are all tributes. It sounds like crack, but the characters are played, err, written straight, and of course it has to end the way it does.

History: The most pleasant tale of Lady Bessy

Four titles Elizabeth of York never held, and one she did. The "Five Things" format applied to the woman who was the last Planatagenet princess and the first Tudor queen, but rarely gets fictional or biographical attention. This year, she got several stories. This one which applies the "Five Things" format in ingenious ways is my favourite.

A Place of Greater Safety: Parallel or Together

In which Camille Desmoulins tries to bring Robespierre and Danton together. It doesn't work out the way he expected. The characterisations ring very true to Hilary Mantel's novel, and it does something I've been secretly and not so secretly hoping for when reading the actual book, where it didn't but could have. :)

Babylon 5:

The Subtle Arrangement of Stones: the Babylon 5 story I never knew was missing in my life, but retrospectively it so was, and oh, how it wins at Yuletide! Set during the first season. Londo, G'Kar and Delenn are kidnapped by the Homeguard, and it's up to their valiant aides, Vir, Na'Toth and Lennier to rescue them. The characterisations and - as invevitable given the characters in question - the bickering are top notch, the format (Garibaldi interviewing everyone for the security files afterwards) ingenious, and it fits into canon beautifully. I loved this to bits.

The Price of a Favour: Timov in the days of Cartagia. I'm always thrilled to find fic dealing with my favourite B5 one episode character, and this was great.

In Flagrante: three times Londo and G'Kar are caught in the act. One happy, one angry, one sad. Alternatively funny and heartbreaking, as Londo and G'Kar are wont to be.

James Bond: Protégé

M passes on what she learned. Contains two of my favourite things, M backstory and Eve Moneypenny fleshing out. I loved it.

Elementary (which had 21 new stories in Yuletide - hooray!):

Three Anniversaries: A Love Story: Not all great love stories are about romance is the summary the author gives, and this one celebrates the (platonic) friendship between Sherlock Holmes and Joan Watson through the years. Present and future fic that feels true to where the characters are now and where they could be through the years, and has that same restraint and understated affection I find appealing on the show.

The Long Summer: this one is an ensemble fic that uses a frustrating case to show Holmes' relationships to Watson, Gregson, Bell and deliver an excellent Holmes character exploration to boot.

Greek Mythology: this year one of the requests was for a story about Ariadne and Icarus growing up together in Crete. This resulted in a dozen or so great tales, and it feels unfair to single one out, but this is my favourite of them all:

Thirteen Views Of A Labyrinth: They are not so very different, Ariadne and Pasiphaë, Icarus and Daedalus, Ariadne and Icarus. This has fantastic world building and awe-inspiring characterisations of everyone, is full of shades of grey and surprising yet sense making twists on the myths. I admire it so much.

The Count of Monte-Cristo: Constant.

It's a rare story which takes one of the source canon's villains - in this case Fernand Mondego, the later Count de Morcerf - and fleshes him out without going the excuse and woobiefication road. This story accomplishes it.

New Tricks: New Tricks for Old Dogs (or Five Alternate Universes Where Sandra Pullman Was Always Awesome)

What the title says. :) Wonderful banter and character voices in every universe.

Prometheus: Satellites: Three events in the life of Peter Weyland. Dysfunctional family relationships are my soft spot, and they rarely come more messed up than with Weyland, Meredith Vickers and David 8. This story gives us some background for this, in a Weyland, Meredith and David pov respectively, and it's fascinating.

All the prompts given for this year's Yuletide are now visible, here, so naturally I spent the last 24 hours reading through them, as much as real life would allow. Quite a lot of them made me go "oh, I hope someone has done something with that one". Several made me think "hm, I could work with that, but not on short notice, I'd want to do source research first". One spawned the tiniest, tiniest bunny which is now hopping up and down and telling me I could pursue it even on short notice and without checking the source material again. "Bunny," quoth I, "I am with the Aged Parents now who need my help these last few days before Christmas. Get thee behind me. I've already written a treat." And now it's making Bigwig-defending-the-warren eyes at me.

....Anyway, one thing I could not help but notice is that an awful lot of prompts ask for "awesome ladies being awesome", the word "awesome" more often than not in capslock. While I sympathize with the sentiment and of course also wish the ladies in my various requests to be awesome, this is not, imo, a very helpful writing prompt. (Which is why I'm glad I was not given it.) Suggesting situations or asking for exploration of specific issues or relationships is. But requesting "awesomeness" is not only far too general but bound to give at least yours truly a headache because what makes character x awesome to me might not be exactly what would make her awesome to you. Also, does general awesomeness exclude exploration of flaws, yes or no? Etc.

You know which fictional work did a good in-story meta on this? Susanne Collins' Mockingjay, the third volume of the Hunger Games trilogy. ( Read more... )

As the kids say these days, this. And that. And also the other. Err, I mean: it's just not a helpful prompt, is all.

Well, I do. That is to say, I check out the list of posted Yuletide fandoms quite often, and mentally make notes about which fandoms to check out first once the archive gets opened. There are already four B5 stories and two Breaking Bad tales. And I THINK I've spotted the so-far-one-story-fandom which might be my gift, though of course I can't be sure. As for "huh, didn't think someone would write this this year, but it looks like someone did" pleasant surprises, did I spot A Place of Greater Safety on the list with one story? Why yes, I did. Must check out Hilary Mantel inspired French Revolution fanfic as soon as I can. And so forth.

It's a distraction from fretting about the fate of my own two tales, at any rate.:) The joy and peril of Yuletide is that you get to write rare fandoms and have a chance of having those stories read by more than five people, plus you're challenged to tackle themes which might be outside your usual parameters, but - what if the recipient had something else in mind and leaves nothing but a polite "thanks for writing"/ hardly anyone else bothers to check out the tale because there are so many others/ the format you picked doesn't work in the way you hoped it would/the characters you focus on aren't the characters anyone else is interested in/et cetera. You know, the usual. Ah, well. I might as well practice singing "two weeks more" to the Les Mis tune of One Day More, since that film version is another thing to look forward to. And speaking of filk songs, here is a fun one, Xena by way of Gilbert and Sullivan.

Something else distracting to make you smile among worries trivial and tremendous (i.e. the rest of the world): Breaking Abbey, the one and only Downton Abbey/Breaking Bad crossover. Written by Vince Gilligan and starring Thomas (wearing the Jesse Pinkman look quite well), Carson (clearly born to be Mike in another life) and His Lordship (Hugh Bonneville's Walter White impression is hysterical). Mind you, clearly the Downton Abbey character BORN to make a career in the drug trade is the Dowager Countess, for who could ever defeat her?

This is a really good day. After the political relief overseas - the times, they are indeed changing! - I heard back from the Yuletide mod, and via them from my now again recipient. She's into Fandom C (see earlier post for explanation) as well and provided a prompt for it instead of for the fandom I didn't know, so we're back in business! Can resume my brushing up and chewing on ideas, now slightly modified to work with her prompt. Yes indeed.

And to round off my blessings, a dear friend has returned to lj. Off to read more on fabulous election of female senators and bounce Yuletide ideas!

Yuletide! My actual assignment is a first for me: the person I was matched with only gave the fandom. Not any particular characters or prompts, and there is no Yuletide letter, either. So I guess this means any story within this fandom will do? Don't get me wrong, I can work with that. I love the source material, after all. It's just that in none of the ficathons I ever participated in did the recipient not even give the slightest hint about what type of story or subject within the fandom they want. Okay, not to self: freshen up knowledge of source material with a lookout for possible plots!

....Meanwhile, of course I read a lot of prompts in other people's letters from the last months and ended up writing a twenty pages saga as a treat for someone, currently off to be beta'd by a generous soul. That was fun, too.:)

Yuletide sign-up are open!. Checking out which fandoms were available made me change one of my intended requests and offers, though not of the same fandom. Having the "damn, I should have thought of that" impulse before signing up instead of after comes in handy. :)

You can check which fandoms already got sign-ups here, which is neat and which I'll probably do a lot during the next few months. If only some of these get written in, it's going to be a great Yuletide again. Mind you, now that I've signed up up I suddenly envision dreadful possibilities that didn't occur to me - my selection of Babylon 5 characters was such that I won't get stuck with either Sheridan/Delenn, Susan/Talia or Susan/Marcus, aka the juggernauts, but what if someone requested a Bester/Vir fluffy happy fic? Nah. They wouldn't. Would they?

Also with Breaking Bad I listed most of the characters for my willing-to-write category but maybe shouldn't have listed both Jesse and Walter, because I'm not actually keen on writing Jesse/Walter, which is the - there are so few BB fics of any category that we can't call it juggernaut, but you know what I mean. I wouldn't be in this fandom if I didn't find the Walter and Jesse relationship compelling and crucial, but it's already central on the show, so in fanfic I'd rather explore other aspects or ensemble fic. What if I'm matched with someone who wants a Walt/Jesse PWP? Ah well. (To absolutely no one's surprise, I requested something Skyler centric.)

More suddenly occuring dangers: Sunset Boulevard - nah, can't actually think of anything I wouldn't want to write. (Norma and Betty shop for curtains? Errr. Well, actually, that has potential. Not completely kidding. I mean, why on earth Norma wouldn't let Max do the shopping is beyond me, but hey, she's not famous for her rationality.)

The Sunne in Splendour: someone nominated Sharon Penman's first novel I still have strong nostalgic feelings for, and I couldn't resist signing up. Considering the nominated characters are the York brothers and Anne Neville, I think I'm up for anything. (She says, until she reads the request Yorkcest and/or a high school AU.)

Greek and Roman Mythology: anything goes. Such is the nature of Greek and Roman mythology. :)


***

Also, Doctor Who wise, I watched/listened to the unfilmed but scripted and storyboarded epiloge narrated by Arthur Darville. Alas, my fuzzy feelings and ability to sniffle along with the rest of (not Moffat hating) fandom were severely disrupted because I couldn't help but thinking "That's all very well for Brian, but what about the other Ponds?" You know, Amy's parents? Who must have been swalled up by a crack in time again, because after resurrecting them and giving Amy an entire second childhood with them in The Big Bang so they could be at her wedding, the Moff never bothered mentioning them or Amy's aunt again. I could be mean and wonder whether he even remembers they exist(ed?), but hey. Crack in time.

Like last year, the fandom I shared with my recipient was one of my two beloved space stations, DS9. Her prompt was either Garak & Bashir or Odo & Quark, slash or gen at my convenience. Now I had already said all I wanted to say on the Garak/Bashir relationship in Five Things Which Never Happened Between Garak And Bashir, and much as I love the characters, I didn't think I had anything new in me, or an aspect to explore regarding the two of them.

On the other hand, it occured to me that though Quark is my favourite character and of course the relationship with Odo is very important, I had never written a story focused on said relationship. (Quark's Day and The one who got away deal with aspects of it, but it's not the central focus.) I had also never written an Odo pov - a short canon AU drabble aside - let alone explored Odo from his own perspective. (In the stories he turns up in, he's described from someone else's pov.) Moreover, despite being fascinated by the Terok Nor flasbhacks I had never written a Terok Nor story, two sections of Five things which never happened between Kira and Dukat aside.

You can see where this was going.

As I rewatched the second season episode Necessary Evil, aka the one with the flashbacks to Dukat hiring Odo to solve a murder mystery in the past and Odo dealing with the same issue in the present, it occured to me we have a convenient (for me) plot hole in canon, to wit: considering that Odo in the past isn't able to solve the murder (he doesn't figure out who actually killed Vatrick until the present day action of the show), it's a bit bemusing why Dukat still gave him the job. And voilà, I had a plot in addition to my planned Quark and Odo: How They Became Frenemies character exploration. Throw in my speculation as to why Odo did work for the Cardassians (something canon or Kira skirts around occasionally) and his Dr. Mora/ I Was A Teenage Science Project issues to boot, and I had a story, which I now present under my own name for your convenience:


Collaborators

If you're looking for the archive itself to browse at your own leisure, here it is. This is just a first bunch of recs, more to come!

History:

Still Climbing after Knowledge Infinite

In which young Will from Stratford hangs out with a couple of other Elizabethan playwrights, spars and flirts with Kit Marlowe, and figures out his own writing voice. Just delightful.

Todos Los Bienes Del Mundo (1598)

That Philipp II. during his brief time as Mary's husband in England got at least emotionally involved with his sister in law and future arch nemesis, Elizabeth, is a tantalizing possibility brought up now and then in biographies. (Not least because of the apocryphal story that he confessed as much.) Here is old Philipp reflecting on their youth, talking to his best enemy. Very well done, not least because it's believably from the Spanish pov.

American Gods:

The Man in the Gaberdine Suit

In which Shadow returns to America, meets gods old and new, and has a decision to make. Captures the style of the novel really well, and the (surviving) characters.

Being Human:

Passing Bells

A Nina pov, set after the third season, and a terrific character exploration of her and through her of the other characters and their situation. Bonus point for including Tom.

Deadwood:

The Outward Gift

Lovely exploration of the tender, damaged relationship between Joanie Stubbs and Calamity Jane. Awesome use of Charlie Utter as well.

Some Like It Hot:

Scenes from a floating oasis

In which, after the movie, four people on a yacht try to figure out what comes next. A charming ensemble story that showcases the ambiguities in everyone very well.

The Sarah Jane Adventures:

Queens of the Marsh

In which the inevitable happens and Rani meets the Rani as Our Heroes try to solve the latest weirdness, which involves alien frogs. It's the kind of story you can imagine on the show, and everyone is delightfully in character. Clyde's drawing talent is put to good use and Rani shows off her budding journalist skills which pleases me muchly.

Galaxy Quest

Episode Thirty Three: The Dark Reflection

In which Gwen, back in the day, gets the script for the Galaxy Quest version of the Mirrorverse episode and is awesome. I love this both for the way it is pretty realistic about tv writing (sadly not just in the 70s) and yet allows Gwen to play the game better than the sexist she's dealing with. It's funny, acerbic, and leaves you whistling. My head canon now, definitely.

So Dexter's sixth season has ended, and for me, the show.

( A few spoilery observations )

This was once a very good show, with a great character ensemble, and I'll always remember that show with fondness. I won't continue watching it's pale successor anymore. Ah well, it'll free up some icon space.

On the brighter side of things, the beta of my Yuletide story came back, and I posted it, discovering on the occasion there were several stories in the fandom in question posted already for Yuletide (and of course still disguised); this makes me happy and even more looking forward to the reveal. My own story I think will be very easy to guess if you're familiar with my stuff, but then, I thought this last year, and bimo was nice enough to reccomend last year's effort to me before the reveal, which tickled me to no end. :)

Speaking of stories, here's a good one from Harry Potter fandom: For the Greater Good, which fleshes out Dumbledore's friend Elphias Dodge from Deathly Hallows and is a great example of a writer pulling off the trick of getting across things to the reader which the limited pov character does not realise himself. A great portrayal of Dumbledore developing from flashback into Potter era Albus, too.

Also something guaranteed to cheer me up after my Dexter blues: ye olde English musicians from the 60s. Seems Paul McCartney has taken to hanging out more and more with members of The Other Band. Here's Ronnie Wood (he of the Rolling Stones, young padawans) joining him for a rendition of Get Back at a concert two weeks ago:



Sidenote: ever since Keith Richards wrote in his memoirs that the northern guitarists hold their guitars closer and higher than he and his Southern pals, I can't get that out of my head and checked in the vid above, and it's definitely true for Ronnie W. and Paul. Who has also been busy indulging his penchant for classics from the 30s and 40s and will release an album with standards from Arlen, Loesser, Berlin etc. (first I heard of it was from Elvis Costello who mentioned it in an interview, as his wife, Diane Krall, is also on it) in February, plus two new compositions of his own. One of which has just hit the net. It's a lovely melancholy ballad called My Valentine. A bit jazzy, and what Peter Carlin would call an autumnal love song. With Eric Clapton on guitar.



Most annoying comment spotted on the net so far: "a song for grandfathers". You know, first of all, he is a grandfather (turning 70 next year and with six grandchildren so far), and secondly, one of the many reasons why I appreciate the man is that he liked these kind of songs already when he was a teenager, along with rock'n roll. Being a both/and rather than an either/or person myself - meaning I like rock, I like melodious crooning, and I never understood why this should be mutually exclusive anymore than liking, say, DS9 and Babylon 5, TNG and DS9, Spike and Angel, the Third and the Seventh Doctor... you get the picture. So boo to partisans; I'll sit back and enjoy the music.

ETA: I hasten to add there is nothing wrong with simply disliking certain styles of music.(For example, I'm not into techno.) It was the "grandfather" bit I found annoying, as if this was either news or something wrong for a 69 years old to enjoy singing and composing. (Or a 20 years old, for that matter.)