From astrogirl. Clearly, I must write stories to cover the J and X gaps.


Rules: How many letters of the alphabet have you used for starting a fic title? One fic per line, ‘A’ and 'The’ do not count for 'a’ and ’t’. Post your score out of 26 at the end, along with your total fic count.



A - Age of Iron (I Medici, Lorenzo "Il Magnifico" de' Medici/Francesco de' Pazzi)

B - Bad Reputation (16th Century CE RPF, Barbara Blomberg & Fernando Álverez Toledo III. Duque de Alba)

C - Cover her face ( The King's Touch - Jude Morgan, 17th Century RPF; Henriette Anne Stuart (Henriette d'Angleterre)

D - Discordance (Merlin (TV), Morgana & Gwen)

E - Eve of Destruction (To Walk Invisible (2016), 19th Century RPF, Branwell Bronte/ Joseph Bentley Leyland)

F - Five ways in which Frederick the Great and Maria Theresia did not meet (18th Century CE RPF, Frederick the Great & Maria Theresia)

G - Graham O'Brien's Survival Kit for Companions (Doctor Who, Graham O'Brien & Thirteenth Doctor)

H - Here lie we (Merlin (TV), Gwen & Morgana)

I - Invicta (3rd Century CE RPF, Helena (Mother of Constantine)


J -

K -Kin (Merlin (TV), Arthur & Morgana)

L - Learning Frederick (18th Century CE RPF, Frederick the Great/Michael Gabriel Fredersdorf)

M - Murder in Florence (16th Century RPF, Margaret of Parma, Alessandro "Il Moro" de'Medici/ Lorenzo "Lorenzino" di Pierfrancesco de' Medici)

N - Nusquam (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Ziyal & Dukat)

O - Opposites (Beatles RPF, Yoko Ono, Yoko Ono & Paul McCartney)

P - Prussian Doll (18th Century RPF, Frederick the Great & Prince Henry of Prussia, Frederick the Great/Michael Gabriel Fredersdorf)

Q - Queen's Gambit (Don Carlos - Friedrich Schiller, Elisabeth de Valois & Princess Eboli, Elisabeth de Valois & Philipp II of Spain)

R - Repercutio (Babylon 5, Londo Mollari & G'kar)

S - She blinded me with science (18th Century RPF', Émilie du Chatelet/Voltaire)

T - Till our shadows blend (Babylon 5, Delenn & Londo Mollari)

U - Unforgivable (Angel the Series, Holtz & Connor)

V - Vita Guineveris (Merlin (TV), Gwen (Guinevere)

W - We happy few (Beatles RPF, Brian Epstein & The Beatles)

X -

Y - You should see me in a crown (18th Century CE RPF, Catherine the Great & Prince Henry of Prussia)

Z - Zinc Man (The Americans (TV), Elizabeth Jennings/Philip Jennings)


That's 24 letters out of 275 stories. For easiness, I started with the most recent ones, but even so, clearly history is a dominating theme. Also, I would have bet Z to be the most difficult letter to find, but no, The Americans came through for me.

1. Your main fandom of the year?

Still 18th Century history, Prussian-Austrian-Hannoverian-French edition, with the occasional ancient history interlude.

2. Your favorite film watched this year?

It's a race between Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes and Dune II; I think the Apes win, not least I because I continue to be amazed how this rebooted franchise keeps producing intelligent, interesting characters and stories. Also, this was a case (and not the only one) this year where ahead of watching I was severely in doubt this was a good idea (i.e. do we need anything after the Caesar trilogy), and then I saw what they created, and yes, absolutely we do. Noah & Mae is shaping up to be one of the most fascinating relationships of the saga.


3. Your favorite book read this year?

Tie between Shelley Parker-Chan's She who became the Sun and Jo Graham's The Borgia Dove, i.e. history with a touch of fantasy in both cases, in the former using the first Ming Emperor as a template to genderqueer in a fascinating way, and in the second having a pregnant Giulia Farnese be a key player in getting Rodrigo Borgia elected Pope.



4. Your favorite album or song to listen to this year?




And all the variations thereof. An absolute earworm, and thematically essential to the storytelling within the series, to the point where you see this early scene very differently once you know certain things. Coming close: medieval and Renaissance "We didn't start the fire" was a hoot, and set me and the rest of salon filking. (And cahn singing; we're just waiting for mildred_of_midgard to collect the visuals in order to present you with 18th century versions.)


5. Your favorite TV show of the year?

It was a really good year for tv. With DW returning (and what a wild ride it was, with some episodes being amazingly brilliant and some really too silly even for DW) and Discovery finishing (*sob* it was a nice last season, but overall I think the s4 arc would have made for more epic final season one, had they known in advance), plus I really liked the kids' shows, i.e. ST: Prodigy, s2, and currently SW: Skeleton Crew. But seriously, there is no question as to which three are racing to the finish line here - Interview with the Vampire, s2 (sooo good), Shogun and Agatha All Along, of course. (And I'm very happy that not only the former but also Kathryn Hahn in the later just got Golden Globe nominated. Is the later one a first for the MCU?) Again with the scepticism ahead of watching: did we need another adaptation, given the very good 1980s one existed already? (YES, as it turns out.) And who asked for a spin-off focused on a main character who only showed up in a previous Disney show as a villain? (We all should have asked, as it turns out.) AAA is more recent, Interview and Shogun has the one drawback that they decided on its success to do more of it (DO NOT WANT, this is a contained and finished story)...but I think the sheer epicness, the fact a show with lots and lots of subtitled politics set in Renaissance Japan can become a hit, and the fact the novel was first told to me by Dad on a long walk when I was a teen and has remained with me ever makes for a mighty pull... but what's this, it's dark horse candidate Interview racing ahead by virtue of being even better than the first season despite having the less compelling part of the book as its textual source to adapt! IwtV, s2 win!

6. Your favorite online community of the year?

Salon aside, I also participated in an online book club I can't give details about for RL reasons and enjoyed it a lot.


7. Your best new fandom discovery of the year?

Lots and lots of podcasts to listen to, many historical in nature, some sci fi fannish. (Including one about The Rings of Power which proves you can be a Tolkien geek ready with the quotes and love the show.)


8. Your biggest fandom disappointment of the year?

There wasn't anything I loathed on a Secret Invasion (and SI was last year), but there were a few cases of "I had expected more given the premise" (Domina comes to mind), and some where the execution was fine and I could see what the hype was about but a key component was just wrong (Ripley: Andrew Scott was just too old - as I said in my review, not a problem if they'd adapted literally any other Ripley novel but the first, because his age isn't really important in the other books, but in the first one, him and Dickie being young enough that Dickie's father sending a supposed school mate after Dickie is plausible is literally a plot point), or there's room for improvement (Shardlake: a more subtle soundtrack, please, ditch the monologues, wtf is this making the important black character from the first novel who goes on to become a series regular not black and making two one-off character black instead?).



9. Your fandom boyfriend of the year?

ST: Prodigy's take on Wesley Crusher. I have a soft spot for when an unpopular character is given another shot anyway, but in this case not only did the result feel like a delightful DW crossover, but it was an object lesson of how to do something the third season of ST: Picard messed up big time, i.e. how to use an "old" character in a new show in a way that's more than a cameo and a real character exploration BUT also NOT in a way that negates the "new" characters' stories and agenda.

10. Your fandom girlfriend of the year?

Mariko from Shogun in her latest tv incarnation. I mean, I loved her in the book as well, but this year's show version was fantastic.

11. Your biggest squee moment of the year?

Daniel in the season finale of Interview with the Vampire detonates his bomb of a reveleation, to put it as unspoiilery as possible. I mean, it's a devastating scene, but in an absolutely squee-worthy way.

12. The most missed of your old fandoms?

Depending on Darth Real Life, I may start a Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel: The Series rewatch next year in this very journal.

13. The fandom you haven't tried yet, but want to?

The Orville, now that Discovery has ended, and my defensive hackles have been lowered.

14. Your biggest fan anticipations for the New Year?

I hear there will be a miniseries about Jane Austen and her sister Cassandra, featuring Keeley Hawes as Jane. This sounds promising. Will Jane A. fare better than the Bronte sisters in their most recent stage and film biographical outings? I hope so. On a similar historical note, there will be a series about William the Conqueror and Harold of Wessex, called King and Conqueror.

...and I really hope The Return starring Juliette Binoche and Ralph Fiennes will make it to Germany.


Speaking of Memes, the January Meme still has free days if there are topics you want to to ramble about.

From various, most recently vilakins and astrogirl.

( 20 Questions, Twenty Answers )

Your main fandom this year? I remained firmly rooted in the 18th century with cahn and mildred_of_midgard, where we were joined by felis, prinzsorgenfrei and gambitten on occasion.

Your favourite film watched this year? If it counts as a film, since it was the filmed recording of a performance technically, then Hamilton, which this European never saw on stage (nor did I ever hear the songs before, though fannish osmosis spoled me for some). If not, The Old Guard appealed to my inner Highlander fan, the two leading roles - weary old warrior and new-to-this-world-idealist - were female and compelling, and the rest of the ensemble was interesting as well (and included a textual gay couple).

Your favourite book read this year?: I had fun with Lord Hervey's bitchy memoirs in which he mainly has a go at George II and family, and his friend Lady Mary Wortley Montagu's Embassy Letters, and I loved at last reading Boswell's diaries of his travels through the German states and Switzerland (featuring such highlights as meeting Voltaire or deciding to write a letter to Johnson while postrated on Luther's tomb in Wittenberg), but really it was volume IV of the Lehndorff diaries which I marathoned in the week just before they locked down libraries along with everything else in Germany in March. Lehndorff continues to be my favourite German diarist of the era and if you check out the entry I just linked, you'll see why.

Your favourite tv show of the year?: The Clone Wars season 7 was heartbreaking and excellent, a worthy (long delayed) conclusion, but I think I'll award this designation to Harlots. (What can I say? The 18th Century strikes again.)

Your best new fandom discovery of the year?: see above, and also, figuring out how to write historical fiction in emojiis was fun.

Your biggest fandom disappointment?: Doctor Who''s The Timeless Children. Enough said.

Your favorite online fandom community of the year? rheinsberg. I’m so glad Mildred had the idea of collecting the main results of our discussions, research and pure silliness there, I can’t tell you.

Your tv boyfriend of the year?: Rex from Clone Wars, see above, re: heartbreaking. (With a bit of hope.)

Your tv girlfriend of the year? Kim Wexler, from Better Call Saul. Season 5 belonged to Kim. That was a powerhouse performance by Rhea Seaborn, and that she wasn't even nominated for it was one of tv life's greatest injustices.

Your biggest squee moment of the year?: Discovering that the British ambassador to Frederick the Great during the 7 Years War, one Andrew Mitchell, in his younger years also had a fling with Francesco Algarotti (who was simultanously involved with a triangle with Lord Hervey and Lady Mary, see above for who they were, and very likely had one with Frederick the Great as well). You may think it's all about serious history, but really, mildred_of_midgard, cahn and I are in this for the racy soap opera. Also this caused me to create a meme, see here and here.

The most missed of your old fandoms? 2020 was horrid in many ways, but pretty good in catering to my older fandom loves. Not only do I have a beloved new Star Trek show in Discovery, the admittedly uneven Picard gave me Patrick Stewart acting, a wonderful reunion episode with Riker & Troi and a fabulous later day Seven of Nine. I wrote DS9 fic again. My one month submission to the Mouse gave me the final season of The Clone Wars. Otoh, what I do miss a bit outside of my tiny 18th century fandom, which has all the debates and fanction one can wish for, are fannish conversations. However, there's also the fact that whenver I briefly check out conversations in a few larger fandoms Star Trek being one of those), I encounter a lot of bile and hurry away, or there's a fandom many people are squeeing about but which I can't muster more than "yeah, it was nice" enthusiasm about (Good Omens comes to mind, which I enjoyed a lot, but which didn't leave me with an urge to seek out discussions or meta, and after reading a few stories also didn't leave me with the wish to read more fanfiction; I watched it once, it was nice, that was it for me).

The fandom you haven’t tried yet, but want to? Too many. Even in the time of the plague, there's not nearly enough time.

Your biggest fannish anticipation for the New Year?: Watching live theatre again, listening to live readings again, and live lectures on topics which interest me, attending a live book fair again. Always with the caveat: if it is possible without endangering people before 2022, of course.

First, re: yesterdays ships-as-emoticons meme, the two which no one has identified were Quark/Dax from Star Trek: DS9, and, as the bonus ship, from Penny Dreadful, Vanessa Ives (refered to as "my little scorpion" by Joan the witch all through her flashbacks) and Malcom Murray (deconstructed Victorian explorer, hence the map).

Secondly, along with primary sources transcribing, excerpting and debating, my two Frederician buddies & self have been engaging in such classical fannish endeavours as Hogwarts House sorting, "who tops/bottoms" debates and, most recently, the assembling of a playlist. Click on the links and enjoy the song mix, if you don't know anything about the history; if you do know something about the history, we hope you'll be into the character arc they form as well.

Now, on to the Better Call Saul review.

In which Lalo is a cat, Nacho is a dog, and Kim is the best lawyer in Albuquerque, our titular antihero included.

( Spoilers are in the game )

From sholio:

2010: First year of participating in Yuletide, and I promptly messed up when posting my story (I had spelled the recipient's name wrong), but the story - Ovid, to be specific, Arachne, the story I nicknamed "Revenge of the Spiderwoman" - was nicely received. Otherwise this was the year of Merlin for me. I had just marathoned seasons 1- 2 and was massively in love with the show, writing fanfiction like a busy beaver. Oh, and: Torchwood: Children of Earth! Which I absolutely loved, and which to this day is to me an absolute highlight of the RTD era of Whodom & asorted spin-offs. Since this was not the majority opinion, I also wrote defense posts (and fanfiction).

2011: Lots of Beatles related posts, plus Being Human's third season was awesome and settled all my issues with s1 and s2. The Borgias started and quickly became my favourite (current) historical melodrama. X-Men: First Class made me fall in love with the movieverse iteration of the X-Men again.

2012: I marathoned Breaking Bad (seasons 1 - 4, the fifth was the only one I watched in real time) and gained a new fandom. (And character to defend and write about: Skyler. Also Marie.) In terms of my perennial Shakespeare fandom, The Hollow Crown was what made me go back to Richard II, a play which I had bounced hard off as a teenager, reread it and become won over. Skyfall actually made me write James Bond meta. Elementary gave me a new iteration of Holmes & Watson whom I quickly fell in love with. And I finished the year writing Billy Wilder fanfiction (Sunset Boulevard, to be precise), which turned out to be probably my most popular Yuletide tale.

2013: Once upon a Time was charming and ridiculous and ridicilously charming, and I had a new fandom. On the completely other end of the sex and violence scale, Spartacus turned out to be trashy yet oddly captivating, with actually great character development (along with the endless slo mo gore. Breaking Bad anded in style, which was good since on the more depressing side, I fell out of love with The Borgias in its third and final season. I also tried Hannibal and didn't like it, but I did fall for a tv show based on a legendary-in-pop-culture serial killer tale which retold its story in a way that made it for me now the definite one, to wit: Bates Motel. Norma Bates as played by Vera Farmigia, I still love you, just a little less lethally than your son does.

2014: Black Sails! Watched it in real time from the pilot onwards and thus can be a hipster about loving it before it was cool. Seriously though, I did and do. This was also when I read Robert Caro's multivolume LBJ biography which immediately impressed me as one of the best political biographies I had read. With the arrival of the Twelfth Doctor and the way Clara went from generic companion to fascinating individual, I finally fell back in love with Doctor Who. (Which I had liked, but not loved during the Eleven years.) The Americans was a new discovery that enthralled me (and resulted in some fanfiction), as did Penny Dreadful's first season, while I fell out of love with Once upon a Time.

2015: Agent Carter started. Looking back, it's still my favourite Marvel based tv show, Netflix shows included. It wasn't as ambituous as them, but not as self indulgent, either. Better Call Saul became the spin-off I hadn't seen a need for which ended up enthralling me in its own right, to the point where I felt the Breaking Bad callbacks were to the show's detriment more often than not. I still feel extremely smug about having predicted the big twist/reveal of Black Sails 2.05.

2016: I marathoned The Clone Wars and loved it, which resulted in fanfiction, which after years of writing either in small fandoms or for non-popular characters/relationships suddenly meant the heady experience that is writing in a megafandom for a relationship that a lot of people are interested in. (Thanks, Ahsoka and Anakin!) Penny Dreadful ended dissatisfyingly, which only didn't hit me hard because to me the season and series finale seemed an obvious set up for a quite different wrap, and I immediately knew what I wanted to write for Yuletide. (And did.) (It's still one of my most ambitious stories.) Class was the first Moffat era DW spin off which I adored, and it promptly got cancelled after one season.

2017: Bates Motel ended perfectly, and Star Trek: Discovery started. At last, a new ST show! The two part pilot left me torn - I had liked some elements and disliked others - but the next few episodes won me over. One of my oldest fandoms with new installments: what a thrill that was!

2018: The Americans landed its ending as well, and Better Call Saul in its fourth season had reached Saul-ian territory with Jimmy. I wrote what are probably my last two Agent Carter tales, not because I fell out of love but because they say all I can imagine saying, one serious - the "Five times Peggy Carter Compromised", and one silly fun - the James Bond crossover "For Their Eyes Only". Oh, and I also spotted, while checking out my dw network, the post of someone named cahn on Schiller's Don Carlos versus Verdi's Don Carlo (her favourite opera, and based on the Schiller play), which among other things contained the statement that not for nothing did people still love the Verdi opera whereas hardly anyone knew about the Schiller play. (Or words to that effect.) Sire, geben Sie Gedankenfreiheit! thundered just about every German actor's voice in my mind, my inner German literature PHD screamed in protest, and I inflicted an Well, actually... comment on poor cahn who took it with humor and started to chat with me about Verdi and Schiller. This was to have long term consequences...

2019: The long-term consequences happenend. Months and thousands of words in debates (and just goofing around) as well as 10 k fanfictions later, I blame Schiller. To quote him writing to Goethe about their relationship: Wie lebhaft habe ich bei dieser Gelegenheit erfahren, daß das Vortreffliche eine Macht ist, daß es auf selbstsüchtige Gemüter auch nur als eine Macht wirken kann, daß es dem Vortrefflichem gegenüber keine Freiheit gibt als die Liebe.") ( "How vividly I learned on this occasion that excellence is a power, that it can only act as a power on selfish minds, that there is no freedom towards it but love.")

Day 30 - Favorite Trek Series

...and thuis it ends. I'm currently hiking in the mountains and thus rarely onlne, so still haven't seen all replies to earlier entries. This one is relatively easy to reply to, despite the fact I've come to love Star Trek:Discovery quite a lot, imperfections not withstanding. I mean, let's face it, the duo whiich shares my number 1 spot and has done for years and years has had - well, s1 of TNG was notoriously weak, the occasional moment and potential not withstanding. And improvement didn't come with lighnting speed in the second season, either, though it started coming. And DS9 had a hit and miss first season and till the end kept doing things which infuriated me along with many more things that enthralled me. So who knows? By the time Disco is over, I might feel differently re: my number 1. But for now, it's still TNG when it isn't DS9, and vice versa. I love them both more than any of the others, which doesn't mean I don't like, enjoy, and in some cases love the others as well.


( The Other Days )

Day 28 - Name Your Own Starship

Get ready for the U.S.S. Mandukhai, named after the Mongolian Queen. Mongols are magnificent travellers, and she was brave and imaginative. Also successful, and she died of natural causes, undefeated.


( The Other Days )

Day 26 - Planet You Would Most Like To Visit

Well, I wouldn't object to the Federation's favourite vacation planet, Risa, aka the intergalactic Club Med, but if I'm to stay longer than just a few days, I want history on my vacation spot, not just carefully modulated good weather. Also, vacationing in the future should include some space phenomenon to admire, else you might as well travel in my present (which I do, a lot). Thus, my choice is clear: Bajor. Has historical monuments to admire, beautiful landscapes to hike in, the still rebuilding economy will benefit from tourism, and en route I can also study a wormhole. I just need to time it right (i.e. not when the Founders, the Cardassians or the Klingons are invading). If the Bajoran food should not agree with me (which I doubt, since every one in any post TOS incarnation of Trek is raving about it), DS9 is there where I can get every style of food at my leisure. In conclusion, off to Bajor I go!


( The Other Days )