At least that's how it worked out for me, in terms of my contributions this year. Both of my stories - for cahn - are set in the Stuart era, one early, one later; the first one features what was arguable the biggest sex and crime scandal at the scandal-heavy court of King James VI and I, and features the perspective of the two women who are bound to be antagonists in the upcoming series Mary and George, seeing as one of them was married to the titular George's (Buckingham's) rival for the favour of King James and the other became forced to marry George's older brother very much against her will and wasn't taking it quietly. Both ladies were called Frances and I very much enjoyed giving their perspective; anything you need to know about the history is in the story itself.


The Devil's Law Case (5951 words) by Selena
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 17th Century CE RPF
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Frances Howard (1591 - 1632) & Frances Coke (1602 - 1645), Frances Howard (1591 - 1632)/ Robert Carr 1st Earl of Somerset, Robert Carr 1st Earl of Somerset/James VI and I of Scotland and England, James VI and I of Scotland and England/George Villiers 1st Duke of Buckingham, Robert Carr 1st Earl of Somerset/Thomas Overbury, Frances Coke (1602 - 1645) & George Villiers 1st Duke of Buckingham, Frances Coke (1602 - 1645)/Robert Howard (1598 - 1653), Frances Howard (1691 - 1632)/ Robert Devereux 3rd Earl of Essex
Characters: Frances Howard (1591 - 1632), Frances Coke (1602 - 1645), Robert Carr 1st Earl of Somerset, George Villiers 1st Duke of Buckingham, James VI and I of Scotland and England, Thomas Overbury, Edward Coke (1552–1634), Robert Howard (1598 - 1653), Sir John Villiers Viscount Purbeck, Elizabeth Hatton, Robert Devereux 3rd Earl of Essex
Additional Tags: POV Female Character, Murder Mystery, Trials, Scandal, Whydonit, women being complicated, Canon Gay Relationship, Rivalry, Friendship
Summary:

They were the two most scandalous women of their scandalous time. Ditching their unwanted husbands, marrying the King's lover, committing murder or escaping by the skin of their teeth; Frances Howard and Frances Coke have done it all. This is their story.

The second story I wrote deals with the youngest daughter of Charles I, Charles II's favourite sister, Henriette Anne aka Minette. Viewers of the tv show Versailles might recall her from the first season, which features her less than happy marriage with her (very gay) cousin Philippe d'Orleans and her affair with his brother Louis XIV, though the show is, shall we say, taking its usual liberties. I've always had a soft spot for Minette, and using the 5 plus 1 format for her felt like a good way of writing a portrait. (In terms of previous fictionalisations of Minette, this adhers to the novel The King's Touch by Jude Morgan, though again, it stands on its own if you are not familiar with said novel.

Cover Her Face (5778 words) by Selena
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The King's Touch - Jude Morgan, 17th Century CE RPF
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Relationships: Charles II of England & Henrietta Anne Stuart | Henriette d'Angleterre, Henrietta Anne Stuart | Henriette d'Angleterre/Philippe I duc d'Orléans, Henrietta Anne Stuart | Henriette d'Angleterre & James Scott Duke of Monmouth, Henrietta Anne Stuart | Henriette d'Angleterre & Henriette Marie de France Queen of England, Louis XIV de France/Henrietta Anne Stuart | Henriette d'Angleterre, Philippe Chevalier de Lorraine/Philippe I duc d'Orléans
Characters: Henrietta Anne Stuart | Henriette d'Angleterre, Charles II of England, James Scott Duke of Monmouth, Philippe I duc d'Orléans, Louis XIV de France, Henriette Marie de France Queen of England
Additional Tags: Character Study, Siblings, Unconventional Families, Cousins, Exile, Declarations Of Love, Friendship/Love, POV Female Character
Summary:

Five times someone told the Princess Henrietta of England they loved her, and one time she said it to someone else.

This was fun and as good as advertised. I had watched a BBC (I think) movie titled the Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister years ago, but I barely remember anything from it other than it following the same emotional beats as Maurice and Tipping the Velvet - gay character has first great love, first great love dumps them in favour of a straight life, gay character finds second great love who is commits to the gay life, we see that first great love is living a fake life while hero(ine) is happy with second great love. Sally Wainwright's version has less predictability, lots of vitality and a standout central charismatic performance from Suranne Jones - whom I remember as the temporary embodiment of the TARDIS in Doctor Who and as Mona Lisa in The Sarah Jane Adventures - , several subplots dealing with Anne Lister's servants and tenants which provide a good different and at times counter perspective to hers, and a nicely complicated family set up which I also didn't remember from that long ago movie that includes our heroine's fraught relationship with her younger sister Marian.

(Sidenote: why on earth are so many newspaper reviews refering to this as a Regency story, though? It starts in 1732, and the Regency ended in 1820 when George III. died and his oldest son, the Prince Regent, became George IV.)

Anne Lister, aka "Gentleman Jack" of the title,diary-writing lesbian, landowner wishing to be a coal magnate, is in her unabashed confidence in herself (and her sexuality) and her mixture of determination and smarts an excellent heroine, but what I really admire is that the series doesn't pander to the audience by doing that thing where all sympathetic characters in a period piece, especially the heroes, have progressive views in everything, and you can tell the villains by the way they're the only ones holding prejudices. Anne Lister has progressive views about women, but she's a died-in-the-wool Tory sideeying nearly anything else that looks like social progress. (It's sister Marian who thinks that franchise voting needs to be reformed, for example.) Her self understanding as a landowner does include patriarchal responsibility for her tenants - for example, she's sincerely concerned for a boy who has lost his leg courtesy of a ruthless carriage driver - , but at the same time she shows zero interest or concern for her maid's obvious bad state (where it takes the other servants zero time to figure out the maid must be pregnant), isn't deterred from her determination to use the coal on her land by a trip to a coal mine where we see child labor in progress and certainly if she could vote would vote All Tory, All The Time. It's fun to watch Anne Lister go toe to toe with the local coal barons who think they can outwit her because she's a woman, but the series makes sure you also get the perspective of the servants and tenants whose lives can be upended at a whim of their boss. Also, much as Anne has had her heart broken by previous girlfriends who in the end decided to marry men after all, both of whom she#s still in contact with, we see her getting into the central romance of season one with a very period appropriate mixture of motives: her future love interest is attractive and sweet, yes, but she's also financially loaded, and still "malleable".

Said love interest, Ann Walker, as the other main character is the one who gets the big character development, Anne Lister's character being already formed when we meet her, and "learning to stand up for herself" (not just to the obvious people, i.e. the family members who high handedly decide what's good for her all the time, but also to Anne Lister) is it. Both Anne and Ann - the series also has a Marian and a Mariana, and yet another Anne in the waiting, because real life is obnoxious like that with its first names - happen to be sinceely religious, which is another anti-cliché touch, though this doesn't stop Anne Lister from making mince meat of the most hypocritically loathsome 19th century Reverend this side of Barchester Tower's Obediah Slope.

There's a lot of black humor sprinkled across the show, especially concerning the fate of another boo-hiss character, but it never feels patronizing in a "weren't those people quaint?" way. And the show commits to its looks, which in this post-Regency, pre-Victorian time (when Britain was ruled by the last of the Hannover monarchs) already means very elaborate hairstyles for the women and grand puffy sleeves, but not a corset in sight. (Stays all the way.) I also like touches such as Anne Lister kissing her beloved older aunt's hand when she greets or leaves her, or that when Anne's letter mentions she's visited the Hercules statue in Kassel, which she admired but felt let down by the cascades below it, we see, lo and behold, the Hercules statue of Kassel and the cascades, not some completely wrong footage. (Excuse me, I'm still scarred from occasions like when Highlander: The Series said "Berlin" and then promptly showed a Bavarian beer garden, or Alias the tv series said "Munich" and showed Passau, and so forth.)

The first season wraps up its romantic plots but leaves the business plots somewhat teasingly dangling, and includes a bit of a "X thinks they've gotten away with spoilery thing Y, BUT HAVE THEY?" kind of cliffhanger. I'll be sure to watch season 2. Also, I wonder whether anyone has written Gentleman Jack/Bronte RPF crossovers yet, what with the locations?

From andrastewhite and kangeiko.

Italics for the characters you've written 1-3 times.
Bold the ones you've written 4-9 times.
Italics and bold for the ones you've written 10+ times.
Underline the ones you're intending to write, or have in unfinished story form.
Leave alone the ones you don't write/haven't written.
Add any that you have written (if they're not on here).

( I think these are correct... )