Yuletide Letter 2010!

[measured_words]

Dear Amazing Yuletide Author:

Thanks, first of all, for writing! I am scamming most of this from my last year’s letter, so hopefully it will retain some amount of coherency.

So first of all.... I like stories with plot - with adventure, intrigue, character exploration and development. I also like stories that are more focused on character exploration, however - things don't necessarily need to happen, if things are happening interesting in someone’s head. If that even makes any sense outside of *my* head, which is questionable :p Although I like introspection but not excessive angsting.

I like porn, but I do not require it. If you have a preference for or against in whatever you wind up writing, knock yourself out, I will likely appreciate it. I prefer it to be somehow relevant to the story – either it develops character relationships, or is vital to some zany caper or what have you. I’m not a big fan of pwp or sex thrown into a story randomly. Porn can certainly *be* the main action, so to speak, but I like it better if it is more than just some random bodies pressing up against each other in interesting ways. I also don't like major deviations from cannon - that is, I don't like people to act out of character, and I'm generally not a huge fan of AU's unless they're very clever (which of course means I have an exception in my requests ;) Funny is good, but not required.

On to the specifics! Please note that these are in no particular order :D

1. Arkham Horror (Board Game): Okay. I love this game with a firey passions, and I saw it hadn't been requested and thought that was a terrible shame! I almost offered it, but I don't currently have access to a copy. Anyway - I didn't limit the characters, because its all good :D I'm seriously not picky. If you want to write playing through a game? Fine. Explore the backstory of any of the characters? Great! What happens when someone goes through a gate into the Dreamlands and accidentally encounters a sleeping Old One? Awesome. A character's reaction to learning that they have relatives in Innsmouth? Sweet! The museum opening for the Black Pharoh exhibition? Bring it on! The general Arkham populace panicking as an Elder Thing shows up in the streets? Yesss! Some slash between characters recovering sanity in the asylum? Oh baby yes! Honestly there are sooooo maaaaany awesome possibilities here that I can't imagine you can go wrong. Anything will make me happy :D The more I think, the more excited this makes me - have fun :D

2. The Death of the Necromancer - Martha Wells: I do love this book very much, and I would love more adventure-y type stuff from the gang. Feel free to use any characters *not* listed, and if you would rather write either Nicholas and Ronsard *or* Nicholas and Arisilde (slashy or not, either is welcomed), feel free to focus that way - I can imagine it might be harder to get all three in there and it is honestly fine! Pre-book or post-book, however you like. If you’d like to set it somewhere between DotN and the Fall of Ille-Rien series, that’s cool. If you want to do more of a ‘how did these folks meet’ stuff, also good! If you want to flesh out something from the book…. Also good :D As you can see, I’m not really picky on that front – I just like interesting characters in a good story :)

3. The Shadow (pulps): I didn’t specify any characters here, but mostly because due to the nature of the stories I thought to best not to limit my author (that’s you, you wonderful person :D) Use any of the agents, off doing stuff. Focus on the Shadow! Explore the relationship dynamics that come out of living in a mostly all-male world! Whatever you like. I do like action-y stories, which would work well here, but I also like stories about how background people are affected by The Shadow, directly or indirectly. You don’t even to use The Shadow himself if you don’t want to, but feel free to do so if that’s your desire! This is probably the fandom on the list where my ‘porn must contribute to the story or characters’ guideline is something I feel most strongly about. If it is integral that, say, Harry has to bang someone to get info, or you want to look at the sexual dynamics between Margot, the real Lamont, and The Shadow (or between the Shadow and any of his agents), that would also be awesome, as long as it isn’t *just* porn with some names pasted on.

4. Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser - Fritz Leiber: Again – I love adventure! Also – this is my ‘no-AU, please’ exception. Primarily because….. it’s Canon :V I went back and found the quote, its from Swords in the Mist, Ch. V - the Wrong Branch:

It is rumoured by the wise-brained rats which burrow through the citied earth and by the knowledgeable cats that stalk its shadows and by the sagacious bats that wing its night and by the sapient zats which soar through airless space, slanting their metal wings to find winds of light, that those two swordsmen and blood-brothers, Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser, have adventures not only in the World of Nehwon with its great empire of Lankhmar, but also in many other worlds and times and dimensions, arriving at these through certain secret doors far inside the mazy caverns of Nigauble of the Seven Eyes - whose great cave, in this sense, exists simultaneously in many worlds and times. It is a Door, while Nigauble glibly speaks the languages of many worlds and universes, loving the gossip of all times and places.

In each new world, the rumor goes, the Mouser and Fafhrd awaken with knowledge and speaking skills and personal memories suitable to it, and Lankhmar seems to them only a dream and they know not its language, though it is ever their primal homeland.

So feel free to take them wherever! You can AU, you can Crossover (though preferably with other fandoms I am familiar with, which might make it harder… whatever though, if you have inspiration, just point me at some basic info and I can pick it up :D). If you'd rather no, feel free to keep them in Erehwon instead– do whatever you thnk will be a good story! Feel free to write them slashy, I have absolutely no problems with that. I’m only requesting the boys, but again feel free to include any other characters in the books, or make up new ones, as you please :)


There, I hope that is helpful! And thanks again :)

ETA: I shoudl say, that if you are ever in Yulechat, I'm usually there as elanya if I'm around. Also, my non-writing LJ-username is also elanya, if that it helpful for stalking.... but probably not as it is mostly bitching about school and posting to-do lists @_@