amphipodgirl (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
amphipodgirl) wrote2023-10-14 05:39 pm
amphipodgirl) wrote2023-10-14 05:39 pm
Dear Yuletide Writer 2023
(FYI: treats are super welcome!)
Dear Yuletide Author,
Hello! I'm so glad we have a book(s) in common and that you're going to write something for me. Thank you!
I have two AO3 accounts. Gammarus is where I post my nsfw fics and most of my new fics. Ampithoe has some of my older, smut-free fics as well as most of my bookmarks, regardless of the heat level of the fics bookmarked. I'm amphipodgirl on dreamwidth, twitter, bluesky, tumblr, and various discord servers.
Some general loves:
Many of my very favorite stories focus on a character who isn't expected to amount to much, often partly for reasons of class, gender, outsider status, or age, but turns out to be very capable and achieves truly impressive things, often surprising themself in the process. Miss Marple, Mrs. Pollifax, Paksennarion, The Goblin Emperor, The Enchanted Forest Chronicles, the Vorkosigan Saga, and Remnant Population are a few examples.
I love text fics, epistolary fiction, and so on.
If you want to do an AU, I'm a huge fan of tropes like fake dating, arranged marriage, and fuckbuddies first. There's something about the romantic and sexual connections growing on a different schedule than the mandated standard one, and about the parties trying to hide or suppress their feelings for each other, that really gets me. I'm also a sucker soulmate AUs and hurt/comfort.
I love when people bring their own special interests/knowledge to an AU. Weirdest job you've ever had, period of history you're an expert on, or a hobby some people think you take way too seriously? A cultural background that's totally different from mine? (I'm white, USan, Jewish.) I am so here for that AU. Beekeeping AU! Scuba AU! Handcrafted-prosthetics AU! Jeopardy fact-checker AU! Early Umayyad Caliphate AU! Balinese AU! Bring it!
When I write fan fiction, I come from a very character-centered point of view: I start by thinking a lot about who the people are, what makes them tick, why they do the things they do. But if that's not your entry point into writing, that's fine! There are a lot of great ways to make a story.
I read all ratings/heat levels, but I'm less into the purely horny aspects of fic than I used to be; I definitely like to have some plot or character development or ambiance with my porn, and don't need the porn part at all.
I'm including some prompts, but if there's something you've been dying to write for one of these fandom/character combos, go for it as long as it doesn't hit my DNWs. The stories that insist on being written are often the best ones.
General Do Not Wants
MCD
Non-con
Heavy angst
Underage
Scat, golden showers
Mpreg
A/B/O
Christmas
Death of a parent or parental figure (references to a canon death are okay but please don't dwell)
Requested Fandoms/Characters
(edited to remove The Enchanted Forest Chronicles, which I deleted from my request before the request period closed)
Hellspark/Worldbuilding
I love this book for a lot of reasons. I really like the emphasis on linguistics and the insistence on proxemics and kinesics in language learning, and the process of watching Tocohl learn to "speak" with the sprookjes just makes my brain all happy. The insistence on the importance of cross-cultural understanding for working together really resonates with me. I alslo really like all the varied plant and animal life of Flashfever.
I would love to see more detail on the culture of Yn, Jenji, or the sprookjes. This could be explored through the canon characters or in some other way.
For Yn -- How is decision-making done in the culture? How is shamanic knowledge passed down? What is considered men's work/men's sphere? How does courtship, reproduction, and child-rearing work? Who becomes a shaman and how are they trained? What has caused men's rights or roles to gradually expand (e.g. canon states that they've only started to learn to read and write fairly recently -- how did that come about?). Some of these could be answered in a fic that gave backstory for layli-layli and Olitokitok -- how did they meet? How did she come to have such high regard for him? How did they decide to pair-bond, and how did they decide to join a survey company together? If you are a person of trans or nonbinary experience and are interested in exploring how the Yn would treat trans and enby people -- either Yn people or outworlders -- I would be fascinated. (If that's not your background, please don't approach that question unless you're very confident that you can give sensitive representation.)
Jenji -- Who decides who gets reliability bracelets and how and when might they get taken away? What is the process of teaching a child these values like? What is a Jenjin school like? I'd be interested to see Alfvaen and swift-Kalat negotiating their future together. What is it like when she first visits his homeworld? How does she get her first bracelet? Do they raise a child together, and what is that like? She has her proxemics and kinesics down, but does she somehow stray into stating possibilities that bring out Jenjin superstition?
Sprookjes -- I'd like to see more of humans learning sprookje language and culture. What's their social structure like? How much have they engineered their world, given what master geneticists they are? Do they have an ethics of how one does and doesn't interfere? What are the power structures? What do the humans seem like to them? What do they want their relationship with humanity to be like? What are their notions of property, economics, etc? Do they end up trading superconductors to moss cloaks? Are they territorial? How interested are they in learning to use human technology?
Matthew Shardlake/Matthew Shardlake
The two things I love most about this series are the vast amount of historical detail, and poor, emotionally wounded Matthew. I would love to read a romantic happy ending for him -- something where he comes to know and care about a woman (let's keep to his canon sexual orientation, please) and nothing goes wrong. She doesn't have to marry the king, she doesn't feel that she's too cold, nothing; they just get to be happy together. She can be of any class, but I'd like her to be someone he admires for her intellect and character -- I think that's where his attractions generally arise from in canon, plus it's just important to my enjoyment to feel that the female partner is truly valued. If you have Tudor knowledge that you can work in, either big historical events or general lifeways, conditions of daily life, etc., that's great, but don't feel you need to do research. (I'm also an absolute sucker for fashion and textile history, but again, don't feel you need to research that if it's not a thing you're into.)
Noah and Cole Thriller Series/Noah Downing and Cole Kennedy
I love The Murder Between Us so much! (I value the continuation of their story in The Grave Between Us, but it's so heavy and creepy that I've only read it twice, as opposed to re-readings and countless re-listenings of book 1.) First off, "We had amazing, life-changing sex but, um, oops, now we're working together, plus I ghosted you" is super compelling. Second, I love all of the nominated characters, each in their own way. Third, the mystery and action is gripping (I'm happy to ignore the odd plot hole here or there). And they have a thing that Tal's couples nearly always do -- from the moment they set eyes on each other, they have no interest in anyone else; this is going to be who they are with for good, even if it takes a while to get there.
Prompt One: What if there weren't any new Coed Killer murders and Noah didn't get called back and they did get that remaining 2 or 3 nights in Vegas? How would Noah handle James's questions and innuendos about how he spent the night? How would he feel texting with Katie and not telling her about this amazing new thing that's happening in his life? At what point to they gradually start to reveal details about their lives -- how do they find out that they both work for the FBI? (They could run into each other at a seminar or -- remember, this is an AU -- they could actually communicate (eventually)). How does Noah approach revealing that he has a daughter? Is Noah comfortable going out with Cole where it's possible he'll run into someone who knows him?
In the books, much of the relationship conflict comes from a place that their personalities interact badly. Noah is quite unconfident and can't believe that anyone would really want him, and this sometimes makes him hold off on reaching out to Cole. Cole is a very compassionate person who understands other people well and can make them feel at ease, but he doesn't talk easily about his own feelings and is apt to lash out if he feels threatened or rejected. How would those conflicts show up in this different setting?
Prompt Two: In TMBU, Cole saves Noah and Katie. In TGBU, Noah saves Cole. I would love to read about Katie saving both her dads.
Canon-specific DNWs: Ian Ingram! Case fic is fine, even with a serial killer, but please not a criminal who commits sexual assault or necrophilia.
The Sleeping Soldier/Russell Krause and Caleb O'Connor
Okay, so, I love this book too. (I love a lot of books.) In all of her MM historicals, AGG pays attention to how the men of the era, both queer and not, conceptualized and described homosexual activity (and identity, if that was even a category at the time). In this book, we have the sharp contrast between Russell's 1865 worldview, where affection, love, and touch between men are fine but there is not gay identity as such and Caleb's 1965 worldview, where there's an emerging homosexual identity and societal homophobia has stamped out the easy affection Russell is accustomed to. I also really like the way anyone who encounters Russell while the curse is still active just looks at him and goes "yep, I guess you did just wake up from 100 years of sleep". And all the "gee whiz" and having to have the 20th century explained is fun.
Prompt One: I'd love to see what Russell makes of the gay community Caleb knows in Chicago. What would he think of Francis's cocktail parties? Would he and Michael become friends? You could write this either post-canon, with them needing to keep Russell's origin a secret, or an AU where people still believe him.
Prompt Two: I'd be interested to see the fairy's viewpoint either of some of the events of the book, or their post-canon relationship and adventures.
Have a happy Yuletide, oh lovely writer!
Dear Yuletide Author,
Hello! I'm so glad we have a book(s) in common and that you're going to write something for me. Thank you!
I have two AO3 accounts. Gammarus is where I post my nsfw fics and most of my new fics. Ampithoe has some of my older, smut-free fics as well as most of my bookmarks, regardless of the heat level of the fics bookmarked. I'm amphipodgirl on dreamwidth, twitter, bluesky, tumblr, and various discord servers.
Some general loves:
Many of my very favorite stories focus on a character who isn't expected to amount to much, often partly for reasons of class, gender, outsider status, or age, but turns out to be very capable and achieves truly impressive things, often surprising themself in the process. Miss Marple, Mrs. Pollifax, Paksennarion, The Goblin Emperor, The Enchanted Forest Chronicles, the Vorkosigan Saga, and Remnant Population are a few examples.
I love text fics, epistolary fiction, and so on.
If you want to do an AU, I'm a huge fan of tropes like fake dating, arranged marriage, and fuckbuddies first. There's something about the romantic and sexual connections growing on a different schedule than the mandated standard one, and about the parties trying to hide or suppress their feelings for each other, that really gets me. I'm also a sucker soulmate AUs and hurt/comfort.
I love when people bring their own special interests/knowledge to an AU. Weirdest job you've ever had, period of history you're an expert on, or a hobby some people think you take way too seriously? A cultural background that's totally different from mine? (I'm white, USan, Jewish.) I am so here for that AU. Beekeeping AU! Scuba AU! Handcrafted-prosthetics AU! Jeopardy fact-checker AU! Early Umayyad Caliphate AU! Balinese AU! Bring it!
When I write fan fiction, I come from a very character-centered point of view: I start by thinking a lot about who the people are, what makes them tick, why they do the things they do. But if that's not your entry point into writing, that's fine! There are a lot of great ways to make a story.
I read all ratings/heat levels, but I'm less into the purely horny aspects of fic than I used to be; I definitely like to have some plot or character development or ambiance with my porn, and don't need the porn part at all.
I'm including some prompts, but if there's something you've been dying to write for one of these fandom/character combos, go for it as long as it doesn't hit my DNWs. The stories that insist on being written are often the best ones.
General Do Not Wants
MCD
Non-con
Heavy angst
Underage
Scat, golden showers
Mpreg
A/B/O
Christmas
Death of a parent or parental figure (references to a canon death are okay but please don't dwell)
Requested Fandoms/Characters
(edited to remove The Enchanted Forest Chronicles, which I deleted from my request before the request period closed)
Hellspark/Worldbuilding
I love this book for a lot of reasons. I really like the emphasis on linguistics and the insistence on proxemics and kinesics in language learning, and the process of watching Tocohl learn to "speak" with the sprookjes just makes my brain all happy. The insistence on the importance of cross-cultural understanding for working together really resonates with me. I alslo really like all the varied plant and animal life of Flashfever.
I would love to see more detail on the culture of Yn, Jenji, or the sprookjes. This could be explored through the canon characters or in some other way.
For Yn -- How is decision-making done in the culture? How is shamanic knowledge passed down? What is considered men's work/men's sphere? How does courtship, reproduction, and child-rearing work? Who becomes a shaman and how are they trained? What has caused men's rights or roles to gradually expand (e.g. canon states that they've only started to learn to read and write fairly recently -- how did that come about?). Some of these could be answered in a fic that gave backstory for layli-layli and Olitokitok -- how did they meet? How did she come to have such high regard for him? How did they decide to pair-bond, and how did they decide to join a survey company together? If you are a person of trans or nonbinary experience and are interested in exploring how the Yn would treat trans and enby people -- either Yn people or outworlders -- I would be fascinated. (If that's not your background, please don't approach that question unless you're very confident that you can give sensitive representation.)
Jenji -- Who decides who gets reliability bracelets and how and when might they get taken away? What is the process of teaching a child these values like? What is a Jenjin school like? I'd be interested to see Alfvaen and swift-Kalat negotiating their future together. What is it like when she first visits his homeworld? How does she get her first bracelet? Do they raise a child together, and what is that like? She has her proxemics and kinesics down, but does she somehow stray into stating possibilities that bring out Jenjin superstition?
Sprookjes -- I'd like to see more of humans learning sprookje language and culture. What's their social structure like? How much have they engineered their world, given what master geneticists they are? Do they have an ethics of how one does and doesn't interfere? What are the power structures? What do the humans seem like to them? What do they want their relationship with humanity to be like? What are their notions of property, economics, etc? Do they end up trading superconductors to moss cloaks? Are they territorial? How interested are they in learning to use human technology?
Matthew Shardlake/Matthew Shardlake
The two things I love most about this series are the vast amount of historical detail, and poor, emotionally wounded Matthew. I would love to read a romantic happy ending for him -- something where he comes to know and care about a woman (let's keep to his canon sexual orientation, please) and nothing goes wrong. She doesn't have to marry the king, she doesn't feel that she's too cold, nothing; they just get to be happy together. She can be of any class, but I'd like her to be someone he admires for her intellect and character -- I think that's where his attractions generally arise from in canon, plus it's just important to my enjoyment to feel that the female partner is truly valued. If you have Tudor knowledge that you can work in, either big historical events or general lifeways, conditions of daily life, etc., that's great, but don't feel you need to do research. (I'm also an absolute sucker for fashion and textile history, but again, don't feel you need to research that if it's not a thing you're into.)
Noah and Cole Thriller Series/Noah Downing and Cole Kennedy
I love The Murder Between Us so much! (I value the continuation of their story in The Grave Between Us, but it's so heavy and creepy that I've only read it twice, as opposed to re-readings and countless re-listenings of book 1.) First off, "We had amazing, life-changing sex but, um, oops, now we're working together, plus I ghosted you" is super compelling. Second, I love all of the nominated characters, each in their own way. Third, the mystery and action is gripping (I'm happy to ignore the odd plot hole here or there). And they have a thing that Tal's couples nearly always do -- from the moment they set eyes on each other, they have no interest in anyone else; this is going to be who they are with for good, even if it takes a while to get there.
Prompt One: What if there weren't any new Coed Killer murders and Noah didn't get called back and they did get that remaining 2 or 3 nights in Vegas? How would Noah handle James's questions and innuendos about how he spent the night? How would he feel texting with Katie and not telling her about this amazing new thing that's happening in his life? At what point to they gradually start to reveal details about their lives -- how do they find out that they both work for the FBI? (They could run into each other at a seminar or -- remember, this is an AU -- they could actually communicate (eventually)). How does Noah approach revealing that he has a daughter? Is Noah comfortable going out with Cole where it's possible he'll run into someone who knows him?
In the books, much of the relationship conflict comes from a place that their personalities interact badly. Noah is quite unconfident and can't believe that anyone would really want him, and this sometimes makes him hold off on reaching out to Cole. Cole is a very compassionate person who understands other people well and can make them feel at ease, but he doesn't talk easily about his own feelings and is apt to lash out if he feels threatened or rejected. How would those conflicts show up in this different setting?
Prompt Two: In TMBU, Cole saves Noah and Katie. In TGBU, Noah saves Cole. I would love to read about Katie saving both her dads.
Canon-specific DNWs: Ian Ingram! Case fic is fine, even with a serial killer, but please not a criminal who commits sexual assault or necrophilia.
The Sleeping Soldier/Russell Krause and Caleb O'Connor
Okay, so, I love this book too. (I love a lot of books.) In all of her MM historicals, AGG pays attention to how the men of the era, both queer and not, conceptualized and described homosexual activity (and identity, if that was even a category at the time). In this book, we have the sharp contrast between Russell's 1865 worldview, where affection, love, and touch between men are fine but there is not gay identity as such and Caleb's 1965 worldview, where there's an emerging homosexual identity and societal homophobia has stamped out the easy affection Russell is accustomed to. I also really like the way anyone who encounters Russell while the curse is still active just looks at him and goes "yep, I guess you did just wake up from 100 years of sleep". And all the "gee whiz" and having to have the 20th century explained is fun.
Prompt One: I'd love to see what Russell makes of the gay community Caleb knows in Chicago. What would he think of Francis's cocktail parties? Would he and Michael become friends? You could write this either post-canon, with them needing to keep Russell's origin a secret, or an AU where people still believe him.
Prompt Two: I'd be interested to see the fairy's viewpoint either of some of the events of the book, or their post-canon relationship and adventures.
Have a happy Yuletide, oh lovely writer!