Dear Yuletide Writer

[elisem]

 Dear Yuletide Writer,

First, thank you for signing up and offering things. Yuletide is something to look forward to every year, so thank you for keeping it going!

Here are my requests and a little bit about what I like about them and what might be interesting points of departure -- but please, if you have a better idea than any of the prompts or notions I listed, go for it. Do what your writerly heart wants you to do, and I will happily go along for the ride.

Arcadia - Bernard Nightingale, Valentine Coverly, and Hannah Jarvis are great characters. I've been wondering what it might be like to have Hannah be somewhere in ace space; it’s your call if she is also aro, though I confess to being curious about what an ace but not aro Hannah might have to say about the other two and their (unrequited? requited in romance but not sex? whatever works for the fic) desires/feelings toward her (or each other, or whoever). Basically, acerbic and insightful Hannah commentary of any kind will make me pleased, whatever you envision her various aspects to be. Think of the “Pigeons! Literature! Sex!” scene in the play for illustration. I LOVE LOVE LOVE Hannah’s lines there, especially the glorious ranty bits.

 

Into the Woods - I’m curious about what advice the characters  would have to give someone about to go into the woods, and what advice they’d elicit from the other characters (yes, even the ones who died during the play). Any metacommentary from them will delight me. Approach it from any angle you like: compare news stories on the event from a Very Staid Newspaper, and Online Gossip Rag, and whatever publications you like? Or maybe tell it in diary entries where they analyze each other’s motivations and behaviour? Or what do they each write in the Guestbook of the woods, if the woods has a Guestbook for visitors to sign and write their reactions to their journeys into the woods?

 

Ask a Mortician - Caitlyn Doughty! I love her. I love her snarky humor and her generosity of spirit, as shown in her reaction to the drag queen impersonating her (who was beyond awesome, by the way.) Put her in some unlikely circumstances. Maybe give her a time machine? She does a lot of looks at historical deaths and dispositions; maybe she could do some famous fictional deaths and dispositions, maybe as crossovers even? Set her free to voyage through the possibilities?

 

 

It’s funny how / Humans are Space Orcs - I adore this so much that I am completely incoherent about it. Anything you do to expand on this in any way will make me happy. Anything from any angle. Compiled damage reports and analysis files from observing entities and agencies? What department issues warp cores anyhow? What were the  side effects of any of the things mentioned? Or what did things look like from the inside? Or are there scholars arguing about. this stuff decades later? You can do whatever, and it will make me glad. Seriously, I love this one so so so much.

 

The People - Zenna Henderson’s books about the People were a huge part of my adolescence. What have the People been up to lately? Or what were the untold stories from back then? Again, anything at all you do here would thrill me, so don’t be afraid to go wild.

 

 

The Waste Land - Again, anything you do will most likely delight me. This poem is fascinating, and the characters must have much to say. Show me how they got here, where they’re going, what any of them might say if asked? Write an AU where they’re all government officials? Or baristas? Or archaologists? Maybe they are offering courses during a summer session, or workshops at a big conference or art retreat? I dunno. Have fun, basically, and go as far afield as you like.

 

 

General note:  As you have probably noticed, I enjoy metacommentary, epistolary stories, weird narrative, unexpected viewpoints, AU stuff, backstories and what-happened-later stories, and I love reading about what characters think of other characters, how they understand and misunderstand each other. Crossovers are fine with me if that's what lights your fire. I like worldbuilding a lot too.  Or you could do collections of drabbles for any of these and make me very happy. 

Thank you!  I look forward to reading!

Comments

[carbonel]

I also requested Zenna Henderson's People stories! (As did one other person on the request/offer list.) I look forward to anything that shows up in that category. (It used to be a "someday my fic will come" fandom for me, but someone wrote me a couple of lovely stories a few years ago, so I can't say that anymore.)

[elisem]

I loved those stories so much when I found them. There's a combination of magic, survival, and a calm centeredness that's catnip for me somehow.

When did you first find them?

[carbonel]

I started reading science fiction seriously when I was in high school, so in the early 1970s. For some reason I took against SF novels at first, and just read short stories in anthologies. Lots and lots of anthologies -- and SF magazines from time to time.

I first read "Gilead" in the anthology Tomorrow's Children, edited by Isaac Asimov. (Great anthology, even if Asimov didn't actually have all that much to do with it.)

Then, IIRC, I encountered "Ararat" in another anthology. And that made me wonder, (a) if there were more of these stories, and (b) if they had been collected anywhere. I was at my high school library (which had a decent SF collection) when I had this revelation of possibility, so I went to the card catalog. And there was a listing for Pilgrimage: The Book of the People! I ran to the shelf, and there it was! It was one of my "libraries are magical places" moments.

It took me a while to find the other People collection and the two non-people ones, but I'll always remember that thrill of finding that first book. And, of course, the joy of reading it.