Dear Yuletide Writer 2022
Oct. 14th, 2022 11:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hiddencaitDear Yuletide Writer,
You are amazing. I want to tell you that up front, because you are.
Please don’t stress about this assignment. Just the fact that you are writing for any of these fandoms in the first place will make me ridiculously happy. Also, I love gifts in general, so I’ll be chuffed to get a prize of any shape and size. I know this letter is ridiculously long as again I love these fandoms and tend to babble, but don’t let that scare you off. Honestly, I just wanted to give you as much detail as possible to hopefully help get your inspiration flowing!
The only thing I do ask is that my No-Thanks list be avoided.
DNW: This time of year, I’m really more into fluff/happy fics than darker subject matter, so most of my DNWs are on the angstier subject matter side: infertility/miscarriage, prostitution, noncon, dubcon, requested character major character death, infidelity, love triangles/jealousy focus (I am far more fond of OT3ing it up), Hanahaki, characters de-aged/aged back up during the story, A/B/O, gangster/mob, noir settings, amnesia, loss of limb/amputations, mpreg, underage/adult, gender swap, teacher/student, drug abuse/alcoholism, incest, or Modern AUs that remove canon SFF elements. Please no 2nd person or 1st person POVs unless in epistolary/letters format.
For M-rated fics, please no knife/blood/gun play (only in a sexual context – canon level plot/action violence is fine), humiliation in a D/S dynamic, age or pet play, scat, watersports, rape-as-fantasy-scenes, anal for M/F pairings, and any kind of direct blow in a sexual situation, including spanking/flogging.
Yes Please: Post-apocalypse, slice of life/domesticfic/curtainfic, epistolary stories, found family, characters ending up at the Gertrude Hunt of Ilona Andrews’ Innkeeper Chronicles series, AUs/fusions (particularly zombie apocalypse, Black Jewels verse, Sentinel/Guide, Old West, and Pacific Rim fusion), outsider POVs, supernatural elements like hauntings/werewolves/fae/etc., competency kink, fixit fics, stranded together/huddling together for warmth, and 5 and 1 style fics.
For M-rating fics, I particularly love dirty talk, Dom/Sub dynamic (service Dom and/or service Sub a plus), that Dom ordering their Sub around, restraint i.e.: shibari/handcuffs/holding partner down, wall sex, shower sex, cramped vehicular sex, biting/marking (without major blood being drawn), mate bonds, “OMG we didn’t die” sex, and “sharing body heat” leading to sex.
Optional Re Crossovers: I also wanted to specifically mention that crossovers between any of my requested fandoms would be awesome if that’s your thing.
Optional Re Challenges: I am also happy to receive fills that meet the Yuleporn and/or Two for One Crossover challenges. (I’ll update this letter if I miss any of the ones I think I could qualify for LOL).
Also I do have gifts enabled and welcome treats if someone who isn’t assigned me gets inspired by my requests!
Requests:
The Lost Treasure of the Grand Canyon (2008) Jacob Thain
Y’all, this movie is so SO bad in the best of ways. It’s just the embodiment of “crack taken seriously” for me with well known actors trying SO HARD to save this movie from its questionable script and really terrible special effects. My fave character (unsurprisingly for anyone who knows my various fandom boyfriends) was Jacob Thain (played by Michael Shanks aka Daniel Jackson from Stargate who is once again delightfully playing an archeologist which just WORKS for me lol) the seemingly snooty useless academic caricature who slowly reveals his competency over the course of the movie, complete with a fluency in an “ancient” Aztec language and familiarity in escaping traps that gives the strong impression he has in fact been in the field many times, despite the impression everyone else on the dig has of him. Basically he’s a walking competency kink for me, and I really REALLY enjoy Michael Shanks speaking various languages LOL. As to prompts, I’d love to see prequel type adventures dealing with his past and where he’s gained his skills, or alternately sequel type stories with or without Susan Jordan as an ongoing love interest. Also fun would possibly be crossovers with other adventure/archeologist characters be they from The Librarians or The Mummy movies. Mostly I just want to see this fandom get it's first fic in the archive!
Christmas Lodge (2011) Jack Rand, Charlene Rand, Mary Tobin
This is the second of my “zero fic fandoms” that I nominated this year, and oh hey it’s another random Michael Shanks fandom (why yes I tend to have the current fandom boyfriend in multiple Yuletide requests – I regret nothing! LOL). This one is an utterly sticky sweet comfort movie for me. It’s very Hallmark movie, but while yes, it’s got a huge amount of Christian scripture (which you can DEFINITELY skip both in the movie and in the fic), it’s surprisingly feminist with Mary getting to both get the guy AND still keep the job she’s amazing at, to the point that her job opens a new office just for her to allow her to work in the rural area with the small towns she loves. Jack Rand (Michael Shanks’s character) is my catnip as far as romance hero bait: he’s a single dad who cooks and adores his daughter and who’s struggling to rebuild the lodge his family has built and run for so long but that fell to ruin while he was mourning his wife and helping his late parents through ill health before their deaths, as well. The costume director definitely leaned into the romance novel tropes, dressing him in flannels and sweaters and henleys and bonus tool belts just in case we weren’t quite sold on him as yet another walking competency kink LOLOL. It’s just a really sweet low stakes romance, y’all, and it screams the holiday season mood for me. Prompt wise, I’d really love domestic fic vibes with anything from Mary and Jack and Charlene building their family together and continuing to run Christmas Lodge as a functioning vacation lodge/B&B for years to come (I don’t know what it is but I really do love B&Bs). I’d also love more of Mary and Jack as a couple, whether it’s getting together or them as a couple. And yes, yes, this DOES mean I would welcome smut – the movie literally doesn’t even have them kiss until Jack proposes LOL, so uh, a little more chemistry and physicality would be great. For a completely off the wall, specific prompt – if you have read and are a fan of the Innkeeper Chronicles by Ilona Andrews, I think it could be a blast to see Christmas Lodge as one of the magical intergalactic Inns with Jack Rand as an Innkeeper and Mary having to learn just how magical the lodge actually is. Obviously not remotely required – just figured I’d mention it since it popped into my head!
Dying with her Cheer Pants On – Seanan McGuire Steph, Colleen, Jude Ciobanu, Worldbuilding
Last but not least of the fandoms I nominated that have never had a fic written for them and that TOTALLY deserve it. This anthology by the FANTASTIC Seanan McGuire is a set of interconnected stories with a monster of the week vibe centered around the Fighting Pumpkins, the varsity cheerleading squad in the odd town of Jordan’s Crossing, who protect the high school and the rest of the community from everything from aliens to zombies to run of the mill apocalypses. Think “what if Buffy made it onto the cheer squad after all and her Scoobies ended up being other cheerleaders” but uh… the squads die pretty much on the regular, occasionally leaving the whole school with semi-amnesia regarding the previous squad members. It’s got a fantastic diverse current squad too (there are three in the book but most of the stories center on the “current” squad), both as far as race and sexuality and as far as their supernatural abilities. I’ve nominated and requested 3 specific characters, as well as worldbuilding, and honestly I’d be thrilled with something regarding any of the characters or even all of them as a full “squad” story so to speak. Jude is the squad leader and a vampire, and carries the weight of being one of the few legacies – a daughter of one of the rare surviving cheer squad members from a previous team; Colleen is the squad historian – something I really wanted to see more of/to get more details about how she was chosen and what knowledge she may possess that the rest of the squad doesn’t; and Steph is a literal embodiment of the harvest who we only get to know for one story but who honestly was one of my fave characters. As far as worldbuilding, I’d love more info as to why the cheerleaders became the warriors/sacrifices in this town in the first place and how the Handbook passes from one squad leader to the next. There’s also a blink and you miss it reference in one of the stories to the other world saving teams in the town: a junior baseball team and a senior knitting circle – more details about them would be a blast, too as would a team up between either team and the Fighting Pumpkins. Aside from that, I’m always a fan of stories that crossover various fandoms by the same author, so I’d totally be game with a related Seanan McGuire verse character or setting colliding with this one – especially the Rolling in the Deep series I also requested. Does one of the squad members go on a cruise for vacation and end up face to teeth with one of the deep sea mermaids? (Note: I haven't read much of her Mira Grant titles yet aside from Rolling in the Deep and some of her 1-shot Subterranean Press exclusives so best to stick with her Seanan McGuire series/stories as crossover fodder).
Rolling in the Deep Series – Mira Grant (including both Prequel novella ROLLING IN THE DEEP and sequel novel INTO THE DROWNING DEEP) Any including: Victoria “Tori” Stewart, Olivia Sanderson, Ray Marino, and Worldbuilding
Y’all Seanan McGuire (and her horror pen name Mira Grant) has claimed my all-time fave author title (this is not the first year I’ve requested more than one of her fandoms for Yuletide LOL), and these books are the perfect example of why. Deep. Sea. Murder. Mermaids. DEEP SEA MURDER MERMAIDS. Run amok here seriously, I’m game for anything including crossovers especially though I have NO IDEA how you’ll pull it off with some of the other fandoms I’ve requested LOL. Specific character focused fic would rock, but you could definitely go for non-character specific worldbuilding/mixed media or the mermaids in other time periods/fandoms, too if that’s your thing. Prompt wise: 1) Pacific Rim AU with Tori/Olivia as pilots against the massive monstrous females of the species who’ve finally figured out how to survive out of the deepest depths long enough to reach shore to hunt? 2) Ray & Olivia’s bromance was one of my fave relationships here and I’d love to see him survive – fixit fic for the win! 3) Anything playing with the mixed media format from the books: transcripts from the survivors of the Melucine, Hallie’s lexicon of mermaid sign, Tori & Louis’s scientific presentation of their findings, emails between Oliva and/or Ray and Imagine? 4) The previous “mockumentaries” Imagine did – were they all actually fake or did the people on site cover something up? Were Olivia and Ray (and possibly Anne?) involved in tracking down Bigfoot or a chupacabra? Is Tori dragged along in their wake for the next mockumentary after the Melucine? Aside from that, I’m always a fan of stories that crossover various fandoms by the same author, so I’d totally be game with a related Seanan McGuire verse character or setting colliding with this one – especially the Fighting Pumpkins from the anthology I also requested. Does one of the squad members go on a cruise for vacation and end up face to teeth with one of the deep sea mermaids? (Note: I haven't read much of her Mira Grant titles yet aside from Rolling in the Deep and some of her 1-shot Subterranean Press exclusives so best to stick with her Seanan McGuire series/stories as crossover fodder).
North and South – Elizabeth Gaskell Margaret Hale, John Thornton
Oh my HEART. In some ways, this book/mini series blows Jane Austen out of the water for me. Darcy who? John Thornton (as permanently played in my head by Richard Armitage after the BBC miniseries of course) is easily my favorite Regency hero of all times: brooding, honest, and desperately in love with Margaret. I did fall into this fandom through the mini-series first, but I’ve since read (and am actually rereading) the book and love it just as much, so feel free to stick with just the book canon or weave in mini-series details as you wish (train station scene anyone?). Prompts: 1) This fandom in particular I’d LOVE epistolary fic for: letters between the two as they fall in love, awkward letters to family members to announce their relationship, even gossip articles about the relationship in the society pages – I’d love absolutely anything in that vein for these two! 2) Post-book/miniseries stories – give me their engagement or wedding or how the first year of their married live goes with or without the interference of their various family members and the cotton industry, etc. 3) Smut – these two have such glorious smoldering heat between them – feel free to bring it out on the page! Other than those options, run wild. I know it looks like I don’t have quite as much to say here as I do about some of the other requested fandoms, but honestly, it’s because my brain just dissolves into swooning when I think about John/Margaret and I lose any ability to articulate the things I love about them LOL.
And that’s it for my requests this year! If you made it this far, you are amazing. And regardless, I am super excited about whatever you write for me!
You are amazing. I want to tell you that up front, because you are.
Please don’t stress about this assignment. Just the fact that you are writing for any of these fandoms in the first place will make me ridiculously happy. Also, I love gifts in general, so I’ll be chuffed to get a prize of any shape and size. I know this letter is ridiculously long as again I love these fandoms and tend to babble, but don’t let that scare you off. Honestly, I just wanted to give you as much detail as possible to hopefully help get your inspiration flowing!
The only thing I do ask is that my No-Thanks list be avoided.
DNW: This time of year, I’m really more into fluff/happy fics than darker subject matter, so most of my DNWs are on the angstier subject matter side: infertility/miscarriage, prostitution, noncon, dubcon, requested character major character death, infidelity, love triangles/jealousy focus (I am far more fond of OT3ing it up), Hanahaki, characters de-aged/aged back up during the story, A/B/O, gangster/mob, noir settings, amnesia, loss of limb/amputations, mpreg, underage/adult, gender swap, teacher/student, drug abuse/alcoholism, incest, or Modern AUs that remove canon SFF elements. Please no 2nd person or 1st person POVs unless in epistolary/letters format.
For M-rated fics, please no knife/blood/gun play (only in a sexual context – canon level plot/action violence is fine), humiliation in a D/S dynamic, age or pet play, scat, watersports, rape-as-fantasy-scenes, anal for M/F pairings, and any kind of direct blow in a sexual situation, including spanking/flogging.
Yes Please: Post-apocalypse, slice of life/domesticfic/curtainfic, epistolary stories, found family, characters ending up at the Gertrude Hunt of Ilona Andrews’ Innkeeper Chronicles series, AUs/fusions (particularly zombie apocalypse, Black Jewels verse, Sentinel/Guide, Old West, and Pacific Rim fusion), outsider POVs, supernatural elements like hauntings/werewolves/fae/etc., competency kink, fixit fics, stranded together/huddling together for warmth, and 5 and 1 style fics.
For M-rating fics, I particularly love dirty talk, Dom/Sub dynamic (service Dom and/or service Sub a plus), that Dom ordering their Sub around, restraint i.e.: shibari/handcuffs/holding partner down, wall sex, shower sex, cramped vehicular sex, biting/marking (without major blood being drawn), mate bonds, “OMG we didn’t die” sex, and “sharing body heat” leading to sex.
Optional Re Crossovers: I also wanted to specifically mention that crossovers between any of my requested fandoms would be awesome if that’s your thing.
Optional Re Challenges: I am also happy to receive fills that meet the Yuleporn and/or Two for One Crossover challenges. (I’ll update this letter if I miss any of the ones I think I could qualify for LOL).
Also I do have gifts enabled and welcome treats if someone who isn’t assigned me gets inspired by my requests!
Requests:
The Lost Treasure of the Grand Canyon (2008) Jacob Thain
Y’all, this movie is so SO bad in the best of ways. It’s just the embodiment of “crack taken seriously” for me with well known actors trying SO HARD to save this movie from its questionable script and really terrible special effects. My fave character (unsurprisingly for anyone who knows my various fandom boyfriends) was Jacob Thain (played by Michael Shanks aka Daniel Jackson from Stargate who is once again delightfully playing an archeologist which just WORKS for me lol) the seemingly snooty useless academic caricature who slowly reveals his competency over the course of the movie, complete with a fluency in an “ancient” Aztec language and familiarity in escaping traps that gives the strong impression he has in fact been in the field many times, despite the impression everyone else on the dig has of him. Basically he’s a walking competency kink for me, and I really REALLY enjoy Michael Shanks speaking various languages LOL. As to prompts, I’d love to see prequel type adventures dealing with his past and where he’s gained his skills, or alternately sequel type stories with or without Susan Jordan as an ongoing love interest. Also fun would possibly be crossovers with other adventure/archeologist characters be they from The Librarians or The Mummy movies. Mostly I just want to see this fandom get it's first fic in the archive!
Christmas Lodge (2011) Jack Rand, Charlene Rand, Mary Tobin
This is the second of my “zero fic fandoms” that I nominated this year, and oh hey it’s another random Michael Shanks fandom (why yes I tend to have the current fandom boyfriend in multiple Yuletide requests – I regret nothing! LOL). This one is an utterly sticky sweet comfort movie for me. It’s very Hallmark movie, but while yes, it’s got a huge amount of Christian scripture (which you can DEFINITELY skip both in the movie and in the fic), it’s surprisingly feminist with Mary getting to both get the guy AND still keep the job she’s amazing at, to the point that her job opens a new office just for her to allow her to work in the rural area with the small towns she loves. Jack Rand (Michael Shanks’s character) is my catnip as far as romance hero bait: he’s a single dad who cooks and adores his daughter and who’s struggling to rebuild the lodge his family has built and run for so long but that fell to ruin while he was mourning his wife and helping his late parents through ill health before their deaths, as well. The costume director definitely leaned into the romance novel tropes, dressing him in flannels and sweaters and henleys and bonus tool belts just in case we weren’t quite sold on him as yet another walking competency kink LOLOL. It’s just a really sweet low stakes romance, y’all, and it screams the holiday season mood for me. Prompt wise, I’d really love domestic fic vibes with anything from Mary and Jack and Charlene building their family together and continuing to run Christmas Lodge as a functioning vacation lodge/B&B for years to come (I don’t know what it is but I really do love B&Bs). I’d also love more of Mary and Jack as a couple, whether it’s getting together or them as a couple. And yes, yes, this DOES mean I would welcome smut – the movie literally doesn’t even have them kiss until Jack proposes LOL, so uh, a little more chemistry and physicality would be great. For a completely off the wall, specific prompt – if you have read and are a fan of the Innkeeper Chronicles by Ilona Andrews, I think it could be a blast to see Christmas Lodge as one of the magical intergalactic Inns with Jack Rand as an Innkeeper and Mary having to learn just how magical the lodge actually is. Obviously not remotely required – just figured I’d mention it since it popped into my head!
Dying with her Cheer Pants On – Seanan McGuire Steph, Colleen, Jude Ciobanu, Worldbuilding
Last but not least of the fandoms I nominated that have never had a fic written for them and that TOTALLY deserve it. This anthology by the FANTASTIC Seanan McGuire is a set of interconnected stories with a monster of the week vibe centered around the Fighting Pumpkins, the varsity cheerleading squad in the odd town of Jordan’s Crossing, who protect the high school and the rest of the community from everything from aliens to zombies to run of the mill apocalypses. Think “what if Buffy made it onto the cheer squad after all and her Scoobies ended up being other cheerleaders” but uh… the squads die pretty much on the regular, occasionally leaving the whole school with semi-amnesia regarding the previous squad members. It’s got a fantastic diverse current squad too (there are three in the book but most of the stories center on the “current” squad), both as far as race and sexuality and as far as their supernatural abilities. I’ve nominated and requested 3 specific characters, as well as worldbuilding, and honestly I’d be thrilled with something regarding any of the characters or even all of them as a full “squad” story so to speak. Jude is the squad leader and a vampire, and carries the weight of being one of the few legacies – a daughter of one of the rare surviving cheer squad members from a previous team; Colleen is the squad historian – something I really wanted to see more of/to get more details about how she was chosen and what knowledge she may possess that the rest of the squad doesn’t; and Steph is a literal embodiment of the harvest who we only get to know for one story but who honestly was one of my fave characters. As far as worldbuilding, I’d love more info as to why the cheerleaders became the warriors/sacrifices in this town in the first place and how the Handbook passes from one squad leader to the next. There’s also a blink and you miss it reference in one of the stories to the other world saving teams in the town: a junior baseball team and a senior knitting circle – more details about them would be a blast, too as would a team up between either team and the Fighting Pumpkins. Aside from that, I’m always a fan of stories that crossover various fandoms by the same author, so I’d totally be game with a related Seanan McGuire verse character or setting colliding with this one – especially the Rolling in the Deep series I also requested. Does one of the squad members go on a cruise for vacation and end up face to teeth with one of the deep sea mermaids? (Note: I haven't read much of her Mira Grant titles yet aside from Rolling in the Deep and some of her 1-shot Subterranean Press exclusives so best to stick with her Seanan McGuire series/stories as crossover fodder).
Rolling in the Deep Series – Mira Grant (including both Prequel novella ROLLING IN THE DEEP and sequel novel INTO THE DROWNING DEEP) Any including: Victoria “Tori” Stewart, Olivia Sanderson, Ray Marino, and Worldbuilding
Y’all Seanan McGuire (and her horror pen name Mira Grant) has claimed my all-time fave author title (this is not the first year I’ve requested more than one of her fandoms for Yuletide LOL), and these books are the perfect example of why. Deep. Sea. Murder. Mermaids. DEEP SEA MURDER MERMAIDS. Run amok here seriously, I’m game for anything including crossovers especially though I have NO IDEA how you’ll pull it off with some of the other fandoms I’ve requested LOL. Specific character focused fic would rock, but you could definitely go for non-character specific worldbuilding/mixed media or the mermaids in other time periods/fandoms, too if that’s your thing. Prompt wise: 1) Pacific Rim AU with Tori/Olivia as pilots against the massive monstrous females of the species who’ve finally figured out how to survive out of the deepest depths long enough to reach shore to hunt? 2) Ray & Olivia’s bromance was one of my fave relationships here and I’d love to see him survive – fixit fic for the win! 3) Anything playing with the mixed media format from the books: transcripts from the survivors of the Melucine, Hallie’s lexicon of mermaid sign, Tori & Louis’s scientific presentation of their findings, emails between Oliva and/or Ray and Imagine? 4) The previous “mockumentaries” Imagine did – were they all actually fake or did the people on site cover something up? Were Olivia and Ray (and possibly Anne?) involved in tracking down Bigfoot or a chupacabra? Is Tori dragged along in their wake for the next mockumentary after the Melucine? Aside from that, I’m always a fan of stories that crossover various fandoms by the same author, so I’d totally be game with a related Seanan McGuire verse character or setting colliding with this one – especially the Fighting Pumpkins from the anthology I also requested. Does one of the squad members go on a cruise for vacation and end up face to teeth with one of the deep sea mermaids? (Note: I haven't read much of her Mira Grant titles yet aside from Rolling in the Deep and some of her 1-shot Subterranean Press exclusives so best to stick with her Seanan McGuire series/stories as crossover fodder).
North and South – Elizabeth Gaskell Margaret Hale, John Thornton
Oh my HEART. In some ways, this book/mini series blows Jane Austen out of the water for me. Darcy who? John Thornton (as permanently played in my head by Richard Armitage after the BBC miniseries of course) is easily my favorite Regency hero of all times: brooding, honest, and desperately in love with Margaret. I did fall into this fandom through the mini-series first, but I’ve since read (and am actually rereading) the book and love it just as much, so feel free to stick with just the book canon or weave in mini-series details as you wish (train station scene anyone?). Prompts: 1) This fandom in particular I’d LOVE epistolary fic for: letters between the two as they fall in love, awkward letters to family members to announce their relationship, even gossip articles about the relationship in the society pages – I’d love absolutely anything in that vein for these two! 2) Post-book/miniseries stories – give me their engagement or wedding or how the first year of their married live goes with or without the interference of their various family members and the cotton industry, etc. 3) Smut – these two have such glorious smoldering heat between them – feel free to bring it out on the page! Other than those options, run wild. I know it looks like I don’t have quite as much to say here as I do about some of the other requested fandoms, but honestly, it’s because my brain just dissolves into swooning when I think about John/Margaret and I lose any ability to articulate the things I love about them LOL.
And that’s it for my requests this year! If you made it this far, you are amazing. And regardless, I am super excited about whatever you write for me!
