lady_sarai

Dear Yuletide Author,

Thank you so much for writing a gift for me! I love Yuletide so much, and I can't wait to read what you create for me. c:

Let me just begin by saying that 2020 has been one crappy year, and while some sadness and upsetting things are welcome in stories, I would really prefer a happy or at least hopeful ending for my Yuletide fic this year! I hope you understand.

First, my Please No list (AKA DNWs): Death fic, especially major character death (canon exceptions can be made, of course). Please do not make any character a villain or OOCly terrible in the name of breaking up a canon ship. I also really can't abide cheating in relationships. Gross, embarrassing humor or explicit blood and gore.

Next, my Please YES list (AKA Things I LOVE): AUs, 5 (or 10!) Things fic, silly rom-com tropes (friends-to-lovers, stuck in a cabin, fake dating, etc.), Found families, strong female friendships/sisterhoods, THE POWER OF LOOOOOOVE saving the day, Hurt/Comfort (give me high fevers and bedside vigils/confessions of love), humor (especially smart/witty humor), happy/hopeful endings, future fic, deeper looks into canon moments or backstories... I am a sucker for shippy fun, but I also ADORE Gen-fic. Friendships and Family are so important!

And finally, My Requests:


Fandom: The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune
Characters: Any

Prompt: I would love a story about *any* of these characters! Give me family shenanigans with the kids, tell me more about Arthur and Linus's love story, fill in the gap between Linus's return and the epilogue, show me their future (what will it be like when the kids grow up?), fill me in on how Zoe and Helen's romance happened/continues, give me Calliope the cat's POV of the family... Heck, tell me the story of how Linus saved the kids in one of the orphanages from being used as a pagan sacrifice by their Master (bonus points for getting him to tell the story to the kids or Arthur or everyone). Basically, this book has to be one of my favorite books *ever* and I just want more of these characters and their family.


October Daye Series by Seanan McGuire
Characters: Cagney, Lacey, Quentin Sollys

Prompt: What I would *absolutely* love for this series is something from Cagney and Lacey's point of view. Toby's home life has changed *so much* since book 1, and her family has grown so much. What does her life look like from her cats' viewpoint? What do they think of all the teenagers who come in and out of the house? What about Tybalt? What about Spike? How do they get on with a Ravenmaid in the house? We really only ever see Toby interact with them, and they're usually napping, but we all know cats are smarter and busier than they seem. What do the other people in the house say to them?

If this isn't something that sparks your interest, I'd love absolutely anything about Quentin. I just love him, he's so good! (And I mean, hey. Bonus points for Quentin and the cats. I mean, his best friend is a Prince of Cats, after all...)


Newsflesh Series by Mira Grant
Characters: Mahir Gowda, Shaun Mason, Maggie Garcia

Prompt: I have a NUMBER of things I'd love for this fandom. First would be anything about Mahir Gowda, because he's amazing and wonderful. I love him and his daughter and basically everything about him.

BUT... I would love to read a story about George/Shaun/Mahir (but will also be happy with Shaun/Mahir or George/Mahir if an OT3 is not your thing!). If you do decide to write any of these ships for me, the only thing I ask is that you don't vilify Mahir's canon wife. I love AUs, so if you want to AU it so that he never married, I'd be fine with that--or hey, maybe she dies and he takes his daughter off to Canada with him! Be creative! It's up to you! (But please also don't vilify Shaun or George for the sake of a ship, or ignore *that* canon ship, because it's pretty vitally important to the books.)


Perry Mason (TV 2020)
Characters: Della Street, Hazel Prystock, Perry Mason, Paul Drake

Prompt: I adore these characters and their friendship/Found Family. Please give me Della and Hazel being amazing; I will happily take their backstory, or a slice-of-life about them, or something set in the future when they're old and gray. I love how badass Della is, and how in the tradition of the original series, she's the smartest one in the group; show me Della keeping Perry and Paul in line. I'd love to see them in their down time, working together, getting closer, getting into trouble and helping each other out of it again. (This is a fandom that the 5 or 10 things format would work amazing for, but I'd also happily take a case study or whatever you feel like writing for me!)


Jolene (Dolly Parton song)
Characters: Narrator, Jolene

Prompt:What if Jolene is not after the Man, but wants the Narrator instead?

(This is one exception to my usual rule of "please don't vilify a canon love interest in the name of the fic's ship" because let's face it: if Narrator is so worried about her Man running off with Jolene, I think she's talking to the wrong person when she's asking Jolene not to "take him." In other words: our Narrator deserves better than her Man, and Jolene is Better. But I still ask for no cheating, please.)


Thank you so much, dear writer!! Yuletide is one of my favorite events and I'm so excited to participate this year! c:

Thanks again,
Sara

I totally meant to post this MUCH sooner, but I got hit by a horrendous cold/fever THING and it's been a crazy busy month.

BUT. BUT BUT. YULETIDE!! ♥ I had to default thanks to busyness, but I plan to try to write a NYR fic to make up for it. IN ANY CASE the fic I received is SO PERFECT it's not even funny!

Ply, Skein and Twist is a Spindle's End fic about Peony. It's 8600 words of what happens after the end of my very favorite Robin McKinley novel, and it is nothing but GLORIOUS and PERFECT. I'm rereading Spindle's End now because of it, and loving it even more. This is now my canon, and nothing can change my mind about it. It's so wonderful, I really don't know how to describe it. I could not have asked for a more perfect story, seriously. I adore every word of it.

And xenokattz drew me the most adorable webcomic in the history of ever! ( Lookit! It's wee!Cissie and Ollie! )

HOW CUTE IS THAT. I ADORE CISSIE'S LITTLE CHRISTMAS DRESS SO MUCH. SPARKLY HEARTS EVERYWHERE!

...And I think that's all for now, so I am going to take a nap, before I pass out.


Well, almost. I forgot I signed up for fandom_stocking, so my stocking is here, if anyone's interested. :P I feel silly linking it, but I see this is kind of how it's done, and I am sick and pathetic. Oh, and I forgot to link my Yuletide letter where people could see it, so it is here. I adore my story SO DAMN MUCH, please go read it!!!

Oh, right! Yuletide! I wrote Rapunzel fic this year, and while I flailed about it for the longest time, once I figured out what I wanted to do and how to do it, it came out very quickly and I kind of fell in love with it when I finished it.

I wrote Out Flew the Web and Floated Wide, which is basically the Prince's search for Rapunzel while he's blind, but also flashbacks to tell their whole story. I had a lot of fun with it and people seem to have enjoyed it and this pleases me.

Also, yes, the title is shamelessly taken from The Lady of Shalott. I love that poem, and for the longest time, the only thing I knew about my fic was that I needed to steal a line from it for my title. I'm just glad it fit when I finished! ;)

The interesting thing about Yuletide is I always wind up writing things that are unusual for me when I do it. It's kind of fun. It's also why I never play the guessing game--that and I'm terrible at not telling people anyway. ;)

Reposting from astolat, to do my part!

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Hey guys, urgent! With the huge increase in membership this year, we have a corresponding increase in last-minute pinch hits left to go out, and thanks to a new exciting Yahoogroups snafu, the original list has been silenced at the worst possible time. D:

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE if you are by any chance up for doing any pinch hitting, join the new pinch hitters list:

Send a blank email to yuletidepinchhitters-subscribe@yahoogroups.com. To activate your subscription, just reply to the confirmation message you receive from the group.

Or if you have a Yahoo! account, you can join at the group website!

There are some pinch hits sent there already but we are holding off on more until we get more people on board.

Please pass this along on journals, twitter, etc! ♥

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And as others on my flist have done, here is a link to my Dear Yuletide letter. I keep it at the top of my journal anyway, but because it is the thing to do... Requested fandoms were Fairy Tales, Blue Beetle, Robin McKinley's Outlaws of Sherwood and Green Arrow.

...And now back to pre-Christmas prep. But--YULETIIIIIIIIIDE!! :(


(...Not that I'm a Yuletide Stalker or anything, but is there a lag in gifts showing up on AO3? Like, I know there's a lag in fandom tags appearing because of how AO3 handles those on a case-by-case basis or something (so I'm not freaking out that the only fandom I requested that is showing up is Fairytales, which you know, tells me nothing). Buuuuut otherwise when I look at my profile page, it looks like maybe my author defaulted. :( Sad Panda.)

Wee, it's only a bug!

LadySarai: EEEE!! LOOKIT! I got a new Yuletide story!! :D (Or, you know, New Year's Resolution story, I guess.)
LadySarai: for ENCHANTED!
LadySarai: about NANCY!!
xenokattz: eeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! EDWARD IS ADORKABLE
LadySarai: ISN'T HEEEEEEEE???
xenokattz: heeeeeeeeeee
LadySarai: Nancy wants some sex, damn it! ;)
xenokattz: Wait until the fun starts.
xenokattz: ;)
LadySarai: bwahaha!
LadySarai: do you think he'd break into song?
xenokattz: HELLZ YES HE WOULD GO INTO OPERA MODE BABY
xenokattz: Y'know, when he caught his breath
xenokattz: ;)
xenokattz: Or maybe instead of have the twisty orgasm face, he'd let out a very nice, pure high note?
LadySarai: OMG.
xenokattz: *snerkle*


...I think that sums it all up, really. (Though it should be noted that there isn't actually a sex scene in the fic, but it's kind of more perfect for it.)

ETA: zoe_chan just quoted part of the fic at me and it is kind of the perfect example of why this is so awesome, so now I'm quoting it at all of you, so you can see too:

[Nancy's] life was hardly NC-17, but it was a nice comfortable R. It had alcohol consumption and mature language and adult situations. She couldn't be mad at a wholesome G for not understanding those things even existed.

Meanwhile, I still mourn that we never got to hear Idina Menzel and James Marsden sing a duet. SIGH.

Merry Christmas, everyone! Even if you don't celebrate, I hope you had a wonderful couple of days. ♥

( My Christmas )

And then! I woke up this morning to discover that not only did yuletide and jbbs go live, but I got REALLY FREAKING AWESOME FICS from both of them!! ZOMG.

I'll start with jbbs: zoe_chan and I signed up together, so I won't flail too massively here, as she is away for Christmas and hasn't read our gift-fic yet, but O.M.G.!!!!!

WE GOT TIM/CISSIE!!! I draw sparkly hearts all over it. I really want to flail excessively, but I am containing myself. In the meantime, everyone should go read Christmas with the Waynes because it is SO FREAKING AWESOME. ♥♥♥♥♥

~*~

And now, yuletide:

Um. WOW.

I really don't even know what to say, but imagine my complete shock when I opened my email and found SIX stories, just for me!! O_O

First, from my incredibly awesome author:

Five Ways Reality Beats Fairy Tales, By Queen Nancy and a shorter follow-up, P.S.: Three Ways Fairy Tales Beat the Real World, Also By Queen Nancy

For Enchanted, I requested Edward and Nancy's happy ending, and oh! These are so cute and fun! And--five things format!! I *love* that! The fic itself is cute and perfect.

Love at first sight is fine for fairytales. I'll take reality and being in love over it any day. Any damn day.

The follow up is short and funny, too!

*

And now, my ADDITIONAL FICS. I really don't even know how to express how happy and thankful I am for all of these wonderful stories. Thank you so much, mystery authors! You are all fantastic and so kind!

I Think You'll Manage Better This Time is also an Enchanted fic. Edward's POV, once they are in Andalasia and married and WOW, Edward's voice is spot-on here! He's just as cute and confused and adorable here as he is in the movie, and I really love this.

It's just so cute, witnessing Edward's thoughts as he and Nancy have an argument.

"You're patronizing." Nancy's voice sounded flat and Edward felt a rush of panic.

"I'm sorry!" he said. "I didn't mean to anger you!"

Nancy stared at him. He wanted her not to sigh again, but how she said, "Edward?," wasn't any better.

Edward licked his lips. "Yes?"

"Right now I would very much like to hit you."

Edward stared and he could feel his mouth fall open. "But, oh, why?," he finally managed to ask.

*

Beyond the Wide World's Edge is a beautiful re-telling of East of the Sun, West of the Moon, which is one of my all-time favorite fairy tales--(kind of a Norwegian version of Beauty and the Beast; East by Edith Pattou is a wonderful novel version). This fic has gorgeous language and really interesting world-building. It has a wonderful journey, and mysterious characters and is such a fairy tale.

"I need to find my way out of the world."

"Yes." The Mother of Storms tears a hunk from a loaf of bread warming on the ring of stones around the fire, holds it out to Esta. "You may not be able to find your way back into it."

Esta holds the stew in her right hand, takes the bread carefully in her left claws. "I'm not sure the world would have me back."

*

My last two (but SO not least!) fics are for Green Arrow--but actually have very little Ollie in them, which is perfect. ;) When I was signing up, I saw that Cissie was listed as a GA character, and so of COURSE I had to ask for a fic about Cissie joining the Arrow-clan.

And I got TWO!!

Like Family is so perfect. It shows both Cissie and Mia's insecurities about their places in their family, and there is Roy!!

While Cissie just tried to learn her family, Mia tried to figure out her place. Cissie was an Olympic champion. She was Oliver's daughter, related by blood, and even if Cissie hadn't been around before, Mia felt Cissie was far more entitled to the Arrow clan. She thought maybe this was how Roy had felt when Connor had arrived, and felt she understood Roy better now, even though she was the one who had taken his name, not Connor.

*

Then there is Some Girls, which is yet another gorgeous story just for me! This one is really neat in the way it describes Cissie and Mia's growing relationship and juxtaposes them--despite being blond archers, they are different, and this really shows that. There's also Connor and Roy and Ollie and all of them in their brief appearances are awesome and perfect. (For some reason, Ollie's part is particularly wrenching and perfect.) Oh, Arrows, you really are a mess sometimes.

It is Mia/Cissie flavored, and while femme-slash doesn't usually do much for me, I still totally adore this fic. (And I have to say, the nickname Roy gives Cissie made me squeak and grin.)

Her room is next to Mia's. It makes for an agreeable kind of juxtaposition.

It's been months and Cissie's room still has the sort of blank hospitality any Holiday Inn would be proud to call it's own. There are no signs that she lives there, except for a purple stain on the carpet from when she accidentally tipped over a can of grape Zesti.

Mia's room is exactly the opposite.

*

In conclusion, I am so full of joy and love about Yuletide and JBBS that I really don't know what to do with myself! I love EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. of my fics, and they are all absolutely perfect.

I would love to be more coherent, and if I didn't say it enough--I love everything I received!! But I am beyond exhausted and my head is pounding and I have caught a cold for Christmas. So I am going to crawl into bed now.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

I'm all aflutter and flaily. (Yes, it's a word, shut up.) =D yuletide is making for much glee. Everything is SO well-written and lovely!

And I'm literally going mad trying to not respond to the comments I've gotten on my fic and seeing the response it's getting. I have joy. Also, seeing the fic written for me get recced is VERY exciting. Almost as exciting as seeing the fic *I* wrote get recced. ::bounces on hands::

I'm not good at this anonymous thing, but I'm doing very well, I think.


There is a fabulous Superman Returns fic, Interview Skills, featuring Superman and Richard White, and it makes Bruce Wayne a classmate of Richard's in college. According to Batman Begins, that would be Princeton.

And I am utterly in love with the idea of those two being more than just passing aquaintances, but roommates. likeadeuce should write something about this, as she mentioned it earlier and I will be a nag if I have to. ;) But... yeah, apparently I have a bunny. Of the plot variety.

zoe_chan is doing a lovely job beckoning me to the dark side.

lady_sarai: I, my dear, am going to a very special kind of Hell.

zoe_chan: oh?

zoe_chan: whyso?

( The crack pairing that is eating my brain... )

Oh, plot bunnies. You and a glass of wine do not mix. (Or rather, you DO, too well for my own good.)


...I need an icon for this utter crack crossover pairing of DOOOM.

They're so messed up, it hurts, but I LOVE it. (Particularly the scene zoe_chan and I just worked our way through! GUH!!!)

And now, I am so going to bed it isn't funny. And you know, wine? Goes straight to my head. Hello, lala-land.

Taking a quick moment to stop and say Merry Christmas and ♥ to my wonderful f-list. I hope you all have a joyous holiday, whatever you celebrate! :)

And a quick note to my yuletide Santa: I have no idea when I will have another moment at the computer between now and tomorrow night, but rest assured that I am SO looking forward to reading my story! =D Thank you!!

There are times I really love being Norwegian; Christmas is one of them. :) Yesterday was "Little Christmas Eve" (Lile Jule Aften), so we had a lovely time at my grandmother's with the whole family. Tonight, presents! As it's Jule Aften (Christmas Eve!), at my grandmother's, and that's when Christmas is celebrated for her. Then to my house tomorrow for Christmas day! :) We're a small family, but we sure have fun!

Now, off to dress and get ready for CHRISTMAS!! :)

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

( Dear Yuletide Santa, )

In summary: I'm going to love anything you write for me, because it's in a fandom I love. :) Seriously, have fun with it.

I can't wait for Christmas!!!

Love (and uber-thanks!),

Sarai