Dear Yuletide Letter 2023
Oct. 15th, 2023 02:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thisbluespiritThank you for writing for me! This letter is bound to be long, so tl;dr: I love all kinds of different things at different times, I love these fandoms and characters, and I'm sure to enjoy whatever you come up with.
Any prompts are intended purely for inspiration, not to restrict your choices. Take what's useful and leave what isn't. I hope you have a lovely Yuletide.
That said, here is the long version...
Likes: hurt/comfort, forced to work together, x times format, apocalypse, crack played straight, comedy of manners/cultural differences, canon divergence AUs, historical/fantasy/supernatural AUs (or AUs where the canon has been 'translated' in apt/fun ways), rescues, fantasy, history, mystery, ghosts, time travel, time loops, crossovers, banter, humour, tropes, trope subversion.
I love sensible people dealing with tropey stuff or fantastical things they never asked for, tropey fake/accidental/convenient marriage scenarios, people trapped together in whatever sense you want to take it, or otherwise landed in unexpected scenarios. I love my chosen canons themselves, so would also be very happy with canon-typical missing episodes/case fic/scenes etc.
Ship-wise, I prefer implicit over explicit - emotions, touch/sensation, first times, undressing, hands, historical costumes, kissing, love conveyed by actions over words, but, honestly, whatever seems right for the characters in question is the most important thing & I'm fine if that includes sex, I'm just not interested in something that's nothing but sex.
I enjoy other setting AUs a lot in some things but not so much in others, so check my fandom-specific DNWs for those if you have ideas.
DNWs: over-eating,* character bashing, genderswap, age regression, incest, rape, explicit porn without plot, issuefic, non-canonical body horror/unexpected physical transformations, non-canonical identity headcanons, a/b/o, death/tragedy not typical/canonical for a fandom unless requested.
*re. over-eating: regular mentions of food or eating are fine! It's just an odd squick about excessive/rapid/fatal over-eating/expanding/exploding - like eating competitions, multiple meals in a row, drowning/suffocating by forcing food/liquid into someone.
I'm![[archiveofourown.org profile]](https://p2.dreamwidth.org/b164c54b26e4/-/archiveofourown.org/favicon.ico)
thisbluespirit at AO3 and pretty much everywhere else I hang out. I have a dear author tag for exchange letters. Gifts are enabled on AO3.
Happy writing!
Craddock and Co
Charles Craddock, Lucy Greenwood
This little radio series won my heart earlier this year! I had to listen to it twice in a row and the theme music still makes me happy any time I hear it. It's sweet and fun and has heart and a bit of philosophy buried in it alongside the Victorian adventuring pastiche.
I would love any missing-episode/case fic for it, any of those moments where either one of them actually is in peril or trouble or hurt (or the other believes they are), or maybe just to hear something about the actual bookselling side of the business. (How has Charles been managing it all these years? Did it pay for Lucy to advertise?)
I'm very happy for you to include any other characters as you please, particularly Grout, but it's Lucy & Uncle Charles I loved the best. I'd be cool with them running into any other late 19th C Victorian London literary detectives or other fictional people who might be around at that time - it could be fun to see others encountering Lucy's practical fix-it approach to life. I enjoy the period setting, but if you have an interesting AU idea, I'd be willing to read it.
In short, if you love this too, I'm here for whatever you want to do with it.
Indigo Saga - Louise Cooper
Indigo, Grimya
I'd love any missing scenes, or anything set post-canon, focusing on Indigo & Grimya and their enduring friendship. Do they help others overcome their own demons? Or revisit old friends, even if only to watch from a distance? Or do they find new battles to fight - or just enjoy being somewhere beautiful/fascinating without having to fight demons? Are they still immortal or not and, if so, what does that imply? Maybe Indigo really is/does become the goddess's emissary? What would that mean? Also missing scenes - small meetings & adventures in between the books, or missing scenes from them would also be loved.
Grimya & Indigo's relationship is just so enduring and unique and and I'll always be happy to see more of them.
I also love the world (which I'm pretty sure from the map and the 'myth' in Book 1 is a geomagnetically reversed AU/future version of our own), so exploring new places in it would be great. I love some of the settings and characters we've already seen - the Summer Isles, Simhara, Bruhome, the Redoubt in particular, Joyful Travail - and would be very happy to revisit or have missing scenes involving them with Indigo & Grimya.
Write anything you want, basically - as long as it involves Indigo & Grimya somewhere in their own fascinating world - wolf, human, immortal, whatever - at some point in their long lives, I'll be delighted! There's so much possibility in this series. And Grimya is just the best, y/y. <3
Fandom DNW: Other setting AUs - I'm interested in the settings as well as Indigo & Grimya. No "fixits" re. Fenran - (I love how that turns out!)
The Lady Vanishes (1938)
Iris Henderson, Gilbert Redman
I'd be delighted to see some fic for this fandom! I love Iris, Gilbert (& Iris/Gilbert) and Miss Froy too. So, whatever you want will be wonderful - missing scenes (there's a whole train ride of potential banter, bonus shipping, calming the other passengers and explaining how you stole a train to the officials as an obvious gap), the immediate aftermath with Iris and Gilbert having to face all the relatives (well, Iris's relatives - does Gilbert have any?), honeymoon shenanigans, or more improbable spy adventures, preferably involving Miss Froy if at all possible. Maybe they can never get on a train again without something happening?
The film's stuffed full of so many things I like, and I love these two and their banter, and everything to do with Miss Froy. I also love that Iris, whatever her faults, is nevertheless determined to go to such lengths to save Miss Froy - and that Gilbert, whatever his faults, is immediately up for helping her.
WWII is obviously hovering ominously on the horizon - if you go there, that's great, but give them the best war possible (preferably with more spy shenanigans or at least more trains) (don't go too dark or kill them, really.)
I'm good with the inclusion of any other passengers you want to go for - the lady having the affair, Charters & Caldicott, the fake nun are probably my faves, but anybody's welcome if you want to bring them into it.
Fandom: DNWs - killing iris, Gilbert or Miss Froy, or breaking up Gilbert or Iris.
The Shadow of the Tower
Henry VII of England
I love this old series! It's fascinating, wordy and weird and theatrical & sometimes dark while also a pretty plausible fictional take on an interesting historical period. I find its version of Henry equally fascinating & the BBC made me ship Henry/Elizabeth hard & then broke my heart with the final episode. (I mean, look at them.) And (despite the misleading number of works on AO3 - it's nearly almost all "kitchen sink" fandom tagging) there's very little fic that's not by me. I'm dying for more of it, so thank you, dear author.
Anything you want to write is wonderful - pre-canon, missing scenes/years, post-canon, AU (whether canon divergence or other setting).
There are so many possibilities - build a story from a random line from Henry's account books, like some of the eps, or missing Henry/Elizabeth scenes would be adored (I love their awkward dynamics), or more of Henry & Margaret Beaufort (there's a particularly painful exchange in ep6 that intrigues me), or play with the ongoing Conspirators/Henry - so much strange mirroring/obsession going on there, with Lincoln & Perkin in particular.
This is one canon where I'd love AUs - canon divergence/alternate takes on history, modern AUs, fantastic AUs, Elizabeth/Henry AUs, the one where it happens in a BBC cardboard spaceship instead of a castle, magic AUs - I think the way there's always a supernatural edge to canon makes me want to push it further (like the astrology plot - how would it be in a world where you could attack the king with magic? Or the fact that Henry feels that Arthur's death is his curse for having killed Warwick and Perkin.)
I want all the things, so have fun with whatever aspect of the series, period, and this Henry that grabs you. I'm happy to see any of the other characters, whether from the show (I'd have loved more Jasper & Thomas Stanley as well as Elizabeth & Margaret, or Catherine Gordon), or historical figures who didn't make it in, but you're dying to include.
(I've been requesting this for years now & my prompts list kept growing, so if you want more suggestions (!?!) you can check the Dear Author tag above to see if anything of those spark ideas.)
Canon DNWs: any non-Henry/Elizabeth het-ship during canon (the Henry/conspirators aspect is cool, though); no Elizabeth/Richard III. (Generally, like the series, ignore the whole RIII controversary.)
Sister Boniface Mysteries
Sister Boniface, Sam Gillespie
This has become my new cheer-up cosy crime show. I love Sister Boniface and Sam and how much they just adore each other - crime-solving, terrible pun-loving soulmates, in short. I would love some fic about the two of them, whether solving crimes, saving/helping each other in some way, annoying everyone else by their puns, or just hanging out in Great Slaughter. I love everybody in this sweet but terribly murderous 1960s bar, so as long as you give me more of the Sister and her Inspector, do whatever you want with them - case fic, missing scenes, backstory, parody any 60s cultural icons the show hasn't managed to include yet etc.
I also sort of ship them (they do adore each other so much, and then sometimes she vicariously fantasizes about his love life and then gives him apples when he's hiding under her bed and he can't hug her when he wants to) and while I wouldn't really want that to be a thing in canon, I do have an itch for it in fic, maybe in a canon-divergence AU - if they'd run into each other during the war or after, or if Miss Bonham-Crane hadn't become a nun or something like that? (But don't worry, weird non-canonical shipping not required!)
I love the setting and everybody in it, but I think it is also the kind of thing that could lend itself to fun AUs if that appealed to you. There should probably still be crime of some kind, though, or they would both pine away for lack of murder.
(I've never seen the BBC's Father Brown beyond hunting down Sister B's ep, so no need to worry about that side of things/please don't go too crossover-y with them, because I just don't know the FB characters.)
Welcome to Our Village Please Invade Carefully
Uljabaan, Katrina Lyons
I love Cresdon Green and everybody in it (maybe even Ron and Weird Patrick by this point), and will be deeply happy to get more of it in the shape of fic.
Give me missing scenes/episodes, or tell me what happened post-canon. Does Uljabaan wind up picking up far too many human habits? Is the invasion forever post-poned? What happens if Cresdon Green is remembered by the rest of the world? I also have a weird maybe-not-serious-maybe-actually-it-is-idk yen for Uljabaan/Katrina, because obv. that is a way that humans win over their enemies, right? For research/resistance! What could go wrong? Katrina's own schemes, her relationship with her parents & accidentally having to help Uljabaan are all good.
I love the whole thing, so please do include anyone and everyone else you wish - Lucy, the Computer, the Lyonses, other villagers, Minions, Ravella, whoever.
DNW: No fic where Uljabaan has to go home (he's stuck here. With the rest of Cresdon Green. It's his own fault.)
How to find my requested fandoms, should you wish to, in order of length:
Craddock and Co - 3 x28 min radio episodes - less than an hour and a half! It's easily available online in several places, including on BBC Sounds whenever they repeat it. Find out more + links here at the Promo post.
The Lady Vanishes (1938) - an early Alfred Hitchcock film starring Margaret Lockwood, Michael Redgrave & Dame May Whitty with pre-WWII spy shenanigans on a train across Europe. It's only about an 1h 30 mins, I wrote about it on a promo post years ago here (so long ago it's on LJ & I would not imagine the YT links still work!) It also seems to be up on the Internet Archive for streaming legally and free (according to the spreadsheet, which has links) as well as YT, reruns on old movie channels & DVDs etc.
Welcome To Our Village, Please Invade Carefully - BBC radio sitcom of 11x 28min episodes over 2 series & a pilot. It's short, you can get the typical episode feel & characters within only 1 or 2 episodes, and it's available by various methods - see the promo post for more info.
The Shadow of the Tower is a 13x 50 min serial (BBC 1972). It's at least mostly up on YT and available on DVD in R1 & 2 (often pretty cheap & I hear US libraries sometimes have it). Details here at the fandom promo post.
Sister Boniface Mysteries - current UK 'cosy' crime series, set in the 1960s, with 2 series of 10 episodes each. Is definitely on some streaming services, UK TV Play in the UK, and comes round on Drama every so often. Find out more at the promo post here. (I have never watched Father Brown - no knowledge of that is needed.)
Indigo Saga - series of 8 (shortish!) 1990s fantasy novels with a female protagonist with a telepathic wolf bff who sets off on a decades-long journey to rid the world of the demons she loosed upon it. However, reading 1 or 2 would be sufficient to write a 'missing segment' of some kind - see more including where to find it at the promo post.
Any prompts are intended purely for inspiration, not to restrict your choices. Take what's useful and leave what isn't. I hope you have a lovely Yuletide.
That said, here is the long version...
Likes: hurt/comfort, forced to work together, x times format, apocalypse, crack played straight, comedy of manners/cultural differences, canon divergence AUs, historical/fantasy/supernatural AUs (or AUs where the canon has been 'translated' in apt/fun ways), rescues, fantasy, history, mystery, ghosts, time travel, time loops, crossovers, banter, humour, tropes, trope subversion.
I love sensible people dealing with tropey stuff or fantastical things they never asked for, tropey fake/accidental/convenient marriage scenarios, people trapped together in whatever sense you want to take it, or otherwise landed in unexpected scenarios. I love my chosen canons themselves, so would also be very happy with canon-typical missing episodes/case fic/scenes etc.
Ship-wise, I prefer implicit over explicit - emotions, touch/sensation, first times, undressing, hands, historical costumes, kissing, love conveyed by actions over words, but, honestly, whatever seems right for the characters in question is the most important thing & I'm fine if that includes sex, I'm just not interested in something that's nothing but sex.
I enjoy other setting AUs a lot in some things but not so much in others, so check my fandom-specific DNWs for those if you have ideas.
DNWs: over-eating,* character bashing, genderswap, age regression, incest, rape, explicit porn without plot, issuefic, non-canonical body horror/unexpected physical transformations, non-canonical identity headcanons, a/b/o, death/tragedy not typical/canonical for a fandom unless requested.
*re. over-eating: regular mentions of food or eating are fine! It's just an odd squick about excessive/rapid/fatal over-eating/expanding/exploding - like eating competitions, multiple meals in a row, drowning/suffocating by forcing food/liquid into someone.
I'm
Happy writing!
Craddock and Co
Charles Craddock, Lucy Greenwood
This little radio series won my heart earlier this year! I had to listen to it twice in a row and the theme music still makes me happy any time I hear it. It's sweet and fun and has heart and a bit of philosophy buried in it alongside the Victorian adventuring pastiche.
I would love any missing-episode/case fic for it, any of those moments where either one of them actually is in peril or trouble or hurt (or the other believes they are), or maybe just to hear something about the actual bookselling side of the business. (How has Charles been managing it all these years? Did it pay for Lucy to advertise?)
I'm very happy for you to include any other characters as you please, particularly Grout, but it's Lucy & Uncle Charles I loved the best. I'd be cool with them running into any other late 19th C Victorian London literary detectives or other fictional people who might be around at that time - it could be fun to see others encountering Lucy's practical fix-it approach to life. I enjoy the period setting, but if you have an interesting AU idea, I'd be willing to read it.
In short, if you love this too, I'm here for whatever you want to do with it.
Indigo Saga - Louise Cooper
Indigo, Grimya
I'd love any missing scenes, or anything set post-canon, focusing on Indigo & Grimya and their enduring friendship. Do they help others overcome their own demons? Or revisit old friends, even if only to watch from a distance? Or do they find new battles to fight - or just enjoy being somewhere beautiful/fascinating without having to fight demons? Are they still immortal or not and, if so, what does that imply? Maybe Indigo really is/does become the goddess's emissary? What would that mean? Also missing scenes - small meetings & adventures in between the books, or missing scenes from them would also be loved.
Grimya & Indigo's relationship is just so enduring and unique and and I'll always be happy to see more of them.
I also love the world (which I'm pretty sure from the map and the 'myth' in Book 1 is a geomagnetically reversed AU/future version of our own), so exploring new places in it would be great. I love some of the settings and characters we've already seen - the Summer Isles, Simhara, Bruhome, the Redoubt in particular, Joyful Travail - and would be very happy to revisit or have missing scenes involving them with Indigo & Grimya.
Write anything you want, basically - as long as it involves Indigo & Grimya somewhere in their own fascinating world - wolf, human, immortal, whatever - at some point in their long lives, I'll be delighted! There's so much possibility in this series. And Grimya is just the best, y/y. <3
Fandom DNW: Other setting AUs - I'm interested in the settings as well as Indigo & Grimya. No "fixits" re. Fenran - (I love how that turns out!)
The Lady Vanishes (1938)
Iris Henderson, Gilbert Redman
I'd be delighted to see some fic for this fandom! I love Iris, Gilbert (& Iris/Gilbert) and Miss Froy too. So, whatever you want will be wonderful - missing scenes (there's a whole train ride of potential banter, bonus shipping, calming the other passengers and explaining how you stole a train to the officials as an obvious gap), the immediate aftermath with Iris and Gilbert having to face all the relatives (well, Iris's relatives - does Gilbert have any?), honeymoon shenanigans, or more improbable spy adventures, preferably involving Miss Froy if at all possible. Maybe they can never get on a train again without something happening?
The film's stuffed full of so many things I like, and I love these two and their banter, and everything to do with Miss Froy. I also love that Iris, whatever her faults, is nevertheless determined to go to such lengths to save Miss Froy - and that Gilbert, whatever his faults, is immediately up for helping her.
WWII is obviously hovering ominously on the horizon - if you go there, that's great, but give them the best war possible (preferably with more spy shenanigans or at least more trains) (don't go too dark or kill them, really.)
I'm good with the inclusion of any other passengers you want to go for - the lady having the affair, Charters & Caldicott, the fake nun are probably my faves, but anybody's welcome if you want to bring them into it.
Fandom: DNWs - killing iris, Gilbert or Miss Froy, or breaking up Gilbert or Iris.
The Shadow of the Tower
Henry VII of England
I love this old series! It's fascinating, wordy and weird and theatrical & sometimes dark while also a pretty plausible fictional take on an interesting historical period. I find its version of Henry equally fascinating & the BBC made me ship Henry/Elizabeth hard & then broke my heart with the final episode. (I mean, look at them.) And (despite the misleading number of works on AO3 - it's nearly almost all "kitchen sink" fandom tagging) there's very little fic that's not by me. I'm dying for more of it, so thank you, dear author.
Anything you want to write is wonderful - pre-canon, missing scenes/years, post-canon, AU (whether canon divergence or other setting).
There are so many possibilities - build a story from a random line from Henry's account books, like some of the eps, or missing Henry/Elizabeth scenes would be adored (I love their awkward dynamics), or more of Henry & Margaret Beaufort (there's a particularly painful exchange in ep6 that intrigues me), or play with the ongoing Conspirators/Henry - so much strange mirroring/obsession going on there, with Lincoln & Perkin in particular.
This is one canon where I'd love AUs - canon divergence/alternate takes on history, modern AUs, fantastic AUs, Elizabeth/Henry AUs, the one where it happens in a BBC cardboard spaceship instead of a castle, magic AUs - I think the way there's always a supernatural edge to canon makes me want to push it further (like the astrology plot - how would it be in a world where you could attack the king with magic? Or the fact that Henry feels that Arthur's death is his curse for having killed Warwick and Perkin.)
I want all the things, so have fun with whatever aspect of the series, period, and this Henry that grabs you. I'm happy to see any of the other characters, whether from the show (I'd have loved more Jasper & Thomas Stanley as well as Elizabeth & Margaret, or Catherine Gordon), or historical figures who didn't make it in, but you're dying to include.
(I've been requesting this for years now & my prompts list kept growing, so if you want more suggestions (!?!) you can check the Dear Author tag above to see if anything of those spark ideas.)
Canon DNWs: any non-Henry/Elizabeth het-ship during canon (the Henry/conspirators aspect is cool, though); no Elizabeth/Richard III. (Generally, like the series, ignore the whole RIII controversary.)
Sister Boniface Mysteries
Sister Boniface, Sam Gillespie
This has become my new cheer-up cosy crime show. I love Sister Boniface and Sam and how much they just adore each other - crime-solving, terrible pun-loving soulmates, in short. I would love some fic about the two of them, whether solving crimes, saving/helping each other in some way, annoying everyone else by their puns, or just hanging out in Great Slaughter. I love everybody in this sweet but terribly murderous 1960s bar, so as long as you give me more of the Sister and her Inspector, do whatever you want with them - case fic, missing scenes, backstory, parody any 60s cultural icons the show hasn't managed to include yet etc.
I also sort of ship them (they do adore each other so much, and then sometimes she vicariously fantasizes about his love life and then gives him apples when he's hiding under her bed and he can't hug her when he wants to) and while I wouldn't really want that to be a thing in canon, I do have an itch for it in fic, maybe in a canon-divergence AU - if they'd run into each other during the war or after, or if Miss Bonham-Crane hadn't become a nun or something like that? (But don't worry, weird non-canonical shipping not required!)
I love the setting and everybody in it, but I think it is also the kind of thing that could lend itself to fun AUs if that appealed to you. There should probably still be crime of some kind, though, or they would both pine away for lack of murder.
(I've never seen the BBC's Father Brown beyond hunting down Sister B's ep, so no need to worry about that side of things/please don't go too crossover-y with them, because I just don't know the FB characters.)
Welcome to Our Village Please Invade Carefully
Uljabaan, Katrina Lyons
I love Cresdon Green and everybody in it (maybe even Ron and Weird Patrick by this point), and will be deeply happy to get more of it in the shape of fic.
Give me missing scenes/episodes, or tell me what happened post-canon. Does Uljabaan wind up picking up far too many human habits? Is the invasion forever post-poned? What happens if Cresdon Green is remembered by the rest of the world? I also have a weird maybe-not-serious-maybe-actually-it-is-idk yen for Uljabaan/Katrina, because obv. that is a way that humans win over their enemies, right? For research/resistance! What could go wrong? Katrina's own schemes, her relationship with her parents & accidentally having to help Uljabaan are all good.
I love the whole thing, so please do include anyone and everyone else you wish - Lucy, the Computer, the Lyonses, other villagers, Minions, Ravella, whoever.
DNW: No fic where Uljabaan has to go home (he's stuck here. With the rest of Cresdon Green. It's his own fault.)
How to find my requested fandoms, should you wish to, in order of length:
Craddock and Co - 3 x28 min radio episodes - less than an hour and a half! It's easily available online in several places, including on BBC Sounds whenever they repeat it. Find out more + links here at the Promo post.
The Lady Vanishes (1938) - an early Alfred Hitchcock film starring Margaret Lockwood, Michael Redgrave & Dame May Whitty with pre-WWII spy shenanigans on a train across Europe. It's only about an 1h 30 mins, I wrote about it on a promo post years ago here (so long ago it's on LJ & I would not imagine the YT links still work!) It also seems to be up on the Internet Archive for streaming legally and free (according to the spreadsheet, which has links) as well as YT, reruns on old movie channels & DVDs etc.
Welcome To Our Village, Please Invade Carefully - BBC radio sitcom of 11x 28min episodes over 2 series & a pilot. It's short, you can get the typical episode feel & characters within only 1 or 2 episodes, and it's available by various methods - see the promo post for more info.
The Shadow of the Tower is a 13x 50 min serial (BBC 1972). It's at least mostly up on YT and available on DVD in R1 & 2 (often pretty cheap & I hear US libraries sometimes have it). Details here at the fandom promo post.
Sister Boniface Mysteries - current UK 'cosy' crime series, set in the 1960s, with 2 series of 10 episodes each. Is definitely on some streaming services, UK TV Play in the UK, and comes round on Drama every so often. Find out more at the promo post here. (I have never watched Father Brown - no knowledge of that is needed.)
Indigo Saga - series of 8 (shortish!) 1990s fantasy novels with a female protagonist with a telepathic wolf bff who sets off on a decades-long journey to rid the world of the demons she loosed upon it. However, reading 1 or 2 would be sufficient to write a 'missing segment' of some kind - see more including where to find it at the promo post.
no subject
Date: 2023-10-15 07:50 pm (UTC)I see why you don't actually ship them, but they sound ridiculously adorable.
no subject
Date: 2023-10-16 04:49 pm (UTC)They are adorable, though, definitely! I had insta-love the second I watched it.
no subject
Date: 2023-10-16 12:32 am (UTC)I am not doing Yuletide. But a couple of these sound interesting.
I found WtOVPIC on Spotify 😃
no subject
Date: 2023-10-16 04:47 pm (UTC)