Yuletide joy
27 Dec 2011 12:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
(This is one of those posts where I am Not Really Here, or basically am posting this in passing & not catching up with comments & other posts.)
Anyway, I noticed my gift fics were not getting an awful lot of love & realised that is because I have not recced them at all. So, for Yuletide, I received an abundance of Silver. Yes, dear flist, this was a trying disappointment, but I have come to live with it... Oh, all right. So I've been gloating over the fact even before the reveal when I worked out what fandom my story must be. Now that has been joined by two treats via Madness, my gloating knows few bounds.
And If You Believe (1857 words) by Anonymous
Fandom: Sapphire and Steel
Rating: General Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Sapphire (Sapphire & Steel), Silver (Sapphire and Steel), Steel (Sapphire & Steel)
Summary:
This is really sweet & fun - it is basically Silver vs a magic box, but what it does which is v interesting (if you are me) is explore a little of what it's like from Silver's POV to turn up midway through an assignment. I especially love that he pauses to watch the other two, because that is so v S&S, that they're all as intrigued by each other as we are, or nearly.
There were also two treats in Madness:
Elemental Chemistry (90 words) by Anonymous
Fandom: Sapphire and Steel
Rating: General Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Sapphire, Steel (Sapphire and Steel), Silver (Sapphire and Steel)
Summary:
This is 90 words, but beautifully sharp little word picture of the three of them. (I am intrigued by who wrote this, as I thought at first that it must be a flister, but now think probably not, or not the person I imagined...)
Reconfiguration (535 words) by Anonymous
Fandom: Blake's 7, Sapphire and Steel
Rating: General Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Silver (Sapphire and Steel), Deva (Blake's 7), Roj Blake
Summary:
A Gauda Prime fixit in which Deva is actually Silver there to put a wrong timeline right. (There are no spoilers as such, but it probably would make more sense to someone who only knows B7 than someone who only knows S&S. But it is only 500 words, no spoilers if you want to try anyway.)
I also am curious about this mystery writer, too, because they paid such attention to my waffly letter that it is like someone took stuff out of my brain and then wrote something I would never ever have thought of, and therefore my brain exploded when I read it. In a good way, of course.
So yay! All I wanted for Christmas was Silver, and I got a triple helping!!
Also, because everyone keeps reccing The Tough Guide to Yuletide: ALL the Tough Guide fics are amazing. Go read them now - it's not the sort of fandom you need to know: http://archiveofourown.org/tags/Tough%20Guide%20to%20Fantasyland%20-%20Diana%20Wynne%20Jones/works
(The first 4 are Yuletide 2011 fics.) The Tough Guide to YUletide is indeed amazing, and should become required reading. (The what to put in your Letter is particularly true and funny.)
The Guide to Fantasy Cities is... well, an update for the Guide for those dystopian/supernatural/steampunk books that have become so popular. (So, so funny - and the endnote about the 387 different versions of post-Victorian LOndon... :lol: Plus, Twilight-ribbing is involved, but not in a really malicious way.)
A Limited Time offer updates the Guide to poke fun at Low Fantasy in the form of a letter to a disgruntled customer, who didn't like the traditional Tour, which is genius. Because a) the fun-poking and b) I'm sure we can all think of a difficult customer who we'd like to send on that Tour.
And then there is one treat, this time a letter from another dissatisfied customer who accidentally got the Mills & Boon version of the Other Continent Tour. The consequences being as you can imagine. Well, actually, probably not... Priceless!
Taken altogether, I can't think of a nicer end of year tribute to the magical lady who came up with the original idea.
I hope you are all having good hols, if you are having them, and if you took part in Yuletide that you had as much fun as I did. I have managed to read a few things, but not really very much. (It's like having a box of chocolates to hand and not being able to eat them. "No! You will get a headache/ be too tired to speak to relatives! Put that laptop down!" :lol:)
Anyway, I noticed my gift fics were not getting an awful lot of love & realised that is because I have not recced them at all. So, for Yuletide, I received an abundance of Silver. Yes, dear flist, this was a trying disappointment, but I have come to live with it... Oh, all right. So I've been gloating over the fact even before the reveal when I worked out what fandom my story must be. Now that has been joined by two treats via Madness, my gloating knows few bounds.
And If You Believe (1857 words) by Anonymous
Fandom: Sapphire and Steel
Rating: General Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Sapphire (Sapphire & Steel), Silver (Sapphire and Steel), Steel (Sapphire & Steel)
Summary:
Sometimes, Silver is called to take care of interesting technical problems, like magic chests.
This is really sweet & fun - it is basically Silver vs a magic box, but what it does which is v interesting (if you are me) is explore a little of what it's like from Silver's POV to turn up midway through an assignment. I especially love that he pauses to watch the other two, because that is so v S&S, that they're all as intrigued by each other as we are, or nearly.
There were also two treats in Madness:
Elemental Chemistry (90 words) by Anonymous
Fandom: Sapphire and Steel
Rating: General Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Sapphire, Steel (Sapphire and Steel), Silver (Sapphire and Steel)
Summary:
Inspired by Lost_Spook's Yuletide letter: "I like how Sapphire/Steel is this frozen, beautiful thing, but once you throw Silver in it becomes a sort of dance."
This is 90 words, but beautifully sharp little word picture of the three of them. (I am intrigued by who wrote this, as I thought at first that it must be a flister, but now think probably not, or not the person I imagined...)
Reconfiguration (535 words) by Anonymous
Fandom: Blake's 7, Sapphire and Steel
Rating: General Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Silver (Sapphire and Steel), Deva (Blake's 7), Roj Blake
Summary:
Silver has a job to do on Gauda Prime
A Gauda Prime fixit in which Deva is actually Silver there to put a wrong timeline right. (There are no spoilers as such, but it probably would make more sense to someone who only knows B7 than someone who only knows S&S. But it is only 500 words, no spoilers if you want to try anyway.)
I also am curious about this mystery writer, too, because they paid such attention to my waffly letter that it is like someone took stuff out of my brain and then wrote something I would never ever have thought of, and therefore my brain exploded when I read it. In a good way, of course.
So yay! All I wanted for Christmas was Silver, and I got a triple helping!!
Also, because everyone keeps reccing The Tough Guide to Yuletide: ALL the Tough Guide fics are amazing. Go read them now - it's not the sort of fandom you need to know: http://archiveofourown.org/tags/Tough%20Guide%20to%20Fantasyland%20-%20Diana%20Wynne%20Jones/works
(The first 4 are Yuletide 2011 fics.) The Tough Guide to YUletide is indeed amazing, and should become required reading. (The what to put in your Letter is particularly true and funny.)
The Guide to Fantasy Cities is... well, an update for the Guide for those dystopian/supernatural/steampunk books that have become so popular. (So, so funny - and the endnote about the 387 different versions of post-Victorian LOndon... :lol: Plus, Twilight-ribbing is involved, but not in a really malicious way.)
A Limited Time offer updates the Guide to poke fun at Low Fantasy in the form of a letter to a disgruntled customer, who didn't like the traditional Tour, which is genius. Because a) the fun-poking and b) I'm sure we can all think of a difficult customer who we'd like to send on that Tour.
And then there is one treat, this time a letter from another dissatisfied customer who accidentally got the Mills & Boon version of the Other Continent Tour. The consequences being as you can imagine. Well, actually, probably not... Priceless!
Taken altogether, I can't think of a nicer end of year tribute to the magical lady who came up with the original idea.
I hope you are all having good hols, if you are having them, and if you took part in Yuletide that you had as much fun as I did. I have managed to read a few things, but not really very much. (It's like having a box of chocolates to hand and not being able to eat them. "No! You will get a headache/ be too tired to speak to relatives! Put that laptop down!" :lol:)
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Date: 27 Dec 2011 12:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 28 Dec 2011 08:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 28 Dec 2011 12:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 27 Dec 2011 04:21 pm (UTC)Must check out your Silver fics though!
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Date: 29 Dec 2011 08:16 pm (UTC)Aha, yes, I finally got around to looking at the Octopus one, and it really was priceless. The Tough Guide ones were all wonderful.
My Silver fics, yes! *is smug at being given Silver fics*
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Date: 1 Jan 2012 08:34 pm (UTC)And, really, thank you very very much for such a lovely ficlet with a (sort of) double dose of David Collings. I loved each of my fics and they're so different I can't compare them, but they were amazing. And I still haven't managed to be coherent enough to leave a proper review on yours. (I am so rarely coherent at present.)
But thank you!
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Date: 27 Dec 2011 09:09 pm (UTC)I'll have to read these at some point soon. I'd have put my newfound Sapphire & Steel knowledge to use by writing you something too, but I haven't written anybody anything this Xmas, 'cause I've been a bit rubbish like that lately. ;)
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Date: 29 Dec 2011 08:19 pm (UTC)Aw. Never mind. And so you watched it. Did you hate it/love it/ are a bit meh? It's such a weird thing, I'm intrigued to know what people make of it. (Just break it to me gently if you hated it or Silver with a fiery passion. And if you failed to be amused at the Evil Pillow, that would also be sad.)
Which reminds me, I must do another recs post sometime - that would be a suitably quiet thing for the next week or so & S&S would be a good one...
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Date: 4 Jan 2012 11:10 pm (UTC)Regarding S&S, I liked it very much. Quite a unique thing, and I loved Lumley and McCallum (and Collings!) in it. My favourite one was the railway station one, which I gather is kind of the conventional answer in that regard. Very creepy, with a nasty ending. Oh wait - wrong choice, didn't have Silver in it! ;D Or indeed the pillow of death!
I might do a post soonish on my impressions regarding the series, but you know me and posting lately. ;)
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Date: 5 Jan 2012 09:10 am (UTC)Oh, no, I think 2 is probably the best, too (I quite like 4 as well, but I think 2 wins). I just rewatch 3 the most. Or eps 3-6, really because I am in love with the way the the three of them interact. I do like its weirdness as well, though - and having the threat from the future rather than the past. And I like 1 for immediately being strange, and having Lead, and 5 for being all normal TV (What is this?? What?) and how scary that makes S&S seem, and 6 is just the freakiest of them all. That's all, isn't it? I like them all. Heh.
(Although I still don't like Silver vanishing at the end like that. *is pathetic* But then, I was so unwell the day I watched it, I cried all night afterwards. And then rewatched the next day in a much more rational frame of mind & it was okay. Although, given that Mr McCallum wrote Silver out of the end scene at the last minute, if I ever meet him, I may whack him over the head with a rolled up newspaper, because I could have lived without that. :lol: I suppose then I would be arrested and the papers would have a field day once they discovered I was once a librarian. I'd probably best behave.)
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Date: 7 Jan 2012 10:44 pm (UTC)I think one of the things I took away from S&S was how influential it seems to have been with regard to other sf/fantasy things I've watched. It seems like one of those things that maybe wasn't particularly popular or widely-watched at the time that it aired, but which stuck with the people who did enjoy it. I mean, I don't think whole chunks of NuWho and even more of the first two seasons of Torchwood would even exist if it hadn't (and not just the two TW episodes that were actually written by PJ Hammond!). Are you my mummy? etc etc.
I'm using my Gerald and Harriet icon, btw, because Sapphire and Steel/Edwardian Torchwood crossover strikes me as something that would work exceedingly well, really. ;D
I do like Lead a lot too, actually. And I don't know, there's something about nursery rhymes in conjunction with ghostly Roundheads that resonates deeply with me. Goosey goosey gander...brrr...
But yes, poor old Silver does have a pretty rubbish exit, really. You know, considering that he's Silver and everything. If I ever read about David McCallum being assaulted in public with newspapers etc, I will know the true story! :)
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Date: 8 Jan 2012 01:55 pm (UTC)Hmm. I'm sure it would, although given that they think people who collect old paper/have new-old houses are dangerous lunatics, I don't know what they'd make of people who willingly sit near a time rift and shoot at things and mess stuff up a lot. More interestingly, you would have a show ethos clash, as S&S deliberately never shows blood or violence as far as it can avoid it, and TW is, um, not so restrained. Even in the early 20th C.
Happily, the audios (in which S&S sound slightly different, but this is a show so weird it doesn't matter), establish that Silver got them out. I haven't listened to the last ones, because I gather they finish by trapping them somewhere else, and I'm not sure what they do to Silver. (Actually, here is a funny but true thing: the first of these I listened to, I had my MP3 player stuck on shuffle and totally thought it was just S&S being surreal for 15 minutes until the truth dawned. :-D)
I'm not really going to assault anyone, I told you, the papers would have a field day. And if it was David McCallum, lots of people round here would defriend me on the spot. ;-p
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Date: 9 Jan 2012 08:40 pm (UTC)But I kind of know how the Gerald-Harriet era ended really, even if I'll never get around to writing it. Didn't involve Sapphire and Steel or even Silver, you'll be glad to hear. ;)
The thing is, you could actually believe that. :D So, the best place to end the audios seemed to the people making them to be something like the ending of the TV series? I can see that, I suppose. I hope nothing bad happened to Silver in the end too.
Some people, overreacting like that... ;D
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Date: 10 Jan 2012 08:29 pm (UTC)Heh. I'm sure they wouldn't do anything too nasty to Silver. If the rumours I hear are true, then Zero is a showdown between Gold and Silver, with Silver pwning Gold, who is Mark Gatiss. (You can tell I want to listen to this, can't you? I think I should listen to The Passenger first, though.) I sort of gather Silver gets trapped somewhere and Zero is when he gets out, but I don't know. Which is not particularly interesting or helpful, sorry.
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Date: 17 Jan 2012 10:00 pm (UTC)To be honest (and without any false modesty), I worry that I'm not a particularly great prose stylist, or at least I don't have any stylistic touches I haven't robbed consciously or unconsciously off authors I've read. And I tend to write the way I talk, sometimes, so strange tics and grammatical faux pas everywhere (or so it seems to me). But I guess that's nothing editing and beta reading can't cure. Now, Clocket on the other hand...I'm jealous of Clocket's prose, tbh. I think she's great, and wish she had more time to write in her busy life.
I am very glad to hear that you're pretty sure of getting back to normal, because believing it is the first step, isn't it? I wish you all the best and hope you're well soon. :)
And Collings vs Gatiss...?! Don't worry, you're not the only one who wants to listen to that!
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Date: 21 Jan 2012 12:35 pm (UTC)I'm sure it would be cool.
Well, we all unconsciously take in bits from just about everywhere. It's the way we re-piece them together that gives us each our own unique voice. Unless it's obvious copying/plagiarism, which is a different thing - and not something I'd ever suspect you of! (Well, unless you're doing it on purpose for fanfic. Which is also different. Obviously. :-D) And, of course you do have a style, and I am green with envy over it, as you v well know. I am pretty sure that if you ever did an anonymous ficathon I would be able to recognise your fic at the glance. Clocket, yes, she has something innate and vivid and individual that's not something a person can learn, and I do hope she does get to at least write short stories some day. In the meantime, we'll just count ourselves privileged that we know that secret. :-)
I have a CS Lewis quote in which he ridicules the idea of trying to be original. (But basically, something along the lines, of worry about being original and it'll just get in the way of the writing, concentrate on trying to tell the best story you can, and you'll get called original by accident. I think. To paraphrase wildly.) Besides, it's not having an original idea that counts, it's what you do with it once you've nicked it from someone else, as Shakespeare demonstrated often. :-D
It's probably a safe bet I will get to listen to Zero sometime this year. If it really does have a Collings vs Gatiss showdown in the shape of Silver and Gold, I will let you know! For vicarious cathartic reasons.
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Date: 27 Dec 2011 09:33 pm (UTC)I am curious who you thought / think wrote the middle one. (I'm always curious. XD I should almost have a cat instead of a turtle in my username.) That's a very intriguing sentence: "I thought at first that it must be a flister, but now think probably not, or not the person I imagined." Positively timey-wimey. ;-) Might you explain it after reveals or sometime?
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Date: 28 Dec 2011 08:07 am (UTC)I don't normally wonder too much about who wrote things, but those two both made me curious. The first doesn't sound to me like someone I know.
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Date: 1 Jan 2012 02:30 pm (UTC)As to the British spelling, you can thank/blame Eponymous_Rose; I have never been known to remember the second "i" in "aluminium" on my own initiative, but she threw a Britpick in with her last-minute beta there. ;-)
(Which means you can now ask me for a sketch / "drawble" of some sort. Not, I note, that I can actually draw, but I said people who guessed one of my stories before author reveal would get an attempt at drawing. *g* Would you like Who, Collings, or something else? I mean, feel free to be rather more specific than that - I want to practice drawing fanart-y things and can't decide where to start. And quasi-realistic or vaguely chibi-style? I'm a bit better technically at the chibi-style, so you know, but not everybody likes that.)
/overly long babbly comment
(More Shakespeare babbling when I am not tired, probably. Or less tired. *g*)
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Date: 1 Jan 2012 04:21 pm (UTC)Also, a tip for next year - it's a good idea not to put the name of your beta on your fics. Just say 'thanks to my lovely beta' or whatever, and then edit the name in on reveal. I would never have thought of that, either, but someone pointed out that it could be a give=away in a post last year when I was a newbie. ;-)
I don't mind! Anything that takes your fancy. Chibis are cute!
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Date: 4 Jan 2012 06:40 am (UTC)'I wouldn't have thought anyone would just in text for S&S.'
Well, now you know. *g* I kind of make it a rule to use British spelling / terminology for British fandoms and American words for American ones (since I've got sort of a "North Atlantic" style myself, through reading such quantities of British kidlit. "Aluminum" is one of the very few words I don't skip back and forth on, if left to my own devices...)
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Date: 4 Jan 2012 01:34 pm (UTC)And I love your picture, so that's very cool, and I would have guessed it could be you even without the beta, although as it was
Heh. You are better than me. If I write a US show, I will get the dialogue and POV as right as I can and let my flisters pick it apart (my attempts to write the West Wing were fairly amusing, especially my muffin confusion) but in the text? I'm an arrogant Brit; I could never willingly lose the u in colour, flavour, humour etc. among other things. Color is, well, less colourful, and gray is just not the same as grey. ;-D (I suppose unless I was trying to be sneaky! Yes, if I was ever pretending not to be me, that would be the thing to do.)
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Date: 5 Jan 2012 03:27 am (UTC)*nods* That's one where I actually use both, whatever country I'm writing "from", because in my head they're two different colors. Grey is more silvery and has associations with Gandalf and mallorn-bark; gray is darker and less metallic, sort of a gunmetal-battleship colour.
XD I don't use "colour" as much though, because... honestly, because I'm a lazy typist and like to use the shortest spelling possible! ;P But also because "colour" makes me think specifically of saturated jewel-tones - red-purple and teal and gold and so on - while "color" is a more, um, workaday word?
/long rambly waffling ;-)
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Date: 5 Jan 2012 09:16 am (UTC)*stops* That's exactly how they are in my head, too! (Although gray also has a sort of metallic after-taste of blood somewhere in it. I don't know why that is.)
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Date: 1 Jan 2012 09:00 pm (UTC)It's finally unlocked now. Just in case any random person ever clicks my S&S tag and becomes magically inspired to write about Oxygen and Helium.
:-)
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Date: 31 Dec 2011 02:40 am (UTC)