The problem with attempting to write Yuletide letters...

[thisbluespirit]

... is that I kind of like everything.

I was going to write a sentence about not being so keen on AUs of the "everyone runs a coffee shop" type, and then thought about my prospective requests and LOLed. And immediately thought about how that could work for each of them.

(I suppose I should probably write that I like everything except really explicit ship fic, OOC behaviour and spelling/grammar mistakes or something.)

But, really, if someone wanted to write a coffee-shop AU of some sort involving all the deceased cloned former monarchs of England, well, that's pretty hilarious. Or a coffee shop (tavern?) run by an immortal demon-killing princess and her bff telepathic wolf. And, as for CS, I could see Verity running a tea-shop, or Litefoot & Jago trying to run a 19th coffee shop with a vampiric customer turning up. I'm finding it a bit hard to imagine Enemy at the Door: the coffee shop au, but on the other hand, they're all obsessed with how bad the acorn coffee and blackberry tea is, so you could probably work something out.* Miss Marple would also have a tea shop, obviously. And solve crime. No problem.

Someone please remind me, listing my dislikes is supposed to be relatively simple, right? I'm not supposed to work out all the ways I could easily end up liking that thing I don't like.

(I have a feeling I made a post like this last year and that's where the still-non-existent B7 coffee shop AU idea came from. /o\)

I'm really waiting for fic_corner to happen (someone has written me Midnight Is A Place fic! I badly want to see it) but I don't know if it will. So I was trying to be useful, but I think I lack brain and sense.

I would rather have AUs where the mundane world got fantasy stuff, really, though.

* They could compete with B7 for worst coffee shop AU ever - in the B7 one, the service'd be terrible, in Enemy at the Door, the tea, coffee and food would be. I'm sorry, didn't you want revolting ersatz coffee and a snack made of parsnip and cauliflower?

Comments

[aralias]

i thought you liked coffee shop AUs! shows what i know ;)

also - you accept my bad spelling and grammar, so i assume you are willing to tolerate that!

i also find the general letter difficult. but i think it'd help just to say 'no explicit stuff - and make it fun!'

[thisbluespirit]

I like everything when it's well done. And one day there should be a B7 coffee shop au with terrible service and nothing working etc. etc. But mostly I like my fandoms for the worlds as well as the characters, so it is not a thing I automatically go for? I like your AUs, though. Also, your grammar and spelling is not terrible! I notice unwanted punctuation, sentences that don't make sense (like some of mine), Britpicks and people's eyes being the wrong colour. I should explain about that, shouldn't I? (Dear author, if you are going to describe a character's eye colour in loving detail, please check quite a lot of screencaps in order to get it right, because I'm obsessive about it. :-D)

i also find the general letter difficult. but i think it'd help just to say 'no explicit stuff - and make it fun!'

:lol: I don't think that would help with Enemy at the Door. (Dear Author, please write about any of the even more terrible rl events that happened after the show inconveniently finished in April 1943 - but make it fun!!! Party with the SS!!!)

I have copied and pasted what I wrote in my fic_corner letter, because that came out quite well. Now I just need to definitely decide on my requests and try not to write an essay about all the characters in Enemy at the Door, or accidentally write my own fic (a highly unsatisfactory arrangement).

I like writing my Yuletide letter (and I LOVE reading everybody's), but they are quite hard to get right.

;-D

[john_amend_all]

With you on eye colour. Ten to one if a fic mentions Zoë's eyes, the author thinks they're brown. Which they aren't. It's almost as pervasive a meme as the catsuit being purple.

[thisbluespirit]

To be fair, I wouldn't have got Zoe's - I'm much too used to her in black and white and they do look fairly dark. I got obsessive once about working out the Doctors' respective eye colours, though, and ever since then I get a bit pedantic on the subject for people I've screencapped or watched a lot of.

[john_amend_all]

In B/W everyone's eyes are grey, of course -- but Zoë's stay grey even in colour pictures :-)

(To be fair, it's more noticeable in more recent pictures of WP, so possibly her eyes have become paler over time).

[thisbluespirit]

Ah, yes. Now that you say it, I had noticed. I couldn't picture her as having blue eyes.

[justice_turtle]

I always like it as a writer when my recipient says in their letter what they liked about the canon (I think this would be specially helpful for Enemy at the Door, maybe if you note that you like the tone or X character for this reason, or whatever), and maybe a bit about which side of any Important Fandom Lines they fall on -- like, you might mention that you're fine with Avon/Everybody rather than being specially attached to Blake/Avon.

But mostly, just say SOMETHING and link a Yuletide letter, so your recipient can journal-stalk you. That's the important bit. ;-)

[thisbluespirit]

Heh, don't worry, I've been writing my Yuletide letter for half the year. :-)

I just also like talking about it. I like Yuletide letters. I like reading everybody's and seeing them be enthusiastic about their tiny fandoms and planning things to write (or avoid). It's just hard to get the balance right, because it's easy to waffle on forever about a thing you love - but not so helpful for your writer!!

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

Or a coffee shop (tavern?) run by an immortal demon-killing princess and her bff telepathic wolf.

Is that a reference to a specific fandom? Because it's not one I'm familiar with but it sounds intriguing...

[thisbluespirit]

Yes, it's the Indigo Series by Louise Cooper. They are good, but they haven't been reprinted since the 90s, so they vary as to how easy they are to get hold of these days. I was recently reunited with my set - it was borrowed about 15 years ago by my best friend, returned, accidentally sent to London where it narrowly missed being sent to a car boot sale! (I'm pleased to have them safe home again and have finally had sufficient brain to re-read them.)

:-)

ETA: Oh, and as you can tell, I wasn't well enough to make it to the PO last week - hopefully Friday now, I think! *crosses fingers*

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

Wow! Quite the wanderers, those books!!

*goes away to look up the series*

ETA: That's okay - I haven't watched any more of TWW since we last spoke - I began re-watching As Time Goes By this week - though I've been spending most of my free time in actually WRITING again!

[thisbluespirit]

:-)

Writing! Yay! \o/ That is the other best reason for not watching things (along with reading). ;-D

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

Indeed!! :D

By the way, I found the Indigo series on Amazon easily - and can buy good, or very good, copies for a penny apiece, plus £2.80 postage. So I shall grab the first couple and see how I get on with them...

[thisbluespirit]

Cool! :-)

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

I am *slightly* dubious because I'm not big on werewolves - but I am also deeply curious, so we'll see...

[thisbluespirit]

There aren't actually any werewolves in it? There's a wolf who's telepathic and therefore outcast from the other wolves, but no werewolves.

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

Oh my bad! I misremembered what you'd said earlier - sorry! (Head too full of fic writing!)

[thisbluespirit]

:lol: Easily done! There is a brief bit of shapeshifting, but it's a minor thing, really.

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

Oooh! Shapeshifters? SOLD! :D

[thisbluespirit]

It's not a big thing, though, I'm afraid. Er. I think I'd better leave you to find out for yourself before I give any more slightly weird impressions... ;-D

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

*laughs* Okay!

[liadt]

There could be a Enemy at the Door/Colditz crossover where an escaping POW making a home run teaches them how to improve the cuisine. Or make some very dodgy homebrew. Break out the klim tins!

[thisbluespirit]

Well, the POW would also have to bring a truckload of food with him, which would add to his escape difficulties. The islanders know how to cook; they just don't have actual food because most of it was imported. So they exist on root vegetables and fake coffee and tea and the occasional egg and fantasize about things they used to eat. :-)

[liadt]

The POW had best stay away then, in case the islanders start fighting over the turnip jam (or whatever non-jam likely vegetable it was)in his cardboard suitcase!

[swordznsorcery.livejournal.com]

Coffee shop AUs? That's a thing now? I'm left wondering if that's better or worse than all those infernal high school AUs.

Never did quite get the point of AUs, but your post has at least made me smile. Maybe that's the point of them?!

[thisbluespirit]

Well, I was going to write in my Yuletide letter that I don't usually like those kinds of AUs, but all I ended up doing was thinking of ways that they could work for my chosen fandoms. The trouble is, I don't think there's anything some really good writer hasn't made work well at some point - or anything some really dire writer hasn't made a mess of.

AUs can be very interesting - there are a lot of really cool Shakespeare/historical ones in particular. It's like the way directors sometimes transfer Shakespeare to other periods to make parallels, and you can do that with fandom AUs. Or sometimes just so that people who work in coffee shops can get to be pirates or fight dragons or drive spaceships, which is quite cool.

But really I don't like those. Ish. :lol:

[swordznsorcery.livejournal.com]

I can see the attraction of some AUs I guess. I wrote a steampunk A-Team for an LJ challenge once, and that was quite good fun. And I've no doubt that in the right hands a AU can probably be a good read; just as long as nobody goes OOC.

I like the idea of people who lead ordinary, mundane lives getting to fight pirate dragons in a spaceship, definitely. Where do I sign on for my own AU?!

[thisbluespirit]

I like the idea of people who lead ordinary, mundane lives getting to fight pirate dragons in a spaceship, definitely. Where do I sign on for my own AU?!

I think first you need to acquire your own copy of The Tough Guide, consult it closely, stick to all the OMTs and visit every place on the damned map, whether you want to or not.

;-)

(... can't remember now whether or not you're likely to know what I mean by that. :lol:)

[pitry.livejournal.com]

I'd totally read the hell out of this stories, just so you know. Maybe you should write them? :D

I think your letter from previous years worked pretty well, though, didn't it? Maybe just recycle it? It was a great balance with 'please don't write this extremely small list of things, but go wild with your imagination!' (Plus, you actually mean this, so your writers don't feel bad afterwards ;) )

[thisbluespirit]

I should probably one day write "Five AUs Lost_Spook Will Never Write" and nobody but me will understand it, but that's not unusual. :-)

And, aw, thanks. I have changed that bit, though, because I liked what I wrote in my fic_corner letter, so I used that. If I'm honest, I like writing my Yuletide letter (I start it very early in the year and edit it until sign-up) and I like talking about Yuletide letters... and it is hard to get it right, especially when you list dislikes and then think "Hmm, actually, I could see how that could be pretty cool..." ;-D

[brutti-ma-buoni.livejournal.com]

I am not going to write a royal clone coffeeshop AU. I am not going to-

Where Henry III is the manager, but he's kind of crappy, so Edward I is always having to do the accounts and negotiate with suppliers, while ignoring the Edward II/Gaveston thing. And also (I have yet to work out how this fits, technically) Eleanor of Aquitaine holds court among hipsters at the open mic and Catherine is kind of pissed that Henry is flirting with Ann (Henry also does open mic slots when no one can stop him).

Dammit.

[thisbluespirit]

:lol: I have not brain for such detailed thoughts but my aborted attempt to put down "no coffee shop type AUs" got immediately derailed by the whole cloned monarch aspect.

That is brilliant, btw!! Also, Richard III has groupies who hang around and annoy the Tudors, and nobody can get Edward IV and Edward VII to do any work that isn't flirting with someone.

If Edward I needs a hand with the accounts, there's always Henry VII.

(Hmm, could also be a bit crowded just in one coffee shop...)

:-D

[brutti-ma-buoni.livejournal.com]

No, Henry VII is the visiting actual accountant who no one really likes but who weasels his way in by being useful at the right moment.

Charles II, otoh, is now barred after one too many attempts to flirt free coffee from the baristas. Even though people are sort of sympathetic about how awful it is about his dad, not to mention his smelly grandad (who also flirts with Gaveston and Ed II, ignoring the technical anachronistic incest factor).

And Matilda owns the much nicer, richer restaurant next door but constantly points out that it should have been her coffeeshop too. Sometimes she sneaks in and serves coffee on the sly. And her son Henry is actually one of the baristas. Everybody thinks he should run the place in the end.

Ahem. I refuse to think about any more of this.

[pedanther]

*actual laughing out loud*

[thisbluespirit]

*applauds you*

(And Henry V swears blind he also owns the deeds to the restaurant next door.)

[corngold.livejournal.com]

I'm not supposed to work out all the ways I could easily end up liking that thing I don't like.

I think this is how that Tropes I Like post got to be as large a list as it was. There are definitely ones on there that I thought 'not usually - but if it were done LIKE THIS!!!'

So, yes. I like to think it counts, yes indeed.

(I have a feeling I made a post like this last year and that's where the still-non-existent B7 coffee shop AU idea came from. /o\)

I have seen some comments in which you outlined this idea...and I am still very very very very hopeful. :D

I mean, not to dump loads of pressure on you! And you have other projects going at the moment. But I know it would be fantastic and I know your writing is fantastic and I have not read nearly as much B7 by you as I have S&S. And since B7 is My Fandom, I wonder if this should be remedied. (On the other hand, S&S. Yes. Yes indeed, it is good stuff. :D )

[thisbluespirit]

think this is how that Tropes I Like post got to be as large a list as it was. There are definitely ones on there that I thought 'not usually - but if it were done LIKE THIS!!!'

And the next thing you know, you've not only listed it, you've written it yourself, because. ;-) Fanfic is a terrible thing!

But I know it would be fantastic and I know your writing is fantastic and I have not read nearly as much B7 by you as I have S&S.

Aw, you are very kind! ♥ For some reason, I only really write B7 properly if I get assigned it for Yuletide. The rest are mainly b7friday ficlets. I don't know why that is, because I do love it. I think I don't want to write for it, because one day I am (but never actually) going to write the epic tale of a really weird colony outside the reaches of the Federation. S&S, on the other hand - I think I probably need holding down and being forcibly stopped from writing it. It's just so perfect and it has a Silver.

[corngold.livejournal.com]

And the next thing you know, you've not only listed it, you've written it yourself

SO TRUE.

I'm not sure what it is about B7. For one thing, I've written way more fic for it than I have anything else (I do have over fifty thousand words of Dollhouse stuff on my computer, but it's all part of the same fic, and unfinished, so it doesn't count. I only count my fic if it is finished), and for another, my B7 stuff has been all across the board. But mostly it's cracky; when I think of B7 fic, my mind thinks 'how could I write this in as ridiculous a manner as possible?' Which surprises me, because I never used to be a big fan of crack...didn't mind it, but it wasn't My Thing... Now I wonder if my tastes are changing, or if it is just B7 that calls out for it? For a show as fun and silly as it is, it's also pretty serious and it goes to interesting and mature and fairly dark places. Humorous fic provides a nice counterbalance to all the canon angst. :)

You definitely shouldn't be kept from writing more S&S fic. I know you said that you were saddened by the recent lack of Sapphire, and of course Sapphire is most fabulous and should be in everything...but I do hope this will not mean the end of the Silver/Steel. Sapphire/Silver/Steel fic!

One of these days I must get up my courage and watch episode six...I've been hiding from it saving it up, but my desire for more Silver is starting to overshadow my desire for the series not to be finished. (Oh noes!) Anyway, we will see.

[thisbluespirit]

Oh, B7 demands crack! Writing it is this really odd thing where you've got to get a convincing tone that is unrelentingly bleak and cynical... and yet there is nothing that you can come up with that is actually crackier than things the series managed itself, in canon, in front of our eyes.

I once wrote Avon/Servalan for Yuletide, and I was a bit too ill to enjoy it as much as I should have done, but I think the truth of that hit me at that point. I mean, canonical foe yay, just for starters... So, do not be ashamed. B7 asks for it. Look at that giant ant ambling on about on location! (No, don't, you'd have to be watching a Ben Steed ep, but you know what I mean. ;-D)

I adore the Elemental OT3. Also I am obsessed with wondering what all the other Elements are like, so I don't suppose I actually will stop writing yet. I am just beginning to feel like getting back into DW and since that is my proper fandom and it's nearly the 50th anniversary, I think that should be encouraged.

I wrote some more Silver/Steel, anyway? I don't know if you saw - apologies if you did.

And I think you should be brave and watch Assignment Six, because more Sapphire & Steel, more Silver, more Silver/Sapphire/Steel, and then I won't have to remember not to spoil you for the ending. (You should obviously do everything for my convenience... ;-D) A6 is the freakiest thing and very cool. Plus, Silver has a sparkly waistcoat.

[corngold.livejournal.com]

Writing it is this really odd thing where you've got to get a convincing tone that is unrelentingly bleak and cynical... and yet there is nothing that you can come up with that is actually crackier than things the series managed itself, in canon, in front of our eyes.

Oh B7, how we do love you :D

I believe I did see your latest Silver/Steel, unless you've written even more since then that I do not know about(!). I did read it but I guess I didn't leave a comment. Distracted by Other Things - v bad of me. When I have a moment I will go reread.

As for Assignment Six, don't worry about spoilers - I know what happens. It turns out it is difficult to avoid spoilers if a) the series is quite old and b) one is very curious :)

Though I did not know about Silver's sparkly waistcoat. Nor did I know I needed it in my life, but I definitely do. Must go watch...

[thisbluespirit]

Though I did not know about Silver's sparkly waistcoat. Nor did I know I needed it in my life, but I definitely do. Must go watch...

Maybe more sort of slightly glittery? ANyway, I have an S&S book that solemnly suggests it might be time the series finished as stuff was just getting silly if they made Silver wear that waistcoat.

I can only suppose that if it ended at A3, they'd have thought it was just as well because of Sapphire's outfit. Or A2, because things were really getting silly if Steel turns up in a dinner jacket that can be switched into a highly sinister tank top. I have no idea if some people actually stop and look at things they write down for publication sometimes. *dies laughing at it again*

(It's up there with some things from Mad Norwegians in depth DW guides, which are excellent, especially the highly cool in-verse essays, but which could have been a little bit better proof-read. My fave is (of someone wearing a monster suit) "He was so hot his socks turned black." And, because I am a v sad DW fan, I know that they mean that he was so hot in the rubber suit that the black make up on his face melted and stained his socks, but the idea that you can be so hot your socks randomly change colour amuses me a lot.)

You know what they say - little things please little minds. :-)

[corngold.livejournal.com]

Ha! That is pretty ridiculous. Sapphire's outfit in A3 was indeed a mistake, as was her hair, but it could not overpower the love that is that episode. I've read, actually, that A3 is criticised as not a good S&S story, but I enjoyed it a lot. Silver makes everything better, true, but even so.

Because I'm not watching them in order, I haven't seen Steel's sinister tank top, but I look forward to it immensely. :)

the idea that you can be so hot your socks randomly change colour amuses me a lot

A bit like those old mood rings (that didn't actually work). Colour-changing socks dependant on your current level of hotness...would be hilarious. Though this idea implies a certain level of sentience inherent in the socks, which is a bit creepy really.

Surely a better way to put it would be: "it's the simple things in life you treasure"? :)

[thisbluespirit]

Well, Sapphire likes wigs in the first 3, it seems. ;-) (I assume Joanna Lumley's hair was still short from playing Purdey - it's her own from A4-6, once it's grown out a bit.)

I like A3. You get the first two and you think this is all about creepy/ghost things coming back from the past and causing trouble and then you get weirdness from the other direction. I can see why people don't like A3, but I like it, too. Also, it has a Silver, which makes it one of the best things ever. :-)

Heh, I can't imagine watching them out of order, but I suppose it's fandom-appropriate. (I did once listen to one of the audios on shuffle and it took me ten minutes to realise it wasn't just S&S being non-linear.)

We should develop these heat-sensitive, colour-changing socks and make a fortune. That's a realistic life plan, right? :-)

[corngold.livejournal.com]

We should develop these heat-sensitive, colour-changing socks and make a fortune. That's a realistic life plan, right?

Definitely, and much more fun than a lot of other ideas, too!

I am celebrating my Sunday by watching Assignment Six :D

[thisbluespirit]

I am celebrating my Sunday by watching Assignment Six :D

\o/ *offers support for the ending*

There are some great bits in it though - and it's very freaky. I don't think any other show could quite manage making a 1980s motorway service station that eerie.