Beyond the Roundels

25. What’s your most popular fanfic?

The Spirit of St Mary Mead, which I wrote for Wasuremo in Yuletide 2016, and is about Miss Marple as a sort of genius loci. (223 kudos, 75 comments and 37 bookmarks. I mean, I know that's peanuts by mega-ship/fandom standards but it leaves most of my other works miles behind in the dust.)

... followed closely by So We Meet at Last, a crossover ficlet in which Miss Marple dusts Dracula. (170 kudos, 40 comments, 32 bookmarks.) (Amused as I am by James Maxwell's epic fainty-ness, the first thing I noticed about the 1968 TV Dracula was that it had Joan Hickson in as Mrs Weston and people patronised her and it was awful. Clearly there was only one possible response, hence the ficlet, which I scribbled in about 30 mins for fan_flashworks.)

#4 is also a Miss Marple crossover ficlet. For reasons I have no explanation for, weird Miss Marple fic is apparently what the universe wants from me. I am really not sure how I feel about this, although it could certainly be worse.


26. How do you come up with your fanfic titles?

Either straight away, as if by magic, or else by sheer desperation, rifling any appropriate poetry, songs, quotes etc. etc. And for meme ficlets, yes, one word titles. I don't care. Although when I get my kudos emails from AO3, I do have no clue which ones they all are.


27. What do you hate more: Coming up with titles or writing summaries?

It depends! Both can just arrive with the story, although I suppose titles are harder, as with summaries you can often get away with quoting a line or two of the fic at least.


28. If someone were to draw a piece of fanart for your story, which story would it be and what would the picture be of?

I don't know, meme, I don't actually have the second sight. Do they mean which story would I want it to be? In which case, the answer is any of them and anything. I would be thrilled. It happened to me once, with one of my S&S ficlets, and it was lovely and then the fanartist just deleted it, which was very saddening.

(I'll get there eventually!)

( DW - Sarah Jane Smith )

( Miss Marple )

( DW - Donna Noble )

And so my treats. I wrote the first for calliopes_pen, chiefly in a hopeless attempt to remain anonymous, so that she might at least wonder which one was me. (I had vague plans for a rather different one, but I got seized by this idea while reading through her likes in the letter):

Influence (1368 words) by lost_spook
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Dracula (TV 1968), Dracula & Related Fandoms
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Abraham Van Helsing & John Seward, Count Dracula/Jonathan Harker, John Seward/Lucy Weston, Jonathan Harker/Mina Harker, Mina Harker/Lucy Weston
Characters: Abraham Van Helsing, John Seward, Dracula, Jonathan Harker, Lucy Weston, Mina Harker
Additional Tags: Yuletide Treat, Implied/Referenced Mind Control, Dark
Summary: Some personalities are magnetic, they exert an irresistible pull on others.


Then there were two prompts in particular that jumped out at me this year, the first being Wasuremono's great prompt about Miss Marple being a goddess, the genius loci of St Mary Mead, which I obviously had to write:

The Spirit of St Mary Mead (4005 words) by lost_spook
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Miss Marple - Agatha Christie
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Jane Marple, Griselda Clement, Original Characters
Additional Tags: Yuletide Treat, Historical, Multi-Era, Roman Britain, English Civil War, 18th Century, 20th Century, 21st Century, Misses Clause Challenge, Miss Marple is a Goddess
Summary: St Mary Mead has had an unusual guardian down through all these centuries.


The second was for moemachina, about Feste & Olivia from Twelfth Night. As I've loved Feste since I did the play for A-Levels mumble years ago, I couldn't resist. I had an idea, but then remembered that writing Shakespeare fic is TERRIFYING. So I watched BBC TN twice in a row, found some 16th C jokes and riddles on the internet, built my fic around those and then went for it. And then typed it up while mentally going LALALA not writing Shakespeare etc. Happily, it seems to have got some really lovely comments, so I clearly didn't mess it up too badly.

movements of the mind (1892 words) by lost_spook
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Twelfth Night - Shakespeare
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Feste & Olivia (Twelfth Night)
Characters: Feste (Twelfth Night), Olivia (Twelfth Night), Original Characters
Additional Tags: Yuletide Treat, Friendship, Backstory, Jesters, Implied/Referenced Character Death
Summary: ”Look you now, he’s out of his guard already; unless you laugh and minister occasion to him, he is gagged.”


That done, I decided to write a couple of treats for Madness if I could, but the Adam Adamant Lives! fic for Liadt grew large enough for the main collection, even if it was probably too frivolous for Yuletide (and I don't think Liadt was fooled by my anonymity for a minute, either):

Battered and Bruised (1812 words) by lost_spook
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Adam Adamant Lives!
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Adam Adamant & Georgina Jones
Characters: Adam Adamant, Georgina Jones, William E. Simms
Additional Tags: Yuletide Treat, Cake Fic Meme, Cake, Humor, Hijinks & Shenanigans, I was going to label this crack, and then thought soberly about canon, and didn't
Summary: Mr Adamant suffers a truly traumatic incident at a village gala. Unfortunately for him, Georgie is on hand to help...


And lastly, this tiny bit of post-canon for Gerry and Sandra from New Tricks, for Dynapink:

Vintage (532 words) by lost_spook
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: New Tricks
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Sandra Pullman & Gerry Standing
Characters: Sandra Pullman, Gerry Standing
Additional Tags: Post-Canon, Ficlet, Yuletide Treat
Summary: "You look as if you've seen a ghost..."

With many thanks to Pers who patiently beta-ed all three full treats and a second beta of my long assignment! (Those who have been around these parts a while: I think you can probably already guess which one got the influential rec. Oh, yes. It is my fate, my doom, my only claim to fame. :lol:)

Because every time a slightly different one comes along, I have to do it. Like an AO3 sheep. Baa.

( Ficcish navel gazing again )

Still attempting to make it through this year's collection! Have my next installment of recs:

( 17 recs in HIGNFY/HIst RPF, Adam Adamant Lives, Cadfael, Shakespeare, Diana Wynne Jones, The Hour, Libraries, Life, Malory Towers, Miss Marple, The Mummy, Northanger Abbey, and Sapphire & Steel )

I started this ages ago & then found it again just now, and have finished it off & here it is! (I think I'd done it because I only semi-did this meme last time, and then everyone else did it properly and I thought I should too. Looking at the results, obviously I was right.)

The characters are:
Frank Marker (Public Eye)
Cora Mills (OUaT)
G'Kar (Babylon 5)
Twelfth Doctor
Ace (DW)
Steel (Sapphire & Steel)
Miss Marple
Liz Shaw (DW)
Henry VII (Shadow of the Tower/Hist. RPF)
Cally (B7)
Silver (S&S)
Belle (OUaT)


( And the resulting questions )

I'd been hoping to get back and read some more Yuletide fic and make another recs post, and Day Three of snowflake_challenge is to rec at least three fanworks, so I'm killing two birds with one stone here, with another selection of recs from this year's Yuletide, (though actually I gave up around the end of M. One day I will have ability to read enough online, but this year is not that point so I didn't read many long fics in the same fandoms, so omissions are frequently to do with that rather than lack of quality):

( 13 recs in Cadfael, Chronicles of Chrestomanci, Discworld, Eternal Law, The Importance of Being Earnest, Miss Marple, Pushing Daisies, Georgette Heyer, & The Sarah Jane Adventures )

Nothing to see here, except my annual ridiculously epic Yuletide Letter:

Dear Yuletide Writer,

Firstly, thank you! You are ready to attempt to write something for me - and you share a tiny fandom with me. ♥

I am a great believer in the story that you want to tell being the one that's going to be the most compelling to read, so please, write that. In fact, for several of these requests, what I want most of all is just to see what you would write in these worlds. So, if you are the sort of person who likes a concise letter and a free hand, please, just go for what you have in mind. All the extra details are for souls like me who want them. Do not attempt to give me everything below in one fic; you'd do yourself an injury. If anything seems contradictory, it's mostly because I like all sorts of different things at different times in different fandoms. So, if you've got that burning idea, go write it. I'm sure I will love it.

( More details here )

( Fandoms - Ten Stupidest Things I've Heard Since Richard III's Remains Were Identified, Enemy at the Door, Miss Marple, Indigo Series, Jago & Litefoot and Chalet School )

As fan_flashworks were having another amnesty, I thought, in the absence of much brain, I'd try doing some graphics for it. Of course, the graphics turned out to be unusable and instead I accidentally wrote two ficlets, one another 100 Elements prompt ficlet, and the other a rather random Miss Marple meets Dracula crossover ficlet.

Misdirection (879 words) by lost_spook
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Sapphire and Steel
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Sapphire/Silver
Characters: Sapphire (Sapphire and Steel), Silver (Sapphire and Steel)
Additional Tags: Pre-Series, Community: fan_flashworks, challenge: not what it looks like
Summary:

Sapphire’s got a plan, but Silver’s not at all sure where this is going...

So We Meet at Last (758 words) by lost_spook
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Miss Marple - Agatha Christie, Dracula & Related Fandoms
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Jane Marple, Count Dracula, Abraham Van Helsing, John Seward
Additional Tags: Community: fan_flashworks, challenge: genre, Crossover, Women Being Awesome, miss marple is awesome
Summary:

Two genre legends meet. The outcome is inevitable. Someone really should have warned the Count never to trifle with fluffy old ladies.

Also, a ficlet for the flight challenge at who_at_50, Flight (675 words, Eighth Doctor, Mary Shelley).

(Edited because apparently I have trouble remembering what I actually called my fic these days...)

fandom_stocking went live yesterday, and I had so many nice things in my stocking! Thanks so much to everyone who left anything there for me. ♥ Anyone liking the sound of any of the following should go check it out. (Yes, I am displaying the contents of my stocking for you all...)

* I got TWO sets of David Collings gifs. Yes, really! \o/ I did ask, but I didn't think anyone would actually make me any. (I'll see about putting one or maybe two on the LJ version of this post, but I'm feeling a bit too lazy for Photobucket just now). They were made v kindly for me by brooms and liadt. ♥ ♥ ♥

* A tiny-but-cute Lorne & Fred ficlet (Ats) from yhlee

* A Mary Dove/Inspector Neele drabble from john_amend_all (Miss Marple, A Pocketful of Rye, and, um, yes, it's my fault. It's all to do with me wanting professional thief/detective and ITV casting Matthew Macfadyen and then sticking meticulously to the book, when the BBC 1980s version got the shippy vibe. Damn TV makers are so contrary.)

* kaffy_r wrote me a wonderful Sapphire and Steel fic Green, Red and Gold, and Blue Follows

* ladymercury10 left me a very tempting-looking set of Doctor who recs

* cosmic_llin wrote me a lovely Sarah & Harry ficlet. (Sometimes Harry is much more practical than the Doctor, after all.)

* A beautiful little set of Blake's 7 icons from usuallyhats

* An IOU for West Wing fic from feathermoon_scarletsky

* dbskyler gave me some vid links, and you should check them out but especially the adorable penguin one.

* Summer Afternoon Blues by glinda, another AtS ficlet, this one about Lorne and the first time he heard music and it's just gorgeous and if anyone round here also knows Angel, do take a look.

* Seven-and-Ace fic by clocketpatch, which is every bit as wonderful as you would suppose and I'm delighted.

* And last (but absolutely not least, since it contained infinity) - Unccountable Infinities from eve11 and Eight and Charley ficlet, which answered my first first Straybunnies prompt for the two of them investigating something really surreal. And Eight and Charley! *joy*

*plus various good wishes and season greetings from kind folks. Oh! And intriguingly, a promise for some David Collings graphics at some point this week from weaselett.

So that was pretty amazing and thanks again to everyone. I did manage to write and make some bits and bobs for other people, too. I (rather belatedly yesterday evening, sorry about that) put them in the AO3 collection as well, so I'll put up another post with the fics in sometime soon. (There were also a few graphics/icons and recs, but they were all pretty specific for the recipients.)

First, the list:

1. Servalan (Blake's 7)
2. Silver (sapphire & Steel)
3. Miss Marple
4. Darth Vader
5. The Sixth Doctor (DW)
6. The (Delgado) Master (DW)
7. Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart (DW)
8. Leela (DW)
9. Arnold Rimmer (Red Dwarf)
10. Orac (B7)
11. Evelyn Smythe (DW)
12. Ros Myers (Spooks)
13. Nanny Ogg (Discworld)
14. Violet Crawley, Dowager Duchess of Grantham (Downton Abbey)
15. Vila Restal (B7)


( In which awesome, amusing and piratical shenanigans ensue )

In other news, I changed my layout (to match my default icon, heh). Me (having a habit of reading everyone else's flists when I'm bored) turning to read my flist: "What? Where am I? Whose the hell's flist is this one?" *rolls eyes*)

Three more finally typed up from my birthday crossover meme. Sorry about the delay (especially given how long I've had a couple of these sitting in a notebook):

1. Cut and Dried: Inspector Japp and the Seventh Doctor (Poirot/DW) requested by jjpor
All ages
1,500 words.
(This was meant to be Seven and Ace, as requested, but Bernice wanted to come, too. Sorry about that.)

( The case was proving a bit tricky to say the least )


2. Bargaining: Spike and Dana Scully (BtVS/X-Files) requested by daibhid_c
PG (for Spike being Spike, generally)
1,331 words

( So, what sort of bird likes cutting up dead people for fun? )


3. Observation: Luna Lovegood and Miss Marple (Harry Potter/Agatha Christie) requested by lizzie_marie_23
All ages
355 words

( Watching the Roses )