Beyond the Roundels

(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.

( Gift fics under here )

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:)

Okay, well I still feel like I've only scratched the surface and I haven't read through some of the larger sections, like Fairy Tales, and The Sarah Jane Adventures (both of which I mean to), but here are a handful of great stories in unlikely fandoms, and my last Yuletide recs post. (Probably.)

I was inspired to go back by looking through the collection of prompts, and repeatedly wondering if someone wrote that request, because it sounded great... In many cases, someone had:

( Spooks, Discworld, The Mummy, Rentaghost, Tough Guide, Swallows & Amazons and more )