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Dear Yuletide Author (2013)
Oct. 22nd, 2013 01:22 pmMy dear author,
Thank you for taking the time to write for me this year! I hope the algorithm has matched you well, and that what you receive is as good as what you give to me. :)
Of course, I'm making no demands of you. Optional means optional! But I thought I'd give you a little background on each fandom and my connection with it.
General
No porn that features underage characters or that caters to specific fetishes, please. Gen, het, same-sex, light bondage: A-OK. Scat, inflation, S&M, etc.: no thank you.
I like to be surprised, but I'd like it to make sense (that is, give me a twist that in retrospect seems inevitable, and I'll be happy as a clam at high tide). I like plot a lot, and two or three plots at once is even better. I like unexpected (but sensible; see above) victory against seemingly-insurmountable odds. I like characters being clever, but I like to be able to go back and see how they got their information and where they drew their conclusions. ("Ohhh!", not "Huh?".)
Verisimilitude is more important than realism. Gender-swapped Gladstone/Disraeli slash on a steam-powered Martian spaceship? Go for it, if the internal logic works.
If you write one of these fandoms crossed with a fandom that's not listed here, that's okay, but please let me know how to get information on the other fandom! I'm not as plugged in as a lot of participants, and I don't even know what most of the open fandoms on Yuletide this year are - and crossovers are only fun if you know both sources, or if you don't need to know them to understand the fiction.
Unless I specifically requested characters, don't feel constrained by the nominated characters. For the most part, it's the fandoms I'm interested in, not the specific people.
In Nomine
In Nomine is a role-playing game by Steve Jackson Games, about the War between Heaven and Hell, and about the very personal way in which it's fought. I started playing In Nomine in 1997, and volunteered as the online resource coordinator from 1999-2005 or so; I edited one supplement for the game (Superiors 3), wrote another Liber Umbrarum (The Book of Ghosts), and playtested several others. This should not dissuade you from writing for this fandom! The fact that I've been so involved with In Nomine means that I love seeing what other people do with it, and some of my favorite IN fiction has ended up bearing very little resemblance to the canon.
I don't really have any fandom-specific requests or prompts here, except that I'm particularly fond of redemption stories, the politics of the setting, and serious, informed explorations of the religious themes.
I've been posting some of my own In Nomine fiction on AO3, which you should feel free to look over if you'd like an idea of what I like to write.
The Newsroom
The Newsroom is a one-hour dramedy series, airing on HBO and written by Aaron Sorkin, about the jobs and lives of the crew and anchor of a late-night cable news program, "News Night". The first season is available on DVD, and it's perfectly okay to stop there (since the second season isn't so available yet).
I'm just as interested in the behind-the-scenes of television as I am in the personal lives of the characters, if not more so. One interesting thing about this fandom is that because of its setting - a cable news/interview show - it can pretty easily be crossed over with nearly any other fandom, and it'd be interesting to see Will, Mackenzie, etc. interact with Gladstone, an In Nomine angel desperately trying to avoid revealing herself as a celestial being, etc. Alternately, take a real-world event - or make one up! - and show the characters responding to it in the context of producing a news program.
Don't feel obliged to limit yourself to the listed characters, but those are the ones I know best, so they're the ones I'd prefer to read stories about.
19th Century CE RPF
Disraeli, Gladstone, the middle of the Victorian era, and the British Empire at the height of its power. For all that I'm fascinated by the era and the characters, I actually don't know much about them, so do what you like!
...except that now I kind of do want to see gender-swapped Gladstone/Disraeli slash on a steam-powered Martian spaceship.
Greek Mythology and Ancient History RPF
I graduated with a BA in Classical Language and Literature. I love this stuff. But again, as with In Nomine above, be not afraid! One of the joys of studying myths and legends - and, let's face it, ancient history is as much legend as anything - is discovering how many of them there are, and how many versions of each show up. I am as interested in mythography as in mythology. If it's good, it doesn't matter if it matches "the myth" (besides which, the appropriate response to "it doesn't match the myth" is "which version?").
Among my favorite historical figures are Peisistratos (6th-century Greek aristocrat-turned-king whose attempts to become king are so ridiculous they become sublime) and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petronius>Gaius Petronius Arbiter</a> (adviser to Nero and author of the first known novel, the <em>Satyricon</em>), but don't feel limited to them; they're just the sort of people I enjoy hearing about. Original characters in historical settings, or original myths and histories using established figures, are perfectly okay. <strong>Wrap-Up</strong> Once again, thank you for writing for me - I hope you have fun with it! If you have any questions, you should be able to leave an anonymous comment here; otherwise, I look forward to seeing what you've come up with!
Thank you for taking the time to write for me this year! I hope the algorithm has matched you well, and that what you receive is as good as what you give to me. :)
Of course, I'm making no demands of you. Optional means optional! But I thought I'd give you a little background on each fandom and my connection with it.
General
No porn that features underage characters or that caters to specific fetishes, please. Gen, het, same-sex, light bondage: A-OK. Scat, inflation, S&M, etc.: no thank you.
I like to be surprised, but I'd like it to make sense (that is, give me a twist that in retrospect seems inevitable, and I'll be happy as a clam at high tide). I like plot a lot, and two or three plots at once is even better. I like unexpected (but sensible; see above) victory against seemingly-insurmountable odds. I like characters being clever, but I like to be able to go back and see how they got their information and where they drew their conclusions. ("Ohhh!", not "Huh?".)
Verisimilitude is more important than realism. Gender-swapped Gladstone/Disraeli slash on a steam-powered Martian spaceship? Go for it, if the internal logic works.
If you write one of these fandoms crossed with a fandom that's not listed here, that's okay, but please let me know how to get information on the other fandom! I'm not as plugged in as a lot of participants, and I don't even know what most of the open fandoms on Yuletide this year are - and crossovers are only fun if you know both sources, or if you don't need to know them to understand the fiction.
Unless I specifically requested characters, don't feel constrained by the nominated characters. For the most part, it's the fandoms I'm interested in, not the specific people.
In Nomine
In Nomine is a role-playing game by Steve Jackson Games, about the War between Heaven and Hell, and about the very personal way in which it's fought. I started playing In Nomine in 1997, and volunteered as the online resource coordinator from 1999-2005 or so; I edited one supplement for the game (Superiors 3), wrote another Liber Umbrarum (The Book of Ghosts), and playtested several others. This should not dissuade you from writing for this fandom! The fact that I've been so involved with In Nomine means that I love seeing what other people do with it, and some of my favorite IN fiction has ended up bearing very little resemblance to the canon.
I don't really have any fandom-specific requests or prompts here, except that I'm particularly fond of redemption stories, the politics of the setting, and serious, informed explorations of the religious themes.
I've been posting some of my own In Nomine fiction on AO3, which you should feel free to look over if you'd like an idea of what I like to write.
The Newsroom
The Newsroom is a one-hour dramedy series, airing on HBO and written by Aaron Sorkin, about the jobs and lives of the crew and anchor of a late-night cable news program, "News Night". The first season is available on DVD, and it's perfectly okay to stop there (since the second season isn't so available yet).
I'm just as interested in the behind-the-scenes of television as I am in the personal lives of the characters, if not more so. One interesting thing about this fandom is that because of its setting - a cable news/interview show - it can pretty easily be crossed over with nearly any other fandom, and it'd be interesting to see Will, Mackenzie, etc. interact with Gladstone, an In Nomine angel desperately trying to avoid revealing herself as a celestial being, etc. Alternately, take a real-world event - or make one up! - and show the characters responding to it in the context of producing a news program.
Don't feel obliged to limit yourself to the listed characters, but those are the ones I know best, so they're the ones I'd prefer to read stories about.
19th Century CE RPF
Disraeli, Gladstone, the middle of the Victorian era, and the British Empire at the height of its power. For all that I'm fascinated by the era and the characters, I actually don't know much about them, so do what you like!
...except that now I kind of do want to see gender-swapped Gladstone/Disraeli slash on a steam-powered Martian spaceship.
Greek Mythology and Ancient History RPF
I graduated with a BA in Classical Language and Literature. I love this stuff. But again, as with In Nomine above, be not afraid! One of the joys of studying myths and legends - and, let's face it, ancient history is as much legend as anything - is discovering how many of them there are, and how many versions of each show up. I am as interested in mythography as in mythology. If it's good, it doesn't matter if it matches "the myth" (besides which, the appropriate response to "it doesn't match the myth" is "which version?").
Among my favorite historical figures are Peisistratos (6th-century Greek aristocrat-turned-king whose attempts to become king are so ridiculous they become sublime) and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petronius>Gaius Petronius Arbiter</a> (adviser to Nero and author of the first known novel, the <em>Satyricon</em>), but don't feel limited to them; they're just the sort of people I enjoy hearing about. Original characters in historical settings, or original myths and histories using established figures, are perfectly okay. <strong>Wrap-Up</strong> Once again, thank you for writing for me - I hope you have fun with it! If you have any questions, you should be able to leave an anonymous comment here; otherwise, I look forward to seeing what you've come up with!
