Hello. If all you want are the seven fics I wrote for yuletide, well. There they are. (Skip the Doctor Who, then it's the next seven.)

If you want to know my thoughts while/on writing these, that's what this post is. Dividing into sections, handily, though I have two sets of fics written for the same prompt, so their descriptions will blur together a little.

You'll Need All Those Fingers For Crossing (Newsflesh Trilogy - Mira Grant) for coltsbane

So my assigned fandom was The Newsflesh Trilogy (which currently consists of just the first book, Feed). The prompt?

There are two things here I would love to see which are polar opposites of each other, so go with what your gut tells you, Dear Author.
1) Georgia and Shaun. They rock my socks off and seeing them interact, even in a post-book setting (look, May is too far away for Book 2, okay?) would be delicious.
2) Something that doesn't involve the main characters at all but expands this weird, messed up universe that Grant has built. If you get an idea that would flesh out (pun totally intended) the Newsflesh universe, go go go go!

So I looked at the prompt, and then I reread the book, while marking down relevant characterization pages, and pages that I thought I could use for general building of the world. About halfway through the reread, I ran across the quote I used as a summary of the story:

A good medical duty station can provide an island of safety for the uninfected, even as an outbreak rages on all sides. If your air locks don't fail and you have enough ammo, you can hold out for days. One duty station in Atlanta did exactly that - four nurses, three doctors, and five security personnel kept themselves and eighteen patients alive for almost a week before the CDC was able to fight through the outbreak raging through the neighborhoods around the hospital and get them safely out. They made a movie about that incident.

For whatever reason that particular snippet spoke to me more than anything else I ran into, and I decided to build my story around it.

The first question that came up, then, was what I wanted to focus on. Perhaps the obvious answer was what I did, the doctors/nurses/security people. But I did consider for a while focussing on the filming of the movie version of the incident, because I thought that would be fun. Didn't end up doing that, obviously, mostly because I understood how to use the story from a CDC doctor's point of view better, plus, I do love the CDC as presented in Feed.

I'd initially wanted to make this a longer story, more drawn out and lingering, but that didn't happen. Partly because finals caught up with me and bulldozed me over, and partly because my narrator wanted to be rather matter of fact about most things. So I let her.

The title comes from a Los Campesinos! song, which is "You'll Need Those Fingers For Crossing", but the actual song uses the phrase with the All in it.

If We're Burning Like Two Candles (Newsflesh Trilogy - Mira Grant) for coltsbane

I finished You'll Need All Those Fingers For Crossing and had it betaed and in by deadline, but it wasn't as long as I'd been initially planning for it to be, and I didn't feel it entirely sufficient, considering that I didn't really start it until after finals were done, and I didn't want to have spent more time on a treat (not including canon review, I suppose, but even so) then I did on my assignment fic. Plus, I had an idea floating around in the back of my head for pre-canon George and Shaun.

I wanted to write something about their mother being manipulative but not necessarily at an age where George would recognize it, but I wanted them to be old enough to have observations on their world that would be interesting.

I decided on the incident I chose, switching from public to private schools, because I was originally thinking when they first started school, but I had nothing to go on there, and also I did think they would be too young to be able to show well their interactions with their parents from George's PoV, without having the shift their mother from being subtly manipulative to downright cruel.

The title comes from the song Snowfall Music from Carbon Leaf. The full line is "And if we're burning like two candles with no window to call home", which I thought fit their relationship, because I tend to associate burning candles with burning brightly, but for a brief amount of time. Sometimes I want to evoke the second half of a line (even if it's just to myself!) in a fic title, and this was one of those cases. I see it as being evocative of their (particularly George's) desire to get away from home and, well, show their light out in the real world.

You Held Your Head Like a Hero (Party Animals) for comradeocean

Those of who you who know me even only vaguely will know about my obsession with Party Animals. I need very little excuse to write about it, so when I saw someone requesting it on the letter post I was very excited. And then I bounced, waiting for them to actually post the letter, instead of just a placeholder. When the letter went up, well. It was all awesome and I had plans and ambitions and I was going to figure out how to write:

- commentary about neoliberalism and various themes of justice disguised as fic

That...didn't happen at all, unfortunately, and it wasn't until after December 20th that I looked at the letter again. (Gosh, who ever thought being an aerospace engineering major would suck away all of my spare time.) However, even though I didn't have time for the story I wanted, I still enjoy writing Party Animals, and figured, hey, I could write more Matt and Ashika friendship. I love Matt and Ashika friendship.

I decided to focus on some indeterminate point in the future, soon after Ashika gets a seat, just because it seemed best, and I could highlight the fact that Ashika is farther along in her political career than Matt is, and that he doesn't remotely resent her for that.

Oh, the title of this. So the current title is a line from Taylor Swift's Long Live. (I know.) The original title was a different line from the same song. Which I'd meant to be rather metaphorical, but it was "I Had the Time of My Life Fighting Dragons With You". Maybe you can tell where this is going. So I wound up with this title instead.

Here Be Cartographers (Party Animals) for comradeocean

So this is the fic that happened when I thought too much about that other title (I Had the Time of My Life Fighting Dragons With You) and because I got stuck there for a while. I might have mentioned to starseverywhere that I was writing a Party Animals fic and that I needed help brainstorming for that and also her to tell me not to write a 'Sword and Sorcery AU'. She was ever so helpful. Not. stars: "did they suggest they're averse to aus? cos that sounds MAGNIFICENT."

Or maybe very helpful if you think that I should indulge my desire to write ridiculous AUs.

Anyway, this was a lot of fun to write, even if I maybe should have given in to my desire to make it more of a consciously political allegory, though a little of that bled through, maybe? (Politicians are always rescuing lobbyists, clearly.)

Plus, Ashika rescuing Scott from a dragon. Behind Matt's back. It had to happen.

The title of Here Be Cartographers is from a song about how the dragons got tired of having cartographers labelling where they were on maps when they were just minding their own business.

Each Day Escapes (Swordspoint Series - Ellen Kushner) for auctorial

You have to understand that when it comes to Swordspoint, well. I've been reading Swordspoint fic for yuletide for the last two years (it's one of those fandoms I make sure to hit), despite not having read the books (other than Privilege of the Sword, which I didn't really remember well) until this summer. So I was really excited to read the fics having read Swordspoint and still adoring Alec and Richard. (And yes, once I finished the books I did go back and reread all the yuletide fics I had liked before I knew the canon and wow, they were even better.)

I also wanted to try my hand at writing Swordspoint. (I'd written something short and fun for AU bingo, but that was it.) So since the list of all prompts still wasn't live I went letter-hunting, and found auctorial's, when the Swordspoint part starts off:

Alec is my favourite, and I am continually fascinated by his gigantic self-destructive streak and his ability to attract danger. I'd love to see anything from Alec's past, while he was growing up or at university.

Well. I really love Alec myself, and partly because of how brittle he is, and everything. So I decided to write something using my admittedly kind of vague remembrance of the facts of canon and hope I didn't get anything drastically wrong. (I tend to be good at remembering and writing aspects of characterization, but not so much on actual facts of plot, or mentioned bits of back story, and I left Swordspoint at my place in college.

This story feels a bit abrupt to me, and ties into one of my goals this year, which is to work on descriptions. I think it would have worked better if I was better at those, but I'm fond enough for this for what it is.

The title comes from a line of the song Palmistry by Great Lake Swimmers, a song I listened to from about halfway through writing this fic until I was done with it.

Only Smoke And Rosedust (Deathstalker Series - Simon R. Green) for sithwitch13

So back my first year I signed up for yuletide, in 2008, I was assigned for either Equilibrium or the Deathstalker, I guess we'll never know which because I volunteered for both (in addition to other things) and my recipient requested both. I ended up writing for Deathstalker, and after reveal we added each other to our flists.

So this year happens, and I'm scanning my flist's Dear Yuletide Writer, when I see that sithwitch13 has requested Deathstalker again with the request of:

Anything, anyone, any time. Enjoy yourself.

And then in her optional details she mentioned that Valentine was her favourite character, and a whole host of scenarios that were just fine, including the idea of a AUs. You know my love of wacky AUs, yeah? If not, it should be sufficient to say that I love them. Lots and lots. So when I was pondering what I would be able to write with Valentine that would only require review of his characterization and not as much a handle on the plot, because I didn't have time to review that, I went with a wacky AUs. And, frankly, Valentine reminds me a tiny bit of my roommate from last year.

When it came to picking who Valentine's roommate was...it seemed logical to pick Finlay. If by logical you mean the most fun, and that's usually what I use logical to mean.

The title comes from a truly lovely - and truly dangerous - song, called I Am (by Seanan McGuire). The bridge goes something like this:

I am dancing in the moonlight, I am beauty with no heart;
I am stories told by twilight, I am torture as an art.
I am happy ever after left to sour and turn to dust;
I am madness, I am laughter, I am nothing you should trust.
I’m a pretty poison apple hiding something dark within,
I’m the thorn that blinds the princess, I am hiding in your skin, I am...

It seemed fitting.

Call An Amnesty On All Our Pride (Swordspoint Series - Ellen Kushner) for brigdh

I was looking at the list of all the prompts that had gone live and thought I'd give a glance over the Swordspoint ones, since there were many more requests in that fandom than people who had posted to the Dear Yuletide Writer thread.

When I happened to see Brigdh's name, I recognized it from the absolutely lovely comment she'd left on the last high school AU I wrote for Swordspoint (which I wrote for AU bingo).

OMG THIS IS AMAZING. I didn't know how much this fandom needed a high school AU until I read this. This is genius: it is amazing how well you made it work. Thank you so much! (And, uh, I would love it if you wrote more in this AU.)

I didn't set it in the same high school universe, instead writing yet another 'When Alec met Richard and it was high school' scene. I though about doing otherwise, but figured that that would completely give me away, and I didn't want to do that.

Still, it was an excuse to write a high school AU, and I so very rarely need excuses to do such thing.

The title here comes from the song Holding Down My Hands from Maguire & I. (It took me a while to remember what I'd taken the title from, and this was the one title I stole that isn't googleable (I tried, but the title just brought up my fic), but I remembered eventually, because there's something about the sound of Maguire & I that evoke Alec for me.)

Let's call an amnesty on all are pride
Harvest all the kings who lived inside.
'Cause all I need is for you to understand
All the things that are holding down my hands.
All I need is for you to recognize
All the answers are hiding behind.

It just fits, I think.

I hope that was at least a little bit interesting for you, because I am apparently quite capable of blathering about my process and my insane ideas for quite some time.

Comments welcome either here or on Dreamwidth ().

Hi! I'm Snow.

And you're absolutely fantastic.

You've got the information from my requests, so if you're someone who does well without an overabundance of information, well. Feel free not to read the rest of this. But if you're like me and the more information the better, or if you buy into the whole 'stalking your recipient is a sign of love' philosophy, read on!

Things I like
The purpose of this list is that if if you picked any one of these things and built a story around it, it would be awesome and I'd love it. Not that you try to include everything on this list, or anything silly like that. And if you got an idea just from the prompts I gave, great. This is just here for reference, then.

• Character development. I'd rather have complex characters than 100% likable ones.
• Trust. Particularly when a character trusts another more than they should, but that trust turns out to have been well-placed. Or the very fact that they were trusted made the other person rise to the challenge.
• Platonic love. Friendships where the very notion that they would have sex or be attracted to each other doesn't come up, because it would be dismissed by both parties. (These aren't all I like, I've requested at least one romantic relationship after all.)
• Relationships based on equality. Relationships where both the people clearly are bringing something to the table. I particularly adore relationships where both the people are messed up, but in just the right way for each other.
• Love not being enough. What I mean by this is that sometimes things work out, sometimes they don't, but if they do work out it's not just because the people loved each other, it's because they put effort into it.
• Snark, witty banter. People saying clever things.
• Alternate Universes. Whether they branch off from canon or completely cracky things of crack. Seriously. The only fandom I'd object to a high school AU for would be Kick, because they're only in college, after all.
• Disintegrating situations. Especially people doing their best to gain control of a situation that is bad and turning worse. They don't have to fail, or succeed, it's how they meet the challenge that's really interesting.
• Endings. I am a sucker for a happy ending, but go with whatever fits the fics and if it's sad or angsty I can still love it loads, as long as it feels complete.
• Self-determination. People controlling their own futures

Things I don't care so much for: Incest, Non-Con, Bestiality, PWP, ratings of NC-17, Character bashing.

An additional note: If you're worried about adherence to canon, obviously don't completely flout it, but I probably don't remember it that well, and I'd rather have a good story about who you think the characters are than anything else.

Now, deep breath. And on to the fandoms!




Arabesk trilogy - Jon Courtenay Grimwood
Any
I'd be delighted if you wanted to give me insights into any of the character's thoughts. Tiri would be pretty epically awesome, but so would Zara and Hani, and for all that he's at the centre of things in canon, Raf's view on the big picture is still a complete mystery to me, so you could also expand on that. I love the characters here, and I'd love to see your interpretations of them, no matter what that turns out to be.

I don't actually have much to add here. I think Zara is a smidgen underdeveloped, but one of the things I love most about her is her bitterness. I love Hani knowing better than anyone and how adorable she is. I particularly love how Tiri insists he's imaginary, and I love how Raf doesn't do much by way of analysis and just goes with the flow. I love all sorts of other things about them too, so feel free to focus on an aspect of a character you love.

Or, if you're up to it, explore the setting. The culture and history are an intrinsic part of the book, and they are woven so beautifully with the characters and the plot. This story simply wouldn't work in any other setting, and if you want to do something exploring that I'd adore that as well.

About the Fandom: The Arabesk trilogy is a three book series of mysteries. It's sort of cyberpunk and sort of future alternate history (probably set in the 2050s, and definitely in an Alexandria where World War I never expanded out of the Balkans.




Cold Wind (Kitty and the Can Openers Song)
I/You
I really would adore anything that explores the dissonance in the song between the words and the sweet sound of it, because that's really at the foundation of what makes this song so interesting to me. Also, if you're at all worried that you have no clue if you're interpreting the song the same way I am, please please, go with your interpretation. I'd love to read about it.

I understand that this one is sort of a tough thing to figure out how to go about writing, so understand that I would be very pleased with any variety of things. Maybe an introspective scene fleshing out what the singer's thinking, or anything exploring who these people are. Is it a woman talking to another woman: "you know I want you girl"? Is it a man's PoV? I think anything that paints a picture of both bitterness and love would also work really well. Basically, like I said in the request, go with your gut here.

About the Fandom: It's a song. I really like it. If you're looking to switch fandoms, this would probably be the easiest to jump ship to. Lyrics are here and you can listen to it here.




Kick (tv)
Layla Salim/Jackie Schneider
Basically what I'm looking for here is femmeslash regarding Layla and Jackie or anything exploring Layla's relationship with her family, particularly as influence by their religion and culture, and how that changes as a result of her continuing secret relationship with Jackie.

So canon ends with Layla breaking things off with her family but not coming out to them, and reengaging in her relationship with Jackie. I would love anything about Layla and Jackie that explores post canon. I'd be interested in seeing how you imagine the Layla/Jackie relationship evolving, both among themselves and how they interact with their social circle at university. Also interesting would be a conversation between Layla and any of her siblings, or maybe Jackie meeting siblings who aren't Amen, or any kind of confrontation regarding Amen.

I did start watching Kick primarily because I'd heard it had a canonically lesbian Muslim character, and so if you felt comfortable writing something that deals with that in some way, I'd find that really interesting. If you'd feel kind of comfortable, but think you needed a good beta, dark_agenda might be a good place to start. If you don't feel comfortable writing about that, write what you are comfortable with.

About the Fandom: Kick is an Australian tv series of 13 episodes which are half an hour in length each. It mostly focuses on Miki Mavros' attempts to flirt with Dr. Mangeshkar, but Layla and Jackie's relationship is a significant subplot. However, if you have an embarrassment squick, this won't be the show for you.




Inland Territory (Album)
Any
I'm good with literal retellings of the story of a single song or a symbolic type of capturing the feeling of the song or just fixating on a single line and seeing what that does for you. Or any kind of trying to meld multiple songs into a story would be cool too. If you don't think you interpret the song/CD the same way I do, go with your interpretation.

If you signed up for a specific song, go for it. I'm going to throw out a couple of ideas I've had for a couple of them, in case that would help.

• Radio: I'd love something from the perspective of the triage doctors, or an observer trying to tell someone who's further away from it.
• St. Stephen's Cross: You've got the image of two individuals being swept away in the tide of some major event, and coming back to each other. It's gorgeous.
• Antebellum: Some of the things I adore most about this song are the seasonal imagery and the sense of time passing.
• No Gringo: Soo much possibility in this one. I interpret it as the US has gone to shit and now people want into Mexico. That alone, ooh, so much potential.
• In Another Life: Maybe pick a single scene, or run with the idea of the multiple different lives. Or anything.
• Augustine: Well. I think anything with the line 'faith is both the prison and the open hand' would be epically awesome for this one.

Or any of the others that I didn't list just because I thought I should stop at some point.

About the Fandom: It's a CD, by Vienna Teng. It's another one that's be super easy to pick up if you decided to switch fandoms.

And should you wish to stalk me further, most of my journal here is unlocked, my fic is here and I'm very frequently in #yuletide under the name Snow.

*Banners for the Arabesk trilogy and Kick made by the lovely sherlockian from images from the canons. The Cold Wind and Inland Territory Banners were made by me, also using images from canons.

Comments welcome either here or on Dreamwidth ().