mme_hardy | Yuletide reveals

I wrote three stories this year, one assignment and two pinch-hits.

For aoife_hime, who requested The Perilous Gard and Fire and Hemlock (separately), Now, Here, Now, Always, a crossover in which Kate and Polly meet. I owe a great debt to the last-minute beta swan_tower, who pointed out that it would be nice if the two of them had some sort of emotional arc...

For

skygiants (LJ bookelfe), who requested Freya Marske's excellent epub short story "The Provenance Game", Finding Aid, in which a significant character from the story has a prequel adventure of her own. I owe an equally great debt to the even laster-minute beta kurushi, who library-picked the archive in-jokes and suggested some more.

For sumeria, who requested Michelle Sagara's Chronicles of Elantra, Deliver by Hand, an incident in Kaylin's life. I really regret this having been a pinch hit; if I'd had more time, I think I could have put in a plot. miaou's last-minute beta was enormously helpful.

And that's the lot! The best thing that happened to me (as a writer) this Yuletide was being reminded that I can write, that I can do it even when under the weather, and that I do well under pressure. The two pinch-hits were written in under 24 hours start-to-finish, and writing them was a thoroughly joyful experience.

The best thing that happened to me as an editor was that all my betas were extravagantly happy with the work I did; it was nice to feel I was giving something back to the greater Yuletide community, and nice to know that I had a skill.