Dear Yuletide Writer

[mme_hardy]

AO3: MadameHardy

Dear Writer,

Thank you so much!

I'm going to give some suggestions, but here's the tl;dr: Wonderful things happen when people write the fic they always wanted to see but never got. Write the fic you've always wanted to read. The one this fandom needs. The one that is completely off the wall. The one whose tropes put an evil grin on your face. The one you're too embarrassed to admit you want. The one that's set in an abandoned asteroid, or the 1920s, or inside a music box. That fic. If you want to write it, I want to read it. Set yourself free: sonnets, ballads, ergodic, or just plain prose. Slash, femslash, het, poly, and gen are all great.

I have the following squicks: bathroom stuff, omorashi, forced feeding, prolonged embarrassment, emotional abuse, sex with kids under 15, rape*, vore, explicitly described torture. Avoid those, and I'll be happy.

* I love dubcon where all parties involved are secretly having a great time. "I didn't plan to do this, but...."

My likes?

• Melodrama. I love big sweeping gestures. If it could happen in an 18th or 19th century Gothick novel or play, I'm happy. Bring on the giant falling helmets! Masked balls that reveal deadly secrets! Buckle those swashes, whisper those dark secrets, fight those duels, explore those passages, faint attractively on conveniently-placed chaises longues.
  
• Domesticity. Contrariwise, I also love quiet, settled happiness. People smiling at each other over their books. People making jam. People eating jam. People dealing with Tragic Jam-Exploding incidents. Okay, it isn't all about jam. It's about deep, trusting affection, with no whirlpools or cliffs.
  
• Banter. If the characters are trading barbs instead of advancing the plot, then the barbs are the plot and I'm good with that. By far my favorite Shakespeare is Much Ado About Nothing.
  
• Long-term bitter enemies as reluctant lovers (or sexual partners), marriages of convenience, girls cross-dressing to have adventures, swordfights, deep friendships that aren't sexual, intellectual anger vs physical attraction.
  
• Historical AUs, nerding out on details to your heart's delight.
  
• Detailed descriptions of food, etiquette, clothing, surroundings, either real or imagined.
  

On to the fandoms! Remember, all prompts are optional.

A Civil Contract - Georgette Heyer
No characters in tagset

This is, I think, the saddest of Heyer's Regencies, if you don't count Waterloo as being sad. It's also searingly emotionally realistic. This Heyer heroine isn't beautiful, or witty, or the belle of the ball. This Heyer hero isn't in love with her. The marriage comes to work, not because they are handsome and brilliant, but because she is depthlessly kind and considerate. You're free to write any character(s); this next bit is an optional prompt. I would love it if you took a look at Lord and Lady Lynton after the novel, in their quiet life in the country. Be domestic, if you like; bring in Mr (now Alderman, I think??) Chawleigh if you want; send them to London to do some shopping or tie up a family loose end, if you prefer. Show me a life of contentment created against extreme odds.

Persuasion - Jane Austen
Admiral Croft (Persuasion)
Sophia Croft

This is the most autumnal of Austen's works; I love it dearly for its honesty and risk. In P&P, you know Elizabeth and Darcy are going to wind up together; in Persuasion, there's a hint that Anne and Captain Harville have missed their chance. But that's not why I've called you here today! If you've matched on this, I'll bet we admire the same passage.

But by coolly giving the reins a better direction herself, they happily passed the danger; and by once afterwards judiciously putting out her hand, they neither fell into a rut, nor ran foul of a dung-cart; and Anne, with some amusement at their style of driving, which she imagined no bad representation of the general guidance of their affairs, found herself safely deposited by them at the cottage.

Tell me about the general guidance of their affairs. Tell me about a marriage based on deep mutual respect and affection. Show me a settled, happy marriage, or show me how they met, or show me Sophia Croft being indomitable on a warship in a big storm.

Mumintroll | Moomins Series - Tove Jansson
Mumintrollet | Moomintroll
Snorkfröken | The Snork Maiden

There is a stillness in the Moomintroll books I've loved since childhood. Back then, I saw myself in the Snork Maiden; now it's Moominmamma, with her jams and her patience. Feel free to draw on the comics as well as the books, if you've read them. Tell me about Moomintroll and the Snork Maiden having a small adventure, dramatic, domestic, or surprising, together. I don't have prompts for you; for this one, write the story you'd love to read and I'll be happy.

For this particular request, please, no sexual activity. Romance is fine.

Raffles - E. W. Hornung
A. J. Raffles (Raffles - E. W. Hornung)
Bunny Manders (Raffles - E. W. Hornung)

The fandom that slashes itself. Raffles is a gentleman criminal. Bunny Manders is his (somewhat dim) best friend. They fight commit crime! I love this fandom because of the Thrill of High Life combined with the panache of Raffles's character. Send them to a party together, or let them discover a body, or share a smooch. Or, and I emphasize this, anything you'd love to read. Go for it. Gen and slash are both A-OK.

Quick fandom: Voynich Manuscript (Book)

If we matched on this one, let us exchange the secret handshake of weird nerds. (pause) So, there's this big glob of a manuscript. It's been around since the 1400s. It's written, definitely. And drawn. On parchment. What's it all about? What's it written in? Is it even written in anything? Was it just a way to con money out of Holy Roman Emperor Rudolph II?

I will be dumbfounded if anybody makes a convincing interpretation of the Voynich in my lifetime. I don't expect you to be convincing: focus on the fun. Possibilities: An incident in the manuscript's history before Athanasius Kircher got it, or in any of the other gaps in its travels. A William and Elizebeth Friedman RPF, in which they decrypt the manuscript, only to discover that it contains secrets that must be suppressed for the good of humanity. An alchemist discovers a recipe for a panacea ... or that's what she thinks. Aliens discover a post-apocalyptic Earth, with one mysteriously-surviving artifact, the Voynich, and extrapolate our lost society from it.

Here's the Beinecke museum, which owns it, page on the Manuscript; at the bottom there's a link to all the individual pages. You'll only need to look at a few pages to get the general gist, but don't blame me if you spend a few hours! (Okay, blame me.)

I hope you have a joyous Yuletide, have fun writing, and that the gift you yourself receive is wonderful.

(Edited 10/20 to remove one fandom).

Comments

[sovay]

Show me a settled, happy marriage, or show me how they met, or show me Sophia Croft being indomitable on a warship in a big storm.

I hope you get this.

[mme_hardy]

It's a good year for domesticity. I'm about to edit this letter to list it as one of my likes.

[movingfinger]

I hadn't read Raffles until recently. I'd seen comments about how slashy it was, but when I read it I was amazed that this ran as it was at the time. It is only slightly less slashy than last year's Psmith Yuletide stunner.

[mme_hardy]

Yes! It was a more innocent age. "Confirmed bachelors", and all. The only (unintentionally) slashier canon I've encountered is the 1971 TV series "The Persuaders!", with a young Roger Moore and an old Tony Curtis.

[rachelmanija]

I don't know about "more innocent age." Supposedly Hornung partly based Raffles and Bunny on Oscar Wilde and Bosie. Unless you meant that the innuendo was intentional but went over the heads of many readers at the time.

[mme_hardy]

Oh, really. I did not know that. Although I don't think of Bunny as beautiful, which was most of what Bosie had going for him.

[rachelmanija]

It seems to be one of those stories that easily could be true and based on something everyone knew at the time, or pure supposition. Hornung definitely did know Wilde and Bosie, though I don't think it's clear how well.

Might be more of a "other people don't understand why Raffles keeps Bunny around."

[movingfinger]

I picture Bunny as looking like Destiny in Galavant.