greetings from the left coast

For the first time since I've participated, I only wrote one Yuletide story this year.

Everyday Magic (2678 words) by r_lee
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Howl Series - Diana Wynne Jones
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Howl Pendragon, Sophie Hatter, Megan Parry
Additional Tags: Cymru am byth!
Summary: Ingary wasn't the only land where magic was commonplace. That was something Sophie was just beginning to learn.

My recipient seemed to like it, which makes me all kinds of happy. I had a great prompt that included this snippet: Howl is from Wales, which I continually adore. I'd love to see him before he met Sophie, or with his family, or with Sophie (and/or his family) sometime after the first book. Sophie changes pretty dramatically between HMC and HoMW (she's much older, calmer, self-assured), and I'd love to see some of how she gets that way. That was a great inspiration and so much fun to explore.

Hello! ( Welcome to my tiny corner of fandom. )

YOU GUYS. I got two completely kick-ass stories!

The first is an absolutely breathtaking piece of Fallen London interactive fiction called Exile's Rose. This is spectacular, true to the game but so unique. Everything in it is intricately well-planned and intentional. The descriptions are beautiful and I sure can't complain that it features my favorite Once-Dashing Smuggler. It's a little bit heartbreaking. I wanted it to go on forever.

Also! starfall is backstory on the Witch of the Waste from Howl's Moving Castle. It's a really smart story not just because of what's in it, but because of the way it's written. The author went to great pains to frame it in the same way DWJ frames Sophie's story. It's really gorgeous. Considering what a sucker I am for backstory, I couldn't have asked for anything better.

Go read them! Or play them, as the case may be.

For a year when I almost didn't sign up for Yuletide, I sure had a lot of fun.

I mostly had fun in the Cowboy Bebop fandom. Let's see... in reverse writing order.

- lostinapapercup wanted time with Julia and Gren, and wanted to know what prompted Julia to talk to Gren about Spike, so she got my only Yuletide Madness story: Confession. What do you do for fun in a place as cold and snowy as Blue Crow? Build a snowman, of course, and feel like it's all just a dream.

- filigranka wanted an exploration of Spike and Vicious that wasn't romantic. As a treat, I wrote Initiative, which is a pre-canon piece about how Spike and Vicious met and became partners in the Red Dragons at the age of fifteen. This one has guest appearances by Mao Yenrai, Annie, the twins, Lin and Shin, and the city of Tharsis itself.

- tegopyon left the most beautiful prompt wanting to know more about what happened with Vicious and Gren on Titan. What attracted me to the prompt was that her letter outlined the way she thought Gren felt about Vicious, and it was the same as my thoughts on their relationship. How could I resist? I wrote The Music Box as another treat because I couldn't resist it. This also gave me a chance to dust off my long-lost RP muscles, since I used to RP both these characters at outpost_12. This story also features Julia.

- I wrote Forever Broke as a pinch hit for handlegg. The request was for Faye, Ed, and Jet post-canon and those of you familiar with Bebop know how fraught with peril that can be, from the whole "it was all just a dream I couldn't wake up from" school of thought to "they never got together again" to "no, he didn't really die" and on and on. I went with my gut and with my own interpretation of the end of canon, and picked up 2 days post-canon with Faye and Jet trying to come to terms with the events of Real Folk Blues. Faye is her usual prickly self and Jet reminisces about the way he met Spike and in the meantime, Ed is off on a search of her own. I haven't written these three characters a lot and I almost didn't volunteer for this pinch hit because the concept of writing post-canon was pretty scary, but I'm so glad I wrote this. I'm especially fond of Jet's long narrative section.

And now for something completely different...

- My yuletide assignment was for elegantpi, who requested a fic for Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris that included Gil, Gabrielle, Gertrude Stein, Salvador Dalí, Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, and Ernest Hemingway. But no pressure, right? She also said she was intrigued by the time-travel aspects of the film and had a few what-if scenarios in her request, and this was so much fun to play with. The finished story is We'll Always Have Paris, in which I play fast and loose with all sorts of people skipping back and forth in time, in Paris, looking for their own golden era. For good measure I threw in a small dose of TS Eliot, because I could.

I want to thank deadcellredux (now that things are revealed) for writing me my gorgeous Baccano! story, Nice Holystone and Jacuzzi Splot Awkwardly Continue to Keep Their Relationship Professional, Despite Explosions of A Quiet and Emotional Sort. If you like Nice Holystone and Jacuzzi Splot and haven't read this yet, go do it! It's everything the name promises.

Also, thank you to lostinapapercup and ladysingsthe for beta reading for me. ♥♥♥

...and today I got this beautiful piece of writing as part of Yuletide Madness!

Go the Fuck to Sleep (Black Dog Remix) (393 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Go the Fuck to Sleep - Adam Mansbach, Cowboy Bebop
Rating: General Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Ed (Cowboy Bebop), Jet Black
Summary: The Bebop hangs gently in orbit,
And its crew has a schedule to keep.
So I'll tell you one story, and we'll all get some rest.
Okay, Ed? Lie the fuck down and sleep.

Oh, man, you guys. This is the first year that Cowboy Bebop has been eligible for Yuletide. I've tried nominating it in the past and had it rejected, so I didn't even think about doing it this year. Then I saw that it was up there, but I'd already done my nominations so I couldn't add any more characters. But I love Jet and Ed and Ein just fine, and requested it. I also requested Go the Fuck to Sleep because it's so fun. I have the book, and it's... well, it makes me laugh every time. As a parent, I've been there far more than once.

I never imagined anyone would write me a crossover for it. Y'all know Bebop is one of my all-time favorite fandoms, and I can't be more delighted with the way the author remixed my requests so beautifully. THANK YOU, ANON. Whoever you are, I love you for the story!

That's shorthand for greetings, friend.

( Dear Yuletide Writer )