Keep Hoping Machine Running (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
thefourthvine) wrote2022-10-13 12:26 pm
thefourthvine) wrote2022-10-13 12:26 pm
Yuletide Dear Author Letter 2022
Dear Writer,
Hi!
I am going to provide you with all the details, because that is who I am as a person, but if you are not an all-the-details type writer, you don't have to read all this! Thank you so, so much for writing in one of these tiny fandoms. See you on the 25th!
(And should there somehow be two people in the world willing to write one of these tiny, tiny fandoms: treats are VERY welcome.)
Likes/DNWs
I love so many things! Here is a small sample:
I also have some DNWs:
So that's the general stuff. Let's talk fandoms.
Between Silk and Cyanide RPF, Leo Marks, Forest “Tommy” Yeo-Thomas
Request: I love codebreaking, I love spies, I love two extremely competent people working together to do something very difficult, so obviously I love Leo and Tommy. I would be delighted for ship fic at any point in their story. Before Arquebuse, when Leo is absolutely wrecked to see Tommy go? After Arquebuse, when Leo is absolutely thrilled that he’s back? During or around the fight before Marie-Claire, or Tommy’s whole, uh, situation at that point? Or, of course, after he comes back following that final ill-fated drop into France? Or how about after the war, when Tommy returns to France and Leo is writing and they’re both out of the war but with a lot of memories they can’t really discuss with most people? I’d love to see a reunion when they are older and, well, possibly wiser. Hard to say with these guys.
I'd also be fascinated by a they-both-stay-in AU, with or without the pairing. Obviously leaving was the right choice for Leo, and I'm glad he did, and yet -- I'm always curious.
(Also, I know there’s a lot of additional canon about Tommy especially -- James Bond and The White Rabbit and all that. I’m really only interested in the BSAC version of him, though.)
Additional Information: I love WWII codebreaking stuff, and also the SOE for some reason, so I have read very, very many books on these topics. Leo Marks’s memoir is my surprise favorite of all of them. His feelings, even though he was writing years after the fact, come off of every page, and he knows how to tell a story and make it good. I love that he cares so much, I love that he’s basically vibrating with imposter syndrome even as he accomplishes impossible thing after impossible thing, I love that he’s so out of his depth in the politics of the intelligence world, I love how fighty he is even as he calls himself a coward, I love how he trains himself an army of codebreakers at Grendon and forces the SOE to use decent codes very much against their will. I love how much he loves all the spies I love, too (even if it totally breaks him). And his relationship with Tommy is -- well. “I had never met anyone I trusted so completely or whose trust I valued more” is how Leo sums it up, and honestly that’s an understatement. Even when he was writing his memoir decades after the war, his hearteyes were absolutely visible in every line he wrote about him. (The part where he says Tommy’s hand is still on his shoulder -- WOW, sir.)
I also love Tommy, with his continental flair (he was a director of Molyneux’s fashion house before the war and stole his yacht during it, and that is style for real) and his fearlessness and dedication and absolutely absurd life. I also love how he acknowledges that Leo is something special in the SOE — a person who actually cares very deeply about his job AND is extremely good at it — and tries so hard to teach him how to play the game (and also learns a little about codes from him). I love how hurt Tommy is when he realizes Leo kept something from him -- he expected no secrets! From a codebreaker! Which shows that he was emotionally compromised, too.
(By the way, in re: the rest of the spies. Noor is my favorite, always, but I love Odette and Violette and Alec and Peter and all the rest, and I’m always happy to see more of them! But I’d appreciate it if their appearances in your fic, if any, were kept to their pre-departure selves, because most of them died horribly and tragically and … honestly, it’s too sad for Yuletide. So my ideal focus here is definitely codebreaking and the British side of the channel. If you’re looking for other, non-spy characters to include, I absolutely adore Vera Atkins and Joan Dodd and Joan Bright and Margaret Jackson.)
If you want to pick this fandom up, the book is unfortunately expensive, but it is available in both print and ebook forms, and it may be available from your local library as well.
Clipping Chair - officialjadenwilliams (Tiktok), Ron, Greyson
Request: I'm hoping for either pairing fic or worldbuilding, and I will be entirely happy with either or both.
First up: Ron/Greyson. I just really love the normie/complete weirdo dynamic, and theirs is especially good, because the normie holds his own and the weirdo seems to expect that. I would very much enjoy a story that paired them up. Like. Maybe Ron wants to experiment! Maybe Greyson ends up so annoyed at Ron he’s suddenly into him! Maybe Ron makes or finds a telepathy device and they both learn a lot about why they continue to room together despite their very different outlooks on both life and physics! Quite honestly, this whole relationship seems ripe for Weird Science Made Them Do It of any stripe. Or you could go for My Landlord Is Probably Going To Explode The Earth, But The Rent Is Cheap (And Also I’m Into Him). Or what about that old favorite, Stuck In A Timeloop/Pocket Dimension/Alternate Plane And Forced To Work Together? There are so many tropey directions you could go here, and I would enjoy every single one of them.
I am also extremely interested in worldbuilding. Why do they live where they live? That looks like an exceptionally bland suburban house, complete with that flooring that was trendy about ten years ago and a leather living room set, and Greyson calls it “our house.” Do they -- own it? Why is it decorated that way? They do not seem like 747 Morning Bird Circle Lane type people, and that really looks like a Morning Bird Circle Lane house. Do they have neighbors like them, or do the neighbors recoil from the strange noises that I assume come from the garage most nights? What are the HOA meetings like? Or, of course, you could take on the weird science in general. Like. What is going on with that chair? Why is it going on where it is? Did Ron do something to cause it? Do they live in a place -- a university, a town -- where this stuff just happens? Where is the chair going? Is this just the start of the glitchiness? Why and what happens?
I am good for any combination of the above, too.
(I’d prefer to treat Ron and Greyson as two unrelated individuals.)
Additional information: I love this video and I think about it often. The dialogue is great, the reactions are great, and for me these one-person-plays-multiple-characters TikToks work great. (I’m faceblind. Change someone’s shirt and they’re a whole new person to me.) And it has so much to explore! And basically that is all I want, whether it’s exploring their relationship, exploring the chair situation, exploring their world, exploring classic fan fiction tropes, or, you know, all of the above.
Humor would be awesome, although if you want to write it like golden age science fiction or a boy’s own adventure or a noir mystery or whatever, go for it. (Especially if you write that and add in gay sex. Take a fun thing and make it better!)
One note: I am not a big fan of dystopias or apocalypses. It’s great if they’re saving the world or averting an apocalypse or even adapting to the new reality of glitchy objects, but “this is the start of the end of the world” or “and now we all live in the rubble of a once-proud civilization, hoping food will glitch in long enough for us to eat it” is just not my thing. (If it’s more of a comedy of errors, like “we’re hoping the sex toy will glitch in long enough for us to use it,” obviously that is GREAT.)
If you want to pick it up, it’s here, it’s free, and it’s two minutes of your time. Why not?
Nomads (1986) — Eileen Flax, Veronique Pommier
Request: These women have, by the end of the movie, a relationship that was made for fic, and so I’m hoping for something set after the movie. How do things go when you simultaneously remember someone as your new friend made while surviving a terrible ordeal and your beloved wife? What’s it like when you’re on the run with someone you barely know except she also has the memories of the person you know and love best in the world?
And there’s also the issue of practical matters. How do they live? Eileen’s ability to practice medicine is going to be somewhat limited, at least at first, since being on the run from supernatural evil tends to inhibit your ability to obtain a license and a job. Does she become a doctor for people with paranormal maladies, or for supernatural people, or just for other people on the run? And what does Veronique, who came to this country hoping for some peaceful downtime and did not at all get that do after the trauma of the movie?
I would be delighted with relationship fic. I would be delighted with them turning around and taking the battle to the Nomads. I would be delighted with them encountering a new kind of evil and becoming a two-woman, three-sets-of-memories supernatural detection team. I just want to know how things go after the movie ends for these two. And please please please give them some kind of happily ever after, or the potential for one.
Additional information:For me, this movie is essentially one long prologue to fic. Like, okay, I’m sorry, but Eileen literally has Veronique’s dead husband’s memories and they literally drive off into the sunset together to make a new life. I just ... feel like that needs exploring, you know? I mean, yay Nomads, yay vaguely creepy paranormal whatever, but what of the relationship?
And these are two fascinating women. Veronique takes in a woman who is apparently insane and ranting and who seems to know her dead husband way too well and is incredibly kind to her, even though Niki’s life is, at that point, SUPER not going well. And Eileen is this analytical, problem-solving person who is going to find out what happened and fix this problem even if it, you know, destroys her life and drives her insane. (Also, her first thought when she wakes up in Veronique’s bed is apparently “Wait, did we have sex?” I am just saying. It was not far from Eileen’s mind. And Veronique clearly knew that. The possibility is there.) They are both willing to burn down lives they loved to stay alive, and I believe that means they can build something new in the ashes. I love them both, and hope they find happiness on the other side of their Nomad-Related Life Implosion.
This is technically a horror movie, but a) it’s so non-horrifying that I, a noted wimp, can watch it even after dark (except the deeply creepy abbey/nun sequence, because I am still a wimp) and b) I’m not really here for the horror aspect. I mean, okay, vaguely punkish Nomads acting like people in a gang in a movie, memory stealing, fine, that’s all good. But. Well. It’s not actually my main interest. My interest is in how people survive events this weird, how they make new lives after surviving, and how it all affects them.
I will be happy with any rating you care to write on this one. If you’re going to write a pairing, I’m only really interested in Eileen/Veronique HEA here. (But I am VERY interested in that!)
If you want to pick this up — well, it’s definitely available for rental on Amazon. And there’s also this copy, although I cannot vouch for its quality, on YouTube.
Hi!
I am going to provide you with all the details, because that is who I am as a person, but if you are not an all-the-details type writer, you don't have to read all this! Thank you so, so much for writing in one of these tiny fandoms. See you on the 25th!
(And should there somehow be two people in the world willing to write one of these tiny, tiny fandoms: treats are VERY welcome.)
Likes/DNWs
I love so many things! Here is a small sample:
- Happy endings. (Um, I mean of the everyone lives happily ever after kind. Although I am also a big fan of orgasms, not gonna lie.)
- Humor.
- Slow burn romances and slow build sex scenes.
- Action and adventure.
- Mysteries, heists, spies, casefic.
- Snappy dialogue.
- Classic fan fiction tropes, whether played straight or inverted. (Soulbonds! Bodyswap! Arranged marriages! Fake dating! Amnesia! And so on.)
- Families (found, biological, synthetic, hologrammatic, whatever) being good to each other.
- People who have problems with feelings.
- Pining and denial, especially of the I-am-definitely-not-feeling-anything kind.
- Hurt/comfort.
- Worldbuilding.
- Every rating. I'm happy to get G up through NC-17, so go with whatever works best for you!
I also have some DNWs:
- Animal and child harm or death. These are my dealbreakers; I can't handle them at all.
- Rape.
- The abuse of women.
- Infidelity. (FULLY here for any kind of arrangement that has the consent of all involved, or for unpartnered AUs.)
- Public humiliation.
- Zombies and cannibalism.
- Character death or characters with cancer or other non-canon terminal or degenerative diseases.
- Pairings with huge power imbalances -- teacher/student, doctor/patient, etc -- or a male/female power imbalance with the woman on the less powerful end.
- Christmas fic. (Other religious holidays are very welcome in canons with characters who practice those religions, like Between Silk and Cyanide.)
- Mommy/Daddy/little kink.
- Unhappy endings.
So that's the general stuff. Let's talk fandoms.
Between Silk and Cyanide RPF, Leo Marks, Forest “Tommy” Yeo-Thomas
Request: I love codebreaking, I love spies, I love two extremely competent people working together to do something very difficult, so obviously I love Leo and Tommy. I would be delighted for ship fic at any point in their story. Before Arquebuse, when Leo is absolutely wrecked to see Tommy go? After Arquebuse, when Leo is absolutely thrilled that he’s back? During or around the fight before Marie-Claire, or Tommy’s whole, uh, situation at that point? Or, of course, after he comes back following that final ill-fated drop into France? Or how about after the war, when Tommy returns to France and Leo is writing and they’re both out of the war but with a lot of memories they can’t really discuss with most people? I’d love to see a reunion when they are older and, well, possibly wiser. Hard to say with these guys.
I'd also be fascinated by a they-both-stay-in AU, with or without the pairing. Obviously leaving was the right choice for Leo, and I'm glad he did, and yet -- I'm always curious.
(Also, I know there’s a lot of additional canon about Tommy especially -- James Bond and The White Rabbit and all that. I’m really only interested in the BSAC version of him, though.)
Additional Information: I love WWII codebreaking stuff, and also the SOE for some reason, so I have read very, very many books on these topics. Leo Marks’s memoir is my surprise favorite of all of them. His feelings, even though he was writing years after the fact, come off of every page, and he knows how to tell a story and make it good. I love that he cares so much, I love that he’s basically vibrating with imposter syndrome even as he accomplishes impossible thing after impossible thing, I love that he’s so out of his depth in the politics of the intelligence world, I love how fighty he is even as he calls himself a coward, I love how he trains himself an army of codebreakers at Grendon and forces the SOE to use decent codes very much against their will. I love how much he loves all the spies I love, too (even if it totally breaks him). And his relationship with Tommy is -- well. “I had never met anyone I trusted so completely or whose trust I valued more” is how Leo sums it up, and honestly that’s an understatement. Even when he was writing his memoir decades after the war, his hearteyes were absolutely visible in every line he wrote about him. (The part where he says Tommy’s hand is still on his shoulder -- WOW, sir.)
I also love Tommy, with his continental flair (he was a director of Molyneux’s fashion house before the war and stole his yacht during it, and that is style for real) and his fearlessness and dedication and absolutely absurd life. I also love how he acknowledges that Leo is something special in the SOE — a person who actually cares very deeply about his job AND is extremely good at it — and tries so hard to teach him how to play the game (and also learns a little about codes from him). I love how hurt Tommy is when he realizes Leo kept something from him -- he expected no secrets! From a codebreaker! Which shows that he was emotionally compromised, too.
(By the way, in re: the rest of the spies. Noor is my favorite, always, but I love Odette and Violette and Alec and Peter and all the rest, and I’m always happy to see more of them! But I’d appreciate it if their appearances in your fic, if any, were kept to their pre-departure selves, because most of them died horribly and tragically and … honestly, it’s too sad for Yuletide. So my ideal focus here is definitely codebreaking and the British side of the channel. If you’re looking for other, non-spy characters to include, I absolutely adore Vera Atkins and Joan Dodd and Joan Bright and Margaret Jackson.)
If you want to pick this fandom up, the book is unfortunately expensive, but it is available in both print and ebook forms, and it may be available from your local library as well.
Clipping Chair - officialjadenwilliams (Tiktok), Ron, Greyson
Request: I'm hoping for either pairing fic or worldbuilding, and I will be entirely happy with either or both.
First up: Ron/Greyson. I just really love the normie/complete weirdo dynamic, and theirs is especially good, because the normie holds his own and the weirdo seems to expect that. I would very much enjoy a story that paired them up. Like. Maybe Ron wants to experiment! Maybe Greyson ends up so annoyed at Ron he’s suddenly into him! Maybe Ron makes or finds a telepathy device and they both learn a lot about why they continue to room together despite their very different outlooks on both life and physics! Quite honestly, this whole relationship seems ripe for Weird Science Made Them Do It of any stripe. Or you could go for My Landlord Is Probably Going To Explode The Earth, But The Rent Is Cheap (And Also I’m Into Him). Or what about that old favorite, Stuck In A Timeloop/Pocket Dimension/Alternate Plane And Forced To Work Together? There are so many tropey directions you could go here, and I would enjoy every single one of them.
I am also extremely interested in worldbuilding. Why do they live where they live? That looks like an exceptionally bland suburban house, complete with that flooring that was trendy about ten years ago and a leather living room set, and Greyson calls it “our house.” Do they -- own it? Why is it decorated that way? They do not seem like 747 Morning Bird Circle Lane type people, and that really looks like a Morning Bird Circle Lane house. Do they have neighbors like them, or do the neighbors recoil from the strange noises that I assume come from the garage most nights? What are the HOA meetings like? Or, of course, you could take on the weird science in general. Like. What is going on with that chair? Why is it going on where it is? Did Ron do something to cause it? Do they live in a place -- a university, a town -- where this stuff just happens? Where is the chair going? Is this just the start of the glitchiness? Why and what happens?
I am good for any combination of the above, too.
(I’d prefer to treat Ron and Greyson as two unrelated individuals.)
Additional information: I love this video and I think about it often. The dialogue is great, the reactions are great, and for me these one-person-plays-multiple-characters TikToks work great. (I’m faceblind. Change someone’s shirt and they’re a whole new person to me.) And it has so much to explore! And basically that is all I want, whether it’s exploring their relationship, exploring the chair situation, exploring their world, exploring classic fan fiction tropes, or, you know, all of the above.
Humor would be awesome, although if you want to write it like golden age science fiction or a boy’s own adventure or a noir mystery or whatever, go for it. (Especially if you write that and add in gay sex. Take a fun thing and make it better!)
One note: I am not a big fan of dystopias or apocalypses. It’s great if they’re saving the world or averting an apocalypse or even adapting to the new reality of glitchy objects, but “this is the start of the end of the world” or “and now we all live in the rubble of a once-proud civilization, hoping food will glitch in long enough for us to eat it” is just not my thing. (If it’s more of a comedy of errors, like “we’re hoping the sex toy will glitch in long enough for us to use it,” obviously that is GREAT.)
If you want to pick it up, it’s here, it’s free, and it’s two minutes of your time. Why not?
Nomads (1986) — Eileen Flax, Veronique Pommier
Request: These women have, by the end of the movie, a relationship that was made for fic, and so I’m hoping for something set after the movie. How do things go when you simultaneously remember someone as your new friend made while surviving a terrible ordeal and your beloved wife? What’s it like when you’re on the run with someone you barely know except she also has the memories of the person you know and love best in the world?
And there’s also the issue of practical matters. How do they live? Eileen’s ability to practice medicine is going to be somewhat limited, at least at first, since being on the run from supernatural evil tends to inhibit your ability to obtain a license and a job. Does she become a doctor for people with paranormal maladies, or for supernatural people, or just for other people on the run? And what does Veronique, who came to this country hoping for some peaceful downtime and did not at all get that do after the trauma of the movie?
I would be delighted with relationship fic. I would be delighted with them turning around and taking the battle to the Nomads. I would be delighted with them encountering a new kind of evil and becoming a two-woman, three-sets-of-memories supernatural detection team. I just want to know how things go after the movie ends for these two. And please please please give them some kind of happily ever after, or the potential for one.
Additional information:For me, this movie is essentially one long prologue to fic. Like, okay, I’m sorry, but Eileen literally has Veronique’s dead husband’s memories and they literally drive off into the sunset together to make a new life. I just ... feel like that needs exploring, you know? I mean, yay Nomads, yay vaguely creepy paranormal whatever, but what of the relationship?
And these are two fascinating women. Veronique takes in a woman who is apparently insane and ranting and who seems to know her dead husband way too well and is incredibly kind to her, even though Niki’s life is, at that point, SUPER not going well. And Eileen is this analytical, problem-solving person who is going to find out what happened and fix this problem even if it, you know, destroys her life and drives her insane. (Also, her first thought when she wakes up in Veronique’s bed is apparently “Wait, did we have sex?” I am just saying. It was not far from Eileen’s mind. And Veronique clearly knew that. The possibility is there.) They are both willing to burn down lives they loved to stay alive, and I believe that means they can build something new in the ashes. I love them both, and hope they find happiness on the other side of their Nomad-Related Life Implosion.
This is technically a horror movie, but a) it’s so non-horrifying that I, a noted wimp, can watch it even after dark (except the deeply creepy abbey/nun sequence, because I am still a wimp) and b) I’m not really here for the horror aspect. I mean, okay, vaguely punkish Nomads acting like people in a gang in a movie, memory stealing, fine, that’s all good. But. Well. It’s not actually my main interest. My interest is in how people survive events this weird, how they make new lives after surviving, and how it all affects them.
I will be happy with any rating you care to write on this one. If you’re going to write a pairing, I’m only really interested in Eileen/Veronique HEA here. (But I am VERY interested in that!)
If you want to pick this up — well, it’s definitely available for rental on Amazon. And there’s also this copy, although I cannot vouch for its quality, on YouTube.