Dear Yuletide Author,
Oct. 5th, 2018 10:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lunabee34Thank you for writing for me. In this letter, I'm going to tell you some things I like about the canons I've requested, and I'm going to share some potential prompts for each, but I will be thrilled with whatever you want to write. Write the story of your heart, and that will be more than enough for me.
I like all kinds of pairings (or lack thereof)--gen, slash, het, femslash. I like humor and angst. I like AUs and crossovers. I am fine with character death and non-con and other dark story elements. I like prose and poetry and experimental fiction. If you want to write mpreg or infidelity or whatever, I'm game. I have no DNWs. Whatever you want to write is fine with me.
I have requested Any character for all the fandoms in my sign-up, so feel free to focus on any character and/or combo of characters that calls to you regardless of my prompts. Feel free to include characters I don't mention or that aren't included in the tag set.
The Haunting of Hill House
This is one of my absolute favorite novels. It is the quintessential horror story for me. Is anything otherworldly really happening, or is it all an elaborate hoax? Or maybe the horror is only happening in Eleanor's mind. With the exception of the spectral picnic that Eleanor and Theodora witness, I don't think there's a supernatural incident that can't be explained either by Eleanor's overactive imagination or by deliberate trickery. For example, when Nell and Theodora hear the horrible laughter and knocking, they are separated from Luke and Dr. Montague who could be responsible. After the first writing is discovered on the wall written in chalk, the next scene is Dr. Montague recording measurements of the cold spot in the library with a piece of chalk.
I would love a version of this story in which Dr. Montague and/or Luke (or even the Dudleys! maybe Mrs. Montague and Arthur are in on it! maybe even Theo) are deliberately manufacturing the supernatural elements of the story for some purpose rather than the house actually being haunted.
I love Mrs. Montague's character. She's a true believer in the supernatural, but she's so absurd and ridiculous and unable to recognize actual spectral activity when it's happening around her. I would love some sort of comic story about Mrs. Montague and Dr. Montague (and maybe Arthur) that explores how silly she is. It wouldn't even necessarily need to be set at Hill House and could explore the Montagues in other ghost hunting scenarios or in the aftermath of Eleanor's suicide. I realize that comedy is a huge tonal shift for this novel, so this idea may not be very feasible.
Finally, if the house really is haunted, why? By whom? What do you think is holding Nell's hand? At the end, is Nell absorbed into the house (creating a sort of happy ending for her)? Has she found a place to belong, or does "what walks there walks alone" mean that even in death, Nell is rejected?
The Gentleman Bastards Sequence
I love this series. The dialogue and the world building are so stellar, and the characters are so complex and interesting. I really wish HBO or Showtime would make a series out of it.
I will read as much of these characters loving each other and being found family and risking it all for each other as you want to write me. I am especially interested in this re: Sabetha because the series does a lot of telling us that Sabetha is a part of this group without really showing it. I want to see her in the thick of clever heists and saving the twins and taking a punch for Jean or whatever. Because she is absent for so much of the narrative, she never seems to be a cohesive and integral part of the group in the way Lynch clearly intends her to be.
The world can never have enough lesbian pirate hijinks.
I am fascinated by the Eldren. Anything you want to tell me about who they were, where they went, what they left behind, and if they're coming back would be awesome.
Since the canon seems likely to remain unfinished for the foreseeable future, I'd love a look at what you think might happen next.
The Long Price Quartet
These books are so beautifully written with such deftly drawn characters and such exquisite world building. Every character in this series discovers that the world is not exactly as he or she believed; they have the foundations of the lives they've built for themselves shaken, and they have to figure out not just how to live in the world now that they truly understand it but also how to live lives that are ethical and true to what they believe is right.
I would love to read more about Otah in his grief over losing Kiyan. Their relationship is so strong and powerful. I was so sad she is dead in the final novel.
I would love to read about Eiah as a secret disciple of Maati. What were those initial days like, the ones that come before the group we're shown in the novel? I am also intensely interested in what Eiah does after the novel's end and how others regard her. She's a Poet. She calls an andat, and she lets it go. The series implies that Eiah's career as a Poet ends there, but I wonder if she's ever tempted to try to call another. Is she changed in some way by that experience even if her days as a Poet are over? Does anyone ever find out that she was responsible for fixing the world? Does that put her life in danger?
Idaan is something else. I was so shocked when she is revealed to be the one plotting against her family. And then she's allowed to live and even take on an important role as the narrative progresses. I would love a look at her in all those long years between her flight and her seeing Otah again.
Maati breaks my heart. At first when I read the series, I hated the way he seems to change in the final novel, and when it was over, what really hurt is that I realized he hasn't. I want any story you can tell me about Maati with his group of female Poets, trying to rectify the wrong he's done. Or Maati after Eiah has achieved what he never could and the feelings he has about that. Basically, I am interested in Maati's psychology and how you think he has or has not changed since the naive boy we first meet in book one.
Kraken
This book is so freaking good. I love the narrative voice--all that energy, all those pop culture references. Such a fun read.
I love Marge the mostest. I want to know everything about what she does next. She's been clued in to this whole other world and that through her own tenacity. So what does she do with what she's learned? (And any riff on her name being Marginalia would be the sprinkles on top.)
I love Billy, too. He's the every man whose put in this extraordinary position in which his whole world view shatters. He becomes more than himself, and it's fascinating to read. I absolutely adore that he's not the prophet of krakens at all, but a bottle prophet, a prophet of glass, a prophet of the tools of his trade. That was such a lovely, lovely reveal. Anything you want to tell me about how that might continue to manifest in his life would be awesome.
Waiti is such a cool character. I would love to see back story for him as well as future story. I'm so glad he didn't actually die; that was a welcome surprise in the novel.
Finally, I wish we'd gotten that resurrection for Dane. :( Fix-it-fic for Dane would be welcome. I'd also like to see what growing up in the Church of the Kraken and training to be a soldier was like.
Thank you so much, Yuletide Author!
Lorraine
I like all kinds of pairings (or lack thereof)--gen, slash, het, femslash. I like humor and angst. I like AUs and crossovers. I am fine with character death and non-con and other dark story elements. I like prose and poetry and experimental fiction. If you want to write mpreg or infidelity or whatever, I'm game. I have no DNWs. Whatever you want to write is fine with me.
I have requested Any character for all the fandoms in my sign-up, so feel free to focus on any character and/or combo of characters that calls to you regardless of my prompts. Feel free to include characters I don't mention or that aren't included in the tag set.
The Haunting of Hill House
This is one of my absolute favorite novels. It is the quintessential horror story for me. Is anything otherworldly really happening, or is it all an elaborate hoax? Or maybe the horror is only happening in Eleanor's mind. With the exception of the spectral picnic that Eleanor and Theodora witness, I don't think there's a supernatural incident that can't be explained either by Eleanor's overactive imagination or by deliberate trickery. For example, when Nell and Theodora hear the horrible laughter and knocking, they are separated from Luke and Dr. Montague who could be responsible. After the first writing is discovered on the wall written in chalk, the next scene is Dr. Montague recording measurements of the cold spot in the library with a piece of chalk.
I would love a version of this story in which Dr. Montague and/or Luke (or even the Dudleys! maybe Mrs. Montague and Arthur are in on it! maybe even Theo) are deliberately manufacturing the supernatural elements of the story for some purpose rather than the house actually being haunted.
I love Mrs. Montague's character. She's a true believer in the supernatural, but she's so absurd and ridiculous and unable to recognize actual spectral activity when it's happening around her. I would love some sort of comic story about Mrs. Montague and Dr. Montague (and maybe Arthur) that explores how silly she is. It wouldn't even necessarily need to be set at Hill House and could explore the Montagues in other ghost hunting scenarios or in the aftermath of Eleanor's suicide. I realize that comedy is a huge tonal shift for this novel, so this idea may not be very feasible.
Finally, if the house really is haunted, why? By whom? What do you think is holding Nell's hand? At the end, is Nell absorbed into the house (creating a sort of happy ending for her)? Has she found a place to belong, or does "what walks there walks alone" mean that even in death, Nell is rejected?
The Gentleman Bastards Sequence
I love this series. The dialogue and the world building are so stellar, and the characters are so complex and interesting. I really wish HBO or Showtime would make a series out of it.
I will read as much of these characters loving each other and being found family and risking it all for each other as you want to write me. I am especially interested in this re: Sabetha because the series does a lot of telling us that Sabetha is a part of this group without really showing it. I want to see her in the thick of clever heists and saving the twins and taking a punch for Jean or whatever. Because she is absent for so much of the narrative, she never seems to be a cohesive and integral part of the group in the way Lynch clearly intends her to be.
The world can never have enough lesbian pirate hijinks.
I am fascinated by the Eldren. Anything you want to tell me about who they were, where they went, what they left behind, and if they're coming back would be awesome.
Since the canon seems likely to remain unfinished for the foreseeable future, I'd love a look at what you think might happen next.
The Long Price Quartet
These books are so beautifully written with such deftly drawn characters and such exquisite world building. Every character in this series discovers that the world is not exactly as he or she believed; they have the foundations of the lives they've built for themselves shaken, and they have to figure out not just how to live in the world now that they truly understand it but also how to live lives that are ethical and true to what they believe is right.
I would love to read more about Otah in his grief over losing Kiyan. Their relationship is so strong and powerful. I was so sad she is dead in the final novel.
I would love to read about Eiah as a secret disciple of Maati. What were those initial days like, the ones that come before the group we're shown in the novel? I am also intensely interested in what Eiah does after the novel's end and how others regard her. She's a Poet. She calls an andat, and she lets it go. The series implies that Eiah's career as a Poet ends there, but I wonder if she's ever tempted to try to call another. Is she changed in some way by that experience even if her days as a Poet are over? Does anyone ever find out that she was responsible for fixing the world? Does that put her life in danger?
Idaan is something else. I was so shocked when she is revealed to be the one plotting against her family. And then she's allowed to live and even take on an important role as the narrative progresses. I would love a look at her in all those long years between her flight and her seeing Otah again.
Maati breaks my heart. At first when I read the series, I hated the way he seems to change in the final novel, and when it was over, what really hurt is that I realized he hasn't. I want any story you can tell me about Maati with his group of female Poets, trying to rectify the wrong he's done. Or Maati after Eiah has achieved what he never could and the feelings he has about that. Basically, I am interested in Maati's psychology and how you think he has or has not changed since the naive boy we first meet in book one.
Kraken
This book is so freaking good. I love the narrative voice--all that energy, all those pop culture references. Such a fun read.
I love Marge the mostest. I want to know everything about what she does next. She's been clued in to this whole other world and that through her own tenacity. So what does she do with what she's learned? (And any riff on her name being Marginalia would be the sprinkles on top.)
I love Billy, too. He's the every man whose put in this extraordinary position in which his whole world view shatters. He becomes more than himself, and it's fascinating to read. I absolutely adore that he's not the prophet of krakens at all, but a bottle prophet, a prophet of glass, a prophet of the tools of his trade. That was such a lovely, lovely reveal. Anything you want to tell me about how that might continue to manifest in his life would be awesome.
Waiti is such a cool character. I would love to see back story for him as well as future story. I'm so glad he didn't actually die; that was a welcome surprise in the novel.
Finally, I wish we'd gotten that resurrection for Dane. :( Fix-it-fic for Dane would be welcome. I'd also like to see what growing up in the Church of the Kraken and training to be a soldier was like.
Thank you so much, Yuletide Author!
Lorraine
