sprocket | Entries tagged with dear author

Dear Yulegoat,

Thanks so much for writing for me! I will be thrilled to receive a story in any of these tiny canons. If you already have an idea you're fired up to write, please get started! Finding out what other people love about a canon is one of the things I like about fandom.

Stuff I Like: people working together to overcome obstacles, snark and snappy dialogue, banter, darkfic, place as character, postapocalyptic, N Times Characters Did A Thing. Solving love triangles with OT3s. Worldbuilding. Food descriptions! I have a bulletproof love of competence, including competence at being villainous, and characters finding connections and trusting each other. If crossovers and fusions are your things, go for it: I am a fan.

Do Not Wants: PWP, bloodplay, coffeeshop AU, high school/college AU, explicit descriptions of sexual assault, cross-generation (May-December) ships, violence much more intense than canon-typical levels.

Gen or Shippy? Add "in bed" to any of the likes and ship away. I am in favor of consenting adults enjoying each others' company and quirks (and kinks).

Happy Yuletide!

Prompts below, with comments for color:

( Ivory Series - Doris Egan )

( The Paladin - C. J. Cherryh )

( Fall of Ile-Rien - Martha Wells )

Dear Yulegoat,

Thanks so much for writing for me! I will be thrilled to receive a story in any of these canons, so please don't read too much into the prompt lengths. If you already have an idea you're fired up to write, please get started! Finding out what other people love about a canon is one of the things I like about fandom.

Stuff I Like: people working together to overcome obstacles, snark and snappy dialogue, banter, darkfic, place as character, postapocalyptic, N Times Characters Did A Thing. Solving love triangles with OT3s. Worldbuilding. Food descriptions! I have a bulletproof love of competence, including competence at being villainous, and characters finding connections and trusting each other. If crossovers and fusions are your things, go for it: I am a fan.

Do Not Wants: PWP, bloodplay, coffeeshop AU, high school/college AU, explicit descriptions of sexual assault, cross-generation (May-December) ships, cheating and/or infidelity, violence much more intense than canon-typical levels.

Gen or Shippy? Add "in bed" to any of the likes and no not wants and ship away. I am in favor of consenting adults enjoying each others' company and quirks (and kinks).

Happy Yuletide!

( The Company Novels - Kage Baker )

( Alliance-Union novels - C. J. Cherryh )

( Ile-Rien - Martha Wells )

Dear Trick or Treat writer,

Thanks so much for writing for me! I will be thrilled to receive a story in any of these canons, so please don't read too much into the prompt lengths. If you already have an idea you're fired up to write, please get started! Finding out what other people love about a canon is one of the things I like about fandom. Happy trick or treating!

Stuff I Like: people working together to overcome obstacles, snark and snappy dialogue, banter, darkfic, place as character, postapocalyptic, N Times Characters Did A Thing. Solving love triangles with OT3s. Worldbuiling. Food descriptions! I have a bulletproof love of competence, including competence at being villainous, and characters finding connections and trusting each other. If crossovers and fusions are your things, go for it - I am a fan.

Do Not Wants: PWP, bloodplay, coffeeshop AU, high school/college AU, explicit descriptions of sexual assault, cross-generation (May-December) ships, cheating and/or infidelity, violence much more intense than canon-typical levels.

Gen or Shippy? Add "in bed" to any of the likes and no not wants and ship away. I am in favor of consenting adults enjoying each others' company and quirks (and kinks).

( Alliance-Union )

( Dragon Age )

( Fringe )

( The Magicians (TV series) )

( Sense8 )

Dear Worldbuilder,

~~Unbelievably, this is a placeholder! I'm going to clean up the fandoms before assignments go out, I really hope.~~ Okay, make that "before Sunday", worldbuilding author. Sorry about that! If you already have an idea, ignore the new stuff and go wild.

I am having a heck of a time with this prompt because I am one of those "but everything is worldbuilding!" fans. Character is formed by the intersection of person and circumstance, and circumstance is worldbuilding. Plot is constrained and freed by worldbuilding. It's unlikely you will write a thrilling pilot-on-pilot starfighter dogfight in a universe without spaceflight. Sex is definitely informed by worldbuilding. Who you do it with, what acts are acceptable, what is kinky, what is Beyond The Pale, how often you do it, and how you feel about that... it's the intersection of biology and social programming! And social programming is worldbuilding.

I hope this makes clear how excited I will be about what element(s) you choose to focus on in your fic. I want a story that to goes off on Anabaptists in fantasy AUs or materials engineering or how to make a really good space!custard (food availability and regional variation is definitely worldbuilding), whatever gets your crank turning. Geek out, turn it into fic or meta. The social, the political, the economic, the scientific, the mystic, the technical, the philosophical - do it!

To give you some idea of stuff I like, feel free to check out my DW Dear Author tag.

I've asked for fandoms that have gaps in canon that might be fun to address, or because they're gap-fillers and I think there's more that could be done in those gaps. Also, I asked for fanfic or meta for all fandoms, because I really don't see the distinction.

( Alliance-Union, Cherryh )

( Fringe )

( Star Wars, Rogue One and the Thrawn trilogy )

A few generic likes/dislikes:

Stuff I Like: people working together to overcome obstacles, snark and snappy dialogue, banter, darkfic, place as character, postapocalyptic, N Times Characters Did A Thing. I have a bulletproof love of competence, including competence at being villainous, and characters finding connections and trusting each other. Add "in bed" to any of this for great shippy times.

Do Not Wants: PWP, bloodplay, coffeeshop AU, high school/college AU, explicit descriptions of sexual assault, cross-generation (May-December) ships, cheating and/or infidelity.

Shippiness is okay, and background pairings, whether F/F, F/M, M/M, are all excellent options. OT3 is one of my favorite solutions to love triangles.

Above all, have fun! Thank you for writing something that explores one of these fandoms.

Dear Yuletide writer,

First, thank you! I'll be happy to see new fic for any of these fandoms, about pretty much anything that is not explicitly invoked in my do not wants. These fandoms all speak to something I love. ODAO, character requests should be considered "OR" not "AND".

Stuff I Like: people working together to overcome obstacles, snark and snappy dialogue, banter, darkfic, place as character, postapocalyptic, N Times Characters Did A Thing. Worldbuiling. I have a bulletproof love of competence, including competence at being villainous, and characters finding connections and trusting each other. Add "in bed" to any of this for great shippy times. If crossovers and fusions are your things, bless you, writer. Crossovers and fusions are a joy to me.

Do Not Wants: PWP, bloodplay, coffeeshop AU, high school/college AU, explicit descriptions of sexual assault, cross-generation (May-December) ships, cheating and/or infidelity, violence much more intense than canon-typical levels.

Shippiness is okay, and background pairings, whether F/F, F/M, M/M, are all excellent options. OT3 is one of my favorite solutions to love triangles.

That's it, that's the letter. Everything else is fandom-specific prompting. If you have an idea, go forth, write. If you're looking for ideas, read on.

( Parable Series, Octavia Butler )

( Sense8 )

( Steerswoman Series - Rosemary Kirstein )

( Valdemar Series - Mercedes Lackey )

Dear Yuletide writer,

We like the same rare fandoms, clearly only good can come of our match-up. And by "good" I may mean interstellar siege warfare, or the terrible things people do when they've lost everything, or ways of making a new home in another world entirely. I love all these fandoms, so don't feel like prompt length has anything to do with desirability. The character requests are the characters I am most excited about getting fic for, and I would suggest, even encourage, additional characters if that's where your story takes you. And if your story includes just some of these characters, that's fine too.

What do I like? N things, place as character, fork in the road AUs, hugs, comfort sex. Misunderstandings and their resolutions. Worldbuilding! Stories that play on the worldbuilding, using some quirk of the major McGuffins or themes for Reasons. Competence, whether it's at scholarship, or diplomacy, or shooting things. Consequences, good or bad. If you're moved to write a crossover, go for it. Anon comments are enabled if you want to ask about a hypothetical crossover, or any other question.

Gen or shippy fic are both up my alley. OT3 is one of my favorite solutions to love triangles. The pan-fandom ship I will go down with is Favorite Characters/Happiness. (The road to Character/Happiness may be fraught. I eat that up with a spoon.) Rape, bloodplay, and infidelity are major turn-offs.

Other do not wants: epistolary fic, coffeeshop / modern day AUs, explicit descriptions of sexual assault, violence that's more intense than canon-typical levels.

( Alliance-Union - C. J. Cherryh: Damon Konstantin, Elene Quen, Joshua Talley )

( Fall of Ile-Rien - Martha Wells: Tremaine Valiarde )

( Imperial Radch Series - Ann Leckie: Seivarden Vendaai, Sphene, Tisarwat, Zeiat )

But most of all, dear writer, have fun! I don't get to read a lot of fic in any of these fandoms, so I really will be happy if you just write that one story you've wanted to get out, however serious or silly, and haven't gotten around to. Happy yuletide!

P. S. So matching snuck up on me and I made some tweaks on 10/30. HTH, writer.

Dear trick-or-treater,

First, thank you! If you're reading this, we've matched on a fandom I love, and characters I would be ridiculously pleased to see featured in a fic. I will be thrilled to receive pretty much anything that is not explicitly invoked in my do not wants. ODAO, character requests should be considered "OR" not "AND", etc.

If you look at the "dear author" tag, you'll notice some patterns in my requests. People working together to overcome obstacles, snark and snappy dialogue, banter, darkfic, place as character, postapocalyptic, N Times Characters Did A Thing. A+ parenting and its tricky parent-child relationship consequences. I have a bulletproof love of competence, including competence at being villainous, and characters finding connections and trusting each other. Add "in bed" to any of this for great shippy times.

Do Not Wants: PWP, bloodplay, coffeeshop AU, high school/college AU, explicit descriptions of sexual assault, cross-generation ships, infidelity, violence much more intense than canon-typical levels.

Shippiness is okay, and background pairings, whether F/F, F/M, M/M are all excellent options. OT3 is one of my favorite solutions to love triangles. Outside of a handful of canon-specific "no not want" pairings*, I'm very ship-flexible. The pan-fandom ship I will go down with is Favorite Characters/Happiness. My shippy Do Not Wants: cross-generation (May-December) relationships are not my jam. Infidelity is also a huge turn-off.

*POI: Root/Finch. It's not Character/Happiness for me. Sense8: Please don't break up Nomi and Amanita or Lito and Hernando unless you are writing that darkfic trick; otherwise, adding people to their happiness adds to my happiness.

That's it, that's the letter. Everything else is fandom-specific prompting. If you have an idea, go forth, write. If you're looking for ideas, read on.

( Babylon 5 )

( Fringe )

( Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood and Manga )

( Person of Interest )

( Sense8 )

Dear Crossovering writer,

Thank you! Crossovers are one of my favorite things about reading and writing fic. Please get peanut butter in my chocolate, garnish my orange jucie with mint, go wild with ridiculous ideas you've been looking for an excuse to set loose.

In general, I love genfic, and also enjoy more explict fic too. Background pairings, F/F, F/M, M/M are all excellent options. OT3 is usually my favorite solution to love triangles, and I'm flexible on pairings with one exception: if you're writing Sense8, please don't break up Nomi and Amanita. But adding people to their happiness adds to my happiness.

Do Not Wants: PWP, bloodplay, coffeeshop AU, high school/college AU, explicit descriptions of sexual assault

Pining For: people working together to overcome obstacles, snark, banter, flirtation, people finding common ground, darkfic, postapocalyptic, N Times Crossover Characters Did A Thing.

Fusion or crossover? It's a spectrum, yes to both options.

Above all, have fun. If you know the fandoms you wish to cross and have a story you're burning to write, stop reading and write it! If you're cruising for ideas, have an excessively long prompt list.

Very general starters by canon:

Community: Here's a chance to lampshade tropes in your fandom (thanks Abed!) and bring in some comedy.

Elementary: Sherlock's irregulars encompass many fields of expertise. Imagine Joan walking into the brownstone with a cross-fandom consult in action.

Fringe: altverse version of your favorite characters!

Leverage: the con goes to pieces because the other fandom gets involved, shouting happens, everyone joins forces because Moriarty / Massive Dynamic / this novel's representative of the Lone Power is a problem for both groups. Or, characters have history.

Orphan Black: Someone in your fandom is a clone, or knows someone in the clone club. FYI, I'm a season behind, but don't let that stop you from using the S3 material.

Pacific Rim: who can say "drift compatible" with me?

Sense8: asking for a cluster is a lot to ask. But if you're inspired to write about a psychic connection to seven other people, go for it! Sense8 is very optimistic about people immediately coming together in a cluster and that could be a thing to be affirmed or examined in a crossover.

SGA: Field trip to Atlantis!

The X-Files: ohhh, casefic. Or cases that get taken away (or taken on) by other agencies and organizations.

Young Wizards: character of your choice is a wizard. GO!

( Elementary, Fringe, Leverage, Young Wizards: The almost New York pool! )

( Fringe, Orphan Black, Pacific Rim, SGA, The X-Files: the mad scientist pool! )

( Community, Fringe, Sense8 (TV), The X-Files: Casefic pool, with Community as your comedic ringer. )

Thank you in advance for the wonderful fic you're going to write, I can't wait to read it! Happy crossovering!

FYI, consider the letter a work in progress until the day after signups.

Dear Rarelywritten author,

First, thank you so much! If you're reading this, we've matched on a fandom I love, and characters I would be ridiculously pleased to see featured in a fic. You have no idea how excited I am to find out what you do with these characters.

Optional details are optional! If details are not your thing, here's the very short version:

Gen: yes
Explicit: yes
Do Not Wants: PWP, bloodplay, coffeeshop AU, high school/college AU, explicit descriptions of sexual assault
Flavor text: the recurring theme in my requests is the diversity of awesome represented in the canon. Mothers, sisters, daughters; women closely tied to their families, and women happy as independent operators, or as part of a chosen family. Working professionals, and women who are happy in non-professional roles. Women who struggle with trauma or loss, with their entire life rearranged by the loss of a parent or spouse or child, or refusing to let trauma define them, or making it part of who they are (by adopting the scars of their enemies' attacks as badges, see Shaal Mayan in B5, or sometimes in the literal form of a robot arm see Fringe). Women who are what they do, or who they know; women who go down fighting, or keep getting back up, or who leave their mark on the world, even when they can't handle that world anymore, or refuse to be beaten down ever.

People who like space: go forth, find words. I look forward to reading them!

For those of you for whom tl;dr is a challenge and inspiration:

My biggest hope is that, like me, you have spent too much time thinking about the way these characters fit (or don't fit) into their worlds, and what this means. If this engagement with the canon needs to be expressed through comedy or crackfic, or their interactions with other under-represented characters I have neglected to include in my requests, go for it! Character requests are "or", not "and". I am also fine with OCs and, if you are in the mood, turning any vagueness in description into an opportunity to squeeze in more diversity (PoC, QUILTBAG, etc).

If you're into gen, rock on. Gen is buddies. If you're in a porny mood, go for it! Add "in bed" to most of the below to get me hot and bothered. Extra points for that rare genre, femslash. But please keep the knives and blood out of the sex: I am not a big fan of mixing pain and orgasms. Likewise, not so much with the BDSM.

Fandom cliches that have made me happy include kidfic, friendships, N Things, genderflip, darkfic, sedoretu, superpowers, cuddling, backstory, timestamp, apocalyptic... go for it. If you're familiar with more than one of these fandoms, I'm fine with crossovers or fusions for any of these. Treat the canon with affection (if not always great reverence), and have fun.

( Alliance-Union - C. J. Cherryh (Elene Quen, Signy Mallory, Allison Reilly, Alicia Konstantin) )

( Babylon 5 (any) )

( Fringe (any) )

( Steerswoman series (any) )

And if you are scratching your head at these prompts, going "how do I do that?" ... write what you love. If a Daemonverse AU is what's speaking to you, or another off the wall concept, rock it.

Dear Yuletide Writer,

We like the same rare fandoms, clearly only good can come of our match-up. And by "good" I may mean interstellar siege warfare, or geeks doing their geeky thing, or creative reconstruction of murder scenes, or maybe some very quirky biology. I will be thrilled to receive pretty much anything that is not explicitly invoked in my do not wants. ETA 11/01: All character requests are intended as "or", not "and".

If you're into gen, rock on. Gen is buddies. If you're in a porny mood, go for it! Add "in bed" to most of the below to get me hot and bothered. But please keep the knives and blood out of the sex: I am not a big fan of mixing pain and orgasms. Likewise, not so much with the BDSM.

A lot of these prompts came out pretty light-hearted. If you are moved to write something about people being messy and human and not that nice, I'm looking forward to reading it.

Fandom cliches that have made me happy include kidfic, friendships, N Things, genderflip, darkfic, sedoretu, superpowers, cuddling, backstory, timestamp, apocalyptic... go for it. If you're familiar with more than one of these fandoms, I'm fine with crossovers or fusions for any of these. Treat the canon with love and affection (if not always great reverence), and have fun.

Alliance-Union - C. J. Cherryh: Damon Konstantin, Elene Quen, Joshua Talley, Signy Mallory
Why hello there, fandom of my heart. While I adore Cyteen, I'm in a mood for the Merchanter's Alliance and Earth Company characters this year. I wouldn't mind a post-War pre-Cyteen story, if you want to just revel in the snippy politics of the Merchanter's Alliance, Union, and Sol. Either internal - imagine Quen and Mallory politicking! - or external. Can you imagine what Alliance would say if Ari said, the military let you have something that wasn't theirs to give, and Reseune wants it back, OMG what have you done with Talley, he's our azi? It might be of those rare occasions that Damon Konstantin and Signy Mallory are on the same oh heck no page.

I want to know what happened post-War that Damon didn't take up his father's post and Elene did. I would not mind Norway backstory at all. I would be absolutely okay with 5 double-drabbles strewn across canon from Heavy Time through Finity's End and on. I will make an exception to "pining is boring" for late Downbelow Station Damon/Elene to the slightly ironic tune of "They Can't Take That Away From Me". Because, of course, a key plot point in DbS is that memory wipes are totally on the table.

(If you are into threesomes, Damon/Josh/Elene is the utterly uncanonical OT3 of my heart. I have this vision of Damon on the "wait, we have to talk about this..." wavelength with two spacers giving him the, "or we could have really hot sex, which would be less intimate and meaningful and way more fun than the way we talked around post-War politics while we killed that bottle of Downer wine" side-eye.)

Cryptonomicon: Amy Shaftoe, Avi Halaby, Charlene, Randall Waterhouse
If it's wrong to want the Charlene POV remix of this novel, I do not want to be right. Charlene gets fairly short shrift as The Ex, she might have some enlightening reflections about hanging out with Randy's crowd for the duration of her relationship, and her secret romance stash. In some way, Charlene's remixing aca-lit crowd reads as One Of Us, I'd love to see five double-drabbles of Charlene and Randy's relationship through the lens of her experiences, or five double-drabbles about her life outside Randy, or a mix. Grad school to tenure track Charlene would be awesome!

I also would love Amy Shaftoe in her own words. As a part Filipinia raised in the Shaftoe clan who bailed on life in the United States to hang out with her dad in the Philipines, what's her feelings about, oh, family, or having an excellent profession like diving ~~and treasure hunting~~ and being as much of a geek as Randy or Avi in her own way. 1,000 words of characters pontificating on the subject matter of your heart in that deadpan "let's connect fiddly minutia to things that could possibly explode" Neal Stephenson style would also be welcome.

Elementary: Joan Watson, Marcus Bell, Ms. Hudson
As I shake the

trickortreatx presents, I am almost embarrassed to ask for more of this. However, I also keep finding awesome snarky gifsets on tumblr which remind me why I love this fandom. I love the snark, I love the improbable cases, I love the Joan-Sherlock relationship. The show does interesting work fleshing out the people around Holmes, but a lot of their interaction still revolves around him. Joan and Marcus have to put up with a lot from Holmes, and maybe deserve some time hanging out without him... but with a case. Perhaps it involves the woefully underused Ms. Hudson? The S2/S3 hiatus? Or there's hanging out at the brownstone with these three characters. Or if you want to meet word count with triple-drabble-ish fashion about things these character do off the clock, as it were, go for it.

Mirabile: Annie Jason Masmajean, Leonev Opener Denness, Susan (Mirabile)
I adore this world. It's cute and fluffy and warm and affectionate! I love that Annie is a happy middle-aged-ish professional woman with a passion. I love the general affection canon has for the kids as they learn and grow. While I would deeply appreciate a casefic incorporating biological twists (ha. ha.) uncovered since these stories were written, I would also be fine with Annie and Leo sipping mint juleps and necking, or more than necking. I love the recognition that childraising is a job, and watching Susan and her cohort growing up, and Annie and Leo's sickeningly cute courtship. The man got her a kangaroo rex, wasn't that great? I wonder what he would get her for the Mirabilian Christmas or Christmas-ish winter gift=giving.

If we matched elsewhere and you're getting stuck, Mirabile is a quick read, which should be available from a local library or through inter-library loan.

Dear trick or treat writer,

Thank you so much for write in a fandom I love.

First, a lot of this is "or", not "and". If multiple elements or characters fit, go for it. If not, don't sweat it.

I like plot, snappy dialogue, a strong sense of place, sex that says something about the character(s) (or awkward admissions about sex, ahem Vir "we have six" Cotto), "day in the life" snapshots, stories about connections between characters. I have a bulletproof love of comptetence, even if it's competence at being sinister. This year's fannish theme seems to be family, blood or built, so if you are in that sort of mood? Rock it. If you are familiar with more than one of these fandoms, and are moved to write a crossover, rock it.

I'm neutral on season-appropriate stories. If you want to tell a creepy ghost story, go for it, but don't feel compelled to shove pumpkins (sugary or exploding) where pumpkins aren't fitting.

Tropes I have no time for: whump, self harm, romantic pining, coffeeshop AUs, high school AUs. My big do not want: if you're in a porny mood, please keep the knives and blood out of the sex. I'm not interested in mixing pain and orgasms. Noncon is also on the "do not want" list.

Other than that, have fun! Or scare me silly, your pick.

Babylon 5: Alfred Bester, Vir Cotto, Delenn, Sofie Ivanov, Susan Ivanova
I love when B5 is plotty with Delenn politicking and reshaping the known universe because she is on fire with the righteous purity of her cause. I love every character's shades of grey (Delenn may be righteous, but she never did mention igniting the Earth Minbari war to her husband, did she?). I love all things Susan Ivanova: her mother-daughter Issues, her telepath issues, her professional comptetence and awkward romantic history. I love Vir trying to figure out this "aide to a powerful man" thing, sometimes comically, sometimes tragically.

Elementary (TV): Marcus Bell, Alfredo Llamosa, Joan Watson (Elementary)
This fandom does a great job fleshing out the people around Holmes, but a lot of their interaction still revolves around him. These are three people who have to put up with a lot from Holmes, and maybe deserve some time hanging out without him... but with a case. Or if you want to meet word count with three drabbles about things these character do off the clock, as it were, go for it.

Fringe: Henrietta "Etta" Bishop, Walter Bishop, Olivia Dunham, Astrid Farnsworth
My heart breaks at the sad under-use of Astrid in the show. Fic writer, please help fix this. Maybe Olivia and Astrid in pre-S4 amberverse? The wacky and occassionally terrifing adventures of Astrid and Walter in the lab? Plus, the multiverse setup offers a lot of scope for triple drabbles in this fandom. Red/blue/amberverse Astrid! If you're not in an Astrid mood, there's a lot of gaps in canon to fill in. Etta-Olivia mother-daughter bonding. Or Walter-Etta, that could be super cute. Or not, see also canon postapocalyptic AU.

Dear Rarewomen Author,

I am thrilled to my toes I get to ask for fic about some of my favorite less-represented female characters. Thank you! As this is rarewomen, you can be certain I will not be considering how your interpretation measures up to the hundreds of character- and pairing-centric fics on the AO3.

Optional details are optional! My biggest hope is that, like me, you have spent too much time thinking about the way these characters fit (or don't fit) into their worlds. If this engagement needs to be expressed through comedy or crackfic, or their interactions with characters I have neglected to include in my requests, go for it! Character requests are "or", not "and". I am also fine with OCs and, if you are in the mood, turning any vagueness in description into an opportunity to squeeze in more diversity.

If you're into gen, rock on. Gen is buddies. If you're in a porny mood, go for it! Add "in bed" to most of the below to get me hot and bothered. But please keep the knives and blood out of the sex. I'm not interested in mixing pain and orgasms. I know, I requested Cherryh, please scale this request to canon-appropriate levels of dubcon and power trips expressed through sex.

Fandom cliches that would make me happy include kidfic, apocalyptic, friendships, N Things, genderflip, darkfic, sedoretu, cuddling, backstory, timestamp, daemon-verse fusion (fusion-fic, period, if I know both fandoms) ... go for it. Treat the canon with love and affection (if not always great reverence), and have fun.

Alliance-Union - C. J. Cherryh (Elene Quen, Meg Kady, Sal Aboujib, Signy Mallory):
I would absolutely adore any flavor of Quen the politican. She's Pell Dockmaster in Merchanter's Luck and Stationmaster of long standing in Finity's End. And somehow, in all this, she raises two kids and doesn't destroy her marriage. (Along those lines... dear writer, I'm fine with rocky relationships, but please do not break up this band. I love OT3s, but cheating on your partner(s) is kind of my anti-kink.) Along those lines, I can certainly see Quen and Mallory dickering about the balance of power between Pell Station and Alliance Security. Or, did any of these characters cross paths, during or after the War? Quen and Mallory are mostly seen in positions of agency; Kady and Aboujib have to navigate life with rather fewer tools at their disposal. I would be thrilled by interstitial stories: there's a lot of time-gaps between Aboujib and Kady in Heavy Time and Quen in Finity's End.

Along those lines, I sort of love Mallory's character arc in Downbelow Station. At a point where she is offered every bad option, she is challenged to do the right thing, and she does it. Well, something like a right option, with a lot of death and betrayal and it's all very sobering, and the AU where she drags Damon and Josh to Earth and leaves Pell to die is one thing you could write, if you are in the mood for something really, really dark. I would be all right with the Making Of special too. She was forty-nine. The Beyonder Rebellion was far older than that; and she had been freighter pilot, rider captain, the whole gamut, all in the Earth Company's service. Does she know Kady or Aboujib? What compromises has she made to keep her ship and people alive, where other captains failed? What challenges does she face after the War, going after her former comrades?

If I have neglected to express my strong feelings on how much I would enjoy a story about Kady or Aboujib, it is because this prompt is already tl;dr. Quen and Mallory are mostly seen in positions of agency; Kady and Aboujib have to navigate life with fewer tools at their disposal. But I would be terrifically interested in a story about how they met, or, again, intersitial stories (life and friction with the Shepherds, shipping out after Hellburner, the compromises and patch-jobs later in the War... which carrier did they wind up attached to? The fluffy optimist in me says Norway, the critical thinker suggests Europe), or even something post-Downbelow Station.

Babylon 5 (Anna Sheridan, Catherine Sakai, Delenn, Susan Ivanova, Talia Winters, Timov): I would love some character-centric "missing scene / day in the life / AU" fic in this fandom. Wouldn't a "Talia doesn't die!" AU carried forward to S4 or S5 be awesome? Because clearly there would be Susan/Talia, and I see no bad there. Or, I would be vastly curious how much snark would be generated should Ivanova and Timov meet. Or maybe Anna Sheridan and Catherine Sakai crossed paths when IPX found something... interesting... on a Q-40-rich planet, and archaology vs geologcal exploitation conflicted... IN SPACE. Or maybe Sakai and Winters had professional dealings on B5? Or if you have Strong Feelings about S5 that must be expressed through the medium of fanfic, go for it.

And if you are scratching your head going "how do I do that?" ... write what you love. If a Daemonverse AU is what's speaking to you, or another off the wall concept, rock it.

Matthew Swift (Penny Ngwenya, Kelly Shiring):
My 100% bulletproof narrative thing, which will get me to read almost anything: place as character. The nearly-as-bulletproof thing is messy identity concepts. So, dear author, here we are, you and I, with London as character, and We are Swift, and I am the angels. Bullet. Proof.

I love those aspects of the novels. Others I find less cool. If you want to fix this weird pattern where many of the incredibly awesome women keep dying, please do. for Penny and Kelly, who clearly are on different life trajectories, but suffer some of the same problems (bosses, possible destruction of all London, that sort of thing). I would be all about The Adventures of Penny Ngwenya, Urban Sorceress. The Penny and Nabeela section of The Minority Council was my favorite part of the novel. Plus, Kelly: PA by day, Alderman by night! What is going on in her head? "Schedule the Warlocks and Witches Annual Dinner with the Mayor, spin class at five, assassinate rogue elements of the Minority Council, check!" How does such a perky, almost mundane young woman get mixed up with the magical side of London?

If you want to pull in characters from the Magicals Anonymous novels, go for it! The more the merrier.

Thank you for offering to write fic in my rare fandom. I am thrilled to my toes about this. Optional details are optional!

seekingferret said last year, "I just want a story that celebrates what's cool about these fandoms and digs into the gaps and questions what isn't cool... it's the intellectual engagement with the source material that I'm seeking." That is how I feel about these fandoms. And this engagement may be expressed through the medium of crackfic.

If you're into gen, rock on. Gen is buddies. If you're in a porny mood, go for it! Add "in bed" to most of the below to get me hot and bothered. But please keep the knives and blood out of the sex: I am not a big fan of mixing pain and orgasms. Likewise, not so much with the BDSM.

Fandom cliches that have made me happy include kidfic, friendships, N Things, genderflip, darkfic, sedoretu, superpowers, cuddling, backstory, timestamp, apocalyptic... go for it. Treat the canon with love and affection (if not always great reverence), and have fun.

100 Books that SHOULD be written (Any):
I love that this is basically a series of transformative works about life. What a great chance to write 1,000 words about the title that strikes your fancy, or how the book came to be, or what inspired the graphic artist(s) in that universe to make that cover (bonus: alternate history and/or alternate future history), the impact of one (or more) of these 100 (fictional) books on an OC's life (bonus: crossovers), whatever floats your boat. This is a great chance to talk about something you love deeply. (There is a cover for a Dahl novel! For Dawkins! For Tesla and art and the Dalai Lama and Canadian politics. Writer, geek out about gaming the Academy Awards or Morris dancing or emacs vs vm or apocafic - hi, Cormac McCarthy - write what you love.)

If we matched on another fandom which has left you scratching your head, this is a great fallback option. Or if you think this would cross over with another requested fandom, go for it!

Matthew Swift (Penny Ngwenya, Dr Seah, Oda, Nabeela Hirj):
Writer, I asked for four awesome women, and now that I look at the request I am a little puzzled as to how to wedge that much awesome into 1,000 words. Please consider character requests optional.

So my 100% bulletproof narrative thing, which will get me to read almost anything: place as character. The nearly-as-bulletproof thing is messy identity concepts. So, gentle Yuletide Writer, here we are, you and I, with London as character, and We are Swift, and I am the angels. Bullet. Proof.

I love those aspects of the novels. Others I find less cool. If you want to fix this weird pattern where many of the incredibly awesome women keep dying, please do. If you want to have a round of "Oda blows things up, maybe with identity angst" go for it. I beg for the blue electric angels to be involved with the explosions. Or a round of Penny blowing things up? I would be all about The Adventures of Penny Ngwenya, Urban Sorceress. The Penny and Nabeela section of The Minority Council was my favorite part of the novel. How did Dr. Seah wind up a magical medical go-to resource? What does she do when she's not patching up Swift? Or if you love your city, I'm sure a younger Swift visited it. Write a love story about the city of your heart, with magic in the sewers and libraries and crackling in the streetlights, and I will love it forever.

If you want to pull in characters from the Magicals Anonymous novels, go for it! The more the merrier.

Mortal City (Dar Williams) (Any):
I love the progression from isolation to a sense of connection with everyone in the city. I love the word-poem. I love the idea this could spawn a character study, and/or a cuddly vignette, and/or super-futuristic Delaneyesque 25th Century city with genderqueer characters, and/or magical realism. I would love to know how the narrator wound up in this city, or what she and her dinner guest did the next morning, whether she stayed in the city or left or dated this guy and why.

Stargate Universe (Vanessa James, Tamara Johansen, Lisa Park):
I stopped watching SGU halfway into S1, and some time after its cancellation was encouraged to give it another shot. At which point I discovered some of the things I found intensely problematic had been dialed down or were heavy-handed setup for long-term character development. And some completely random items were added - Park/Greer, d'awwww - that I liked. I liked characters forming bonds and fixing the ship - a lot - and the explorations of people's connections in times of uncertainty. But the show - how to say this? - does not always do all that well spreading the narrative wealth across its characters. Women tend to be reactive to things that happen to them - pregnancies, alien kidnappings, random blindness - rather than getting stories that promote agency.

So I'd love stories that connect these characters. Stories where knowing medicine and physics and how to shoot a gun really well or keep your head in are at least as important as who your boyfriend is.

This is a great fandom for sex-positive!Park smut or "fix the McGuffin" (where McGuffin = topic close to the writer's heart) stories. Or TJ + James "sister officers" friendship. Or Park and James connecting on, well, anything. Do they have backstory? Maybe they were in the same SG survival course! Maybe they miss their families! Maybe they both knit! Canon is a bit thin on the ground about what choices brought these characters to Icarus and Destiny, feel free to fill that in.

Valdemar (Stephen): I would love post-Vanyel Stephen and the political machinations he likely gets into to fulfill that thing at the end of "Magic's Price". If that doesn't strike your fancy, (a) OPTIONAL DETAILS ARE OPTIONAL, (b) I love all things Tarma and Kethry, (c) I also love all things Savil, including knocking sense into her mopey favorite nephew's head, or hanging out with Vanyel's new (and nearly only) friend.

Please have fun with this prompt and write what you love most about these novels.

I loved Valdemar in my teens. Now I love it for comfort reading, but it has many issues rooted in failing to consider second-order worldbuilding effects, as well as late '80s LGBT failing to translate well 25 (!) years later. Feel free to explore those aspects. Also feel free to write five double-drabbles about Stephen getting into trouble as a Bardic trainee. Or that time Tarma and Kethry communed with some far Northern spirits (because everyone else has made a cameo appearance in the Forest of Sorrows, why not these ladies as well?).

If these prompts work for you, great! If not, write from the heart. Thank you for gracing my fannish life with anything at all in these fandoms.