YULETIDE.

Y:

Inception
Lloyd Alexander – Vesper Holly
N.K. Jemisin – The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms
The Room (2003)
RPF – SNSD
RPF – Taylor Swift

:> :> :> :>

eta: just so i don’t have to keep repeating myself on both posts, copying & slightly editing from a comment I left on DW re: nominating Inception:

i originally wasn’t going to nominate it, for precisely the reason (that it is so large already). but i had a 6th slot and i couldn’t think of anything else i really wanted to nominate without perusing the challenge list for hours and making DETAILED CHARTS. and i figured (rightly) that someone else had already nominated it, so i was at least able to add to the character list (they had left off Mal and Yusuf and Fischer, etc). so — i understand why others may be disappointed if it gets through, but there is a loophole that allows it to be ruled eligible as a first-year fandom, so I’m not guilt-tripping myself over it or anything.

Yuletide, the OTW, Old Spice Man, Taylor Swift, Inception.

1. If Yuletide were held right now, at this moment, my Yuletide fandoms would be:

• Plants vs. Zombies
• The Room (2003)
• Old Spice Man (and crossovers with every fandom ever)
• Taylor Swift RPF
• Inception.

  2. The OTW is awesome. You should be a member. An OTW member. A member of the Organization for Transformative Works. Won’t you?

  3. Old Spice Man.
  . Nevermind, you’ve already seen that commercial. I like the one for Anonymous, as well as the one for Sardonic look.
  Now read Old Spice Man/Sassy Gay Friend. After you’ve had plenty of time to recover from the dazzling perfection around which your universe has had to expand to fully encompass, read Old Spice!Arthur from Inception–no spoilers because that would be unmanly–and then you should read Old Spice Man/Saito, because the only thing manlier than Isaiah Mustafa is Ken Watanabe, and by “manlier” I mean “more cable of fully demolishing the last frayed threads of your willpower so that you can no longer feebly resist the urge to rip his clothes off at this very moment and instead can only fling yourself upon him in a hapless frenzied heap of desire.”

  And if there are any more Old Spice Man fics out there, well, let’s just say I’m starting a collection. Meaningful Eyebrowface. New numerical item.

  eta, 8/5/10: behold, the zeitgeist hath given us this wonder:
  

  OLDSPICE-KINKMEME.DREAMWIDTH.ORG.
  THE MEME YOU WISH YOUR MEME COULD KINK LIKE.

  4.

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  Posted by bookshop on Jul 28, 2010 in fandom, film, inception, meta, rants, yuletide | 0 comments

a few more h/d and yuletide recs for youuu!

• H/D, The Trouble with Good Sense by Anonymous.

  THIS FIC IS FANTASTIC. It’s hilarious and UST-filled and intense and engaging and charming and adorable, and did i mention HILARIOUS, oh my god i laughed so hard, and then my heart nearly pounded out of my chest from all the delicious tension.

  Potter blew out a breath and took Draco’s chin firmly in one hand. “I said hold still.” Draco did the next best thing: he froze. It was hard not to with five of Potter’s fingers warm on his face. And it was damned irritating to find himself accidentally following one of Potter’s orders. Potter touched his bruised eye gently with the damp cloth. It did feel good. Draco held still while the cloth made its way over his cheekbone, cooling the bruised skin there. Potter put the cloth down and rubbed ointment into the bruise with two fingers. Draco may have stopped breathing. A bit.

  Finally, Potter wiped off his hand and picked up his wand. He leaned in very close to Draco’s face, brows lowered in concentration. “All right. Don’t move or this will go pear-shaped.”

  And then Potter proceeded to breathe on him.

  I LOVE IT SO MUCH, and it seriously does not have nearly enough reviews, so I’d love it if more people ran over and read it (it’s an easy-to-munch 7,000 words!) and showed the author some love. ♥

  also this fic has the best line ever, “I DIDN’T RISE FROM THE DEAD TO BE LECTURED TO BY FASCISTS!” and i seriously am going to write fic where harry just goes around declaiming “I DIDN’T RISE FROM THE DEAD FOR (X ANNOYING THING!)”, just see if i don’t. scream. i love this fic. Also also, Kara adds, “omg this fic is full of canon detail metaphors, my favorite thing in fics ever. two Fwoopers with one stone! acting like I had the Bundimun Blight! sloshed house elf! WHY DOES NO ONE ELSE ADD THESE DETAILS INTO THEIR FICS, THEY MAKE ME INSTANTLY FALL IN LOVE.”

  GO, READ, I KNOW YOU WISH TO INSTANTLY FALL IN LOVE WITH US <33333

• Cinderella (fairy tales), for Yuletide. Ash the Stablehand, by Anonymous. Quick, clever, and elegant. I was suckered into loving this before I could stop myself.
• H/D, fanart rec, The Day Before the War, by Anonymous.

  I love the story that’s being told here. The art and the composition are gorgeous, but even more I love what this piece says about H/D. it’s one of the starkest portrayals of the transformative quality of this ship that I’ve seen in a while. It’s beautiful, and it made me teary.

• Friday Night Lights!!!! there is so much amazing FNL fic here at A03 that I’m a bit overwhelmed by it all. In fact–
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  Posted by bookshop on Dec 30, 2009 in fandom, h/d, recs, yuletide | 0 comments

Yuletide rec: Beauty and the Beast (fairy tale) – Queer as the Fork

At some point I will probably have multiple Yuletide recs, but for now, I am too beside myself to do anything but say oh my god read this fic right now.

i would cut off my right arm right now if it meant that i could write like the author of this fic. just. amazing. i am so blown away by the voice and the craft and the style. just. completely fucking blown away.

my review: oh my god. i don’t even have words for this. You’re an incredible writer, and when reveals go up I’m going to read everything you’ve ever written.

thank you so much for this. i’ve read so many “progressive” fairy tale reworkings throughout yuletide, but this is the best of them all. the luggage under her eyes. woke up to the smell of delicious. breathed like a marathon. the highwayman. he’s only human. she came with him.

you are so fantastic. please rewrite all fairy tales ever. please. i just. i can’t tell you how necessary it feels that you keep writing and putting your voice into the world, because i want everyone, forever, to hear it, and to feel the way I do about this story, right now.

PLEASE DROP WHAT YOU ARE DOING AND READ THIS FIC AND TELL THE AUTHOR S/HE IS AMAZING.

2009: Yuletide, Top 10 lists, Happiness, etc. (you belong with me)

Let me explain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up.

• YULETIDE!!!!!!!! I totally cheated and signed up twice (don’t try this at home, kids), because I had too much love in my heart for YT this year, omfg. So I signed up twice and got two amazing
  fics:

  - I got fanfic for Liar – the amazing YA novel by Justine Larbalestier: “You think you know” by Anonymous (aka my new true love).
  It’s vital that you not be spoiled for Liar before reading it, so this is one fanfic I’m loathe to recommend for those who haven’t read the book. (The book is fantastic, btw, one of my favorites of the year.)

  One of the things that I absolutely adore most about this fic is that it doesn’t just pick up and keep running in circles with the complex themes of the original story–it could be so easy to do that. But instead this fic picks up the complexity of Micah’s narrative, and all the themes of lies, identity, gender and sexual confusion, and expands them. Reading this fic is like seeing a whole new layer of the original story being carefully and deliberately peeled back while you watch. It’s enthralling. It’s also hot, creepy, and beautiful, just like the original fic. Micah’s voice is tough, tender, and perfect. The writing is fantastic, and I love how much thought the author has obviously put into the many mysteries and unanswered questions of the original story. Sarah is also a joy to behold in this fic, and the relationship between her and Micah, as they struggle to deal with the aftermath of canon, felt believable and real and raw.

  But I still felt a shiver run up my spine when I had those clothes in my hands, when I looked Sarah straight in the face, at the challenge in her eyes, and started to put them on. Mostly I wear things that are neither male nor female, make me look half one thing and half another. But it always felt good when I was naked with Zach and he looked at my breasts and my belly and my hips and told me I was beautiful. It felt good, watching Sarah watch me, with the reflection of a well-dressed boy in the mirror at the corner of my eye.

  Guh. This is one story I don’t want to let go of. It may be my favorite Yuletide gift ever.

  -I got absolutely brilliant Mystery Science Theatre 3000 fic!!!!!!!!! King of Your Satellite Castle by Anonymous

  I’m sorry, Mr. Nelson. We’ve contacted your previous ‘enslavers”at the Gizmonic Institute. They claim that you are a ravening necrophiliac and cock-fighting aficionado with a penchant for enjoying Ed Wood films. And also that they’ve never employed … er, ‘enslaved’ you, in any capacity. Ever. Good day.

  I can’t even really describe this fic. It’s incredible. It’s brilliant and funny and excellent. It is my new personal canon. Excerpt: No, he thought to himself, no. I’m not a prisoner anymore. I don’t have to wake up in a cold sweat, dreaming of being strangled by celluloid. I will never again have to stare into the labyrinth of Tor Jonson’s eyebrows. I mean. Just. *flails* It’s post-MST canon, which is amazing enough on its own, its elegantly written, sparse, hilarious without being crackfic (!!!!), and it’s PEARL/MIKE, OH MY GOD YES. It has amazing lines like periodic clouds of people, bedecked in trendy sunglasses and holding small dogs (!!!!!!!) and He found the spidery gold robot relaxing on the couch, a remote clutched in one implausible hand. He was watching the food network, his bulbous eyes shot through with simulated veins. CROW. omg i love crow, he is perfect in this fic. And Mike! oh, my god. There’s such a terrible hilarious pathos to this fic:

  Every Wednesday night the local television station broadcast a terrible, terrible film. Crow discovered it first, shortly after Gypsy escaped from the basement and fled to the west coast to make her considerable fortune. At first Mike was scornful: why should I spend my Wednesday night glued to the couch, watching Bela Lugosi point at things ominously and John Carradine smooth his grossly over-oiled locks? But gradually, gradually he found himself drawn to the familiar cocoon of horrific cinema.

  it speaks for itself, really. i just. this fic. i don’t have the words, and i love it so much. it’s so smart and brilliant and hilarious, WHY ARE YOU NOT READING IT YET.

  Yuletide was so good to me this year.

• Guess which fics I wrote, you guys!
• my big christmas present this year was not, as i had been led to believe, a shiny trip to Europe or Japan. Oh, no. It was a shiny pan flute. A PAN FLUTE. DDDDDDDDD A pan flute with a terrifying bird/Wookiee hybrid carved on the front of it. I am calling it Chewbeaka.
• am busily in the process of falling in love with my BRAND NEW SHINY TAYLOR SWIFT DVD OMG.

  ******actual scene at my house in TN over christmas hols*****
  Mom: I know you won’t like this, but let me explain–
  Me: *shriek* OMG TAYLOR SWIFT!!!
  Mom: …wait, really?
  Me: OH TAYLOR, NOTHING CAN COME BETWEEN US *_*

• “I’m in a blissful state of like — ‘oh, i just put a corset on and i can still breathe!’ ” < -- please someone write me taylor swift/david archuleta fluff. please. the world needs this. i need this.
• Friday Night Lights still amazing beyond description. (except where is Lyla Garrity???????) THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH THE WORLD RIGHT NOW.

  Top 10 lists, 2009:

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  Posted by bookshop on Dec 28, 2009 in books, recs, yuletide | 0 comments

Love is why (we tell the story). Yuletide 2009

signups are now open through Thursday the 12th. If you haven’t signed up, I strongly encourage you to do so. Yuletide has become the gift that I give to myself every year, as much as to other people. I love it so much.

This is my “Dear Santa” letter. It’s also a healthy dose of fandom pimping & introspection. I beg my flist to indulge me a little.

I nominated 6 fandoms for Yuletide (that list w/some notes on each fandom is here), and then promptly fell in love with a 7th Yuletide fandom just after nominations closed.

Narrowing down the list this year is extremely hard for me. Yuletide in the past, for me, has mostly been about my experience as a writer. (In fact if you skim my yuletide tag from years past you can kind of see me transform from this, like, casually snooty outsider (who defaulted her first year and then felt so guilty she has pinch-hit every year since to atone for it) into this over-eager fangirl who comments on every single admin post and spends hours making geeky spreadsheets of the requested fandoms. And flow charts. I’ve loved all the fics I’ve gotten, but I’ve done the challenge because of the amazing freedom I feel every year as a writer, and the fact that I always learn a new fandom in the process of pinch-hitting and going out on a limb and offering rare fandoms I’m not too familiar with.

This is my 5th year participating in Yuletide. I was thinking about what I’d like my nominations/requests to be about this year, and realized that more than anything I just want my gift-writer to have fun & stretch your limits a little, and feel like you’ve grown from the experience of writing the challenge, because that’s how I always feel.

I think I want my fandoms this year to feel very fluid. I want you, dear Santa, to feel that you could easily move from one of these request to another without losing much enjoyment, because ultimately it’s all about what you bring to the story, and the canon doesn’t matter so much. There’s no order of preference – I honestly will be thrilled to receive any of these. What I want most of all is for you to have fun and maybe experience something new.

So, with that in mind, these next posts are going to have tons of fandom promotional stuff, for everyone, and for you, dearest Santa, if you’re thinking about checking out any of the other fandoms on my list.

Yuletide 2009

Fandom 1: REQUIEMS

WODEHOUSE.

me: i keep wanting to make a post that is just all the bits we have been sharing over email.
thehoyden: DO IT. IT WILL BE OUR FLAILY MESSAGE OF LOVE TO THE WORLD!

Well, you know me, and you all know that I cannot resist FLAILY MESSAGES OF LOVE TO THE WORLD, SO:

yuletide 2008

don’t mind me. I just wanted to stash my unfulfilled requests from last year’s Yuletide somewhere so I can keep them. I always lose track of what I am requesting from year to year. Enough of that.

Danielle Bennet and Jaida Jones – Havemercy

Rook/Thom
I want dirty, dirty, fuck-your-brother-and-still-feel-perfectly-all-right-about-it-while-you’re-doing-it-again-in-the-morning Thom/Rookcest please. In canon, post-canon, I don’t care. (If you want to write in-canon, anywhere’s great, but I’d LOVE to see that amazing UST-filled balcony scene at the ball taken to its logical conclusion. Guh.) Anything with Have and the other (remaining) DC members would also be great, but really, just have fun! I’m easy when it comes to these two characters: I just want porn! But I’ll also, if slash isn’t your thing, be perfectly happy with more of the conflict-ridden dynamics that fill the books, especially if set post-canon.

Lloyd Alexander – Vesper Holly

Any/Dr. Helvitius/Vesper Holly
I love Vesper – she’s my favorite ass-kicking heroine. And I really, really want to see shameless, down-and-dirty, ruin-your-childhood Vesper/Dr. Helvitius porn. Dubcon is okay, but I’d really like to see Vesper, who’s such an amazingly sensual character, just get it on with the ever-suave Dr. Helvitius just because she wants to. (As part of a mind game? Who knows!) .Honestly, though, Vesper and Brinnie on adventures and Vesper generally being brilliant and hot and sexy and putting the ‘arch’ in archaeology would make me really happy. I love Dr. Helvitius, though, and if you can find it in your heart to revive him after the last book (what’s a little drowning to the great doctor, anyway?) I’d be awfully pleased to watch him sparring with Vesper again. In any case, if you write this, please just have fun with the characters and the series and I’ll be elated!!!! <3

Strangers on a Train

Aja
Any/Bruno Anthony/Guy Haines
Gay. Serial. Killers. Everyone loves them; everyone wants gay serial killer fic! And as amazing as this movie is, you know you don’t watch it for the tennis. Feel free to use elements if you want from the original Patricia Highsmith slashfic, er, I mean short story, if you want. The point is: Guy/Bruno. In-series, post-series (fake deaths!), gen, porn, creepiness, subtext, whatever you think fits the awesome that is Hitchcock + Highsmith + Robert Walker + Farley Granger + gay serial killing madness (with carousels! ^_^) Run with it, baby, it’s all yours. <3333

___

the only one of these I’m requesting this year is strangers on a train. Havemercy is popular enough I don’t need to, and if I remember correctly, I’ve nominated Vesper Holly every year without any takers. So, meh. Maybe this time it will be my year for gay serial killers in love.