dear Yuletide writer
Hello, new friend! I'm so happy you're here!
I love Yuletide, and you will have an easy time pleasing me and a hard time disappointing me. Fear not. Let's have a great time together.
The fellow fan and Yuletider who knows me best is ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ellen_fremedon (fremedon), who has agreed that you can ping her if you need insider info.
My general DNWs as I listed them in my signup are these:
- character bashing, which I define more or less as giving characters negative traits that are not evident in the text—making nice people mean, mainly, because all the rest is just variations on that (making thoughtful people selfish, for example; it's all the same) (I used to say "making smart people stupid" as another example, but the older I get, the more I leave that kind of thinking behind, I think.)
- 2016+ U.S. politics, because I am here for escapism
Nescafé Gold Blend commercials
Since my childhood when I saw one or more of these commercials in the Taster's Choice version, all I can wonder is how on earth these people are so up themselves about instant coffee. Seriously. Granted this was a time before (a) Starbucks, never mind anything better available in mass market, and (b) Keurig, but if I were out of coffee and in desperation asked a neighbor if I could borrow some and they gave me a jar of instant? I genuinely think I would have said "Oh—no, it's okay if you don't have any, thanks," because what I meant was coffee. (Actually I probably would have taken the jar of instant, thanked the neighbor, and then simply not served coffee.) I don't actually think there's anything wrong with liking instant coffee, but I think it's funny that people who are going to be coffee snobs are being snobs about instant coffee. Like, snobs are normally way snobbier, aren't they? And yet this couple meet over both preferring the same brand of instant coffee, which is a ridiculous thing to be a snob about, and it's like a love story for the ages. How can that be? How can we all be so sympathetic to and invested in the happiness of a couple of snobs? I love it. (I understand that the characters are named Tony and Sharon because the actors are named Tony and Sharon, but I would prefer you write about the characters in the fictitious Gold Blend world rather than the actors making the commercial in our world. If this is the only request we match on and you can't not write RPF, can you please give them made-up last names? Thanks and happy new year. :-D)
- fandom-specific DNW: RPF
Murder, She Wrote
My sainted dad used to love this show, and it was fun to watch it with him. It's fun to look at the reruns and boggle at (a) the costumes and (b) the way it was always obvious in the first five minutes who the murder victim was going to be, because there was always one person who was awful to every single other person. (I was not alert enough at the time to notice whether the famousness of the guest stars ever had anything to do with anything, the way it eventually did on Law & Order, for example.) To say nothing of wondering why on earth people kept moving to or even visiting Cabot Cove, Maine; did they not know how dangerous it was? I suppose they must have figured it couldn't possibly happen to them. Anyway, I prefer you not make Jessica the villain of the piece, but otherwise, have at.
- fandom-specific DNW: villain!Jessica
Star Wars Legends: X-Wing Series
I love these guys. :-) Anything you give me in this world will please me. I love Wedge the best, as Stackpole and Allston (and other Extended Universe writers, I think) write him, but I also like Wes and Hobbie and everyone else. I like the goofy caper plots they get up to on their missions. I like Rogue Squadron, the original badasses, and I like Wraith Squadron, which started out as more of a support group than a military unit but each of whose members grew into their various competencies. Basically in life and in fiction I really enjoy watching skilled people do things they're good at, so a story about any combination of X-wing pilots taking enemies (or one another!) to school would be right up my street.
- fandom-specific DNW: none
Hamlet
Tell me more about Horatio. He and Hamlet seem not to have been especially well acquainted at university, but Horatio becomes about the most important person in Hamlet's life by the end of the play. How does that happen? I mean, the first time the audience sees Hamlet and Horatio in the same scene, Hamlet isn't a hundred percent sure he remembers Horatio's name. (Horatio obviously knows him a little better, but not socially—everyone "knows" him because he's the crown prince.) But they grow much closer over the course of the events in the play. Is that because Horatio is in love with Hamlet? and Hamlet exploits that? loves him back? can't even tell but manages to alienate (and endure, if not cause, the death of) everyone in the play he does know well (Ophelia, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, Gertrude, and arguably Claudius and Polonius) on his mad (?) way to putting all his trust in a relative stranger? . . . I could make a case for any of these, and I'd love to see what you do with one of them.
- fandom-specific DNW: none
Society of Gentlemen
I love Dominic and Silas the best—which is a little surprising to me as normally I'm not super into BDSM or any combination of such initials, but between the fact that the sub is called Dom and the rest of the crowd openly call the scruffy one a werewolf, what can I say, I adore them. I do also like everyone else as well, which is why I picked the third additional tag (which I hope is the right use of it); tell me a story in this world and I'll be pleased. It can involve politics or not, Christmas time or not, Regency period or a half a generation later (what would these fellows make of their monarch being an 18-year-old girl?). Or something else! Feel free to cross over with any other KJC joints that make sense to you, if you like. Richard Vane's great-nephew is canonically one of the Lilywhite Boys, for example. I also note that Dominic Frey is the third son in his family; does one of his brothers have a granddaughter who marries the Marquess of Flitby - that is, is this the "bad blood on [Kim Secretan's] mother's side" the Marquess refers to near the end of Subtle Blood? (Kim and Dom are, a hundred years apart, both political types with dark hair and dark eyes who like it a little on the rough side, I'm just saying.) Whatever strikes your fancy.
- fandom-specific DNW: none
The Will Darling Adventures
I specified Kim and Will because I love them and how they're both so good at what they do—my well documented fondness for competency strikes again—but please feel free to write any story you like in this world. A case? A well earned break? Kim as Uncle Arthur with the Chingford kids? Babs and Maisie turning out to be best friends? Whatever you like. Cross over with other KJC worlds if you care to, or not. Happy Yuletide!
- fandom-specific DNW: none
If I have further thoughts, I will return and post them here, but like I said, you can also approach Ellen if the signup/this letter leaves you stumped and you need insight.
As we have also been asked in the past to affirm that treats are also welcome, let me assure you: Treats are also welcome! In fact, all the opt-ins you could ever opt in to are also great. Go wild. ❤️
Have a great time and happy Yuletide!