fox | in which i try not to feel sorry for myself :-)

I wrote Romeo/Mercutio in blank verse for my first

yuletide in 2004, so I've been fine ever since then with the idea that I started at the top and the only way to go was down. I know better than to expect everything I write for

yuletide to be comprehensively praised and recced all over yuletidedom and and and. But, but -- the pinch-hit I did that year got props too, and my entry in 2005 as well, and my entry in 2006, much to my surprise and delight.

This year, having written a fic that I happen to think is better than last year's, no recs yet (which I'm 99% fine with, really, only a little disappointed to break my streak [g]), and only one comment!, and that not from the recipient, who on the one hand didn't say she was going to be away -- but on the other hand, hasn't commented on the Treat someone else wrote for her either. (I believe she is away, and just didn't say so in the thread. That's all I'm willing to say about that without Revealing Too Much.) The one comment I've gotten wasn't e-mailed to me, so I keep refreshing the comments page in the hope that the count will go up, but it keeps not happening.

I think the X factor is the fandom. This may be the most obscure fandom I've written for

yuletide, so lots of my 1200+ cohorts may be browsing right past it. But, but, the same thing was true in 2005 -- the obscurity of the fandoms is too close to call, I think -- and that story got more love than this one.

Sigh.

I am enjoying the archive, don't get me wrong!, when I have time to read a couple of things from it. May get two or three more read today -- oh, there goes the shower, so I've got a little time now while I'm in the queue. :-)

[eta: And in contrast to the last few days before I left Oxford, I'm not at all disappointed in the fact that I'm glad it's not just me. ;-)]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Yeah, pretty much, you said it for me as well, except that my fandom's not really obscure, I think it barely qualifies for even rare. All the other stories written for the fandom I wrote in have at least one comment (although none have hundreds).

And my recipient's posted in her journal without mentioning Yuletide. This is not doing wonders for my self-esteem, here.

FWIW, that happened to me twice, and in both cases, I eventually got effusive feedback. I know that I'm always cautious about reading my story while still at my mother's, because her computer is in the kitchen with the screen very visible, so while posting to LJ is no big deal, reading what might or might not be porn is more problematic ;).

I just said this over in someone else's journal, which probably says something - heck, my own feedback is the lowest it's been since 2004 - but I think the large number of stories this year is having an unintended side effect on the feedback. I mean, it makes sense: more stories = longer to get through the archive = longer to get feedback, and possibly even = less feedback overall, as people might be reading less comprehensively than they did in years past. I haven't even really begun to poke around, myself. I mean, my fandom isn't even all that obscure, relatively speaking, and none of the stories in it have very many comments.

Or I could just be trying to make myself feel better ;).

I was just about to post a v. similar wibbly thing, because my recipient IS around and still hasn't commented and I've received no comments at all. A significant difference, of course, is that I don't feel AT ALL good about what I wrote this year but was comforting myself with, "well, at least the recipient should be able to find SOMETHING good about it". On the other hand, this fandom is ridiculously obscure, so....

SO, off to hang myself with the little braidy things on my Toque of Awesome!

(What'd you decide on for the various nieces and NoRMaNs? I'm dying to know. :D)

The baby cousins, I'm putting off, because they're not until MLKmas and there was no rush. I like the marble-maze suggestion

resonant8 had for the 7-year-old, and for the 4-year-old, the goal is to get something so cool that they won't fight over the 7-year-old's present. (Last year there was brief Drama over a packet of spilled googly-eyes. None of them got lost, so it was fine, but apparently little sisters are hopelessly uncool. I never had one and I never was one, so what do I know?)

The NoRMaNs are getting impossibly cute sweaters, because they are coming to Minneapolis in February to visit NoRMaN #3 (due at the end of January) and their mother cannot get her head around the fact that what counts as "cold" in Florida is not the same as "winter".

Oh god, yes, little sisters can be dreadful - you've heard my stories. :D

Hey! As a little sister, I, um, resemble that remark, actually. ;P

Unless you've ever attempted identity theft (um, that identity being MINE) to get out of a speeding ticket and an arrest warrant, no you don't, silly! :D

I know just what you mean--in 2005 I wrote a story for a fandom that aired six episodes before being cancelled, and only in Canada. I got a huge, gushy comment from my recipient on the first day and a pity comment from one of the mods the day before the archive opened. And it was definitely the best story I've written for the challenge except possibly for this year.

What made it okay, though, was my recipient's reaction. She wrote a huge, detailed comment and then made a whole post about it in which she went through it practically word for word and talked about how much she loved it. :-) I actually ended up preferring that year to the year in which I got plenty of comments from strangers, but my recipient dropped off the face of the earth after defaulting.

-J

I'm feeling a bit grouchy that the story I wrote for the Drunken!Giles ficathon has not received any notice from the recipient. The Gilesophilic corner of Buffy fandom is not a large one, and overall, I'm happy to get two or three responses to a fic--actually, I'm ecstatic if I get that many. But still, *no* response from the person who wanted a moody, melancholy Christmas fic? *grumple*

in which i try not to feel sorry for myself :-)

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