daisyninjagirl

Emma
This has got to be the Austen novel most intensely devoted to puzzles, wit, and mistaken points of view. When I studied this at Uni, my professor started his section on this novel by devoting all but five minutes of the first lecture in telling us how awful it is: a selfish heroine, silly people, and lots of confusion. Then he finished up with "...and never believe anything anyone tells you" and rhapsodised about how much he loved it, with an addendum that there was a case that the witty, snarky, distractible Emma was an author-projection character of Austen's in which she is self aware enough to show us her worst side.

( Read more... )

I've been doing a lot of rereading of Jane Austen's works lately, as research for a larp I want to write. Also, I'm finding that the older I get the more I 'get' them, and that I 'get' them more on a reread. So I'm going to write up some thoughts, because if there's one single thing I'm getting from reading them back to back, and two at once (bedtime book vs bus book), it's that Miss Austen dearly loved to have it every way possible. So here goes:

Mansfield Park
I first encountered this as the 1999 film adaptation, which had some very explicit references to slave trading. The novel is less obvious, but mainly because the readers in 1814 were just supposed to know about the Mansfield Decision (of 1772, declaring that chattel slavery in England was unsupported by common law, a big win for the Abolitionist movement), that Britain had made slave trading illegal in 1807 (the likely reason that Sir Thomas had to sail out to the West Indies), and that lines like "I cannot get out, as the starling said" were references to an Abolitionist text by Lawrence Sterne. So there's quite a lot of textual weight in there to support the interpretation.

( Read more... )

A thing thing, a thing that someone has already paid me money for.

Also known as Ulysses, a space opera adaptation of Homer's Odyssey. Greeeeeeeeeks iiiiiiiiiiin Spaaaaaaaaaaaace......
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/278895/Ulysses
Ulysses: a space opera larp inspired by Homer's Odyssey

Ulysses: a space opera larp inspired by Homer's Odyssey

This has been definitely the most challenging larp I've ever written. It started off with me being present at an oral reading of the Odyssey, and I suddenly realised that the stories I'd received as an adventure story were actually quite a lot more involved with domestic issues around the head of the household being gone, and the drama (and bloodshed) of his return. So I wrote a larp about it, because it can help to work my feelings out about something by getting other people to roleplay it for me. It's perfectly normal!

I've been doing a lot of Austen research lately (well, jonesing on the novels, mostly) because I'm thinking of writing larp in the period. There's that famous quote she made in a letter about “the little bit (two Inches wide) of Ivory on which I work with so fine a Brush, as produces little effect after much labour.” I always used to think she was making a metaphor about painting ivory miniatures, but also, literally, she owned a little 2" by 5" ivory writing tablet.
http://leadenhallshire.blogspot.com/2007/04/two-inches-of-ivory.html

Like this: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rocketlass/2449261236/

The random details you find out...

Copying a meme I saw over on Thimblerig's account, mostly because I was struck how different how writing pattern is:

Rules: Go to your AO3 works page, expand all the filters, and answer the following questions!

I have 32 works posted on AO3.

What’re your first and second most common work ratings?

General Audiences (21)

Teen and Up Audiences (9)

What’s your most common archive warning?

No Archive Warnings Apply (28)

Least common?

Major Character Death (2) (I have major character deaths? More than one? Struggling to remember which...)

Do you consider yourself an adventurous writer?

Not if you mean porn...

It's rare for me to do AUs and fusions, although I have done so from time to time. I sometimes get ambitious about doing something in an historical period and getting really crunchy about the details.

How many stories have you made in each pairing category?

Gen (20)

F/M (16)

M/M (2)

Multi (1)

Is this more accidental, or do you have preferences?

I guess accidental. I don't have any issues with the F/F pairing, I just haven't felt like writing a story in it so far.

What are your top 4 fandoms by numbers?

Marvel Cinematic Universe (10)

HEYER Georgette - Works (5)

The Avengers (Marvel Movies) (5)

Captain America Movies (3)

Are you still active in any of them, and do you tend to migrate a lot?

I'm actually mostly not. I did a big burst of writing in things Marvel years ago (those top four fandoms have got a bunch of double ups), and then got to the point where they were releasing new canon faster than I could write so I let my head-canon universe taper out.

I actually relabelled a bunch of separate Heyer fanfics with the collective Works tag (and some fairy tales with a group tag) so that it would be less misleading to someone who'd poked into my profile wondering what I'm keen on.

What are your top 4 relationship tags?

Clint Barton & Phil Coulson & Natasha Romanov (3)

Steve Rogers & Natasha Romanov (3)

Jenny Chawleigh/Adam Deveril (2)

Gareth Ludlow/Hester Theale (2)

Yep, more Marvel for the win. But look! look! I have some Heyer romances rising to the top.

Does this match how you feel about the characters, or are you puzzled?

<shrug> A lot of the stories I've been writing this past few years are one offs through Yuletide or another specialty exchange. They tend not to show up in memes like this.

What are your top 2 most used additional tags, and your bottom 2?

Top Two:

Epistolary (3)

Character Study (3)

Bottom Two:

Yuletide Treat (2)

Emotional Hurt/Comfort (2)

There's not a lot of range in the modality of my tags.

What would happen if you combined all 4 of these into a fic?

A series of letters that gave insight into someone's favourite childhood novel (as described in a Yuletide prompt) and had some goal about Feeling Better in it.

How many WIPs do you have currently running on AO3? Any you don’t plan on finishing?

A couple over in Marvel. Um, probably unlikely to be worked on in the immediate future. Although I do have ideas for what happened to the characters running through my head.

Hello! Thank you for writing for me. I hope you have a good time in this exchange.

( General Stuff About Me )

( Squicks and Do Not Wants )

( Sorceror's Legacy - Janny Wurts )
( Cinderella (2015) )( Northanger Abbey - Jane Austen )

( The Hunting of the Snark - Lewis Carroll & Mike Batt )

So, because I am the parent of a 5 year old, sometimes I end up having uncomfortable discussions with no warning. No, not the sex talk! That was a couple of days ago and went fine. No, this was the one where your kid comes home and tells you excitedly about this person called Batman who goes around punching people. And I am so torn. I really loved the corny Adam West version of the character when I was a kid, and I loved the Michael Keaton and Val Kilmer incarnations back when I was a teenager.

But now I am an adult, and all I can think about this character is that he suffered a tragedy in his childhood then chose to spend the rest of his life brooding in a cave about how he'd been wronged, armed himself with a fetishist's array of weapons, and then went out looking for people he can decide are bad, and 'deserve' to be beaten up. For all the supervillains like the Joker and the Penguin, it's a core part of the Batman narrative that he goes out at night and whales on petty criminals as a hobby - no probable cause, no trials, no evidence, no oversight, just raw angry vengeance on anyone who looks the part.

And also, I had another uncomfortable talk last week, which is based on how to talk about the Easter story when I don't actually believe in the God bit, and the relatives in the case range from a staunch atheist through to very performative Catholics. And I had a realisation that I don't actually need to believe in the God bit. Because I am culturally Christian, I have a two thousand year inheritance that makes a virtue of the qualities of humility, love, and forgiveness. I'm willing to bet that the religions I know less about have their own weight of ethics that people can draw on around the things people need to do in order to live with each other. As much as individuals can fail, and communities fail and nations fail to live up to these virtues - Western civilisation has put a name on what is golden and tells and retells stories about how they are good things and how we should keep on aspiring to them because they aren't easy, they are hard.

Anger is easy, and revenge is easy, and Batman is a fucking copout.

The NZ Government are taking submissions on the new fire arms bill for about one more day. You can submit here: https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/sc/make-a-submission/document/52SCFE_SCF_BILL_86423/arms-prohibited-firearms-magazines-and-parts-amendment

(It takes about ten minutes.)

Dear Yuletide Writer,

Thank you! I'm really looking forward to the story you're going to write, and I hope you have a good time with this exchange.

( General Stuff About Me... )

I've been participating in Yuletide for a few years now and really enjoying it - both for the writing and the sheer cheerful juggernaut nature of the event. ;-) Some things I've noticed about myself is that I tend to enjoy more stories that are reasonably consistent with the original canon - so sequels and prequels and inbetween scenes, and I love it when a minor character gets their story expanded or someone does a nifty bit of world building on some little detail and makes it all make sense. Original characters are also fine, and I've seen some AUs and crossovers that have really blown me away, so please take this paragraph as an 'optional details are optional' section and write the story that will make you happy. The prompts I've given are also optional, please have fun with what you choose to write. Also, stories that pass the Bechdel Test Are Love!

( Squicks )

( Their Finest (2016) )

( Please Don't Eat The Daisies (1960) )

( Frederica - Georgette Heyer )

Yuletide, the rare fandom exchange, has again lumbered into friendly, slightly obsessive in a good way, life. The thing is, while the bare bones of the exchange are you write and receive a story of at least a thousand words, there's all this discretionary activity that fans put in before or after in which they're busy making and organising spreadsheets, making recs, writing extra treats, making sure everyone gets at least one positive comment, and getting intensely precise about the exact format that tags should be to best fit in the taxonomy tree.

My current favourite is the incredibly learned and good natured discussion in the Nomination Comments section here on the competing merits of whether the Three Witches from Macbeth should be tagged as First Witch, Second Witch, Third Witch, or as a collective group "The Three Witches", or whether there should even be a set number of witches at all. Competing editions of Shakespeare and the various staging decisions of live performances over the years are getting cited. It's glorious.

Fanfiction writers are library nerds. Oh my, oh yes, I have found my tribe. :-)

And my next set:

My Shortlist	Title	Comments
	An Uneasy Council	Rule mechanics for wizards trying to deal with a problem. I would have liked some flavour text around who the Antagonist is.
	The Journey	A game about a dangerous journey, designed so that most of the characters will fall along the way and be mourned. I liked the match mechanic.
	Spin, Measure, Cut	The tale of a Hero's life, modelled on the Three Furies. There was a lot of moving dice around and forming dice pools and making discards
		which I found a bit hard to grok (might understand better in play.)
	Hypoxia	A fast moving game of trying to escape from a death trap, using Jenga towers as the mechanic to ramp up tension. Sounds fun.
y	The Stolen Tea Ceremony	Ah, a storytelling game that revolves around having a good cuppa. Just my cup of tea. :-)
	The Afterlife stole Closure	A shared narrative game, sort of. It felt a bit "And Then There Were None"ish, with a deliberate disconnect of narrative in the middle.
	Spinning Down	A game about consuming the last of the Earth's resources.
y	The GM’s Challenge rpg.	An instant game generator giving random tables neatly tied to the roll of a D6
y	No Woman’s Land	A group of people trying to cross a battlefield to safety. I liked how the game used Love to act as a support to every other action
	Heroes of the Dim	I liked the little bit of evocative setting at the beginning, but I didn't get a sense of how the rule procedures were going to support it.
	Magnum Opal	The quest for the Magnum Opal. I liked the different difficulty levels codified for if you were attempting an action
		using a strength, weakness or specialty, and I liked how the flashbacks to get specialties could turn dark
	Firewater	A drinking game with a roleplaying element.
	Demigod Dukes in the Dungeons of Doom	A pisstake game. Presumes knowledge of the early versions of D&D and the THACO mechanic.
	EMOJINN	A communication game to play via text messages. While fun, I don't think it would encourage roleplaying as such.
	Fairies	An alternate reality game encouraging Random Acts of Niceness. And sparkles, definitely the sparkles. :-)
	Preternatural	Procedural text for playing a monster hunting game. Had some ideas similar to logic games to model solving of clues
	Chart Star	Rule mechanics governed by horoscopes
y	24 Words And A Moment	An empathy game revolving the communication difficulties for someone with a nonverbal disability.
		I thought the mechanics supported the premise very well.
y	Terra Incognita	A campfire storytelling game with a footprint that would make it easy to play from memory.
		Grounds the game in advances against hostile territory in which both sides have to sacrifice aspects of themselves,
		and then reflect on what was lost or changed.
	Alan’s Remorse	Sort of a game of Russian Roulette modified by the Turing Test but with paranoia and storytelling.
	Dear Stranger	Communication when having the wrong opinions could get you killed. Lots of trying to derive intent and establish good faith.
	The Island	Colonial interactions on an island among four participants. I liked how the rules established that each character needed to interact
		with everyone else, and kept the stakes, strengths and weaknesses front and centre.
		Rules quibble: it might help to specify what size dice, as this could change the expected value of the Strength/Weakness mechanic
	The Doppelgänger Effect	About alternate reality versions of the same character using pick up sticks as the conflict mechanic.
		I liked how a failed conflict causes escalating events to happen to the game.
	Charon’s Obols	A journey through the afterlife with two silver coins, built into the conflict mechanic.
	Countries of Hats	A scenario building game inspired by the Country of Hats trope.
		I was a bit confused on the first read about whether the game is about a Country for each player, or just one joint one.
	KPop RPG	A KPop band having adventures! This was mostly descibing how the skills and stats work, I would have liked to see
		something describing what kind of challenges they might face.
y	Please Silence Your Cell Phones	A game of limited communication similar to the A Quiet Place movie with monsters coming out of the wall if you make noise
		and the challenge of communicating with 5 selfies
	A Joyous Rebellion	Basically a variant of the Candyland board game, but with a narrative element around a rebellion.
y	Roar of the Crowd	This was a great Last Game To Read, full of bravado and boasting.
		I think the rule text would encourage a lot of posturing (in a good way), along with the scratch costuming and the involvement of the crowd.

I was a reader for the 200 Word RPG challenge this year, which means reading through about 60 of the games submitted and picking my five favourites that get sent on to the Judges. There were some tough choices! But also, because I also come from a fanfiction background, Reviews Are King, so below are my thoughts.

The criteria we were asked to select by were that it was essentially a roleplaying game (ie not a board or card game) although it could use these kinds of games as supporting mechanics, and that we select games that are:

Actionable. The entry should contain enough description to play the game.
New and Overlooked Stories. The entry should encourage its players to tell a new kind of story, a story that has often been overlooked, or a familiar story from a new perspective.
Engaging. The game should inspire the reader with ideas and questions. It should make the reader want to play this game as soon as possible.

I got a lot of appreciation while doing this of the balancing act between colour text, setting, and rule mechanics. There were a fair number of games that explained someone's cool idea for game mechanics in a lot of detail but I didn't feel excited by the setting, and a few that were great with drawing me into the premise but seemed too light on mechanics. The ones that I really liked were grabbing me with an idea of Play Me, and following it up with elegant mechanics that seemed to flow very naturally. When I was trying to whittle down my short list to my favourite five, I went for games I would be excited to see offered at a Games on Demand stream at a con over games which I felt more of an intellectual appreciation for.

Congratulations to all the finalists!

Quebec

Shortlist	Title	Comments
y	I've been seen with Farrah	Nice easy to understand premise, the chimp gives it a good quirk over the Incredible Hulk/Wandering Martial Artist shtick that commonly uses this format.
	Sidewalkia	Seemed more performance art than roleplaying game, didn't much feel like I'd want to play it.
		Rules text - I had to go back and reread to pick you the rules for how many people to a pavement square. (Also, where I live doesn't have them, we have continuous footpaths.)
	PaperBits Showdown	Sounded like a fun party game, but felt it was less into roleplaying/storytelling (which we were specifically asked to look for)
y	Heist!	loved the premise and way it builds a roleplaying game into social drinks.
		Good for encouraging responsible drinking in the designated driver, it sounds like it could get chaotic in a fun way pretty fast.
		Minor rules comment - maybe put the description of GM actions in the same order as they appear in the text?
	Sensitive Emotional Breakthrough	- it felt more like it was taking the piss about 'arty games' than actually trying to achieve anything?
	Tower	nice extension of the Jenga game, gameplay will probably emphasise 'silly' moments
	Don't trust HUMAN	I liked how this was really pushing the point of communication difficulties (and how high stakes getting it wrong can be)
		With that said, I wasn't really sure how the game procedures would play out in reality - does the HUMAN player get to read the text?
		If you achieve PEACE does the game stop, or do you keep on playing?
y	Haiku Rebels Society	I liked the rule mechanic with the core Japanese artform, particularly how it wasn't just 'word count' but encouraging specifically
		Japanese poetic elements like the kigo and kireji. I kinda feel that there'll be a Fruitful Void in this game as people build
		up their character's personality through the verses they write.
		With the text as a procedural document - I did have to read through it a few times to feel that I understood how the game was going to go.
	Goo-goo Ga-ga	Nice sense of empathy for how newborn babies feel.
		Couldn't work out how this plays out eg the "no nurse nearby" rider - is a board with counters implied?
y	Red Treachery	Really evocative scenario descripton, tightly written mechanics encouraging fear and betrayal.
	By Pinfall Or Submission	Sounds like people would have fun playing it, but I was a bit confused by some of the text.
		How many cards are played each round? One at a time in a sequence? Multiple cards at a time signifying multiple moves? Do they get to pick?
	A Tiny Person	This felt like an arty experiential game. I think it would work to evoke emotion (but I don't think I'd enjoy playing that emotion.)
y	Two People F*** in a Spaceport	This is a game I'd like to see in a Games on Demand stream at a con.
		It feels like a good kind of game to get to know someone better - I like the emphasis on negotiating how the encounter is going to go
		both in and out of character. Also the comment "You may find yourselves with too much [time]"
	The President Has Been Kidnapped by Ninjas	Reads like this would be a fun party game and definitely better with actual booze.
	The Revolution Will Take Us All	A fairly bleak story game. I think it would play well, but also that it's designed to have a sad ending.
y	Pressure Building	A very elegant design, that neatly establishes two opposing and disparate sides.
		I like how the mechanics encourage world building and description, and how it establishes both sides as heroes in their own head.
	Crystalium	This felt like character building rather than a game in and of itself. I had to read through the text several times to get an idea of
		how the rules were supposed to go.
	Pay it Forward	A nice little game encouraging people to think through acts of kindess.
	Charlie, the Devil and Me	Interesting concept around the Devil vs the local newscaster as the contrasting voices in your head.
		Felt that it would play out more as a shared narrative than as people roleplaying dialogue
	Bury Mary: The Great Lich’s Bake Off	Take off of The Great British Bake Off and other cooking shows
	Confabulation	An open sourced detective story. I liked the emphasis on the subjectivity of memory.
	Trench	A fairly meditative mini-larp about soldiers facing impending death. I liked the use of space with the In The Trenches/Out of Trenches idea.
	City of Souls	A game about playing different aspects of a city (as people) which I thought was cool.
		I thought the way the Aspects were designed to reduce that the ending might have a bang, or it might have a fade away
		feel as the neighbourhoods drained away on their core features.
		If this turned into a game that ran for more than one adventure, is there a way to increase Aspects?
y	Home Church	An elegant design about losing connections with people in your community.
		I like how there were a lot of different ways to fade someone out, from Facebook rants to "they still send you Christmas cards" to "the kindest/cruellest person you ever met"
	Day At The Planet	A fish out of water game with an Alien trying to pass as human, looks like scope for a lot of comedy at both failures and successes of things that shouldn't be achievable.)
	Empathy Test	A sort of Turing game, was very heavy on procedural text.
	Life Behind Screens	Roleplaying courtship in a very status obsessed court. It described the cards mechanic in a lot of detail, as well as the increasing bitterness of the characters
		but I would have preferred more flavour text.
y	Filling the Void	I really liked this one - a good balance between using techniques such as a priming text to encourage people
		into a storytelling frame of mind, use of the dice drop technique to create a map of stars,
		then encouraging people to go nuts telling stories about their map.

Dear Once Upon A Fic Writer,

Thank you! I'm really looking forward to the story you're going to write, and I hope you have a good time with this exchange.

General Stuff About Me

This is one of those exchanges that seems made for AUs and crossovers and new adaptations, so go for your life if you would like to recast a story in another genre. I'm also just fine with Original Characters turning up and interacting with the fairy tale originals. The prompts I've given are optional, please have fun with what you choose to write, and I'm happy for you to write for any of the characters selected (Either/Or instead of And) if that's your preference. Also, stories that pass the Bechdel Test Are Love!

( Squicks )

( The Snow Queen )

( Hey Diddle Diddle )

( Gold-Tree and Silver-Tree )

( The Cat That Walked By Himself )

( Sleeping Beauty )

Thank you! I'm really looking forward to the story you're going to write, and I hope you have a good time with Yuletide.

General Stuff About Me

I've been participating in Yuletide for a few years now and really enjoying it - both for the writing and the sheer cheerful juggernaut nature of the event. ;-) Some things I've noticed about myself is that I tend to enjoy more stories that are reasonably consistent with the original canon - so sequels and prequels and inbetween scenes, and I love it when a minor character gets their story expanded or someone does a nifty bit of world building on some little detail and makes it all make sense. Original characters are also fine, and I've seen some AUs and crossovers that have really blown me away, so please take this paragraph as an 'optional details are optional' section and write the story that will make you happy. The prompts I've given are also optional, please have fun with what you choose to write, and I'm happy for you to write for any of the characters selected (Either/Or instead of And) if that's your preference. Also, stories that pass the Bechdel Test Are Love!

( Squicks )

( The Circus is Coming - Noel Streatfeild )

( What's Your Number RPF )

( Postman Pat (TV 2004) )

The story of my heart is a genre mashup where Pat Clifton is a mild mannered postie in a country village where everybody likes getting together to make nice things for the village children and also the resident detective in a sleepy village with a statistically unusual rate of 'accidental' deaths and disappearances. Did Peter Fogg, George Lancaster, Granny Dryden and Sam Waldron move away, or is that just what everyone thinks happened? There's a sign in the post office to visit Garnier Hall, but when's the last time anyone actually saw the Major, eh? There's a lot of hand touching and "More tea, Vicar?" going on between Dr Gilbertson and Reverend Timms, but when it comes to the crunch, it's PC Selby who takes her to dances and plays the banjo for her - is this a well established polyamorous triad, or a love triangle filled with unrequited feelings and simmering resentment? What do Lucy Selby and Sarah Gilbertson think about all of this? Mr Pringle seems a bit of a hunk to be a single teacher - is he a target for the village maidens of Greendale? And what happened to Charlie's Mum? And what about those tunnels under the church - are they linked to the drawing of Vitruvian Man in the playground designs? Is there a secret cult in Greendale? Curious minds want to know!

If this is not your thing, we're cool. How about a story from Jess' point of view? Or the backstory of how Pat got his first job as postie? Did he ever have dreams to have some other job?

( Bride of the Rat God - Barbara Hambly )

( Sprig Muslin - Georgette Heyer )

aka The New Zealand Election.

So this is my bit for civic awareness this year: it’s really important for eligible people to vote. There’s a whole lot of ethics in there around civic duty, but also - if you’re in a demographic that doesn’t turn out, politicians will not prioritise your concerns. And you are an important member of this country: you count, so make sure the Beehive knows it. Also, it's pretty exciting this year - the ups and downs would make a good (funny not tragic) tv show, and I'm excited because I feel like people my age are stepping up into senior leadership positions with all the cultural and moral touchstones that go with it.

If you haven’t received a letter from the Electoral Commission yet, they don’t have you on the electoral roll, or you’ve moved. But that’s OK, because you can sign up right here: http://www.elections.org.nz/voters/enrol-check-or-update-now

Registration for this pervasive larp is really streamlined, it will take you about three minutes. If you have a RealMe id, you won’t even need to print, sign, or post anything (but you can if that’s easier.)

Game start is Saturday, 23 September. There’ll be game locations all over your home town: http://www.elections.org.nz/voters/voting-election

You can even get involved in a Play By Post Pre Game: http://www.elections.org.nz/events/2017-general-election/voting-2017-general-election/cant-get-voting-place

Again, this is really streamlined, your main job is thinking about who you’d like to see make decisions on your behalf.

Player Guide: http://www.elections.org.nz/events/2017-general-election/voting-2017-general-election/choosing-who-vote

Seriously, this is a really exciting election, and governments can turn on just a few seats (and votes), so please get out there on the day.

Steph

Thank you very much for writing for me!

For this particular exchange, I would really prefer a Gen or Teen rated story - I'm cool with if you want to age child characters into adults for your story, but I think I'd feel a bit weird with characters I bonded with as a kid having explicit kissy kissy fun times, or at least not for a children's book focused exchange. Apart from that, have fun! The prompts I've given are there for ideas, but if they don't work out for you go for the story that you'd enjoy writing.

( Ballet Shoes - Noel Streatfield )
( Howl's Moving Castle - Diana Wynne Jones )

( Hairy Maclary and Friends - Lynley Dodd ) ( The Witch in the Cherry Tree - Margaret Mahy )

My new account is: https://daisyninjagirl.dreamwidth.org/

Right now it's just a skeleton profile, but I've mostly been using LJ as a fanfiction account, anyway, so it will come with time.

Steph

Someone wrote me a villanelle! A villanelle, I say!

Six Days (1050 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 6/6
Fandom: Imagine A Day - Rob Gonsalves & Sarah L. Thomson
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Characters: The Balloon Girl (Imagine a Day), Girl Building Skyscraper (Imagine a Day)
Summary:

Glimpses of a strange and shifting world.

Also a really nice "What happens next / Blade getting restless and also into DIY" for the Derkholm Series.

a place to hang your hat (3034 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Derkholm Series - Diana Wynne Jones
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Blade/Claudia (Derkholm), Elda/Flury (Derkholm)
Characters: Blade (Derkholm), Claudia (Derkholm), Titus (Derkholm), Flury (Derkholm), Shona (Derkholm), Querida (Derkholm), Derk (Derkholm), Mara (Derkholm), Kit (Derkholm)
Additional Tags: everything but the curtains
Summary:

“Mm-hm,” said Titus, ignoring the eye-roll with perfect dignity. “And if I recall correctly--” which he did “--your father owns quite an impressive estate these days. You, on the other hand--”

Happy Yuletide!

Dear Yuletide Writer,

Thank you for writing a story for me! I'm really looking forward to it - and please take these prompts as suggestions only, if there's a different story that you think you'll enjoy writing more, write that one. I generally (but not exclusively) read at the Gen and Teen level, and I'm not much interested in BDSM/various shades of kink stories. I really don't want a story with graphic violence or non-consensual or underage sex in it. On the other hand, I am Just Peachy with original characters turning up, and prequels and sequels and inbetween scenes. (Please treat all the characters I've requested as OR rather than AND if that works better for you.)

( Postman Pat TV (2004) )

( Derkholm Series )

( Imagine A Day - Rob Gonsalves & Sarah L. Thomson )

( Sprig Muslin - Georgette Heyer )

Dear Fic Corner Scribbler,

Thank you for writing a story for me! I'm really looking forward to it - and please take these prompts as suggestions only, if there's a different story that you think you'll enjoy writing more, write that one. As you can tell from the prompts, I'm interested in a Gen or Teen story - something that's in the spirit of the original texts is what I'm looking for, whether for characters close to their canon age or grown older. I am Just Peachy with original characters turning up, and prequels and sequels and inbetween scenes; but less interested in AUs and crossovers (although I've seen some that really impressed me, so I'm definitely not hardline about it).

Hairy Maclary and Friends Series by Lynley Dodd
I've been reading a lot of Hairy Maclary books lately (I have a toddler), and they're a lot of fun: very fluid verse that holds up to a lot of rereads, great artwork with precise attention to detail, a real sense of humour in the narrative. For the characters I've asked for (I'm fine with an either/or story as well as and):
Miss Plum - I think that Miss Plum is a bit of alright. She does a lot of cat and dog rescuing and general holding hands and throwing frisbees. I'd love a story where the animals around Donaldson's Dairy do something nice for her in return.
Scarface Claw - Scarface is a real anti-hero to me. He's out there, day after day, night after night, standing up for the cats of the neighbourhood against those pesky dogs, and yet they don't even want him to hang out with them. And when he's in trouble, all the dogs turn up and make a fuss about it. Gloaters. Can he have a chance to come in from the cold? Bonus crossover prompt - if you know the Footrot Flat comics, what would Scarface and Horse think of each other?
Another bonus general prompt - these books have got a very White New Zealand sense of nostalgia about them. If you like writing original characters, how about introducing a Maori or Pacifica or Indian or Chinese family (and associated pets) into the Hairy Maclary universe?

The Tiger Who Came To Tea by Judith Kerr
This is just a fun story. It's got a real sense of the ridiculous - this tiger turns up and he's feeling hungry, so _of course_ they invite him into tea. Drinking all the water in the tap? Yeah, sure. And then after the tiger goes away, Sophie's Daddy arrives - so debonnaire with his tartan pants and his hat flung wide - and the trip out to the cafe when it's dark outside with the lights all lit is treated as the really strange and novel adventure.

I'm not really sure what I want as a story, but something that keeps that sense of the absurd would be great. Maybe a story about Sophie meeting the tiger again when she's older? Perhaps another strange visitor?

Derkholm Series by Diana Wynne Jones
This series is a lot of fun, and it's got this incredible juxtaposition of a big scary problem that no one knows how to deal with smash in the middle of teenagers trying to work out who they are as people. It also has that very Diana Wynne Jones trait of wanting the protagonists to acknowledge their actions - to be able to say that maybe they did something for a selfish reason, or knew that they could have acted differently if they'd really wanted to, and *owning* that. I think that's a really powerful thing.

Possible Prompts:
(I've listed four characters, but feel free to write a story about just one or two if you'd like.)
I'd love to see how the relationships between Elda and Flurian, and Claudia and Blade, work out. The books end with this real sense of "I've found the girl I want and nobody else will do, except she's *way* too young right now." I think both Flurian and Blade would care a lot about not being creepy about it - how would they work that out? Would there be benign introductions to other fellows, just to be sure? What kind of feelings do Elda and Claudia have back? Are there good ideas for helping each other out that turn out to be rather more complicated than expected, with hijinks ensuing? Do people fall in love, or do they end up friends, and what has to happen for them to work out what that relationship is going to be? Other prompts - Elda and Claudia having girl time and bonding with each other; Flurian's backstory on the other continent; Blade's got a very old-fashioned magical education from Deucalion - how does he interact with the University trained establishment?

Thank you very much!

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DaisyNinjaGirl

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