Dear Yuletide Writer

[partypaprika]

Dear Yuletide Writer,

Thank you for writing for me! I’ve included some thoughts below on my preferences and fandoms, however these are suggestions and not requirements in any way (although I’d prefer if you didn’t delve into my DNWs). I’ve given some specific prompts, but I am definitely not tied to any of them. If you already have an idea in mind, please go with that or feel to take a general theme from my general likes if that’s more inspiring! I have treats enabled (and absolutely love receiving treats).

I'm not active on LJ/Dreamwidth anymore, although you're welcome to poke around here. I'm slightly active on tumblr and you can also check out my pinboard. I'm on ao3 as partypaprika.

For this year, I've requested the following fandoms: Summers at Castle Auburn by Sharon Shinn, The Marsden Series by Sherry Thomas, The Warchild Series by Karin Lowachee, Guns of the Dawn by Adrian Tchaikovsky, The Chronicles of Chrestomanci by Diana Wynne Jones, and True Pretenses by Rose Lerner.

General likes:

-Hurt/comfort
-Conflict
-Slow burn
-Pining and UST
-Sacrifices, especially if characters are making big sacrifices on behalf of someone that they care deeply about
-Angst ending in a HEA
-Having dysfunctional relationships
-Enemies being forced (either directly or by circumstances) to work together
-Enemies to lovers
-Opposites attracting or coming to understand each other
-Marriages of convenience, fake dating, etc.
-People being thrown together in wildly unexpected situations
-Magical realism and magical powers
-Time travel, time loops, time do-overs etc.
-Modern royalty AUs
-1920s AUs or settings
-Secret identities and identity porn
-Reincarnation
-Settings that have a sense of mystery: cemeteries, forests, abandoned temples etc.
-Epistolary and non-linear storytelling (including letters, social media POVs, archival materials etc.)
-Time travel
-Canon divergence
-Mythology
-Hidden displays of affection
-Non-traditional media (interactive fiction/art/different ways of story-telling/etc.!)
-Crossovers

DNWs:

-Major character death
-Noncon
-Incest
-Painplay
-Torture
-Humiliation kink
-A/b/o
-Dom/sub
-Mpreg
-Knotting
-Coffee shop AUs
-High school AUs
-Unrequested poly ships

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Summers at Castle Auburn – Sharon Shinn
Elisandra Halsing, Roderick, Coriel Halsing, Kent Ouvrelet

Canon: A fantasy book that takes place in a vaguely medieval world and follows the life of a young woman, an illegitimate daughter of the noble Halsing house, as she spends every summer at the royal castle. There's political intrigue, an awesome sisterly relationship and a few great romances.

I love Elisandra and Roderick, both individually and as a couple. I love the incredible subtlety of their relationship and just how they manage to keep it so secret. I would love to know more about how they fell in love and what drew them to each other. Did they just keep re-meeting each other or did one of them seek the other out? I'd love a look at the night before Elisandra's wedding—the desperation and comfort that Roderick and Elisandra shared, not knowing what the future held. Or, a look at what pushed Roderick to decide to stay at the castle even though it made him miserable. They’re both such restrained and measured people—I would love to see one of them lose control (or both of them!). I’m very open to something more explicit as well for Roderick and Elisandra—perhaps that’s where their control snaps…

For Corie and Kent, I love how subtly their relationship develops (although apparently not subtle for Kent!). When did he know that he was in love with Corie? How do they navigate their lives after the events of the book--the hectic wedding, Corie having to navigate court society, running a country? Are there people who try (and almost succeed) at coming between them once they arrive? How do they work through some stumbling blocks and obstacles set before them? I would also be very interested in a canon divergent look at their relationship. For example, what happened if they had gotten together while Bryan was still alive?

I’d also love to see other canon divergent things—what if one of the characters had been kidnapped at some point during the book? Or what if Corie had decided to go to Alora or if she’d sent Elisandra there prior to her marriage?

If you wanted to focus on one of the characters, I'd love to see Kent's perspective and how he comes to deal with his growing feelings for Corie or his alliance with Elisandra to keep Bryan in check. I’d love to see Roderick's perspective: falling in love with Elisandra, sacrificing his happiness because he knew she was miserable or, more happily, what it's like living together with her on Jaxon's estate. I'd also love to see more about Elisandra--we know so little of what she's really thinking or how she's coping for most of the book. How did she keep herself together and moving forward during the events of the book? For Corie, I’d love to see her realize that she’s madly, desperately in love with Kent—when does this occur and how does she handle it?

I'd also be very interested in a modern AU—for example, I could absolutely see these characters connecting as a modern-day royalty with plenty of intrigue. I also would definitely be into a reincarnation story any of the pairings (or both of them) and how they connect throughout different lives.

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The Marsdens series - Sherry Thomas
Bryony Asquith, Leo Marsden

Canon: Dr. Bryony Asquith is a doctor working in a remote area of India at the turn of the 20^th century. She’s devoted to her work, very much an introvert and also very estranged from her ex-husband, Leo, who she hasn’t seen in a few years. Imagine her surprise when Leo shows up at her family’s request when she’s needed back home.

I love the angst in Leo and Bryony's relationship—how Leo's always had feelings for Bryony (in one form or another, for so long), how Bryony thought that Leo hung the world when they got together initially (and continues to love Leo, even though it's incredibly painful for her). And just how they fell into the many traps that they encountered. They both had baggage that they both brought into the relationship that they weren't able to overcome during their first go of it. I love how incredibly flawed both Bryony and Leo are and how that’s influenced the course of their relationship, including how difficult they’ve found it to communicate with each other.

What happens after the events of Not Quite A Husband? When and how do they get remarried? Do they take a honeymoon (that turns into an adventure)? How goes the process of telling everyone that they are together again (and are there any funny mishaps)?

Now that they can communicate better with each other, how do they continue to grow closer? Do they continue to rock each other’s world in the bedroom?

I would love to see Bryony and Leo working together—are they on a trip when something goes awry and they’re stuck somewhere and have to make their way back? Is one of them implicated in a professional issue and they have to unmask the real culprit?

I would also be interested in a canon-divergent second get together—maybe they meet again later and they’re forced to pretend that they are still married or the government needs them both to do something, so they have to work together. Maybe they both end up as professors somewhere and have to keep interacting with each other.

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Warchild – Karin Lowachee
Jos Musey, Evan D’Silva

I read Warchild last year and was absolutely completely engrossed by how complicated the relationship is between Jos and Evan and how it grows through the book. They are connected by their childhoods and the aftermath of the pirate attack on their ship, even though they’ve been through wildly different experiences during the long period that they were separated. They also have such incredibly different reactions to meeting again and I’m fascinated by how Evan sticks to Jos even when Jos gives Evan nothing to go on.

I know that they both have a lot of trauma and that Jos struggles so much with forming any kind of relationship, but as much as he’s able, he cares deeply about Evan. The moment in Warchild, where they’re in the infirmary and he reaches out to hold Evan’s hand? That was huge for me.

I really love the connection and how Evan is determined to stay with Jos. I’d love to see Jos returning some of that and making Even feel like he is also wanted. Especially in a way that’s more than what Evan’s body can do because Evan so clearly feels like that is so much of his worth to people.

I'd love to see an exploration of how Jos and Evan handle future developments with the war and conflict between Hub, Earth and striviirc-na. Does the opportunity for peace come (and do they continue to serve on Cairo's ship or settle down somewhere)? Does Jos take Evan to Aaian'na?

I'd also love to see a look at them later on in life--what do things look for them ten or twenty years down the line? Maybe they've gone their separate ways but reconnect, both needing and missing the other.

I would love to see Jos and Evan being together, in whatever way you see Jos able to be with Evan. I’m open to anything at the level that we get in canon or as explicit as you’d like (barring any of my DNWs). I've read Under the Silence, so you're totally fine to include that as canon or leave it out completely. If you do include it, I'd love for you to find a way to not break Ryan's heart and would be open to either Ryan/Jos/Evan or Ryan and Jos mutually agreeing that they're in different places.

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Guns of the Dawn - Adrian Tchaikovsky
Cristan Northway, Emily Marshwic

Canon: It's a book about (kind of) a fantasy Napoleonic-era land war, combined with the never-ending decimation of WWI, and then a dash of magic. The story focuses on a woman who watches as the war depletes her country's resources and men, ultimately getting drafted into the war effort herself where she must face what it means to be at war. This book nails some of my favorite tropes: competence, people being thrust into extreme situations and a slightly messy slow burn romance that happened very organically. I loved it!

I find Emily and Cristan such interesting characters. They both are forced to change due to the war and they have become more complicated people as a result of it—or perhaps they were always complicated and the war has exposed that.

I like Emily’s mental transition as she goes from seeing Cristan as the killer of her father to realizing that the world is more nuanced and her father made his own decisions. I like how she comes to value honesty and Cristan is the only person who fully gives her the truth and an outlet to be totally herself. I love her character journey and how she changes from a lady of leisure to someone who is intrinsically a soldier and she’s not sure if she will ever be able to change back from that.

I like how Cristan is one hundred percent ok with dirty dealings and being the bad guy. I also really love how he is forced into actually doing what is needed for the town during the war. (I also like to think that Emily’s influence has rubbed off here—he could always be totally derelict in his duty and he chooses not to be.) I also love just how much he is willing to change for Emily—he observes that Emily can be bought with good deeds, and as much as he doesn’t want to, he finds himself doing good things because of her. I also love his wry humor in his letters (“your obedient villain”!) and how Emily is able to really see beyond his words when he writes to her.

I love Emily’s slowly burgeoning feelings for Cristan as well as the long-running torch that Cristan has clearly held for Emily. The little glimpses that Emily sees of this—like when Cristan asks her to dance at Deerlings and Emily notes that Cristan has had to work up the nerve, but he has already accepted that Emily will reject him. Then the surprise and unlooked for happiness when Emily accepts a dance with him. When Emily leaves for the front and Cristan goes to the train station—he is ostensibly there on official business, but he tells Emily that he’s there to see her and talk to her—but mostly to see her. My heart breaks for him.

I also love that because of his feelings for Emily, he’s willing to do whatever it takes for her—kill the Ghyer, commit treason (over and over again)—even before she returns his feelings or when knowing that she might have feelings for someone else. I would love to see Cristan’s feelings explored—we see so much of what Emily feels and why. How does he feel when he realizes that Emily has picked Cristan over Giles? How did Cristan first come to fall in love with Emily?

I would also love to see their first time together—I like that Emily may have the more experience of the two (although potentially not). Who initiates between the two of them?

Cristan and Emily communicate through a lot of letters and missives—I would love to see an epistolary story between them, perhaps some of their communications that we didn’t see during the war or maybe their notes to each other after the war.

I’d love to see them get something of a happy ending—does Cristan underhandedly work his way farther up the chain even as Emily moderates him and does her own good? Do they ever get married and live together? Does Emily play any kind of role in the building up of Denland and Lascanne? Is Emily’s role in the death of the king discovered and she’s forced to flee—maybe Cristan has to help her escape without him and they’re only able to be together much later.

Emily says that she wonders if in another time, there would be cults or religions springing up around her. If she and Cristan found themselves immortal as a result of a belief in Emily, what would they do through the ages?

I would be interested in era-appropriate crossovers—for example, this is often described as a Jane Austen take on Napoleonic era fighting, what if Emily and/or Cristan comes across characters from a Jane Austen novel? I’d also be interested in Emily and Cristan living in a different era (regency, 1920s, ???).

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Chronicles of Chrestomanci – Diana Wynne Jones
Christopher Chant, Millie

Canon: A book series about a slightly alternate version of the UK where magic exists and is governed by a very powerful magician, called the Chrestomanci. A young boy finds himself exploring parallel worlds in his dreams and meets some very interesting people, including a girl who is the living incarnation of a goddess in a parallel world. Ultimately, the book series focuses on the boy at a few stages in his life (or focuses on other characters while he’s around them, doing things).

I recently re-read this series and just fell in love with it and Christopher and Millie’s relationship all over again. I absolutely loved Conrad’s Fate because we got to see the progression from Christopher and Millie in The Lives of Christopher Chant to Charmed Life. I love how obsessed (is that the right word? It feels like the right word) Christopher is with Millie—my heart absolutely latched onto how much Christopher stood up for Millie when she didn’t want to go back to school and how his solution was to run away with her and live together. And when they almost, but not quite, get reunited and they’re both frantic with worry over the other one? I love love love that. I love how Millie was determined to do things by herself (running off on her own) and that Christopher goes to track her down, but once Christopher is missing, she’s also frantic with worry over him.

I would absolutely love for Christopher and Millie’s relationship to be explored. Have they already developed romantic feelings for each other at this point in Conrad’s Fate? Does the events of Conrad’s Fate make either Millie or Christopher realize that they have feelings for the other one? I love pining, so feel free to give me all the pining. Does Millie realize that she’s in love with Christopher only for him to completely be oblivious to it (or vice versa)? Do they end up running away together at some point (Gabriel be damned!) and one of them has a complete broken heart because they think that that’s the closest that they’ll get to being together romantically?

I’d also love an adventure for Millie and Christopher to go on together! Maybe with Conrad, because he’s wonderful, but really, it could be any/all combination of characters from the series. Do they try to go somewhere (or pull off a heist or…???) and Conrad (or another character) has to watch them bicker and pretend that they don’t care for each other, all while rolling they’re eyes and thinking that Millie and Christopher are complete idiots?

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True Pretenses – Rose Lerner
Ash Cohen, Rafe Cohen, Jamie Reeves

Canon: It’s a romance book set in the 1800s about a Jewish conman who decides that he’s going to help his brother (also a conman) leave the grifting lifestyle by doing one last con to set him up to marry a wealthy lady from a titled family. But, things don’t go exactly according to plan…

I’ve selected Ash, Rafe and Jamie, but you do not need to write about all three of them.

I love the incredibly strong relationship between Ash and Rafe and how Ash would do absolutely anything for his brother. I love Ash and Lydia’s relationship and how they are able to be vulnerable with each other. I love that there is a bit of ambiguity in Ash’s relationship with Lydia—he knows that he’s able to get women to fall in love with him and he did fall in love with his previous girlfriends/Lydia—the con works because it’s true for him.

I would love to see more of Ash and Rafe’s relationship. I think that my favorite parts of the book were about the extreme dedication between the two siblings. I love that Ash, even as a young kid, changed everything about his life in order to take and protect Rafe and that’s been his number one mission in life. The part about his making sure that he had girlfriends that loved him so that they would care for Rafe when Ash had to go to prison is both Machiavellian and heart-warming (?). And Rafe going scorched earth when Ash was taken to prison…their reunion where Rafe immediately identifies that Ash hasn’t eaten…that got me right where I lived.

So yes, more of that. Does Rafe show up at Ash’s side when Ash is under a lot of pressure when Lydia has to host a large party? Does Ash show up to support Rafe while he’s living his respectable life (and Ash is terrible at it? Or maybe great at it?)? Do the siblings track down more about either one of their biological parents? Do they engage with their Jewish heritage together?

I do love the Jewish aspect to this book (a definite rarity amongst regency romances!) and would love to see more of how that plays out with respect to Ash’s and Rafe’s lives.

I also love the flirting that Rafe just goes for in winning over Jamie and would love to see more of that! Does something ultimately happen between Rafe and Jamie? Has Rafe rejected his brother’s matchmaking attempt for him and Lydia only to fall for Lydia’s brother? (Yes, please, tell me more!)

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