Dear Yuletide Writer,

As always, good luck! I am truly delighted and grateful that I've got a match. (Or a pinch hitter! I've gotten pinch hitters before and I love you, too! You chose me! You brave, weird souls, you.)

I'm mostly on tumblr these days so if you want to know what I find pretty/funny/sexy/baffling, feel free to check me out at ladyvyola

So, first the big picture then a little more specificity on what I like about each request.

( My Yuletide Philosophy )

( Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988) )

( Now You See Me (2013) )

( Lord Darcy Series - Randall Garrett )

Go forth and may the Spirit of the Yuletide Hippo be with you!

First of all, good luck! I'm all over the place once again and I will be truly amazed and grateful that I've got a match. (Or a pinch hitter! I've gotten pinch hitters before and I love you, too! You chose me! You brave, weird souls, you.)

So, first the big picture then a little more specificity on what I like about each request.

( My Yuletide Philosophy )

( Face Off (TV) RPF )

( Now You See Me (2013) )

( S.W.A.T. )

( Sears Appliances (TV Commercials) )

( Killers Kill; Dead Men Die - Annie Leibovitz )

Go forth and may the Spirit of the Yuletide Hippo be with you!

First of all, good luck! I'm all over the place once again and I will be truly amazed and grateful that I've got a match. (Or a pinch hitter! I've gotten pinch hitters before and I love you, too! You chose me! You brave, weird souls, you.)

So, first the big picture then a little more specificity on what I like about each request.

( My Yuletide Philosophy )

( Salt (2012) )

( The Clairvoyant Countess – Dorothy Gilman )

( Vampire Party (Audi 2012 Game Day Commercial) )

So this year I wrote for My Drunk Kitchen, the hilarious and adorable web series by Hannah Hart, all about cooking. While drunk.

My story is about all that. And fire.

And it has pictures.

En Flambé (2108 words)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Hannah Hart, Alcohol (Ingredient), Cheese (Ingredient)
Summary: Alcohol. Cheese. Fire. What could this possibly be a recipe for?

If you are unfamiliar with My Drunk Kitchen, take a look at Episode 1, Butter Yo Shit on YouTube. It's only about 5 minutes long. (You watched the damn octopus video, didn't you? Hannah is cuter. Trust me.)

Posted, posted, posted!

Is it Yuletide yet?

So, breaking radio silence because, trust me, you did not want to be hearing about my unemployment and depression over the last six months, or the fun run during this holiday season of Mom's not feeling well which culminated in a trip to the emergency room the day before my birthday, a diagnosis of pneumonia which led to five days in ICU, culminating in a new diagnosis of congestive heart failure, a return home for Christmas, a cardiac cathaterization on Monday, and an upcoming heart surgery sometime after the New Year to replace her atrial valve.

Which is to say, I am clutching Yuletide to my bosom like a life preserver.

I'm going to try to do some recs later, but right now I'm gonna bask in the glory of the three stories that were written for me.

Yeah, that's right, bitches (by which I mean the fates that clearly have been gunning for me this year, not you lovely folks). Three. All full length, and each in a different fandom.

Now, I try not to be one of those people who scare writers by only being happy with a story that includes a pony and a big fight scene with ninja cats after which Mary Sue tells off those terrible janitors about how they treated poor Gary Stu, all set to the lyrics of Ke$ha's Tik Tok. I throw out a couple of open-ended prompts and then talk about the big themes and concepts that appeal to me. It's truly amazing how my gift writers created stories that truly captured those elements. There's a lot of good writers out there, you know? I thank each and every one.

My stories! Mine!

Not Alone in the Dark (8413 words) by dsudis Fandom: Under Jurisdiction - Susan Matthews

Summary: Andrej, Robert, and Joslire's first few days aboard Scylla.

I have asked for this fandom every Yuletide since the beginning. And after eight years, I got it!

My request, in part, read The fandom lends itself to dark but there's room for the lighter side, too -- getting through a regular day while living in close quarters, negotiating through the cultural differences, etc. (....) One thing that intrigues me is the structure and formality that they have to deal with, imposed from within and without, just to get through basic interactions.

"Pitch perfect" is a phrase often tossed around at Yuletide but I do not use it lightly. This story captures both the subtle and overt alienness of this universe and like the best gifts, was exactly what I wanted while being nothing I could have dreamt of myself.

I've got an idea who wrote it. We'll see. ETA: Yes!

The boys are in (910 words) by Keenir Fandom: Jekyll (TV)

Summary: Scenes and facts of (their) life

To be perfectly honest, I requested this fandom because I really didn't like any of the handful of stories I'd found. Nothing quite matched my understanding of canon and nobody talked about Eddie and Harry, the unprecendented twins.

Enter Anonymous, stage right, who took my glib request (So what's next? Do Claire and Tom tell them about their legacy? What's adolescence like for them? First love? First hate? First day of school? *g* Are they really two (four?) separate people? Inquiring minds want to know!) and ran with it.

The stealth Doctor Who crossover at the end was perfect and a sly tip o' the hat to the shared Powers That Be. (Note to self: A Jekyll/Sherlock crossover? The world needs one many!)

Three Mornings (1515 words) by destroythemeek Fandom: Frequency (2000)

Summary: Frank Sullivan. John Sullivan. Jack Shepard. Three morning vignettes.

There's a dreaminess about this movie that appeals to me and I was afraid to be too concrete in my request for fear of closing down authorial inspiration. I did say I'd love to see something about memory -- who knows what and when, how they deal with shifting pasts and uncertain futures and I got three scenes in the re-made yet still-in-progress timeline -- father Frank in the past, son John in the present, killer Jack in-between, none of them secure that reality won't change horribly with the next sunrise.

Go read! Give love (and kudos and comments)!

Kate Beaton's "Hark! A Vagrant" takes on pirates and manages to explain the dynamic in approximately 33 1/3% of all slashfiction.

Also, I may have found a new Yuletide request.

Dear Yuletide Author,

I love my Lucky Number Slevin story, Growing Up!

But everytime I try to leave my comment, I get an error message. I'll try again when I get a chance but today is going to be very busy. In case you check here for an "away from computer" message, here's what I keep trying to tell you:

Oh, so cool! Henry has all the qualities that will help turn him into Slevin. You can see them just barely visible in his first few conversations with Goodkat and how they're starting to solidify by the time of his first significant lesson.

And Goodkat being a teller, not a talker. In the movie he seems to be quite conversational and then you realize he hasn't used a single extra word.

The baseball and Henry's good arm made me quite gleeful. I'm going to have to watch the movie again with that as my own bit of personal canon. Thank you so very much!

I swear, narrowing down fandoms to nominate for Yuletide is harder than choosing ones to request. I've never been disappointed in the stories I've received so I've stopped angsting over picking just the right ones.

But there are so many I'd love to write -- and I need the pressure of Yuletide to make me do it -- that it frustrates the hell out of me that I can't nominate a bunch more. I do refuse to offer a fandom that I've already written for Yuletide so at least I cull the herd a bit. *g*

Aaaaaaaanyways, here's the final cut:

Alien vs Predator
E. E. "Doc" Smith and Stephen Goldin - Family d'Alembert series
Jekyll (2007)
Lucky Number Slevin
Queen of the Damned (movie)
Susan Matthews - Jurisdiction series

Jekyll, the 2007 BBC series, is the only one that I wasn't the original nominator of. The Family d'Alembert series and Queen of the Damned (movie) are new-to-Yule noms and I put the other three in in years past, though Susan Matthews is the only one I've requested every year.

Now the waiting game starts. First, for nominations to close and requests/offers to begin. Then for assignments to go out. Then do decide on which request to fill. Then for source material to be found and reviewed. Then for inspiration to strike.

Which leads to the very, very, very best part.

I call it "waiting for the very last moment to write my Yuletide story".

However, since I somehow managed to upload last year NOT at the very last moment, I'm planning hoping praying that I can beat that and finish a bit earlier. And if I can manage a little bit earlier every year, I just might win a gold star someday. Like, before I die. (Never say I don't set realistic goals, people.)

Dear Yuletide writer,
( My Yuletide philosophy )