Yuletide 2019 reveals
Jan. 1st, 2020 07:07 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
raspberryhunterI wrote my assignment and co-wrote a treat! Assignment was in Bible/Tanakh: The Book of Esther :D
The Book of the Queens of Old Earth in Exile (13784 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: תנ"ך | Tanakh, Megillat Ester | Book of Esther
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Esther/Vashti
Characters: Ester | Esther, Vashti (Abrahamic Religions), Achashverosh | Ahasuerus | Xerxes I of Persia, Haman (Abrahamic Religions), Mordechay | Mordecai
Additional Tags: Misses Clause Challenge, Alternate Universe - Space, Artificial Intelligence, Alien Cultural Differences, Alien Planet, human/alien (mis)communication, Slow Burn, Canonical Character Death, giant ants, Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, dislike to love
Summary:
So I saw sephemeral's prompt about Vashti/Esther IN SPACE and I offered because it sounded fun! Though quite possibly I should be forcibly restrained from offering to prompts where my brain decides that it requires a ton of worldbuilding and character building and etc., because this basically took over my life from mid-November (it would have taken over my life before that but I had RL things that took precedence) to, uh, pretty late on Dec 24, and I still wish I'd had another month to work on it. (I am probably lucky that I escaped with it only being 13k. It wanted to be a novel. I have neither the time nor the capability to write a novel. I do have a whole new respect for novelists now!)
I wanted to write one of those stories where the setting of SPACE (or whatever) plays with the source material and isn't entirely rigidly bound to it but departs from it in ways that make sense for the story, while still holding on to (what I think are?) the important themes. I had a really difficult time with it (I rewrote the first chapter three times, for example), but in the end I'm proud of it and rather pleased by how it turned out. And I learned a ton about writing at this length, and about worldbuilding, and about writing one's worldbuilding so it's not deathly boring to the reader (at least I hope not), and about how to layer in theme. (And yes, betas, how not to do those things, thank you :P :) )
Speaking of betas, a very great deal of the credit here goes to my fabulous betas zdenka and sprocket and iberiandoctor, for both alpha and beta work, and who bore with me sometimes with rather tight turnaround times. Without their compassionate but ruthless dedication to making this story better, and their skill in articulating to me the things that were wrong (and that sometimes I knew were not working but had no idea what wasn't working or how to fix it), it would have been a lot (a LOT) worse. AND my beta saved me from falling into several terrible pitfalls in terms of writing Space Jews (although as a consequence of one of those alpha conversations I had fun identifying Space Jews with all of humanity). Anything weird leftover is my fault, not theirs, especially as I ran out of time near the end there.
And I learned a lot about ants while writing it! (The Psyn are not exactly giant ants... but they basically are giant ants.) The terrible name pun within is due to my spouse, who was not sure he wanted to be given credit in a giant ants fanfic so I have left him out of the AO3 notes :) (It is one of those things that admittedly doesn't fit with original canon, but it seems to me, through personal experience with engineers, to be exactly the kind of way an engineer would name something in a SPACE story :P :) )
I felt, writing it, like I might as well have signed my name to this story; I'm curious as to whether anyone who read it thought it might be me?
And, because I am crazy and clearly didn't have enough to do (but mostly becauseselenak and mildred_of_midgard are so great), I also co-wrote a treat with the lovely mildred_of_midgard for the equally lovely selenak!
Counterpoint for Two Flutes (6467 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 18th Century CE RPF
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great/Hans Hermann von Katte, Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great & Michael Gabriel Fredersdorf
Characters: Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great, Michael Gabriel Fredersdorf
Additional Tags: Music, Flute - Freeform, Mother Love, Healing, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Mood Swings, Yuletide Treat, Hurt/Comfort
Summary:
I spoke more about this here [link to follow as I post] so I won't belabor the point here, but there is basically no way in heck I would ever have been able to write for any sort of History RPF by myself, it was really fun collaborating with mildred, and I am proud of what we were able to do together :D
The Book of the Queens of Old Earth in Exile (13784 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: תנ"ך | Tanakh, Megillat Ester | Book of Esther
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Esther/Vashti
Characters: Ester | Esther, Vashti (Abrahamic Religions), Achashverosh | Ahasuerus | Xerxes I of Persia, Haman (Abrahamic Religions), Mordechay | Mordecai
Additional Tags: Misses Clause Challenge, Alternate Universe - Space, Artificial Intelligence, Alien Cultural Differences, Alien Planet, human/alien (mis)communication, Slow Burn, Canonical Character Death, giant ants, Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, dislike to love
Summary:
They called her a queen, though she was not one: but the circlet of light on her head and the ceremonial robes she wore gave her the semblance of one to the Terrans in the city of Zsa, the Terrans who had been carried away from Old Earth when it was conquered by the Psyn.
She was not a queen, but the Terran Liaison to the Empress of the Psyn; and now she was no longer that.
So I saw sephemeral's prompt about Vashti/Esther IN SPACE and I offered because it sounded fun! Though quite possibly I should be forcibly restrained from offering to prompts where my brain decides that it requires a ton of worldbuilding and character building and etc., because this basically took over my life from mid-November (it would have taken over my life before that but I had RL things that took precedence) to, uh, pretty late on Dec 24, and I still wish I'd had another month to work on it. (I am probably lucky that I escaped with it only being 13k. It wanted to be a novel. I have neither the time nor the capability to write a novel. I do have a whole new respect for novelists now!)
I wanted to write one of those stories where the setting of SPACE (or whatever) plays with the source material and isn't entirely rigidly bound to it but departs from it in ways that make sense for the story, while still holding on to (what I think are?) the important themes. I had a really difficult time with it (I rewrote the first chapter three times, for example), but in the end I'm proud of it and rather pleased by how it turned out. And I learned a ton about writing at this length, and about worldbuilding, and about writing one's worldbuilding so it's not deathly boring to the reader (at least I hope not), and about how to layer in theme. (And yes, betas, how not to do those things, thank you :P :) )
Speaking of betas, a very great deal of the credit here goes to my fabulous betas zdenka and sprocket and iberiandoctor, for both alpha and beta work, and who bore with me sometimes with rather tight turnaround times. Without their compassionate but ruthless dedication to making this story better, and their skill in articulating to me the things that were wrong (and that sometimes I knew were not working but had no idea what wasn't working or how to fix it), it would have been a lot (a LOT) worse. AND my beta saved me from falling into several terrible pitfalls in terms of writing Space Jews (although as a consequence of one of those alpha conversations I had fun identifying Space Jews with all of humanity). Anything weird leftover is my fault, not theirs, especially as I ran out of time near the end there.
And I learned a lot about ants while writing it! (The Psyn are not exactly giant ants... but they basically are giant ants.) The terrible name pun within is due to my spouse, who was not sure he wanted to be given credit in a giant ants fanfic so I have left him out of the AO3 notes :) (It is one of those things that admittedly doesn't fit with original canon, but it seems to me, through personal experience with engineers, to be exactly the kind of way an engineer would name something in a SPACE story :P :) )
I felt, writing it, like I might as well have signed my name to this story; I'm curious as to whether anyone who read it thought it might be me?
And, because I am crazy and clearly didn't have enough to do (but mostly because
selenak and mildred_of_midgard are so great), I also co-wrote a treat with the lovely mildred_of_midgard for the equally lovely selenak!Counterpoint for Two Flutes (6467 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 18th Century CE RPF
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great/Hans Hermann von Katte, Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great & Michael Gabriel Fredersdorf
Characters: Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great, Michael Gabriel Fredersdorf
Additional Tags: Music, Flute - Freeform, Mother Love, Healing, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Mood Swings, Yuletide Treat, Hurt/Comfort
Summary:
Crown Prince Friedrich's escape attempt having failed, the King's judgment took all that the Prince loved from him, and now the Prince is languishing under house arrest, bereft of even music. Young army musician Fredersdorf finds himself trying to help the Prince in every way he can think of, no matter how small.
I spoke more about this here [link to follow as I post] so I won't belabor the point here, but there is basically no way in heck I would ever have been able to write for any sort of History RPF by myself, it was really fun collaborating with mildred, and I am proud of what we were able to do together :D
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Date: 2020-01-04 05:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-01-18 04:44 am (UTC)