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raspberryhunter) wrote2025-10-15 07:56 pm
raspberryhunter) wrote2025-10-15 07:56 pm
Entry tags:
Dear Yuletide 2025
Dear Yuletide Writer,
I have written Lots of Words this year. Feel free to ignore these ideas and use your own — I love seeing how other people think about my favorite fandoms, and I love seeing interpretations that are different from mine (some of my favorite fics are the ones that made me look at things in a new way). Also, please don't read anything into the amount of stuff I have written for each fandom, which has more to do with how much free time I had when I wrote the various sections than anything else; I would be extremely pleased to receive anything for any of these, otherwise I would not have requested them. :D
I am happy to receive treats!
General: I am open to most things! I am a fan of gen, but I'm totally open to het/slash/femslash. I very much welcome alternative ways of telling stories -- IF, epistolary fic, text messages/tweets, poetry, comments on log files, what-have-you, yes please!! I'm also fine with crossovers. Darkfic/character death is great and even encouraged for at least some of these fandoms (though please tag and check the fandom-specific DNWs). I absolutely love fork-in-the-road type AUs for any fandom. Basically I'm okay with most things as long as you tag for it so I know what I'm getting into!
Things I love: (I don't expect all of these by any means, this is just a sampling of Things That Make Me Happy): I love worldbuilding fic and plotty fic. I love character-driven fic that thinks hard about the ramifications of characters' choices. I love most of all for there to be some sort of character arc, or characters (and/or the reader) coming to a greater understanding of something or someone during a fic. I love and adore deep friendship/partnerships, especially platonic ones, of all gender-variety. I love loyalty and duty bonds (and I have a special place in my heart for physical expressions of fealty bonds, like kneeling or ritualized oath-swearing). I love it when all the characters are understandable rather than straight-out villainous or malicious, or where expectations of malice are subverted. I love when something or some implication is clear to the reader that is not clear to the characters, or some subset of the characters, because we have knowledge (about the actual canon, for example) that they don't have.
DNW: Please no references to current politics or current events (canon-related politics are great), and please no PWP. I also don't want setting-changed AUs for these fandoms. For tragic/dark endings: Please check the canon-specific DNWs, as for some of my requested fandoms/characters I don't want them to have an unhappy ending, or an ending with no hope. But if I don't have a canon-specific DNW about it, then tragedy/death/whatever is fine -- and encouraged! -- if tagged. I normally have an infidelity DNW, but this year most of my fandoms are ones where I don't mind it -- I will put it in the canon-specific DNWs if applicable.
Sieben Jahre - Tanja Kinkel (Any) - I just adore this book about Heinrich, the brother of Frederick the Great, and his complicated codependent relationship with Friedrich, which also brings in a ton of other wonderful family and historical characters. Uhhhh so I would love anything! Heinrich and his fraught familial relationships are my fave, but I love all of the characters so much! Seriously, feel free to write me anything about anyone, nominated or not!
A note on names/language: I'm used to the convention where the German names Heinrich, Friederich, Wilhelm, etc. are used, but the characters refer to each other with French names when they would have in real life (e.g., Friedrich calls Heinrich "Henri"). But honestly I'd be fine with German, French, or English names. I would prefer a gift in English.
Some prompts if you need ideas! I realize I am just writing about random characters, I totally don't expect you to write about ones that weren't nominated unless you want to! Just ideas that might spark your interest, but please write whatever you want:
-Heinrich and Friedrich/Fritz are THE two characters who revolve around each other, who are bound to each other with love and loyalty and hate and death and everything in between, and their complex entanglement is totally my jam. Anything with these two and their fraught relationship would be just so great. Heinrich in particular is my absolute problematic fave, I love him. Some ideas: scenes after the course of the novel, either following historical events or not? What about the AU where Heinrich does say to AW, "No, submit. I've done it, and one survives," and AW does submit, and doesn't die -- what happens then? Does AW become more and more dependent on Heinrich? (I feel like this family is so dysfunctional that they would figure out some other way to be messed up, in this case.)
Or what if he submits and then dies anyway? How does that change (or not) the dynamic between Heinrich and Fritz?
And then there's that whole scene where Fritz undresses Heinrich and inspects his wound... okay, I have a lot of feelings about this scene :P I'd absolutely love to see it from Heinrich's point of view. But also, like, would not say no to the metaphorical seduction of Heinrich here becoming more literal, if you wanted to take it that way.
- I just love the slow development of feelings between Amalie and Luise and would absolutely adore any scene between these two, especially when they're still feeling out the way they feel about each other. Or something about them after the book ends, especially if it also has Amalie working through issues with her brothers/family and Luise being super wise about it, as she always is. Or maybe Amalie learning to appreciate poor EC more through Luise's help? Or -- Luise and Heinrich: maybe Heinrich learns to appreciate Luise better?
- Poor Melusine/Mina, who just was not equipped for life with the SUPER DYSFUNCTIONAL Hohenzollerns and who just keeps making the wrong decisions because she doesn't get how anyone could be so dysfunctional. Ugh! How does she get along after the events of the book? Does she ever find happiness? Does she ever learn to understand her terrible in-laws any better? Do she and Amalie ever come to understand each other any better? I would also 100% be down for the AU where Amalie and Melusine are the hate-pairing (perhaps through sex they learn to understand each other better?) instead of Amalie/Luise, which I think could be really interesting fireworks and snark. (I wouldn't want Amalie to cheat on Luise, though I'd be fine with an AU where Amalie/Luise never happened at all, or if Amalie and Luise quietly broke up but remained friends before Amalie/Melusine.)
- MARWITZ, who might actually be MY FAVORITE in a book that is full of amazing characters. He is so delightfully snarky and lovable at the same time! But then his conversation with Heinrich before Kunersdorf is just heartbreaking. (Not to mention Kunersdorf. :PP ) I'd absolutely love his POV on Heinrich and Fritz, and for that matter Lehndorff and Kalckreuth, and what about Seydlitz?? I just want Marwitz's snarky and sometimes self-aware and sometimes heartbreaking commentary on everything...
- uh, so, I totally do think Henckel has a repressed crush on Heinrich and that's why he's so hard on Kalckreuth, and would love for him to act on that. Poor Henckel, I do think that Heinrich isn't attracted to him, though -- although I would love to be convinced otherwise! Or, what if he and Lehndorff had a conversation where he lets his terrible secret out, and he and Lehndorff could bond over Heinrich not being in love with them...
- It has not escaped my attention that you could write a coffeeshop fic for this novel and it wouldn't even have to be an AU! Tell me more about Hannibal and Fransizka's coffeeshop! Extra bonus points if e.g. Amalie and/or Heinrich come to hang out there. In fact, this could be a fun "5 things" fic where they have various visitors...
- Caroline Fredersdorf only shows up for a few scenes but she is SO GREAT. Would love more about her courtship with Fredersdorf and how that worked!
- Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst/Catherine the Great is Madame Not Appearing in This Novel, but her friendship with Heinrich is namechecked a few times, and I am always always up for the AU in which Sophie and Heinrich do get married instead of Heinrich/Melusine and then spend all their time one-upping each other and probably trying to assassinate each other, but while still understanding and liking each other in a way that is somehow more functional than Heinrich's actual marriage to Melusine??
Fandom-specific DNW: I don't think I have any for this fandom, except as mentioned above no Amalie/Luise specific infidelity. Character death, hopeless despair, whatever you want, it's all good! Just please tag for death or despair :)
Some Desperate Glory - Emily Tesh (Lin, Avi): I would really like fic about Yingli Lin and Avicenna and their relationship.
There's so much there. She's Avi's mentor, and my headcanon is that she finds him super annoying a lot of the time but also genuinely sometimes enjoys being with him because she enjoys working with his intelligence, complicated by knowing in the back of her head that if he had grown up anywhere but Gaea, he'd have a much better life with much better options. What Avi thinks about Lin is equally as or perhaps more fascinating -- he knows she's really good at what she does (when no one else seems to), but he doesn't know exactly how good she is, nor how much he has left to learn. And I think that he legitimately cares for her, but doesn't really know how to articulate that either to her or to himself, and mostly just takes her for granted, in the way of teenagers.
- The really interesting thread here that I would love to see is, what does Avi think about Lin sacrificing herself for all of them at the end? Does this mean he has to change the way he views her, how he views the world? How does he come to terms with realizing he's underestimated her in a couple of different kinds of ways? Does he have to work through that he might actually care what happens to her, when he's been telling himself that he doesn't care about anyone?hamsterwoman said, "I could see him being almost angry about it? Like, I was expecting YOU of all people to make sense!" and that just seems so spot on to me and I would love to see how that plays out! I'd love fic in general about how they relate afterwards.
-hamsterwoman said in her prompts last year, "I feel like you could have some fun with epistolary fic for the two of them, with comments in code, security logs, etc." -- does Lin ever manage to teach Avi opsec?? -- and yes I want this! (I mean, feel free to write this for hamsterwoman instead of me! If you do, I promise to read it and treat it as if it were also a present for me, because it would so be.)
-I mean, all the discussion in the comments of this post is amazing and I want all of it!
Fandom-specific DNW: I don't want easy endings or hopeless endings. Endings where the characters have to fight to grow or change, and with struggle come to a better place, great! Or endings where the characters could go either way but we hope they'll choose the right way. But not something where rocks fall everyone dies, or where everyone is awful, or where everyone is magically happy without putting the work in. Character death is fine for this canon.
Her Smoke Rose Up Forever - Tiptree (any) - The eligibility rules let me nominate this this year so I am totally taking that opportunity! :D I again have gotten some superlative stories for this canon, but there can always be more in the world :D James Tiptree, Jr., or Alice Sheldon, if you prefer, was an amazing writer who wrote plotty intricate stories about love, sex, joy, depair, death, poetry, and biology, and what it means to be human. I want a story dealing (at least tangentially) with what it means to be human. (That's not to say you can't write about aliens -- I'm convinced her alien stories had profound things to say about our own species.) Also love, sex, joy, despair, death, humanity, or biology — it doesn't have to be all of those, but I do contend that it should have at least one quotation from at least one piece of literature :) But anyway, I would really be happy with just about anything!
I would super adore an original story with original characters. I would also love a sequel or fork-in-the-road AU or expansion or worldbuilding based on any of the stories in this anthology (which is why I nominated this particular anthology and also didn't nominate any characters, so that you could have full pick of what you wanted to do). Honestly, any of them! What happened to Leelyloo in "Love is the Plan"; was she able to pass on Moggadeet's message? What was Mir-mir's eventual fate in "What Delicate Mad Hands"? What is the story behind that "grand person," Mrs. Priscilla Hayes Smith, the Parsons' friend in "The Women Men Don't See," and do the Parsons ever send for her? Was Barney ever able to get Anne's message in "Screwfly Solution" and do anything about it? I would love to hear anything at all about the clones in "Houston Houston," perhaps an expansion of one of the ballads that are mentioned? I mean, seriously, all of these are so interesting! (If you had another story in mind and want prompts for more of them just let me know, I could come up with these all day. They're so rich and interesting. But of course feel free to write whatever you would like, if you have a different idea in your head!)
I had the thought that many of these stories could be considered AUs of each other (e.g., multiple end-of-the-world stories) — are they? What would that entail? (And how would the characters in the multiverse feel about that, if they discovered it?) Many of them might also take place in the same universe (and sometimes Tiptree cross-connects elements like Stars' Tears); feel free to expand any of those potential connections.
More generally: What would Tiptree be like if he were writing today? What would he write about? He wrote a lot about gender and what seems like the impossibility of the genders ever meeting; what would that look like today? Is friendship possible in a Tiptree universe? His stories tend to completely sabotage friendship, whether it's between romantic couples ("Love is the Plan", "Screwfly Solution") or not ("Your Faces, O My Sisters"). How could friendship find a way, when it's always being subsumed by cultural or biological factors? The stories that seems to hold out hope for friendship are "Houston, Houston" and "The Women Men Don't See" and the alien stories ("Love is the Plan" and "With Delicate Mad Hands") — does this imply that it's only in the absence of men or the cultural male imperatives that true friendships either within or crossing gender lines can occur? Is it impossible for men to have true friendships? (Even in "Love is the Plan" the males can't connect!)
In general Tiptree's stories are all about sex and violence, especially genderified, some of them in explicit detail, and I love them, so feel free to continue in that vein with as much explicitness as you feel the story calls for (though lack of it is also of course just fine). Relatedly, it's probably pretty clear that I'm generally super vanilla, but here kink is fine: e.g. "How would Tiptree write A/B/O?" (…How would he?)
I would adore to have a happy ending of some sort, where a character finds a way through these issues or fixes a problem set up up in one of the canon stories, but, I mean, it's Tiptree, so unhappy or bittersweet endings are totally great. (And honestly I can't myself see a way to give any of these stories happier endings, or at least only marginally happier — like, maybe Barney figures out a way to reverse the Screwfly solution, yay, but basically all (almost all?) the women have been killed at this point, and what would that even do psychologically to the survivors of either sex, if only, say, two hundred women survived in the entire world, what kind of society would that lead to… well, you see what I mean.)
The only caveat I have here is that I would prefer a story that isn't super-intensely despairing up to the very end. I am looking at you, "On the Last Afternoon" (and also more of her later stories, which honestly kind of terrify me, like "Backward, Turn Backward") — feel free to write fic about "Afternoon," I'm not saying that at all, but the way that it just ratchets up the intensity until it ends on this almost unbearable peak of despair? If your story does that kind of emotional maneuver (no matter who or what the story is about, or what you're ficcing), well, I don't want to say you can't do that — I know sometimes a story goes where it goes, and I want to read what you're inspired to write -- but please please tag your story accordingly so that I know what I'm getting into :) Thanks! :) (Most of Tiptree's other stories resolve into something at least a little more joyful — "Smoke Rose Up Forever" or "Man Who Walked Home," even if we understand the joy is an illusion — or at least a little less intense, e.g., "The Girl Who Was Plugged In," and this is what I would prefer — some joy in the ending, even if there is mostly bleakness, because joy and the affirmation of life are part of the human condition and Tiptree understood that.)
Fandom-specific DNWs: uhhhh yeah this is a dark canon, anything goes. As I say above, please warn for rocks fall everyone dies but feel free to write anything up to that level of dark!
The Secret Garden - Simon/Norman (Worldbuilding, Neville) - I am OK with only one of these being the main focus.
I re-listened to this musical this year -- it's perhaps my favorite musical of all time. I love the book to begin with, but I feel like the musical adds new dimensions. I absolutely love how it deepens the book's themes of grief and the ways one fails in rebuilding through grief (Archibald and Neville encapsulate two different modes of failure until the end; Neville, of course, being a new addition from the book), and the ways that one can rebuild and grow (principally Mary and Colin, but also Archibald and maybe Neville too by the end).
And the music, of course, is spectacular, especially the orchestration, and the ensemble numbers, and... okay, I just love it all.
Note: Although I adore the book and would welcome as many elements from the book as you would like to include, I am specifically interested in the musical, and, my prompts deal specifically with the musical characters.
- The Dreamers / worldbuilding relating to the Dreamers! I would love exploration as to what is going on with them. I adore the lines "And the master hears the whispers / on the stairway dark and still / And the spirits speak of secrets / In the house upon the hill!" -- Archibald Craven is clearly aware there are ghosts in the house. Please feel absolutely free to bring in as many actual magical elements as you want; if you want to go full magical!AU I'm up for that! Is dealing with ghosts, and/or stepping forward and backward in time, a hereditary trait of the Cravens, or of Misselthwaite? Do the duties of the master of the manor normally include dealing with the ghosts, and Archibald is falling down on that due to his depressive state and so now they "make no effort now to hide it" and are taking over? (Perhaps -- probably? -- without intending to?) Do Mary's ghosts only exist because she came to the Craven estate? (Feel free to invent other ghosts -- perhaps we only see Mary's in the musical because it's largely from Mary's POV.) What do the other characters (Martha, Dickon, Ben) think of the ghosts? Do Martha and Ben and the other servants have to work around the ghosts? And then the way that the almost-threatening (but definitely upset) ghosts become gentled as the musical goes on -- is this the work that Archibald (or Neville?) should have been doing all along? Is Colin dealing with the ghosts (perhaps unconsciously) as the young master -- should he have been trained all along and is that part of the problem? What did Lily think of the ghosts when she fell in love with Archibald, or were they more in control then? Perhaps Dickon is an actual wizard but can't hold dominion over the spirits of Misselthwaite because his powers are more nature-based (and maybe not the dominion type either)?
- Neville Craven gets a much bigger part in the musical than in the book: he gets upgraded to being a brother (instead of a poor cousin) with unrequited love for Lily and some rather understandable resentment (though sometimes it is poorly managed) of his position as the second son having to take care of everything while his brother, who should be taking care of everything, isn't able to. (Honestly... as an adult, I feel like I have a lot more sympathy with Neville. Is he emotionally damaged and not dealing with it optimally, to the extent that a lot of stagings have him as the unofficial villain? Yes, definitely -- but at least he was there and taking care of matters while his brother ran away and continued to constantly run away and is moping about how he can't live without Lily after ten years! I would complain rather more than Neville does!)
I'd love him to get a bit of a redemption arc -- after Archibald comes back at the end of the play, is Neville able to make a new life for himself? Could he live like other men, could he be happy then? Can he get past Lily? Can he mend his relationship with Mary and Colin now that he can be an uncle instead of a doctor responsible for them? Does he ever come to terms with realizing that his negative reaction towards Mary had a lot to do with his avoidance of his unresolved grief for Lily?
In the musical, Archibald does canonically say at the end that he realizes it's been hard for Neville (and gives him a path forward by letting him stay in his Paris flat and then offering to help him build up an independent practice), and I would also love more development of that theme of Archibald really owing a lot to Neville (which he DOES, again, even if Neville could have handled everything more optimally). On rewatch it killed me when Neville is trying to talk to Archie about Mary, and Archibald is like, K I'm running away again, seems like you've got it under control, and Neville says, exasperated, "Haven't you heard anything I've just said??" There's a lot of how they don't see each other (Neville is clearly projecting like an IMAX when he says "If [Archibald] could disappear he could be free," and Archibald doesn't see Neville at all because he's too wrapped up in himself), and I would love for the two of them to find a way to a better connection after the events of the musical.
Has Neville also been dealing with the ghosts? Is he slowly being driven mad by them in Act I? (We know canonically from "Lily's Eyes" that he hears Lily -- "From death she casts her spell/ All night we hear her sighs" -- I guess this could be metaphorical but isn't it more interesting if it's not?) Does he notice that the ghosts are becoming gentler by the end of Act II, but doesn't know why?
In "Quartet," Neville and Rose sometimes sing together, and I have a mild headcanon that Neville and Rose, while never at all romantically linked in the slightest, may have had a commonality of feeling where both of them are more a man/woman of sometimes brutal practicality than their counterparts (Archibald and Albert). I'd be interested in any thoughts you had about that, or any interaction that Neville and Rose might have had before (or during, as a ghost) the events of the musical. (This is a random optional prompt, of course, as Rose was not nominated.)
Fandom-specific DNW: Please don't ship musical!Dickon with anyone, and don't ship anyone underage. (Future-fics where everyone is an adult are fine!) Please no infidelity. Please no endings that don't have at least some hope. (E.g. an ending where Archibald dies but Neville has formed a bond of affection with the kids and really steps up and does a much better job holding the family together than he did in the musical would be totally fine (and actually quite interesting, I'd love for you to write that!), but an ending where Archibald dies and Neville is awful and it all sucks would not.)
Dune - Frank Herbert (Irulan, Chani, Jessica, Margot - any two) - I adore Dune's whole thing where everything is conspiracy within conspiracy and everyone has three layers of Sekrit Plans behind their words. I would love any two (or more!) of these amazing women (with one potential exception), all of whom have reasons to be at odds with each other but also commonalities, to be plotting against each other and perhaps also become friends, either because of or despite the conspiracies that they're engaged in, and with fork-in-the-road AUs enthusiastically welcome.
- I would absolutely adore an AU (found-document??) hatred-to-friendship(/lovers?) fic about Irulan and Chani, where Irulan and Chani plot against each other and Irulan writes propaganda against Chani but eventually they come to an understanding... and then what? Irulan pivots to writing Muad'Dib history where only Paul is mentioned, and spends the rest of her time writing hot F/F where Paul never shows up or is only a super minor character, and it turns out those are the bestsellers? Extra bonus points if that changes history?? IDK, I don't know how this would end, but I want it :D
- What would it be like for Irulan and Margot to plot either together or against each other in Empire politics, perhaps before the book begins or behind the scenes at any point during any of the books?
- Is there an AU where Count Fenring is a plausible Kwisatz Haderach, and Margot and Jessica are locked in a behind-the-scenes strategic duel against each other, while Fenring/Paul/Margot/Jessica do come to respect and maybe even like/love each other, as Fenring and Paul do in the book?
- An AU where Irulan and Chani team up and it turns out that two women working together is (somehow?) equivalent to a Kwisatz Haderach??
The one potential exception is Jessica & Chani, because I feel like they have more scenes in canon, and I don't have a good prompt for them ... BUT if your muse goes there and you have an idea, then sure, write them too!
Fandom-specific DNW: I don't think I have any! Tag for death/despair but totally bring it!
The Tillerman Cycle - Cynthia Voigt (any) - I am blown away by how amazing these books are in terms of depth of character, thematic development of love and friendship and growing up and holding on and letting go and community and how we give to each other… I would love anything for these books. Any character. What you want to write, what interests you, that's what I want to hear about! I requested some I love, and I have a couple of prompts I'm super interested in, but really any character at all, nominated or un-nominated, would be wonderful, and in the spirit of how Voigt is always thinking about the humanity of all the characters. I got a truly amaaaaaazing fic for Brother Thomas but I am so greedy that I would love another one, as I am always always here for Brother Thomas with his crisis of faith -- the part where he keeps on his habit because he's not sure he would put it on again if he took it off? Oh Thomas <3 What does Jeff's college roommate think of the events of Seventeen? What is Mr. Lingerle's perspective? Can Johnny Tillerman, whom we never saw but who from Bullet's memory rather looked like he was going to follow in his father's toxic footsteps, figure himself out and have healthier relationships?
And Mina Smiths! I just madly adore Come a Stranger and its moving depiction of her family and community, and how they are a whole entity. <3 What happens to Mina? How does she find law school? I imagine it will be interesting for her trying to juggle her career ambitions and romance; how might this play out? I kinda ship her and Tamer's son Samuel in a "if they met again as grownups they might really understand each other well" kind of way -- what would it be like if they met again as grownups? How does her friendship with Dicey progress? Does it change as they pursue their careers and their lives with their families and communities (however that looks)?
Maybeth never got a book! If she had gotten a book, what would it look like? Gram thinks she needs an older man to take care of her -- okay, I must admit that I have a veeeeery low opinion of Gram's romantic picker in the books, and I would LOVE for her to be proven wrong about this. Does Maybeth even need a romantic relationship at all? Does she stay at the farm as a beloved unmarried matriarch at the center of a ton of siblings and friends and nieces and nephews (and chickens?? hee) who are always making life interesting? In general, how does she strike a balance between listening to her more-intellectually-capable family and making her own heart-capable decisions? Given that her upbringing had so much more support than her mother's, can she avoid her mother's fate? (Yes. The answer here should be yes. :P :) ) (I got TWO just awesome Maybeth fics, but what I'm saying here is that there is no such thing as too much Maybeth, y/y??)
Sammy and James did get a book, but obviously there could always be more! I am actually super interested in what happens to Sammy and James after the end of the books. Does Sammy become an astronaut, or does he fail at that and become a farmer and is actually totally happy being a farmer? (Do he and Maybeth work together? He could do the farming, she could do the people work…) What kind of doctor is James, does he do research, I can see him doing clinical studies about how people react to this or that (although I honestly can't see in a lab at all). Actually I sort of see him being an Oliver Sacks or Atul Gawande type — not so much a really awesome doctor (though presumably he's a *good* doctor, I feel like the James of these books wouldn't be a doctor if he wasn't able to be a good one) as one who is really great at writing about and making connections about medicine. What happens to Toby? Of all of them (except maybe James for the reason given above), I think Toby has the best shot at being someone legit famous, mostly because apparently I trust James' sense of that. I don't know, though — do you trust James' sense?
I love Jeff Greene very much, and would love to read anything you would like to write about him. What was Jeff thinking during the events of Seventeen Against the Dealer — how does he deal with being at college, having a new separate group of friends, seeing Dicey drift away from him, what is he thinking when she suddenly says she wants to marry him? He's so empathic, he probably knows something of what's going on with her — but how much? And clearly his past family relationships affect the way he thinks about all of this… does he ever talk to the Professor about what's going on with him and Dicey? Or Brother Thomas? What do they think of it? (In general, I would love anything with him and Brother Thomas and the Professor, I love all three of them a bunch.) Does he ever talk to the other Tillermans about Dicey? We know that he talks to them about other things, and I'd love to see those conversations too, the way he keeps up his relationships with them even while it seems his relationship with Dicey is imploding.
Canon-specific DNWs: Please no infidelity, including infidelity of Thomas with respect to God (though of course it's not infidelity if he breaks up with God, so to speak). I really, really want a Tillerman story to have a good ending, by which I don't mean an unalloyed happy ending — what I guess I mean here is I need a fic where the characters grow and learn, and where they're able to keep their family together, and I'm assured they're going to be OK together, even if bad things happen in the meantime. Gram dies and the adult kids come together to figure it out as they've always figured it out? Great! Alternate-universe fic where Verricker meets James and Sammy and absolutely crushes them but Maybeth sees right through him and puts her brothers straight in the end? Bring it on! Alternate-universe fic where the kids never make it to Gram in Homecoming and get separated into orphanages forever? Or fic where Johnny propagates his father's ways without changing? Please no. Thank you!
Where to find canon:
If I don't have a note here, it's probably easily available. (I figured this letter was long enough already...)
Sieben Jahre: This book is now available in German (e.g., from amazon.de)! Those who do not speak German... contactmildred_of_midgard and she may be able to work out something :)
Secret Garden:
The recent "revival version" (with Quartet missing) makes Neville more villainous than the original (which I hate), though in my opinion the original text is a bit ambiguous and he can come across as more or less sympathetic based on how he's directed.
As my letter makes clear, I strongly support a less unsympathetic Neville and I have found it really hard to find a video that both makes Neville not wholly unsympathetic and also is good quality. This is the best compromise I can find:
US Tour: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iz83l0VEKH0
ETA 10-23-25: I found another couple of videos that I really like:
- hat tip to pure_anon's promo post, here is a concert version, which unfortunately has the Dreamers as a choir: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rXqZKZwS70&list=RD2rXqZKZwS70&start_radio=1
- This one is a minimalist staging (but it IS staged, not concert) and sometimes the recording doesn't focus on the actor I want it to, but it has better quality video than the others, with great acting and singing and making efficient use of the space they have. I think I probably recommend this as a first Garden: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCVWpVgZW9s
Libretto here: https://www.mauriceparent.com/uploads/1/2/5/7/12573416/secret-garden-libretto.pdf
(Please let me know if any of these links break.)
Her Smoke Rose Up Forever: This is an anthology of many of Tiptree's great stories, and you could of course look for the stories separately. Here's a list of the stories:
The Last Flight of Doctor Ain
The Screwfly Solution
And I Awoke and Found Me Here on the Cold Hill’s Side
The Girl Who Was Plugged In
The Man Who Walked Home
And I Have Come Upon This Place by Lost Ways
The Women Men Don’t See
Your Faces, O My Sisters! Your Faces Filled of Light!
Houston, Houston, Do You Read?
With Delicate Mad Hands
A Momentary Taste of Being
We Who Stole the Dream
Her Smoke Rose Up Forever
Love Is the Plan the Plan Is Death
On the Last Afternoon
She Waits for All Men Born
Slow Music
And So On, And So On
Googling many of these will give you text, some of which is even legal. For example, here is an official web reprint of "Love is the Plan the Plan is Death".
I have written Lots of Words this year. Feel free to ignore these ideas and use your own — I love seeing how other people think about my favorite fandoms, and I love seeing interpretations that are different from mine (some of my favorite fics are the ones that made me look at things in a new way). Also, please don't read anything into the amount of stuff I have written for each fandom, which has more to do with how much free time I had when I wrote the various sections than anything else; I would be extremely pleased to receive anything for any of these, otherwise I would not have requested them. :D
I am happy to receive treats!
General: I am open to most things! I am a fan of gen, but I'm totally open to het/slash/femslash. I very much welcome alternative ways of telling stories -- IF, epistolary fic, text messages/tweets, poetry, comments on log files, what-have-you, yes please!! I'm also fine with crossovers. Darkfic/character death is great and even encouraged for at least some of these fandoms (though please tag and check the fandom-specific DNWs). I absolutely love fork-in-the-road type AUs for any fandom. Basically I'm okay with most things as long as you tag for it so I know what I'm getting into!
Things I love: (I don't expect all of these by any means, this is just a sampling of Things That Make Me Happy): I love worldbuilding fic and plotty fic. I love character-driven fic that thinks hard about the ramifications of characters' choices. I love most of all for there to be some sort of character arc, or characters (and/or the reader) coming to a greater understanding of something or someone during a fic. I love and adore deep friendship/partnerships, especially platonic ones, of all gender-variety. I love loyalty and duty bonds (and I have a special place in my heart for physical expressions of fealty bonds, like kneeling or ritualized oath-swearing). I love it when all the characters are understandable rather than straight-out villainous or malicious, or where expectations of malice are subverted. I love when something or some implication is clear to the reader that is not clear to the characters, or some subset of the characters, because we have knowledge (about the actual canon, for example) that they don't have.
DNW: Please no references to current politics or current events (canon-related politics are great), and please no PWP. I also don't want setting-changed AUs for these fandoms. For tragic/dark endings: Please check the canon-specific DNWs, as for some of my requested fandoms/characters I don't want them to have an unhappy ending, or an ending with no hope. But if I don't have a canon-specific DNW about it, then tragedy/death/whatever is fine -- and encouraged! -- if tagged. I normally have an infidelity DNW, but this year most of my fandoms are ones where I don't mind it -- I will put it in the canon-specific DNWs if applicable.
Sieben Jahre - Tanja Kinkel (Any) - I just adore this book about Heinrich, the brother of Frederick the Great, and his complicated codependent relationship with Friedrich, which also brings in a ton of other wonderful family and historical characters. Uhhhh so I would love anything! Heinrich and his fraught familial relationships are my fave, but I love all of the characters so much! Seriously, feel free to write me anything about anyone, nominated or not!
A note on names/language: I'm used to the convention where the German names Heinrich, Friederich, Wilhelm, etc. are used, but the characters refer to each other with French names when they would have in real life (e.g., Friedrich calls Heinrich "Henri"). But honestly I'd be fine with German, French, or English names. I would prefer a gift in English.
Some prompts if you need ideas! I realize I am just writing about random characters, I totally don't expect you to write about ones that weren't nominated unless you want to! Just ideas that might spark your interest, but please write whatever you want:
-Heinrich and Friedrich/Fritz are THE two characters who revolve around each other, who are bound to each other with love and loyalty and hate and death and everything in between, and their complex entanglement is totally my jam. Anything with these two and their fraught relationship would be just so great. Heinrich in particular is my absolute problematic fave, I love him. Some ideas: scenes after the course of the novel, either following historical events or not? What about the AU where Heinrich does say to AW, "No, submit. I've done it, and one survives," and AW does submit, and doesn't die -- what happens then? Does AW become more and more dependent on Heinrich? (I feel like this family is so dysfunctional that they would figure out some other way to be messed up, in this case.)
Or what if he submits and then dies anyway? How does that change (or not) the dynamic between Heinrich and Fritz?
And then there's that whole scene where Fritz undresses Heinrich and inspects his wound... okay, I have a lot of feelings about this scene :P I'd absolutely love to see it from Heinrich's point of view. But also, like, would not say no to the metaphorical seduction of Heinrich here becoming more literal, if you wanted to take it that way.
- I just love the slow development of feelings between Amalie and Luise and would absolutely adore any scene between these two, especially when they're still feeling out the way they feel about each other. Or something about them after the book ends, especially if it also has Amalie working through issues with her brothers/family and Luise being super wise about it, as she always is. Or maybe Amalie learning to appreciate poor EC more through Luise's help? Or -- Luise and Heinrich: maybe Heinrich learns to appreciate Luise better?
- Poor Melusine/Mina, who just was not equipped for life with the SUPER DYSFUNCTIONAL Hohenzollerns and who just keeps making the wrong decisions because she doesn't get how anyone could be so dysfunctional. Ugh! How does she get along after the events of the book? Does she ever find happiness? Does she ever learn to understand her terrible in-laws any better? Do she and Amalie ever come to understand each other any better? I would also 100% be down for the AU where Amalie and Melusine are the hate-pairing (perhaps through sex they learn to understand each other better?) instead of Amalie/Luise, which I think could be really interesting fireworks and snark. (I wouldn't want Amalie to cheat on Luise, though I'd be fine with an AU where Amalie/Luise never happened at all, or if Amalie and Luise quietly broke up but remained friends before Amalie/Melusine.)
- MARWITZ, who might actually be MY FAVORITE in a book that is full of amazing characters. He is so delightfully snarky and lovable at the same time! But then his conversation with Heinrich before Kunersdorf is just heartbreaking. (Not to mention Kunersdorf. :PP ) I'd absolutely love his POV on Heinrich and Fritz, and for that matter Lehndorff and Kalckreuth, and what about Seydlitz?? I just want Marwitz's snarky and sometimes self-aware and sometimes heartbreaking commentary on everything...
- uh, so, I totally do think Henckel has a repressed crush on Heinrich and that's why he's so hard on Kalckreuth, and would love for him to act on that. Poor Henckel, I do think that Heinrich isn't attracted to him, though -- although I would love to be convinced otherwise! Or, what if he and Lehndorff had a conversation where he lets his terrible secret out, and he and Lehndorff could bond over Heinrich not being in love with them...
- It has not escaped my attention that you could write a coffeeshop fic for this novel and it wouldn't even have to be an AU! Tell me more about Hannibal and Fransizka's coffeeshop! Extra bonus points if e.g. Amalie and/or Heinrich come to hang out there. In fact, this could be a fun "5 things" fic where they have various visitors...
- Caroline Fredersdorf only shows up for a few scenes but she is SO GREAT. Would love more about her courtship with Fredersdorf and how that worked!
- Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst/Catherine the Great is Madame Not Appearing in This Novel, but her friendship with Heinrich is namechecked a few times, and I am always always up for the AU in which Sophie and Heinrich do get married instead of Heinrich/Melusine and then spend all their time one-upping each other and probably trying to assassinate each other, but while still understanding and liking each other in a way that is somehow more functional than Heinrich's actual marriage to Melusine??
Fandom-specific DNW: I don't think I have any for this fandom, except as mentioned above no Amalie/Luise specific infidelity. Character death, hopeless despair, whatever you want, it's all good! Just please tag for death or despair :)
Some Desperate Glory - Emily Tesh (Lin, Avi): I would really like fic about Yingli Lin and Avicenna and their relationship.
There's so much there. She's Avi's mentor, and my headcanon is that she finds him super annoying a lot of the time but also genuinely sometimes enjoys being with him because she enjoys working with his intelligence, complicated by knowing in the back of her head that if he had grown up anywhere but Gaea, he'd have a much better life with much better options. What Avi thinks about Lin is equally as or perhaps more fascinating -- he knows she's really good at what she does (when no one else seems to), but he doesn't know exactly how good she is, nor how much he has left to learn. And I think that he legitimately cares for her, but doesn't really know how to articulate that either to her or to himself, and mostly just takes her for granted, in the way of teenagers.
- The really interesting thread here that I would love to see is, what does Avi think about Lin sacrificing herself for all of them at the end? Does this mean he has to change the way he views her, how he views the world? How does he come to terms with realizing he's underestimated her in a couple of different kinds of ways? Does he have to work through that he might actually care what happens to her, when he's been telling himself that he doesn't care about anyone?
hamsterwoman said, "I could see him being almost angry about it? Like, I was expecting YOU of all people to make sense!" and that just seems so spot on to me and I would love to see how that plays out! I'd love fic in general about how they relate afterwards.-
hamsterwoman said in her prompts last year, "I feel like you could have some fun with epistolary fic for the two of them, with comments in code, security logs, etc." -- does Lin ever manage to teach Avi opsec?? -- and yes I want this! (I mean, feel free to write this for hamsterwoman instead of me! If you do, I promise to read it and treat it as if it were also a present for me, because it would so be.)-I mean, all the discussion in the comments of this post is amazing and I want all of it!
Fandom-specific DNW: I don't want easy endings or hopeless endings. Endings where the characters have to fight to grow or change, and with struggle come to a better place, great! Or endings where the characters could go either way but we hope they'll choose the right way. But not something where rocks fall everyone dies, or where everyone is awful, or where everyone is magically happy without putting the work in. Character death is fine for this canon.
Her Smoke Rose Up Forever - Tiptree (any) - The eligibility rules let me nominate this this year so I am totally taking that opportunity! :D I again have gotten some superlative stories for this canon, but there can always be more in the world :D James Tiptree, Jr., or Alice Sheldon, if you prefer, was an amazing writer who wrote plotty intricate stories about love, sex, joy, depair, death, poetry, and biology, and what it means to be human. I want a story dealing (at least tangentially) with what it means to be human. (That's not to say you can't write about aliens -- I'm convinced her alien stories had profound things to say about our own species.) Also love, sex, joy, despair, death, humanity, or biology — it doesn't have to be all of those, but I do contend that it should have at least one quotation from at least one piece of literature :) But anyway, I would really be happy with just about anything!
I would super adore an original story with original characters. I would also love a sequel or fork-in-the-road AU or expansion or worldbuilding based on any of the stories in this anthology (which is why I nominated this particular anthology and also didn't nominate any characters, so that you could have full pick of what you wanted to do). Honestly, any of them! What happened to Leelyloo in "Love is the Plan"; was she able to pass on Moggadeet's message? What was Mir-mir's eventual fate in "What Delicate Mad Hands"? What is the story behind that "grand person," Mrs. Priscilla Hayes Smith, the Parsons' friend in "The Women Men Don't See," and do the Parsons ever send for her? Was Barney ever able to get Anne's message in "Screwfly Solution" and do anything about it? I would love to hear anything at all about the clones in "Houston Houston," perhaps an expansion of one of the ballads that are mentioned? I mean, seriously, all of these are so interesting! (If you had another story in mind and want prompts for more of them just let me know, I could come up with these all day. They're so rich and interesting. But of course feel free to write whatever you would like, if you have a different idea in your head!)
I had the thought that many of these stories could be considered AUs of each other (e.g., multiple end-of-the-world stories) — are they? What would that entail? (And how would the characters in the multiverse feel about that, if they discovered it?) Many of them might also take place in the same universe (and sometimes Tiptree cross-connects elements like Stars' Tears); feel free to expand any of those potential connections.
More generally: What would Tiptree be like if he were writing today? What would he write about? He wrote a lot about gender and what seems like the impossibility of the genders ever meeting; what would that look like today? Is friendship possible in a Tiptree universe? His stories tend to completely sabotage friendship, whether it's between romantic couples ("Love is the Plan", "Screwfly Solution") or not ("Your Faces, O My Sisters"). How could friendship find a way, when it's always being subsumed by cultural or biological factors? The stories that seems to hold out hope for friendship are "Houston, Houston" and "The Women Men Don't See" and the alien stories ("Love is the Plan" and "With Delicate Mad Hands") — does this imply that it's only in the absence of men or the cultural male imperatives that true friendships either within or crossing gender lines can occur? Is it impossible for men to have true friendships? (Even in "Love is the Plan" the males can't connect!)
In general Tiptree's stories are all about sex and violence, especially genderified, some of them in explicit detail, and I love them, so feel free to continue in that vein with as much explicitness as you feel the story calls for (though lack of it is also of course just fine). Relatedly, it's probably pretty clear that I'm generally super vanilla, but here kink is fine: e.g. "How would Tiptree write A/B/O?" (…How would he?)
I would adore to have a happy ending of some sort, where a character finds a way through these issues or fixes a problem set up up in one of the canon stories, but, I mean, it's Tiptree, so unhappy or bittersweet endings are totally great. (And honestly I can't myself see a way to give any of these stories happier endings, or at least only marginally happier — like, maybe Barney figures out a way to reverse the Screwfly solution, yay, but basically all (almost all?) the women have been killed at this point, and what would that even do psychologically to the survivors of either sex, if only, say, two hundred women survived in the entire world, what kind of society would that lead to… well, you see what I mean.)
The only caveat I have here is that I would prefer a story that isn't super-intensely despairing up to the very end. I am looking at you, "On the Last Afternoon" (and also more of her later stories, which honestly kind of terrify me, like "Backward, Turn Backward") — feel free to write fic about "Afternoon," I'm not saying that at all, but the way that it just ratchets up the intensity until it ends on this almost unbearable peak of despair? If your story does that kind of emotional maneuver (no matter who or what the story is about, or what you're ficcing), well, I don't want to say you can't do that — I know sometimes a story goes where it goes, and I want to read what you're inspired to write -- but please please tag your story accordingly so that I know what I'm getting into :) Thanks! :) (Most of Tiptree's other stories resolve into something at least a little more joyful — "Smoke Rose Up Forever" or "Man Who Walked Home," even if we understand the joy is an illusion — or at least a little less intense, e.g., "The Girl Who Was Plugged In," and this is what I would prefer — some joy in the ending, even if there is mostly bleakness, because joy and the affirmation of life are part of the human condition and Tiptree understood that.)
Fandom-specific DNWs: uhhhh yeah this is a dark canon, anything goes. As I say above, please warn for rocks fall everyone dies but feel free to write anything up to that level of dark!
The Secret Garden - Simon/Norman (Worldbuilding, Neville) - I am OK with only one of these being the main focus.
I re-listened to this musical this year -- it's perhaps my favorite musical of all time. I love the book to begin with, but I feel like the musical adds new dimensions. I absolutely love how it deepens the book's themes of grief and the ways one fails in rebuilding through grief (Archibald and Neville encapsulate two different modes of failure until the end; Neville, of course, being a new addition from the book), and the ways that one can rebuild and grow (principally Mary and Colin, but also Archibald and maybe Neville too by the end).
And the music, of course, is spectacular, especially the orchestration, and the ensemble numbers, and... okay, I just love it all.
Note: Although I adore the book and would welcome as many elements from the book as you would like to include, I am specifically interested in the musical, and, my prompts deal specifically with the musical characters.
- The Dreamers / worldbuilding relating to the Dreamers! I would love exploration as to what is going on with them. I adore the lines "And the master hears the whispers / on the stairway dark and still / And the spirits speak of secrets / In the house upon the hill!" -- Archibald Craven is clearly aware there are ghosts in the house. Please feel absolutely free to bring in as many actual magical elements as you want; if you want to go full magical!AU I'm up for that! Is dealing with ghosts, and/or stepping forward and backward in time, a hereditary trait of the Cravens, or of Misselthwaite? Do the duties of the master of the manor normally include dealing with the ghosts, and Archibald is falling down on that due to his depressive state and so now they "make no effort now to hide it" and are taking over? (Perhaps -- probably? -- without intending to?) Do Mary's ghosts only exist because she came to the Craven estate? (Feel free to invent other ghosts -- perhaps we only see Mary's in the musical because it's largely from Mary's POV.) What do the other characters (Martha, Dickon, Ben) think of the ghosts? Do Martha and Ben and the other servants have to work around the ghosts? And then the way that the almost-threatening (but definitely upset) ghosts become gentled as the musical goes on -- is this the work that Archibald (or Neville?) should have been doing all along? Is Colin dealing with the ghosts (perhaps unconsciously) as the young master -- should he have been trained all along and is that part of the problem? What did Lily think of the ghosts when she fell in love with Archibald, or were they more in control then? Perhaps Dickon is an actual wizard but can't hold dominion over the spirits of Misselthwaite because his powers are more nature-based (and maybe not the dominion type either)?
- Neville Craven gets a much bigger part in the musical than in the book: he gets upgraded to being a brother (instead of a poor cousin) with unrequited love for Lily and some rather understandable resentment (though sometimes it is poorly managed) of his position as the second son having to take care of everything while his brother, who should be taking care of everything, isn't able to. (Honestly... as an adult, I feel like I have a lot more sympathy with Neville. Is he emotionally damaged and not dealing with it optimally, to the extent that a lot of stagings have him as the unofficial villain? Yes, definitely -- but at least he was there and taking care of matters while his brother ran away and continued to constantly run away and is moping about how he can't live without Lily after ten years! I would complain rather more than Neville does!)
I'd love him to get a bit of a redemption arc -- after Archibald comes back at the end of the play, is Neville able to make a new life for himself? Could he live like other men, could he be happy then? Can he get past Lily? Can he mend his relationship with Mary and Colin now that he can be an uncle instead of a doctor responsible for them? Does he ever come to terms with realizing that his negative reaction towards Mary had a lot to do with his avoidance of his unresolved grief for Lily?
In the musical, Archibald does canonically say at the end that he realizes it's been hard for Neville (and gives him a path forward by letting him stay in his Paris flat and then offering to help him build up an independent practice), and I would also love more development of that theme of Archibald really owing a lot to Neville (which he DOES, again, even if Neville could have handled everything more optimally). On rewatch it killed me when Neville is trying to talk to Archie about Mary, and Archibald is like, K I'm running away again, seems like you've got it under control, and Neville says, exasperated, "Haven't you heard anything I've just said??" There's a lot of how they don't see each other (Neville is clearly projecting like an IMAX when he says "If [Archibald] could disappear he could be free," and Archibald doesn't see Neville at all because he's too wrapped up in himself), and I would love for the two of them to find a way to a better connection after the events of the musical.
Has Neville also been dealing with the ghosts? Is he slowly being driven mad by them in Act I? (We know canonically from "Lily's Eyes" that he hears Lily -- "From death she casts her spell/ All night we hear her sighs" -- I guess this could be metaphorical but isn't it more interesting if it's not?) Does he notice that the ghosts are becoming gentler by the end of Act II, but doesn't know why?
In "Quartet," Neville and Rose sometimes sing together, and I have a mild headcanon that Neville and Rose, while never at all romantically linked in the slightest, may have had a commonality of feeling where both of them are more a man/woman of sometimes brutal practicality than their counterparts (Archibald and Albert). I'd be interested in any thoughts you had about that, or any interaction that Neville and Rose might have had before (or during, as a ghost) the events of the musical. (This is a random optional prompt, of course, as Rose was not nominated.)
Fandom-specific DNW: Please don't ship musical!Dickon with anyone, and don't ship anyone underage. (Future-fics where everyone is an adult are fine!) Please no infidelity. Please no endings that don't have at least some hope. (E.g. an ending where Archibald dies but Neville has formed a bond of affection with the kids and really steps up and does a much better job holding the family together than he did in the musical would be totally fine (and actually quite interesting, I'd love for you to write that!), but an ending where Archibald dies and Neville is awful and it all sucks would not.)
Dune - Frank Herbert (Irulan, Chani, Jessica, Margot - any two) - I adore Dune's whole thing where everything is conspiracy within conspiracy and everyone has three layers of Sekrit Plans behind their words. I would love any two (or more!) of these amazing women (with one potential exception), all of whom have reasons to be at odds with each other but also commonalities, to be plotting against each other and perhaps also become friends, either because of or despite the conspiracies that they're engaged in, and with fork-in-the-road AUs enthusiastically welcome.
- I would absolutely adore an AU (found-document??) hatred-to-friendship(/lovers?) fic about Irulan and Chani, where Irulan and Chani plot against each other and Irulan writes propaganda against Chani but eventually they come to an understanding... and then what? Irulan pivots to writing Muad'Dib history where only Paul is mentioned, and spends the rest of her time writing hot F/F where Paul never shows up or is only a super minor character, and it turns out those are the bestsellers? Extra bonus points if that changes history?? IDK, I don't know how this would end, but I want it :D
- What would it be like for Irulan and Margot to plot either together or against each other in Empire politics, perhaps before the book begins or behind the scenes at any point during any of the books?
- Is there an AU where Count Fenring is a plausible Kwisatz Haderach, and Margot and Jessica are locked in a behind-the-scenes strategic duel against each other, while Fenring/Paul/Margot/Jessica do come to respect and maybe even like/love each other, as Fenring and Paul do in the book?
- An AU where Irulan and Chani team up and it turns out that two women working together is (somehow?) equivalent to a Kwisatz Haderach??
The one potential exception is Jessica & Chani, because I feel like they have more scenes in canon, and I don't have a good prompt for them ... BUT if your muse goes there and you have an idea, then sure, write them too!
Fandom-specific DNW: I don't think I have any! Tag for death/despair but totally bring it!
The Tillerman Cycle - Cynthia Voigt (any) - I am blown away by how amazing these books are in terms of depth of character, thematic development of love and friendship and growing up and holding on and letting go and community and how we give to each other… I would love anything for these books. Any character. What you want to write, what interests you, that's what I want to hear about! I requested some I love, and I have a couple of prompts I'm super interested in, but really any character at all, nominated or un-nominated, would be wonderful, and in the spirit of how Voigt is always thinking about the humanity of all the characters. I got a truly amaaaaaazing fic for Brother Thomas but I am so greedy that I would love another one, as I am always always here for Brother Thomas with his crisis of faith -- the part where he keeps on his habit because he's not sure he would put it on again if he took it off? Oh Thomas <3 What does Jeff's college roommate think of the events of Seventeen? What is Mr. Lingerle's perspective? Can Johnny Tillerman, whom we never saw but who from Bullet's memory rather looked like he was going to follow in his father's toxic footsteps, figure himself out and have healthier relationships?
And Mina Smiths! I just madly adore Come a Stranger and its moving depiction of her family and community, and how they are a whole entity. <3 What happens to Mina? How does she find law school? I imagine it will be interesting for her trying to juggle her career ambitions and romance; how might this play out? I kinda ship her and Tamer's son Samuel in a "if they met again as grownups they might really understand each other well" kind of way -- what would it be like if they met again as grownups? How does her friendship with Dicey progress? Does it change as they pursue their careers and their lives with their families and communities (however that looks)?
Maybeth never got a book! If she had gotten a book, what would it look like? Gram thinks she needs an older man to take care of her -- okay, I must admit that I have a veeeeery low opinion of Gram's romantic picker in the books, and I would LOVE for her to be proven wrong about this. Does Maybeth even need a romantic relationship at all? Does she stay at the farm as a beloved unmarried matriarch at the center of a ton of siblings and friends and nieces and nephews (and chickens?? hee) who are always making life interesting? In general, how does she strike a balance between listening to her more-intellectually-capable family and making her own heart-capable decisions? Given that her upbringing had so much more support than her mother's, can she avoid her mother's fate? (Yes. The answer here should be yes. :P :) ) (I got TWO just awesome Maybeth fics, but what I'm saying here is that there is no such thing as too much Maybeth, y/y??)
Sammy and James did get a book, but obviously there could always be more! I am actually super interested in what happens to Sammy and James after the end of the books. Does Sammy become an astronaut, or does he fail at that and become a farmer and is actually totally happy being a farmer? (Do he and Maybeth work together? He could do the farming, she could do the people work…) What kind of doctor is James, does he do research, I can see him doing clinical studies about how people react to this or that (although I honestly can't see in a lab at all). Actually I sort of see him being an Oliver Sacks or Atul Gawande type — not so much a really awesome doctor (though presumably he's a *good* doctor, I feel like the James of these books wouldn't be a doctor if he wasn't able to be a good one) as one who is really great at writing about and making connections about medicine. What happens to Toby? Of all of them (except maybe James for the reason given above), I think Toby has the best shot at being someone legit famous, mostly because apparently I trust James' sense of that. I don't know, though — do you trust James' sense?
I love Jeff Greene very much, and would love to read anything you would like to write about him. What was Jeff thinking during the events of Seventeen Against the Dealer — how does he deal with being at college, having a new separate group of friends, seeing Dicey drift away from him, what is he thinking when she suddenly says she wants to marry him? He's so empathic, he probably knows something of what's going on with her — but how much? And clearly his past family relationships affect the way he thinks about all of this… does he ever talk to the Professor about what's going on with him and Dicey? Or Brother Thomas? What do they think of it? (In general, I would love anything with him and Brother Thomas and the Professor, I love all three of them a bunch.) Does he ever talk to the other Tillermans about Dicey? We know that he talks to them about other things, and I'd love to see those conversations too, the way he keeps up his relationships with them even while it seems his relationship with Dicey is imploding.
Canon-specific DNWs: Please no infidelity, including infidelity of Thomas with respect to God (though of course it's not infidelity if he breaks up with God, so to speak). I really, really want a Tillerman story to have a good ending, by which I don't mean an unalloyed happy ending — what I guess I mean here is I need a fic where the characters grow and learn, and where they're able to keep their family together, and I'm assured they're going to be OK together, even if bad things happen in the meantime. Gram dies and the adult kids come together to figure it out as they've always figured it out? Great! Alternate-universe fic where Verricker meets James and Sammy and absolutely crushes them but Maybeth sees right through him and puts her brothers straight in the end? Bring it on! Alternate-universe fic where the kids never make it to Gram in Homecoming and get separated into orphanages forever? Or fic where Johnny propagates his father's ways without changing? Please no. Thank you!
Where to find canon:
If I don't have a note here, it's probably easily available. (I figured this letter was long enough already...)
Sieben Jahre: This book is now available in German (e.g., from amazon.de)! Those who do not speak German... contact
mildred_of_midgard and she may be able to work out something :)Secret Garden:
The recent "revival version" (with Quartet missing) makes Neville more villainous than the original (which I hate), though in my opinion the original text is a bit ambiguous and he can come across as more or less sympathetic based on how he's directed.
As my letter makes clear, I strongly support a less unsympathetic Neville and I have found it really hard to find a video that both makes Neville not wholly unsympathetic and also is good quality. This is the best compromise I can find:
US Tour: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iz83l0VEKH0
ETA 10-23-25: I found another couple of videos that I really like:
- hat tip to pure_anon's promo post, here is a concert version, which unfortunately has the Dreamers as a choir: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rXqZKZwS70&list=RD2rXqZKZwS70&start_radio=1
- This one is a minimalist staging (but it IS staged, not concert) and sometimes the recording doesn't focus on the actor I want it to, but it has better quality video than the others, with great acting and singing and making efficient use of the space they have. I think I probably recommend this as a first Garden: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCVWpVgZW9s
Libretto here: https://www.mauriceparent.com/uploads/1/2/5/7/12573416/secret-garden-libretto.pdf
(Please let me know if any of these links break.)
Her Smoke Rose Up Forever: This is an anthology of many of Tiptree's great stories, and you could of course look for the stories separately. Here's a list of the stories:
The Last Flight of Doctor Ain
The Screwfly Solution
And I Awoke and Found Me Here on the Cold Hill’s Side
The Girl Who Was Plugged In
The Man Who Walked Home
And I Have Come Upon This Place by Lost Ways
The Women Men Don’t See
Your Faces, O My Sisters! Your Faces Filled of Light!
Houston, Houston, Do You Read?
With Delicate Mad Hands
A Momentary Taste of Being
We Who Stole the Dream
Her Smoke Rose Up Forever
Love Is the Plan the Plan Is Death
On the Last Afternoon
She Waits for All Men Born
Slow Music
And So On, And So On
Googling many of these will give you text, some of which is even legal. For example, here is an official web reprint of "Love is the Plan the Plan is Death".