Yuletide, and assorted other things
Jan. 1st, 2009 05:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ravenNew Year's Eve. I was drunk, mostly. For one thing, the Mousehole is full of life - ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
foreverdirt and vampire_kitten are visiting, and the day seemed to pass in a whirl of terrible jokes, sexual subtext-and-text, and pizza, oh god, so much pizza - and I had meant to do some work, and failed entirely at that. And then the evening part of the Eve, during which I sat in the corner of the Turf and drank rum, hot mulled wine and then rum again, and watched the old year mull and die through the glass. And kissed at midnight, and walked home in the freezing cold air. Perfect.
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yuletide! The reveal has happened. Here's what I wrote:
The Amazing Adventures of Hat Guy and the Girl Who Stole His Hat, xkcd.
Yeah. Er... yeah. Guys: thank you. Thank you for reading this silly little story, thank you for reccing it and commenting on it with such enthusiasm. I was kind of blown away by the response to it - so many people, including Randall Munroe, told me they liked it, and it made my Christmas and possibly my life. Thank you.
Also - people telling me that xkcd fic was an awesome idea, I totally agree with you, and I take no credit!numinicious asked for it, I merely provided.
Other things:
Lonely Hearts, Slings & Arrows.
This was the quickest of quick jobs - I wrote this as a treat the night before I went up to Edinburgh and posted it in the morning - and, I have a sneaking suspicion, my favourite, merely because I find it entirely too much fun to write about Geoffrey being crazy and Anna being placatory. It helps that I love them far too much, but still.
Mercy Shall Follow Me, Lord Peter Wimsey.
Another quick treat, this one, and perhaps the hardest one to write. I'm not sure a real Sayers fan would quite approve of it - I'm not sure I have the voice - but I liked it well enough to post.
Dancing Like The Living, Garth Nix - Abhorsen.
This one began life as an abandoned half-story I wrote as an NYR fic in 2006, and never posted because I didn't like it. And then a request flashed by that fitted it with bizarre exactitude, so I spent a few hours tidying and rewriting and making it cleaner, and adding other small bits, and suchlike. Not something I would've done for a "real" Yuletide story, but I thought it would make a nice additional treat for someone.
Wings of Desire, Merlin.
I like wingfic, so sue me.
And, finally! My real assigned story, the one that I wrote in a three-day burst the week before the deadline:
Yes, Virginia, Connie Willis - To Say Nothing of the Dog.
This, I think, is the story that was the hardest one to write, technically speaking. Connie Willis does have this delightful madcap style that is great fun to read and a nightmare to try and emulate. And more than that, I didn't have a plot. And then one night the key part - the idea of Ned and Verity in first-century Palestine - clicked, and the rest was, well, not easy, but easier. It helped thatshimgray decided early on that there ought to be two random Scandinavians in the story, and one of them ought to be called Ingeborg, despite the fact it's a girls' name. He also helped with other bits and bobs of the plot, being possibly the only person who could see the entire thing in his head in one go (I certainly couldn't). And it also helped that once again, I had the chance to write a story set in Oxford, and more notably, the University of Oxford, a city and institution with which I am passing familiar, whether or not it's 2057. (Last year, I wrote a His Dark Materials story called "Christingle", also set in Oxford and also with a sense of place as possibly its only redeeming feature.)
nos4a2no9 and likethesun2 betaed it, for which I am very grateful - thank you, guys, and I'm sorry for what I do to ellipses - and I think I was pleased with the result, although I did fret about the seams still showing.
And that was that. In conclusion: I loveyuletide. Writing-wise, it redeemed my 2008, adding 10,000 words to the yearly count in the last two weeks of December. I think it's a given I'll be doing it next year, somehow. And: absinthe_shadow, icepixie, forthwritten, ressie_noldo: I owe you all ficlets/drabbles. What would you like?
foreverdirt and vampire_kitten are visiting, and the day seemed to pass in a whirl of terrible jokes, sexual subtext-and-text, and pizza, oh god, so much pizza - and I had meant to do some work, and failed entirely at that. And then the evening part of the Eve, during which I sat in the corner of the Turf and drank rum, hot mulled wine and then rum again, and watched the old year mull and die through the glass. And kissed at midnight, and walked home in the freezing cold air. Perfect. yuletide! The reveal has happened. Here's what I wrote:The Amazing Adventures of Hat Guy and the Girl Who Stole His Hat, xkcd.
Yeah. Er... yeah. Guys: thank you. Thank you for reading this silly little story, thank you for reccing it and commenting on it with such enthusiasm. I was kind of blown away by the response to it - so many people, including Randall Munroe, told me they liked it, and it made my Christmas and possibly my life. Thank you.
Also - people telling me that xkcd fic was an awesome idea, I totally agree with you, and I take no credit!
numinicious asked for it, I merely provided.Other things:
Lonely Hearts, Slings & Arrows.
This was the quickest of quick jobs - I wrote this as a treat the night before I went up to Edinburgh and posted it in the morning - and, I have a sneaking suspicion, my favourite, merely because I find it entirely too much fun to write about Geoffrey being crazy and Anna being placatory. It helps that I love them far too much, but still.
Mercy Shall Follow Me, Lord Peter Wimsey.
Another quick treat, this one, and perhaps the hardest one to write. I'm not sure a real Sayers fan would quite approve of it - I'm not sure I have the voice - but I liked it well enough to post.
Dancing Like The Living, Garth Nix - Abhorsen.
This one began life as an abandoned half-story I wrote as an NYR fic in 2006, and never posted because I didn't like it. And then a request flashed by that fitted it with bizarre exactitude, so I spent a few hours tidying and rewriting and making it cleaner, and adding other small bits, and suchlike. Not something I would've done for a "real" Yuletide story, but I thought it would make a nice additional treat for someone.
Wings of Desire, Merlin.
I like wingfic, so sue me.
And, finally! My real assigned story, the one that I wrote in a three-day burst the week before the deadline:
Yes, Virginia, Connie Willis - To Say Nothing of the Dog.
This, I think, is the story that was the hardest one to write, technically speaking. Connie Willis does have this delightful madcap style that is great fun to read and a nightmare to try and emulate. And more than that, I didn't have a plot. And then one night the key part - the idea of Ned and Verity in first-century Palestine - clicked, and the rest was, well, not easy, but easier. It helped that
shimgray decided early on that there ought to be two random Scandinavians in the story, and one of them ought to be called Ingeborg, despite the fact it's a girls' name. He also helped with other bits and bobs of the plot, being possibly the only person who could see the entire thing in his head in one go (I certainly couldn't). And it also helped that once again, I had the chance to write a story set in Oxford, and more notably, the University of Oxford, a city and institution with which I am passing familiar, whether or not it's 2057. (Last year, I wrote a His Dark Materials story called "Christingle", also set in Oxford and also with a sense of place as possibly its only redeeming feature.)nos4a2no9 and likethesun2 betaed it, for which I am very grateful - thank you, guys, and I'm sorry for what I do to ellipses - and I think I was pleased with the result, although I did fret about the seams still showing. And that was that. In conclusion: I love
yuletide. Writing-wise, it redeemed my 2008, adding 10,000 words to the yearly count in the last two weeks of December. I think it's a given I'll be doing it next year, somehow. And: absinthe_shadow, icepixie, forthwritten, ressie_noldo: I owe you all ficlets/drabbles. What would you like?
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no subject
on 2009-01-01 06:46 pm (UTC)(here from your post at the yuletide comm)
no subject
on 2009-01-01 06:50 pm (UTC)::tips stick figure hat to you::
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on 2009-01-01 06:52 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2009-01-01 06:53 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2009-01-01 06:59 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2009-01-01 07:00 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2009-01-01 07:17 pm (UTC)I love the xkcd story. Your Slings and Arrows story filled me with glee. And I think I was actually bouncing up and down with joy while reading the To Say Nothing of the Dog story (on my phone, in an airport, which is why I missed commenting on it until today.)
Hi, I'm Cat. Nice to meet you!
no subject
on 2009-01-01 07:23 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2009-01-01 07:43 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2009-01-01 08:12 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2009-01-01 08:34 pm (UTC)(My glee was such that I had to go on the #xkcd IRC channel and blabber incoherently at Randall about it. I feel it was my duty to inform him of yet another awesome tribute to his genius work!)
no subject
on 2009-01-01 08:37 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2009-01-01 08:37 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2009-01-01 08:37 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2009-01-01 09:18 pm (UTC)You wrote THREE of my favorite stories this year (xkcd, Connie Willis, and Slings & Arrows). I just... do not even know what to do with that level of awesome. Are you this awesome year-round, or are you, like, the Yuletide Superhero?
no subject
on 2009-01-01 11:26 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2009-01-01 11:28 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2009-01-01 11:31 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2009-01-01 11:46 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2009-01-02 12:45 pm (UTC)THE XKCD FIC WAS YOU? It was awesome and rocked. I've saved it to my bookmarks and recced it to people.
Happy New Year!
no subject
on 2009-01-02 12:46 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2009-01-02 06:32 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2009-01-02 09:40 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2009-01-03 03:50 am (UTC)no subject
on 2009-01-04 03:13 am (UTC)no subject
on 2009-01-04 03:13 am (UTC)no subject
on 2009-01-04 03:24 am (UTC)no subject
on 2009-01-05 10:12 pm (UTC)Um, could I have more about Anna? Anything about her, really? :)