Dream with Our Eyes Open

I have not been reading as much Yuletide as I should, but I have found some great stories amidst what I did read:

The Voices of Small Bears (1050 words) by Anonymous
Fandom: October Daye Series - Seanan McGuire
Rating: General Audiences
Summary: Make no mistake, a family was here.
My take: . A lovely series of vignettes that adds up to a portrait of Toby and her family of choice.

five to one against (5209 words) by Anonymous
Fandom: Rivers of London - Ben Aaronovitch
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Summary: How Molly and Nightingale discovered haemomancy.
My take: A very strong Molly POV fills out her role in the series.

Cemetery Polka (2073 words) by Anonymous
Fandom: The Sandman (Comics)
Rating: Mature
Summary: They regard each other, for a long moment. Behind her large glasses, Larissa’s eyes are unblinking, but her clasped hands betray her, the fiddling of her thumbs against each other. She wets her lips, pursed and full and pink.
Death is mortal, tonight.
My take: That last line sums it up. Gorgeous bittersweet f/f.

the rain falling on the sunshine (2029 words) by Anonymous
Fandom: The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
Rating: General Audiences
Summary: In the garden; after the war.
My take: The Secret Garden is a Yuletide perennial (hah!) if there ever was one, and this topic has been done many times before, but this is a nice take on it, with little bathos and a lot of genuine feeling.

The Rock and The River (17442 words) by Anonymous
Fandom: Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi | Spirited Away
Summary: Chihiro takes magic and bends it around herself to make a place in the world.
My take: Spirited Away can generate overly cute fic as well as pieces with genuine mythical power. This is one of the latter. There's genuine human sadness and pathos amidst the many quiet wonders.

Intermission (24398 words) by Anonymous
Fandom: Stand Still Stay Silent
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Summary: Emil tries to rebuild his life and help Lalli adjust to their new home in Sweden after their return from the Silent World. Slight canon divergence from the end of the First Adventure.
My take: This is a lesson in how to write romantic fanfiction: the myriad bits of everyday (and not so everyday) life, the tight third-person POV, and the genuine human reactions give the eventual breaking of the tension real power, leavened in the last bits with in-character humor.

If a fandom is your very favorite thing, and you have been dying for fanfiction from it, and you have gone through the trouble of nominating it and requesting it for Yuletide, and your canon consists of only two medium-sized paperbacks, is it really that much trouble to figure out that two of the four characters you nominated actually have full names and/or surnames in canon?

Dita is Perdita Verist: "I'm Perdita Verist, the new teacher, remember?"

Peter is Peter Merrill: "Peter Merrill! How many times have you been told not to climb things at school?" (The speaker is Peter's first grade teacher.)

I did that from memory (verified via Google courtesy of some sketchy outfit that has the full text of the books online), and it has been at least a couple of years since a re-read any of Zenna Henderson's "People" stories.

(I realize that whoever is keeping up this fandom at AO3 is at least as much to blame as the requestor: the tags give them as just Dita (The People) and Peter (The People).

So normally I would lock this post, but the heck with it. I'm living dangerously!

Everyone was correct - there was no need for me to worry about the pinch hit thing. I have two lovely stories:

• Nesting Instincts (Books of the Raksura - Martha Wells; G) is about what Chime needs from Moon. It takes Moon a little while to figure it out, and he gets advice (and in one case, a bit of bonus snark) from a number of my favorite other characters, including Jade, Heart, and of course Stone.
   
• Sleep on the Left Side (Less Than Epic Adventures of TJ and Amal; T) is a roadside vignette in which TJ and Amal share some surprisingly good burritos and - unsuprisingly - music. The story includes links for the music of the group Cornershop, which was as new to me as it was to TJ (although I liked it better than TJ seems to). It was also a great relief to me that TJ has reconsidered his concept for Amal's tattoo!

Questions were being asked on the LJ Yuletide comm about importing stories from the old Yuletide archive. An AO3 rep has replied with what amounts to an official FAQ on the subject, which might be of use to many, and not just Yuletide participants.

Read it here.

Second set of recommendations, from the following fandoms: Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome, Swordspoint Series - Ellen Kushner, The Sandman, Watership Down - Richard Adams, West Side Story (1961), Wintle's Wonders - Noel Streatfeild, Nijusseiki Shounen | 20th Century Boys (Manga), Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian - Sherman Alexie, Goodnight Moon - Margaret Wise Brown, All-of-a-Kind Family - Sidney Taylor, Alice In Wonderland - Lewis Carroll, Alliance-Union - C. J. Cherryh.

On the Burning Deck
Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
"Nancy in the Blitz" (Excellent choice of title.)

We Climbed the Matterhorn
Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
Five things Molly Turner might have seen from the summit, if she'd been looking that way, and what she actually found there.

Executor
Swordspoint Series - Ellen Kushner
'"And what do I do for a living? I wait to inherit. Richard and I are both planning to profit from someone’s death; my way just takes longer."'

The True Size for Rational Happiness
Swordspoint Series - Ellen Kushner
'“I’m sure I’ll have very nice bees,” Richard said. “Are you going to be happy?”'

Every New Beginning
The Sandman
"Hob Gadling hears secrets man was never meant to know, and learns more about endings and beginnings."

The Story of Hrayatha and the Rabbit Who Left No Tracks
Watership Down - Richard Adams
"Pipkin listens to a story." And an ambitious young doe has a very interesting encounter.

Independence Wars
West Side Story (1961)
"If you had all that here, why would you want to go back to Puerto Rico?" / "Oh, even if you didn't have all that here, why would you want to go back there?"

Postmarked (A Study in Contrasts)
Wintle's Wonders - Noel Streatfeild
Rachel and Hilary promise to write to each other faithfully.

21st Century Girls
Nijusseiki Shounen | 20th Century Boys (Manga)
"Because girl groups, childhood games, henshin pens, secret passwords, and shoujo manga can save the world."

How to Run Away from Your House and Find Your Home
Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian - Sherman Alexie
"I could go to college. Do what my mother never could; exceed my father’s expectations of me. Come back with a white woman’s accent, in first-hand clothes."

Goodnight Room
Goodnight Moon - Margaret Wise Brown
"Bunnies ... in ... SPAAAAAAAACE!" (Chilling. Poor bunny.)

Steps and Stairs
All-of-a-Kind Family - Sidney Taylor
Ella's having a beau means changes for all of them, but Sarah thinks that the situation seems to be weighing most heavily on Henny.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (Abridged)
Alice In Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
"Like many of you, the Reduced Children's Classics Publishing group has recently heard a lot of stories in the news about how kids don't like reading the classics anymore. And that's just wrong ... ." The RCCPG believes it has a solution - in fact, several solutions.

Experimental Procedure
Alliance-Union - C. J. Cherryh
"Ari hasn't thought of the right way to watch that tape. Yet."

Many many Yuletide icons (apparently I lost my mind this time), including some warm climate Yule, cartoons and comics, children's books, and even some TV (and Lady Gaga, too). Samples:

Recommendations for: Black Lagoon, Earthsea - Le Guin (2), Magids Series - Jones, Master Li and Number Ten Ox - Hughart, Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi (Spirited Away) (2), Wild Adapter, American Gods - Gaiman, Antique Bakery, Susan Cooper - Dark Is Rising series, FAKE (manga), Gentlemen of the Road - Chabon (2), and Gouhou Drug (Legal Drug).

Word count: 2,792

I have a bit more to add - maybe 300-500 words.

That makes it my shortest main Yuletide assignment yet, but it's already longer than the pinch-hit I did last year.

This year's Yuletide icons ... a month earlier than last year! As usual, there are icons on the general themes of winter and gifts as well as book illustrations and covers. This year, I even have a few TV shows thrown in!

The Yuletide server is taking mongo beatings from everyone trying to upload last minute stuff at once. I finally managed to upload my pinch hit, thank God - I was starting to panic.

So much for the happy plans I had for writing Yuletide treats. There was some good stuff, too. I had great plans for an SDK Akira/Benitora drabble-ish thing. But I'm just too wrung out. I'm still coughing a bit, and my throat is sore, and I want BED.

I'm hoping for some company tomorrow, too!

:-)

An early Merry Christmas to those celebrating!