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gonefishingrabbit · 8 months

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Yuletide 2023 Letter

Happy Holidays, Yuletide writer! If you are here, you are presumably interested in the same small fandom, so that’s exciting.

AO3 account: pinnacles

General likes:

Canon pastiche - I enjoy the style/general vibe of everything I’ve requested

Dialogue! I like the characters to do plenty of talking to each other

Humour of all varieties, from obscure puns to slapstick sequences

Minor canon divergence with major consequences

Being surprised, as a reader, by something unexpectedly weird

Outsider POVs (I’m fine with non-requested-character POVs of requested characters, if anything along those lines appeals to you)

Winter and/or Christmas vibes (big fan of both)

Mysteries, puzzles, and anything else that makes me curious about what’s really going on

Stories that start out very mundane (suspiciously mundane, even) and then escalate steadily

3rd or 1st person, past tense - I like 1st person takes on 3rd person canons, just not a big fan of present tense

Epistolary fic and other things that play around with format

Stories that take place entirely on one day

Stories with a specific structure that's laid out at the start - e.g. 5+1, but also anything else that explains its structure in the summary, headings or opening sequence.

General dislikes: (not hard DNWs, I've indicated those by fandom)

Grief/loss as a major theme

AUs that completely change the setting/overall vibe (but I leave this up to your judgment - if you take this as a challenge to write, for example, Boxcar Children in ancient Greece in the most Boxcar Children way possible, you should absolutely go for it)

Big timeskips/covering a long period of time very fast (e.g. 5 years in 1k - I'd rather it was 5 days or 5 hours in 1k)

Unrequested non-canon pairings

Stories with minimal dialogue

REQUESTS

Stop Press Hugo Toplady, Timmy Eliot

This is one of my favourite books of all time. It’s so ridiculous and self-indulgent. I’ve requested Timmy Eliot and Hugo Toplady because my main complaint with this book is that their interactions aren’t shown in greater detail. I do like the idea of it as a romantic pairing where Toplady figures it out before Timmy moves on to Patricia, but I like it more because I think it’s funny than because I think it’s romantic, so do whatever you like there.

Some prompts: Toplady thinks better of having given the sonnets to his grandmother and tries to get them back. Your version of Timmy asking for the sonnets back in the cupboard (or cupboard canon divergence, cupboard anything). Toplady POV of literally any canon event. Toplady, post-canon, explaining his version of what happened. 5+1 Timmy/Toplady.

Inspirational book quote: Toplady, with the air of one who makes an important decision with practised rapidity, said, "How do you do."

DNW: -grief/loss as a major theme

Melendy Quartet Martin Melendy, Randy Melendy, Rush Melendy, Mark Herron

I like how the kids are weird in the ways kids are, and how they all have their different personal philosophies, and how the result is usually funny. The outdoor adventures are nice and atmospheric. I’d generally prefer stuff set around the timeframe of The Four-Story Mistake/Then There Were Five.

Some prompts: Father POV of something from the books that would probably be pretty WTF for him (lots of options there). The kids solving some sort of minor mystery (or convincing themselves a mystery exists where there is none). Randy and Rush somehow make friends with Mark earlier and a Melendys vs Oren Meeker showdown happens.

DNW: -grief/loss as a major theme -romantic pairings

Boxcar Children Henry Alden, Jessie Alden, Violet Alden, Benny Alden

I find these books so relaxing. I like the vacation vibes and the food descriptions and the mysteries that tend to stay pretty chill. I like how sometimes mysteries get solved by people just doing the sort of dumb thing that people do sometimes (e.g. Henry hurling the key into the water in Houseboat Mystery). Nowadays I’m more familiar with the original series but I read about 100 of the new ones as a kid so feel free to play around with either.

Some prompts: One kid goes alone on a trip and needs the others’ help investigating a mystery over long-distance. Any sort of snowbound whodunit (something like theft, not murder). One kid is the major suspect and the others have to clear them.

DNW: -grief/loss as a major theme -romantic pairings

Jane of Lantern Hill Jane Stuart, Irene Fraser

I love this book because it is funny and satisfying and has nice descriptions of delicious food and beautiful landscapes. I like the weird situations Jane gets herself into and very much enjoy when she shows up her detractors. I would really like to see some more Jane - Aunt Irene interaction because I don’t feel like Aunt Irene has been satisfactorily dealt with yet. Equally happy with canon divergence and post-canon.

Some prompts: Jane, through convoluted methods, tries to separate dad and Aunt Irene for good. Jane tries to pit Aunt Irene and grandmother against each other. Aunt Irene unexpectedly makes friends with mother and Jane doesn’t know how to deal with this.

DNW: -grief/loss as a major theme -modern AUs

Trixie Belden Trixie Belden, Honey Wheeler

One of my favourite things about these books is that sometimes the characters are just really bad at solving mysteries and it’s hilarious. (The Mystery Off Glen Road is one of my favourites.) I love every wild conclusion they jump to. They just generally seem to fail harder than most kid detectives and that makes it way more fun to root for them. I would love any sort of mysterious nonsense involving them. I’m neutral on pairings - I wouldn’t mind Trixie/Honey if you want to go that route.

Some prompts: the Bobwhites, for mystery-related reasons, invent a new neighbor and get stuck constantly pretending that this nonexistent person exists. Trixie and Honey stage an extremely over-complicated treasure hunt and the prize gets stolen. Trixie and Honey are convinced that [insert Bobwhite of your choice here] has been kidnapped for ransom, but no one else believes them.

DNW: -grief/loss as a major theme

Thomas and the Magic Railroad Mr. Conductor

Alec Baldwin eating vegetables and excitedly saying random words is one of my favourite scenes in cinema. And of course every scene of him being menaced by an evil talking train is perfection (somehow I forgot to nominate Diesel 10, by all means include him if you want).

Some prompts: The sinister influence of the windmill is made clearer. Mr Conductor is menaced by more trains. Mr Conductor sleeps sadly beside a hedge and is mocked by passing trains. Pick a scene to be interrupted by a call from Sir Topham Hatt.

Inspirational clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5nuckKBO_8

DNW: N/A. Just bear in mind that I’m going to find it funny no matter what it is.

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gonefishingrabbit · 2 years

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Yuletide 2022 Letter

Dear Yuletide Writer,

Season's Greetings! I'm looking forward to reading whatever you come up with.

Jane of Lantern Hill (Any characters) I love this book because it is funny and satisfying and has nice descriptions of delicious food and beautiful landscapes. I like the weird situations Jane gets herself into and very much enjoy when she shows up her detractors. I think “deleted scene” stories, continuing where the book leaves off, and canon-divergence plots from somewhere mid-story would all be really fun to read.

Some prompts: Aunt Gertrude, inspired by Jane, goes rogue. Grandmother and Aunt Irene get into it properly. Something else brings Jane’s mother to Lantern Hill. Jane gets to know the Lakeside Gardens residents.

The Melendy Quartet (Martin Melendy, Mark Herron, Randy Melendy, Rush Melendy) I like how the kids are weird in the ways kids are, and how they all have their different personal philosophies, and how the result is usually funny. The outdoor adventures are nice and atmospheric. I’d probably like stories set around those books the most, or canon-divergence starting from there, as opposed to stories set when they're adults.

Tales of the Jewelled Men Patricia Veryan (Any characters) I like how these books are simultaneously farcical and serious business. Someone will be going off to die alone nobly and angstily and then it gets interrupted with a full-on slapstick sequence. Neville Falcon is my favorite of the dads because he and his children actually get along and like each other without a bunch of drama, unlike almost all other dads in this series.

Some prompts: Neville Falcon outsider POV of basically any ridiculous moment in the series. Post-canon, a conspirator that no one knew about attacks at an inconvenient moment. August and Jamie’s dads become bffs and their children have trouble dealing with this. Gwendolyn and Neville have an argument and August thinks it’s about him, but it isn’t.

Some general likes: -outsider POV -humor -dialogue-heavy stories -canon divergence -mysteries

DNWs: -grief/loss as a major theme -modern AUs -breaking up canon relationships

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