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trashpoppaea · 3 months

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Reflections in the Nile by Suzanne Frank, the worst book I've ever read

After entering an ancient chamber on an archaeological dig, Cloe Kingsley is sent back in time to the year 1452 B.C. to the Egyptian court of Hatshepsut and into the body of a corrupt priestess, where she is now forced to face her new environment and the challenges it holds. A first novel.

Dear Ms. Frank,

Back in 1997, you published Reflections in the Nile. That’s 23 years ago, and many things have changed since those days. However, in the romance world lately, there’s been a lot of re-evaluation of older books. In my opinion, this is perfectly valid, since even though many things have changed since the ‘90s, many things haven’t. We still struggle with racism, sexism and bigotry, and I believe it’s important to look at older works, evaluate or re-evaluate them, and see where we can improve. To quote a song from the Hairspray musical, we’ve come so far, but got so far to go.

So, with this in mind, I read Reflections in the Nile, a book I’ve always intended on reading. I wanted to like it. Unfortunately, and I’m really sad to report this, but I had a lot of issues with it.

You might ask, what issues did I have with it? Quite a few, as it turns out, since I discovered, there was much to unpack in this particular book. There’s the racism and the orientalism, the peculiar fanfiction-like aspects of it, and all the evangelical subtext. Like I said, there’s a lot to unpack.

Anyway, to make sense of it all, let me begin at the beginning.

Back in the ‘90s, I was a globe-trotting undergrad with an undying love for romance novels. No matter where I was in the world, I would find an internet connection and read the latest reviews at the Romance Reader. Meredith Moore was one of my favorite reviewers, and she wrote a glowing review of “Reflections in the Nile” that made me think I should read it too. After all, I loved time travel stories, romances, and ancient culture. Plus, I was a commercial artist, like the heroine in the book! What’s not to love?

Well. There was one thing in the review that alarmed me. This story set in ancient Egypt—according to Meredith— was all about Exodus. This was the last thing I wanted to see in a book with this setting, so I decided to give it a pass.

Anyway, I didn’t think about it for years, until I went into a used bookstore with some friends and I saw a used copy of Reflections on the shelf. While I reminisced about the Romance Reader, I picked up the copy and started thumbing through it.

And then I saw it. THE BIG SPOILER. My jaw dropped.

I couldn’t believe what I was reading. I told my friends in disbelief. I put it back, but I couldn’t forget what I had seen. I kept thinking about it, wondering why that was in the book, and could it possibly be justified in the context of the plot?

Finally, my friends asked me to read the book or shut up about it, so here’s my long-awaited review of the oddest book I’ve read for quite a while.

* * *

Reflections starts off with a first person POV chapter, introducing to us the heroine, one Chloe Kingsley, a red-haired, pasty-skinned Texan commercial artist with some military background, who’s currently visiting her Egyptologist sister Camille on vacation in Cairo. This is actually a banger of a chapter, in that it’s entertaining, fast-paced, and engrossing. There are a few uncomfortable bits here and there where Chloe thinks about how she’s only truly obsessed with her “roots,” aka her Southern heritage. This is especially uncomfortable given what happens next.

Anyway, the first person POV is not long for this world, as Chloe trespasses in the Luxor Temple and gets zapped back into ancient Egypt, to the time of Hatshepsut. And the book shifts to third person omniscient POV, which makes for a lot of distracting head-hopping.

But anyway, Chloe finds she’s not in her old red-haired pasty-skinned, Southern body: she’s in the body of a hot, curvy, brown lady named RaEmhetepet whose skin, we are informed, is like “café au lait.” However, this isn’t just any old body swap time travel romance. Chloe’s body has merged with RaEm, and she has brought her green eyes, her large feet, and last but not least, her hymen.

Yes, it seems that Chloe is a conservative baby-loving virgin with an ostensibly Protestant Christian background. On the other hand, RaEm, the ancient Egyptian POC priestess, is a promiscuous, ambitious woman who hates babies and loves S&M and hurting people. So… yeah. Let’s put a pin in that, shall we?

Anyway, Chloe is pretty unconcerned about RaEm’s fate. You’d think she’d think about her a little, given that she’s taken over her body like an alien parasite. At first I wondered if RaEm had gone, a la Get Out, into the Sunken Place, because sometimes RaEm’s psyche and personality intrudes into Chloe’s consciousness, and Chloe often refers to her as “the other.” But eventually we discover (on page 104 of the hardcover edition) that RaEm has actually gone forward to the future to swap places with Chloe. And we get this:

Her mind filled with hazy memories. She was watching herself with an Arab, their bodies laced together like ribbons, straining, seeking pleasure. Camille was in the doorway, shocked almost beyond recognition. The Arab man looked familiar as he covered himself. Chloe reclined naked and unashamed in the bed, her large brown eyes hostile and angry.

We only see RaEm one more time, and that’s to find out she died, and Chloe is stuck in the past. Let’s pour one out for RaEm: she got a raw deal. We hardly knew ye, RaEm.

Anyway, it turns out that RaEm is a super important priestess, and Chloe is sick from post time travel body swapping, so Hatshepsut sends her personal mage/doctor to tend to Chloe. And we are introduced to our hero, Cheftu! I assume he was named after the lead in the very good YA novel Mara, Daughter of the Nile (which I would rather have been reading).

At any rate, Cheftu is hot, bronzed, looks like Bernini’s David, and looks great in white kilts of linen. He’s also really nice and sensitive, which I think is why Meredith Moore of the Romance Reader liked this book so much, since the late ‘90s romance genre was filled with alpha assholes. I generally like beta heroes myself, but I had a lot of problems with Cheftu, which I will get to in a bit.

Anyway, Cheftu has a lot of bad feelings about RaEm, because she ditched him once. But—for some reason I couldn’t figure out—Chloe is mysteriously mute until page 119. I don’t know why. But there’s a lot of hanging out with Cheftu and Chloe crying after Cheftu is rude to her, along with a lot of ancient Egyptian medical remedies and descriptions of ancient décor. Chloe is not the most engaging heroine, because she doesn’t do anything. She just reacts. Not only that, but passive voice is rampant in this book.

But as dull as this is, it soon becomes infuriating, because the story segues into what is literally The Ten Commandments fanfic. We are introduced to Moses, and the plight of the Israelite slaves who are building all the monuments (which is not something that actually happened), and we launch into the whole plague storyline, superimposed on Hatshepsut’s reign. It becomes less like one of those lavish 1970s Egyptian-set romances written by Joyce Verrette, and it turns into something like an episode of that old Christian time travel Hanna-Barbera cartoon, The Greatest Adventure: Stories from the Bible.

Anyway, we get bloody water, frogs, locusts, darkness, and finally the death of the firstborn. And as they’re dealing with all the plagues, Chloe and Cheftu become closer and closer. Chloe figures out how to talk again (yes… I still don’t get it), and they actually have conversations. Cheftu falls in love with Chloe because she’s changed. She’s no longer like the old RaEm, who was “poison.” He finds New RaEm/Chloe “pure” and loves her “child-like wonder,” and finds her “beautiful and fragile.” Yuck.

And THEN they have sex, and when he breaks her hymen during sex, THAT is when he becomes convinced that she’s not the actual RaEm. That she’s a different person. A person he can love. How can she possibly still be a virgin after she miscarried another man’s child, a child she desperately wanted? (Yeah, that’s a whole plot thread here. I can’t even begin to get into it.)

But… it gets worse. And how does it get worse, you ask? Well, we get to the part which I discovered in the used bookstore. The part that blew my mind.

We get to the revelation of Cheftu’s true identity.

On page 204, Cheftu says to Chloe:

“You are so beautiful, both inside and out. RaEm had only physical beauty, though it took me almost to the marriage altar to find out.” His fingers traced her features, and Chloe looked at him, her eyes filled with tears. He caught a tear on his finger before it dropped and stroked the saline across her lips, his breathing becoming harsher. His gaze was intent yet calculating. He took another deep breath. “Also, because your eyes are different. They are so clean and fresh, like your soul. But they are also observant and appreciative … as green as the fields of ma belle France.” (page 204)

Yes. OH MY GOD. Cheftu isn’t Egyptian. He’s actually a cosplaying Frenchman from the early 1800s. What is his name, you might ask?

Chloe sat in silence. “Cheftu, what is, was, your Christian name?” From the muffling of his hands she heard “Francois.” He faced the wall and dropped his hands. “I left my time of 1806.” He turned to face her. “Do you know the name Napoleon?” “Of course. He was defeated by the British at Waterloo in 1815.” He glanced at her, not comprehending. She reached out to touch him, quiet the confusion in his eyes. (page 208)

A page later it is revealed he is the one and only Francois Champollion, the guy who deciphered hieroglyphics in the 1820s.

So why was this hidden from the audience before now even though we had dozens of scenes from this guy’s POV? It was only hidden from the reader to provide a TWIST! This was so lazy and manipulative I actually threw the book across the room.

Not only that, Champollion didn’t go to Egypt until 1828. In 1806 he was not only a schoolboy, but Napoleon’s Egyptian campaign had been over for years and Egypt was back under Ottoman rule. Also, this character in the story bears no resemblance to the actual Champollion, who was something of a cross between Indiana Jones and Enjolras from Les Miserables: he was an avid Bonapartist who hated the monarchy and led an uprising in his hometown of Grenoble, climbing the ramparts to change the white flag of the Bourbons to a tricolor. I’m not sure where this apolitical woobie doctor character comes from, but it sure as hell ain’t nothing like the original Champollion, who deserves to be the hero of a much better book.

But this asides, this brings up a huge problem with this novel. You not only have ONE white person cosplaying as an ancient Egyptian POC, but you have TWO people. Two of the whitest people ever, who are so much better and cooler than all the superstitious Bronze Age North Africans. After all, they ride horses. They’re not afraid of the dark. They can embrace change unlike all these static Ancient Egyptians, who hate and fear change. And most importantly, they believe in one God! It’s so gross, and this is literally the textbook definition of Orientalism. To quote the wiki entry on Orientalism:

In [Edward] Said’s analysis, the West essentializes these societies as static and undeveloped—thereby fabricating a view of Oriental culture that can be studied, depicted, and reproduced in service of imperial power. Implicit in this fabrication, writes Said, is the idea that Western society is developed, rational, flexible, and superior.

Not only this, but our heroine is relieved her boyfriend is actually white. There’s a quote here on page 209:

It was comforting that the man she loved was not of a race and mentality completely foreign to her. He was European…

So… yes. I have no words.

In addition to the huge problems with racism, Orientalism, and othering, there’s also the weird fanfiction like aspects of this book. It’s not just the fact that this feels like Ten Commandments fanfiction, with Hatshepsut taking over the Yul Brynner role— Moses is also implicitly compared to Charlton Heston. Yet the fact that the ancient Egyptian hero is secretly a Napoleonic era Frenchman is so bizarre and out-of-left-field that it also feels like a poorly conceived self insert in an RPF (Real Person fanfic) story. I would have preferred if Chloe had just gone back in time to 1820s Egypt and met Champollion in his actual body , and whole plot aspect of “taking over the bodies of POC people” had been completely left out, but unfortunately that is not the book we got.

But last but not least, there is a huge problem with the evangelical subtext. How is that, you ask?

Well, after all the to-ing and fro-ing with the Israelites, “Cheftu” and Chloe depart from the Exodus narrative and end up meeting a wise old sage named Imhotep. After Chloe ponders that “the Bible was turning out to be a lot more accurate than she’d given it credit for,” we find out that Chloe’s true purpose in the past is to provide artistic PROOF (with her drawings of Moses etc.) for all those unbelieving people in the future that the Exodus did actually happen.

Chloe began pacing. “Aye, just illustrations. Everyone knows the stories,” she said, then stopped. “But they do not believe them!” Cheftu looked up, frowning. “Do not believe the Bible?” “Nay. Nor did I before”—she paused—“before this. Did you?” “Aye. Why would the Jews use a fabricated story on which to base their entire existence as a people?” Cheftu asked. “It is humiliating enough for them to admit to being slaves, but then the desert? The many times they disobeyed and God punished? Why would someone falsify that?” “Aye.” Imhotep chuckled. “You will never read of an Egyptian battle lost or a pharaoh falling short of his duties.” “That is it!” Chloe cried. “There is no other validation of the existence of Israel, or the Passover, or even who the pharaoh was! Even my sister thinks it was Rameses the Great, if anyone at all. This is proof! Cold, hard facts written on paper from the right period.” She sat down, flipping quickly through the drawings. Several of Alemelek’s were Egyptian style—one actually telling the story of Ramoses! With a shaking hand she passed it to Cheftu and Imhotep, who leaned over it, reading quickly. Chloe sat down. This was bloody unbelievable! (page 360)

After this, there’s a lot of discussion about the importance of believing in God. “Cheftu” extols about the might of God.

He turned, his eyes shining. “We have had the most, Chloe! We have climbed the pyramids, talked with pharaohs, seen the deliverance of God! He spared our lives, specifically, again and again and again! Think of it: we were not hit by the killing hail, we survived the desert, the soldiers, starvation, and thirst. If this is the price we pay, so be it!” (page 399)

A few pages later Chloe contemplates how her life has changed:

A year ago it had all been different. She’d been alone, looking forward to new things in life, and almost an agnostic. Now she stood with a man who was her soul, praying to a God she’d met, while soldiers swarmed through the city looking for them. (page 407)

Archaeologists have been searching for proof for Exodus for over a century at this point, and nothing has been found. It’s safe to say that it didn’t happen. Even as a lapsed Catholic, I still personally believe in God, and I’m not too concerned if the Exodus happened as described or not. I was really puzzled as to why the author was so intent on making us believe that it happened exactly as written in the Bible, when an ex-evangelical friend on Twitter pointed out to me that evangelicals are “really interested in ‘proving’ things that can’t be proven” and (in the opinion of my friend) “their standards are ridic bad. Like– they found a city that was mentioned in the Bible, so therefore the whole Bible must be true.”

What’s even stranger to me is that an ex-Catholic French revolutionary like Champollion is turned into an evangelical mouthpiece, but this book is baffling on many levels.

I’m not even getting into the issue of how appropriative this book is of Jewish identity and culture. And just the very idea of a white woman taking over the body of a POC woman so she can become a white savior and play out an evangelical redemption narrative so the whole world can begin to believe the Bible is so many levels of awful.

In regards to the ending of this book, I’m not going to summarize the rest of the plot, because the plot continues to baffle and confuse, and at any rate it just ends on a strange cliffhanger. I’ve glanced at the end of the series, and it also seems to end in a bizarre and unsatisfactory way. Ms. Frank has suggested in the past that she will continue the series, and I’m not sure what to think of it.

My main takeaway is that I would love to see more books about ancient Bronze Age Egypt, or more books featuring Napoleonic French heroes, but I don’t want to see any more books that try to do both in a very muddled way. I also would prefer not to read about POC people ousted by white people from their own bodies, and I would also like not to be exhorted into believing in the Bible by the fiction I read.

Anyway, praise Sekhmet! This book is over. I did enjoy the first chapter, but I’m sorry to say that it went downhill from there. With its deeply problematic ideology and racism, Reflections in the Nile gets an F.

Originally posted to Dear Author in February 2020

#suzanne frank #reflections in the nile #book reviews #formerly posted to dear author #dear author #time travel #ancient egypt #this book was unadulterated garbage omg

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ryokoaoi · 1 year

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a proper will/cam art as promised 🌹

#redacted asmr #redacted audio #redacted william #william solaire #redacted camelopardalis #redacted cam #cam x william #Camelopardalis x William #redacted fanart #redacted art #art #watercolor #doodle kinda #i am starting to love this ship #ao3 be blessing me with good fics #dear author #if you are reading this #ily /platonically

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mylittleredgirl · 26 days

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dear fluff exchange author

thank you so much for writing for me! i hope you will have fun with this match. i'm very easy to please as a reader and love being surprised. in addition to my requested tags, please feel free to write to any of my likes below, or to similar tropes as long as you avoid my DNWs.

please click the read more for all my thoughts and feelings!

🥰 general fluff notes: i enjoy the whole spectrum of human connection: deep friendship, ensemble-as-family, and romance across the full pre-ship to established relationship spectrum. i have a special love for the early stages of a new relationship, where characters are just figuring out how the other person likes to be loved. complications and challenges, especially those that tie into the characters' canon lives and character flaws are delightful. i find fluff most rewarding when it's still tied into the canon setting/genre, but within that, i love what-if canon divergence (especially when it sidesteps character death or keeps the ensemble together). angst, hurt/comfort, etc as fluff fuel is welcome!

⛔️ DNWs: alternate-setting AUs (law office, coffee-shop, etc; large and small canon divergences are welcome though!) | bashing of other characters or past canon relationships | cannibalism | crossovers (except between series in the same universe, like star trek) | hurt no comfort | non-canon nicknames | non-con between requested characters (dubcon ok) | non-sexual bodily fluids in sex scenes | permanent character death | spelling out accents (for human characters) | unplanned pregnancy | zombies or blood-sucking vampires (other canon-typical aliens and cryptids are welcome!).

⛑ M*A*S*H ⛑

this is my latest fandom and i'm obsessed! margaret is my favorite disaster at the moment, but i love them all soooo much and want to study them in a terrarium.

by the time of reveals, i will likely have seen up through season 6, so i prefer stories using that canon knowledge (it's a preference, not a dnw, so please don't stress if you can't remember when something happened!).

special pairing notes: for hawkeye & margaret, but pre-ship/heading toward romantic is totally allowed as long as it's mostly focused on the friendship stage. to my questionable shame, i really enjoy the kiss slap kiss frank/margaret ship -- it's not a pairing i requested, but it's fine to include their canon relationship in any fic.

extra prompts and thoughts:

it has been the longest day, week, or year of their lives...

[relationship] are trapped away from camp for 24 hours and have an unexpectedly great and/or terrible time

[relationship] are away from camp for 24 hours on purpose (a pass, meeting with the brass somewhere, etc) and have a great and/or terrible time

i have such a soft spot for the developing surrogate father/daughter relationship between colonel potter and margaret, and would weep happy tears for anything that brings them closer together

i nominated the "one canon change makes everything fluffier" tag specifically because i had just seen the episode "kim." if that adoption had ultimately gone through, how would it change the relationships in camp if they had this kind of shared child back in the states? (and maybe, how would it change their return home after the war?)

👽 Stargate SG-1 👽

clone sam/jack are my highly specific pairing darlings! i love the mixed blessing and curse of having the chance to live their lives over. the "growing old together" tag can be interpreted as "growing up together" (or if you wanted to do a flash-forward to the traditional meaning, go for it!).

dnw notes: please don't have sam & jack change their first names. i usually dnw unexpected pregnancy, but it's ok for this pairing.

prompts:

one of them gets injured or is somehow in danger -- they used to deal with far worse every week, so why does this feel different?

a field trip (school-sanctioned or one of their own)

when/how does this life start to feel like their own?

🌃 Stargate Atlantis 🌃

sheppard/weir is my bulletproof otp. it's hard to go wrong! i love the early stages of their professional relationship and friendship when they're figuring each other out, and how john immediately becomes ride-or-die as soon as she defends him on earth. i'm fine with any way you choose to deal or not deal with the replicator arc as long as she survives and comes home and at her core she's still elizabeth.

prompts:

john and the challenge of giving/receiving affection (and Having A Feeling in general) is always fun to play with...

getting stuck off-world for 24 hours and having an unexpectedly great and/or terrible time

sexual healing by mapping each other's scars

🛸 The X-Files 🛸

this show was one of my first loves, and season nine inspired me to join online fandom for the first time! i love the season nine relationships between the agents, with all the growing friendship, trust, and potential romance. when it comes to fluff, i started thinking about all the tragic children and how things might have gone if one or more of them had stayed alive/stayed around... especially if the rest of the harsh backdrop of the x-files universe doesn't change.

i love (appropriate familial and friendship) adult & child relationships, especially when it leads to some healing for the adult! that said, i have a strong preference for canon children rather than OCs.

prompts:

season nine agents get snowed in overnight with ghosts (dealer's choice if they're paranormal ghosts or the metaphorical ghosts they're all carrying around...) and it brings them closer together

emily lives!! (either healthy or still ill) how does that unexpected new challenge/blessing impact both scully and mulder?

monica's dedication to loving people on purpose is one of the reasons i love her so much... how do doggett and/or scully return the favor?

🍄 Star Trek: Discovery 🍄

discoveryyyyyyy. the final frontier of feelings. i love them so much!!! if you choose to write about pike or spock, classic trek and strange new worlds canon are fair game. relationship info going into the bullet points below:

pike/vina... a childhood ship came back in a huge way in the discovery episode "if memory serves." i would LOVE really anything about them, but i think all the time about how perhaps she might show up in his dreams via illusion powers, or what if she left with him after "the cage" or especially after "if memory serves" now that he has grown and changed himself...

pike & the crew of discovery: una, who knows him quite well, called him entirely unsentimental... but in the last episode of season 2, in pike's goodbye to the crew, he calls them "family" (and i cried about it). how did that happen?

michael and spock!!!! oh god i have so much love for them, and how spock must continue to think about her. that tag about "leaving notes in books" when they're children, and perhaps later in his autobiography or another message he hopes will reach the future...

michael feeling loved and accepted by her adopted family as a child and her crew as an adult in any form that might take <3

whew!! i hope something here was inspiring! i look forward to reading and loving whatever you write.

#dear author #fic exchange

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juvenalesque · 9 months

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@neil-gaiman You got me. Season 2 was a love story, just not for the couple we thought. PLEASE-- Please, let Crowley be happy. His Angel needs to realize he's an idiot and fix it. PLEASE. I don't care how you do it. My heart can't take imagining anything else. Michael and David made them so real for me. Please, please, please. I'm praying to you.

#good omens #good omens 2 #ineffable idiots #ineffable husbands #we could have been us #my heart is shattered #im begging you #dear author

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kaetrinsmusings · 2 months

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Review at Dear Author

Review at Dear Author: At First Spite by Olivia Dade.

I’m over at Dear Author with a review of At First Spite by Olivia Dade. A lot to like – but do read the content warnings.

View On WordPress

#contemporary #Dear Author #NetGalley #Olivia Dade

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chadots · 4 months

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Dear authors,

When you are writing for an adult audience, a character who is “late for everything” isn’t quirky. They’re irresponsible and selfish. Those are character traits, at least, but they might not be the ones you’re going for.

Love,

Readers

#dear author

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2-dsimp · 9 months

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I honestly think option 2 or 4 would be the safest, seeing as being alone with childe could end up like that one xiao situation again.

Would choosing option 4 make us lose points with razor, though??

Although I can’t say much, I will add that as long as your choice doesn’t affect him personally/ directly then your standing with Razor won’t be changed!

#hint hint #2dsimp chat 💬#lovely anon #dear author

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kbirbpods · 3 months

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Look below the cut for kbirb's @purimgifts 2024 letter (a little late, I'm sorry, it's been so hectic these past few days)

For reference, check out my "dear podficcer" letter from ITPE, which goes into more detail, as I know we want to keep these short and sweet! (It doesn't look short because bullet points but trust me... I tend to be wordier)

Hi! I'm kbirb on ao3 or Kaje to the wider internet/many of my IRL friends. I'm a nonbinary creator - typically podfics & graphics, though I do occasionally spill words onto a page and call it writing. I started podding in August 2022.

I think it's easiest to put it this way:

Triggers/Squicks/No-Thank-Yous:

Rape/non-con/dub con - with the caveat of rape recovery and abuse recovery being something I do enjoy in stories

Incest - I understand that to some portions of the fandom, clone shipping is called clonecest, but I do ship clones (with some caveats)

Underage/power dynamics - as a teacher, it's a major no from me

On-screen suicide/suicidal ideation - aka, if a character is recovering from suicidal ideation? That's fine. A character commits the act or seriously considers it? No thank you. It's easier to just say a blanket no to it

Cockroaches - idk I just hate them so much

Yes Please Times 1,000:

Slice of life

Modern AUs

Fluff in general

Hurt/comfort

Soulmate AUs (my faves)

Period piece AUs (especially regency era, oh my)

No Order 66

Crackfic

My favorite ships (applicable to this exchange, so focused on Jewish characters/women/Jewish women):

I tried to pick from all the fandoms I listed but I like a lot of gen fic in some of them. Especially ones like OFMD where there's not that many women in the first place, so I like fics that focus on women being power houses.

Star Wars [most of my SW ships are M/M so this is a little limited]: Ahsoka / any woman ever (well not ever but you get it), Kanin/Hera, Jyn/Cassian, Bail/Breha/Fox, Bly/Ayla

Ted Lasso: Keeley/Roy, Keeley/Roy/Jamie, Rebecca & Keeley, Rebecca & Ted

Batfam/DCU/Young Justice: Harley/Ivy, Kate Kane/any woman ever (again, not ever, but you get it), Jason/Kori/Roy, Artemis/Wally, Barbara/Dinah, Barbara/Kara, Barbara/Dick, Selina/Bruce, Selina/Harley/Ivy

The Locked Tomb: Gideon/Harrow, the fucked up polycule that created Gideon

The Adventure Zone: Lup/Lucretia, Lup/Lucretia/Barry, Aubrey/Dani

The Old Guard: Quynh/Andy

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Willow/Tara, Buffy/Spike, Buffy & Willow, Buffy & Tara

Six of Crows: Inej/Kaz, Inej/Nina, Nina/Mattias

The Good Place: Eleanor/Chidi, Eleanor/Tahani

My favorite canonically Jewish characters from my listed fandoms (tragically there is only a few due to the fantasy world element of many of my fandoms):

Harley Quinn (DC)

Kate Kane (DC)

[some versions of] Bruce Wayne (DC)

[some versions of] Barry Allen (DC)

Agnus McDonald (TAZ)

Willow Rosenburg (BtVS)

Also Roy Kent, my favorite character in all of media, is played by a Jewish actor.

I really like fics that portray Bruce as Jewish, due to Kate (his cousin) being Jewish, and especially ones that branch into exploring Judaism for the entirety of the Batfam. For example, I recently did a podfic of one for ITPE that was different Hanukkah stories!

Further, I love love love any fics surrounding trans women or really any fics that bring a new focus to a character that we haven't seen before!

Trans Clones!! My favorite thing ever in the SW universe. I have several of my own nonbinary/trans woman clone OCs. If you wish to make any characters trans, the only clone/clone ship I do not ship is Cody/Rex because they feel like siblings to me. My favorite clone/clone ships that could be made trans are: Rex/Bacara, Wooley/Longshot, Waxer/Boil, Hevy/Fives/Echo, Fox/Fives/Echo. My favorite clone/jedi ships that can be made trans are: trans!Bly/Ayla, Cody/Obi-Wan, Fox/Quinlan, Hevy/Jon Antilles, Fox/Jon Antilles, Fox/Quinlan/Jon Antilles

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out to me in an anonymous ask... or reach out to my best friend, FLOWERPARRISH, on discord if you know zir/on here and ze won't tell me who you are. Ze knows me very very well & might even be better to ask if you don't want to spoil a podfic or anything!!

#purimgifts #dear creator #dear podficcer #dear author #dear writer #purim #purim gifts #purim exchange #kbirb #okay wordier than i wanted but i am incapable of talking only a little #it's my fatal flaw #sorry not sorry???????

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candycane-hockeymom · 6 months

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Dear Author of the Hockey Holidays 2023 fic exhange

Thank you for participating and yay for writing for me! I’ve always been super excited about every gift fic I have received, and I’m looking forward to the privilege of receiving the fic that you want to write.

That said, some guidelines on my preferences as a reader and some reasons why I chose the pairings in my request below.

I'm a Canes and Team Finland fan. That doesn't mean that I'd prefer you to write the Canes pairings or Finnish players in this exchange! Just a heads-up, when choosing side characters or secondary teams, please don't be too mean to my faves.

Likes: I like a mature, nuanced view on human nature, characters who have their flaws and shortcomings; characters with dubious morals but maybe sort of a good heart. I love good characterization and character dynamics, be it romance, porn or a gen fic studying personal development of an athlete in his sports career or group dynamics of a sports team.

As themes/tropes I like friends to lovers, fuckbuddies to lovers, enemies to lovers. I like my filth: scheming, pwp, Locker room gang bangs, Winner’s room. I love equal partners, but I also find status imbalances & age and size differences HOT.

Dislikes: a/b/o, mpreg, tentacles, body horror, gore, rule 63, suicide/self harm. I'm not into BDSM AU -- Dom/sub undertones, BDSM elements and kink in smut are very welcome but not the predestined dynamics universe stuff. I don’t want to see any mentions of Alexander Ovechkin. No slander of irl SO's or writing them as villains, but I’m OK with them existing in the story, even if it involves cheating the spouse with the ship partner. Fights aren't a huge turn-on for me.

If you're writing Finnish characters, please don't use google translated Finnish or phrases picked from a dictionary without consulting a native level speaker for beta help.

About AU:s: I like mundane, realistic AUs. I'm mostly into spy / politics / crime / war stories at the moment, and I like band AUs. No high fantasy, please. Some magical realism / supernatural elements are fine if they are what you like to write. Werevolves or vampires? Team vampires, definitely. (But you know what's WAY better: angels. I just might have a bit of a religious kink.)

Prompts for requested pairings (and one pairing that didn't make it to the exchange in time but would make my day)

Remember: these are mere ideas, not requests. Vaguely in order of preference, but pick whichever gets YOUR creative juices flowing, that'll make the best reading, too!

Blake Wheeler/Jacob Trouba: Ex teammates meet on a new team. Has the hierarchy between them shifted when Wheeler has now lost his captaincy over Trouba, and Trouba has established himself as a needed brutal force in his new team? I'd love these dynamics explored, and I don't mind if it has darkish, nasty elements. I don't mind unhealthy dynamics or even violence, but if you see the situation as a chance for healing, redemption and soft landing, go for it.

Esa Lindell/Jere Pöyhönen | Käärijä: Give me anything you have for this crazy ship, I want to see it all.

Sebastian Aho (b. 1997)/Teuvo Teravainen: I'd appreciate an updated look at the current state of my Finnish Cherubs OTP. Teuvo is having a monster season and the hottest stick (lol) on the team, does Sebastian reward him? Or is he jealous? Is he proud? (Please note that Sebastian is jacked, hairy and feisty on the ice but still so devastatingly pretty)

Teuvo Teravainen/Kimmo Timonen: Why not a melancholic story of Teuvo carrying on a relationship to an older married man for years? And for what? Does it ever reach a breaking point, and what then?

Sebastian Aho (b. 1997)/Justin Williams: These Tumblr text posts by @andreisvechnikov say it all: "he's a lot of things…kinda like daddy to me sometimes" - Sebastian Aho on then captain Justin Williams and watching Justin Williams get his Canes' HOF thing and knowing Sebastian "he's kind of like daddy to me" Aho was there because he loves him

Sebastian Aho (b. 1997)/Roope Hintz/Jesse Puljujarvi: I'm curious. Did they have a thing at Junior Worlds 2016? Or before that? Or after that? Tell me!

Sebastian Aho (b. 1997)/Brent Burns: Sebastian expressed a strong interest to be invited to Burnzie's ranch, saying he's "into that kind of stuff" and he'd "grab his own backpack and go". I'd love a messy smut version of how it went down over there. Dom Brent please.

Sebastian Aho/Brent Burns/Jordan Staal: Bottom Sebastian getting it good from two large men. That's all. But, like, a plot-driven war or spy AU could work too.

PLUS ONE: I totally forgot to nominate this crack pairing before it was too late: Roope Hintz/Sergei Fedorov. They look SO alike, don't they? I've always wanted to read an AU fic playing on their resemblance; they could be con artists, thieves, spies or whatever pretending to be father and son but being nothing of the sort. If this tickles somebody's imagination enough to prompt a tiny treat, I'd be ecstatic.

All of this is just to give you ideas, not to limit your creativity! Have fun writing and take care of yourself, Happy Hockey Holidays!

This is my hidden side Tumblr. The actual ones are @caixxa (main) and @badhockeymom (hockey).

If you have more questions, anon ask on any of these three blogs works.

#dear author #dear author letter #hockey holidays 2023

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machiavelliinadress · 1 year

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Updated Dear Author Letter

It just hit me that my last dear author letter was done in.... 2017! A lot has changed in the world, and a little less has changed for me, so here’s the updated dear author letter.

I’ve always given carte blanche for my author(s) to go HAM. Like, I am going to welcome whatever you do like it’s Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends. The shape doesn’t matter, the tropes don’t matter, I just want my author to do something they’re happy with or that they feel they would never have an excuse to do otherwise.

That being said, I recognize that a totally blank slate can be very intimidating, so this list below is meant to be a compass arrow setting you off in a Direction on your journey (I’m a firm believer that there’s no right direction/consider all paths to victory). Use it if it helps, ignore it if it doesn’t-- we’re all here to have a good time babes.

I’m a Caps fan for Hockey, but I’m nowhere near as loyal in my fic reading sensibilities. (I actually just moved back to the DMV and I’m back on the redline baybeeeeee.) I’ve got a soft spot for fic that takes advantage of the setting.

Wanna do a Night at the Museum AU in the National Portrait Gallery? Hell yeah!

Wanna do a PR makes them go to the Air and Space Museum trip and everyone gets themselves politely escorted out for making wildly inappropriate comments fic? Here for it!

writing for Not Caps Pairing? put in as many local references as you want, I will google and add things to my travel inspo!

I appreciate AUs. Could be a what-if the trade didn’t happen, could be a Tamora Pierce AU, could be a serial killer AU, could be an AU I’ve never even dreamed of-- the universes are big and messy and beautiful, and I love you for letting me see another world.

I’m a slut for worldbuilding. No need to go insanely detailed, but if there are little internal rules that get referenced by characters?? Eating it up with a spoon!

My moods are varied, so don’t worry if you don’t enjoy writing smut or angst or fluff, or any combination there of. Some of my fav fic is gen or character study that has no dialogue. I’ll vibe with damn near anything.

My tumblr inbox is on and anon if you have questions. If you’re still nervous or unsure what I might vibe with and don’t want to come on tumblr, feel free to look at what lovely lovely fic has been gifted to me in the past and see how absolutely down for whatever I am in the comments.

#hockey rpf #dear author

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mobydickering · 2 years

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Yuletide Letter

Hi author! I’m really excited to read you and I am hoping that you have fun creating whatever it is! Below is a general list of my likes and dislikes in fic:

Likes: gremlins in love, character-driven fic, fake relationships turning into real relationships, accidental dating, aggressively requited pining, pining while they’re sleeping together, pining before they’re sleeping together, found family, being badass together, crying during sex, complete trust in each other, banter/teasing/flirting, small/unspoken displays of affection.

In general, I really love happy endings and people being soft and in love and happy together!

Dislikes: Generally: unrealistic dialogue, and OOC fic, sexual petplay, furry, vore, scat, full bdsm relationship, a/b/o, mpreg, infidelity, gaslighting, major character death, permanent amnesia, serious illness or death as plot devices, eating disorders, major depression, non-con, bestiality, rape, ageplay, non-consensual powerplays/imbalance of power, canon or AU stories focused on the coronavirus, anything unrequited. for taskmaster fic: non-taskmaster compliant (aka -- even more extreme than taskmaster) daddy kink and humiliation

#yuletide #dear author

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little-pondhead · 1 year

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I forgot about this.

The whole reasoning behind the Supervillain Danny AU sketches was that his villain persona was the complete opposite of his normal, sane self and hero persona. Danny plays into the Fenton name really hard, and ramps up the “mad scientist” bit, taking inspiration from both his normal civilian life and his parents, thus using just his last name as a villain.

And then I wanted to add what Sam and Tucker might look like if they joined in on his shenanigans. To keep with the “opposite of their normal life” bit, let’s throw in some ghostly artifacts that help the two keep up with Fenton’s madness.

Sam would get an angel’s halo that helps her form ghostly wings, and she’d play into the good-two shoes angelic look, and then she opens her mouth and verbally assaults you. She pins her bangs back and wears clothes that better fit a celestial aesthetic and uses all the etiquette training her parents taught her. Manson looks like some sort of regal angel and people expect her to be the nicest out of all of them. She’s not. Manson is the sneakiest and most bloodthirsty one, and heroes regularly wonder if she has actually committed murder or not.

Tucker takes inspiration from his time as a pharaoh. He has a metal postiche that enhances his physical ability. (Maybe it gives him dreadlocks too, but I like to think Tucker is just wearing a whole ass wig.) He wears a strange mix of street wear and his pharaoh outfit, and throws his tech-obsessed self out the window. Fenton is the nerdy one here, so now Foley is the muscle. Foley plays up meathead American bully stereotype hard. He delights in throwing hands, and hunts down supers just for the sake of a fun spar. (For him not for the supers.) Foley’s favorite people to fight so far is Killer Croc and Superman. Heroes are concerned about what would happen if Foley fought for real, but then they saw what he did to the Joker “as a joke” and decided not to ask any more questions.

Basically, the trio looked at their civilian lives and picked out what they considered “villainous traits” from the people around them that they then played into as villains themselves. If that makes sense. Sam hates how her parents want a perfect child, so she makes herself look like one. She speaks in backhanded comments and has a snooty attitude, which she learned from other rich people. Tucker is constantly confronted by bullies everyday, and all the rogues that come to Amity are always fighting, so that’s what he decides to mimic. Yeah, he now gets to be the big and strong protector of the group, but all his experience with fighting have been bad ones, and that reflects in his style. And finally, Danny. Why does he take after his parents and play into the family name? Because the Fentons are one of the biggest obstacles and source of anxiety in his life. Danny associates mad scientists to pain and other bad things, so even if all he’s being helpful in a really annoying way as a villain, his parents and the threat of the GIW still influence how he presents himself. Because to Danny, those two things are far more scary than a kid with a pirate ship or a man wearing a bat fursuit.

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mylittleredgirl · 1 month

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dear hurtcomfortex author

thank you so much for writing for me! i hope you have fun. i'm very easy to please as a reader and love to be surprised! (i love treats, too!)

there were so many more wonderful tags to choose from (and i completed my sign-up 30 seconds before the bell), so in addition to my sign-up tags, feel free to write to any of my general likes below for any requested ship, or other similar tropes as long as they avoid my DNWs.

❤️‍🩹 hurt/comfort likes: aftermath stories | characters who don't expect comfort learning how to accept it | comforting characters heal themselves through the act of helping | comforting each other while hiding/waiting/in fear | cumulative damage (emotional or physical) | hurt character struggles to maintain their dignity… and ultimately regains it | “i should have been there/been able to stop it” | “i'll stay with you” | kindness tailored to the way a character can accept it | made to watch (or can’t stop imagining) | one hurt physically/one hurt emotionally | platonic physical comfort | shared vulnerability | sexual healing | “the last straw” is something small.

⛔️ DNWs: alternate-setting AUs (law office, coffee-shop, etc; small & large canon divergences are welcome though!) | bashing of other characters or past canon relationships | cannibalism | crossovers (except between series in the same universe, like star trek) | hurt no comfort | non-canon nicknames | non-con between requested characters (dubcon ok) | non-sexual bodily fluids in sex scenes | permanent character death | permanent loss of autonomy | spelling out accents (for human characters) | unplanned pregnancy | zombies or blood-sucking vampires (other canon-typical aliens and cryptids are welcome!).

⚠️ opt-ins for common DNWs: i’m fine with sexual violence being part of the story or backstory (including in childhood), as long as it’s not graphic, not committed by major/recurring canon characters, and doesn’t cause irreparable damage (e.g. not "will always feel pain or fear with sex," has to quit their job, etc). i like second-person POV a lot, as long as the “you” is a canon character. i dnw major character death, but death/grief for other people or animals is fine. i’m also OK with body image issues, canon-typical sexism, infidelity, medical/surgical things, mental illness, miscarriage, and torture.

🌃 Stargate Atlantis 🌃 john sheppard/elizabeth weir (hurt either one or both)

(hurting both wasn't technically an option, but i would welcome it!)

these two are made for hurt/comfort. they're both strong and have been through so many wringers. they're terrible at admitting vulnerability, taking care of themselves, and accepting help from others. i would love to see them support each other (well or clumsily) through canon suffering, brand-new suffering of your choosing, or just a hard day at the office. some interesting tag options for them are the "character planned to die but didn't" option (perhaps elizabeth more than john -- i think he's aware in canon of his protagonist invulnerability), "bad guys made them do it" for a darker dubcon take for them to work through together, and "rehumanization" has canon and metaphorical potential for either one of them. please feel especially free to bring your own ideas for these two -- i have rarely met a sheppard/weir idea i didn't love!

⛑ M*A*S*H ⛑ margaret houlihan & colonel potter (hurt either or both); trapper/hawkeye/margaret (hurt margaret)

i'm now up to season five in m*a*s*h and am so so so obsessed, and especially chewing the drywall about margaret. there's so much wrong with her. there's so much wrong with everyone. truly a show for the ages. there's lots of hurt/comfort potential built into the day-to-day premise -- the long brutal days in a long brutal war, the conditions, the stress, how no one ever has everything they need -- as well as the option for exciting war zone drama. anything from slice-of-life hurt/comfort to dramatic action/adventure would be loved!! i would prefer fic that only includes canon from seasons 1-6, since i probably won't have seen all of the later seasons before reveal time, but that’s not a dnw.

margaret & colonel potter: i loveeee the developing surrogate father/daughter relationship here. it offers so much potential for her to heal and grow, and he has such a soft spot for her in return. i would love to stick them in a little peril to see them get closer -- we know they go together into the villages to do medicine sometimes (and he already got shot once), so perhaps something exciting happens on one of those trips? if you'd rather stay low-key in camp, some emotional support that lets her feel seen or lets him get something back for all the one-way support he offers the others would be lovely.

trapper/hawkeye/margaret: there's so much charged (and horny) energy between them, i can't resist. the times they brought her into their circle (even if reluctantly) were so funny and sweet. i’m happy with any level of ship, pre-ship, or “&” friendship here. i have great love for the ongoing frank/margaret disaster as well, so feel free to include him/that relationship in the story or not however you wish (though if you're using him to hurt her, please keep it within the general canon range of damage -- he should definitely not be the perpetrator in the almost-raped tag scenario up there).

regarding the tags for this show: i genuinely dropped the ball here by not including any tags where trapper & hawkeye caused the hurt they're now trying to resolve, because that would be very in character! if you would like to go that route and make them atone for some of their little crimes, i would love it. even if they’re all friends or lovers now, old habits die hard…

🛸 The X-Files 🛸 john doggett/monica reyes (monica or both hurt); john doggett/monica reyes/dana scully (hurt any one of them)

at this point i was panicking about finishing my sign-up, so please feel free to add extra tags! the x-files excels at generating horrifying ways men and creatures can cause harm, and anything within the scope of what happens to agents in a monster of the week ep in canon is fair game (except dnw zombies or vampires). i love the season nine agents and the variable dynamics of longing and need and trust and friendship between all three of them, and the x-files is at its best when the agents are going all out to protect each other!

the tag i have up there is "both captured," but having just one of them captured and the other(s) panicking/coming to their rescue would also be great, or tending the wounds afterwards. some soft comfort after any canon episode or an original case-gone-wrong would also hit the spot. monica is usually the one offering emotional support, so it would be nice to see that go the other way sometimes!

a prompt i always hope someone will fill is “three agents spend the night snowed in with ghosts,” with the author’s choice whether to interpret it as paranormal ghosts or the angsty figurative ghosts they’re all carrying around.

🛰 Babylon 5 🛰 michael garibaldi/susan ivanova/talia winters (all hurt or hurt talia); lyta alexander & talia winters (hurt talia)

i really, really want talia to survive. i think susan and michael would be the most motivated to rescue her, and lyta would be the most capable of cleaning up the damage.

i love telepathy in babylon 5. psi corps is so deeply fascinating and fucked up. lyta and talia get so used and abused from so many directions, and the more power they gain, the less freedom and agency they have. the two of them have the same backstory of briefly interning with the psi corps, and i have always wondered if they knew each other pre-canon, and how that might have impacted lyta after unmasking talia's alter ego.

DNW exception for this fandom: while i usually DNW unplanned pregnancy, psi corps tortures its people in all kinds of ways, including reproductive control. i'm fine going dark for psi corps stories (non-con, torture, etc is all built into canon!) as long as our characters come out alive and there's some comfort, love, support, and a hopeful ending.

that's it!! thank you again! i hope something here was inspiring or at least not too boring. i will be delighted and so grateful for whatever i receive. enjoy!

#dear author #fic exchange

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