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Yuletide Dear Author Post
Nov. 17th, 2010 09:28 pmI hope I'm not going to be too awkward a customer (except in the obvious sense of having picked two fairly obscure sets of SF stories as possibles just because I could); I'll say what I generally like and then mention a few things for the specific fandoms, OK?
Basically, I tend to like fics that explore the source text and its world (if not our own), and take the canon seriously as a given rather than merely a sort of general background -- even if they're poking about in its dusty corners and/or heading off in surprising directions. Plot is definitely appreciated!
I'm not all that bothered about shipping one way or the other -- what I write tends to be gennish, with or without shippy plotlines according to circumstances, and either of those are absolutely fine. Teh sexxin' is fine too. With ships I do have a strong preference for stories that are fairly specific to the characters and their situation (as opposed to generic enough to work in some completely different context!). I find het more personally appealing, but slash away if it doesn't go too much against the grain of the source (e.g. see below under Perry Mason). I've no great interest in kinkfic (again, particularly not if generic).
Specific fandoms (I don't yet know which one you drew, although I'm betting one of the first two):
Mordant's Need -- Stephen Donaldson
Tons of scope here for fannish stuff, obviously. For example, fast-forward from the ending and see what the world of the Cares, Alend, and Cadwal looks like 5 or 10 years later. Or have a plot that turns on the theory and practice of Imagery. Or fill in some of the details of Kragen/Elega, or Myste/Darsint, or Joyse's kingdom-building, or Havelock's time in Vagel's cabal. Really, anything works given that it provides a bit more Mordant!
Perry Mason -- Erle Stanley Gardner
If this was a prompt-based fest, the one that would spring to mind would be something like: "Perry and Della don't acknowledge that they're lovers to the world. Most of the time, they have trouble enough acknowledging it to themselves." In other words, find a way to reconcile how textually they're obviously head-over-heels about each other, but are rarely shown doing anything about it and live separate lives most of the time, at least in public. And despite the fact that everyone seems to know how they feel about each other. (Which is why I can't take Perry/Paul seriously, unless perhaps it's totally one-sided on Paul's part and kept very close to the chest.) If you can link in some kind of case too, awesome (it's not like I know any more about mid-20th century California jurisprudence and forensics than I've been able to glean from the books).
The Unorthodox Engineers -- Colin Kapp
Because I threatened to nominate it in this post. If you know this one, excellent! Basically, something along the same lines as Kapp's stories would be fun, with Fritz, Jacko, and the crew tackling some bizarre engineering situation that may or may not bear a passing resemblance to the laws of physics as we know them. Not fussed about character development here, it's not as if the original stories had much of it. :)
The Shoal Sequence -- Gary Gibson
Again, if you know this one, excellent! (If you don't, it's a recently published SF high-concept trilogy that I happened to pick up for free at work -- try it if you see it.) Something exploring the background or offstage events here perhaps -- e.g. Dakota's past, Trader's machinations, the Freehold's crazy -- or you could go the prediction route and speculate about what's going to happen in the likely successor trilogy.
Basically, I tend to like fics that explore the source text and its world (if not our own), and take the canon seriously as a given rather than merely a sort of general background -- even if they're poking about in its dusty corners and/or heading off in surprising directions. Plot is definitely appreciated!
I'm not all that bothered about shipping one way or the other -- what I write tends to be gennish, with or without shippy plotlines according to circumstances, and either of those are absolutely fine. Teh sexxin' is fine too. With ships I do have a strong preference for stories that are fairly specific to the characters and their situation (as opposed to generic enough to work in some completely different context!). I find het more personally appealing, but slash away if it doesn't go too much against the grain of the source (e.g. see below under Perry Mason). I've no great interest in kinkfic (again, particularly not if generic).
Specific fandoms (I don't yet know which one you drew, although I'm betting one of the first two):
Mordant's Need -- Stephen Donaldson
Tons of scope here for fannish stuff, obviously. For example, fast-forward from the ending and see what the world of the Cares, Alend, and Cadwal looks like 5 or 10 years later. Or have a plot that turns on the theory and practice of Imagery. Or fill in some of the details of Kragen/Elega, or Myste/Darsint, or Joyse's kingdom-building, or Havelock's time in Vagel's cabal. Really, anything works given that it provides a bit more Mordant!
Perry Mason -- Erle Stanley Gardner
If this was a prompt-based fest, the one that would spring to mind would be something like: "Perry and Della don't acknowledge that they're lovers to the world. Most of the time, they have trouble enough acknowledging it to themselves." In other words, find a way to reconcile how textually they're obviously head-over-heels about each other, but are rarely shown doing anything about it and live separate lives most of the time, at least in public. And despite the fact that everyone seems to know how they feel about each other. (Which is why I can't take Perry/Paul seriously, unless perhaps it's totally one-sided on Paul's part and kept very close to the chest.) If you can link in some kind of case too, awesome (it's not like I know any more about mid-20th century California jurisprudence and forensics than I've been able to glean from the books).
The Unorthodox Engineers -- Colin Kapp
Because I threatened to nominate it in this post. If you know this one, excellent! Basically, something along the same lines as Kapp's stories would be fun, with Fritz, Jacko, and the crew tackling some bizarre engineering situation that may or may not bear a passing resemblance to the laws of physics as we know them. Not fussed about character development here, it's not as if the original stories had much of it. :)
The Shoal Sequence -- Gary Gibson
Again, if you know this one, excellent! (If you don't, it's a recently published SF high-concept trilogy that I happened to pick up for free at work -- try it if you see it.) Something exploring the background or offstage events here perhaps -- e.g. Dakota's past, Trader's machinations, the Freehold's crazy -- or you could go the prediction route and speculate about what's going to happen in the likely successor trilogy.
