springtime_gen story – and a few grumbles

[snorkackcatcher]

Now that the reveal has been done, I can mention that my springtime_gen story was The Open Sea and the Sky, written for molly_coddles (hi!). The comm version is here -- I've also posted it to my fic journal with some additional notes. Many thanks to gloryforever for betaing it for me.

Summary: "The first ever Atlantic broom crossing [was] by Jocunda Sykes in 1935" (Kennilworthy Whisp, Quidditch Through The Ages). Jocunda tells the story in her own words.

As for the grumbles:

I'd originally planned on doing a comedy piece (The Art of Coarse Quidditch), but didn't see how I was going to get it done at sufficient length before deadline -- so I ended up taking this idea from my mental list of plot bunnies instead, on the grounds that it would be quicker to do. Naturally, what I'd envisaged as a short piece of not more than 2K words expanded to about three times that length -- something that happens uncomfortably often. So if I'd waited and gone with my original story ...?

I'd hoped that there weren't too many other treatments of Jocunda Sykes -- I hadn't seen one before -- but a few days after sending this off, I happened to be looking at MuggleNet Fan Fiction and encountered a story (written for their 'Famous Wizard Card' challenge) called Making History by GryffindorGoddess. This also deals with the theme of that pioneer flight, albeit in a very different manner. (I think my treatment of background details is more reasonable, but then I would, wouldn't I? :D)

Damn.

Then shortly after that, I signed up for the 2007 femgenficathon and got the following quote:

61. Of course I realized there was a measure of danger. Obviously I faced the possibility of not returning when first I considered going. Once faced and settled there really wasn't any good reason to refer to it. -- Amelia Earhart.

That would have been perfect as setup for the Jocunda story, wouldn't it? Of course, it also fits nicely as a basis for a post-DH story focusing on Hermione, but then everyone and their goldfish will be writing those after DH comes out!

Double damn.

And then of course omniocular came up with their latest challenge -- one based on the Wizards of the Month on JKR's site, which a while back included Jocunda Sykes ...

Triple damn.

I think I might just submit it there (everybody else is submitting their springtime_gen stories, after all) and claim it fits. :D