Dear Yuletide author

Thank you for writing for me!

I'm pretty easygoing about what type of fic you want to write for me. I read fic of any rating, and would be equally happy with plotty genfic or something very shippy. I read gen, femslash, het and slash, although I have a slight preference towards femslash, het, and gen that focuses on female characters. I mainly read fic to find out what happens to characters after the final page has turned or the credits have rolled, so I would particularly love to have futurefic of some kind. Don't feel you have to limit yourself to the characters I specifically mention — I'm happy with others being included if they fit with the story you want to tell.

Feel free to have a look around my Ao3 profile, as it should give you a good idea of the types of things I like to read.

( General likes )

( General dislikes )

Fandom-specific prompts:

( The Bone Season — Samantha Shannon )

( The Daevabad series - S. A. Chakraborty )

( The Pagan Chronicles - Catherine Jinks )

( Romanitas trilogy — Sophia McDougall )

( Something Dark and Holy series — Emily A. Duncan )

Don't feel you have to stick rigidly within the bounds of my prompts. As long as your fic is focused on the characters I requested, I will be thrilled to receive anything you write for me, as these really are some of my most beloved fandoms of the heart, and the existence of any fic for them will make me extremely happy.

Making good use of that extra hour of sleep

Writing my Yuletide letter, and requesting fic for so many wonderful books is just reminding me of how uninspiring I've found the books I've read most recently.

Last week when I checked in, I was finding Nisi Shawl's Everfair a terrible slog, and my impression didn't change for the remainder of the book. I followed that with Dhonielle Clayton's The Belles, which had a frankly ludicrous YA dystopian premise, even by the standards of the genre. I'm coming to the reluctant conclusion that I just don't like dystopian YA written by American authors. I love Australian dystopian YA, but the American version always seems to favour convoluted strict, oppressive political dystopias which seem contrived mainly to a) mirror the way teenagers feel their lives are overly controlled by authority figures and b) lead to a forbidden love story. Given I feel that the contemporary United States is basically a dystopia already, and that if it were to get more dystopian it would be of the lawless, gun-wielding libertarian variety rather than the authoritarian, controlling central government kind, I just don't buy the set ups of the majority of dystopian YA novels by American authors. Given I've felt this way since I first read The Hunger Games, I can't see my opinion changing ever, at this point.

From dystopian novels to dystopian films: Matthias and I saw the latest Terminator movie, and while it was about as thematically subtle as a sledgehammer, I enjoyed it a lot. There were a lot of silly throwbacks to the original films, and I found the whole thing a lot of fun.

TV-wise we've been watching a lot of crime shows. The most incompetent and corrupt French police ever are back with a new season of Spiral, which I enjoy mainly because the characters are so immensely messed up and hopeless (honestly, I have no idea how any of them are still holding down their jobs at this point), and because most media (at least that made for an Anglophone audience) set in Paris focuses on the beautiful and more touristy buildings, whereas this show takes place in ugly, depressing locales. I'm absolutely enraptured by the BBC adaptation of Tana French's Dublin Murder Squad books. Having never read the books, I'm wondering whether they would also appeal, as I've read a couple of things to make me wonder if what I like about the TV series (the relationship between the central two characters, the setting, those flashes of recognition of familiar parts of Dublin) might not be present in the novels. Anyone who's read the books want to weigh in?

The clocks went back last night, which meant an extra hour of sleep, which was extremely welcome, as I have been flat out with work, and am completely exhausted. I think today was the first time in about three weeks that I woke up feeling rested.