... having been breathed out

Dear Yuletide Author,

You are a delight! Thanks so much for writing me a story; it totally makes my day to know that you're out there. Thank you so much, and I'm sure I'll love what you come up with! <3

Sadly I don't use my DW or LJ for anything but commenting on other peoples' posts and posting Dear Author letters, which I realize is not very satisfying from a poking-around perspective. Please feel free, if you'd like, to peruse my Tumblr (warning: often NSFW), which should give you some idea of what I'm about. Stuff I've written is over here.

Barring that: I am a bookish, mostly-lesbian, 32-year-old cis lady living in the Pacific Northwest. Particular loves of mine include: formidable yet complex women being formidable and complex together; f/f sex writing; sex writing in general that is emotionally nuanced and/or ratchets up the narrative tension more than it resolves it; unreliable narrators; atmospheric settings; lovely turns of phrase; strong narrative voices and weird narrative tricks. I've tried to include a range of book/show/photoset fandoms, including the Killers Kill, Dead Men Die one (which is just a photoset, so you shouldn't need any previous familiarity with it). \o/

I don't have many squicks, but I would prefer no pregnancy, babies, or small children I don't anticipate this being much of an issue given the fandoms I've requested, but just in case.

So in addition to the above, everything else really is gravy. Feel free to disregard fandom-specific ramblings; but if you're interested, I've gone into a bit more detail below. Thanks again for writing me a thing! You rock. :-D

Killers Kill, Dead Men Die:

I'm having a hard time imagining something you would do with this photoset that I wouldn't love. I adore noir fiction of all stripes, from classic Raymond Chandler era stuff to more modern versions—especially when the modern stuff adapts the genre to reflect minority and female POVs (Walter Mosley's Easy Rawlins novels, for example, or Sara Paretsky's V.I. Warshawski ones). I would adore, adore, adore more noir fiction that's told from a queer POV, or that features queer characters in something other than villain roles. I say "something other than villain" because of course even the narrators and so-called good guys in the genre are usually troubled and very rough around the edges, and I'm definitely not looking to change that!

For this photoset in particular, the characters I nominated were the Anjelica Huston, Sharon Stone, Helen Mirren and Judi Dench ones, and I would certainly love any story that focused on any subset of them, either in a shippy way—I completely ship both those pairs—or otherwise. (As a note: I'm not at all married to the names, relationships, or story fragments that Vanity Fair posted along with the photoset; feel free to use them if they speak to you, but also feel free to build your own versions of the characters from the ground up, based on their images. I personally wouldn't have cast Dench and Mirren as half-sisters, or Dench as slow-witted; my initial take was "mob boss Helen Mirren with girlfriend Judi Dench," and "Anjelica Huston/Sharon Stone as sinister society matrons." But whatever works for you and your writer-brain!)

I would be all over a story about different characters, as well: I am forever enchanted by undercover cop partner stories, and would devour with abandon a story about the Undercover Dude Cop and Undercover Lady Cop. And my heart starts beating, too, at the idea of an illicit Songbird/Queenpin alliance—an unlikely connection that nobody around them thinks to suspect...

As you can see, you can pretty much take this in any direction and I will be on board.

Chéri

Basically, what I love about this novel is the dynamic between Léa Lonval and Charlotte Peloux. I love that their frenemy-ship predates Charlotte's son (Chéri); I love that it outlasts Léa's affair with him. I love that even though they are catty and critical of one another; even though they wound each other and hide from each other, and are products of an extremely male-centric culture; still, at the end of the day, the bond between them is the strongest thing in both their lives.

So I'd love some kind of story about Léa and Charlotte. I can't even decide if I prefer them as platonic, or as sexually involved, or as platonic frenemies who occasionally hate- or comfort-fuck. So really, however you want to roll is cool by me. I'd adore a pre-books story where they are young together and navigating their early affairs; I'd adore a post-Chéri story in which Charlotte comforts Léa in her typically backhanded yet unexpectedly sincere way. I'd REALLY adore a post-Fin de Chéri story where Léa comforts Charlotte (in a similarly complex way); or some combination of the last two ideas. Or a pre-Chéri story where Léa, in middle age, is just beginning to contemplate taking Charlotte's son as a lover: did they discuss it? Did Charlotte ask Léa to help him grow up a bit before Charlotte married him off? Were there ground rules between the two women? Did Léa report back, and did they laugh about it? Or did Charlotte hate it at first, and only gradually come to the acceptance we see in the second scene of the novel?

Or really, any Charlotte/Léa or Charlotte-and-Léa idea that occurs to you. I am all ears.

Orphan Black

Anything with Alison Hendrix! While we were watching Orphan Black, my buddy and I referred to it as "the Clone Alison Show," which is pretty accurate as far as the parts I really crave to see expanded. By FAR my favorite episode was the one with the potluck, where she ties up Donny in the back room. I both (a) adore spending time with the hilarious yet poignant trainwreck that is Alison, and (b) have so many questions about her. I love her dynamic with Felix; any stories about Alison and Felix being reluctant buddies/allies would be amazing, especially if they're in some environment that's natural to one but not the other (i.e., pretty much every environment). This could be post-Season 1 (which I'm sure would provide a lot of high-tension possibilities, seeing as Alison has signed her life away and she and Sarah will presumably be, at least to a certain extent, working against each other in Season 2), or it could be filling in holes in Season 1 as it exists. I am not picky! Any Alison is enjoyable Alison, as far as I'm concerned.

Pre-show, I'm also super intrigued about the implied dynamic between Alison and Beth. That scene where Alison teaches Sarah to shoot, and talks about how Beth taught her, is so interesting to me. It seems like it implies a certain closeness or intimacy between Beth and Alison--how did that develop? Alison is so protective of her "normal" life, whereas Beth seemed so hemmed-in by hers; but the way Alison talks about Beth in that scene, it seems like knowing her really added to Alison's experience in some way. I am interested in how that might have developed. (Note: I am in no way *opposed* to taking this in a sexytimes direction, but clone/clone action is kind of out there to actually request at Yuletide, and I would be just as happy with a complex, evolving acquaintanceship.)

Oh, also: Alison is a possible exception to my "no small children" request--if you want to include her kids, that's cool, I'd just prefer they not become the focal point of the story.

Les liaisons dangereuses